Chapters (92)
- First
- Love Connection
- Zero
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- One Month Later
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Six Months Later
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Six Months Later
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- I Have Never
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- A Christmas Date
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Note from the Author
- Sneak Peek – To the Stars and Back
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Also by Camilla Isley
- About the Author
“Nooo.” Her reply comes out in a howl.
Clearly, the woman is crying.
“Should I turn on the lights?”
I grope the wall for a switch, find one, and flip it. But I only get a quick flash of metal racks filled with linens and toiletries before I’m hit over the head by something white and fluffy—a towel.
“Put that along the threshold,” my fellow stowaway orders. “People outside might notice the light. You’ll get us caught.”
I do as she says and then turn around to assess the situation. The hideaway is minuscule and cramped. Two silver racks crammed with supplies are pushed against the walls with only a narrow hall in the middle. Exactly what one would expect from a hotel storage room.
The woman sharing this impromptu refuge with me is a young brunette in a white T-shirt and jeans. She’s sitting cross-legged in the sliver of space between the racks, her shoulders leaning against the back wall. Hands in her lap, she’s clinging to a phone, its screen dark.
I sit on the opposite side of the closet, resting with my back against the door with a sigh―I’m knackered. I fold my legs close to my chest so as not to invade her space too much—even like this our knees are not three feet apart—and study her. She isn’t looking at me; she’s too busy blowing her nose and wiping tears from her face. But even with a runny nose, red-blotted skin, and tear-streaked cheeks, I can tell she’s pretty.
When the lady finally lifts her eyes to meet mine, their color is breathtaking. A deep, vibrant blue that reminds me of the Pacific Ocean on a sunny day. I wait for those two sapphires to widen in recognition as she takes me in, but nothing happens. Not a blink. She barely spares me a glance, then goes back to blowing her nose.
Could she really not have recognized me? Must still be too shocked a random bloke barged in on her hiding place. I wonder what a crying girl’s doing stashed up in the broom closet of The Peninsula Beverly Hills.
“Hey, are you okay?” I ask.
“Do I look okay to you?” she fires back.
Yeah, Christian, kind of a dick question.
“I meant, what happened? Why are you hiding in here?”
“Why are you?” she retorts.
Should I tell her I’m running from the paparazzi? No real reason why, but a gut feeling is telling me not to. So I decide not to mention the paps.
“Fair enough,” I say. “Want to swap stories?” I tilt my head at her in a silent question.