Chapter Thirteen:

"What happened to you on Saturday?" Kate looked at him, her expression darkening.

"I'm currently grounded over something I don't want to talk about if that's okay with you?" Ryan scanned her face, and then shrugged. He did want to talk about it but her expression was distinctly forbidding.

"Okay," he replied and she looked at him as they walked towards the quad.

"It just makes me mad talking about it Ryan, that's all," he turned his head and looked at her.

"It could also help too. Just saying," he responded with a shrug when the expression in her eyes seemed to darken even more. She linked her arm through his and hugged him close. He glanced at her and smiled.

"But thanks anyway," she told him and smiled cheekily. The smile was definitely infectious.

"Anytime," he replied and they continued to walk to class.

It was dark outside. Ryan exited the diner first and turned to wait for Kate to follow. She came into view and smiled at him as she slipped her hand into his. Then someone called her name.

Automatically she turned her head and was immediately blinded by the lightning like flash of a camera. After that it felt as though everything was happening in slow motion. Countless flashes went off as photographers surrounded them both. Ryan watched Kate react and saw her head go down, her hand coming up to hide her face. He released his hold on her hand to slide a protective arm across her shoulders. She huddled into him. Ryan turned his attention to the paparazzi that had initially ignored him in their eagerness to get a picture of their prey. Their attitude made him see red and he began to push his way through the crowd. Questions were being fired at them both but he chose to ignore them. Inwardly Ryan cursed, his SUV was in its usual parking space behind the office which was a ten minute walk away and there was no way on earth that they were going to get there in one piece. His head snapped around as beside him Kate was jostled and she stumbled. Only his arm across her shoulders stopped her from falling flat on her face. The press photographers surged forwards, ever vigilant to capturing her on film. Fury rose within him.

"Can't you see that she wants to be left alone?" he snarled. Still they advanced like a pack of starving wolves and Ryan finally retaliated, pushing one intruding lens out of the way. They seemed to be coming from all directions.

"Ryan! Back in here!" a voice yelled above the commotion and instinctively he turned towards it, to see the owner of the diner wading his way through the photographers. He grabbed onto Kate's arm and between them, they managed to get her back inside. Not before Ryan had shoved a few more of the press pack out of the way first.

The owner slammed his door shut and locked it. He turned to look at the couple.

"I didn't realise that we had a world famous singer in our midst tonight," he breathed. Ryan looked at him.

"She just wants to be left alone man, what's the harm in that?"

"Not a single thing. Are you okay Miss Carpenter?" Kate lifted her head to look at him.

"I will be. How did you know who I was?" the man shrugged broad shoulders.

"Everybody knows who you are, and that you're here in Newport Beach. I'm sorry that you got caught up in all of that crap outside" Kate shrugged.

"That's okay," she turned to look at Ryan.

"If that's the case then anyone could've called the press and told them I'm here," he looked down at her. He saw the slumped shoulders; saw the changed expression in her eyes. He sighed deeply and just pulled her into his arms.

"What are you going to do?" he asked. He felt her shrug.

"Leave I suppose. Go somewhere else." She replied in a muffled voice. Ryan turned his head and glared at the photographers still milling around outside. With his arm still around her, they walked to the back of the diner, through the kitchen to the back door. There he paused and she looked up at him.

"If you leave, what about your plans? The Bait Shop, those renovation plans? Your plans to live here?" He wanted to ask her about them but didn't. She sighed.

"They know where I am Ryan and now that they know they won't leave me alone. They hounded me back in Los Angeles, in New York. I thought I'd be safer here but I realise I was mistaken. Soon they'll know where I'm staying and set up camp there. I can't do it anymore,"

"But they don't know where I live," he told her. Her expression was doubtful.

"For now. But right at this moment they will be doing everything in their power to discover everything that there is to know about you and they'll find out where you live soon enough. Could you cope with that?"

"If I have you here with me Katie, I could cope with anything" he told her.

Chapter Fourteen:

"They're gone," Artie, the owner of the diner, told them. It was an hour later and the couple had been holed up in the kitchen, drinking coffee and not talking. Ryan hadn't been able to take his eyes off her, unable to believe the change in her personality. The smiles were gone; the sunny, happy expression in her eyes a couple of hours before along with it. Instead they were replaced by a lost, hunted expression that made him mad enough to want to tear the nearest press photographer apart with his bare hands. She looked up suddenly at Artie's voice.

"You're sure?"

"I checked up and down the pier to be sure Miss Carpenter, there's no-one there," he assured her. She straightened up.

"Thank you for checking. And it's Kate. Please call me Kate," she glanced at Ryan.

"Would you walk me back to my hotel?" Ryan straightened up also and just nodded.

She didn't take his hand or link his arm as they walked back along the pier and towards the hotel where she was currently staying. Instead she had her arms folded close to her body, her shoulders hunched and her head down. The breeze had turned a little chilly and she shivered. She looked up when she felt something heavy rest around her shoulders. She looked up and at him and realised at the same time that he'd put his jacket around her shoulders. It was still warm from him and she could smell him in the fabric.

He walked with her into the lobby, keeping his eyes open for anyone who looked as though they shouldn't be there. She paused and looked up at him. For a second, neither of them could speak. He wanted to reach out and touch her, push a tousled strand of hair from her face, but he didn't. Instead he just stood there, fists closed, feeling helpless and frustrated because of it.

"I want you to talk to me," he told her. Her eyes widened marginally.

"About what?" she asked. He sighed, pushing his hands into the front pockets of his trousers.

"About this half-assed leaving thing," Kate sighed and at the same time lowered her head to stare at the floor.

"It's for the best Ryan. I was insane to even think that I had a future here at Newport Beach, that I'd be left alone long enough to even have a private life" he stared helplessly at her.

"Then you'll spend the rest of your life running, doing this thing over and over again," she looked up at him. This time he did reach out to her, grasping her shoulders.

"Why don't you check out of here, come stay at my place for as long as you want to" her eyes widened at his invitation.

"I couldn't," a hint of a smile warmed those dark blue eyes of his.

"Yeah you could. I won't take no for an answer," the thought of her staying with him at his home was more appealing, more right, the more that he thought about it. She sighed.

"If you think that you could put up with me?" he rolled his eyes and she smiled.

"Alright. Let me get my stuff together," she turned and he caught hold of her wrist.

"Want me to help you pack?" he asked. She just nodded.

He followed her to her room. Actually it was a suite and he blinked at the sheer size and opulence of it. Kate didn't seem to notice it as she left her room key on the coffee table in the living room. Maybe it was his Chino blood but places like these always left him mildly awestruck, even though he could afford to stay in such a place himself if he wanted to.

He followed her into the bedroom and the king sized bed made his step falter slightly and he glanced towards her as she began finding suitcases, opening wardrobes and piling clothes in. He walked towards her, seeing the way she just flung items of clothing into the cases instead of folding them neatly.

"Hey," he grasped her wrist and she looked at him quizzically.

"There's no real rush is there?" his voice was mildly questioning. He drew her into his arms and just held her, feeling the warmth of her body melt into his. She smelled good, the faint hint of warmed in perfume that she'd probably sprayed on fresh that morning. It drifted around his senses and for a second he just closed his eyes.

"Ryan?" his eyes opened at her whisper and he looked into her eyes. There was a smile in them.

"Ever made love in a hotel suite?" she murmured and his eyes widened slightly and he was sure he could feel the beginning of a blush stain his cheeks.

"Uhh…can't say that I have," he replied and her smile widened into a wicked, sexy grin.

"I don't have to check out til tomorrow…if you want to that is…" she began to unfasten his already loosened tie and slide it from beneath his collar.

"Would that be an invitation?" he suggested, standing still as she unbuttoned his shirt one button at a time, the process taking far too long in his mind. She glanced up through her eyelashes and his stomach dipped in response. She finally had the final button undone and she peeled it from his shoulders. She pressed a hot, open-mouthed kiss against the side of his neck and his eyes closed briefly at the contact. She tipped her head back slightly.

"Definitely an invitation," she informed him. He smiled into her eyes.

"That's good," he sighed and then groaned when her wandering hands headed downwards, to his aching groin.

"Oh man," he hissed, arching slightly against her.

The cases were pushed unceremoniously onto the carpet. Kate pushed Ryan onto the bed and he watched her as she shimmied out of her white skirt and top to stand there in white lace panties that were stark against tanned skin. Her bra matched, looking so delicate that it could fall apart with just the slightest touch. He had to wonder at the creation of such a thing, that something so fragile looking could push up and accentuate and give him the most potent hard-on known to man. Maybe some guys got their rocks off with the whole black lace and garter-belt deal but give him a gorgeous woman, a gorgeous blonde woman in simple white lace and he was happy.