Page 25 of Ship Wrecked

“If you’re thirsty, I have sparkling water in the minifridge,” she said, waving him toward her low-slung couch. “Or—”

“I’m sorry.”

There. There it was, finally.

She closed her mouth and blinked up at him.

He shifted his weight but forced himself to maintain eye contact. “I said a lot of shitty things to you in that LA parking lot, and I want you to know that I was wrong, and I apologize.”

A slow smile of malicious glee dawned on her expressive face.

Even though he’d remained standing, she lowered herself onto the sofa and stretched out lazily. Like a satisfied cat. Or, more aptly, like a queen claiming her space, confident of her own power.

Her chin tipped high to watch him. “Wrong how? Please be specific.”

Yep. She intended to milk every last drop of penitence out of his long-overdue apology, and he couldn’t even blame her. He’d been an asswipe.

“You might have been new to television when you got this role,but you weren’t an amateur when it came to acting. There is no conceivable way filming alongside you could ever hurt my career, and I knew that by the end of our first day in the studio together.” He sighed, then told her the rest. “I looked up the theaters in Stockholm where you worked before, and they’re impressive. So were the recordings of your performances available online, although I obviously didn’t understand all the Swedish.”

That was more evidence of his obsession with her than he’d wanted to share, but she deserved to hear it.

Propping her elbow on the sofa’s arm, she rested her cheek in her hand and raised her brows. “You cyberstalked me. How flattering.”

He wouldn’t saycyberstalked, exactly. He’d simply... researched her. Extensively. Via her website, all extant YouTube clips of her work and interviews, and her social media accounts from five years ago until the present.

Which was, clearly, very different from cyberstalking.

With enough practice, surely he’d believe his own lies someday. Today, however, was not that day.

Whatever. Better to abandon the topic of cyberstalking and cover the last bit of the speech he’d been mentally rehearsing all evening.

“Your talent is undeniable, and you work hard.” He swallowed over a dry throat, suddenly longing for that sparkling water. “You make the set a better, happier place every day.”

Her face softened at that, her smile gentling. “That’s a lovely thing to say. Thank you.”

He firmly believed he was an asset to any production that cast him. That said: On most sets, when the cameras stopped rolling, he remained entirely himself—in the worst of ways.

Quiet to the point of surliness. Unable to fit into the group. On the outside looking in, and so used to the view that he didn’t bother trying anymore.

Maria, though...

She was a midnight sun, drawing everyone into her orbit. Sheshone. She brightened everything around her. Including him.

Maybe because she was entirely comfortable in her own skin, she seemed toenjoyherself so damn much, always. And with her casual ease and good cheer, her inexorable magnetism, she’d repeatedly drawn him into conversations with the crew. And she’d been doing it for months, so now those conversations didn’t feel like small talk anymore, even if he was chatting about the fucking weather, because heknewthe people involved. Helikedthe people involved.

And he could almost...

No, hewouldswear that they liked him too. That they’d become not just friendly acquaintances or professional contacts, but his... friends?

Even without Maria present, he spoke to them now, and he did so easily and often. She’d cheerfully bullied him into joining the cast chat as well, which was sometimes an absolute shitshow—Ian Dromm was a total asshole and apparently reeked of tuna?—but also entirely hilarious. He was actuallylooking forwardto meeting his costars in person during various press junkets and at cons.

She’d made it impossible for him to remain petty or distant with her, and impossible to deny her the heartfelt apology she should have received months ago. And now he’d given that apology, so he could take an easy breath in her presence for the first time in a long, long while.

“Fortunately, that lovely thing to say is the truth.” He offered her a faint but genuine smile. “This show is lucky to have you.”

Her brown gaze watched him closely. “Even if I’m not grateful enough for the role?”

Well, damn.

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