HOLIDAY ROYALE Read Free

her? Oh, no. I don’t. Not at all.”
    Relief had him settling more comfortably into his chair. “So, then?”
    “Well, are you, um, still together with her?” The question came out in a breathy rush.
    He was tempted to remind her that his relationship with V was really none of her business. But he couldn’t quite bring himself to do that. He liked Lucy too much and she was far too flustered already. So he said, “No, we’re not seeing each other any longer. I’m afraid it didn’t work out.”
    Lucy stared at him rather piercingly now and he had the oddest sensation of being under interrogation. “So you’re broken up, you and Vesuvia? And you’re not in a relationship with anyone else?”
    He couldn’t help chuckling. “Yes, we are, and no, I’m not—and, Luce, my darling, don’t you think it’s time you told me about this so-urgent issue of yours?”
    She sagged back in the chair with a groan. “Oh, Dami. It’s just... Well, there’s a man. A special man I met.”
    “A man?” He was totally lost now. From V to a special man?
    “Yes. He’s just way hot. He’s an actor. He lives in my building in NoHo— Well, I mean your building. Brandon? Brandon Delaney?” She seemed to be prompting him.
    He shook his head. “No idea.”
    She kept trying. “Blond hair, the most amazing butterscotch eyes...”
    Dami had a property manager and a superintendent for the building and only a vague idea of who lived there. Some of the apartments were co-op, others leased. And butterscotch eyes? Was this a man or a dessert? “I’m afraid I don’t recall this Brandon.”
    “Oh, Dami. He thinks I’m a child, you know? And I’m not a child— Well, yes, okay, I am inexperienced, not to mention naive. I get that. But I’m not stupid. I’ve simply been sick for most of my life and kind of out of the mainstream of things. But not anymore. I’m well and I’m strong and I’m living my dream. And I really, really need to get started on doing the things that normal, healthy women do—now that, at last, I am a normal, healthy woman. Dami, I need to, you know, hook up.”
    He tried not to look as befuddled as he felt. “Hook up.”
    “You know...have sex?”
    “Er, yes. Of course I know.”
    “But see, I feel so awkward and strange about it.” She lifted both hands and pressed them to the sides of her head, as though trying to keep what was inside from escaping. “I mean, I’ve met a few guys in Manhattan this past month and a half.” She let go of her head and waved her slim arms about in her excitement over something of which he still had no clue. “I’ve met a few guys and I’ve tried to picture myself with one of them, but the idea of doing it with any of them just doesn’t feel right—except for with Brandon. I find Brandon extremely attractive and I definitely could get something going with him. But he’s very much about his acting and he’s big on life experience and he won’t hook up with me because he doesn’t have sex with boring, innocent women.”
    Damien’s head was truly spinning. “You...asked this Brandon fellow to...?”
    “Oh, no!” More blushing. “Not straight out, I mean. I don’t know him well enough to ask him straight out.”
    “Oh, of course. I see.” He didn’t, actually. Not in the least.
    “But I did try to kiss him....”
    “And?”
    “He caught my arms and kind of held me, really gently, away from him.”
    “You mean you didn’t kiss him after all?”
    “No. He stopped it before it happened. And he looked in my eyes and told me that it could never work, that I’m so young and inexperienced and I wear my emotions on my sleeve. He said he would never want to hurt me, but of course he would hurt me because I would be in over my head with him. He said he doesn’t, you know, sleep with virgins and that he’s got no time for anything serious right now anyway, because acting is his life.”
    What a fatheaded ass. “You are adorable, Luce, and thoroughly