Hard Bastard(98)

“Must be nice,” I mumbled.

“Seems to work so far.”

“Do you know where Lincoln is?”

He shook his head. “Nope. I lose track of him as soon as the camera is off.”

“Sick of staring at him?”

“Yeah, but it’s nothing personal. You film the same thing over and over all day long, you’re bound to get tired of it.”

I laughed. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Anyway, want me to tell him you’re looking for him?”

“Okay, sure. Thanks.”

“No problem.”

I turned and left, though I could feel his eyes linger on me for a second. As I made my way upstairs, I realized that I barely knew the camera crew, despite them being around all the time.

Brent was probably a few years older than I was, and he seemed like he was the leader of the crew. Jess was the director, but he was the guy that people seemed to turn to, or at least from what I had seen of them. Although we were all in the same house all the time, that was the most I had ever spoken with him.

Then again, I was working pretty hard at avoiding them. So it wasn’t really a surprise that I didn’t know Brent very well. It wasn’t his fault.

I stood at the top of the landing and sighed. I hadn’t told Brent where I’d be all afternoon, so I decided to go to the one place where I was reasonably certain Lincoln would check for me: the music room.

I stopped in my bedroom, grabbed a book, and then sat with my back against the wall in the music room. It was warm and comfortable, sunlight drifting in through the lace-covered curtains.

Five days and I hadn’t said a word to him. Five days was a long time when you had something as huge as our kiss lingering in the air. I had no clue what it was going to be like, if he was going to be weird or not. But I couldn’t just keep pretending like he didn’t exist. Helping Jules with her event was as good an excuse as any to try to move past whatever was happening between us.

Although I wasn’t sure I wanted to move past it. That was the whole problem.

I didn’t get much reading done. I hadn’t really planned on it. After maybe half of a chapter, I heard the door push open. I looked up to see Lincoln standing there grinning at me.

“I heard you were looking for me,” he said.

“I might have been.”

He took a few steps inside and crossed his arms. He was still slightly damp from the morning’s workout, and I had to admit that he looked pretty damn sexy. Between the muscles, the sweat, and the cocky grin, I suddenly was pretty sure I was making a mistake.

“What’s up, Brie baby?”

I closed my book and sat up. He crossed the room and sat down on the piano’s bench.

“Quit calling me that. Makes me sound like a little kid.”

“I was going for sexy adult, but whatever.”

I refused to let him bait me. “Your mom wanted me to ask you something.”

“Oh yeah? Why isn’t she asking herself?”

“She thinks you’ll listen to me.”

He laughed. “Why would she think that?”

“Apparently, you made a big splash at the last charity event.”

He paused. “Is that so?”

“She wants you to help out with her upcoming charity auction.”

He frowned. “I only went to the last one because I owed you.”

“I know. But I couldn’t exactly tell her that.”

“What does she need?”

“I’m not totally sure. Some memorabilia, I guess. You’ll sign some stuff. Probably just make an appearance.”

He looked thoughtful. “What’s in it for me?”

I sighed. “The feeling that you’ve made your mother happy.”

“Almost tempting. But she’s not the woman I want to please.”

I looked away. “Stop doing that.”

“Stop doing what, Brie baby?”

“You know what.”

I looked back and he was grinning at me. “I let you avoid me for days now, and suddenly I can’t even tease you?”

“I haven’t been avoiding you.”

He laughed. “You haven’t? So you aren’t timing your schedule around my PT?”

I paused. “No. Not exactly.”

“Right. Okay. We can play it that way if you want.”

“Look, I’m just the messenger here. Okay?”

“My original question still stands: what’s in it for me?”

I clenched my jaw. He could be so stubborn and selfish sometimes. “I don’t know, Lincoln. It’s a chance to do something nice for once.”

“I do plenty of nice things. Not interested.”

I sighed, exasperated. “What do you want?”

He raised an eyebrow and got that mischievous look again. “Now we’re talking. There is something that I want.”