‘Unlikely.’ She gave him an encouraging smile.
‘Fine. I wasn’t talking about my parents. I could have been, I suppose. But, no. I was thinking about my wife, actually.’
The cold winter air chilled her blood as his words sank in. ‘Your wife? You’re married?’
Of all the possibilities that had floated through her mind since they’d started their fake relationship that really hadn’t been one of them. How could he pretend to be dating her if he already had a wife back in California? No wonder his parents had been so disapproving.
‘Ex-wife,’ Dan clarified, and the world shifted back to something approaching normality. ‘Sorry. It’s been...two years now, since she left.’
Well, that made more sense, at least. Apart from the bit where she’d apparently left him. Who would leave Dan? From what Laurel knew of him, on one day’s acquaintance, tying a man like Dan down to marriage must have been a feat and a half in the first place. What sort of idiot would go through all that and then just leave?
It didn’t make sense.
‘She left? Why?’
Dan’s smirk was lopsided, almost sad. ‘She found someone better. Why else? I was just a stuntman, remember. Even if I did own my own company, even if I was on my way to being a success. She was an actress—and an ambitious one, too. I couldn’t match up to a Hollywood star, now, could I? I was just the stand-in, same as always, until something better came along.’
The sad part was that it made sense, in a twisted sort of way. As much as Laurel hoped that Riley and Melissa truly were in love, she knew that part of the attraction for her sister was Riley’s A-List status. Even Benjamin... If she was honest with herself, Laurel had to admit that a small part of the attraction she’d felt for him came from knowing that he’d be seen as a good match for her. Why should Dan’s ex-wife be any different? But for someone like Dan, who’d already spent his life since the age of eight knowing he’d been replaced in his parents’ affections by his brother, knowing that he could never match up...
‘Ouch, that must have hurt. I’m so sorry.’
He shrugged. ‘Don’t know why I was surprised, really. It wasn’t like Cassie was the first woman to want me just until she got a shot at the real thing—a proper star. She was just the only one I was stupid enough to marry.’
The way he said it—without emotion, calm and even—made her heart ache. She knew how it felt to be cast aside for a better option—first by her father, then by Benjamin. But Dan... He seemed to have made a profession out of it. Of being the one they called on set only to do the dangerous work, never to get the credit. To be replaced by the actor with top billing. And it wasn’t only his work. Apparently his relationships had followed the exact same pattern.
And that was just crazy.
‘Why?’ she asked. ‘Why just...accept that? Why always be the stand-in?’
‘What else is there?’
He hadn’t known anything else, she realised. Not since he was eight and his brother came along and usurped him. It had been bad enough for her at sixteen, but at least she’d still had her mum...in a way. Dan hadn’t had anyone left at all.
Were they both just doomed to repeat the same old patterns? Not if she could help it.
‘You know, Melissa might be the big star in our family, but I like to think I can at least be the heroine of my own story,’ Laurel said. ‘You don’t even seem to believe you can be that.’
‘The heroine of your own story?’
Dan raised his eyebrows, and Laurel felt the heat rising to her cheeks.
‘What kind of heroine scampers around after her half-sister, giving up everything to make her day perfect?’
‘Cinderella,’ Laurel snapped back, without thinking, and Dan tipped his head back as he laughed, long and loud.
‘Waiting for your prince. Of course. I’m sure he’ll be along soon enough.’ Dan flashed her a sharp smile. ‘And until then maybe I’ll do.’
‘Maybe you will.’
They were standing too close, Laurel realised suddenly. As the conversation had turned more private, more intimate, they’d each leaned in. Talking quietly under the laughter and cheers of the crowd, they’d needed to be close to hear one other. Dan had moved his hand from hers and rested it at her waist instead. His arm was around her back, holding her close to him as they spoke.
Laurel stared up into his bright blue eyes and swallowed hard at what she saw there.
‘Kiss her again!’
The cry went up through the crowd and broke the spell between them. Laurel jerked her gaze away, turning her attention back to the stage, where Noah was kissing Eloise very enthusiastically.
‘That looks like fun,’ Dan commented, and Laurel’s face turned warm. Too warm.
Because it did look like fun. But she didn’t want to be kissing Noah Cross, film star extraordinaire, no matter how good-looking he was.
She wanted to be kissing Dan.
Wrong place, wrong time, and categorically not her prince.
‘It really does,’ she breathed, and grabbed Dan’s hand as he started to pull away.
She knew what he was thinking now. And she couldn’t let him think it a moment longer. Turning her body towards his, until she was practically pressed up against him, she decided to take a chance.
If she was the heroine of her own story, then it was high time she got kissed. Even if it was only pretend. She might have given up on relationships until she found the right one, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t keep in practice in the meantime. And what better way than with a fake boyfriend? In a relationship that couldn’t go anywhere because it had never existed to start with?
‘You know, if we really want this charade of ours to be believable it’s not just our backstories we need to get right.’
‘No?’ Dan asked, eyebrows raised. ‘What else were you thinking?’
‘It needs to look real, too,’ Laurel said, her mouth dry. ‘It needs to look every bit as real as Noah and Eloise do up there.’
‘You’re right.’ Dan tilted his head, ducking it slightly until his lips were only a couple of centimetres from hers. ‘So...what? Are you asking me to kiss you?’
‘Well, if you want to be convincing...’
‘I’d hate to fall down on the fake boyfriend job,’ Dan murmured.
And then his lips were against h
ers, strong and sure, and Laurel’s whole body woke up at last.
The only problem was it didn’t feel fake at all.
* * *
The crowd cheered, and just for a moment Dan thought they might actually be cheering for him. For him and Laurel and a kiss that would have broken records, if such things existed.
If their relationship was fake—and it was, he mustn’t forget that—they were both rather good actors. They should be the ones up there on the silver screen, convincing the audience they were in love. Heaven knew, if he hadn’t known better, that kiss might even have convinced him.
But he always knew better. He knew exactly who he was, and how much he could expect. And it was never everything.
Except for one moment...with Laurel in his arms...he’d wanted to believe there was a chance. A possibility of something more.
And then, of course, she’d pulled away.
Her cheeks were pink, her eyes bright, and the smile on her lips couldn’t all be pretend. But he’d kissed enough women to know it wasn’t sufficient for him to be a great kisser. They wanted something more—something he didn’t have. A kiss was only a kiss.
‘I need to get back to the hall,’ Laurel said.
On stage, Noah and Eloise took their bows and the crowd began to disperse.
‘I need to get things ready for the hen night.’
‘Sure,’ Dan said, letting her go easily. At least he hoped it looked easy. It didn’t feel it. ‘Don’t let me keep you from your work.’
She hesitated before leaving, though. ‘I’ll see you later?’
‘We’re sharing a room, remember.’
Not just a room. A bed.
If last night had been difficult...trying to sleep beside her, knowing he couldn’t touch her...how much more impossible would it be tonight, now he knew how it felt to have her in his arms, to kiss her like that?
He was doomed.
‘Better make sure you don’t drink so much at the stag night that you don’t make it back there, then.’
‘The stag night. Right.’