Page 60 of A Star is Scorned

When they pulled up to the shabby little apartment, Judy idled in the driveway. “Go ahead,” the kid said. “I just need to find something.”

Livvy opened her door and climbed out, and Flynn followed swiftly behind her, Rallo springing out after him. They’d have to call Lionel to come pick up the rascally primate. But no sooner was Flynn standing in the gravel driveway than Judy started to back up.

“Where are you going?” Livvy called.

“Need something at the store. I forgot!” Judy smiled and whipped the car around, peeling off with the urgency of someone who had intentions other than merely running an errand.

“Subtle,” Flynn chortled.

Livvy removed her wimple, loosing her raven-black curls, and Flynn was momentarily breathless at the way the sunlight caught her hair. “I’m sorry about her. She has a silly idea that this was going to have a romantic conclusion.”

Flynn tilted his head but didn’t speak. Livvy seemed so unsure of herself. It was cute, really. Would’ve been cuter if his heart wasn’t beating out of his chest.

“Want to go inside?” “Shall we take a walk?” they asked at the same time.

“We can go inside if you’d like,” Flynn told her. He didn’t know how to play this. He’d never done it before. Except on-screen. And that usually involved a cutlass.

Livvy gave him a warm but timid smile. “No, some fresh air would be nice. Let me just get out of this thing.” She gestured at her habit.

“I don’t know, I think it’s sexy,” he teased.

She blushed deeply. “I wasn’t aware you had a thing for convent girls.”

Flynn took a mock stern pose, his hands on his hips, and stuck out his hand, pretending to admonish her. “‘Get thee to a nunnery!’”

She stuck her tongue out at him. “I’d stick to swashbuckling. Shakespeare’s not for you.” She opened her front door and Rallo scampered in ahead of her. “I’ll be right back.”

Flynn waited for her to return for what seemed like an eternity, running through a litany of speeches in his head.

Trying to find the words to tell her how he felt.

They all sounded trite and silly. He had hoped that agreeing to marry Rhonda Powers would have given some indication of the depth of his love for Livvy.

But she seemed frightened, embarrassed almost.

She appeared back in the doorway, wearing a long-sleeved, two-toned knit sweater and a gray pencil skirt. “Okay, all set.”

“You’re right.” He smiled. “You do look better without the habit.”

She smiled. “Do you think Rallo will be okay alone in there? He curled up on a throw pillow and went right to sleep.”

Flynn chuckled. “He’s had a busy morning. Let him rest. Shall we?” When he proffered his arm, she shut the door behind her and skipped down the steps to take it, though she kept a comfortable bit of distance between their bodies. Why was she being so skittish?

“The pool and the gardens are that way,” she said. “They’re not much. But it’s better than walking through the rows of houses.”

He set off in the direction she had pointed out, and they walked companionably in silence for a moment. But soon he couldn’t bear the quiet. “You caused quite the stir today.”

She blushed. Damn it, this was a terrible start. “I’m sorry. I didn’t intend to. I was simply supposed to object and accuse Rhonda of abandoning her baby at the convent. So you wouldn’t have to marry her. I didn’t mean to turn the whole thing into a circus.”

He grinned. “Oh, I quite enjoyed it.”

She stopped cold. “Really? It was a madhouse. Rallo bit off a man’s finger!”

“Yes, I shall have to buy him plenty of bananas to thank him for that.”

Her face bloomed into an even wider smile, and she shook her head. “Oh, you’re terrible.”

“What? Devlin deserved it. They should give Rallo the medal of honor.”

“He’d probably try to eat it.”

“Probably. Maybe they should give you a reward instead.”

“Pfft, for what? Causing a scene at the wedding of one of Hollywood’s most famous bachelors?

” She dropped his arm and walked away from him then, wrapping her arms around herself as if she was cold, even though it was comfortably warm in the sunshine.

“At least you’re free now. I couldn’t let you marry that woman.

Not once Dash told me why you’d agreed to do it. ”

He didn’t understand. He thought she’d come today to win him back. To tell him she loved him and wanted to ride off into the sunset. But she was closing herself off, withdrawing. He went up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders.

“Don’t beat yourself up, Livvy. So things went a little haywire. The important thing is I’m not married to Rhonda Powers, and we exposed Stanley Devlin for the hypocritical bastard he is.”

She whirled to face him. “Don’t you think he’ll make it worse for us now?”

Flynn shrugged. “He’ll try. But Walter’s a good man. He’ll print the truth. And I’ll tell him as much or as little of it as Judy and you are comfortable with me sharing.”

Livvy ran her fingers through her hair in nervous exasperation. “Why would you agree to such a thing in the first place? I would have handled it.”

He took her hand and tangled his fingers with hers. At first, she seemed reticent. Surprised, even. But then she clasped his hand tightly and a burst of affection swirled in his chest.

He lifted their hands to his mouth and kissed the top of hers. “That’s exactly why. You’ve been handling things for you and Judy for so long, I thought it was high time someone took the burden off of you.”

“Even if it would make you miserable?”

He nodded and met her gaze, her eyes searching his for something. What, he didn’t know. “You were right when you said I’d built myself a pleasure palace, determined not to let anything unpleasant or messy into my life.”

She broke away from him and buried her face in her hands. “No, I wasn’t. I’m sorry. I should never have said those things. It was cruel and uncalled for. It was you who was right. This whole time, Judy’s been yearning for me to stop holding on so tight, to be her sister, not her mother.”

He approached Livvy once more and wrapped his hands around her waist. She tensed at the feel of it, but as he lay his head on her shoulder, she sighed gently and relaxed back in to him. “So, we were both right then. Maybe we weren’t the nicest in how we told each other. But we weren’t wrong.”

She nodded and slid her hand back down to his, pulling him along to continue their walk.

He took a breath. “Until I met you, Livvy, I was still a scared little boy. Rebelling against my father, missing my mother. Wanting to live a life with no stakes, so that no one could ever hurt me. But you taught me that’s not possible.

You fenced your way into my heart when I wasn’t looking—and you’re the one who got hurt.

All I did in agreeing to marry Rhonda was try to balance the scales.

To take on some of that weight you’ve carried alone for so long. ”

She shot him a pained look of surprise, and he worried he’d somehow said the wrong thing.

They had come to the pool area now. The tile around the edges was chipped and the water was murky, a sickening green color.

But the area was peaceful and quiet, surrounded by a ring of palm trees that stood silent sentry over the watery playground.

He opened the wrought-iron gate and pulled her through with him, taking her in his arms. She made a little oomph sound as he caught her and held her close, kissing the top of her head.

“Flynn, you don’t have to—”

“Hush.” He reached up and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. “None of this is because I have to. It’s because I want to. You taught me there’s joy in responsibility, in taking on the burdens of others.”

She pressed her face into his chest, and he squeezed her tightly. He could feel his shirt turning damp from her tears. He realized he was still wearing his tux and felt utterly ridiculous. But Livvy didn’t seem to mind as she practically blew her nose into the ruffles of his crisp white shirt.

It should have been disgusting, but he found it adorable. God, he really was gone for her.

He rubbed her back and let her finish crying.

When she had, Livvy leaned back and looked up at him.

“And you taught me that I don’t always have to take on that burden.

That I should share it with others. That I should allow myself a full life, with joy and sorrow.

Whatever comes. That taking on the weight of the world for the ones I love is not living, it’s burying myself alive. ”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “It seems we’ve both learned valuable lessons from each other. Well, and my mother turned up to knock some sense into me.”

The mention of his mother made her suddenly seem to remember herself, and she broke away.

“We have learned a lot from each other.” She nervously smoothed the twill of her skirt.

“And I want you to know that I don’t expect more from you than that.

” She turned away and studied the pool, its water rippling in the winter wind.

“Whatever Judy was trying to set up here, I didn’t… I don’t expect—”

He came around in front of her and set his hands on her shoulders, looking her hard in the face. Enough of this hinting at it, of this cataloging the ways she’d made his life better.

“Livvy, are you telling me you don’t love me?” He stared at her, refusing to break away. “That you did everything today out of some sense of duty?”

She bit her lip. “All I knew was you couldn’t marry her. Not for my sake. I—”

“You swashbuckled for me.” He smiled at that, remembering the glorious sight of her swinging down from that pulpit to the ground while he attempted to free himself from the morass of Rhonda’s skirts.

He hadn’t known then it was Livvy. But he had thought to himself that the nun, whoever she was, was quite spectacular.

She looked down, a shy smile on her face. “I hadn’t intended to.”

He gently nudged her chin up to look at him. “But you did. And it was the most impressive thing I’ve ever witnessed.” Her eyebrows went up in disbelief. “So, I ask you again, Olivia Blount, do you love me or not?”

She nodded, one timid little tilt of her head, as if she were scared to admit it. It was all he needed, and he pressed his face to hers, kissing her more forcefully than he ever had. He broke away and pressed his cheek to hers.

“That’s good. Because I love you Olivia Blount, Liv de Lesseps, my Livvy.

Whatever you choose for me to call you, I love you.

” He pulled back so he could look at her.

“I think I’ve loved you from the moment you pretended to have no idea who I was.

Certainly since I watched you eat an enchilada like you’d discovered nirvana.

When I realized that it was you swinging from that pulpit like a Valkyrie ready to ride into Valhalla, I knew any future without you would be a half-life. ”

Livvy’s eyes were watery with tears. She reached out and drew his head down to her mouth, pressing a gentle kiss to the corner of his lips before offering a fuller embrace.

He returned her kiss, pulling her more tightly to him, and she knit her hands together behind his neck to run her fingers through his hair.

She bit his lip and tugged at it, and he groaned with pleasure.

“I love you, Flynn,” she murmured as she dotted his face with kisses. “You are so much more than what I’d dreamed you’d be.”

“You’re everything I’d told myself I couldn’t want, yet somehow better. I want to dedicate my life to your happiness, Livvy. Because without you, without your joy, there is no purpose to my own.”

She gently undid the white bow tie that was somehow still pristine around his neck and used the edges of it to pull his face back to hers. After another kiss, she pressed her forehead to his and whispered, “You are my favorite rogue, for as long as you want me.”

“I think I can safely say that’s forever. But there’s something I have to do first.” He pulled his notorious little black book out of his inner breast pocket.

“You brought that with you to your wedding?” Livvy eyed him skeptically.

“It comforted me in my hour of need.” She rolled her eyes.

“Besides, I thought maybe if I pulled it out when the priest asked for objections, Rhonda would change her mind.” He produced a small pencil from the same coat pocket, licked his finger, and flipped to a blank page.

Olivia Blount, he wrote, as she watched him.

Then, he tore the page from the book, folded it in half, and tucked it back in the pocket right above his heart.

“That should be the only page I need from this from now on.” He looked around for a rubbish bin and not finding one, he chucked the book into the moldering pool. She gasped, her mouth forming a perfect O, and he laughed.

“Flynn, you shouldn’t have done that.”

He shrugged. “I’ll leave it for F. Scott to find.” She giggled, and he stopped her laugh with a kiss.

Without ending the kiss, he picked her up, holding her like a groom carrying his bride across the threshold, and she pulled back, yelping in delighted surprise. “What? I’m dressed for it,” he quipped.

She threw her head back and laughed before kissing him once more. She caressed his face and toyed with his hair as he carried her in the direction of her bungalow. “My pirate,” she murmured.

“My treasure,” he returned. He nipped at her earlobe and then swirled his tongue around the spot behind her ear that he knew drove her wild.

He was rewarded with the feel of her arching against him while he held her.

“Do you think Judy will come back anytime soon?” he huffed out, growing breathless from their kisses.

He squeezed her bottom with his hand, making the intentions behind his question clear.

Her eyes danced merrily in response. “I have a feeling she won’t be back for hours.”

“Good.” He grinned. “Then I can ravish you in every room.” He held her even more tightly and broke into a light run, with Livvy laughing all the way back to the apartment.

Her laugh was his favorite sound in the world, and he would do everything in his power to ensure he could hear it multiple times a day, every day for the rest of his life. A pirate and his mate.