I heard her sigh; she was annoyed. That was her permanent mood with me now, especially since she’d found out about Otter.
“Let me know when you can find the time.” She hung up.
I turned my phone off. My flight was being called and, in a few hours, I’d see Otter again.
Ross & Rachel
January
CHAPTER18
Otter
I watchedfrom the behind the breakfast bar as Ryan stretched out his leg, wearing the tiniest pair of shorts I think I’d ever seen. He had one night left, a flight scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, and we were spending it with take-out, a bath and lots and lots of sex.
All the sex.
Ryan’s hamstring injury hadn’t prevented him from getting freaky beneath the sheets and everywhere else. We’d been careful at first, which meant we’d managed not to go the whole way either in the taxi or in the lift to my rented apartment, but there weren’t many buttons left undone by the time we burst our way through the doors.
For the last four nights, we hadn’t left. Ryan had used the swimming pool in the apartment block, and I’d kept the appointments I had scheduled in my diary, managing to only be late on two occasions. Lila had suffered. She’d come over to New York for some promo stuff and a meeting, and we’d planned to hang, but on this occasion, I’d ditched my best mate for Ryan.
She understood. She’d have done the same – in fact, she had, back when she’d been seeing some music person she’d been infatuated with.
“How does it feel?”
Ryan stretched up, just a normal stretch, just one that showed off every ab, those strong arms and the pecs that had become my pillow over the last few nights. Not going to lie, I was drooling.
“It feels better. The swimming’s helped.” He gave me that Hollywood smile. “Amber will be pleased.”
“Amber?”
“One of the physios. She’s overseeing my injury.” He paced over to the breakfast bar and picked up the green smoothie he’d had delivered that morning. My fridge had been packed full with healthy things in it, only there was a remarked difference between mine and Ryan’s version of healthy..
“Is she in her fifties and bases her style on an army officer?” I wasn’t overly keen on the idea of another woman having her hands on Ryan, a reaction I was very much trying to tone down.
Ryan chuckled. “I’d guess she’s about thirty, and no, she doesn’t look like an army officer. Are you worried you have competition?”
I didn’t respond. Iwasworried I had competition, even though I knew that worry was unfounded and had no basis. We still hadn’t labelled what this relationship was. Even to the media, we’d only really said we were taking it slowly because of our careers, which was true. The understanding that we were exclusive was more to do with the impact it would have publicity-wise if either of us were to be seen with anyone else.
“Nate’s interested in Amber. I think maybe Amber’s interested in him.” He offered me a sip of his smoothie.
I politely shook my head. My body wouldn’t have a clue what was happening if I drank something so healthy.
“You have nothing to worry about.” He sat down on one of the stools. “I probably have more to be concerned with.”
I shook my head. “You haven’t. But the chances are you’ll see a photo of me posing with someone and the media will make more of it than what it is.”
“I steer off social media.”
“I know. But they might contact Rhys or Genny for a statement.” And I knew how provocative journalists could be if they had a hint of a story, even if they were making that story up out of thin air.
He nodded. “Let’s deal with things as they happen.”
He was being far too chilled out about this, mainly because I wasn’t chill in the slightest. I wanted to ask him how he would feel if he saw photos of me with one of my co-stars and we looked too close, or if he read a headline speculating that I was dating someone else, but I wouldn’t because I’d look too needy, and like he said, those things hadn’t happened yet.
I guessed I wanted him to be bothered about the idea of me seeing someone else because that would tell me he wanted me to be his.
“Sure. I’m just going to check in with my agent. She sent a few emails before that I need to get back to her on.”
