I stare at her mouth, transfixed, reliving the way she tasted, the small sounds she made in the back of her throat when I kissed her, how her body felt pressed against mine. Longing blasts through me.

I want to kiss her again. I want to taste her more badly than I’ve ever wanted anything else in my life, and considering how badly I wanted to leave this town all those years ago, that’s really saying something.

Frustration, hot and bitter, mixes with the desire. If this was a normal relationship, I’d just brace my elbows on the table and lean across it and kiss Lucy until she couldn’t see straight. But it’s not. This is a fake relationship, one that I created out of thin air because I wanted to improve my public image.

Based on the parameters I established, I should only kiss her when there’s someone with a camera around, when the kiss will generate some publicity, and since this place is empty but for our placid-faced host and whoever’s in the kitchen, a kiss right now would most likely send Lucy scurrying for cover and have her calling off this fling altogether.

Lucy’s cheeks turn pink and she reaches up and self-consciously brushes a hand across her full, bare lips. “What?” she says, her cheeks turning even pinker. “Do I have food stuck between my teeth or something?” Her hand drops to her front, frantically pulling her sweater away from her full breasts. “Or did I slop something on my shirt? I hate when that happens.”

I reach across the table and catch her hands in mine. I pull them down and rest them on the table top. “Relax, you look fantastic.”

Suspicion narrows Lucy’s eyes. “Then why are you looking at me like that?” The blood abruptly drains from her face. “It’s my scar, isn’t it?” She tries tugging a hand free from my hold, probably so she can cover the mark.

“No,” I hurry to assure her. “I barely even notice you have a scar. It seems as natural and as much as part of you as your eyes.”

I’m not sure it’s exactly the right thing to say to her, but Lucy stops trying to pull free of my touch, though her expression remains tense.

“I’m sorry,” I continue. Without any conscious thought on my part, my thumb makes small circles on the back of her right hand. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but Lucy grows even more tense at my words. She looks so uptight and fragile that it seems a strong wind would blow her into bits.

“Uh huh,” she says, her voice strained. She doesn’t believe me. This shouldn’t surprise me. The downside to being an actor is that most people assume I’m putting on a show, that they can’t take a single thing I say at face value. I’ve come to accept that it’s a hazard of my job, but the fact that Lucy doesn’t believe me stings.

“To be honest, I didn’t realize I was staring at you,” I tell her. “I was trapped up here.” I tap the side of my skull. “Thinking that you are the one good thing in the town and that I can’t believe I was lucky enough to be in the coffee shop at the same time as you.”

“The one good thing,” Lucy slowly repeats my words.

“Uh huh.”

She wrinkles her nose. “You can’t possibly be serious. There has to be something you like about this place, otherwise you wouldn’t have come back. Dr. Christian?”

She has a point. “Christian is a friend, and the only person from my past that I stayed in touch with, but he usually comes out to California to see me. The only reason I agreed to come out here to do a promotion for organ donation for the hospital is because I owe him.”

She tips her head to the side. Unspoken questions swirl in her hazel eyes, but she doesn’t put them into words.

“In high school, Christian was just as big a dork as I was. The difference was that he came from a good family and had money. When I decided to leave, he didn’t ask any questions. He didn’t tell me I was stupid. He just gave me what money he had, his cell phone, and wished me luck.”

I don’t tell her that in doing so, he probably saved my life.

“That was sweet of him,” Lucy says in a soft voice. She rolls her hand under mine, twisting it until our palms press together and holds my hand tightly in hers, comforting me in her quiet manner. I don’t think anyone has ever tried to comfort me before. It feels strange and good, and fills me with a sense of fuzzy warmth that I’ve never experienced before. “I don’t know what happened to you, but I’m glad you had a friend who helped out.”

“Me too.” We’re on the verge of having a moment, the kind that causes the entire world to shift on its axis. The idea makes me twitchy. As nice as sitting here with Lucy is, I need to move. Right now, I need fresh air and action as much as I need to draw my next breath.

Still, drawing my hand away from Lucy is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I stand and put my coat on before tossing a twenty-dollar bill onto the table.

“Let’s get out of here.”

Maybe, just maybe, once we’re clear of this place, I’ll figure out an excuse to pull her tight against me and claim her mouth as my own.

Lucy’s eyes widen in surprise, but she doesn’t protest. She just stands up, shrugs into her coat and follows at my heels as I wind my way past empty tables until I reach the door. I hold it open for Lucy.

“Do you need to be somewhere?” she asks softly as she turns back toward me.

I shake my head and admire the way the overhead light shines on her dark hair. My fingers itch to bury themselves in the silken mass, to use my grip to tug her head to mine, to hold her steady as I kiss her like no one has ever kissed her before.

“Everything’s fine.” Unable to resist, I reach out and tuck a strand of her hair behind her left ear, using the opportunity to lightly brush my fingertips across her soft cheek. It might be my imagination, but I swear she leans into the touch a little. That her eyelids grow heavier.

My heart kicks into double time and I lean a little closer. “You know, Luce …” I begin when a shadow and a flicker of movement catches my attention.

I study it for a second. Just as I convince myself I’m imagining things, a shadow moves, shifting just far enough into the light for me to recognize Tracy, the girl from the hospital elevator, and based on the shifting shadows, she’s brought a few friends along with her. All of them have cell phones in their hands, ready to catch a picture of the hometown celebrity.

Obviously one of the restaurant employees recognized me and put the word of my whereabouts on social media. Normally this would piss me off, but since I was just looking for an excuse to kiss Lucy, I can’t bring myself to be too angry.

Refusing to think too much about what I’m about to do, wanting to just savor the sensation, I reach out, grab the bottom of Lucy’s jacket and tug her close.

Her brows snap together and she stares down at my hand even as I close the distance between our bodies. “What are you-”

“Shhh,” I murmur and lower my head, breathing in her good, clean scent. It’s more of a turn on than any of the expensive, supposedly exotic perfumes the other women who’ve briefly moved through my life wore. “Trust me and just go with it.”