“That too.”
She nods to herself and raises her chin to appear more confident about the matter, but privacy means a great deal to Rose. And this is a lot more intrusive than she anticipated.
“You can always tell him to fuck off,” I remind her. “You’ve said it to men many times before.”
“And yet, you’re still here.”
I smile. True.
She lets out a breath. “No. It has to be done this way.”
“And why is that?”
“He said that there’ll be more viewers if we all live together. Rich families being filmed in their natural environment has been done before. This hasn’t.” She pauses. “Except forThe Real Worldbut?—”
“All I hear is Scott Van Wright in your mouth, and that’s really the last place I want another man to be.”
She gives me a cold look and says, “I happen to agree with him. I did the research.”
“Fine.” But what Scott really wants is the most drama possible, the most chaos, and this is the type of setting that’ll grant him what he desires. And if Rose is a part of that package, he’s going to fucking lose this battle. I just don’t want it to be at the cost of Rose’s fashion line. If I ruin Calloway Couture, I’ll lose her too. Her company is why we’re swimming in a fish bowl after all. I’d do almost anything to help her achieve her dreams.
“Plus,” she adds, only to provoke me, “our house had poor sound quality. We would’ve had to move anyway.”
“Right, because they couldn’t spend a couple thousand dollars to rig better equipment at Princeton. This alternative, moving out, is a hell of a lot more expensive.”
“You’re turning green. And for your information, you look ugly in that color.”
“I’m not jealous,” I say. “I hate him for the same reason you do—because he pisses where he eats.”
“You haven’t even met him yet.”
“I already know.”
She flattens her black maxi dress with her hands, walking back and forth in the living room space. “You’re incorrigible.”
“You’re pacing. What other things should we point out?”
She hits me with her handbag, and I try hard not to grin.
When she settles down, she says, “After six months, we can go back to Princeton.”
She can keep listing off the reasons why the move to Philadelphia is better—that her parents live close by, that Daisy can still attend prep school, that Lo’s comic book business is already downtown, that my commute to Penn has been shortened by an hour—but in the end, she wasn’t given a choice. Scotttoldher to move. And she did.
Not even that, he chose this townhouse. He didn’t let Rose look for a new place that would fit production’s ridiculous requirements.
I glance at the purple fringe cloth that covers the coffee table, large white candles lined in a row. Production actually hired people to decorate for the psychic’s arrival. As though she’s living here too.
“Just don’t ask me to be nice to the psychic,” I tell her, just now noticing Ben, the skinny cameraman, walk down the stairs. He directs the lens at us.
“I don’t care what you do,” she says, “as long as you’re here.”
I try not to look shocked by her declaration. Our tight postures relax, and I draw her to my chest and rub the back of her neck. She melts into me, her normally stiff body finding a moment to slacken. I stare at her fiery eyes that never seem to soften, even if her body does.
“But I thought you could do everything by yourself, darling.”
“I can,” she says, raising her chin again. “But I like your help…sometimes.” Her gaze falls to my lips, unsure of herself again. She’s waiting for me to make a move.
My lips brush her cheek. “I’m going to spread you so wide, Rose. Your whole body will ache for my hard cock.” She tightens against me. “You’ll comebeforeI fill every inch of you.”
