AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He turned on the shower first and beckoned for me to follow him.
I didn’t want to overthink this, I didn’t want to think at all, so I went with the flow. Sighed in his embrace as he shampooed my hair and clutched my wet body against his.
“I could get used to this,” he said. And not in jest. He sounded serious. Like he meant it.
I was thinking the same thing, and in no mental place to pretend like this didn’t feel as right as it did. I couldn’t beat around the bush. I couldn’t pretend that I didn’t want him. And not just like this, spanked, bent over and used. I wanted him...to be mine. I wanted to be his. And I didn’t want there to be any doubt in his, mine, Cassidy, or anybody’s mind.
I spun around, letting my worries wash down the drain as I stared up at the guy that I chose.
The guy I cared about.
The guy I thought was a jerk, and was, but he was also vulnerable and sexy and funny and stubborn and...I was falling for him.
When he smiled at me, my heart corrected me.
What do you mean, falling?
It has happened.
You’re in love.
“What are we gonna do?” I asked softly, tracing his jawline with my fingertips.
“We’re gonna see where this leads, I hope,” he answered, sweeping a hand over his wet locks. “Leave the rest up to me.”
Leaving things up to other people wasn’t my strong suit, but I inhaled, gazing at him, making sure he was all in. Making sure he knew I was giving him a chance to call it off.
He didn’t.
CHAPTER TWENTY: JASON
“Are you ready for your close up?!”
I cut my eyes to Delia, who was enjoying this whole thing a little too much. Even if the bulbs around the mirror weren’t bright enough to blind, her smile was. Every tooth in her mouth shone like a shark who was about to throw down.
“I’m as ready as I’m gonna be,” I grumbled, fidgeting in the shop chair. Calling it a shop chair seemed like eggs on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich—it just didn’t fit. A shop was a place with sawdust and metal and wood. I refused to admit that the makeup trailer qualified. The dust wasn’t of the saw variety, but some chalky hue clung to the countertops and choked the air. The metal poked out from containers: scissors, tweezers, and nail clippers. And the wood? It was the base of the brush that the grinning makeup artist was clutching as she advanced toward me.
“What are you doing with that?” I asked warily.
“Relax, Mr. Cox!” she said, her wispy voice like some zen yoga instructor that would have put me to sleep if I hadn’t been on alert. Not to mention I’d clocked in several hours of sleep last night, courtesy of the most insatiable woman I’d ever met. A woman I was glad I didn’t bring to this circus.
Just putting out a statement wouldn’t have been enough. Not with the story still trending on Twitter, thanks to Cassidy booking spots on every gossip show that would have her. So I decided to fight fire with fire. I invited Cassidy to come on The Tea, one of the highest rated gossip shows on TV.
Speaking of fire, I was ready to dash out of this place like it was engulfed in flames, since the makeup artist was dangerously close to my cheek.
“It’s just a little powder, Jason,” Delia cajoled me, aiming her phone at me.
“I don’t do powder,” I growled, opting to fix my tie instead. I froze with my fingers on the knot, realizing that she was definitely streaming this process. “I did make you sign a non-disclosure agreement,” I threatened.
“I’m merely documenting,” she fired back with a laugh. “One day, your grandkids will ask about the day Grandpa broke the internet.”
I was too flabbergasted by ‘grandkids’ and ‘Grandpa’ to dodge the brush...and way too stubborn to admit she was right—it was just a little powder. I couldn’t even tell the difference.
But something was different. It was the warm, comforting feeling that had flooded my chest. The smile that was becoming harder to keep to myself. I generally only did kids on a case by case basis, and after Cassidy, that was a door I’d always kept closed, conceding to a life filled with trips to Maui versus pilgrimages to Disneyland.
But now...my answer to the kids question was ‘Who knows?’ instead of ‘Hell no’. It was still early for talk about babies, but it wasn’t lost on me that it was no longer something that was off the table. Something for other people. Family seemed like a missing piece that I’d found when I wasn’t looking for it, and now that I’d opened my heart to the idea, to Natalee, it was a brave new world.
The makeup artist was taking advantage of my daydream, because she approached me with some color smudged on an applicator.
