MARRYING THE ROCKSTAR (#3 ROCKSTAR SERIES)

♪ twenty-seven ♪

The champagne bubbles still flowed through me, fueling my inebriation. And possibly some mild hallucination, too.

Seeing Cameron there in front of me, in the flesh, I started to question my sanity, too.

"Are you real?" I shaded my eyes, looking up at him as if he were an illusion. A mirage of a man come to sweep me off my feet and carry me to safety.

Maybe I'd fallen asleep and was dreaming of this. The booze did keep pushing me in and out of sleep, after all. I wouldn't put it past my drunk self to pass out on the cold Hampton's beach, clutching a bottle to my chest as if it were a stuffed animal to soothe me.

No one else was around—no one was brave enough to sit out here in the cold, like me.

Brave, or stupid, I wasn't sure.

"I'm real," he said, kneeling to my level, squinting at me. I smelled him; subtle cologne with a comforting fragrance I couldn't quite figure out in my state of drunkenness. He poked at me. "Are you?"

I snickered as I recoiled, his touch making it evident I wasn't losing my mind entirely. "Fuck." I hissed as if his finger had burned me. "Why are you here, Cameron?"

He shrugged, jutting his chin at the water in the distance behind me. "Pretty beaches, you know?"

"Fuck you," I said, words slurring.

His expression turned more serious. "I saw the headlines and got worried."

"Yeah, well," I scoffed, flipping away from him, "those headlines started days ago, so you're a little late."

"The latest ones worried me more." He was still kneeled behind me, unbothered that I'd turned my back to him. His shadow loomed over me like a menace, though I knew he wouldn't harm me. "I had a hunch that you weren't doing too well."

"How did you know I was here?" I patted the sand beside me. "Right here, on this beach, right now?" My words made no sense, and no matter how shocked I was at his arrival, it hadn't fully sobered me up. I still wondered if I was in such a haze that I'd made him up, and that anyone passing by would see a fucked-up woman talking to herself on the beach.

"Sapphire," he said, crawling over to sit beside me. His voice was so real, so smooth, it again knocked me out of my delusions. "She's been calling you, but you're dodging her calls, only answering her texts."

I nodded, picturing Sapphire pacing around in my head. "Stating the obvious, but that still doesn't explain to me how you found me."

"She knew you were in the Hamptons," he said, lounging out his legs, leaning back on his hands. "So we tracked your location with your phone."

"What the fuck?" I glared at him. "So you're straight up stalking me now?" I rolled my eyes. "Oh wait, don't tell me—Sapphire asked you to. Since you do everything that she says, but not what anyone else asks."

Like staying away from me, I thought, but didn't say. Or maybe I said it, because I felt his glare on the side of my face.

"Don't be harsh," he said, a twinge of pain in his voice. "She's my boss."

"Right. Boss." I shook my head, focusing on the waves. A mild dizziness started to swarm over me. "Whatever. You shouldn't be here."

"That's not your decision. I'm here because I'm worried, too." He jabbed a finger to his chest. "She asked me to come here again, but she didn't have to push me this time. This is serious."

"And you're seriously out of line. Why are you here, Cameron?" I chuckled. "I'm fine. Can't you see?"

His turn to chuckle. "Sure, Emma. A headline states that you and Leo are broken up, and next I hear you've basically disappeared. And I find you here, half-frozen on the beach, and trashed? You're talking nonsense and can barely string a coherent sentence together. But you're fine, okay."