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The snickers become full-on laughter now. She’s got no idea who she’s dealing with. I’ve been trash talking and locker room bantering for twenty years now.
“Tell the guy to take my card,” I say. “Or I won’t let you invite strange men to join us in the bedroom ever again.”
The line quiets other than a solitary, shocked inhale. Rey’s cheeks flush as she quickly says something in Spanish and puts her card away.
“That was a low blow,” she hisses as we find a table to sit at.
“If you quit trying to be in charge all the time, things would go a lot smoother.”
“I am in charge,” she whispers hotly. “Whether you like it or not.”
“We’ll see about that.”
She sulks in silence as we wait for the food. I reach across the table and take her hand, winking. Her face relaxes into the expression of a woman on a first date that’s going really well.
Her eyes tell a different story, though. They’re blazing. I’ve pissed off the hothead. This time, though, I’m not sorry. I’m more…amused. Rey thinks I’m not manly? I plan to show her just how wrong she is.Chapter SevenReyna
“Stop pressing so hard. You’re supposed to blend, not rub the fucking skin off your face.” Kai rolls his eyes at me. “Here, give me the brush. I can’t watch this carnage.”
I pass him the makeup brush and sigh heavily. “It takes too long.”
“No, you’re just really impatient.”
He adds more bronze powder, drawing a line from the corner of my lips to up near my ear.
“How is that going to look good?” I look up at him from the stool I’m sitting on in front of a vanity in his makeup room. “I know it will, I just would never think to draw lines all over my face the way you do.”
“Blending.” Kai stretches the word into four syllables for emphasis.
“Where did you learn to do all this?”
He grins at me in the mirror. “At first I learned from a drag queen I made friends with. Then I started watching online tutorials and experimenting on my own.”
“A drag queen? That must’ve been fun.”
“Dolly Dixon,” Kai says warmly. “Still one of my dearest friends. Did I tell you I sometimes do makeup at a drag club, just for fun?”
“No, but now I want to know all about it.”
“Why don’t I just take you sometime?”
I grin with delight. “Really? I’ve never met a real life drag queen. I’d love that.”
“You can come be my whipping girl next time I go.”
“Perfect.” I tilt my cheek up to make his blending work easier. “Hey, last night I watched some of your videos. Can you show me how to do that smoky eye thing?”
Kai purses his lips. “I mean…I can try?”
“What, you don’t think I can do it?”
He scoffs playfully and arches a perfectly shaped eyebrow. “Honey, the smoky eye journey is one you’re not ready for yet. We need to work our way up.”
“Okay, where do we start?”
He bats his inch-long lashes at me. “Right here. Applying and blending foundation and contouring are the first things you need to master.”
“Okay,” I concede. “I guess since this is my job for now, I can devote lots of time to it.”
My phone dings with an incoming text and I pick it up to read the message.
Jonah: FYI…
There’s a link to an article on a sports blog with the headline, “Is Blaze goalie Jonah West off the market?”
I scan the brief paragraphs written about Jonah reportedly dating a new woman and “keeping it hush hush.”
“We’ve only been out on two dates,” I mutter. “This is crazy.”
Kai reads over my shoulder and hums his disdain. “Welcome to the world of the stalkerazzi spotlight. Zero stars—do not recommend.”
“First of all, help yourself to the contents of my phone screen,” I say sarcastically.
“Thanks, I already did,” he claps back.
Rolling my eyes, I smile at how easy my friendship with Kai has become in such a short amount of time. “And what do you mean by that? Do you get chased for photos?”
“Everything. Photos, places I buy groceries, being asked what I bought, people I go out with being grilled about my personal life, random people sticking their camera phones in my face while I’m out for a walk. I have no privacy unless I’m inside my home.”
“Are you serious? All because you’re a beauty blogger?”
He shrugs. “As the following grew, so did the attention. Now people want photos of me looking like a pissed off hag or secretly buying makeup from brands that don’t sponsor me.”
“Ugh. That’s happened to you?”
“Girl. So many times. They’re after anything that conflicts with the image of me that’s out there. Which is weird, because my image is literally I don’t give a fuck, I do what I want.”
“And since Jonah is a professional athlete…he’s under scrutiny, too.” I sigh softly. “I just didn’t expect it to be so soon. We kissed in public one time.”
