He gave a low chuckle. ‘Funny to think you’re the only person in the whole hotel who couldn’t be sued for leaking those details and she put you in charge of planning the whole thing. She must really trust you.’
‘I don’t think it’s trust,’ Laurel said thoughtfully. ‘I just don’t think she sees me as a real person at all—a person with her own thoughts and feelings beyond the ones that matter to her. Do you know what I mean? Maybe that’s why she was so angry about us being together.’
Dan nodded and held her closer. ‘You’re real to me,’ he said. ‘I don’t know if that helps, but you are.’
Real. Despite everything that was between them being fake, right then—in the moment—Laurel felt more real than she ever had before. More herself.
And it was all thanks to Dan.
‘It does.’ Laurel stretched up to kiss him again. ‘It really, really does.’
* * *
This time when Dan woke up Laurel was still in bed beside him, her legs tangled with his and her hair streaming out across the pillow. He breathed in the scent of her shampoo and marvelled at how right it felt, being there with her.
He hadn’t expected this. Hadn’t thought anything like this was even remotely possible for him any more.
How could it only have been two days? Two days since he’d been suggesting a stupid prank to the hot brunette in his car. Two days since he’d stepped up, taken her hand and shouldered the role of Laurel’s fake boyfriend.
Two days since he’d started something he suddenly didn’t want to finish.
But he would—he knew that. It was Friday morning. In another two days the wedding from hell would be over and he’d be on the flight Laurel had booked him back to LA. Back to his real life.
And that was exactly how he wanted it. And how Laurel wanted it too—she’d made that clear. He wasn’t the prince she was waiting for, and she wasn’t miraculously going to be the first woman who thought he was enough. Life didn’t work that way.
This week was a space out of time, and it was wonderful. But it couldn’t last. It never did—not for him.
He’d rather take these five days and enjoy every moment of them without worrying about when things would change. When Laurel would realise she needed something more. Something else. Somebody else.
Laurel wanted to be the heroine of her own story. She needed a leading man for that—not a stand-in. And that was all he could ever be.
No, he’d have his five days and be grateful for them. And then he’d get back to reality.
Laurel stirred in his arms, and he kissed the top of her head. ‘Morning. I thought you were channelling Cinderella, not Sleeping Beauty.’
Even the joke stung—just a little. After this week she would always be a princess, just out of reach. And the chances were he’d never even see her again.
‘Someone wore me out.’
She stretched up and kissed him, long and easy and sweet. But before he could deepen it, roll her over on top of him and relive some of the highlights from the night before, she slipped out of his arms and padded naked across the room to the bathroom.
‘Come on. I’ve got work to do, and you’ve got a tour of the local sights to go on with the other guests. Might as well save time and shower together...’
She looked back over her shoulder from the doorway and Dan grinned, throwing off his doubts with the covers and hurrying to follow her.
He was definitely making the most of the time he had left with Laurel.
Which was why, once they were showered and dressed and heading down to the lobby, he set about convincing her to come on the tour instead of staying at Morwen Hall with the wedding party.
‘They’re doing the wedding party photo shoots and the interviews for Star! magazine,’ Laurel said, shaking her head. ‘I need to be here for that.’
‘Why?’ Dan asked. ‘It’s for the wedding party, right? And you’re not in that.’
‘No, but—’
‘And in fact your job is organising the entertainment for the guests. Which, today, is this stupid tour of the local area.’
‘You don’t have to go if you don’t want to,’ Laurel said, rolling her eyes as they reached the lobby.
Dan caught her waist and spun her up against the wall, pressing a light kiss to her lips. ‘Maybe I do want to go. But only if you’re there with me.’
He saw the hesitation in her eyes and kissed her again, hoping to convince her.
‘Let me talk to Eloise,’ she said, coming up for air. ‘As long as she’s okay with it...’
Dan grinned at the victory and kissed her a third time—just because he could.
* * *
Eloise raised no objections, so Laurel and Dan boarded the coach, together with all the other guests, and headed out into the surrounding countryside.
Dan was only slightly disappointed to see that the parents of the bride and groom had also been deemed surplus to requirements for the photoshoot—presumably because they weren’t famous enough. He resolved to try and avoid all four of them. He had a feeling that family bonding wouldn’t help him enjoy his last couple of days with Laurel.
‘So, where are we going?’ he asked as he settled into the luxurious coach seat beside her. Where Laurel had found a coach fancy enough to make it suitable for Hollywood royalty he had no idea, but he was starting to believe that Laurel could do anything she set her mind to. It even had a mini-bar and a top-end coffee machine, with its own barista to operate it.
‘The seaside,’ Laurel replied, grinning like a small child on her way to see the ocean for the first time. ‘It’s going to be brilliant!’
‘Not exactly beach weather,’ Dan pointed out, looking out of the coach window at the frost still lingering on the trees.
‘We’re not going to sunbathe.’ Laurel rolled her eyes. ‘Have you ever been to the British seaside before?’
He shook his head.
‘It’s the best. There’ll be tea shops and amusement arcades—oh, and there’s a castle up on the cliff above the beach that we can walk to, if you like?’
Dan didn’t care what they did, as long as it kept that smile on Laurel’s face. But he said, ‘That sounds great,’ anyway, and it was worth it when she kissed him.
* * *
‘Okay, so this isn’t exactly what I was imagining when you said the beach,’ Dan said, looking down at the pebbles under his feet. ‘Don’t beaches normally involve sand?’
‘Not this one.’ Laurel skipped ahead, following the water line along the beach as the waves lapped against the stones.
The crisp winter air whooshed through her chest, making her whole body feel fresh and new. She was miles away from Morwen Hall, and the stone walls and Gothic architecture were fading away, freeing her from the wedding, from Melissa, from all that responsibility. Today it was just her and Dan.
‘Come on! I want to climb up to the castle.’
Probably she should be supervising the other guests, or at least making herself available for questions. But since they’d mostly scattered, to explore the little shops that peppered the side streets of the seaside town, or to indulge in cream teas in the cafés, Laurel figured she was allowed some fun too. If it hadn’t been for Dan she wouldn’t even be there—she’d be back at Morwen Hall, watching Melissa play sweetness and light for the cameras.
She was really glad she was at the seaside instead.
‘So, tell me about this castle,’ Dan said, catching her up. He had a smooth round pebble in one hand, and was turning it over and over between h
is fingers. ‘Is it a real one? Any princesses living there I should know about? Are we visiting your royal brethren?’
Laurel laughed. ‘Yes, it’s a real castle. But, no—no one has lived there for hundreds of years. It’s probably missing half its walls, and definitely its roof, for a start.’
‘Probably no princesses, then,’ he said seriously. ‘The way I hear it, those royal women are kind of demanding. They like walls, and real beds, and walk-in showers for two...’
Laurel blushed at the reminder of their early-morning activities. Yes, if she were a princess she would be a big fan of showers for two.
‘No princesses,’ she agreed, smiling up at him. ‘Now, come on.’
The cliff path was a steep one, but Laurel scampered up it easily, knowing Dan was right behind her. The icy winter air had moved from bracing to become stinging, filling her lungs as she breathed it in, deep and invigorating. Her face felt wind-burned and scratchy, and her hair whipped around in her eyes. She didn’t care. She was free and happy and alive.
‘You look beautiful,’ Dan said as they reached the top at last, and she turned to him, trying to catch her breath.
She gave up at the sight of him—his short hair tousled beyond repair, his blue eyes as bright as the winter sky. He looked every inch a film star—only better. He looked real in a way none of them ever seemed to.
And he looked at her as if she mattered. As if she was real too.
‘I wish you didn’t have to leave so soon,’ she said without thinking—and he turned away, a rueful smile on his face.
‘Yeah, well... Don’t want the novelty to wear off, now, do we?’
But it wouldn’t, Laurel knew suddenly. It couldn’t. Not for her, anyway. But for him... He had to be used to a new woman every week, didn’t he? The way he told it they all moved on quickly enough, but she wondered suddenly if that was the whole story. If they left him or if he kept them at such a distance that there was nothing for them to stay for.
He’d given up trying to be good enough for anyone the minute his brother had come along, while she’d kept on striving to prove her worth to a family that she was starting to realise might never see it. But if he rebelled against being what others wanted how would he ever know what it was like to be someone’s everything?