“Definitely! I like laid back,” I tell him. When his grin only widens and his eyes darken, I look at him confused, “What?”

He takes a sip of beer from his bottle, amusement on his face, “I like you laid back too, just not in this environment.” His suggestive tone causes butterflies in my stomach. I giggle and swat at him playfully. He catches my hand and brings it casually to his lips before setting it on his thigh with his hand closing around it. “No, seriously,” he explains, “This is way more my style than the glitz and glamour of my parents’ lifestyle and expectations. My sister fits that lifestyle so much better than I do.” He rolls his eyes despite the utter adoration on his face when he mentions her.

“How old is she?”

“Quinlan? She’s twenty-six and a total pain in the ass!” he laughs. “She’s in graduate school at USC right now. She’s pushy and overbearing and protective and—”

“And she loves you to death.”

A boyish grin blankets his face as he nods in acceptance, “Yes, she does,” he mulls it over thoughtfully. “The feeling is completely mutual.”

His simple ease in expressing his love for his sister is charming to me in a man otherwise unwilling to express himself emotionally. He can easily express his desire and sexuality, but I’ve yet to hear him emote real, true feelings.

The waitress arrives halting our conversation, and asks me if I am ready to order although her eyes are fixated on Colton. I want to tell her I understand, I’m under his spell too. I’m still unsure what I want so I look at Colton, “I’ll have whatever you’re having.”

He looks up at me, surprise on his face, “Their burgers are the best. Does that sound okay?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“A girl who’s after my own heart,” he teases, squeezing my hand. “Can we get two surf burgers with fries and another round of drinks, please,” he tells the waitress and as I try to hand her my menu, I notice how flustered she is by Colton speaking to her.

“So tell me about your parents.”

“Uh-oh, is this the Colton background portion of the night?” he kids.

“You got it, Ace. Now spill it,” I tell him, taking a sip of my wine.

He shrugs. “My dad is larger than life in everything he does. Everything. He’s supportive and always positive and a good friend to me now. And my mom, she’s more reserved. More the rock of our family.” He smiles softly at the thought, “but she definitely has a temper and a flair for the dramatic when she deems it necessary.”

“Is Quinlan adopted too?”

“No,” he drains the remainder of his beer, shaking his head. “She’s biological. My mom and dad decided one was enough for them with their busy schedules and all of the traveling to onset locations.” He raises his eyebrows, “And then my dad found me.” The simplicity in that last statement, the rawness behind the words, is profound.

“Was that hard? Her being biological and you adopted?

He ponders the question, turning his head to look around the restaurant. “At times I think I used it for all it was worth. But when it comes down to it, I realized that my dad didn’t have to bring me home with him that day.” He plays with the label on his empty beer bottle. “He could have turned me over to social services, and God knows what would have happened since they’re not always the most efficient organization. But he didn’t,” he shrugs. “In time I grew to realize they really loved me, really wanted me, because when it came down to it, they kept me. They made me a part of their family.”

I’m a little taken back by Colton’s frank honesty for I expected him to evade any personal questions as he has thus far in regards to his cryptic comments. My heart breaks for the struggles of the little boy he was. I know he is glossing over the turmoil he must have went through finding his place in an already established family. “How was it growing up with parents so much in the public eye?”

“I guess it really is my turn for the inquisition,” he jokes before stretching his arm out resting his hand on the back of my chair, idly wrapping one of my curls around his finger as he speaks. “They did the best they could to insulate Quin and I from it all. Back then, the media was nothing like it is today,” he shrugs. “We had strict rules and mandatory Sunday night family dinners when my dad wasn’t on location. To us, the movie stars who came over for barbeques were just Tom and Russell, like any other people you invite to a family function. We didn’t know any differently.” He smiles broadly, “Man, they spoiled us rotten though, trying to make up for all I had missed out on in my early years.”

He stops talking when the food is served. We both express our gratitude to the waitress and add condiments to our burgers, deep in our own thoughts. I’m surprised when Colton speaks again, continuing to talk about growing up.

“God, I was a handful for them,” he admits. “Always creating a mess of one kind or another for them to have to clean up. Defiant. Rebelling against them—against everything really—every chance I had.”

I take a bite of my hamburger, moaning at how good it is. He flashes a smile at me, “I told you they were the best!”

“Heavenly!” I finish my bite. “Sooo good.” I wipe the corner of my mouth with a napkin and continue my quest for information on Colton. “So, why Donavan? Why not Westin?”

“So why Ace?” he counters, flashing me a combative grin. “Why not stud muffin or lover?”

It takes everything I have not to burst out laughing at those words falling from his lips. Instead, I angle my head, eyes full of humor, as I purse my lips and stare at him. I was curious how long it’d take for him to ask me that particular question. “Stud muffin just sounds all kinds of wrong coming from you,” I finally laugh, setting my elbows on the table and my head in my hands. “Are you evading my question Ace?”

“Nope,” he leans back in his chair, eyes never leaving mine. “I’ll answer your question when you answer mine.”

“That’s how you’re going to play this?” I arch a brow at him, “Show me yours and I’ll show you mine?”

Colton’s eyes light up with challenge and amusement. “Baby, I’ve already seen yours,” he says, flashing me a lightening fast grin before closing the distance and brushing his lips to mine, and then pulling away before I get a chance to really sink into the kiss. My body hums in frustration and arousal at the same time. “But I’d be more than happy to see the whole package again.”

My thoughts cloud and my thigh muscles tense at the thought, sexual tension colliding between the two of us. When I think I can speak without my voice betraying the effect he has on my body, I continue, “What was the question again?” I tease, batting my eyelashes playfully.

“Ace?” he shrugs, darting his tongue out to wet his bottom lip. “Why do you call me that?”

“It’s just something that Haddie and I made up a long time ago when we were in college.”

Colton raises his eyebrows at me, a silent attempt at prompting me further but I just smile shyly at him. “So it stands for something then? And not just pertaining to me in particular?” he asks working his jaw back and forth in thought as he waits for an answer I’m not going to give him. “And you’re not going to tell me what though, are you?”

“Nope,” I grin at him before taking a sip of my drink, watching his brow furrow as the wheels in him mind turn in thought.

“Hmmmm,” he murmurs, his eyes narrowing at me. “Always Charming and Endearing,” he smirks, obviously proud of himself for coming up with what he assumes the acronym stands for.

“Nope,” I repeat myself, a grin tugging at the corners of my mouth.

He smile widens further as he tips his beer at me, “I’ve got it,” he says, scrunching up his nose adorably in thought, “Always Colton Everafter.”

The smirk on his face and the charming look in his eyes has me laughing out loud. I reach out and place my hand over his on the table and give it a squeeze. “Not even close Ace,” I tease. “Now it’s your turn to answer the question.”

“You’re not going to tell me?” he asks incredulously.

“Uh-uh,” I tell him, finding his reaction humorous. “Now quit avoiding the question. Why Donavan and not Westin?”

He stares at me for a moment, weighing his options. “I’ll get the answer out of you one way or another Thomas,” he tells me, his tone hinting with promise of things to come—of tactics of persuasion that triggers that all too familiar ache he causes within me to return with a vengeance.

“I’m sure you will,” I acquiesce is a hushed murmur, knowing he’ll probably get so much more than just that from me.

He stars at me for a moment, a mix of emotions flickering though pools of emerald before he shrugs nonchalantly and looks out to the ocean, effectively stopping any chance I have of reading what is in them. “At first my parents used Donavan as a way to try and protect me as a child. When we traveled or had to use an alias, we would use it. But as I got older,” he takes a sip of his beer, “and as I got into racing, I wanted to make sure that I was good because of me, not my dad’s name. I didn’t want to be seen as some spoiled Hollywood kid who was just using his name and daddy’s money to make it.” He looks up at me, snagging a fry off of my plate despite having a plethora himself. “I wanted to earn it. Really earn it.” He flashes that grin at me again. “Now it doesn’t really matter. I could care less what anybody writes about me. Thinks about me. But back then, I did.”

A silence falls between us. I’m having a hard time reconciling the arrogant, sexy troublemaker the media portrays with the man before me. A man comfortable with himself—and yet a part of me still feels like he is striving to find his place in this world. To prove he is worthy of all of the good and bad he has experienced in his life. I have a feeling that the real Colton is a little bit of both, angel and devil. “So Colton, how’d you find this place?” I pick up my glass by the stem and swirl the wine around absently in the glass before I take a sip.

“I found it on the way home from surfing one day when I was in college,” he muses, wincing at the small shriek from inside the restaurant as a woman recognizes him and calls out his name.

Ignoring the bystanders starting to gather inside to catch a peek at him, I continue seamlessly. “I don’t picture you in college, Ace.”

He finishes the bite of food he’s chewing before answering. “Well, neither did I,” he laughs, taking another swallow of his beer. “I think I broke my parents heart when I dropped out after two years at Pepperdine, sans degree.”

“Why didn’t you finish?” I flinch instinctively when a flash sparks through the dark night from someone’s camera as they try to capture a shot of Colton.

He casually shifts his chair in a move so fluid it’s obviously well practiced. He now has his back more angled to the center of the restaurant so that less of him can be seen. I don’t mind as it moves him closer to me so that now we both face the moonlight ocean off of the deck. He carries on without acknowledging the small crowd starting to murmur excitedly in the room behind us. “I can give you the bullshit answer about being a free spirit, et cetera,” he flutters his hand through the air with indifference. “It just wasn’t my thing,” he shrugs. “Concentrated studies, set formats, deadlines, structure …” he shivers in pseudo-horror at the last word.

I smirk at him and shake my head, leaning back into my chair where Colton’s fingers are now lazily running back and forth between my shoulder blades. “Yeah … I definitely can’t see you twiddling your thumbs in class.”

“God, my parents were pissed!” he exhales loudly at the memory. “They had spent all kinds of money on tutors to try and get me up to speed after they adopted me,” he shakes his head smiling, “and then I went and threw it away by dropping out.”

I bite off a piece of french fry. “How old were you when … I mean how did you meet them?” A shadow passes over his face and I mentally kick myself for asking the question. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

He stares out at the moonlit ocean in thought for a few moments, before answering. “No, there’s not much to tell.” He wipes his hands on the napkin in his lap. “I was—I met my dad outside his trailer on the Universal lot.”

“On the set of Tinder?” I ask referring to the movie that I’d learned about during my Google search of Colton. It knew it was the movie his dad had won an Academy Award for and but not where they’d met each other.