Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 63716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Touched and a little baffled, I nodded. “I’m going to go,” I said hesitantly, sensing that I was hurting more than I was helping at this point.
Julian’s eyes flashed with a light I didn’t understand, but he said nothing. In fact, he said very little as he walked me out. I kissed him goodbye hesitantly, feeling the barely leashed strength in his body, the way it was drawn tighter than a bowstring.
Then I left, feeling like I was on cloud nine.
16
JULIAN
Normally, I was a multitasker. I could be in one meeting in person and in another on Zoom, paying attention to both simultaneously. Lately though, I could only think about two things. Two people, actually. Willow Laurier and Callum O’Conner.
Both were maddening in their own way, but I wanted them both with a single mindedness that was unusual for me. Obsessive was Dana’s style, and she didn’t appreciate me moving in on her territory.
“You need to relax,” she advised without a trace of self-aware irony on our way to meet our parents and Shelly for dinner. Dana and Shelly wanted to start planning their wedding. Again.
“Will do.”
“It’s not good to want a thing too much. It drives the luck away,” Dana continued.
“What?” I frowned at her. “Are you quoting something?”
Her smile was full of superiority, “I bet Callum O’Conner would recognize Steinbeck when he heard it.”
I had no doubt, and I was glad that that was where Dana’s mind was. That meant she hadn’t picked up on the fact that I was still thinking about Willow. More than thinking about her. I was living, breathing, and dreaming her. It was like she’d cast a spell on me. I didn’t even wonder what she was hiding anymore. I just wanted her. And I wasn’t getting what I wanted.
I’d told her I would take things slow, but I hadn’t expected her to fucking disappear after I gave her the most intense orgasm of her life. That wasn’t going slow, it was going backward. And now that I had her, things had to go forward. Even if that just meant seeing her in person. All I’d gotten for the last two days were texts and a few phone calls. Miller was keeping her busy all day and late into the evening.
But I would see her tomorrow night. It was another award ceremony, and this time, I’d made sure Miller invited her as his plus one.
“What if I already have a date?” he asked crabbily when I called to make the request.
“Do you?”
“No, but think about how it looks, bringing a production assistant as a plus one.”
I had thought about how it looked. I was willing to take the hit in the press, but I knew there was no way in hell Willow would go with me. Miller, though. He wasn’t quite on the media’s radar, no matter what he thought.
“It’ll look like what it is,” I said, drumming my fingers on my desk. “You throwing a hardworking production assistant a bone. Showing her the ropes in another part of the industry.”
“A boner, you mean,” Miller muttered, still grumpy, but he agreed. “Do I want to know why?” he asked, switching on a dime to a coy voice that set my nerves on edge.
“No,” I said shortly, and hung up the phone.
I pulled my mind back to the here and now. Dana had been talking while I was lost in thought. I tuned in now, just in time to hear her say, “What do you think they’ll say?”
I knew she could only be talking about one thing. What would my parents say when she and Shelly announced that they wanted to start planning their wedding for the third time? “I think they’ll say congratulations,” I said slowly. “At least, that’s what they should say.”
Dana slipped me a rare, genuine grin. Nothing like the flashing smile she wore for photographers, but a real one. More lips than teeth, and kind of sad. “You’re a good big brother.”
“I try,” I said, and went back to thinking about Willow and wishing it was tomorrow.
The next night at the ceremony, I skipped the red carpet again, which gave me time to network in the lobby while Garrett and his wife made their way through the press line. It also gave me a chance to check that our table was comprised of the people it should be–Garrett and Destiny, Dana and me, Miller and Willow.
I was standing with a few acquaintances when Miller and Willow walked in. I spotted them immediately, but I checked my first impulse to make a beeline for them. For Willow. I watched her, though, keeping track of her even as I bantered with the others about one of their latest releases.
She looked stunning in a red, off-the-shoulder dress that clung to her generous curves, then flared out in a midi-length skirt. Black high heels. Her mouth was a bold red slash. I’d known she would look beautiful, but I was surprised by how perfect she looked, considering I knew damn well she didn’t have a stylist and makeup artist at her beck and call like most of the women here.