“Shit!” he hisses, and even that is overly dramatic. He projects it. Neighboring diners gasp in offense, even though none of them look like they’d be scandalized by it if it were said any other way. “Tilly, why didn’t you tell me?”
I shrug helplessly, unsure what to say. “I . . . I don’t know why I would? You weren’t the one getting—”
“I asked you if you had anyone try to blackmail you!” he yells, waving his hands wildly. I’m pretty sure the reason everyone is looking around is they’re trying to find the cameraman. Clearly, this is a performance.
“What do you—?” I start, only to remember that time he came to Wilmington and we went to lunch together with Donovan. It was such a crazy day, what with Blaise pulling Blaise nonsense, that I’d forgotten everything about our conversation at lunch. “What happened?”
Emerson drops back down to the table, leans in close to whisper, although everyone’s attention is on us so I’m thinking a couple people are about to catch some gossip. “A bunch of guests at Ani-Con had blackmail letters sent to them. Anyone who did anything suspicious. They caught, god, Gary Crush was filmed sucking Ben Harris’s dick, and Taylor Reede had this whole naked party? Like, everyone was supposed to come dressed in something that wasn’t clothing, and then itjust all fell off throughout the night? Oh, and Genesis played the mirror game and had a bunch of guys snort lines of coke off her stomach.”
My eyes widen at that.
“Yep. A couple paid off the first round, but then they realized it was happening to everyone and hired a team to shut them down and—”
“Wait, the blackmailers were busted? But we just got another demand right before the season started!”
Emerson nods. “Yeah, that’s why I asked you about it. They never actually found the blackmailer. The guys they hired scared the blackmailer so hard they returned the money, so they decided not to go any further with it. You know, the more you push, the bigger the risk it’s all going to get leaked just out of spite.”
“Do you still know how to contact the scary anti-blackmailers?”
“Itturns out I do.”
Chapter 31
Blaise
I wake up groggy in the middle of the night, unsure of what’s pulled me out of my sleep when everyone in the house has an early day tomorrow except me. My brain goes to the usual source of nighttime awakenings, and I slide my arm across the bed to snag Donovan and pull him in, hoping I’ll get lucky and he’s just looking for snuggles. I thought we were past the overnight feedings, and I really don’t want to be stumbling to the kitchen on my bum ankle in the middle of the night. There are three steps that have nearly taken me out a dozen times this week.
I reach out for Donovan, only for my hand to immediately smack into someone much larger towering over me.
I startle awake at that. I’m in a house of big beefy guys, and unless it’s Merrick, if they really want to pin me downand — I don’t know what they’d want to do if they pinned me down — I wouldn’t be able to fight them off.
Hands grab my shoulders and push me down, but they’re small hands. And the air smells sweet. It smells like Tilly.
Thank fuck.
Not even thank fuck that it’s not fucking Vedder pulling some shenanigans, but thank fuck Tilly’s in my bed. She’s barely spoken to me this week. The vibe I got from her wasn’t like she hated me forever and I was going to be stuck living in a frat house seeing my kid every other weekend for the rest of my life, but it still made me nervous.
She was sad, and she said we’d talk when she got home, and she told me to give Donovan all the hugs and kisses, and she thanked me for visiting her dad. But she didn’t want to talk to me too long. She said because she was homesick and it just made her feel worse talking to me without seeing me, but it made me sick too.
I relax back down onto the bed and just appreciate this feeling of her back in my bed —ourbed, regardless of which bed it actually is — with her body over mine, her knees straddling my hips, her hands on my shoulders.
Her lips covering mine.
I attempt to roll us, to get on top of her so I can spend the rest of the night just consuming her, but she stops me by pushing my shoulders more firmly into the bed.
“Right, yeah,” I murmur. “Fu—frig, Donovan’s right there.”
Except I reach for him and swear his side of the bed is empty.
Tilly giggles, and the sound goes right to my heart. My soul. “I put him in his playpen. Have you really had him in bed with you all week?”
“I made a wall with the big pillows,” I grumble.
She lays her hands around my cheeks and gives me another kiss. I have to dig my fingers into my blanket to keep from flipping her. She won’t be able to stop me this time.
“I saw. But you could have had this whole bed to yourself.”
“I did. I hated it.” I pop up on my elbows to steal a quick kiss. “I missed you. It was awful. Don’t make me sleep alone again.”
