“I’m not sure if I should be insulted you just called me evil in a roundabout way or if I should be happy you find me not repulsive to look at,” he said in a deadpan tone.

  “You should be both. Since they’re kind of like opposites, they’ll cancel each other out and you’ll be in the same spot you are now.”

  He chuckled. “That’s some impressive reasoning.”

  “Nah. It’s a side benefit of having a family in politics.”

  “I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing,” he said, and she couldn’t help but notice how serious he sounded.

  “It’s neither. It’s just how it is.”

  Neither of them spoke again until they were about ten miles from the children’s home.

  “I propose we move forward with your plan,” Terrence said, looking at the road in front of them and not glancing her way the tiniest bit. “We’ll arrive back on the island tonight claiming how much we enjoyed being together and working side-by-side today. That we saw each other in a different light and something just clicked.”

  She supposed it would be nothing for him to play his part. He was an actor after all. He did stuff like this for a living. She only hoped she could pull it off as well.

  Chapter 13

  Terrence

  He was a manipulating asshole and he knew it. He just didn’t care.

  Terrence couldn’t believe how easy it had been for Ronnie to come up with her plan and claim it as her own. He’d been worried that he’d have to leave such a long trail of breadcrumbs there would be no denying the fact that acting as if they were seeing each other was his idea.

  They’d had a productive day at the children’s home. Ronnie confessed during a quick break they managed that she’d feared the day would be chaotic since he was a celebrity. Fortunately, the young couple, the Burkes, who had taken over from Fulton’s grandparents had everything under control.

  Terrence discovered he remembered a lot more about piano than he’d expected and had no trouble keeping up with the handful of middle and high school students who requested accompaniment for the talent show.

  After everyone felt comfortable with their routine and while he waited for Ronnie to finish up with the dancers, he started playing random song snippets that came to his head. Pretty soon, he’d shocked everyone with his ability to sing.

  “I thought you only acted,” one of the younger boys, Jax, said. Terrence put him at around eight years old.

  “I can do a lot of different things, just like you and anyone else,” Terrence replied. “Acting is only one of them.”

  “Can you dance?” a female voice he didn’t recognize asked, and he looked up to see Ronnie had returned with the girls she’d been working with.

  “I can,” he replied to the young teenager. “But I don’t enjoy it.”

  “You should dance with Ms. Veronica,” Jax said. “She’s pretty. I bet you’d like dancing if you danced with her.”

  Terrence did his best not to look at Ronnie when he answered. “You’re probably right, but Ms. Veronica has been dancing for hours. I’m sure she’s tired and doesn’t feel like dancing anymore.”

  “Why don’t you ask her instead of making assumptions about how you think she’ll reply?” Ronnie said, walking his way with a sultry smile. Any other time, he would have welcomed such an action, but at the moment, it left him confused.

  “Think about it,” Ronnie whispered in a voice so low no one could hear except him. She’d made her way to where he stood and placed a hand on his shoulder. “The Burkes are watching. If they see us dancing, they’ll tell Andie and Fulton, and that’ll only make our story more believable.”

  Of course the kids watching had no idea what she was saying, they only saw her actions, and they responded in kind with whistles and catcalls.

  Ronnie raised her voice when she spoke again. “Or maybe you’re lying. Yes, I bet that’s it. You’re lying and you really can’t dance at all.”

  All the kids booed.

  “Okay. Okay.” Terrence grinned. This was his element, putting on a show in front of a crowd. But was this an act? He didn’t want to address that question yet, so he pushed it aside for the moment. Clearly, Ronnie had a theatrical element to her as well, and that only made her more attractive. “I suppose I have no option other than to prove to everyone that I can dance.”

  “I’ll get us some music going.” Ronnie pulled out her phone. “What dance should we do?”

  He thought it was interesting she asked about the dance he wanted to do and not the music he wanted to dance to. She waited with the phone in her hands, fingers ready to type and search for his reply.

  Instead of giving her one, he shot her a grin. “Ladies’ choice. You decide.”

  “Ladies’ choice?” She raised an eyebrow. “If that’s the case, what if I told you that my choice was for you to decide?” He could almost hear her unspoken taunt. Check.

  He almost laughed, but caught himself. She wanted to play? He’d play. “Then I would reply that I didn’t take you to be the type of woman unable to make up her mind about what she wanted.” He ended the sentence with his own raised eyebrow. Checkmate.

  Just as he expected, she refused to end the game, but rather increased the stakes. He caught a mischievous gleam in her eye seconds before she dropped her gaze to her phone and, with fingers flying, selected something.

  He glanced at her in confusion when the sound of classical music played by an orchestra filled the room. “A waltz?”

  Several of the teenaged girls oohed.

  “Do you not waltz, Mr. Knight?” she asked.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Ms. Fair.” He held out his hand to her. “I’m only surprised that you know how.”

  She took the offered hand and allowed herself to be led to the middle of the room. The kids settled themselves in a circle around the two of them. Terrence looked up and saw the Burkes watching with unabashed interest. It appeared Ronnie had been correct. The only question remaining was how quickly news of their dance would make it back to the island where at least Andie waited impatiently to hear how the day went.

  Ronnie scoffed at his remark. “You obviously weren’t in the room the day I told Andie how I was fortunate enough to have two debutante balls to attend.”

  “Those are still a thing?”

  She laughed. “That’s the same reply she had.”

  They moved into position, and as soon as they took the first step, her laughter stopped. Terrence smiled at the look of astonishment in her eyes. “What’s the look for?”

  “You really can waltz,” she said as if it was the most impossible thing in the world. “You know the steps. You aren’t just making stuff up.”

  “You doubted me?” he asked in mocked outrage.

  “Of course I did.”

  “So you asking me to waltz was you calling my bluff?”

  Her cheeks flushed. “Something like that.”

  “You’re playing with fire, Ms. Fair. You better watch out or else you’ll wind up getting burned.”

  She didn’t say anything in response to that, and for a few moments it seemed as if everything faded away except for the two of them. Terrence gave silent thanks to the historical movie he’d made years ago that required him to learn the waltz.

  It had been boring as hell at the time, and his dance partner had smoked what smelled like three packs a day instead of eating. Not to mention, she couldn’t go more than two seconds without stepping on his toes.

  Dancing with Ronnie was the exact opposite of that experience. She smelled like cinnamon and sunshine, and she’d yet to step on his feet. It was easy to picture her as she was five years ago, not far removed from the debutante who no doubt hated every moment of her two balls. He wondered who she’d danced with. Would it have been only her father, or some teenaged boy who, without question, had been vetted as an appropriate escort for Senator Lewis’s only daughter? Had she fit as comfortably in that teenager’s arms as she did in his?

  He wasn’t prepared for the rush of rage that swept over him at the thought of Ronnie being in the arms of someone else.

  Down boy, he told himself. You don’t have a hold on her now. You certainly didn’t then.

  He didn’t think he’d have minded learning to waltz if Ronnie had been his partner all those years ago.

  But of course she couldn’t have been. She’d have been too young.

  He shoved that thought aside, not wanting to visit that particular memory at the moment. Instead, he was getting ready to ask if she’d had the opportunity to waltz since her debutante days when the music was interrupted by what had to be a ringtone of sorts.

  “That’s Andie’s ringtone. I have to get that.” Ronnie pulled away and walked to the table where she’d left her phone.

  No one in the room made a sound when she answered.

  “Hey,” Ronnie said in greeting. “What’s up?”

  There was a silence as she listened, and her face broke out into a grin when she replied. “Yes, it’s been a very productive day. For both of us. We were just getting ready to leave.”

  Ronnie listened again, and he guessed Andie said something about him. Or at least he supposed that was why Ronnie looked his way and said, “Sure,” to something Andie said.

  “Is everything okay?” he asked when she disconnected.

  “Yes,” Ronnie replied. “She’s going to text me a list of things she needs us to stop by and pick up at Winnie’s place. She said you knew how to get there and to let you know she’d called you first but you weren’t answering your phone.”

  “Damn it.” Terrence pulled his phone out of his pocket and winced at the two missed calls. “I turned the ringer off when I started playing piano.”

  “You know where Winnie’s place is?” she asked.

  “Yes.” It’d been at least a year, maybe two, since he’d been to Winnie’s place, but it was easy to get to and he remembered the way. “But if we want to stand a chance of getting back to the island tonight, we need to wrap things up here.”

  “The girls and I have finished. Are we coming back next weekend?”

  Terrence nodded. “That’s my understanding.”

  * * *

  It took longer than Terrence had anticipated to say goodbye to all the kids and confirm the next weekend with the Burkes. He glanced at the time when he started the car and had to refrain from gnashing his teeth together. With every passing second, it became less and less likely that he and Ronnie would be able to get a boat to the island tonight.

  He knew they wouldn’t be able to call for an academy boat. There were strict rules regarding their operation, and the main one concerned times of operation. It had been put into place about three years ago when a group of students thought it’d be fun to go night sailing.

  It shouldn’t be a problem to find someone else unaffiliated with the academy and willing to take them over to the island as long as they were able to find what they needed to at Winnie’s in a reasonable amount of time. But they were pushing it, and he’d be lying to say he didn’t feel uneasy about the entire situation.

  “Who’s Winnie?” Ronnie asked.

  From the way she acted, he assumed she had no clue about how close she was to spending the night on the mainland. He wasn’t going to tell her either. He’d let the night play out and see how things went.

  “You haven’t heard about Winnie?” he asked in reply to her question.

  “No.”

  “Ah.” He smiled. “Winnie was Mariela’s best friend. She was also Lennox’s submissive. She died in a car accident years and years ago.”

  “That sounds… interesting.”

  “Doesn’t it though?” He kept his eyes on the road. “The short of it is, she died in a car accident, and Lennox felt as if it was his fault. That’s why he built the academy. He went years not allowing himself to be a Dom. Marie managed to drag him into the light, and now they’re married.”

  “Wow.”

  He couldn’t help but chuckle. “Right? Anyway, Winnie was a local painter, and she fixed up a beach house to use as a studio and retreat for when she wanted to get away from everything. She left it to Lennox, and he and Mariela turned it into a community arts center.”

  There was a comfortable silence as Ronnie let the story sink in.

  “What a sweet way to remember her,” she finally said. “I wonder what Andie could possibly need for us to pick up at an arts center though.”

  “She hasn’t sent you the list yet?”

  “No.” Ronnie picked up her phone and checked. “Not yet.”

  “We’re not far. Maybe you’ll have it by the time we get there.”

  But he had a sinking suspicion she wouldn’t.

  Chapter 14

  Veronica

  Veronica still hadn’t received a text from Andie by the time they made it to the cute oceanfront arts center/house. When they pulled into the drive, it appeared as if an animal—raccoons, Terrence believed—had somehow gotten into the garbage cans and made a mess of the front yard. He’d given her the keys and told her to go inside and call Andie while he cleaned up.

  Her phone call hadn’t taken very long at all, and when it was over, Terrence hadn’t finished with the outside. She wanted to see the rest of the house before they left. It wasn’t a large property; there was no way to get lost.

  She peeked into the rooms downstairs first. There were two large rooms she assumed had been bedrooms at one point in time but now seemed to be set up as multipurpose rooms. In the back of the house, she found an actual bedroom and full bathroom, though the bedroom was smaller than the other two. She couldn’t help but wonder who it belonged to. A small kitchen and a good-sized living room completed the downstairs level.

  There was one set of stairs in the two-story house. She climbed up to the second level, expecting to find more multipurpose rooms. But that wasn’t the case. Standing at the top, she knew she’d stepped into Winnie’s old studio.

  She walked across the huge room to the far side where tall windows overlooked the ocean. It wasn’t full dark yet, but it was slowly approaching. There was enough faint light outside to allow her to see the edge of the beach where the sand and water met. The stretch visible from the window was empty, though she suspected the area was never overrun with visitors. Even in the near dark, she could imagine the delight a painter would feel working in such a space.

  “What are you doing up here in the dark?”

  She jumped at the sound of Terrence’s voice and looked around, not realizing how dark it’d gotten. How long had she been up there?

  “Sorry,” he said, turning on a nearby lamp. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

  She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the low light. “No big deal. I was just admiring the view and lost track of time.”

  With the lamp on, it was impossible to make out the ocean anymore, but it did illuminate the room.

  “This is an incredible studio.” Terrence gazed around. “I knew it was up here, but this is the first time I’ve seen it.”

  “I thought you’d been here before.” Wasn’t that what Andie had said? Or had she only indicated he knew how to get here?

  “A few times, yes. But just the downstairs rooms. Lennox limits the people allowed up here.”

  “I didn’t realize,” she said, feeling bad that she’d walked around like she owned the place. “We can go back downstairs.”

  “No rush. We’re responsible adults, and we’re from the academy. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”

  She still felt uneasy in a space she knew was typically restricted. “I’d feel better downstairs.”

  “After you.” He held a hand out toward the staircase. “Did you find what Andie needed us to pick up?”

  “Not exactly.” She walked past him and made her way to the first floor.

  He followed her into the kitchen. “What does that mean?”

  “She told me that we didn’t need to pick anything up because she found what she thought she’d left here in the lighthouse.”

  “Run that by me again.”

  “She found what she was looking for in the lighthouse.”

  A table just big enough for two people sat in one corner of the kitchen. Terrence pulled out one of the chairs and indicated for her to sit down.

  It wasn’t until he’d taken his own seat with a heavy sigh that she realized how late it must be. Yet he didn’t act as if he was in any hurry to head to the dock before it was too late.

  “We should probably leave, don’t you think?” She pushed her chair away from the table. “We need to get on the road if there’s any chance of us making it back to the island tonight.” He leveled his gaze at her, and she sat back down heavily as the truth of the situation hit her. “It’s already too late, isn’t it?” But of course it was. Hadn’t she been told on her first day on the island that academy boats didn’t run after dark and that it would probably be difficult to find someone willing to make the trip at that point? “Damn,” she said before he could answer.

  “It’s so dark now the probability of finding someone both willing and able to make the trip is nearly nonexistent. I suppose we could rent a boat and make the journey ourselves. I know how to operate a boat. I’ve even made the trip from the mainland to the island and back again a time or two. But only ever in daylight.” He shook his head. “I doubt I should attempt doing it in the dark.”

  In other words, they were stuck on the mainland together for the night.

  She supposed she’d known that if she were being truthful. “All things considered, it could be a lot worse. At least we have a comfortable place to stay. First thing in the morning, we can head back to the island.” She didn’t mention the fact there was only one bed in the house. It wasn’t as if he could change anything, and besides, it’d only be for one night.