Page 49 of How to Kiss a Movie Star
I nod, sliding my hand back into the water. This time, I clasp my hands behind her back, tugging her even closer. It’s how we’ll need to stand for the other picture we need to take anyway. Might as well get used to it.
She settles against me in a way that sends a shot of warmth right through me. Like she likes it here. Like shewantsto be in my arms.
My eyes drop to her lips.
It would be a bad idea.
Wouldn’t it?
Before I can deliberate further, Audrey pushes away from me, taking a giant step backward. “So about those pictures,” she says, her voice full of artificial cheer, and the tension building between us pulls and snaps.
I don’t know what just happened, but I’d put money on Audrey having felt it too.
“Right. Pictures.” I swim back across the pool and grab my phone. “I already took a few of you that I think will work. So we just need one of the two of us together.”
She nods and swims toward me.
I gesture to the infinity edge of the pool. “Maybe over here?”
She follows me, waiting while I position myself against the edge of the pool and flip my camera around to selfie mode. I reach for her hand. “So, maybe something like this?” I tug her toward me, and she slips her arms around me like it’s the most natural thing she’s ever done. I curl my free hand around her waist, holding her against me. She lifts one hand to my neck, but keeps her head turned, like she’s looking out at the view behind us. I frame the shot so enough of my face is visible for people to know it’s me and take a couple of shots, then take a few more of me looking down, my gaze trained on Audrey.
The curve of her jaw is visible, and the tumble of her dark hair down her back, but there’s no way anyone will know, just from this picture, who she is.
She looks freaking amazing though—like a goddess in my arms.
Selfishly, I keep my arm around her while I scroll through the shots. I’ll want to run them past Joni, and Simon now too, since Joni filled him in on our slightly modified version of his plan, but I think they’ll work.
Audrey turns to face me, lifting her chin from where it’s been resting on my shoulder. “Did you get what you need?”
She’s so close. Close enough that I would only have to lean an inch or two to press my lips to hers. My pulse pounds in my throat as Audrey leans in the slightest bit, and my arm around her waist tightens.
She takes a stuttering breath and closes her eyes, but then she moves the opposite direction, just like she did last time, sliding out of my arms and swimming several yards away.
I hold up my phone. “I did. Do you want to see? I won’t post them unless you approve.”
“Um, actually, could you just text them to me?” She takes a few backward steps. “Or have Joni text them, I mean. Since she has my number.”
Okay, then.“Sure. Are you heading out?”
“Yeah, I, um, I just remembered something I have to do at the lab this afternoon.” She taps the side of her head. “Me and my brain. Always forgetting things.”
Something tells me her brain never forgets anything, but she clearly wants to get out of here, and I won’t argue with her.
“Okay. Sure. I’ll send them over later.”Iwill send them. Not Joni. Joni’s rules about me protecting my cell number no longer apply to Audrey.
“Perfect,” Audrey says as she scrambles out of the pool. “Totally perfect.”
She’s flustered. Fleeing. Obviously uncomfortable.
Did I push things too far? Hold her too closely?
“Audrey, wait.” I swim after her, climbing out of the pool just as she reaches her towel. “Are you okay?”
She wraps her towel around her and reaches down to pick up her shoes. “Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”
I stop where I am, my hands resting on my hips, sensing that any sudden movements might make her bolt even faster. “It just…feels a little like you’re running away. Did I do something wrong?”
She starts to laugh—but not like she thinks something is funny. It’s more like she’s barely keeping it together and laughing is the only way she knows how to cope. “I’m fine,” she says, her voice too high for me to believe her. “Totally fine.”
