Free Taming Hollywood’s Ultimate Playboy by Amalie Berlin Page A

didn’t see-it see it.” Grace made an annoyed sound, unbuckled her seat belt and went to stand where Tom had directed. She suffered through a series of photographs as he had her stand full front facing, then three-quarter profiles both left and right, and then again from the back, and three-quarters profile back...
    By the time they got to the last couple of photos, her hands were on her hips and she repeatedly took deep, disgruntled breaths.
    â€œYou’re very pretty to be so camera-averse,” Tom mumbled, letting her off the hook with a gesture for her to go back to her seat.
    â€œI don’t even want to know why I did that,” she muttered, buckling back in beside Liam.
    â€œYou’re probably lucky he didn’t have you strip down to...” The statement died in Liam’s throat.
    Since last night he’d been mentally working through ways to bring up that trench coat, but that was not the right way to do it. Especially here in front of everyone.
    The hint of color creeping back into her cheeks confirmed that her thoughts had gone to the same place. He had to say something else to drag her out of it, so he went with the real explanation. “He’s probably looking at gowns on his tablet and some books. He wants to see you in the right profile so he can easily picture how a dress would work for you.”
    â€œI guess.” She reached for a magazine stashed on the wall beside her seat, shutting the conversation down.
    But if that look she’d given him was anything to go by, he had an inkling how she was going to react. Not great, but maybe if he did this right, it wouldn’t be so bad.
    â€œBody frame is very important when it comes to the style of a gown,” Tom confirmed.
    Just another reason he didn’t want to talk about this all here. The small cabin made it possible for everyone to hear every word. They didn’t need all their issues on display, this uneasy alliance was already juicy enough.
    But he didn’t want to dance around the subject anymore. She didn’t need to know all the gritty details but he could apologize. Tell her it wasn’t a reflection on her that he had sent her away. Remind her about the loyalty and kinship he felt to her family that kept him from considering her as anything other than a friend. She didn’t need to know the other reasons, the ones that made up the bulk of his present resistance.
    So he’d tell a lie. But a white lie. A lie he wished was true. The loyalty part was there, but it still didn’t help him not consider her as anything other than a friend. He considered, he considered so much that sometimes he even got confused about who they actually were. It just wasn’t a situation he could pursue.
    He’d spent years thinking of the incident in the only way he could minimize it: she’d been embarrassed but had then probably put it from her mind and moved on. Thinking about it any other way left him angry with nothing to fight against.
    Twenty-four hours in her presence had brought a few other revelations he might never have come to on his own without seeing her again.
    This mess wasn’t about her feeling humiliated because they’d both wanted each other but couldn’t go there.
    She thought she’d been alone in that desire, and that’s what hurt her. If that were the case, it meant she hadn’t been smart enough to read him right. It labeled her dumb, clueless, or cocky that she knew but didn’t care how he felt about the matter. Mostly, in every incarnation of the situation where she felt alone in the desire, there was no making it better.
    He’d have to tell her that he’d wanted to drag her to bed and that even now, years later, it had been the sexiest night of his life.
    Then tell her that nothing could happen because of his loyalty to her family. If they were both shutting down the attraction with good reasons that had nothing to do with desirability,