“Don’t worry about it. I mean, I know you don’t. But don’t think thatI’mworried about it. I’m not. It might actually be fun to see people spin over this, if you can handle it.”
“Fun?” He wasn’t following the conversation. Maybe she hadn’t seen the same thing in the photos he had.
“You’re the tour hottie.” She wrinkled her nose. “I’m sorry about that, of course, but it’s quite a brilliant move, really.”
He didn’t want to be ahottiefor anyone other than her. “And if that shifts into a rumour that you’re having an affair with your bodyguard?”
“They won’t get that from the pictures.”
He snorted. In his peripheral vision, Jackie winced.
Liana swivelled her head back and forth between them. “Really? He’s just walking behind me.”
Jackie pressed her lips together and shook her head. “I dunno. I’m heading over to the arena. You got anything on the schedule today?”
Liana looked at her phone. “A radio call-in at noon. That’s it.”
“All right. Good luck.”
Dean watched, suddenly furious with himself, as Jackie left them alone.
Liana crawled across the bed and held out her hands for him.
This was a bad idea. He still took her into his arms and let her kiss him. God, she smelled good. He breathed her in, a rough inhale followed by an even rougher exhale.
He hadn’t seen this coming, because he was an amateur.
“What’s wrong?”
“You need a professional security team.”
She laughed gently. “You are a professional.”
“You need people that understand the industry.”
“You don’t think they’ll get the same treatment from fans and the media?”
“I have no idea what they’ll get.” His skin crawled with the reminder of all that he didn’t understand. “I need to talk to Zander.”
She frowned at him. “Okay. But you can talk to me, too.”
Clearly he couldn’t. “You don’t think this is a big deal.”
“Because it’s not!”
“Time will tell, won’t it?” He was getting madder now. Not at her, but just in general. He paced away from her, turning so she didn’t see the look on his face.
— —
Liana couldn’t believeher ears. “You’re overreacting.”
“Maybe.” But when he turned back, there was a weird tightness to his jaw, and his eyes—normally bottomless pools of calm—were dark and stormy.
“What is this really about?”
“I need to go.” He took a deep breath, avoiding her gaze. “Text me if you need to go somewhere unexpectedly. Otherwise I’ll be back at the next timing on the itinerary.”
She bit back her retort, because she needed to think this through before pushing him for something he clearly was having second thoughts about.
