Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 109318 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109318 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Peaches are my favorite fruit
Come play with my bocce balls, Mel
Melody, will you marry me?
Several people were also wearing . . . eye patches?
Melody seemed to be oblivious to the pandemonium outside, casually allowing security to guide her to the exit. “Hold up,” Beat growled, shouldering his way past them and blocking the exit. “Don’t you think a back door is a better idea?”
“He’s right.” Joseph approached with Danielle and momentarily lowered the camera. He coughed once. “I don’t want you outside in that, either, Danielle.”
The producer looked nonplussed, but quickly recovered. “I . . . very well.” She waved at the security team. “Would you mind consulting with the building manager to find a more discreet way for us to leave?”
“On it,” said one of the men, striding past while already speaking into a headset.
Danielle looked down at her clipboard where her phone was resting. “I expected a healthy viewership, but I didn’t expect this kind of . . . intense reaction.” She shook her head. “The numbers we’re seeing are shattering records. We’re at—”
“Is there any way we could not be informed of the viewer count?” Mel interrupted with a wince. “I’m sorry, I just don’t want to know.”
“Understood,” Danielle answered. “Beat?”
“I want to know.” He needed to know what they were going into at all times, so he could make sure Melody was protected. “Just inform me privately, I guess.”
“Will do.” A beat passed while Danielle darkened the screen of her phone. Did she appear to be working up the nerve to ask something? “Just to keep everyone up to speed, we have a flight out tomorrow morning to New Hampshire. We don’t have exact coordinates as to where Trina’s compound is located, but we have a general idea.” She squared her shoulders. “It’s tonight I’m more concerned about.”
Melody frowned. “Tonight?”
As if on cue, the crowd outside started chanting her name.
Melody looked utterly and adorably confused. For some reason, Beat’s heart started to flop around in his chest like a trapped, injured bird. “She can’t go home,” he murmured, beating Danielle to the punch. “We’re going to be followed, right?”
“Right.” Danielle opened her mouth and closed it. “I didn’t expect this to get so out of hand so fast, Melody. But yes, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go back to Brooklyn tonight. You’re in that ground floor apartment facing the street. It’s too exposed. Lola packed you a bag of essentials and I have one of my assistants looking into a hotel reservation as we speak, but it’s tricky, because we need permission to film—”
“Why doesn’t she just stay with me?” As soon as Beat offered the suggestion, some of the tension in his chest started to loosen. “I have a spare room. I’m on the twenty-second floor of a doorman building. She’ll be safe with me.”
“I’ll stay in a hotel,” Melody said quickly. “But thank you for the offer.”
Caught off guard, Beat tried to read her features and for once, he couldn’t figure out what she was thinking. “Why?”
She flicked a glance at the camera, her color deepening.
Beat turned, blocking the camera’s view of Melody. The noise coming from outside gave him no choice but to pull her close and speak against her ear, saving their voices from being picked up on the microphones and causing an eruption of cheers and boos on the street. “Why won’t you come stay at my place?”
“Just let me stay in a hotel.”
“Tell me why.”
She hesitated. “The crush thing. I don’t . . . it’ll be weird. For you.”
It took him a full five seconds to piece her explanation together. She thought her coming to stay at his apartment would make things awkward for him. And yeah, Beat had to admit there was a good chance Melody was right. Not only because she was nursing an infatuation with him, but because it ran both ways. If something physical happened between them, he’d have to share the parts of himself that he normally kept private. Strictly.
Still. “No. We won’t let it be weird.” He tugged her closer by her elbows and tried not to moan out loud when her tits met his chest. “Please don’t make me worry about you.”
She started to protest again, but the security team surrounded them before she got the chance. “We’re ready. The SUV is waiting around the block, so it doesn’t draw attention. It’s going to pull up at the last second, so be ready to hustle into the back seat.”
Melody nodded, transferring her attention from the security guard to Danielle. “Is this going to be forever?”
“I don’t know. I have nothing to compare this to.”
They all started cutting through the lobby toward the west side of the building, Beat keeping a hand on the base of Melody’s spine. When they reached the side door and the sound of tires screeched, followed by a cacophony of shouts, Beat’s heart lurched straight into his throat. The door opened and flashbulbs blinded him, but he squinted through the barrage of light and put himself between Melody and the fans rushing toward the SUV from the front of the building, obviously having figured out the plan. Thankfully, the door was opened and waiting, allowing Beat to lift Melody and all but throw her into the vehicle, launching himself in quickly behind her.