Itake a couple steps outside before I feel Roman’s large hands catch me along my waist. His hands are rough and calloused where they meet my exposed skin, and it sends sparks dancing down my spine. The sensation causes me to gasp, and I try to cover it quickly with a throat clear. I freeze, not knowing what to do.
“Come on,” he murmurs in my ear. He hasn’t said anything scandalous, but the gesture feels intimate and sends my heart into a frenzy, nonetheless. Roman gives the faintest nod toward where the photographers are.
Right, they’re watching. This is really happening. I need to pretend to be into Roman Everett. He gives me a smile that has undoubtedly dropped dozens of panties, and I have to tell my stupid body not to react to it. This is just acting. Logically, I know Roman is a jerk. My mind understands, but my body clearly has not gotten the memo.
He pulls me close and whispers, “I want you to look up at me and smile. We’ll talk for a minute, then go our separate ways.”
“What do we talk about?” I ask.
Roman glances down at my lips, and it sends a wave of heat through my body. “We’ll have to do a little improv I suppose.”
“Okay… um.” My brain spins as I try to come up with something.
“Don’t have an aneurysm over it, Daly. They can’t hear us. We just have to sell how it looks.” As he says it, he brushes a piece of hair back behind my ear with a tenderness I didn’t know he possessed.
“It’s kind of impressive how little your words and actions line up right now,” I say as I stare into his eyes, stepping closer.
“What can I say? I live to impress.”
“Really? I thought you lived to be a dick.” Mentally, I kick myself as soon as the words are out. I can’t help it though, something about him gets so under my skin.
Roman sets his hands on my hips, and pulls me in close. “No, that’s just for you, love.”
He gently takes me by the chin, and leans in for what I can only assume will be a kiss. Is this it? Is this really how we’re going to have our first kiss? In front of the paparazzi? But I glance down at his soft lips, and some traitorous part of me hopes we do. He lowers his mouth to mine at a torturously slow pace, until he’s hovering just above. My body is screaming at me to press up onto my toes ever so slightly to close the distance between us. Before I get the chance to do something I’ll regret, Roman’s eyes lift and he “notices” the paparazzi.
Pulling back from me, his hand drops and his expression hardens. Playing the part of the territorial, pissed off movie star who hates that he’s been spotted.
“That was perfect,” he mumbles under his breath.
“Is that it? Do we need to do anything else?”
“That’ll be enough for them for now.”
“So do we–”
“I’ll see you when I have to.” He turns and walks away without another word.
I curse myself for wanting to kiss him not thirty seconds ago.
The hot water from my shower does an adequate job of washing away my irritation from today. When I hop out, feeling refreshed after letting it nearly burn me for the last fifteen minutes, Maren shouts my name. The shout is loud, and she sounds alarmed. My heart sinks wondering what the hell caused it.
I grab my electric toothbrush as a makeshift weapon, and with nothing but a towel barely covering the goods, I run toward the living room where I heard her shriek. I’m not sure what I’ll encounter, and I doubt I’ll be able to tackle whatever the hell it is in nothing but a teensy tiny towel with an electric toothbrush no less, but at least I know how to haul ass when it matters.
Instead of finding my roommate in peril, she’s sitting on the couch with her mouth agape, staring down at her laptop. There’s clearly no danger in sight.
“Clover, what is going on?”
I could ask the same damn thing, Maren.
“What do you mean?” I ask, looking around and trying to calm my pulse now that I know there’s no murderer hiding behind the curtains.
My cheeks redden as I remember I’m holding my electric toothbrush as a makeshift weapon, and I pull it behind my back to save what little face I can.
“What is this?” Maren turns her laptop so that I can see.
I know that logo and bright yellow background anywhere, she’s readingCelebrity Scene Online, a website and magazine that’s one of the top celebrity gossip sources out there. Couldthere already be an article out about Roman and I? It’s been all of an hour since we left the gym.
Celebrity Scene Online
