Reluctantly, I lift my chin to follow her gaze. A sigh eases from my lungs at the sight, helping me relax again. I’ve been in places with limited light pollution before, but not to this extent. The sky above us is ethereal and endless, and the Milky Way splashes across the sky, so bright that I almost feel like I can reach up and touch it. No wonder Donovan hasn’t gone to bed yet. “It’s incredible.”
“You should see it when the moon isn’t washing everything out. But there’s still some good stuff to see tonight. You see that constellation right there? Cygnus?”
There are billions of stars overhead, and astronomy has never played into one of my movies. “Which one?” I ask, wishing I already knew.
That wish disappears the instant Donovan presses herself into my side and leans her head close as she points to a cluster of bright stars in the middle of the Milky Way. So much for being relaxed; my heart is beatingso fast that I feel like I just sprinted a mile, but I have never been so glad not to know something. Donovan is warm and soft against me, and her proximity feels comfortable even when it shouldn’t.
“That sort of cross,” she murmurs, tracing the stars with her finger. “It’s a swan, and when my grandpa used to tell the stories of the sky, this one was always my favorite.”
It’s automatically my favorite now too, and the only reason I don’t give in to the urge to wrap my arm around Donovan’s waist and pull her closer is because she would probably punch me. Why is she so close? She could have just described the constellation, but she chose to touch me instead.
Before this moment, I thought I just wanted her to like me enough to teach me what I need to know. But with the way my body is reacting to her nearness, it’s clear that there’s more at play here. Do I pursue the attraction building inside me, knowing she hates so many aspects of my life? Logic would say no, and I have lived the last twenty-five years of my life by logic, through careful consideration and calculation in everything I do. It’s been the only way to survive.
Tonight, I want to bury logic in the sand and see what comes of it.
“Tell me the story,” I say, and I don’t have to consciously make my voice rumble like I would if this were a movie. No, my voice is deep and rough on its own, thanks to my whole body being attuned to every point of contact along our arms. I wish I wasn’t wearing a sweatshirt so I could feel the warmth of her skin directly against mine.
Donovan turns her head to look at me, gasping when she realizes just how close she came. Her eyes roam my face for a long few seconds, absent of the usual fear that plagues her whenever she’s around me. I don’t know what name to give the emotion displayed on her face, but it pulls me even closer, almost to the point where I could press my lips to hers. I won’t do it, but I could.
I want to.
I exhale, a silent curse on my tongue, as I finally realize what Hunter was talking about. I don’t know how Donovan so thoroughly got under my skin, but I am only a breath away from being at this woman’s mercy. I’m not sure I care.
As if she senses how dangerous she is, she leans away.
I grab her hand. “Please tell me,” I whisper.
I’ve entirely forgotten why I left my tent, and I don’t even care. I’ve never wanted to hear a story more than I want to hear this one.
“Well…” She looks down at our hands, her eyebrows pulling together. But she doesn’t pull away. “It’s the story of two friends,” she says, her voice soft and velvety. “Phaethon, the son of the sun god, Helios, wanted to prove himself, so he took his father’s chariot one day and flew through the sky with the sun in tow. But he lost control of the reins. He couldn’t keep the chariot steady and was always either too far from the earth or too close, wreaking havoc on the mortal world.” Her eyes rise back to the stars at the same time her fingers tighten around mine. “He overestimated himself, and other people paid the price, so Zeus shot him from the sky with his lightning bolt. Phaethon crashed into the river and died there.
“It’s said that Cygnus, his dearest friend, spent days searching for him and pulled his body from the river, returning him to his loved ones. As a reward for Cygnus’s devotion, the gods gave him a place in the sky, turning him into a swan among the stars. Without him, Phaethon would have been lost forever.”
He overestimated himself. And other people paid the price.
A shiver runs through me, pulling me back to reality. How many times have my friends had to deal with tabloids because I’ve fought so hard to prove myself? More than I can count. Donovan was right when she said my fame surpasses theirs, and most of them would have been perfectly fine if I hadn’t pulled them into my life. MaybeHot Scoopwas right when they said my friends have left me behind, not because they actually havebut because theyshould. I’ve slowly been losing control over my career and the life that comes with it, and it’s only a matter of time before I come crashing down. Which one of them will fish me out when I do?
How much carnage will I have left in my wake?
“Pops was my Cygnus,” Donovan says quietly, and I startle when a glistening tear slips down her cheek. “I crashed into his life at a time when I was desperately lost, and he found me. Gave me a new life here, away from the person I was before. When I was…” Her eyes fall to the sand.
My hand finds her cheek, my thumb brushing the tear away as she turns to look at me. “Who are you, Donovan Tate?” I whisper. Lean closer.
And for a moment, I think maybe she’ll cross the last bit of distance and tell me, not with words but with her lips. Her hand wraps around my wrist by her face, her gaze dropping to my mouth as she takes a slow breath.
But then she slips on a smile like a mask and steps back, breaking the connection between us. “Someone you don’t need in your life, Derek Riley. Trust me. Get some sleep; we have a long day tomorrow.” She takes a few steps but stops, looking back. “And don’t forget to bring the paddle with you unless you want a visitor.” She points at the Hopper trail, then melts into the darkness.
What just happened?Grabbing the paddle, I pick my way along the dark trail. My thoughts are too slippery to hold on to, and I can’t stop thinking about the way Donovan looked at me. Almost kissed me. If she had…
I’ve always been cautious when it comes to romance. Probably too cautious. My last relationship was with Bonnie, and the entire thing was fabricated for publicity. We were never anything but friends playing roles. Before that, I never kept an interest in anyone for longer than a few months. There is so much that goes into my life that bringing another person into it—trusting them to stay within the carefully craftedfacets of my public existence—has never been an option. I haven’t found anyone who could handle it without crumbling.
Ican’t even handle it sometimes, and the only reason I’ve made it this far is because I’ve learned how to cover the cracks with duct tape.
But Donovan has a way of stripping me bare and making me forget that the man beneath the perfect facade is ugly and bent. Shedoesn’t seem to care what’s underneath the surface.
I reach the Hopper and the questionable square bucket, and my breath slides out of me in a sigh. I’m so out of my depth here, like I always am when I do something new, and I have a feeling Donovan won’t be the sort of person who kindly looks the other way when I do something wrong.
She should terrify me, but I keep being drawn in closer every time I tell myself to run. And tonight, some of her armor slipped away, just like mine, and my mind is completely stuck on that glimpse I got of her. I need to know who she is. Why she thinks she needs to hide. I need to know why my gut tells me to stay close one minute and keep my distance the next.
