And it would be. If not for the fact that I’d be working for dickhead-in-chief over here, and there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell he’s going to employ me anyway. Not after our first meeting.
Jane closes the door behind her, and then it’s just the two of us in the room.
He shifts in his seat so he’s facing me more directly.
“Nice to see you in proper clothes,” he drawls.
“I’m sure seeing them clothed is a rarity for you when it comes to women,” I volley back.
His eyes glitter. “What do you know about me and women?”
Shit. It’s weird to admit I know way too much, thanks to internet gossip and tabloids. I know he met his supermodel ex-wife on the set of one of his videos. I know he’s been divorced from her for two years now. I know he’s been linked to some of the most beautiful women in the world throughout his life. I know it’s been rumored he’ll never settle down again after getting his heart broken by said ex-wife, who very publicly cheated on him.
And there’s no way I’ll admit any of that knowledge to him, even if hot needles were to be poked under my fingernails. I’ll endure medieval torture before I ever admit how closely I’ve followed his life and career until now.
Time to change the subject.
“Look,” I tell him, “we both know you’re not going to offer me the position. So let’s just get out of here so I can go back to work and you can go back to yelling at innocent girls just trying to get an afternoon swim in. Or whatever it is you like to do in your free time.”
“You?Innocent?” He snorts. “You make a pit viper look like a shrinking violet.”
“Vipers only attack when they’re cornered. If you mind your own business, they’re content to keep to themselves. Just like me.” I rise from my chair. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
“Sit down, Sadie.”
He doesn’t bark it at me. If he had, I would have walked away from him, no problem.
No, instead he says it softly. A murmur. A rasp of velvet. It’s the voice that’s made him a millionaire many times over, a global superstar.
And I don’t know whether it’s an actual superpower he has, or whether I’ve been listening to his music so long I’m basicallyconditioned to obey, but I find myself sitting right back down in that chair.
He leans forward. A lock of dark hair falls in front of his green eyes as they bore into me. No cowboy hat this time. No shadows being cast over those high cheekbones. Just the full impact of that famous face, up close, in a small room with nowhere to look except directly at him.
“Now,” he says, “Here’s the interesting thing. People I trust and respect, like my father, for one, and Jane here for another, they speak very highly of you. They say you’re kind and patient and reliable. Those are the qualities I need in any woman who’s going to be spending time around my son.”
Then he adds, eyes sweeping up and down me, “Those are the same qualities I have yet to see for myself.”
Superstar, check.
Unrepentant asshole, double-check.
I open my mouth to tell him off, but then he does something that shocks me into total silence.
He puts his finger on my lips.
The pad of it is warm and calloused from ranch work and guitar strings both, and my brain just… stops. Every sharp thing I was about to say dissolves before it reaches my mouth.
“Hush,” he murmurs. His eyes drop to my lips, just for a second, as he's registering what he's touching.
I'm barely even breathing. The man is brazenlyshushingme. And instead of biting off his finger like I absolutely should, I'm sitting here staring into his eyes like I've forgotten every word I've ever known.
His eyes are lighter up close than they look in photographs. Green shot through with gold at the center.
“So what I want to know is,” he continues, “who’s the real Sadie Sullivan? The sweet bookworm beloved by kids? Or thelittle hellion who swims half-naked in a freezing lake onmyland and has the audacity to get mad at me about it?”
Now that he’s done talking, he takes his finger away from my lips.
They still tingle where he touched me.I press them together like I can make it stop. His eyes track the movement. Between those eyes and the exquisite instrument of his voice, I feel like I’ve been hypnotized.
