‘It was more than sex.’
‘Oh, come on, we both know that’s not true. You should at least, you’ve had enough of it, after all. Go ask Serena Sloane.’
‘That’s a bit fucking low. I’m a twenty-something single guy. What do you expect?’ The corner of his mouth rose in a sneer. What the hell was wrong with her?
‘Nothing,’ she replied. ‘I expect nothing at all. And that’s what I usually get. You didn’t promise me anything, and I didn’t expect anything. Just some fun in the sun.’
‘Fun in the sun . . . ’ Sam repeated.
‘That’s right.’
‘That’s all it was to you?’
‘To us,’ she said. ‘We distracted each other. You took me away from my loneliness, and I took your mind off Serena Sloane.’ Was it his imagination, or did Cesca spit out that name? ‘And now it’s time to leave and we can go home without any regrets. You to LA, and me to London.’
‘Is that what you want?’ He narrowed his eyes. Maybe he’d been wrong about her after all. Weren’t all women the same?
‘It’s what you want, isn’t it?’ she asked him. ‘You’ve made it perfectly clear you don’t want to introduce me to your family.’
He shifted on her bed. ‘That’s not what I meant.’
‘Then what did you mean?’
Sighing, he ran a hand through his wavy hair. ‘I don’t know . . . it’s not the right time. There’s a lot going on in my life right now. You want me to explain exactly what we are to my parents, but I don’t even know myself.’ He frowned, staring at her. ‘What do you want me to say?’
‘How about Mom, Dad, this is my girlfriend?’
He blanched. ‘Jesus, Cesca.’
Her eyes looked watery in the moonlight. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ she said, biting her lip. ‘You’ve made your position perfectly clear.’
‘I have?’
‘Yes. I’m perfectly good enough to lie in your bed every night, but not good enough to bring home to your mum. I guess we both know where we stand.’
A surge of anger washed through him. ‘That’s not fucking true and you know it. I like you, Cesca. And I thought you liked me. It’s just . . . complicated. You know that.’
‘It’s always going to be complicated,’ she told him. ‘This is meant to be the easy bit. Every time I try to get closer to you, you cut me off. You don’t want anything more than a surface relationship.’
‘So what do you want?’ he asked.
She blinked a couple of times. Was that a tear in the corner of her eye? ‘More. I want more.’ She sounded almost torn by her admission.
‘I can’t give you more.’
‘I know.’
He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, seeing stars beneath his lids. ‘You deserve more,’ he told her. ‘You deserve everything.’
‘Don’t go there, Sam,’ she warned him. ‘Don’t say it’s not me, it’s you. Don’t tell me you don’t deserve me. Spare me all the crap, I’ve heard it before.’
He leaned closer, until their faces were almost touching. ‘So that’s it? I can’t give you everything you want, so it’s over?’
‘It is. So I’d like you to leave now.’
‘Leave where?’
‘My bedroom. I’m tired and I need to sleep. We’ve got a party to get ready for.’