One tear falls. And another.
Because I’m petrified. I’m so fucking scared of what I was avoiding in the first place.
“See? It’s not hard,” he whispers. “We can be nice to each other outside of the bedroom.”
I laugh quietly. “Only because we’ve already argued.”
“True.” He pulls me tighter to him. “I’ll send it back. If you want. The lingerie.”
I sigh heavily and shake my head. “You don’t have to. I just freaked.”
“No, you didn’t, did you?” he says with false shock.
I pull back and smack his chest, a smile playing on my lips. His dark eyes sparkle down at me, amusement evident in them. Slowly, he presses his lips to mine in a full-bodied kiss that sends shivers down my spine.
This kiss is slow and soft. Tender and deep. It says a thousand things we can’t say out loud. Mine says that I’m afraid, that I can’t have more than what we have now. His responds that maybe I’m not seeing clearly what there is and that there’s no reason to be afraid. And mine says that there is, because he doesn’t know it all.
He might be addicted to sex, but I don’t think he’s ever experienced true addiction.
“Trust me,” he whispers. “You’re a little wild and I’m a little wild, and together, we’re a whole lot tempted. But just trust me.”
I say yes.
My phone rings, breaking through the silence. I grab it and hold my breath when my agent’s name flashes on the screen.
“Sheila,” I answer.
“Liv! Fantastic news. Balfour are interested in you coming in for a test shoot. Are you free Thursday?”
“What time?”
“Between twelve and three.”
I run through my shifts in my head. “Yes, at twelve. I’m supposed to work at one, but Donny won’t mind.” As long as I wear an extra-tight, extra-low-cut shirt that day.
“Fabulous. I’ll call them back to confirm. Also, you should know they’re testing twenty girls.”
“Ouch.”
“That was my first thought—but I have confidence in you, Liv. And I have a question.”
“Hmm?”
“Were you comfortable shooting with Tyler Stone?”
Oh, I was comfortable all right. “Yep.”
“Great. Because he’s the photographer.”
Bridezilla is in full force. Her new catering company has just gone bust, leaving her with no food for the wedding. Again. She’s currently yelling angrily into the phone at the owner, who called to inform her of the bad news.
Bad news. Yep. Try rephrasing that to catastrophic.
“Do you think she’s on her period?” Tyler whispers.
I snort. “No. She doesn’t have them.” He raises an eyebrow at me, and I pull my hoodie down my arm. I tap the inside of my upper arm. “Implant. Stops them.”
“You don’t get periods?”
“What part of ‘stops them’ is hard for you to understand?”
“We’re eloping,” Dayton announces, throwing the phone on the sofa. It bounces onto the floor. “We’ll disappear somewhere and get married in secret, and these useless companies can go fuck themselves.”
“And there’s the control freak,” I mutter.
Tyler covers his hand with his mouth.
“Day, sweetheart.” Aaron runs his hands down her arms and soothes her. “We can find someone else to do the food. We have plenty of time.”
“Right.” She snorts. “Because you’d hate it if we ran off this weekend to get married.”
“I can’t say I’m averse to the idea, but I know that’s not what you want. You want it all, so I’m giving you it all. Yes, it’s hard work, but it’ll be worth it in the end.”
“Do you want a glass of wine?” Tyler asks hesitantly.
Dayton shoots him a hard look. I pat his thigh and cross to the bar. Opening the cupboard, I run my eyes over the bottles until I find a bottle of tequila.
Bingo, baby.
I pour her two shots’ worth into a glass. I nudge Aaron out of the way and hand her the glass. She drains it in one go, turning around to put the glass on the bar.
“Blech.” She screws her face up and shivers. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I smirk and join Tyler back on the sofa.
“What the…” He watches in amazement as Day opens her laptop and starts calmly tapping at the keys. “What did you just do?”
I smile smugly. “That’s why I’m the maid of honor.”
Aaron leans on the back of sofa. “What did you give her?”
“Tequila.”
“Tequila?”
“You think wine is gonna calm that crazy down? No, Aaron. You need something a bit stronger.”