Wicked Grind (Stark World #1)(61)

"I was-well, more irritated than angry. Mostly I've been mad at myself. That crap about punishing you. I had no right, Kelsey. I was just-"

He shakes his head. "It doesn't matter. The bottom line is that I was a prick, and I'm sorry, and I get why you'd be mad."

"I'm not," I say truthfully. Because the only one I'm mad at is me.

"Then why are you dodging my calls?"

"What are you talking about?" I swing my purse around so that I can get my phone out and show him there've been no missed calls. But my phone isn't there. "Ah," I say. "I think I see the problem."

I hold out my open purse for his inspection. "No phone. And it barely had any charge when I got to your studio. It probably fell out at Griffin's last night."

He laughs. "You're a strange woman, Kelsey."

I bristle a little. "Excuse me?"

"I'm not sure I've ever met a woman who wasn't surgically attached to her phone, and you've gone almost twenty-four hours without it." 

"I'm a wonder among women," I deadpan.

"Yeah," he says, looking at me intently. "You are."

I swallow, feeling suddenly uncomfortable. "Why were you calling?"

"To apologize," he says. "And to ask you to come back."

"Oh."

"This show is pivotal for me. And I need you." He speaks with such intensity and honesty that it almost seems as though we're back in Santa Barbara, sitting under a tree holding hands. "And I know you need the money. It's good for both of us," he adds. "Kelsey, please."

A lump forms in my throat, because I have to say no. I have to disappoint this man once again. I'd hurt him when I ran out of the party, and now I'm doing the same thing all over again. "I should never have even tried out," I say. "I should have just stayed far away."

For a moment, he simply looks at me, his expression hard. My stomach twists, because I'm sure he's agreeing. After all, I destroyed so many things.

The silence grows heavy, and as I scramble for something to say, the Lyle Tarpin comes over and hooks his arm around Wyatt's shoulder. I sit there like an idiot staring, because he's my first up-close-and-personal movie star.

"Any luck on your quest to find that girl? Evelyn's over by the bar if you want to enlist her help."

Wyatt clears his throat, then nods toward me. "Lyle, meet Kelsey."

"Kelsey," Lyle says. "Oh. Right." He points across the room. "Lovely to meet you, but I need to go over there now. I need privacy to extract my foot from my mouth."

I laugh, my star-induced nervousness dissolving. "It's okay," I assure him, but he's already heading off. I shift my attention to Wyatt. "Friend of yours?"

"My confessor," he says. "I told him I'd been an ass and needed to lure you back. I also told him I didn't know how to find you."

"And yet here I am."

"Yeah," he says softly. "Here you are. Have I managed to lure you?"

"I-I just can't. I need the money, you're right. But last night, when you . . ." I clear my throat. "Well, when I saw the photos of me, I realized I was crazy to think it would work. I'd get the money I need, but I'd be fired in a heartbeat."

"I'm not creating porn, Kelsey."

"No! Wyatt, please. I already told you. There's beauty and strength and . . . well, your work is amazing."

"Then what?"

I sigh, because I shouldn't have to explain this. "We both know there are people who won't see it that way. And as much as I need fifteen grand right now, I need a career for the rest of my life."

He nods thoughtfully, then turns away from the window. He glances over the guests in the room, and I see when his gaze lands on Griffin. "What's the money for, Kelsey?"

I have to swallow the lump in my throat. "I told you it's none of your business."

"I'm making it my business."

"Wyatt . . ."

"A treatment? Plastic surgery? What?"

"Fine. Whatever." I'm too tired and flustered to argue. "It's for a new protocol. His burns-" My voice cracks and I blink furiously, because I am not crying at this party.

"His burns go all the way to the bones, and he doesn't have much range of motion on his right side. The protocol is supposed to help ease some of that by repairing some of the skin and nerve damage. I don't know how. I just know that there's been success in lesser burns and now they're trying to adapt the protocol for fourth-degree survivors."