Page 16 of Last First Kiss
“Deal.” Why was she being so amenable all of a sudden? It was nice, but he couldn’t help be suspicious at the change.
“What?” she asked, sitting up. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You weren’t this nice earlier.”
She sagged a bit and he couldn’t help but smile. He wanted to walk further into the room and sit beside her on the bed, but she’d been so defensive earlier, he didn’t think she’d welcome him in her space. “I had some time to think and I think I was unnecessarily bitchy earlier.”
Yes, he wanted to yell. But being the intelligent man that he was, he kept his trap shut. “It’s okay. No sweat,” he said, leaning against the armoire casually. She nodded and sat back on the middle of the bed, taking some papers and placing them on her lap. “Since you’re here, you want to discuss the schedule for the week?” She patted the space at the foot of the bed. It was her way of giving him permission to get closer, he noted.
“Sure.” He sat down and pulled out his phone where he kept all his dates.
“It’s weird you don’t have an assistant, by the way.”
“I like things done my way.”
Her eyebrows furrowed. “Oh damn, don’t tell me you’re a control freak.”
“No. It’s not that, not at all, actually. Just, I don’t know, I’m not used to people doing things for me. I had an assistant for a few months once, but I just prefer to do it myself. Paying someone to do what I’m perfectly capable of doing for myself seems wrong or something.” He flipped through his week’s schedule, and then looked up. She was looking at him differently. As if it was the first time she’d ever actually seen him. “You okay over there, Tiger?”
“Uh, yeah. Sorry. Yes. So what do you got?”
It was odd to have someone on his bed that he couldn’t touch, but he had to admit she looked good there. And he liked that she’d made herself comfortable. What he didn’t like was how quick she shifted back into all-business mode. It left him feeling discombobulated. He looked away from her questioning eyes and down at the calendar on his phone. “Um . . . okay, on Thursday I have a meeting with the studio at the Palms Hotel, and after that Spelling is having a pre-production dinner at his house on Star Island. Then on Friday, I have a fundraiser gala at Vizcaya.”
She skimmed her notes. “And then on Saturday you have a Skype meeting with the studio heads from NHN, Sunday you’re free, and on Monday production begins. We’ll get a schedule and location detail for that soon, right?” She didn’t look back up until she was finished, and when she did look up, a chunk of her hair, which had been piled up high on her head in some sort of messy bun, fell out and covered her right eye. She tucked it behind her ear and continued to look at him, puzzled. But he was so taken by the action, for some reason, that he couldn’t look away. The way her delicate fingers and her lithe arms moved. It was astounding to think this was the same woman who had body-flipped him. “Rocco? Did I miss an event?” She looked back down to her schedule. “Paul sent this to me, I thought I had it all.”
“Um.” He looked down at his phone. “Sunday I have a Boys and Girls Club thing in the morning.”
She flipped the sheet front and back. “I don’t see that here.”
“Because it’s something I don’t normally publicize. I don’t want the paparazzi following and disrupting.”
She looked at him for a moment, almost waiting for the punchline. He hated how most people thought they knew him from whatever bullshit they’d read in a tabloid. Yes, he volunteered his time, privately. And it ticked him off that she, of all people, would find the notion of him volunteering to be absurd. Eventually she shrugged and wrote it down on her schedule. “Anything else I missed?”
“No, that’s about it. Sometimes things come up. And those were just events. I do leave the house, Annie. Like to go jogging, or visit friends or whatever . . .”
“No problem. I jog and can be perfectly civil with your friends. Just let me know of anything else you may have going on. You can’t leave without me. You’re stuck with me. You can go ahead and assume that anywhere you go for the next four months, I’ll be there too.” Then she looked down, and her cheeks reddened. “And if you need time alone . . . you know . . . to entertain—just let me know and I’ll make myself scarce. I won’t like, be inside with you, because, well, that’s weird. But I do need to make sure the location is safe and secure, and I can’t be too far away. In fact, if you could give me a heads-up, it would be best. That way I can send someone from ICS to secure the area first. But, anyway, I won’t cramp your style.”
Holy shit, she was cute.
And crazy.
“When I said ‘entertain’ at our first meeting, I meant, entertain. Like, use the pool, cocktails, maybe a barbeque. I can keep my dick in my pants, Annie.”
She held her palms up. “None of my business.”
He reached for her hands. They felt small and soft in his. “Do me a favor, will ya? Don’t believe everything you read. Whatever preconceived notion you have of me . . . it’s wrong. I sell an image, but that image isn’t the real me. So please don’t assume anything. Just ask me, okay?” He placed her hands down on the bed and now her cheeks were redder than a moment ago.
She swallowed. “Yeah, okay. Sorry about that. Sometimes I ramble.”
“I noticed. It’s cute and a bit crazy.”
She snorted and then covered her mouth. “Yeah, so I’ve been told.” He stood up and extended his hand to her. “My friend Paul is coming by to go over some things and I’m going to grill some steaks. Why don’t you come join us?”
“Paul Allen. Your agent. Friends since you were young. Works at Allen and Associates.”
“Uh . . . yes. That one. Shoe size eleven.”
“Oh, I actually didn’t know that, I’ll have to annotate my notes.”
