Why Resist a Rebel? by Leah Ashton Page B

laugh.
    It was as if he was out of practice.
    Ruby gave herself a mental shake.
    Oh, no. Now that was wishful thinking. She was putting way too much thought into this.
    She needed to keep this simple: it was a date. One date. Only.
    They’d just finished trading stories of their varied travel disasters. She’d noticed that Dev hadn’t spoken of that time I was mobbed by fans in Paris or this one time I was invited for afternoon tea with the Queen —it was as if he was distancing himself from what made him so, so different from her. Somehow, he was making himself relatable. A real person.
    Was he doing it deliberately?
    Yes, for sure. He’d been right before—he was charming, and smart.
    But also...it was working. She found herself questioning her opinion of him. She’d certainly relaxed. Something she knew was unwise, but the wine, the food, the lighting, and Dev...yeah, Dev... It was...he was...pretty much an irresistible force.
    But not quite.
    ‘Why film production?’ he asked, changing the direction of their conversation yet again.
    Ruby swirled her Shiraz in its oversized glass. ‘Would you believe I’m a failed actor?’ she asked.
    ‘Yes,’ he said, immediately.
    She raised her eyebrows. ‘Is it that obvious?’
    He nodded, assessing her. ‘Acting requires a certain...artifice. You—you tell it how it is. You’re not pretending, not hiding what you think.’
    She shifted a little in her seat, uncomfortable. ‘You’re saying I’m tactless?’ she said, attempting a teasing tone but failing.
    ‘Honest,’ he said, disagreeing with her.
    His gaze had shifted a little, become more serious. He was watching her closely, and it left her feeling exposed. She didn’t like it.
    ‘But,’ he said, ‘sometimes you try to hide what you’re not saying: frustration, dismissal...attraction.’
    Ruby had a feeling she wasn’t being as successful in that goal as she’d like tonight. What could he see in her expression?
    She decided it best not to consider that at all.
    ‘You’re partly right,’ she said. ‘At school I loved to act, but really I was only playing variations of myself. I wasn’t any good at stepping into another character.’ She laughed. ‘But I still wanted to work in film—you know, delusions of glamour—and I couldn’t wait to travel the world—so, I went to uni, then started at the bottom and worked my way up.’
    ‘You were good at school?’
    She shook her head, laughing. ‘Not at all. I went to uni when I was twenty, after going back to finish Year Twelve. I had a...rebellious phase, I’d guess you’d call it.’
    Dev’s eyebrows rose. ‘Really?’
    She smiled, pleased she’d surprised him. ‘Most definitely. A combination of a few things, but mostly I think I was just a pretty unhappy teenager.’ She paused, not sure how much to share. But then, it was no secret. ‘I was a foster child, and ended up going through a few different families as a teenager. For some reason I just couldn’t stay away from trouble.’
    He just nodded as he absorbed her words—he didn’t look shocked, or pitying or anything like that. Which she appreciated. Her childhood at times had been difficult, but it could have been a lot worse.
    ‘You were looking for attention,’ he said, and now it was Ruby’s turn to be surprised.
    ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘I figured that out, eventually.’
    Although that really was too simplistic. It had been more than that.
    She’d wanted to be wanted. To be needed. Even if it was painfully temporary.
    ‘Don’t look so surprised,’ he said. ‘I’m no expert in psychoanalysis or whatever—I can just relate. It’s why I started to act. My family is overflowing with academic over-achievers. But I hated school—hated sitting still. But acting...acting I could do. It was the one thing I was actually pretty good at.’
    He’d grown up to be a lot more than a pretty good actor.
    ‘Your family must be really proud of you.’
    The little pang of jealousy