The Hollywood Effect (30 page)

“I… I don’t know what to say.”
 

I definitely had not been expecting this. If anything I had thought he would ask me to drop my life and trail around after him while he made movies and got even more famous. Not drop off the face of the earth together.
 

“Say you’ll come with me.” I paused. He looked at me, his beautiful beseeching eyes locked on mine.

“Yes. I’ll come with you.”
 

Six months later…
 

“Have you ever met my Uncle Andrew? He’s the one who suggested to the vegetarian that the solution to the crazy possums in my roof was a shot gun.”
 

Liam laughed. We were lying on a beautiful beach in Vietnam. Liam had gone three whole weeks without being recognised, and he was loving it. He usually introduced himself as Charlie, his brother’s name. He’d said he’d been called Charlie enough times as a kid by various relatives and even his mother, that it was second nature to answer to it.
 

“Sorry,” he snorted. “I’m just trying to imagine you with a shot gun.”
 

He paused, a thoughtful look on his face. “Kind of like when we went horse riding. I don’t think you should give up civilisation anytime soon, my love.”
 

I rolled my eyes at him.
 

“At least I can light a fire. A skill I know you lack.”

“With our powers combined…”

“We may be able to survive a short power outage,” I giggled.
 

“We should learn some actual skills,” Liam said, suddenly sober. “Like, I mean, what if everything goes to shit? What would we do? I can hot wire a car? You’re scared of possums and won’t kill anything. We could probably manage to light a fire thanks to Scouts, but what would we cook on it? A koala? I heard that they taste gross.”
 

“It’s okay. Apparently you can eat that native grass that grows up the mountain. It doesn’t taste very good, but it’s good for you. Well, you won’t starve… I don’t know about scurvy.”
 

“Great. We’re doomed. Grass and koalas.”
 

I wrinkled my nose. “I’m not eating
 
a poor koala.”

“Just grass for you then,” he laughed and pulled me closer to him. “I love you.”
 

“I love you too.” I kissed him, long and sensuous, suddenly very glad that we had a private room for tonight.