Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
I let him kiss me on the dance floor and I don’t even bother to look and see if Vaughn is watching. I don’t care if he is or isn’t. The first part of the party was about paying him back. This part is for me.
Neither of us seem ready for the night to be over, but midnight passes and almost everyone has left. We sit in two cheap metal chairs at the back corner of the room together. And then we sit on one chair, because he beckons me into his lap, and my skimpy costume has me feeling chilly, so I cuddle into his warmth gladly.
“Well,” he says. “That was fun.”
“It was,” I agree. My mind has started turning toward what’s next, though. Everything we agreed on led up to this moment. Nothing ever went past this. The Halloween mixer was an endpoint. A goal. And now we’ve reached it.
“Did you notice Vaughn and Aubrey didn’t leave together?” he asks.
I grin. “No. I didn’t, actually. Once the stripper thing was over, I kind of got distracted with you.”
He chuckles, and the vibration of his amusement rumbles straight through his chest into me. “I like that I distracted you. Did tonight help? I know the book thing is still unresolved…” he pauses so long I think he’s about to say more, but then he pushes on. “But did tonight help you maybe feel like he got some of what he deserved for the way he treated you?”
“It did,” I say. “I’m sure Roxie is still going to have some more childish ideas for getting him back, and maybe I’ll listen to some of them. But, yeah, honestly it feels different now. I want my book back, but I just… don’t care about him. Not even to be mad. That’s progress, right?”
“It is.”
“So have the legal people said what’s taking them so long?”
He hesitates again, and for the first time I wonder what it is he’s not telling me. Did they already give him bad news and he’s just trying to save my feelings? “I think it’ll all get worked out,” he says, not exactly answering my question. He looks like he’s about to say more, but decides to stay silent.
I’m exhausted after everything, so I just nod my head and let it drop. I’ve been anticipating tonight for what feels like ages, I had to get through dinner with my family, and then there was all the activity of the night. “I think I could fall into bed and be asleep before my head hits the pillow,” I say, yawning.
“Stay at my place. I wouldn’t mind the company.”
I pick at my nail, not sure how to answer.
“I know,” he says softly. “We only planned it up to this point. But this was so much fun. What if we run it back for a repeat at the Christmas party in a couple months?”
I turn, looking up at him. “Christmas is a ways off. You really think we should keep up this act for that long?”
“Charli, I already told you. I haven’t been acting. I’m happy to call things whatever you want to call them. I’ll play along with any game it takes to make you comfortable. So, yeah. I think we keep it up till Christmas. And then I’ll figure out some excuse to make it go on longer after that. And I’ll keep it up as long as I need to, because I have no intentions of letting you walk out of my life.”
I chew my lip and sink into him a little more. His arms tighten around me, pulling me closer.
“The Christmas party,” I say carefully. “You know, Christmas is right around when Landmark is planning to publish the book.”
“Really?” he asks.
I nod. “I still get Vaughn’s work emails.”
“Well, we can’t have them celebrating stealing your book in peace, can we?”
“No,” I laugh, but I don’t feel the humor. I feel empty when I think about it getting closer–when I think about them actually putting my book out there without my name on it and not being able to do anything about it.
“I decided I won’t just sit down and take it quietly,” I say. “I thought a lot about it. If your legal team can’t help and they end up publishing it, I mean. I was thinking I could do some kind of post on social media. I have save files on my computer with earlier drafts and everything. Maybe it won’t do anything, but I’ll tell my side of things. I’ll make sure at least some people know they are thieves.”
Jameson sighs. “That’s good,” he says.
Once again, there’s something he’s not saying. I can feel it. I know I shouldn’t trust anyone after what Vaughn just put me through, but I do trust Jameson. I trust him to have my best interest at heart, and I trust him not to hold anything back from me that I’d need to know. So I just close my eyes and let him hold me. I let myself hold on to the flimsy excuse to stay together, as if we both don’t know the feelings between us aren’t pretend or part of the act.