Page 52 of Grip Me Tight
I stop. “Please give me the phone.”
She bites her lip. “Hang on. Tanner wants to speak with you.” Her nose wrinkles as she passes it over.
“Vera?”
“Yes, Tanner? It seems to be going well. Sterling’s posted a bunch of photos this afternoon and she shared them with your official page. Views are going up. Natasha’s been quiet, so I’m optimistic.”
“Vera—”
“I know you don’t want to be there with Sterling. Laird told me how angry you were about it, but if this works, we can pull her early.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the breakup can’t occur yet, but if she gets lots of content over a couple of days, she doesn’t have to stay there with you. As long as it looks like the pictures are taken over time, she can post them, and no one will know the difference. Think of it like a photo shoot, just change your outfits a few times and get her to take some pictures over the next day or so at different times of the day. Then send her home.”
I dismiss the idea as soon as she says it. I shake my head, causing Sterling to look over at me. She tilts her head, sliding her sunglasses on and the bracelet glints in the sun. “Yeah, I’m not worried too much about that.”
“Not too worried about what?”
“Anything. We’re good.” I disconnect the call and Sterling raises her hands in a ‘what gives’ motion.
“Tanner, I wasn’t done speaking with her.”
“Sure, you were.” I don’t want Vera giving Sterling any ideas about leaving early. While she said she was all in, I don’t want to give her a chance to change her mind. “Listen, I heard about this place called Vanilla Bean. It has ice cream.” Immediately, my brain forms an image of creamy sweetness melting against the heat of Sterling’s skin, sticky and smelling of summer. Instantly I’m hard and I pull Sterling into me, loving the way her eyes go wide as her arm brushes against my cock.
“Wow, you’ve got a thing for ice cream apparently,” she laughs.
I kiss the top of her head. “I have a thing for you.”
“What’s in the bag?” she asks.
I stop and pass it to her. Her face lights up when she sees the bunny. “He is so cute!” She cuddles him to her chest, and I swear, a pang of jealousy hits me. Over a stuffed toy. “Thank you, Tanner.” She snaps a picture of the bunny, then holds him up between us and takes another.
“You can thank me properly later.” I say, pulling my sunglasses down far enough to leer at her. Sterling giggles and I kiss her on the cheek.
I lace my fingers with her, and we walk down the cobblestones enjoying the late afternoon sun. It feels almost normal, something I haven’t experienced for five or six years at least. That doesn’t mean I regret Kingmaker, not for a second. My life is amazing. But this experience of walking hand-in-hand with the girl I’ve always wanted, the sun on our heads and no one interrupting us is pretty unique for me and I want to savor it for a little longer.
Even if it is just pretend.
We wander along in silence for a few minutes until I see a line-up at one of the storefronts. A cream-colored sign in a black frame hangs from an ornate scrolled arm under a striped awning. “Oh, look, it’s the café the woman at the other store mentioned,” I say.
“The one with the ice cream?” Sterling elbows me. If it gets you hot and bothered, I don’t know whether we should get in line. There might be public decency laws around here.”
I laugh and tug her to the end of the line. She pulls out her phone, snapping a photo of the sign. “Are you posting that?”
“I will. I’ll take a few more when we’re inside. But I want to see if the menu is online.”
“Why don’t you just wait so you can see what they have when we get there. It’s more of a surprise that way.”
“Because I need to narrow down my choices, otherwise it will take forever for me to choose. If I make a decision now, I have a focus and if I see something that looks better when I get there, at least it will be informed rather than worrying about someone waiting behind me and me needing to choose quickly.”
I study her. “Why would you worry about that?”
“Look at this line-up. See the excited kids and the tired parents? Or that older couple, with the gentleman wiping the sweat off his head? There is nothing more frustrating than people tasting thirty different flavors because they have no idea what they want.”
“Sometimes taking your time is fun. Maybe we can see if we can have a private tasting party while we’re here.”
“Well, we’re not all rock stars, Mr. Steele. That’s not really an option for most of us.” She bites her lip as the couple in front of us turn around to look at her. The woman then looks at me and turns back to her boyfriend, whispering frantically and throwing not-so-subtle glances our way.
