Could This Be Love? by Lee Kilraine

photo. She had to use all her willpower not to drop them as they oozed in her hands. How was it Sijan got to hold the fishing rod, and she got stuck with the worms? One glance over at Sijan and she knew. His grin explained everything.
    “You set me up.” Fine. She got it. He was making her pay her dues. Even so, it took all her willpower not to toss the handful of worms in his face. “We’re even after today, right?”
    “Not even close.” He had the nerve to wink at her, and the press ate it up like the sexy, romantic gesture it wasn’t . “Can you even imagine how my phone call with the studio execs went last night? Smile, it’s for a good cause.”
    Oh, right. Like this Hollywood actor gave a darn about good causes. Lonnie thought Sijan was doing him a favor, but she knew the man’s real motives. No, that wink spoke volumes. This was all about payback. Payback and cleaning up his scandalous reputation.
    She faced the cameras again. The worms slithering across her palms shot a shudder up her spine, but she held rock steady. No way she’d let Sijan win. But . . . ick! This was the role that should earn her an acting award: keeping a beaming smile plastered on her face as the worms squirmed and slimed around in her hands. She even held her sigh of relief when Sijan helped her tip the worms out of her hands and into a cup. His grin told her he felt her stiff hands tremble as the last cloying worm slipped off.
    “Here you go.” Lonnie directed her to the bathroom at the back of the store, where she used a fat bar of strong pine soap to scrub off worm slime and two layers of skin.
    “Thanks again, Avery. I thought I’d have you hold the fishing rod, but Sijan said you were a good sport and thought the photo would get more attention if the pretty woman was holding the worms. Shock value, you know?”
    Her gaze narrowed and sliced over to Sijan. “Oh, I know. He was right about the shock value. But it’s a worthy cause and a good thing you’re doing. No one should go hungry.”
    “We are so totally even,” Avery said once they were back in Sijan’s truck and heading over to the hospital for the last photo op of the day.
    “A handful of worms does not begin to cover the damage you did.”
    “If you weren’t trying to get even, you would have let me hold the fishing rod.”
    Sijan reached out his hand and traced his finger along her jawline, a sexy move from the paparazzi’s perspective. Her body was buying it too, if the fluttering in her chest and pulse meant anything.
    “Sweetheart, a photo op is a photo op. You’d be surprised at the things some starlets are willing to do instead of pay their dues with hard work and honing their craft.”
    “I told you I only wanted the one pic—”
    “Well, your lips were moving, but your actions spoke louder.”
    “Gah! Fine. You win this round. Can we be done now?” Avery needed to get away from this man. He was driving her crazy, because she had to be crazy to let herself feel attracted to another actor. She couldn’t hang out in his world and expect to keep her anonymity, which she and Pia had worked darn hard for. In the last five years, she’d found, if not healing, then peace from her painful past at the hands of Hollywood actors and producers. A week ago, she’d have sworn she was too smart to be vulnerable ever again. Yet today she felt about as strong as dandelion fluff in a windstorm.
    “One more. You’re going to need to buck up if you want a career in Hollywood. There’s a lot more to being famous than smiling for the cameras.”
    Do not roll your eyes. Do not roll your eyes. Instead, she gave Sijan a wide-eyed look of surprise, blinking a few times for effect. “But that’s why I got my photo with you. So I could be famous without all that hard work.”
    He pulled his sunglasses down and looked at her over the edge. “Huh, you seem too smart to believe it works that way. Maybe you’re a better actor than I figured.”
    They pulled up at the