Denied.

Not that he’d actually made a move, but damn, he’d wanted to. And then she’d shut down faster than an Atlanta grammar school during a snow shower.

Which—fuck it,—that was probably the best-case scenario anyway. He knew the two of them, he and Gina, could never be a real thing, but it didn’t stop the fantasies twisting through his imagination.

Maybe he couldn’t touch.

Maybe he couldn’t feel.

But he could most definitely dream.

They made their way to the end of the pier and looked out into the distance, both of them leaning over the wooden railing at the end of the line.

Finally, Rory couldn’t keep quiet a moment longer. “I’m not going to like Carlene.”

“Probably not.” Gina shrugged.

“Then what’s the point?” He cocked his head toward Gina. “If we both know something is going to fail, then why even try?”

“Because it’s our jobs to try.” She stared up at the stars that were barely visible so close to the towering city lights. “That’s what we do. We try and we fail, and then we try again. You’re an artist, you should know exactly how this works.”

“You’re right,” he scoffed and broke free from the railing. “I am an artist. I’m not an actor.”

“We’ve been through this.” She rolled her eyes and let out a desperate sigh. “It’s not about you—”

“You’re wrong, though,” he pointed out. “It is about me. It’s all about me now and I didn’t ask for it.”

“Where is this coming from?” She spun to face him, and then dug her hands into the pockets of her jeans. “You’re hot and you’re cold. You’re funny and then you’re rude. I can’t get a good read on you.”

“There’s an easy explanation for that.” He stepped toward her and leaned close. He knew he had some kind of power over her, just by the way she reacted. Her eyes were wary but needy, her body tensed at his touch even as she leaned into him.

She swiveled so that her back was to him, shutting him out again. “This was a terrible idea.”

“She’s too conservative. Carlene, I mean.” Rory said with a shake of his head.

“You’re wrong,” she said in response as she turned back around to poke him in the chest. “She’s nothing like her father, which is why she’s perfect for you, at least for our purposes.”

“That’s another thing that’s been bothering me,” he began. “Ever since that meeting with Ava, I’ve started to feel like I’m nothing but a piece of meat.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” She tilted her head.

“If you were in my shoes, you’d say the same damn thing.”

“Maybe I would. But you agreed to this, Rory.” She pushed past him. “And I’m obviously incapable of doing the job assigned to me despite that agreement. So I guess it’s me, then.”

“It’s not like that,” he said between gritted teeth, growing more and more frustrated because he couldn’t put into words the thoughts that were slowly driving him mental.

“Then tell me what it is like. Come on, Mr. Know-it-all.”

“It’s about the girls.” He balled his hands into fists at his sides. “Every single one of them, and most definitely it’s about Carlene Richardson.”

“Fine,” she said and took a step toward him. “Then tell me what is missing. Tell me why you can’t bring yourself to give the time of day to any of these women when you should be thrilled for the chance with half of them.”

He shrugged, and then averted his gaze so that it was hidden under the blanket of darkness between the soft pools of light. “I want—need—someone who is confident and—”

“All of these girls share that same basic common trait.”

“Are you going to let me finish or—?”

“Yeah.” She pushed herself back against the railings and listened with bated breath. “Continue.”

“A girl who is beautiful in all the right ways. I need a woman who knows what she wants, but doesn’t always chase after it because there is also a dollop of humanity lurking underneath her ambition.”

Gina glared. He could have sworn her eyes were burning hot against his skin, her gaze as effective as lasers, but he was already on a roll and he wasn’t about to stop now.

He bowed his head. “I need a girl who has a past and a future where she can get over that past. I need a girl who knows how to stay, who wants to stay. And maybe on the surface she’s not all these things. Maybe she needs a hell of a lot of work in the same way that I, too, need work. But she at least needs to know that there’s something on the other side of today.” He raised his eyes to meet hers, caught her hook, line, and sinker, too. “Did that give you any insight?”

She swallowed in lieu of a response.

“Yeah.” He began to approach her with one careful step after another.

Her eyes glistened underneath the pale yellow lights and as she took another impossible step backward, her body pressed tight against the wooden railings. She had nowhere left to go…

Right where Rory wanted her.

Right where he needed her.

“What if you’re that girl, Gina?” he whispered. “What if you’re the one you’ve been searching for?”

“No,” she scoffed, shaking her head furiously. Or was it a chuckle? Rory couldn’t be certain either way, he was too busy navigating the overfilled corridors of his mind.

“Are you crazy?” she hissed. “You must be crazy, or you’re fucking with me, which would just make you even crazier.” She pushed herself up against his body, but she was no match for him.

“Why not?” He dropped a hand to caress her cheek first and then her arm. She shivered underneath his touch, her legs trembling and offering advance warning that they could go out from beneath her at any second.

If Rory loved getting her riled up, then he was absolutely thrilled with the prospect of making her weak in the knees. He combed a hand through her hair and she did something unexpected, she leaned against his touch this time with her eyes flirting between staying open and fluttering closed.

He dropped his head slightly, just enough to tease her with his warm breath. She placed a steadying palm against his chest, and then her gaze shifted and she shook her head so gently that Rory himself would have missed it if he had stopped to blink.

“Wh…What are you doing to me?” she stammered, pushed her hand tighter against his chest, her fingers digging into the fabric of the AC/DC tee and the harder than rock muscles beneath the black shirt. “We shouldn’t. We can’t.”

“Who makes these rules anyway?” It was a question he didn’t need a response to, just needed to see her eyes twinkle under the waning light of the moon once more. That’s when he dropped his head lower, his lips close to hers so that he could practically taste the cherry perfection.

She broke away from him in a frenzied panic. “I’ll make sure your car is ready for your date tomorrow.”

Rory could have said something, but he knew it would have been fruitless. He pushed his hands into his pockets and sighed as she turned and walked away slowly, disappearing into the neon-lit abyss behind her one careful step at a time.

Gina would only be in New York for a couple more weeks. By then, he and the band would be done recording this album while she went back home and put together a plan for the tour to follow.

Which meant she was stuck with him for a while longer. If tonight had proven anything, it was that she wasn’t as immune to him as she pretended to be. So he’d just have to use the next two weeks to wear her down.

Because he hadn’t been kidding. He wasn’t interested in a single one of the women she’d picked for him.

Because he was crazy about bossy, hard-headed, too-blind-to-see-what-was-right-in-front-of-her Gina Saldano.