37.
March 5th, 2020
Ithanked the hairstylist who’d been working on me, and then looked at myself in the green room mirror. I fixed the sleeves of my crimson blazer, made sure my white V-neck t-shirt was neatly tucked inside my black jeans, and adjusted the dark leather watch on my right wrist.
One of my favorite talk show hosts, Randall Casey, had asked me to come on his show for a quick interview. He’d said he wanted me to talk about my latestPeople’smag feature, and also a little aboutWavesThatHoldUs. I was onboard, of course, because I loved interacting with him whenever I was a guest on his show.
But – yeah, there was abut– he also wanted me to bring Zaira along with me this time. He wanted us to shine some light on our relationship, give the audience a glimpse of our chemistry, and talk a little aboutThe Ice Bearer’sovernight success. Shane thought it was safe for Zaira and I to make a public appearance of this caliber, but my girlfriend… Well, let’s just say that she’d come close to erupting out of her skin when I’d told her about the interview. It had been a literal task to get her stubborn ass out of her apartment, but with the help of my manager, Kenneth, Amara, Dylan, and his husband Conner, I’d been able to put – yes,put– her in my car and lock her in before driving her to the studio.
“It would be just one snort, Shane!” I heard Zaira yell from outside the green room. A moment later, she marched in with a scowl on her face, with my very sweaty and frustrated manager trailing her. “Justonesnort, that’s it!”
I let go of a hiccupped breath when I ran my eyes over her. It’s the first I’d seen her ever since the crew had whisked her away to the vanity room to get her ready about an hour or so ago.
She was wearing a long, full-sleeved, pink-laced evening dress that caressed and embraced her full body perfectly, and drove me fuckingmadwith want. Her hair was pulled up in a confusing-looking yet beautiful updo. She had makeup on her face, which was something I hadn’t seen her in up until that moment. She had eyeliner on, along with blush and eyeshadow and all that other shit I didn’t know the names of. But God, it was her lips that made me swallow the tightness in my throat; that made me so fucking hard behind my fitted jeans that the room started closing in on me.
Pink – her lips were painted a subtle and dewy shade of pink. Pink – that I wanted to run my fingers over; pink – that would be my fucking demise.
My Zaira was a queen of her own making. She was royalty and allure; power and grace.
A force so brilliant that you couldn’t help but get drawn to.
“But I don’t have any drugs! I don’t even use them, Zaira! Where the fuck do I even bring them from?!” Shane said.
Lord have mercy.
I cleared my throat to rid myself of my lust-fest. “What’s going on here?” I asked.
Zaira turned to me, and then sucked in a breath before dragging her eyes over my form. She took her time in assessing me, and then tilted her head to the side as she looked between my legs. “I can see your hog,” she said, and pointed right at my dick.
“Mywhat?” I tried not to laugh at her choice of word.
She brought her gaze to my face again. “Your hog.”
“Jesus, please take me now,” Shane muttered as he began wiping his sweat-slicked head with a napkin. “This was so not a good idea.”
I ran a hand over my slicked back hair. “I don’t know what’s happening here, guys. I’m very confused right now.”
“This…thiscreature,” Shane began, and pointed a finger at Zaira, “has been forcing me to drug her for the past hour and a half. I don’t know why she thinks I would have some, but she’s convinced on giving me hell TODAY OF ALL DAYS!”
I wanted the ground to open up and chew me off.
I looked at Zaira. “Why do you wanna be drugged?”
She pursed her lips. Those dewy fucking pink lips. “I didn’t saydrugged. I asked him toroofieme.”
“It’s the same damn thing!” Shane said in exasperation.
I bit the inside of my cheek to hide my amusement as I walked over to Zaira and cupped her face between my hands. “Why do you wanna be roofied?”
“Because I’m scared,” she said softly. Her eyes misted over, and her chin trembled a little. “I don’t wanna do this interview.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because I’ll screw things over if I say something wrong or inappropriate. We’ll be on live television, and I can’t cope with the thought of thousands of people watching me, judging me, and most definitely mocking me.”
“It’s millions of people, actually, not thousands,” Shane added from behind, but raised his hands in surrender when I glared at him.
“Baby, you look so fucking beautiful,” I said to Zaira, and bent so that our noses brushed. “I’ve never seen anyone look this perfect. You’re funny, sweet, and smart. You’ll ace this interview and inspire people who might need a voice like yours to stand up for them. You’ll rule this thing, Zaira, and I’m sure of it. Just believe in yourself a little, will you? Because I believe a shit ton in you, and I know you’ve got this in the bag.”
