world. But I did. I wasn’t ready then—” She’d never seen him look more serious. “But I am now.”
Liz felt her mouth fall open. Had he really just told her that she’d been right to leave?
And...oh my God...had he also just said that he was ready to be with her now?
“Don’t do this, Jason,” she finally managed to reply, her voice barely above a whisper from the shock of it all. “We’re here to support Amber and her fiancé. We need to focus on that. Let’s put together an incredible wedding for her, and then—”
“Go our separate ways again?”
Liz forced herself to nod. It was really hard, but she managed it somehow.
But Jason was already shaking his head. “No, I don’t want to do that—and I don’t think you do, either. Can’t you feel the heat, the electricity, the emotion between us?”
Of course she could, but she couldn’t admit that to him. Could she?
“Heat? Electricity? They weren’t enough to keep us together once,” she pointed out. “If it didn’t work before, what makes you think the second time would work any better?”
“Because we aren’t kids anymore. I can see that we’ve both changed a lot since those early days, but one thing hasn’t changed at all—how I feel about you. If we don’t at least try, then how will we know? And I promise, if you agree to try again with me, I’ll make sure I don’t overwhelm you.”
Liz had never been good at lying to herself, so she couldn’t possibly lie to Jason right now and tell him that she wasn’t feeling all the things he’d just said—the heat, the electricity, and the emotion. But at the same time she couldn’t see that it was a good idea to just give in to it all so easily. Not when she knew firsthand how quickly everything could get sucked into the vortex of their relationship—with every plan, every bit of focus, being swept away before she even realized it was happening.
Somehow she needed to let him know it was all too much. Too fast. Because even though he’d promised not to overwhelm her again, couldn’t he see that he already had?
She felt so topsy-turvy inside, in fact, that the only words she could get out were, “We need to focus on Amber’s wedding.”
For a long moment, he remained silent. Finally, he nodded and said, “You’re right, again. Amber’s wedding is the most important thing of all right now.”
But even though he’d just agreed with her about their priorities for the next ten days, something told her he wasn’t going to make any similar promises about his intentions after the wedding...
Chapter Eight
H e’d shocked her . Jason understood that it would take Liz time to process what he’d said about the two of them trying again. Time for her to realize how good they could be together—a million times better than they’d been before.
So even though he wished he could find some way to convince her right there and then that they should be together again, as she walked him out to the parking lot, he forced himself to stay quiet and give her room to think. He definitely didn’t want to make the mistake again of suffocating her with his love.
Unfortunately, as soon as they stepped outside, he saw a camera flash. It was instinct to turn around to look directly at the flash, which unfortunately gave the photographer a better shot. The young woman holding the camera was wearing jeans and a denim jacket, her hair cut spiky short. As she leaned against a motorcycle to get more shots, he was tempted to run toward her to grab the camera, but he knew she would probably just leap on her bike and ride away before he could get close.
“Damn it,” Liz said beside him. “Travis was supposed to stop things like this from happening.”
Sure enough, Liz’s big security chief came stalking around the side of the building. He expected the woman to run. Instead, she walked forward with a cocky gait.
“Laurel Kingston, LA Fame Scene blog,” she said. “I thought that was you, Jason