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“Why would I marry some random girl for absolutely no reason?”
“I’ve been wondering about that actually,” Liv said. “I know you hate this whole tour. I know there’s something going on here that I’m not aware of, and frankly I don’t really care about it.”
I smiled at her, listening. Livy was a capable person, bright and intuitive, and I knew she had figured all this out the second she saw us get off the plane.
What I didn’t know, though, was why she’d decided to bring it up now.
“Okay, Liv,” I said. “What’s your theory?”
“I believe you think marrying this normal girl will somehow endear you to the publishers. You’re probably hoping you can end this book tour sooner that way.”
I nodded. “I do fucking hate this tour, but I married Selena because we’re in love.”
Livy nodded. “Sure. But if that weren’t the case, this is what I’m offering.” She paused to sip her coffee. “I won’t tell the media that you sleep on the couch most nights. I won’t tell them that I’ve never seen the two of you kiss, flirt, or really act like a newlywed couple. I’ll even put in a good word to the publisher.”
“In exchange for what?”
“Behave. That’s all I ask. Stop making my life a fucking stressful hell. Show up to media events on time. Stop staying out all night with random hookers. Try and be more sober.”
I laughed at that last one.
“I’m not asking for perfection here, Nash. Just stop being such a dick.”
I nodded slowly. “If what you said were true, that’d be fine with me.”
“One thing more,” she said. “What’s your endgame here?”
I looked at her for a second. I didn’t believe that Liv didn’t have some ulterior motive here, but I did know that she could be useful.
“If it were true,” I said, “I want back in the game. I want active duty again. No more of this pretty-boy media star. I want back in the shit.”
Liv nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Good.”
She stood up and looked at her phone. “You and Selena have an interview in an hour. Then we leave for Brown.”
“Sounds good.”
“I hope this talk was useful,” she said.
“Sure was.”
She quickly walked out of the room.
I leaned back in my chair, shaking my head. Liv was a crafty mother fucker. I knew I needed to be careful with her, but I had underestimated her completely. I was going to have to really watch myself, and figure out what her game was.
I stood up and barged into the bedroom. I walked back toward the bathroom door and threw it open. She had left the door unlocked. Poor girl was too trusting.
“Nash?” she asked.
“It’s me,” I said. “Need a hand?”
The enclosure to the standing shower was all glass, but unfortunately it had mostly fogged up. I couldn’t see a thing.
“Get out of here!” she said.
I laughed. “We got an interview in an hour.”
“Okay. Now get out.”
“Sure you don’t want some company?”
“Nash. Out.”
I laughed and left the room, shutting the door behind me.
What an eventful morning. Selena was back to pretending like she didn’t want me, and Liv wasn’t pretending about anything anymore.
This might be a fun tour after all.
17
Selena
Of course Nash had to go and act like an asshole.
Of course the morning after it happened, after I finally gave in to him and slept with him, he had to act like a dick.
I was conflicted. Of course I was conflicted, since I had done the thing that I wasn’t going to do. I couldn’t help myself. I’d wanted to sleep with him, but I felt strange after it had finally happened. We were in a business deal, after all, and sleeping with him only muddied those waters.
We weren’t really married. I had to remember that.
So of course I felt a little awkward.
But that didn’t mean he could act like an asshole. Maybe that was his way of trying to smooth things over, but it definitely did not work very well. In fact, it only made me even angrier. Of course he didn’t understand why or really even stop to think about what he was saying. No, he was just a big, dumb jock. A sexy as fuck jock, but an asshole anyway.
As I sat there with the bright lighting shining down on me, the makeup girl doing her thing, I wished I could run away. But it was way too late for that. I was already committed to doing this thing whether I wanted to or not.
My parents knew about us. Hell, half the country knew about us now. My phone had been blowing up all night, but fortunately I’d had someone there to distract me from it.
Even with how angry I was, I couldn’t stop thinking about that sex. Nash was insatiable, starving for me, and so damn sensual. I’d felt things I didn’t know I could feel, because he’d taken me and made me feel them. He was rough, strong, and powerful, and he pushed every single button I had. When I’d thought we were finally done, it turned out that we were just getting started.
