136

136
CAMILLE
I can’t believe this is where we’re staying,” I said as we stepped out of the rental car.
The little villa was sitting on stilts on the beach. There was a staircase that led straight down to the sand and just beyond that, I could see the waves crashing against the shore. The scent of salt water filled the air.
Though it was a little cold, I was thrilled. It had been my dream for a long time to see the wild horses running on the beach. I couldn’t believe that Drew had come up with this. There was no way that I would have mentioned watching the horses run to him.
“How did you know that this was my dream vacation?” I asked, turning to look up at him as he stared at the ocean.
Drew looked down at me and smirked slightly. “I might have checked your search history after you left the office one night.”
I laughed and hugged him, unable to contain my excitement. “This is amazing. Thank you so much.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” he said as he looked down at me. “There’s still a lot of relaxing to do before this week is over.”
Grinning, I helped him grab the bags out of the trunk. Drew took mine from me, carrying both bags up the stairs and into the villa while I trailed behind him and watched the waves.
This was the kind of place where I could imagine myself living if I ever left the city.
There were days when I did consider leaving the city. I wanted to get out and explore the world, but when I thought about where I would settle, I always imagined a nice home with a lot of property.
That dream house wasn’t in the city. I knew that, but I wasn’t ready to admit that I wanted to leave the city yet.
“What do you think of the place?” Drew asked as we entered the villa.
I looked around at the bohemian styling of the villa, loving the texture and color from the natural elements. The windows were wide and gave us great views of the beach.
“I love it. This place is amazing.”
“Do you want the big bedroom or the little one?” he asked, heading toward a hall across from the kitchen. “Forget I asked. I’ll put you in the big one. The ensuite has a massive bathtub in front of a window.”
I grinned and followed him into the bedroom. “This is the perfect place to spend a week relaxing. I don’t know if I’ve thanked you enough yet.”
Drew rolled his eyes. “Stop thanking me and get ready for dinner. We have a reservation in an hour and a half.”
“Then get out of my room,” I said, my tone teasing as I lifted my bag onto the bed. “The strip show doesn’t come for free.”
“It should,” he said, his eyes traveling slowly over my body. Heat flooded to my core as he met my gaze, an eyebrow arching.
“Go to your own room before you make us late,” I said.
Drew pouted slightly, making me laugh, before he left and closed the door behind him.
As I got ready, there were butterflies in my stomach, beating their wings relentlessly. There was something about this trip that felt like it was going to be important.
“Aren’t you worried about the cameras seeing us together?” I asked once we were seated at a booth in the back. The waiter had taken our drink orders before he disappeared to deal with some of the other tables.
“Nope,” Drew said, picking up his menu and looking it over. “The paparazzi don’t follow me much outside of the city. It’s nice to get away and not have to worry about being followed for once.”
“I don’t know,” I said, looking around the room. “What if someone else recognizes you? They might post your picture online. What if rumors start circulating about us?”
Drew put his menu down and reached across the table, taking my hand. “You’re worrying about nothing. Turn off your public relations brain and have a good time. I can promise you that not a single person in this room gives a shit about me.”
I sighed and looked around the room again. I found it hard to believe that there wasn’t a single person who recognized him. Although, it was less likely that people would care here, even if they did know who he was.
“Tell me something I don’t know about you,” I said as I squeezed his hand before dropping it and picking up my menu.
Drew hummed and shrugged. “I don’t know. What do you want to know?” “Why do you work with the entertainment companies? You could have
said no when Tyson told you that he was giving them to you.”
“It was a challenge. I have some experience working with other businesses in the entertainment industry, but I thought that this would be a better chance to challenge myself.”
I nodded and picked some dish with chicken in it from the menu. The waiter appeared with our drinks and took our orders before taking off again.
“Why public relations?” Drew asked.
The look he was giving me made my heart skip a beat. Something had shifted between us, and I wasn’t sure what it was. Although, if it meant that he would keep looking at me the way he was, I wouldn’t change anything.
“It seemed easy at the time,” I said before taking a sip of my lemon water. “Then I started actually going through the program and it was a lot harder than I thought. I fell in love with it though.”
“Did you still like your job once you started dealing with me? I know that I didn’t make it easy on you.”
“There were days I thought about running you over while you were on your way to work just so I wouldn’t have to deal with you again.”
“Is that still the way you feel?” he asked, his tone softening as a basket of warm bread and whipped butter was put in front of us.
“Sometimes. But you’ve changed a lot recently.” “In a good way or a bad way?”
“In a good way,” I said. “You still make me laugh but you seem like you’re ready to start settling down.”
“Something about having a baby is making the wild life I used to live seem a lot less appealing.” He smirked and popped a fry into his mouth. “I don’t think a father should be hooking up with models in clubs.”
“Speaking of that,” I said, trying to feign disinterest though I knew that his next answer mattered to me. “When was the last time you slept with someone?”
“You mean other than when I bent you over the desk in my office?” he asked, the corner of his mouth turning upward as the table beside us looked over.
My cheeks felt like they were on fire as I looked down at my plate. He had said it loud enough to get strange looks just to mess with me. I knew he did.
Drew chuckled. “The last time I slept with anyone other than you was when I hooked up with that model in the club. After that, I made a decision.”
“And what was that?”
My heart was hammering in my chest as he shrugged and buttered a slice of bread. He was drawing out the silence on purpose. There was a part of me that wanted to wipe the smirk right off his face.
“I decided that I wasn’t going to be bringing women in and out of our child’s life when our child’s mother is the only one who really interests me.”
“Well, this is news,” I said, my tone teasing as I nudged his leg with my foot beneath the table. “You really haven’t been with anyone else since then?”
“You’ve ruined me, Camille. I have no interest in being with other women. They aren’t you.” He sighed and leaned back in his seat. “With that being said, I don’t think I’m the kind of man to settle down in a relationship either. It never seemed like something I would want.”
“Wow, way to ruin the closest to romantic you’ve ever been,” I said,
smirking as I shook my head.
I knew that he didn’t want to settle down. It wasn’t like I wanted to either. A baby and a career were more than enough for me to juggle. I didn’t need anything else on my plate.
Sleeping with Drew when we both needed to relieve some tension was more than enough.
The waiter brought our main courses, and the conversation steered away from our nonexistent relationship and toward our careers. The more Drew asked questions about my career, the more the butterflies swirled in my stomach. There was a time when I had thought that he didn’t think of anyone but himself.
Now, I was starting to see that it was just a front he used to keep people at a distance.
“That was delicious,” Drew said as he paid the bill. “You might have to roll me to the car.”
I laughed and rolled my eyes. “I’m the pregnant one. Shouldn’t you be carrying me to the car?”
Drew smirked and before I could get away, he scooped me up in his arms. He held me close, not caring about the people staring at us as we left the restaurant. He didn’t put me down until we were standing beside the car and my entire body felt like it was on fire.
“Was that necessary?” I asked, chuckling as he shrugged.
“It could have been. You told me that I should be the one carrying you.”
Drew wrapped his arms around my waist and looked down at me. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, my heart hammering in my chest. The last time we had been this close without it leading to sex was when I had spent the night crying into his chest.
“Let’s head back to the villa,” he said, reaching up to tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear. “You look like you’re a little cold.”
“I’ve been worse,” I said as he hugged me, his hands running up and down my bare arms. “But going home, hiding under a blanket, and staring up at the stars seems like a good idea.”
“Camille,” Drew said, his tone teasing as he opened my door, “are you a closet romantic?”
I shrugged as I got in the car. “I guess you’ll just have to find out, won’t you?”
Drew chuckled and shut the door before rounding the car and getting in. He turned up the music as we drove, humming along with the songs and looking over at me every now and then.
Each time he glanced at me, the pounding of my heart grew louder.
When we got back to the villa, we walked up the steps and sat on the deck, facing the ocean. After a few seconds, Drew disappeared inside before coming back out with a stack of blankets. He dropped one onto his seat before spreading the other over me.
“Thank you,” I said as he dragged his chair closer to me before sitting down. He nestled deep into his own blanket, tilting his head back to stare at the stars.
“You never see the sky like this in the city,” he said.
“I know,” I said, tilting my own head back to look up at the night sky. “I’ve never felt more insignificant than I do when I sit under the stars.”
Drew reached out and took my hand, his fingers lacing with mine. His thumb drifted over my knuckles.
“It’s hard to believe that you would ever consider yourself to be something insignificant.”
I shrugged. “I spent most of my life feeling that way. When I look up at the stars though, it feels like a different kind of insignificance.”
“You’re going to need to explain that to me,” Drew said, his thumb still rubbing a pattern on my skin that set my nerves on fire.
“I don’t know. It feels like I can handle what life throws at me because in the grand scheme of things, it’s all insignificant. None of it really matters and we’re just on this planet for a few moments in time, so why should I let everything get to me? “
“That makes sense,” Drew said.
I shivered as the wind started to blow. There was a dim light shining onto the back deck from inside the villa. I could hear the waves crashing against the shore, each crash sending the tension from the past few weeks flying from my body.
“Are you still cold?” he asked, looking over at me. “A little.”
Drew held open his blanket. “Come here.” “Drew, I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Camille,” he said, matching my hesitant tone, “have you thought about the fact that we are entirely alone for the next week, and we don’t have to worry about what is and isn’t a good idea?”
I considered what he said for a moment. His thumb was still drifting over my hand and my heart was pounding in my chest. There was something that told me that this could be the moment that changed everything.
While I didn’t know if everything changing would be good or bad, I couldn’t resist the warm look in his eyes.
Drew grinned as I got up and took my blanket with me before settling myself in his lap. His arms wrapped around my stomach, and he rested his
chin on my shoulder.
As we looked up at the stars together, everything felt like it was falling into place.
Like sitting beneath the stars with Drew was where I was supposed to be.