I don't even bother mentioning the way the sites are humoring the way I look and how different I am from his usual arm candy.
He goes on. "So I can see why this is a shock to you and an invasion of privacy of sorts. But … I don't think this is the end of the world."
I frown at him, crossing my arms. "Come again."
He takes a step toward me, his broad hands raised. "This is going to sound all sorts of crazy but just hear me out, okay?" A beat passes, his mouth quirks up into a half smile. "I have a proposition for you."
Chapter 6
Emmett
Alyssa is immediately suspicious. I don't blame her. I mean I just showed up at her apartment when she never told me where she lived and now I have a proposition for her. And I know she's going to get even more wary once she hears what it is.
Not that I mind. She's fucking adorable when she's confused, her cute nose is all scrunched, her mouth is pursed and pouty, all ready to fire some kind of insult or comeback at me.
Fucking hell. I could easily kiss her all over again, get lost in it. And I love how relaxed and messy and real she's looking right now, totally your girl next door except she's a girl next door that turned me into a total savage last night.
But whatever vibes she was giving me last night she's sure not giving them to me today. She's pissed. At me, at the situation. And I totally get it. No one likes their privacy violated.
Which makes what I'm about to propose to her all that much trickier.
To be fair, it was my publicist's idea.
I'm still not even sure it will work.
But I got the message loud and clear.
I don't have much choice.
I rub my lips together as Alyssa stares at me impatiently, waiting for the shoe to drop.
"Autumn, my publicist, thinks that you are just what I need."
She cocks her head at me, taken aback. "Huh?"
"You see, they say all publicity is good publicity and that's not exactly true. Good publicity is good publicity and if you have too much of the bad, you need the good to balance it out. Like anything in life, right. So I've been pretty fucking bad as of late. Now it's time to turn it over."
Alyssa shakes her head. "I don't understand. What does this have to do with me?"
I know I have to tread delicately and wish Autumn was here with me to do this the right way. I'm not exactly known for my tact and Alyssa is especially prickly. Plus, there's a part of me that seems to like pissing her off.
"Don't ask me why or how. I don't understand how the fucking industry works, the tabloids and the gossip sites. I don't know why certain things get hits or seem to attract the public. But the fact is, people are really … enamored with those photos. The idea of me with, well, someone like you."
She looks like I just slapped her. I didn't mean for it to come out that way. "Sorry," I say quickly, "I mean–"
"Oh, I get it," she snipes with fire in her eyes. "People think you're all humble now because you're with a fat chick."
Now I feel like I've been slapped. "Fat? What the fuck are you talking about? You're gorgeous. You're perfect."
"I'm ten times the size of whatever girl you're usually with. I'm curvy, I'm soft, I have a cute face. I'm not all angles and bones and fake boobs and long legs and–"
I raise my hand. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Alyssa. Let's not get crazy here. You're all those wonderful things and people like that. They think it's a good change of pace for me. All of them, all of the comments, they want this to be a thing. For the mystery girl to actually mean something to me and not be just some random screw."
"So what?"
"So the fact is, I want to keep up appearances. I want the world to believe that you and I are serious."
Her face is blank. "But we aren't."
"I know."
"We had sex."
"I know."
"That was it. Right?"
///
Normally I would be careful here because every single time I've been with a girl who seemed okay with a one-night stand or a purely physical relationship, it turned out they always hoped for more or expected more. But with Alyssa, I'm pretty sure she might just hate me, so …
"Right. I honestly never expected to see you again," I admit.
She doesn't flinch. "Same."
"But here I am."
"And you're talking nonsense. What did your publicist say exactly?"
"Autumn. You'd like her. Really. She said that if you were my girlfriend that it would make me a lot more palatable for people right now. The bad boy image apparently doesn't work when you're thirty-eight."