Chapter 11

For the eleventh time, Eliza checked her phone and for the eleventh time, Quinoa hadn’t responded. Probably because he was busy, she told herself. Not because he was mad that she’d broken the rules.

She hadn’t been able to stop herself from sending him a message, though, not after making a date with Joaquin that had filled her with so much giddy anticipation that her stomach had almost turned itself inside out.

A date with any random man would have been a bad enough betrayal, but she’d made a date with Joaquin Cortez, the boss she’d told Quinoa she hated. But hadn’t confessed that she’d kissed him. Or that she dreamed about it—and him—sometimes.

At some point, she might have to admit that she didn’t hate Joaquin too much anymore. And that maybe she might actually like him. He was funny and unexpectedly sweet with gestures like letting her wear his jacket. Sure, she might yearn for a man to do the things Mark had listed in his “romance rundown” from the park scene earlier today, but that was the stuff of rom-com fantasy. Not real life.

In real life, just scoring a date with a gorgeous, urbane man who’d offered to pick up the check ranked pretty high in her book of amazing events. Throw in the added bonus of that man being Joaquin, and she was pretty sure she wouldn’t be eating a single bite the entire night.

Not that she planned to let on to him how nervous she was. After all, it was just a publicity stunt.

Lilith and Carolina came over to help her get dressed, but what they seemed most interested in doing was arguing back and forth about their diametrically opposed views on relationships.

“Just because Dane is perfect doesn’t mean that everyone is going to find a Prince Charming,” Carolina insisted as Eliza stepped into the dress Julie had sent over via courier.

Eliza presented her back so Lilith could zip up the calf-length cocktail dress in a somewhat sedated shade of deep red—a shock. She’d have expected something sparkly and/or revealing to be the outfit of choice for a woman fit to be seen with Mr. Movie Star.

“Dane is in love with me, which may be best described as a miracle, but hardly makes him perfect.” Lilith pushed a little on Eliza’s shoulders to get her to turn and face the mirror. “This dress, however, is.”

Wow. Eliza twisted a few inches in either direction, but the image staring back at her didn’t change. The dress was perfect. The color set off highlights in her hair that she hadn’t even realized existed, and that was saying something for a woman who spent a lot of her day thinking about hair.

“You look like a princess,” Lilith said with an oddly emotional thread running through her voice and capped it off with a sniff. “That man isn’t going to know what hit him.”

“Please.” Carolina snorted. “I mean, yes, Eliza looks amazing, but no one who inhabits the upper echelon of Hollywood could ever be bowled over by much of anything.”

Which was a sobering reminder.

“Save it for Ask Carolina,” she interjected before Lilith could jump in to scold Carolina for draping everything with her anti-romance viewpoint. “It doesn’t matter, anyway. He didn’t invite me to dinner because he’s got a thing for me. It’s to make the producers happy. They like the idea of the leads in their movie being seen in public together. That’s all there is to this.”

It was a reminder to herself more than anything. Still. Anything could happen. That was what had her on the edge of her seat.

“You keep right on telling yourself that,” Carolina advised with an eyebrow waggle. “I saw the way he was looking at you during the filming of that wedding scene.”

“He’s an actor, Carolina. From Hollywood,” she stressed since her friend had clearly forgotten the point that she herself had made not four seconds ago. “It’s his job to be sure you believe we’re in love. Since you were there, wasn’t I pretty convincing in my role as the besotted bride? And I’m not in love with Joaquin. See?”

Except Carolina and Lilith glanced at each other with knowing looks that Eliza did not like at all.

“What?” she demanded before they could spill whatever that look had meant. “I don’t have any feelings for Joaquin one way or the other. I’m in love with—”

Swallowing that one in a hurry, she busied herself with her hair, patting at it like it was out of place when it so wasn’t and neither of her friends bought it anyway.

They both zeroed in on her with far too much scrutiny and then both asked, “Who?” at the same time.

“No one,” Eliza said. Not only did she have no interest in telling anyone about Quinoa, but it also still sat funny that he’d never responded to her midday message.

Maybe something was wrong. An accident. Or he’d gotten sick. But in the six months they’d been chatting, he’d never missed one of their scheduled online meetups.

More likely, he was unhappy she’d broken the rules.

What kind of man didn’t like being told she was thinking about him? It bothered her. The last thing she wanted to do was talk about her secret online love to her friends, especially when she hadn’t quite worked out why Quinoa wasn’t the man she spent the majority of her day thinking about.

“You’re holding out on us.” Carolina’s gaze narrowed as she swept Eliza with a once-over that made her spine prickle. “Spill, darling. We’re only going to wear you down. How can we help you have the best date of your life if we don’t have all the facts?”

Best date of her life? Try only date in…gah, she couldn’t even remember the last date she’d been on. All at once, Joaquin’s little spiel during the park scene invaded her head—you run the second things get real.

What was that? Psychoanalysis of the variety Carolina’s ex-husband dispensed on his advice show, Two Buck Chuck—because two dollars was exactly how much it was worth. And Charlie was a psychologist. Joaquin was just a pretty man. With an inordinate ability to see right through her.

Because he wasn’t necessarily wrong. She just didn’t appreciate having it pointed out. If she’d wanted a rundown of all the things wrong with her dating life, she’d talk to Carolina in a professional capacity.

“I just met someone,” she mumbled in a half-baked attempt to weasel out of the inquisition she had a feeling was coming. “I need to do my makeup.”

Lilith plopped down on Eliza’s bed and pulled the decorative pillow into her lap to cradle it against her stomach, smiling like a cat with a mouthful of feathers. “Nice try. I already did your makeup. Who did you meet, and why is this the first we’re hearing of it?”

“Because. It’s—” Not a big deal. But wasn’t it? She and Quinoa had actually broached the subject of meeting in person. That was as big of a deal as it got. But she’d resisted agreeing flat out to it. For a reason.

Not because she ran when things got real.

Except…that was exactly it.

She didn’t want to ruin her online fantasy with reality, and that meant she could never have a real relationship with Quinoa. Only a virtual one. And she had to be okay with Quinoa never creating that rush in her stomach like when she’d slipped on Joaquin’s jacket and breathed in. Or when he’d laced their fingers together during the filming, holding tight so she couldn’t escape. No man had ever been so interested in her that he’d physically prevented her from walking away.

“I met someone online,” she amended because these were her friends and she was being silly. If she couldn’t be honest with them, who could she be honest with?

Quinoa would have been her first answer a few days ago, but she’d kept a few critical facts from him, so it might be time to be a big girl about what was really going on in her life.

“Oooh, tell us everything,” Lilith insisted as Carolina predictably rolled her eyes.

“You can’t meet someone online,” Carolina informed her in a businesslike tone which meant the love doctor was in. “You can exchange sentences with someone online, but until you meet in person, you haven’t met anyone.”

“I know,” Eliza said through gritted teeth since she’d just come to the exact same conclusion. “That’s why I hesitated to say anything. We’re just chatting, and that’s all there is to it.”

Which made her sad for some reason. But wasn’t that the whole point of her revelation? She couldn’t ruin her relationship with Quinoa by introducing reality. But she could go on a fake date with her co-star.

“You can so meet someone online,” Lilith threw in. “People do it all the time. Besides, you’re the one who runs around advising people to get into pretend marriages. That’s just as silly of a way to meet the love of your life and it worked out brilliantly for Nomi, me, and Shiloh.”

Carolina smoothed back a lock of blond hair primly. “I never said you couldn’t fall in love with someone you originally met online. I said Eliza hadn’t met him yet. There’s a huge gap there.”

“Be that as it may,” Eliza jumped in before fur started flying. “I have a date to finish getting ready for.”

“A date that’s only for publicity, so nothing is going to happen with Joaquin, but not because you already have a man in the side pocket since that’s just online. Right?” Carolina asked with a grin that had far too many teeth.

“Exactly.” But something that felt a lot like disappointment settled into her stomach and she couldn’t shake it off.

The doorbell rang, which meant Joaquin was already there to pick her up. Her nerves ruffled up again unexpectedly and it took a hundred and forty-seven deep breaths to get her hands to stop shaking.

What was wrong with her? It was just Joaquin. She’d already kissed him, and besides, this wasn’t a real date. The reminder did the trick. Because that’s how she rolled, apparently. As long as it wasn’t real, everything was good.

Carolina answered the door, admitting Joaquin with a muttered side note to him that Eliza couldn’t hear. Just as well. She’d probably told him to keep his mitts off of Eliza, which, if there was any justice in the world, Joaquin would categorically reject.

She liked it when he held her hand. And she wouldn’t apologize for enjoying the physical connection. That was the whole reason people lived in communities instead of in caves by themselves.

The second she walked out into the living room to greet her co-star, his gaze sought hers, locking on.

Everything else in the world vanished in a snap, including her sanity, because oh my goodness that man was so wickedly gorgeous in a dark suit that her knees went numb. No wonder they asked him to host award shows. He might be passably handsome in Mark’s casual khaki pants and button-down shirts, but in Joaquin’s Movie Star wardrobe…she might need to sit down a minute.

What was she doing going on a date with that?

“Hey, Z,” he murmured, and to his credit, he didn’t even blink when Lilith breathed out an aww in the background. “I knew that was the right dress for you the moment I saw it.”

“You picked this out?”

“I did. I wanted to,” he explained nonchalantly. “Because you were so worried about having something to wear. This way you won’t be uncomfortable.”

Oh, well if that was the goal, he’d failed miserably because her skin wouldn’t stop tingling under his scrutiny, which wasn’t helped by the long, slow sweep of his gaze that missed nothing as it traveled down to her newly-polished toes.

“Yeah, great thinking,” she muttered and grabbed her clutch.

No time like the present to get this not-a-date underway. The sooner they left, the sooner it would be over, and then she could crawl in a hole to spend some time figuring out how in the world her perfect relationship with Quinoa had faltered. And why the very real man in her living room wouldn’t stop staring at her.

They parted ways with Carolina and Lilith, who would no doubt be texting her all throughout the date, and she somehow managed to walk to the elevator with Joaquin at her side.

“You okay, Z?” he asked as the elevator doors closed. “You’re a little quiet.”

They were blessedly alone, a rarity in a place like Vivo.

“I was just thinking what a shame it is that I went to all the trouble to get so dressed up for something as calculating as publicity.” That much was true at least and deflected from the turmoil going on beneath her skin.

Unexpectedly, Joaquin snagged her hand and forced her to face him, which meant she got a front row seat for the way his eyes had gone all stormy and devastating. She fell into the depths and couldn’t think of a single blessed reason why she’d ever want to pull free of the web Joaquin had spun around her.

“Make no mistake,” he told her with a rough thread through his voice that ruffled her nerves again for an entirely different reason. “Publicity is an inescapable part of my life. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m taking you to dinner because I want to spend time with you off the set. Guess how many times I’ve done that with a co-star?”

He held up his thumb and index finger in a circle to form a zero.

Oh, my. She stared at him but the sincerity radiating from his gaze didn’t shift, and there was nothing else to do but believe him. “I thought the producers told you they wanted ticket sales.”

He shrugged. “Producers always want ticket sales. In this case, it coincided with what I wanted too.”

“But—”

“Shh.”

He laid a fingertip on her lips, igniting a firestorm at the one place that suddenly felt the most Joaquin starved. Her skin drank in his touch, craving more even as she told herself to back off. Even as her internal sensors blipped on, warning her that his expression had darkened dangerously.

“What do you want?” she murmured against his finger, knocking it slightly off center.

He took the subtle shift as an excuse to trace her lips, and then replaced his finger with his mouth, swallowing her with a single kiss that rearranged every molecule of her body.

He didn’t stop there. He deepened the kiss somehow, dragging her into an otherworldly plane where nothing existed but pure connection and when he pulled back, she was genuinely shocked to discover they were still in the elevator. They hadn’t passed into another dimension where every rom-com kiss ever filmed had swirled together into a singular experience that was hers for the taking.

And then he stepped back hastily, shaking his head. “Sorry, I got a little carried away.”

She arched a brow instead of falling at his feet to beg for a repeat since he wasn’t looking all that pleased with the turn of events. “Yeah, you should have saved some for the cameras.”

His expression blanked, effectively erasing the warmth that she’d just seen there. “I still have plenty for the cameras. That’s my job.”

“And we all know how important the job is.” Good. Her voice didn’t sound like she was dying inside at all, which was a trick and a half. Maybe she was a better actress than she’d given herself credit for. “Important enough to be sure I look properly besotted with you by the time we get to the restaurant.”

The guilt that glinted through his gaze was enough confirmation. She’d hit the nail on the head though it had been pure conjecture. But what else could he have possibly wanted out of this date than a pliant woman on his arm whose infatuation with her co-star could be easily picked up by the cameras?

“Got it in one,” he told her brusquely and looked away, but not before she second guessed what she’d seen in the depths of his eyes.

Not guilt. But what?

She waited until he’d handed her into the limo waiting at the curb before she called him out. “Why do you seem like two people sometimes?”