Bedding the Wrong Brother(31)

“They wouldn't want me to.”

He jerked in surprise. “You can't be serious. Your parents have always adored you. How can you say that?”

“Oh, I didn't mean that the way it sounded. Outwardly, they'd welcome me. But, really, I'd be a third wheel. I know they love me, but there's a bond between them. They wouldn't want me around.”

“Seriously?”

“It was only after I was grown and out of the house that my parents started traveling. Maybe that's when they truly felt they could be a couple. So I try not to intrude. Plus, I don't enjoy traveling all that much. It takes me away from work, and I like having a home base.”

More proof that he wasn't the right man for Melina. He didn't have a home base. Didn't even know what having one would feel like anymore.

He was tempted to ask her how much traveling she'd done. As far as he knew, she hadn't done much, and he'd always assumed that had been her choice. Now he wasn't so sure. Now he wondered if it was just that she hadn't wanted to travel alone. But it seemed to be a topic she didn't want to continue. And he wasn't sure he wanted to continue it either, given the melancholy look that had come across her face. “Once you were on your own, I thought your mom might start acting again.”

Melina's mother had been an up-and-coming actress right around the time she'd met Melina's father. Years ago, he'd rented one of her movies, amazed at how animated she'd been. Whenever he'd seen her as a kid, she'd been friendly but quiet. Serious. Far from the chirpy, flirty girl on the screen. Although she hadn't been as quiet or serious as a child, Melina had slowly adopted those traits as she'd grown up, and he'd felt more and more separated from her. He now wondered which of her mother's personas had been real versus an act. He already knew that Melina's quiet exterior hid something amazingly passionate, but that was a new discovery made only last night.


“No. She gave that world up a long time ago. She loved my father that much.”

Rhys wasn't sure why giving up her acting dreams was part and parcel of being with Melina's father, but he had to admit they were a good pairing. It was, in fact, hard to believe that Susan, Melina's mother, had ever been in show business. She'd adapted to academic life as if she'd been born to it. Their relationship had been completely different than Rhys's parents' because there didn't seem to be a lot of volatility to it. Melina's parents always worked together in sync, similar personalities that managed to converge into one unit. For the first time, he wondered exactly how it would feel to be the outsider in that relationship, when a daughter shouldn't ever be made to feel like an outsider. But that was clearly how Melina felt.

“So these willing women. How do they let their willingness be known?”

Something close to panic shot through him. “Um…I don't think we should really talk about that.”

“Why not? You now know intimate details about my sex life while I know nothing about yours.”

“All I know is that, up until last night, your choice in lovers was lousy.”

“Are you referring to your brother? Because I didn't exactly choose you, did I?”

He didn't miss the way she kept bringing up Max. She was using him as a shield, just as she had many times in the past. “You're here now, aren't you? And considering what we're going to be doing for the next two days, I'd say that you've definitely made a choice. Or have you changed your mind?”

She hesitated long enough for him to begin to sweat. Don't change your mind, he urged silently. Not when I've only had a taste of what I've dreamed about for so long.

“No,” she whispered. “I haven't changed my mind. Not if you haven't. But I am here for a reason. So that means you have to answer my questions.”

Frustration made him clench his teeth, but he slowly relaxed his jaw. “It's usually a note passed to us by an usher. Sometimes they'll wait around until we're leaving the theater. One time—” He cleared his throat, then forced himself to be honest. “One woman actually found out where we were staying and walked up while I was having dinner. She, uh, made it pretty clear she wasn't wearing anything under her trench coat. Then she said she had a message for me. Drawn on her body with lipstick.”

Silence filled the car for several minutes, and he struggled for something to say. Screw honesty. He should have kept that last one to himself. “So, why don't we—”