Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
She moved a hand to fiddle with the lapel on his tuxedo and continued speaking.
“I just hadn’t met him face to face yet, nor Imogen for that matter, and I wanted to introduce myself.”
“I jumped to conclusions. I’m sorry about that too.”
She lifted her gaze to him again. “That’s okay. But it might be good you don’t rush to judgment that everything I’m about is bad. I can’t say my ambitions didn’t lead me astray in the past, but I’ve worked hard to course correct.”
He nodded and shared, “I’m not dating Blake. We’re truly just friends. She isn’t my type, I’m not hers. We’d never go there.”
That was when she nodded.
“But, since we’re laying it out there, I gotta mention that some of your Exchanges back then about her weren’t real awesome, baby,” he said low.
“I sense she’s done some course correction too, Hale, but she was a mean girl. She wasn’t just known for it, she carefully crafted that persona. She was rich and spoiled and entitled and got up to some unreasonably stupid shit that only someone rich and entitled could get away with. And she crowed about it. I don’t think what happened to her with her ex was her comeuppance, but it was rather glorious to see how she took something really bad and was smart enough and strong enough to read the message and turn her life around.”
“You exposed her body, Elsa. That was far from cool.”
She blinked up at him, openly bemused. “She sold me that picture herself.”
He stared down at her.
“Is she claiming she didn’t?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I just heard Alex talking about it once, and saying Blake was really upset about it.”
“Perhaps she was upset about what I said when I broadcast it, thinking maybe I’d say something else, because she did look beautiful that night. But that doesn’t negate the fact that she sold me about twenty pictures from that party, and she didn’t sell them cheap. It wasn’t the first time she approached me with photos. Though it was the last. And all of them from that night were of her, and the one I showed wasn’t the only one that exposed her breast in that dress. She couldn’t have missed it. She has a great figure, I thought she wanted to flaunt it. Many women do.” She appeared horrified when she finished, “I’d never violate anyone like that without their consent.”
“Okay, sweetheart, I don’t know anything about it. Blake has never spoken of it. I just knew it happened and Alex wasn’t a fan.”
“Okay,” she muttered.
“And she isn’t my date tonight. I came with her for moral support. Her father is her date. She wasn’t even at my table at dinner.”
“I wondered about that.”
He grinned. “So you noticed?”
She rolled her eyes.
She noticed.
His grin got bigger.
She frowned at his grin, which only made it even bigger.
She took her attention from his mouth and looked into his eyes.
“So, how long are you in town?”
He was scheduled to leave the next day.
He right then decided to stay the week. His assistants would be pissed at him, but not only did he have a wrong to right with Elsa, he’d made Tom a promise.
And straight up, he was tired of being on a fucking plane and sleeping in hotel suites. It was good to sleep in a bed that was familiar and wake up where he knew the view.
“I leave next Sunday,” he told her.
“The one after tomorrow?”
He nodded.
“You wanna come over for some takeout? My landlord did some pretty rad things with my building. You should see.”
Hale smiled again.
This time, she smiled back.
So obviously, he had no choice.
He kissed her.
When he let her come up for air, he rubbed his thumb along her lower lip and whispered, “Your lipstick doesn’t move.”
“It’s stain. It’s designed to stay there all night.”
“So I don’t have red all over my mouth?
Hazily, still reacting to his kiss, which meant Hale reacted to that, she shook her head.
“I want to walk out there with you on my arm.”
She suddenly appeared alarmed. “Hale, that’s a lot.”
“People know we know each other, baby. Your interview got over three hundred million views.” He dipped his head closer. “And I want you on my arm.”
“Okay,” she said breathlessly.
“Okay,” he replied. “By the way, congratulations on all the awesome shit that went down with you since I last saw you. I’m happy for you. You deserve it. And you should know, Brandi ordered those flowers, but I asked her to. I did it before we had our thing, but it was my idea. And I’d be entirely remiss if I didn’t mention how insanely gorgeous you look in that dress.”
It was then he watched, profoundly fascinated, as her eyes grew bright, and her lips beamed a glamorous smile his way.
And then her hands were back in his hair, hauling his head down.