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never wanted to get involved with.
    He dropped his hand and studied her flawless face. She looked different out of her work suits, with her brown curls shimmering over her shoulder. Softer. Touchable.
    His hands itched to do just that. To touch her petal-soft skin, to run his fingers through her hair. His body tightened in response to the thought, even as his mind rejected it.
    “As if I would fire you,” he said, putting distance between them. “You know too much.”
    “I think I might get that matted and framed. High praise indeed.”
    They walked into the main section of the art exhibit, which was being held in the kelp forest. The entire room was cast in a bluish glow, compliments of the massive, three-story cylindrical aquarium that made up the structure of the space. Water plants grew to impossible heights and fish wove through them. Art was placed on easels around the room, with a place to write down and submit bids next to each one of them.
    Gage walked over to one of the displays and, without even glancing at the artwork, took a form and wrote an astronomical sum on it before dropping it in the box.
    “You really should be less discreet when you do things like that, and when you do things like create wildlife preserves near your resort sites,” she said.
    “Why is that?”
    “It would help your image. And you need it. ‘Property developer’ is kind of a tough profession to sell to the public. You could make my job easier by trumpeting charitable contributions.”
    He frowned. “You were a witness. Trumpet it.”
    “You don’t want me to, though.”
    His jaw tensed. “Giving for the sake of your reputation is just paying for good publicity.”
    “Most people don’t have a problem with that.”
    “And what’s your opinion on it, Lily? And don’t give me your ‘my opinion doesn’t matter as long as the public likes you’ speech.”
    She bit her lip. This side of Gage always confused Lily. In some ways he seemed more uncomfortable having people know anything good about him. He didn’tseem to mind the negative press that came when he dated one supermodel, then switched to an actress the next night. But he didn’t seem to want to let anyone know about his good behavior. And there was something about that that made her almost like him sometimes, and that made all the other physical things he made her feel intensify.
    “It’s … okay, events like this are definitely a little bit fake. It’s see and be seen. Most people are flashing their bids all over the place.” She jerked her head toward the glittering celebrities and debutantes gathered around different pieces of art, waving their bids around while they talked.
    “I don’t play the game,” he said. “It doesn’t appeal.”
    “You have to play the game a little bit, Gage. It’s good for business.”
    “What’s it like for you, doing a job that’s so at odds with who you are?”
    The question was so strange and unexpected, she turned sharply, her mouth dropping open. “I … how is it at odds with who I am?” She knew better than most how important image was.
    The Lily Ford from a Kansas trailer park, who had pulled her way from poverty and put her past far, far behind her, was not going to get anywhere in the field of public relations. She knew, she’d tried that. But the Lily Ford who knew how to present herself with icy cool dignity, the Lily who wore tailored, designer clothing and always had her hair done perfectly,
that
Lily was a success. And it had all been a matter of image.
    Who she was underneath didn’t matter to clients or to the public when she was making a statement. All that mattered was what they saw. That philosophy was howshe made her living, and she believed it, lived it, more than anyone she’d ever come into contact with.
    “You seem to value some sort of integrity. And you believe that these sorts of shows of wealth and generosity are false. But you wish I would engage in them.”
    She shrugged. “If the