Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
I stepped inside, my eyes wide as I took in the space. It was nicer than most of the on-site locations I’d been to. With fancy couches and chairs, a few secluded desks, and a full kitchen. I could see what it would look like when the place was full of creatives, buzzing with people and energy and, most importantly, food. Lots of food.
“This feels like home,” I admitted.
“Yeah, it’s mostly film stars and politicians and dignitaries and the like when they have business in the city,” Court said. “I thought you’d like it.”
“Why?”
“Okay, I just wanted to get you alone.”
“Ah. Well, I suppose you’ve succeeded,” I said with a shrug. “And now, we can go.”
“Come on, English,” he said, reaching for me.
I sidestepped him. “We have three more months to work together. We have to be professional.”
“We weren’t the other night.”
“That was a lapse in judgment. I had never slept with a client before. And I’m never doing it again,” I said as sternly as possible. “I was upset about what had happened with Josh, and I took it out on you.”
“I didn’t really mind.”
“Yeah… I might have noticed that.”
He stepped closer to me. My breathing hitched. There was something in just that small movement as he got into my personal space, and I looked up into those baby blues. Fuck.
“I don’t think you minded either.” His fingers brushed a stray hair out of my face.
I swatted him away from me and took a step back. I rasped in a sharp breath that felt like I’d just been dunked in a bucket of ice water.
“Be serious,” I said.
“Be a little less serious. We had a good time. Let’s do it again.”
“So, that’s why you brought me back here.” I’d already known that. I’d come anyway. But now that I was here, I couldn’t do it.
“Don’t act like you don’t want it, English. I know that you do.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” I snapped back.
“Sure I do.”
“Okay. What’s my middle name?” I laughed. “What’s my first?”
“Anna,” he purred, stepping forward.
I shivered again at the way he’d said my name. My first name. No one called me Anna. Not my parents or my boss or my friends. Just people who didn’t know me. And now, apparently, Court Kensington.
His eyes assessed my reaction though. “Anna,” he said again, drawing out the word like a caress. “See, I know the important things. Like that little whimper you make when my tongue touches your clit. Or…”
I held up a hand and swallowed. “I get it. But… no. I don’t want that.”
“You’re such a good liar,” he said, tilting his head as he examined me. “I almost believe you.”
“It’s the truth.”
“How often do you lie a day?”
Too many. My entire job was lying to people. I couldn’t even get through a meal without lying to someone.
“I’m convincing people you’re a good person. How often do you think?”
He laughed. “Enough.”
“But I’m not lying about this.”
“Yeah, sure.”
But he didn’t believe me. Fuck, I was a good liar, but I didn’t even believe me. Fucking Court Kensington had been the most amazing high I’d ever been on… and I had grown up in Hollywood.
He stepped closer. “Do you want to have sex with me again?”
“No,” I lied.
Court laughed. “Lie. I’m getting better at detecting them. Did you have a good time when we fucked?”
I gritted my teeth. “If I say yes, will it make your head bigger?”
“Can it get any bigger?”
I snorted. “Now, that is something I know. It cannot.”
“Is this why you’ve been avoiding me then?”
“I haven’t been avoiding you. I’ve been busy.”
“Another lie, Anna.”
I took a deep breath and let it out. “Look, you might have a lot of one-night stands. You probably fucked around the whole time you were with Jane. From what I hear, you two weren’t even that serious. This is all your MO. I get it. But this isn’t me,” I said with a shrug.
Court took a step back. Something in his face shuttered. As if my words had hit home, and his fun, lighthearted, drunken persona evaporated.
“Okay. Yeah, fine. Don’t want to compromise your integrity,” he drawled. Somehow, he’d reverted into that Upper East Side prick I’d first met.
“I… yeah,” I said, off guard.
“No problem.”
“Court, are you taking this seriously?”
“If that’s what you want, English,” he said, a bite on my name, “then fine. We can be professional.”
And suddenly, I felt as if I wasn’t on solid footing. I didn’t like the way he’d said my name. I didn’t like the way he’d somehow flipped it around. As if I was the person doing something wrong.
But before I could say anything, he wrenched the door open and walked through it. Leaving me alone in the green room, wondering what the fuck had just happened.
10
English
I still had no clue what had happened that day in the green room. But I must have gotten through to Court because he’d been nothing if not professional from that moment on. Stiff and unyielding like he’d never been before that. I’d take that over the possibility of sleeping with him again.