he forgot about the camera. This was his scene, and he’d maim anyone who tried to take him out of it. He was having fun. What was the harm in playing along? “Stage one. No diving into bed. Got it.”
She shook her head. “That’s not stage one. Be quiet and listen. The goal isn’t to learn the stages. It’s to understand them. Believe them. Recognize them as truth. So then it’ll be obvious you’re not in love with Kyla.”
His eyebrows flew up. “That’s the goal?”
Fantastic. He was already ahead. Never once had he mistaken what he felt for Kyla as love. Her talents were legendary and he appreciated them—both on the screen and between the sheets. But then, they’d drifted apart so long ago, he barely even remembered the latter. Maybe it hadn’t been all that spectacular.
“Yeah,” she said. “When we’re through with all the stages, you’ll admit you’re not in love with Kyla.”
VJ’s wholesomeness pricked at his sense of honor. How fair was it to play this game when he had no illusions about his relationship with Kyla?
Love and marriage had little to do with each other and neither had anything to do with him. This desert mirage had about a point zero-zero-one percent chance of convincing him differently.
“So, what if I admitted that right now?”
VJ off took her sunglasses and stared at him openly. “Clearly you didn’t understand the rules. I’m supposed to go through the stages and then you admit it. Why in the world would you marry Kyla if you’re not in love with her?”
“I never said I was marrying her. I said I was announcing our engagement. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“Oh, pardon me for assuming an engagement leads to a wedding.” She made a disgusted little noise. “That’s your problem in a nutshell. You think these things are all separate and they’re not. You need romance instruction worse than anyone I’ve ever met.”
He couldn’t stop the grin. “Then educate me.”
“I’m not sure it’ll help. You might be too far gone.” She licked her lips and faced forward. “Are you going to marry her or not?”
“It’s...” Complicated. When had that become the norm for his life? “Look, I know I said to ask instead of assuming, but this is the sole exception. I’m announcing our engagement, and she’s well aware that I’m not in love with her. Leave it at that, okay?”
“Okay.” She drawled out the syllables, overloading them with meaning.
Great. She’d taken him at his word and created all sorts of assumptions. Well, if he hadn’t wanted that, he should have kept his mouth shut. But he hadn’t. She deserved as much honesty as he could give her, and now it was time to drop it.
“So, what’s stage one?”
For a beat, she didn’t respond, like she’d changed her mind about educating him.
“Attraction.” Her legs slid together and crossed, slowly, snagging his attention from the road. “A sense of awareness that wasn’t there a minute ago. Maybe you’ve known each other for years and one day, something happens. Pop! You notice how nice her eyes are or how sexy she looks in that shirt. Maybe you’re strangers, but eyes meet across a smoky room at a party and it’s a lightning bolt to the spine.”
Or an orange pickup pulls off the road and out spills a provocative sunflower with coconut-scented hair. “Hormones. Like I said.”
“If you want to be clinical.” She frowned and the shadow of a road sign threw her into murkiness, then rushed away. “Reality is much more complex. Why do your hormones react to this woman and not that woman? For example.”
Interesting point. She wasn’t spouting text from the pages of a bodice-ripper. Some analysis had gone into this. “Maybe that woman is a pain in the butt.”
“We’re still in the attraction stage. You wouldn’t know anything about the woman’s personality in a relationship at this point. That’s the next stage. Once you recognize some primal, fundamental reaction
She shook her head. “That’s not stage one. Be quiet and listen. The goal isn’t to learn the stages. It’s to understand them. Believe them. Recognize them as truth. So then it’ll be obvious you’re not in love with Kyla.”
His eyebrows flew up. “That’s the goal?”
Fantastic. He was already ahead. Never once had he mistaken what he felt for Kyla as love. Her talents were legendary and he appreciated them—both on the screen and between the sheets. But then, they’d drifted apart so long ago, he barely even remembered the latter. Maybe it hadn’t been all that spectacular.
“Yeah,” she said. “When we’re through with all the stages, you’ll admit you’re not in love with Kyla.”
VJ’s wholesomeness pricked at his sense of honor. How fair was it to play this game when he had no illusions about his relationship with Kyla?
Love and marriage had little to do with each other and neither had anything to do with him. This desert mirage had about a point zero-zero-one percent chance of convincing him differently.
“So, what if I admitted that right now?”
VJ off took her sunglasses and stared at him openly. “Clearly you didn’t understand the rules. I’m supposed to go through the stages and then you admit it. Why in the world would you marry Kyla if you’re not in love with her?”
“I never said I was marrying her. I said I was announcing our engagement. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“Oh, pardon me for assuming an engagement leads to a wedding.” She made a disgusted little noise. “That’s your problem in a nutshell. You think these things are all separate and they’re not. You need romance instruction worse than anyone I’ve ever met.”
He couldn’t stop the grin. “Then educate me.”
“I’m not sure it’ll help. You might be too far gone.” She licked her lips and faced forward. “Are you going to marry her or not?”
“It’s...” Complicated. When had that become the norm for his life? “Look, I know I said to ask instead of assuming, but this is the sole exception. I’m announcing our engagement, and she’s well aware that I’m not in love with her. Leave it at that, okay?”
“Okay.” She drawled out the syllables, overloading them with meaning.
Great. She’d taken him at his word and created all sorts of assumptions. Well, if he hadn’t wanted that, he should have kept his mouth shut. But he hadn’t. She deserved as much honesty as he could give her, and now it was time to drop it.
“So, what’s stage one?”
For a beat, she didn’t respond, like she’d changed her mind about educating him.
“Attraction.” Her legs slid together and crossed, slowly, snagging his attention from the road. “A sense of awareness that wasn’t there a minute ago. Maybe you’ve known each other for years and one day, something happens. Pop! You notice how nice her eyes are or how sexy she looks in that shirt. Maybe you’re strangers, but eyes meet across a smoky room at a party and it’s a lightning bolt to the spine.”
Or an orange pickup pulls off the road and out spills a provocative sunflower with coconut-scented hair. “Hormones. Like I said.”
“If you want to be clinical.” She frowned and the shadow of a road sign threw her into murkiness, then rushed away. “Reality is much more complex. Why do your hormones react to this woman and not that woman? For example.”
Interesting point. She wasn’t spouting text from the pages of a bodice-ripper. Some analysis had gone into this. “Maybe that woman is a pain in the butt.”
“We’re still in the attraction stage. You wouldn’t know anything about the woman’s personality in a relationship at this point. That’s the next stage. Once you recognize some primal, fundamental reaction
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