“It wasn’t different,” I said. “It was just part of the job.”
She sighed, looking down the hall. “Yeah, well, I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Is that your way of saying you care?”
“Don’t push it, Nash.” She looked back at me and smiled. “I have other news, actually.”
“What’s that?”
“Your movie. It got the green light. Filming begins in a month.”
I raised an eyebrow, surprised. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. Congratulations, Nash. You’re about to make a lot of money.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “It’s happening so suddenly.”
“That’s how it works.” She looked down at her phone, frowned, and looked back at me. “So, they want you to be a consultant.”
“What’s that mean?”
She shrugged. “You’ll probably sit around and tell them if something looks stupid. And they’ll probably ignore you, but you’ll get a nice fat paycheck on top of what you’ll already make.”
“Can’t really say no then, can I?”
“The publisher wants you to go,” she said slowly.
I nodded. “Okay. That’s settled then. I have my marching orders.”
“Don’t be annoyed, Nash.”
“Not annoyed.” I leaned against the door. “Might be nice to stay in one place for a while. Selena might like it better.”
“She’ll come?”
I grinned at Livy. “She is my wife after all.”
Liv smiled back. “Whatever you say. Look, I have to go. Take the night off. We’ll talk tomorrow morning.”
“Sounds good.”
“You sure you’re okay?”
“Fine, Liv. Thanks.”
She nodded once and then turned and walked off. I was surprised by how much Livy seemed to care; I hadn’t been sure she had it in her. People could surprise you sometimes.
I turned back to the door and swiped my keycard, unlocking it. The light was on inside and Selena was in the bathroom. Fully dressed, unfortunately.
“Who was that?” she asked.
“Guess.”
“Our lovely handler?”
“Exactly.” I walked into the bathroom and wrapped my arms around her. She smiled as I kissed her neck.
“What did she want?”
“Good news,” I said.
“What?”
“My movie got the green light.”
“Nash!” She turned around and kissed me. “That’s great.”
“They want me to come act as a consultant. Filming starts in a month, so I guess we’ll be going to L.A. soon.”
She smiled. “That’s amazing.”
“We’ll stay in one place, won’t have to travel around. Have you been there before?”
She shook her head. “No. Never.”
“You’ll like it.” I kissed her, pulling her roughly against me. “Now, I have something else I want from you.”
She smiled. “I think I can guess what that is.”
I pressed my lips against her ear. “Get used to it,” I said.
I kissed her hard, not a fucking care in the world.
31
Selena
I woke up early, my body tired and sore in a good way. Nash was still sleeping next to me as I climbed out of bed and went into the bathroom, shutting the door.
The night before flashed through my mind. We hadn’t left the bed, and he’d been insatiable. We stopped only to have some room service. He wouldn’t keep his hands off of me, his fingers so incredible, his mouth all over my skin, his cock deep between my legs.
I shivered, smiling at the thought of him sliding in and out of me, over and over, his strong hands rough on my hips.
Nash Bell. The biggest asshole in the world, my fake husband. I didn’t know what was happening between us, or where any of this was going, but I knew I wanted to be with him. I wanted to go to L.A. and see what happened. Maybe things wouldn’t work out, maybe we’d end up getting a divorce for real. Maybe he just wanted to fuck me until he was done with me. I didn’t know. But I wanted to find out.
Because I was falling for him, deeply and crazily.
I sighed, looking in the mirror. I was trying desperately not to think about what had happened with that crazy guy, but I kept getting flashes of his face. I could feel the gun pressed up against my head and feel my heart hammering in my chest, fear spiking through me.
I took a deep breath and let it out.
It was okay. Nash was in the other room, and I was safe. He wasn’t going to leave again, and if he did, he’d come back. He always came back.
Just then, my phone began to ring. I nearly jumped out of my skin, but I quickly ran out of the bathroom and grabbed it off the dresser. Nash stirred and looked up at me. “What time is it?” he grunted, but I didn’t answer. I didn’t recognize the number, but the area code was from my hometown.
“Hello?” I said.
“Hi, honey. It’s Mom.”
“Hey, Mom,” I said, walking away from Nash. He was watching me too intently. I went into the bathroom and shut the door. “What’s going on? I didn’t recognize the number.”
“Sorry to call so early.” She sounded stressed and tired. “I’m calling from the hospital.”
My breath caught in my chest. “Dad?” I asked.
“I think you should come home.”
I could hear the pain in her voice. I could hear it in her voice, knew what was happening, but I couldn’t believe it.
He had looked bad the last time I’d seen him, very bad. But I didn’t think we were at this point, not yet. We were so far away from this point, years away. I hadn’t even gotten their money yet.
“Why?” I asked, knowing the answer.
“He’s doing a lot worse than I’ve been telling you,” Mom said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to ruin your new marriage, but it’s pretty bad. That’s why we came to visit you guys. We weren’t sure if we’d ever get another chance.” She paused for a second. “Sweetie,” she said, choking slightly, “you need to come home.”
I felt my whole body freeze. The world stopped moving around me.
I stared ahead and couldn’t think.
My mom kept talking, but I didn’t really hear what she was saying. I couldn’t pay attention, couldn’t make the words make sense. I could only think, over and over, about how my dad was dying. He was dying in the hospital.
I don’t know how long I sat there for.
But eventually I found myself looking up at Nash, his face blank. He was gently lowering my hands and taking the phone away. I stared at him, in total shock. “I have to go home,” I said to him.
“I know,” he said.
And when he hugged me, I couldn’t stop the tears. I cried against his chest and he didn’t say a word.
It took a few hours before I could get myself together enough to think coherently.
“Don’t worry about the flight,” Nash said. “I’ll take care of it.”
I was packing my stuff frantically, practically throwing it all into my suitcase. I was barely paying attention to him.
“You’ll be on the next flight. You’ll get back as soon as possible.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
I was moving in a daze as Nash watched me, silently appraising me. I had no clue what he was thinking, or what I was thinking, or what was going to happen. I could only think about my dad, my poor sick dad.
I had never really imagined I’d lose him. I knew he was sick, knew he was bad, but it still never seemed real. You never imagined something like that could happen to your invincible father. I still could see him laughing as he taught me how to throw a baseball, how to ride a bike, how to fish. He used to take me to a stream near our house and let me cast out, even though we never caught anything. He was always smiling, always laughing.
I couldn’t imagine never hearing his laugh again.
“Selena,” Nash said. “Hey.”
I looked up at him. “Hey.”
“You were staring off into space.”
“Sorry.”
He checked his watch. “We have to get you to the airport soon.”
“Right.” I threw some more things into a bag. He took my first suitcase downstairs and came back ten minutes later to grab my second one.
“Ready?” he asked. “Next flight is in two hours. We can get you there if we leave now.”
“Ready,” I said.
We walked out of the room and down the hall. Livy met us outside, standing near the town car.
“Selena,” she said, “I’m so sorry about your dad.”
“Thanks,” I said.
She took me by the shoulders, looking at me seriously. “If I can ever do anything for you, please, tell me and it will get done.”
I blinked, surprised. She’d never given me much attention or even acted like she cared that I existed, and now she was saying that? I didn’t understand her and probably never would, but it meant a lot.
“Thanks,” I said.
She nodded and then turned away. I climbed into the car and Nash climbed in after me.
The ride to the airport went by in a flash. One second we were leaving the hotel and the next we were pulling up outside of the terminal. There was so much I wanted to say, so much I wanted to tell Nash, but none of it was coming out.
It was like my mouth was glued shut, or maybe full of marbles. I couldn’t make words come out, even though there were so many words I wanted to speak.