Page 88 of Paparazzi Perfect
Poor Margaret. No wonder she’d tried to find some form of happiness with the neighbor.Anger seethed inside of me, I sucked in a calming breath. Forcing myself, I looked back at the letter.
I know what it is to hate your father, Karson. But I don’t regret keeping you away so you could become the man you are.
Even though I paid a hefty price.
Karlos.
“Damn him!” I cried, punching my fist into the seat.
I shoved the letter back into the envelope and pushed it deep into my pocket.
Gus’s eyes rested on me briefly before shifting back to the road.
The first time that crazy prick ever opens up to me about anything… and he’s out of my life. Forever.
At least I knew he wasn’t born a monster… he’d becomeone. And I knew, better than ever, that I was nothing like him, or my grandfather.
As he’d hinted in that damn letter… distancewas his greatest gift to me as a father.
23
DR. DYSON
KARSON
Dyson groaned in pleasure as the massage therapist pushed her thumbs into his upper back, applying more pressure. He lay face-down on the massage table—across from me—enduring the same treatment as we mulled over the latest in our love lives.
“Bruh,” he said, frustrated, “you need to look at it from Ivy’s point of view. Think about it… your father obliterated her life as she knew it, you were apart for months, her contract was trashed, then she had to move out of her house, away from all her friends. She never asked for any of this.”
“Shit,” I muttered, wondering why I hadn’t stopped to look at the big picture earlier.
“Now you’re getting it. Don’t be so hard on her. She’s been through hell and back.” He lifted his head and gave me a one-sided smile, then moaned loudly as the woman working on him pressed her fingers into his back.
“That’s it, just a little to the left,” he said after a long pause. “And she already explained in the text that it was an accidental kiss. Are you hearing me, bro?”
“I hear you, man.” I closed my eyes and pictured her face. “But seeing them together… that little plot twist shook me, and I immediately thought the worst.”
“She wants you back, man. So, if you’re done glitching, fix it!”
She rolled her hands into tight fists and pummeled his back hard.
“Ow! Can—we—skip—this—bit?” Dyson stammered.
She paused, her fist hanging midair.
“And move to the heated stones?” he said quickly.
My therapist ran her hands in long, firm strokes up my back.
I breathed deep, luxuriating in the effect. “I’d just been so damn edgy. The Karlos effect has a habit of burning everything it touches. But you’re probably right, bro. I screwed up big time.”
“Thatta boy. But you need to tell her that,” Dyson said with a smug grin. “And you’re welcome.”
“Is thatthe spot, Mr. Khan?” asked his therapist, pressing into a trigger point.
“Just a little to the right,” he said lazily, “and that knot in my rotator cuff needs to?—”
Judging by the yelp that escaped his lips, I guessed she found it.
