Adored by You: A Sweet, Celebrity, Military Romance (San Diego Marines Book 7)

by Jess Mastorakos

  “Right,” he said, pulling back slightly. “Right, I’d need a place in LA. And a job.”

  “Yes, but I’ve got lots of contacts in lots of industries. Well, Molly does, anyway. We’ll find you something, I’m sure.” I paused, noticing the change in his eyes. “Noah, what’s wrong?”

  “I was thinking so much about not wanting to leave you that I didn’t stop to think about what it would mean to get out. I’d need a job. I have no idea what I’d want to do. I’ve only ever done this.”

  I frowned. “You don’t need to worry about that yet. It’s not like I’m going to charge you rent. Figure it out as you go.”

  He visibly recoiled at that idea, and my eyes widened. What in the world did he think he’d do if he turned down the orders? He hadn’t thought about it before he’d suggested it? I could see it all over his face that he didn’t want to live rent-free in my guest house. But what were his other options?

  “Maybe I should think about this a little more before I decide anything,” he said, finally. “I might have jumped the gun with this. It’s a lot to take in.”

  “Noah, I respect that you want to think about it. But listen, I know you. I know you care about financial security, not wealth that could disappear in an instant. I get it. But this is a legitimate career. It’s not a flash in the pan. And I have the kind of savings account that could support us for life. We don’t need to worry about money.”

  He lifted a brow and took a step back. “No, you don’t need to worry about money.”

  “Noah.”

  “I’m serious. I have a decent savings account because I don’t spend my money on frivolous stuff like fancy clothes or dinners or vacations. I’m secure with how I’m living right now. But that doesn’t mean I’m comfortable with pinning my future on your bank account.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Ouch.”

  “I’m sorry, but it’s true. We are in two different places financially.”

  “And you can’t stand the idea of letting a woman support you?”

  He crossed his arms over his chest, standing firm. “It has nothing to do with you being a woman. If I were a girl who’d had my same parents, after everything they did, I’d like to think I would have wound up being an independent chick. You know, the kind who wouldn’t want a man to take care of her financially, either.”

  I snorted. “Okay.”

  “I’m serious, Paige. I’m proud of you. I think it’s great that you’ve done so well for yourself, and I hope it continues for you. But I’m not planning to live off of it.”

  “But you’ll let me take you and all of your friends on a Friendsgiving trip to Hawaii?”

  “That’s different. I’m not saying your money is dirty and I wouldn’t accept it if you wanted to let me share in your lifestyle. I’m just saying I want to pull my own weight and know that if something happened between us, I had my own way of coming back from it.”

  His words hit me like a slap. “So, now you’re planning on us not working out? Wow. I mean, come on—this thing between us is ten years in the making, going back to when we first got together. If you didn’t think it was forever, why did you start it back up again? We could have just faked this thing to get the part and then went our separate ways, you know?”

  “Paige,” Molly yelled, rushing up to us with her phone in hand, “I’m so sorry, but have you seen this?”

  I snatched the phone out of her hand with maybe more aggression than necessary, then nearly dropped it right in the sand when I saw what was on the screen. The headline read, “Paige and Chase Get Cozy While Her High School Sweetheart Waits Outside.”

  Underneath the headline was a photo taken from outside the window at Chase’s house. It had been taken the moment Chase pulled me into that uncomfortable hug, which I’d actually had a hard time breaking out of. There was a smaller photo next to it of Noah leaning casually on his bike in the driveway, scrolling on his phone.

  I moved to the text of the article, gasping as I read. They knew who Noah was to me and about his parents. They knew details of our relationship … all of which I’d shared with Chase many years ago, back when we’d started dating the first time and were really happy together. I’d trusted him with my heart and the secrets of my past, not knowing the way he’d change after he got enough fame.

  The article claimed that Noah had joined the Marines out of shame after his parents went to jail and that he was only back in my life because they were about to get out and he wanted a piece of my fortune. My mouth hung open when I got to that part, looking up at Noah, who had pulled up the article on his own phone.

  I looked back down and kept reading. The article quoted Chase as saying that he was happy I’d seen the error of my ways in cheating on him with Noah now that I knew what he was really up to. Chase took credit for letting me in on Noah’s scheme, but seriously? How would Chase even know if that were Noah’s plan? He didn’t know Noah at all. And I would never believe him if he told me something like that. What a moron.

  I was ready to stop reading and focus on apologizing to Noah for telling Chase about our past. I skimmed the rest of Chase’s lies, and then the next part of the story made hot tears shoot to my eyes. Chase claimed that I was grateful to him for telling me the truth about Noah, but I just needed to fake it with the Marine for a little while longer so I could get the part in Sandra McCarthy’s movie.

  I looked up at Noah again, this time finding him staring back at me with more intensity than I’d ever seen in his eyes.

  “Noah,” I said, my voice shaking, “this isn’t true.”

  He looked down at the photo, then back up at me, then back down at the photo again.

  “Noah,” I said again, “trust me, it’s not what it looks like.”

  “It looks pretty clear to me,” he said quietly.

  “He just hugged me, that’s it. I swear. I didn’t even want him to hug me.”

  Noah sighed deeply, then put his phone away. “I think I just need some time with all of this. Okay? Between this and the money thing, I think I just need a minute. I think I jumped the gun with more than just getting out. I’m not sure if any of this was a good idea.”

  “Don’t say that,” I said, reaching for him.

  He backed up, holding out his hands. “Just give me a minute, okay?”

  “Okay,” I replied shakily, swiping at the tears that were now streaming down my face, “yeah, take your time.”

  Without another word, he stalked off toward his cottage, leaving me on the beach.

  “Paige?” Molly asked tentatively, reaching out her hand. “Can I help? What can I do?”

  “Get Chase on the phone for me, please.”

  20

  Noah

  The next morning, I stood on the patio of my cottage, arms crossed, staring out at the ocean beyond our grassy lawn. Sure, maybe I didn’t know where I stood with Paige after everything that went down last night, but then I saw Finn running up to his grandma and grandpa as they arrived for the O’Malley wedding, along with Rachel’s parents. Paige had flown them to Hawaii because the bride- and groom-to-be said they wouldn’t get married without their parents being there.

  My stomach turned at the idea of Paige selflessly taking action to make that happen for them. How could she do things like that and also be the kind of person that article made her out to be? The two sides of her were miles apart. But isn’t that what fame and money did to people? It changed them. It made them willing to do all kinds of things they otherwise wouldn’t do. That must have been what happened to Paige over the last eight years.

  O’Malley took his parents and future in-laws into his cottage, so I shook my head and went back into mine to shower. Today was supposed to be a beach day for our group. Originally, we’d planned to go to the beach on base to hang out with Paige’s director’s son and his friends. At the last minute, Paige suggested we invite them here for a buffet-style luncheon in our private section of the resort. It was easier to manage the paparazzi when we were in
a controlled environment and Paige wasn’t in the mood for a big crowd.

  Molly had asked for a list of people coming to make sure they got through security, and that was when we realized that Brooks actually knew one of the guys from warrant officer school. This surprised Molly and Paige, but those of us in the military community weren’t shocked at all. The Marine Corps was the smallest world ever and we constantly ran into people we’d met along the way.

  Paige might not have been in the mood for a crowd of strangers, but I wasn’t even in the mood to hang out with all of our friends. I couldn’t exactly throw a fit and cancel on them, though, since Brooks knew one of them and was excited to see him. Shoot, I wouldn’t do that anyway, even if Brooks didn’t know one of them. This whole thing proved how small the Marine Corps was, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I wound up working with one of these guys someday. Didn’t want to burn bridges before I knew where they led.

  The guys arrived a couple of hours later and freaked out when they saw the place. The group was led by the director’s son, Sergeant Ethan “Mac” McCarthy. He brought his roommate, Roman Russo, along with Tyler Stone, who was the guy Brooks went to warrant officer school with, and Stone’s brother Ben Stone, who went by “Ice” for reasons I didn’t bother to ask.

  I wasn’t ready for my friends to know about the trouble in paradise between me and Paige, so I put on my own Emmy-winning performance of acting totally normal in front of the group. It was painful, but it would have been worse to talk about it.

  Molly had a catered lunch brought to the buffet tables on the lawn, but Paige was nowhere to be found for the first hour. When she finally did show up, she took my lead and also played it cool. But I could see in her eyes that she knew better than to lay it on thick. I wasn’t ready for her to touch me or kiss me or any other cute couple-y thing that we’d probably be doing if it weren’t for last night.

  My skin burned at just the thought of it, knowing how much I loved her and how unsure I was that she loved me too. How would I even know? She was an award-winning actress, for Pete’s sake. And that picture in the article looked pretty clear to me. I’d seen her in Chase’s arms more times than I could count, thanks to a decade of on-and-off romance between them on Young, MD. They made a pretty convincing pair.

  “I’m telling you, Brooks. Put in for Hawaii as soon as you can. The base is unbelievable,” Stone said. “Well, actually, the base is just a base. But it’s in Hawaii. And the beach is walking distance from my shop.”

  Brooks slung an arm around Cat as we stood around eating Hawaiian food on small plates in the grass. “What do you think, sweetheart? Wanna move to an island in the Pacific?”

  “Um, in a heartbeat. This place is beautiful,” Cat replied with a laugh, putting a hand on her belly. “And I would love to take him or her to the beach all the time.”

  “You don’t know what you’re having yet?” Stone asked them.

  “We want to be surprised,” Brooks replied, smiling lovingly at his wife. “Only a couple more months and we’ll find out.”

  I took a bite of the shrimp taco in my hand and shook my head, though I didn’t say anything judgmental out loud. I couldn’t imagine wanting to be surprised about whether I was having a boy or a girl. The whole idea of being a dad sounded like it would be so full of the unknown, not being able to name the kid or picture them growing up just made it even more terrifying to me. But it wasn’t my baby. And I was even further from thinking about kids today than I had been yesterday, that was for sure. Boy or girl, would I even want to raise a kid in Paige’s world?

  As if she could tell I was thinking about her, Paige walked up to us from the buffet line, followed by the director’s son and his roommate, all with plates of food in hand.

  “How do you guys like North Carolina?” the roommate, Russo, asked.

  “I miss my buddies in the shop,” Brooks said. “But I’d feel that way even if we were still in San Diego. Warrant officer life is just different. Everyone acts all jumpy around me.”

  “I’ve noticed the same,” Stone added. “I miss being just one of the guys.”

  Russo laughed. “Oh, please. With all due respect, sir, you should take Warrant Officer Brooks and his wife to the officer’s club on base and cry about how much you guys miss being on the enlisted side. I’m sure you’ll forget all about it in no time with that ocean view.”

  Stone put a hand on Russo’s shoulder. “See, that’s where you’ve got it wrong, Sergeant Russo. When you live in Hawaii, there’s an ocean view from the playground. You enlisted guys don’t have it that bad, either.”

  “Touché,” Mac said, pointing at his roommate. “We’re happy to be here, even living in the barracks.”

  “Amen, brother,” Russo replied.

  Molly walked up then, and I couldn’t help but notice the way Russo did a double take when he saw her. My eyes traveled between them as they looked at each other, still quietly eating my shrimp taco, not in the mood to socialize, but the look they shared was impossible to miss. Molly shook her head, then proceeded to whisper something in Paige’s ear.

  “Excuse us,” Paige said to the group as she and Molly turned to leave.

  Russo’s gaze followed them until they were out of sight, then he turned back to the group and his eyes landed on mine, looking right back at him.

  He blushed, busted for checking Molly out. He leaned over and lowered his voice so the others wouldn’t hear as they moved on to another topic. “Is she single?”

  I shook my head, sizing him up. “Nope.”

  Even though things might not work out between me and Paige, Molly was her best friend. I felt an odd sense of protectiveness of her. I’d only known her for a short time, but still. It must be because I knew she always looked out for Paige and had her best interests in mind, so I wanted to return the favor—not that I should care, considering Paige was apparently not who I thought she was.

  All of that being said, so far I had to admit that I liked what I saw of Russo and the director’s son, Mac. They were both cool from the vibe they gave off. Russo seemed confident but not cocky, direct but not a jerk, and smart but not socially awkward. If we ever wound up working together in the fleet, they both seemed like good dudes to work with.

  “Shame,” Russo replied under his breath. “She’s gorgeous.”

  He wasn’t wrong, Molly was really pretty. But she was engaged to be married in January, so I didn’t want him to get his hopes up. “Sorry, man.”

  Mac bumped his roomie’s elbow, also speaking quietly. “It’s probably for the best, man. She’s part of their world.”

  I raised a brow. “Whose world?”

  “You know … Hollywood. My mom being a director all my life means I’ve dated my fair share of industry girls. Lemme tell you, they’re all the same. They want one thing and one thing only—fame. That one perfect role. And they’ll do anything to get it. They can’t be trusted.”

  My veins filled with ice as my body went cold. How had I let myself get into this mess?

  Russo rolled his eyes. “Do you need a forklift for all of that baggage?”

  Murphy and Ivy walked up, and the conversation quickly turned into a battle about which state was better, California or Texas. Coming from Arizona, I felt like they were both annoying for many reasons, and many of California’s residents moved to Arizona to escape those annoying things. Not Texans, though. Texans were obviously superior.

  But again, I took a bite of my taco and chewed instead of participating in the discussion. I was in a bad mood and whatever I said would probably come out insulting.

  I glanced around the spacious, palm-tree-lined area at my friends. Everyone was talking and laughing as they finished up their lunches in small groups. Finn was running away from Amelia and little Maria Moore, who was about the same age as Amelia. Despite everything, I smiled when he let the girls catch him and they all fell to the grass, the toddlers collapsing on top of him in a heap of brunette curls and giggles.

  I
looked up, my eyes landing on Paige’s from across the lawn. She had also been watching the scene and her laughing reaction to the sweet moment was still evident on her face. Slowly, her smile faded as her eyes stayed locked on mine. I searched her expression for any sort of guilt or the entitlement that I expected to see from someone who’d just gotten caught cheating. All I saw was pain. Was she hurting because she’d been caught or because she was innocent?

  Molly announced that they were going to wrap up the lunch and that everyone could head down to the beach, where they’d find chairs, towels, sun-shades for the kids, and snorkeling equipment. As usual, Paige had spared no expense in giving my friends a great experience, and it was a genuine smile that spread over my face as the crowd excitedly made their way down the path that led to the beach.

  Paige and I were the last ones standing on the lawn as everyone else wandered toward the fun, and she inched closer to me. I steeled myself, not ready to talk about everything yet. Instead of going to sleep the night before, I’d done what was probably the worst thing I could have done.

  I’d gone to the internet and read everything people were saying about us. I saw the judgment about my parents. The distrust people had for me, thinking I would really try to be with Paige just to get some of her money for my parents. Lumping me in with them like I was the third-leg of their gold-digging tri-pod? It made me sick just thinking about it.

  Then, the notion that Chase was the one who figured out my scheme made it even worse. Paige’s fans praised him as if he were her knight in shining armor while I was this money-hungry scoundrel who needed to go back to the trenches where I belonged. The military references to being a grunt running around in the desert instead of a paper pusher in the air wing had been the icing on the cake. The truth was so far from what I’d seen right there in black-and-white, it wasn’t even funny. And yet, perception became reality as far as the world was concerned. And I hated it.