“Please.” She ran her hands down the sides of his face and cupped his jaw. “I need to escape all this. Step into another world.”
“See, that’s a thing I’m good at. Taking people into other worlds.”
He took her again in a kiss, more urgent now, and she responded with a moan that rose from deep within.
“Oh, my lord!” A woman’s voice, beside them.
Griffin leaped away and staggered to his feet, while Lana’s heart plunged into panic, dousing her body in cold shock. She yanked the skirt down.
An older couple stood on the terrace—immaculately dressed and open-mouthed.
“Is that vintage Chanel?” the woman said, taking in the skirt Lana was wearing, now thoroughly crushed. “Is thatmyvintage Chanel?”
Chapter 14
Griffin
“Mom! Dad!” Griffin said. “I thought you weren’t home until Monday.”
“Evidently!” his mother said, with a pointed glance at her skirt. “We left early because of the news about Toby Fong. We thought you might not want to be alone. I see we needn’t have been concerned.”
“Angel, don’t be arch.” Griffin’s father was hovering his hand over his eyes as if Griffin and Lana were naked. “Weintruded onthem. Sorry, Griff. Didn’t see you there until it was too late.”
Griffin took a breath. He wasn’t a teenager. He could handle this maturely. “Mom, Dad, this is Lana. Lana, my mom, Evangeline, and my dad, Peter.”
“Lana, is it?” his mother said in a deliberate, perfunctory manner. “Nice to meet you. I’d shake your hand, but I don’t know where it’s been.”
Lana slowly rose, smoothing the skirt as if trying to restore its factory settings. Her face was pinker than the fabric, her swollen lips pinker again. Griffin was hit with competing reactions: attraction, regret, and also no regret whatsoever.Maybe because it had been building for a while, maybe because it was worth the wait.
He murmured an apology to Lana. To his parents, he said, “We met on set.”
“Oh, and what do you do there, Lana?” his mother asked. “Are you an actor? You must be new.”
“She is,” Griffin answered, aware he sounded defensive.
“What role are you playing?”
“She’s—”
“I’m an extra,” Lana declared, darting Griffin a glance that said I-can-take-care-of-myself-thank-you. “Wasan extra. I’ve finished now.”
“Abackground actor?” Evangeline’s question was directed at Griffin, but again Lana responded.
“That’s right, just for the week. I’m actually a librarian.” Lana’s embarrassment might be clear from her flushed face, but her spine was straight. She was coolly respectful, with none of the fawning most people succumbed to when they met his parents—even Hollywood stars in their own right. But of course, Lana knew his parents as no more than that. Not the Oscar-winning stars ofThe Way BackandThe Other Side of Midnight. Just a couple of people who’d intruded on a private moment.
“A …librarian?”
“Yes, in a public library. And I apologize for wearing your skirt, Angeline.”
“Evangeline,” his mother corrected hesitantly. She was not at all accustomed to people getting her name wrong.
“Evangeline. So sorry.”
“I grabbed the skirt for Lana when she spilled water on her clothes. I didn’t know it was some label.” And there Griffin went,soundinglike a teenager. It wasn’t that he was embarrassed to have been caught by his parents, though it was a genuine jump scare. It was more that, now his body was cooling off, he couldsee clearly that he shouldn’t have kissed Lana in the first place, for so many reasons. It wasn’t his parents calling him out—it was his guilty conscience.
“Everything in your mother’s closet is ‘some label.’” His father stepped up to shake Lana’s hand. “Good to meet you, Lana. Griff, would you mind helping me carry the suitcases to our room? Mitch had to run off to visit his dad.”
“Sure. Mom, you wanna come and tell me where you want your things?”
