“Monstrosity?” he growled, rising to his feet as he set me on the desk in front of him.
“Look at how big it is!” I growled right back. I wasn’t really upset about the size of the ring, but I also wasn’t going to tell him why I was so pissed off. But if I kept taking pot shots at him or the ring, then he was bound to know I was upset. And once he knew, there wasn’t a chance in hell he’d let me get away with not telling him what was wrong. I needed to get a handle on my anger first. “Damn. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called it a monstrosity. The ring is big, extremely big, but it’s also extremely beautiful.” I cocked my head to the side as I stared at it, thinking out loud. “Especially when you consider how a natural diamond is formed. All those years under extreme heat and pressure, changing how the atoms in the carbon bond together. And if the temperature isn’t between nine hundred and thirteen hundred degrees Celsius or the pressure isn’t between forty-five and sixty kilobars, the carbon turns to graphite instead. There’s one heck of a difference between pencils and diamond engagement rings like this, that’s for sure.”
“Sienna,” he interrupted.
“Eep! Sorry for geeking out on you.” I felt my cheeks heat.
His green eyes twinkled. “I love it when you get so excited talking about something that you chatter nonstop.” He brushed a soft kiss against my lips. “Can I assume this means you like the ring?”
“I do,” I whispered. “But I still don’t understand how me wearing it makes anything easier.”
“Taping these kind of shows can be intense since they cram so much into such a short period of time. I’ll want you by my side as much as possible.”
“I’m not just your... girlfriend.” I stumbled over the last word since it felt weird calling myself that, even though it was true. “I’m your assistant, too. Wouldn’t it make sense for me to be nearby in case you need anything?”
“I want you closer than an assistant would need to be, Sienna.” He trailed his fingertips up the inside of my thigh, leaving me in no doubt of what he meant. I blushed furiously, thinking about how awkward it would be for us to be all over each other in front of strangers who’d judge me for being his assistant and sleeping with him. I already felt weird knowing that Andy knew what we were up to when we were together in his office a lot of the time, and she’d never been anything but supportive. So maybe he was right about the ring making things easier while we were in Hollywood. It didn’t make it hurt any less, but at least I understood his reasoning a little better.
“Plus, the producers are sticklers for secrecy. You’ll have to sign an NDA, no matter what, but they’ll give you more freedom as my fiancée than they would as my assistant.”
“Well, then I guess I’d better where it while we’re there.”
For the first time ever, I was thankful for mid-term exams because they gave me the excuse I needed to distance myself from Owen. The Thursday and Friday before we were scheduled to leave, I had tests which accounted for a big chunk of my grade in several classes. I’d told Owen that I needed extra time to study, and he’d been completely fine with it—as long as I did my studying in my office instead of the library on campus. It didn’t give me as much distance as I’d hoped for, but it was enough for me to get past the sting of hurt I’d still been feeling over the ring incident.
It had also made me to miss all the time we usually spent together. I realized how quickly I’d become used to being close to him whenever I wasn’t in class. How addicted I was to Owen.
Not that I didn’t spend each night wrapped in his arms. There was no way he would have let me sleep anywhere else... after I’d passed out in an exhausted heap because of all the orgasms he’d wrung out of my body since I was “depriving him of his afternoon snacks,” as he’d put it. I didn’t feel too guilty since I figured he insisted on making up for the loss with an early morning snack.
As I shifted in my seat on the private jet Owen had arranged for our flight to Los Angeles, I felt the after-effects of our bedroom activities we’d barely finished when the limousine driver had called to say he was five minutes away from picking us up.
“A limo and a private jet? This is a heck of a lot fancier than the last trip I took.”
He reached over and lifted my feet into his lap, sliding my shoes off so he could rub my arches. “Where did you go?”
“Hmmm?” I sighed, not understanding his question. It was hard to think with his strong fingers gliding back and forth.