Chapter 23

Vincent

We rode silently in my car, with some space between us. Every time I looked over, I could see that she had her face turned away from me, looking out into the streets. I could still see her reflection in the mirror though. Her small button nose, her luscious red lips that matched the color of her dress exactly. Her hair framed her face in a halo of dark curls, and her eyes looked exhausted. She looked paler than usual, especially here in California, but I couldn’t help but be transfixed by her unearthly beauty. But seeing her in that dress, her legs crossed demurely over each other, her hands clutched together on her lap. I was filled with guilt for bringing her here; this wasn’t the Gemma Ramsey I had met in that small mountain town. This was someone else, someone I was forcing her to be.

I looked away from her, breathing in her scent in our closed space. She wasn’t the only one who was confused; she wasn’t the only one this was happening to for the first time. I had never felt this way before either. My friends were right. When was the last time I had brought a date to a formal social event where I knew all my friends were going to be? With Gemma, I hadn’t even given it a second thought. I’d wanted her there; I’d wanted all my friends to meet her. Even though the truth was that even I didn’t know her well enough yet.

What would my family think of her? My mind drifted immediately to the sense of duty my parents had always instilled in me. The two women Mother had selected for me were from distinguished Russian aristocratic families. A marriage with one of them would merge our lineages and expand our wealth and name.

Mother insisted it wasn’t an arranged marriage. Especially since I had dated both the girls briefly, sometime during my college years. So many girls had come after them I couldn’t even remember my time with either of them. What was it? Sarah for a couple of dates, and Maria some weeks? Hardly relationships.

She shifted in her seat beside me. When our eyes met, she blushed and looked away. I could see that she was feeling guilty. She was embarrassed for running out like that. She thought she had dragged me away from the party, from my friends. I wanted to reach out to her and touch her, hold her hand, stroke her hair. Anything to make her feel better. But I knew I should give her space. What was it that she was so ashamed of? What was she running away from?

Why had I brought her here?

I knew what the practical reason was; because I wanted to keep seeing her. For the sake of my business, I’d had to come back to LA, but I didn’t want to cut short my time with her. I hadn’t thought she would agree to come with me, and now I could see that she was already regretting that decision. But what happened after this?

I had never gotten this far with any woman before. I didn’t know what it felt like to want to be with someone so bad that you would do anything to make them stay. And she didn’t seem like she wanted to stay. For starters, she kept running away from me. That should have been a big indicator.

I remembered laughing when Casper told me how madly in love he was with Lily Fritz. I couldn’t believe it. She wasn’t his type. They had met under strange circumstances, and I had found it funny that Casper was so madly in love. Same with Nash. Bonnie Calhoun was a nerd in college. I couldn’t understand what made Nash fall so madly in love with her. Now I felt foolish for ever laughing at either of them. Now I felt like I was maybe in the same position.

“I’m sorry if my friends made you uncomfortable, Gemma,” I said out loud and she turned to look at me. Her eyes had softened by now, they looked nearly brown in the dim light.

“They didn’t. They were actually all being friendly and nice. I obviously overreacted. I didn’t want to make a fool of myself,” she said and I shook my head.

“That isn’t even possible. You couldn’t ever make a fool of yourself. I know they can come on strong. We’ve been friends for so long; they were just taken aback that they didn’t know who you were,” I explained, and Gemma forced a weak smile.

I could see how tired she was, and the chivalrous thing to do would be to send her home. To let her go back to her own home. I knew she had a lot of things to deal with, even if I didn’t know exactly what they were. For starters, she had no job waiting for her.

“I’ll get my secretary to book tickets for you to head back tomorrow morning. How does that sound?” I said, smiling at her. Gemma nodded and finally smiled as well. It broke something in me, because a part of me was hoping that she would say she didn’t want to go back. That she wanted to be here, stay with me.

But after tonight, I knew that wouldn’t be a possibility. She had no reason to remain here, not after how she had felt today at the party. And if she wanted to keep running away from me, it was probably time to just cut her loose so that she could go back to living her own life.