"Is that Raine Kingston? Are you kidding me?"

"I told you he was in this class about a million times, dummy."

"I know, but I thought you made that up to make Gillian stop going on and on about being an extra in one of his movies."

Emily Watts stretched her legs out in front of her on her yoga mat, listening to the chatter of the two women sitting behind her and trying to ignore the usual morning spectacle happening about five feet away. If today was like most other days, she gave it three minutes before the women joined the circus-in-the-making she was trying not to watch. That was what usually happened when someone brought a friend to class and they wanted to meet Raine Kingston, the A-list actor, Hollywood's perpetual it-guy, and, as she had recently discovered, a fixture of the morning Kundalini yoga class she had started coming to a couple of weeks ago. Given the size of the mostly-female crowd that often surrounded him before class, Emily was pretty sure she was the only class regular who hadn't met him, and that was more than okay by her. Celebrities were overrated, which was something she probably knew better than anyone.

"Who's the girl hugging him?" Emily heard one of the women behind her ask.

"Kami," the other woman replied. "She comes to class almost every day."

Emily glanced at the tall brunette she knew the women were talking about. She had seen Kami in class every morning she'd been here, but only because there was no missing her. In a class where most people wore loose-fitting tank tops and T-shirts paired with leggings, track pants, or sweatpants, or traditional white cotton Kundalini yoga clothing, Kami always showed up in tightly-fitting, barely-there shorts, which were sometimes high-cut enough to reveal the bottom of her backside and hugged every curve of what little they did cover. Her shorts were usually paired with what could have been a sports bra but appeared a size too small, which definitely called attention to Kami's assets and didn't leave much to the imagination. Her attire might have made sense if their class was hot yoga, but Kundalini was about as far from hot yoga as someone could get while still being in a yoga class. Kami also never failed to have a perfect spray tan and flawlessly-done makeup, complete with glittery eyeliner and what had to be false eyelashes. This was what intrigued Emily the most. She'd never seen someone come to a yoga class wearing false eyelashes before she had seen Kami. It seemed a little much for nine o'clock in the morning, even for L.A.

"Is she dating him?" she heard the woman ask her friend.

"Not last I checked."

"So how come she gets to hug him?"

"Everyone hugs him. He gives good hugs."

"Can I hug him?"

"Maybe you should start with saying hello."

I need to stop watching this, Emily told herself, ripping her hazel-eyed gaze away from Kami's eyelashes and perfectly-styled hair. It was the same scene every morning, with Kami leading the parade of females who began their day by fawning over Raine. There were always a swarm of others lined up behind her, with the hellos and hugs and cheek kisses going on until their teacher started the class. The women who didn't get a chance to say hello would head back to their mats with disappointment etched across their faces, and then they'd rush over to him once class ended until he managed to make his way out of his circle of admirers.

Emily leaned forward, trying to bring her nose down to touch her knees. Her long waves of blond hair fell in front of her face like a curtain, separating everyone around her from her own little world on her mat.

She was still getting used to not knowing anyone in this class, which was a big change from the evening yoga class she had gone to for years. Emily had known everyone there. Even though this one was at the same yoga center, Bountiful Sun Yoga, she didn't recognize a single face. It was what she had been hoping for when she'd switched to the morning session, and not having any friends here was entirely her doing. This was part of her fresh start now that the tabloids had moved on from following her every move since learning the truth about what had happened between her and Blistering Twilight singer Cory Sampson, and what hadn't happened between her and her former friend, Jesse Cinder.

Emily had hoped her old yoga class would return to being the sanctuary it had always been for her, now that the world knew she'd never cheated on Cory with Jesse. The real story of Cory ditching her to hang out with his ex-girlfriend, popular singer-songwriter Cady Sugarman, was out there, and so was the truth about Jesse staging opportunities to be seen with Emily so he could grab the media limelight for himself and his struggling indie band, Ashes of Brooklyn. Maybe Emily had expected too much of her longtime yoga classmates, though. Weeks had passed, and a few of them had continued with the longer-than-necessary stares and whispering before and after class. Her teacher also taught a morning class, so Emily had resolved to become more of an early bird and go to that one instead.

What she hadn't known before joining the class was a gift was waiting for her there, in the form of everyone's favorite tall and dark-haired movie star, Raine Kingston. She wasn't particularly fangirly about the guy—she'd seen a couple of movies he'd been in, and he was a great actor, and that was all she knew about him other than some of the characters he'd played. Still, he had the attention of many of their classmates from the instant he walked into the room to the moment he left. This meant nobody gave Emily a second glance, and she liked it that way just fine.

She reached her arms out in front of her, grabbing her toes, and held the stretch while taking a few slow, deep breaths. When she brought her head up again, the first thing she saw was the line of women still forming in front of Raine. It had gotten longer, and the women toward the back of the line looked impatient. She shifted her eyes to study Raine. How he handled this every morning without losing his mind was a mystery to her. Could he really enjoy all of the attention and the constant interruptions of anything he might want to do or conversations he might want to have before class? The invasions of her own privacy and personal space that had come with being in the spotlight still made her skin crawl.

Emily watched a woman at the front of the line grow tired with waiting for her turn and walk over to Raine, touching his arm and interrupting whatever the other woman in front of him was saying. When Raine looked over at her, the woman took it as a sign to fling her arms around him for a hug. Emily was torn between horror and amusement, and she couldn't help the grin that spread across her lips or the quiet laugh that escaped her. Poor guy.

Maybe her laugh wasn't as quiet as she'd thought, because she realized Raine wasn't looking at the woman who'd thrown her arms around him. He was looking at her, and he'd caught her mid-grin. His eyes locked with hers. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't plaster her face with a more neutral expression or look away.

He's going to think I'm laughing at him, she thought. This was only partly true. She was laughing at the situation, and at the string of women throwing themselves into his arms as he sat there on his yoga mat, minding his own business. Stop grinning, she commanded herself.

She tried, she really did, and failed. But then she noticed Raine's mouth curving into a smile. He looked up at the ceiling as if to say, I know, right? Ridiculous.

That's when she laughed again.

The woman hugging Raine craned her neck around at the sound of Emily's laugh, but Emily closed her eyes and sat perfectly still, as though she was meditating. She stayed like that until she heard her yoga teacher, Satya, greet them to begin class, and the chatter around her hushed.

"Sat Nam," Satya said from the front of the room. "It's good to see all of you. Do we have anyone new here today?"

Emily opened her eyes, intending to look at Satya. That didn't happen, because the second her eyelids fluttered open, she saw Raine had his chocolate-brown eyes fixed on her, a curious smile still playing on his lips.

* * *

Emily didn't stick around when class was done. There had been a time when she'd almost always stayed after her old evening class, talking to her classmates and sometimes grabbing dinner with them at a café down the street. That may as well have been a lifetime ago. BC, she called it. Before Cory.

Today she did what had become her new normal, which was roll up her yoga mat as quickly as possible and bolt for the coffee, tea, and juice bar out in the lobby. She would grab her post-yoga caffeine, put her sunglasses and floppy hat on, and then head to her car, like she always did.

She joined the back of the line and was waiting for her turn when she saw Raine exit the classroom, his phone pressed to his ear. He looked from left to right, seeming to search the corners of the room, and stopped when he spotted her. She pretended not to notice when he turned and walked in her direction, but it was hard to ignore him when he was only inches away, standing behind her.

"Hi." He lowered the phone from his ear, letting his arm fall to his side. "I'm Raine."

I know, she almost blurted out. "Emily," she said instead, and then glanced at his phone. "Does the person you're talking to know you stopped listening to them?"

"The truth?" he asked. She nodded. "I wasn't talking to anyone."

She squinted at him. "Is walking around pretending to talk to people something you do a lot?"

He grinned. "Only when I'm surrounded by every person in our yoga class except for the one beautiful, mysterious woman I want to talk to and I need to invent a reason to leave the room so I can go find her."

He looked straight at her while he spoke, leaving no doubt she was the woman he meant. Curse him—he was good.

"I'm not all that mysterious, really," she replied. It was true. Even if she was thankfully old news now, pretty much anything about her life—both fact and fiction—had been plastered all over the Internet this year.

Raine's eyes were still on her. "I'd say you are, what with you showing up out of nowhere a couple of weeks ago and always keeping to yourself, then running out the door wearing those big sunglasses and that hat every day."

Wait. He'd noticed that? How had he even seen her when he had all those women around him, clamoring for his attention?

"Maybe I'm allergic to sunshine," she told him.

He shook his head. "Not possible when your skin has such a gorgeous, sun-kissed glow."

That was definitely a compliment. Coming from a guy as famous and as watched as Raine had to be, this was dangerous territory if Emily wanted her life to stay old news. She knew from experience that even the most innocent of encounters could be made into something it wasn't by a casual observer with a cell phone camera. Sure, it would be easy enough to explain it all to Wally Hood, the guy behind the popular entertainment site Wally Hood Goes Hollywood. Emily and Wally had become friends in the months since she'd parted ways with Cory, and he would likely listen to any explanation she gave him. It was the other seventy-bazillion or so celeb gossip sites out there she was worried about. Reporters from those sites would be all over her conversation with Raine before she could insist it was nothing.

"Your usual, with non-fat milk and sugar?"

Emily whipped her head around at the sound of another voice. The barista looked at her from behind the counter, holding up a paper cup. She'd become the next person in line.

"Yes, please," she told him, taking a step forward. "Thank you."

The barista nodded. He quickly glanced at Raine, then back at her, before punching her order in to the cash register.

Emily fumbled through her bag for her wallet. She sensed Raine watching her the whole time.

"I've got hers," Raine said to the barista. "Can you add a green tea with that?"

Emily looked up to see Raine already paying for her order.

"Thanks." She could tell him he didn't have to do that, but the way Raine eyed her as she reached to grab her cup from the counter distracted her from her train of thought. No, he wasn't just eyeing her—he was staring at her. She took a step away from the counter and turned to him, staring right back.

A sheepish look appeared on his face. Caught.

"Sorry," he said. "I'm not some creeper, but I keep thinking you look really familiar."

"That's because you see me every day in class." She kept her voice breezy, even though the thought of being recognized from all those stories and photos that had been splashed across the entertainment news made her feel anything but cool and collected.

"True, but you looked familiar from the first time I saw you. Have we met somewhere else?"

This was exactly why Emily didn't hang around after class and talk to her classmates. Anonymity was blissful. People recognizing her and connecting her to that whole Cory-and-Jesse debacle was not.

"I think I'd remember that," she said, feeling tension in her jaw. "You're kind of hard to miss."

He laughed. Across the room, two girls huddled together by a bookshelf turned their heads in Raine and Emily's direction, openly gawking.

"Can you stick around for a while?" he asked, lowering his voice. "Maybe take our coffee and tea outside where there are a few less people?"

"And probably a few more paparazzi who followed you here," she pointed out.

"Fair enough. I'll take it you don't want to be labeled as my mystery woman of the week?"

Been there, she thought, although she knew he was teasing her. He probably wasn't aware she had been someone else's mystery woman just a few months ago.

"I'm a big fan of privacy," she said, shrugging. "More so mine."

"Have something to hide?" He winked.

She gave him a small smile, then took a sip of her coffee. She needed to change the subject.

Before she could think of something to say, he gestured to a table by the wall. "Can I convince you to finish your coffee in here, then?"

Emily glanced across the room. The girls standing by the bookshelf weren't watching them anymore. Talking to Raine for another minute or two was probably safe, but that was as long as she would stay.

"You're persistent, I'll give you that much." She walked ahead of him to the table and sat down on one of the chairs.

"Well, you are rather intriguing." He sat down across from her. "You're sure we haven't met before?"

"Positive."

"Hmmm. I could swear..." He trailed off, studying her. She saw him reach for his cup and then stop, his eyes widening. "Wait. You said your name is Emily?"

She knew that look. Wait for it. Emily nodded and inspected a scratch on the table, a knot forming in her stomach.

"You're Emily Watts, aren't you?"

"Got it in one." She took another drink of her coffee and then made a face. "Needs more sugar," she said, pushing her chair back.

He laughed out loud. "No wonder you don't want to set foot out the door with me. I'm sure you've had your fill of the celebrity circus this year."

"You could say that." She turned away from him, heading to the counter to flag down the barista. Maybe if she took her time, Raine would finish being entertained by memories of what he had read about her dating life and move on to something else when she returned to the table. If she was lucky, Raine knowing her dating history and whatever else he'd read about her would make him lose interest in talking to her, and they could both make a fast and graceful exit and never say more than a polite hello to each other again.

"All good?" Raine asked, once she sat down. So much for her hopes of an easy out. He was still talking to her, and it didn't look like he planned to go anywhere soon.

"Yeah," Emily replied, avoiding his eyes. "That was weird. They usually get the sugar just right."

"Not quite what I meant."

"Hmmm?"

"I meant to ask if you're all good. You had a deer-in-the-headlights thing going on for a second or two. You kind of still do."

"I don't really like being recognized," she admitted. "I wish I knew how you seem so okay with it. Either you have a lot of patience, or you don't mind being ambushed the second you walk into class or wherever else you go."

"Well, that boosts my ego." He leaned back in his chair.

"What does? Women flinging themselves at you every morning?"

He shook his head. "Hearing you've watched me for long enough to know that goes on. I haven't seen you so much as glance in my direction any time I've been looking at you, until today."

"You've been watching me?"

He leaned in a few inches closer to her. "Impossible not to."

Emily felt heat rising to her cheeks. She knew she should shut this down.

"Do you always use that line?" She'd meant to sound indifferent. Somehow, though, her voice had betrayed her and had taken a friendly and almost flirty tone. Dammit.

"First time," Raine said. "Did it work?"

She shook her head and took the last sip of her coffee.

"Tough crowd." He sounded amused.

Emily watched him finish what was left of his green tea. She felt oddly tongue-tied, no witty retort coming to mind.

"Will you be in class tomorrow?" he asked.

"I should be. Why?"

"You seem a little spooked by people knowing who you are. And now that I know..." He paused.

"Now that you know?" she prompted.

"Maybe you'll disappear and go to another class, and then I'll have no way of keeping in touch with you."

"There's always skywriting." She gave him an innocent look.

"Hmmm."

"What?" She hoped he knew she was joking about the skywriting. The last thing she needed was a greeting floating above Los Angeles for millions of people to read.

He didn't answer. Either that, or he hadn't heard her. She watched him rifle through a pocket on the side of his yoga mat bag.

"Looking for something?" she asked.

"Found it." He pulled a pen out of the pocket. "Hand me that napkin?"

"Actual writing with real ink?" She passed him the napkin. "Do people still remember how to do that?"

He began to write something. "I was hoping you'd go for old-fashioned charm."

He pushed the napkin across the table to her. She looked down to see a phone number scribbled in black ink.

"It's my number. Call me, maybe?"

She couldn't help but smirk, even though she knew this was trouble. "Fan of girly teen pop, I take it?"

"Would it work in my favor?"

"The jury's out on that one," she said, hiding a smile. She reached for her bag and yoga mat, then got up from her chair.

"Until tomorrow?" he asked, standing up.

She took her hat and sunglasses out of her bag, not meeting his eyes. "Possibly."

"Cool." He touched her shoulder. Her skin tingled where his fingers brushed against it. "Bye, Emily."

As she turned away from Raine and headed for the door, she had the feeling his goodbye had really meant hello.

*❋ ❋ ❋*