Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 88656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
He gave me a puzzled look.
“I’m talking about Mark Gladstone. I think he wants me with him to attract younger girls.”
“Yeah, you keep thinking that and you’ll be in a world of shit before you can say no thank you, sir.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Kage shrugged, and a muscle in his jaw twitched.
“Mr. Cryptic strikes again,” I mumbled. “Can you even say anything without talking in code?”
“Yeah. When you’re ready to pull your head out of your ass and stop acting like a little boy. You are so goddamn naive.”
“There you go again with the riddles and code. Why don’t you just say what you mean?”
He growled and ran a hand through his hair. “You don’t even know what you’re asking, Jamie. You say you want to get to know me? You’ll know everything soon enough, because you’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done. It’s your nature. You’ll know my deep, dark secrets. My fears. All of the ugly things that you will struggle to keep the public from catching wind of. Because I assure you— if you never listen to another word I say, listen to this— I am ugly. I am dark, and I’m bad, and I’m rotten to the core. And if you think being my publicist is going to be a walk in the park, you might want to go home to mama. Because it’s about to get rough.”
“Yeah, you keep threatening I’m going to get to know you, but I’m not seeing it.” I looked hard at him. Tried to see his eyes in the gloom. “It seems like you have this security system that I can’t breach, and every time I get close, a silent alarm goes off and you batten down the hatches.”
He dropped back down onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. “You’ve got some pretty serious hatches yourself.”
“That’s bullshit,” I said. “I’m an open book.”
“Yeah? Like you lied to me about having a girlfriend? Real open book, Jamie.”
I covered my face with my hands, wishing I could go back in time and take back the lie. “It wasn’t exactly a lie, okay? I just… I forgot.”
Kage barked out a laugh. “You’re fucking lying right now. I’m not stupid, Jamie. I can tell when I’m being lied to. I could tell it over lunch that day when you took the phone call, and I can tell it now. I don’t know if I can trust you. I need to be able to trust you.”
“Okay,” I sighed. “Jesus, you really know how to obliterate a guy’s ego. The truth is, I forgot for a second and called her my girlfriend out of habit. We’d only broken up a few days before I came here. Then when I realized my mistake, I didn’t want to admit it to you. Getting dumped is not something to brag about. It’s… humiliating. And there you were being all Mr. Perfect, and I didn’t want you to think I was lame or something.”
He didn’t respond, so I turned back over, putting my back to him. Then Kage turned over in bed and moved toward Vanessa, away from me. It was like we were a couple having an argument.
“Kage…” Vanessa said slowly. “Please tell me you brought your baseball bat to bed.”
“I don’t play baseball,” he said.
“Then could you scoot over a bit? We’re supposed to be going to sleep.”
“Dammit!” Kage laughed and moved toward the center of the bed. “Okay, if you want to be that way. But I didn’t figure Jamie would let me cuddle with him.”
I laughed and turned halfway over, meeting his gaze in the dark. “I don’t care. Vanessa did say you were a big teddy bear.”
“Yeah?” He laughed darkly. “Don’t believe anything she says about me. She has ulterior motives.”
She laughed, but she didn’t refute what he’d said.
Even though I’d basically invited him to cuddle with me, I never actually expected it to happen. I was just trying to act cool and to make up for the little quarrel we’d just had. So when he scooted up behind me and slipped an arm around my waist, I took a deep breath and held it. His warmth surrounded me, soothed me.
“You can breathe, Jamie,” Kage said near my ear. “I’m not going to eat you.”
“I know.” I let the breath out and felt instantly better. Then I shifted around a bit to get comfortable. Something firm brushed my ass, and I settled against it, feeling a sense of euphoria wash over me.
This was okay, right? If Kage and Vanessa thought it was okay, then it must be okay.
Okay to feel this way.
After a few minutes of silence, Kage said in a gravelly voice, “Don’t ever fucking lie to me again.”
“I won’t,” I whispered. At that moment, I thought I’d rather die than ever lie to Michael Kage again.