I zipped my hoodie to block the chill. “‘That sort of stuff’ meaning grinding Nicole into the bed as if you were trying to fuck her clear through to the other side of the mattress ‘sort of stuff’? Yeah, that was beyond painful, fake or not.” A frustrated tear formed in the corner of my eye and I swiped it away quickly, hating that my lack of emotional control just flew out of my mouth.

Ryan stopped abruptly and spoke to Mike. “Can you give us a minute?”

“Sure.” Mike folded his arms across his chest and turned away to give us privacy.

Ryan pulled me off to the side behind some equipment. “Sweetheart, come on. I know it was hard for you to watch. God, I’d never do anything intentional to hurt you like that. I wish you’d realize that there is absolutely no reason for you to feel sad or threatened.”

“I know. I’m sorry, Ryan. I don’t mean to be . . . I’m trying. I really am.” I couldn’t stop the flood of emotion once the damn had been breached. I knew I was being irrational, but I was also willing to bet that most women would go a little crazy after watching their lover fake-fuck someone for several hours.

“You have no idea how hard that was for me. I wonder how you would feel if you had to watch me like that with another man.” I shrugged. “Maybe you’d understand then.”

The glare I received was deadly. “Since you’re not an actress, that scenario better never happen, or you and me . . . we’ll have serious problems.”

I knew I was potentially instigating an argument, but I didn’t care. “Why? Does the thought of seeing me being intimate with someone else make you jealous?”

Ryan’s nostrils flared, a telltale sign he was getting pissed-off, too.

“I’m trying to be confident and secure, Ryan, but it was a new experience and I can’t help but feel betrayed. I am not used to having to share my fiancé, fake or not. It was hard and I thought . . . ah, forget it.”

“Wait, what? How the hell did I betray you?”

I planted a foot. “You did the hand thing with her,” I growled.

“What?”

“When you were . . . you wove your fingers with hers and did the over-the-head thing. I thought . . . I know it sounds ridiculous, but I thought that was mine. Ours. I guess I was wrong.”

“What are you talking about?”

“With Nicole . . . you did the hand thing with her.” I raised my arm up over my head quickly to demonstrate. “I thought that was something you only did with me. When you make love to me, you always tie our hands together. I thought it was special. Mine. Sorry, but it hurts to find out it wasn’t.”

He looked at me like I had lost my mind. Maybe I had. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Forget it. I don’t expect you to understand.”

He groaned. I knew I was frustrating him but yeah well too bad. I had old wounds that left deep scars, too—reminding me never to be foolish with my heart again.

Ryan seized my arm when I tried to wave off the last five minutes. “You’re upset because of the way I held her hand?”

I tried to shrug it off. “Whatever. Apparently it doesn’t mean anything to you, but it meant a lot to me.

It’s like you make us one when we have sex. I thought it was special.” I bumped a small rock with my foot. “It’s not special anymore.”

Ryan cursed low. “Oh, babe. I’m sorry. I didn’t think of that. I didn’t realize.”

“Well, now you do,” I murmured.

He frowned at me. “Tar, despite what you think, it was physically and mentally painful for me to do that in front of you.”

I could hear the sincerity in his voice. I knew he really didn’t mean to hurt me.

“I saw the look on your face,” he went on, “and I thought to myself, what if this is the moment that breaks her. What if this is the thing that causes her to bolt. I know you keep thinking that I’m going to fall prey to the Hollywood cliché. That kissing some fucking actress is going to be the final straw that brings the house down. But babe, do you ever consider what I’m feeling? How fucking paranoid I am that the only woman I’ve ever loved is going to run screaming for the hills because of what I do for a living?”

I shook my head. “Never. You’re not the only one who pledged forever here, Ryan. I will keep on fighting for us no matter what.”

I looked him right in the eye, feeling like shit for not seeing his side. “Seeing you like that with someone else made me a little crazy. I think I can handle the kissing. Yeah, I’m pretty sure I can, just please give me a chance to get used to it and I . . . No, I’m positive I can deal with it, but the total nakedness and boob touching and the fake sex? I’m sorry but that—that was just too much for me.”

“I hated it, too.” He took a deep breath, and then nodded, seeming to make some silent decision.

“That’s why I wanted you there, Taryn. You know it’s fake because you watched it get set up.”

Ryan pulled me into his chest and rubbed his lips over my hair. “One good thing, though, is that I know you’re truly here for me. It just confirms how right this is.”

The tip of his nose brushed against mine as his hand threaded into my hair. Ryan kissed me softly—just a few feather-light touches, before nudging my lips apart with his tongue. I could feel both our desperation and our desire, fueled by the wetness of our mouths and the necessity to convey unspoken messages.

He bit my bottom lip gently, forcing us to stop, then rested his forehead on mine, calculating his next sentence while scanning my eyes for a reaction. “In there, in front of the camera, it means nothing. This, us, this is what’s real.”

“I know,” I whispered, drifting my hand across his shoulder.

“Do you remember when I told you about the girl I used to date, Brooke—the one who came to Maine when I was filming the first Seaside?”

I remembered. The girl he told me about who wanted his agent more than him.

“I was filming a scene where I had to kiss Suzanne and instead of Brooke getting jealous or mad she actually critiqued my performance.”

“So?”

“So . . . I’m wrapped so deep in you that something like how I held Nicole’s hand hurt you. I’ll never do that again now that I know. But I told you I would be envisioning making love to you to get into character.”

I closed my eyes and felt the softness of his face on mine. “It was very convincing.”

He nuzzled his face on my neck and I could feel his regret. It was almost tangible. “It was hard. She really did taste awful. Like, I don’t know. It was just bad.”

I noticed his hesitance, as if he were keeping something from me. “She’s lucky I didn’t kill her like I wanted to,” I said. “You’ll probably get her head cold now.”

Ryan rolled his eyes at me but offered no more on the distaste she left behind. “I really do like this jealous side of you. I have no doubt that your love for me is real.”

I clutched his arm harder. My love for him ran bone deep.

At the end of the week, we were back at the cavernous soundstage, my initiation into a higher level of trust with my fiancé behind us.

Ryan spun on one leg and kicked with deadly accuracy, planting a heavy black boot directly into the chest of the evil villain, Victor Mordorf, sending him hurling through the air. Stunt actor Timothy Hughes landed on his back; the specially designed dining table buckled underneath his crashing weight and folded in half. And then Jonathan yelled, “Cut!”

Next take, Ryan grabbed the front of Victor’s shirt, swinging several right-handed punches. I felt my breath hitch, my pulse quickened, as a twisted attraction in seeing my fiancé kick ass like some barbaric he-man sent intense arousal through my veins. The early morning weight training combined with his rock-climbing instruction was turning Ryan’s body into even more of a chiseled pack of muscle. And at this moment, that muscle looked very lethal—and sexy as hell.