Resonance of Stars (Greenstone Security #5) - Anne Malcom Page 0,19
in Duke’s voice, something I might’ve tried to dissect had I not been creating a past for him.
Maybe it was a woman. A beautiful, fresh-faced Montana girl with long thick hair and warm eyes. Maybe she broke his heart and he’d never gotten over her. I instantly hated the girl I’d made up in my mind, coveted what she’d had that I’d never experienced.
The driveway was long and winding, showing off the beautiful ranch. I almost didn’t want the ride to end, but the assault it was giving my emotions needed to stop. It was distracting me from being so goddamn nervous at the prospect of facing Duke’s family as an unwelcome stranger.
The homestead was nothing less than extraordinary.
I actually let out a gasp seeing it, immediately covering up my mouth in embarrassment. I really hoped Duke didn’t hear that, as that would be more proof I was the vapid, dramatic movie star. I didn’t dare look at him. Plus, I was too busy taking in the house. It was built for a large family. Maybe added on to over generations. Everything about it called to parts of my soul that I didn’t know existed.
I was expecting a deep brown log cabin. Isn’t that what they specialized in here in Montana? But this wasn’t that.
It was a grand, Victorian-style house with a wrap-around porch. Pure white, stark against the landscape surrounding it. It had two floors, and had been taken care of with generations of love. Even from inside the cab of the truck, I could feel what this was.
A home.
Flowers everywhere. Colorful. Healthy. Well-tended, like the house itself. I had flowers around my house too, but I employed a small army of landscapers to tend to them. I had a feeling that the people who planted these in the soil were people who lived here.
There were outbuildings scattered around the vast property. Fields, mountains, animals, beauty, all stretching to the horizon.
I’d been all over the world. I’d seen many beautiful things. I was virtually numb to them now. Nothing wowed me. But right now, staring at this, it was safe to say I was wowed. For the smallest of moments, everything else melted away. The very reason I was here melted away, and I had a moment to just...marvel.
To covet this place, the life that must be lived here.
I wanted it more than anything. Right at this moment, I wished I’d done my whole life differently, that I’d chased other things, things that made me warm, easy and able to live a life in a place like this.
“One thing,” Duke said when he stopped the car.
His voice, terse and bordering on cruel jerked me from my fantasy, which was a blessing really, considering how dangerous it was to linger in fantasies. I moved my attention from the view to him. He was staring at me in that way I hated. In that forced, distasteful, professional mask.
As someone who was not a stranger to distaste—heck the media loved to hate me, and just check out the comments section of my Instagram—it affected me in a way it shouldn’t.
Duke’s dislike of me was a weapon. Something biological. He let it out into the air and I breathed it in. It seeped into my pores and sickened me.
“We’re together.”
I blinked at the words. They made absolutely no sense, nor did the meaning behind them. My heart skipped a beat nonetheless and I hated myself for continuing such a juvenile, school girl reaction to this man.
He was annoyed by my silent confusion. Everything about me annoyed him. Duke nodded his head to the house. “I don’t want my family caught up in this. I never see them. I sure as shit don’t want them thinking that the first visit in two years is because of a job.” He paused, still gripping the steering wheel. This pissed him off. Infuriated him. “So we’re together. Here for a break from the spotlight for you. Vacation for me.”
It took great effort to keep my expression even. “You want me to pretend I’m your girlfriend?” I clarified.
A muscle in his jaw ticked. He nodded violently. Only a man like him could nod violently. “Shouldn’t be hard. You’re an actress, aren’t you?”
People came rushing out of the house as Duke left me sitting in the car with the bomb that I was not only having to stay with his family, but also pretend I was his fucking girlfriend.