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I wasn’t over him. I hadn’t been able to move on.
But he didn’t need to know any of that, or that my heart was still very much engaged.
“Quesadilla sounds good to me.” I yawned and stood. “Do you think you can grab my case for me so I can shower?”
Surprise flashed in his eyes. “You’re not going to argue with me?”
“I’m exhausted, Jags. Way too tired to even attempt to keep up with you right now.” I walked into the bathroom. “Grab my case and then order my food, please.”
While the shower heated up, I heard him bring my case into the bedroom. I walked out in nothing but a towel wrapped around my body to retrieve my toiletries bag and something to sleep in. I felt his eyes on me the entire time, and my traitorous body responded to his keen appraisal. But I ignored my painfully hard nipples and my drenched pussy as I walked back into the bathroom like I wasn’t ready to jump his bones at any moment.
Once the door was shut behind me again, I engaged the lock, not trusting him not to try to join me while I was in the shower.
Not trusting myself not to take him up on the offer if he did.
I took my time once I was under the powerful spray, letting the jets work on some of the tension in the muscles of my neck and shoulders. But as my muscles began to relax, my exhaustion only multiplied until it was taking all my effort to remain standing upright.
By the time I was dry, I was stumbling and half asleep. I was going to crash as soon as my head hit the pillow, which sucked because my stomach was already driving me crazy with how it was grumbling for food.
I’d been fine in London. The photo shoot for Remington’s car had drained me, however. But I hadn’t slept all that great the past two nights because of the time difference issue. I couldn’t sleep on commercial flights, especially if I was traveling alone. The seat beside me had been empty since Violet had stayed behind with Remington, but the idea of people I didn’t know or trust watching me sleep freaked me out. I could imagine too many Taken scenarios, starting with some perv watching me sleep and then abducting me as soon as I stepped off the plane.
When I opened the bathroom door, I stumbled and probably would have face-planted on the floor if Jagger hadn’t caught me.
“Whoa there, baby,” he murmured as he gently scooped me up.
Unable to hold up my head, I laid it on his shoulder and closed my eyes as he carried me to the bed and placed me in the middle. The covers were already turned down, and as soon as my head touched the pillo
w, he was pulling them up around me and tucking me in.
That was the last thing I remembered before he was placing a tray on the bed beside me, urging me to eat.
The smell of food forced me to open my eyes, but I couldn’t lift my lashes for longer than a few seconds at a time. Using himself as a prop, he moved me so I was leaning against him and fed me a triangle of quesadilla. With each bite, I got a different taste. Sometimes, he would dip it in salsa or guacamole or sour cream. My favorite was the house-made pico.
“Sleep now, Dimples,” he murmured, kissing my brow as he shifted me back onto the mattress and positioned my head comfortably on a pillow.
In my sleep-drunk state, I found myself begging him to hold me. I heard his sharp inhale, and then he was kicking off his shoes and crawling in behind me. The heat of his body as he pressed himself against my back, the utter feeling of completion at being in his arms again, sucked the final drops of energy from my body, and I fell into a deep sleep.
Chapter 32
Jagger
After so long of not being able to see, touch, or feel Shaw whenever I wanted—and I’d wanted to every damn day—having her fall asleep in my arms was enough to bring a lump to my throat.
For the longest time, I just lay there watching her sleep. The bathroom light was still on, casting a soft glow over her, making it easy to trace my eyes over every inch of her face. Her hair was still wet, and I knew she was going to be grumpy about that in the morning, but I couldn’t do anything about that without disturbing her sleep.
This plan of Cannon’s had better work. Because if I had to spend so much as one more day without her, I was going to lose my fucking mind. I was seriously surprised I hadn’t lost it already, and part of me wondered if maybe I had and that was why I was trusting my ex-best friend—now sort-of friend—to help me win Shaw back.
The beginning of the summer tour had started off kind of rocky, not just between Cannon and me, but her parents and me as well. Like Shaw, they thought I did the one thing I promised I never would and broke their daughter’s heart. But once I explained the big misunderstanding, they quickly got back on board with Shaw and me being together.
Cannon suggested the music video, because the song I wrote for her hadn’t done jack shit to force her to listen. It started off as just an apology song that I had to fight tooth and nail with the producers at Petrova to get on my solo album. I’d pushed for it to be one of the singles released before the album even dropped, and Ma had to do some fast talking to make them see it was a good idea.
I knew Shaw must have heard the damn thing by now. Every person in the world with access to a radio had heard it at this point. The first week on the air, it had hit the top ten on both the pop and rock charts. It had hit number one on Billboard and had remained there ever since. I’d hoped Shaw would call me and at least give me a chance to explain once she heard it, but she’d remained stubbornly quiet.
Now, I was relying on Cannon’s self-proclaimed brilliant idea to get my girl back.
There wasn’t an actual video for Shaw to be in, although I was paying her fee for her time. Everything was being staged to seem like there was one, though. Ma had even called in a favor with a director she knew, and the guy was going to be on set the next morning in case Shaw got suspicious. Her parents and even Piper were in on the whole thing, so they were playing along like everything was the real deal.
My record label had already filmed a video for the song. Just me singing in front of a window while it rained. The storm in the background had given it a dramatic effect, and it had hit all the top music video lists as well as logging over ten million views on YouTube over the course of a single weekend.
