Page 88 of One Time in Paris
“Thanks, but I think I’m going to turn in early. Get some sleep.”
Davy’s eyes were sympathetic. She gave Isla a tight hug. “Listen,” she said in a low voice. “Don’t let any guy become the reason you’re happy or sad. They should add to it, not make or break it.”
Is that what I’m giving the impression of doing?
Letting Aiden control my happiness?
Isla didn’t answer but squeezed her back, then pulled away. “You sticking around?” she asked Kyle.
He nodded. “But I can walk you back to the van if you want,” Kyle offered.
“Nope, I’m good.” She winked at him. He’d bumped into some college friends while they’d been filming earlier, and she wasn’t surprised he was staying—this was only about two hours from his hometown, after all. “Have fun at the carnival.”
She left her equipment with Tim, then grabbed her purse from one of the production assistants. Weaving her way through the carnival grounds, she let herself slip into the noise and the throng.
Davy was wrong—wasn’t she? Isla wasn’t so fixated on Aiden that she was letting him control her happiness. Sure, she was bummed out right now, but she had a right to be. Once again, he’d shut them down before they’d had a chance.
As though he knew she’d been thinking of him, her phone buzzed in her purse. She lifted it to her ear. “Aiden?”
“Hello, beautiful,” he said, a smile to his tone.
Despite her irritation, a flutter went through her stomach. “If you think compliments are going to get you off the hook, you’re sorely mistaken, Mr. Camden.”
“I must be in trouble if you’re being so formal. That’s too bad. You look so delicious under the glow of that neon ice cream sign.”
She whirled around, scanning the fairgrounds for Aiden. Her pulse quickened. “Are you here?”
“Yeah, right over here. By the kissing booth.”
She frowned, searching the signs.Nothing.
But he had to be here if he’d seen her standing by the ice cream booth.
“Where?” she asked, peering closer at the signs.
“Look for the giant stuffed tigers in the dart booth. I’m just past the haze of orange.”
Her lips curled in a smile as she hunted for him. Leave it to Aiden to turn this into a game. Then she saw the dart booth and the tigers. And just a few feet away...him.
Isla’s heart throbbed.
Dammit but that man was freaking gorgeous.
He wore jeans and a gray Henley, one hand in his back pocket, his stance relaxed. The other hand held a single sheet of white paper. As their eyes connected, a slow, seductive smile played at his lips, and she hung up the call, walking toward him with deliberate ease.Don’t be overly eager.
As she drew closer, she saw that he’d scribbled something on the paper in his bold script: Kissing Booth.
She raised a brow, hiding a smile. “So now I have to pay for a kiss?”
He leaned toward her slightly, lowering the paper. “You don’t have to pay for what’s already yours.”
Oh...man.How did he do this to her so easily? She hadn’t even touched him yet, and somehow, he’d already managed to raise goose bumps on her skin, a flush of pleasure going through her.
“That’s either very smooth or wildly presumptuous.”
Aiden stepped closer and hooked a finger through the belt loop of her jeans, tugging her nearer. “I was going for both.”
“Ah, I see.” She tilted her head, setting her hand gently on his chest. “You like to live dangerously, Aiden Camden.”
