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“You should have just let us explain everything to her back then,” Dana muttered. “She would have believed us.”
“Doubtful.” I grimaced.
“Even I would have had difficulty believing what she saw if it were me, babe,” Kayla told her fiancée. Reaching out, she tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear, the five-carat engagement ring glittering blindingly on her finger. Dana had popped the question New Year’s Eve, and they had invited me to their engagement party a few weeks later. The wedding was set for May of the following year, and I’d already gotten the invitation.
I was hoping to take Shaw as my plus-one if this all went as planned.
“All right, ladies,” Cannon said as he joined our group. “Take your places, because baby sis is almost ready, and we don’t want her to see you too soon.”
Kayla and Dana went into the room we were using as a replica of my apartment, and I followed Cannon to where Shaw was getting dressed. Piper gave me a thumbs-up as she pushed Cannon back out the door. “We’re not needed here, dumbass.”
“Whatever, bra
t,” he grumbled but let her push him again.
The door closed behind them, leaving just Shaw and the wardrobe chick in the room with me. My eyes ate up the sight of Shaw. Her makeup, hair, and outfit, all the way down to the killer heels she had been wearing that fateful day, were as I remembered, but she didn’t seem to get that yet. She would soon, though.
“Can we get a minute?” I asked the woman who was making sure Shaw’s top was perfectly in place.
She exited quickly without a word, and I held my breath until the door shut behind her. Shaw turned from examining her reflection in the mirror, her brows pulling together in a frown. “You need to tell me what I should do out there. I mean, I’m not exactly the best actress. Maybe you should have gotten Arella if you wanted something worth showing the world.”
“You’re perfect,” I told her as I grasped her wrists and pulled her in close. With the heels she had on, we were eye level with each other, and I loved it. I stroked one hand up her arm to her neck and then skimmed my fingertips along her skin to her collarbone. The goose bumps that popped up along the way and the shiver she couldn’t hide had me hard as steel once again, but I tamped down the need to push her up against the wall and make her mine once and for all. “I want you to go out there and just be natural. Whatever you feel like doing, I want you to do. All I ask is that you take everything in before you react.”
Her brows pinched together with a deep frown, but before she could speak, I placed the key she’d returned that day back in her palm and folded her fingers around it so she couldn’t see what I’d given her.
“I’m going to be completely honest here, baby.” I inhaled slowly, trying to calm my pounding heart as I fought my nervousness. “You might want to slap my face. You might even tear this place apart. I’m okay with you doing whatever, as long as you just take it all in. Can you do that for me?” She just stared at me, and I swallowed hard. “Please?”
“I’ll try my best,” she finally answered, making me smile.
I touched my lips to her cheek and stepped back. “I have to go get in position. Cannon will clue you in when to take your place.” I got to the door before stopping and turning back to face her. “Please don’t leave again.”
“I won’t,” she whispered.
Chapter 33
Shaw
As soon as the door closed behind Jagger, I looked down at what he’d placed in my hand. Seeing the key ring with his apartment key on it that he’d given me once before, I felt something painful squeeze in my chest.
What the hell was going on?
I couldn’t lift my eyes from the damn thing, even though I wanted to hurl it across the room. How long I stood there just staring down at it, I wasn’t sure, but Cannon eventually opened the door and told me it was time.
He led me down a corridor and then on to a set that gave me such a sense of déjà vu, it felt like my entire equilibrium was off. My brother placed me in an “elevator” and reminded me to act as natural as possible before stepping back, and the doors slid shut.
When they opened, I stepped out, but I knew instinctively which way to turn despite not having been instructed. This layout was just like Jagger’s apartment building, and as I walked past the door that would have been Dana and Kayla’s apartment, a door farther down the hall opened.
Dana, wearing nothing but one of Jagger’s T-shirts, stepped out along with Jagger, who was dressed in only his boxers. I froze, the air suddenly trapped in my lungs as I had to relive one of the worst moments in my life.
I knew this was all staged, that all around me, different cameras were filming everything happening on the set. But what I was feeling, the pain and betrayal that were trying to consume me all over again, was very much real. My hand fisted tighter around the key in my hand, and I pressed it to the ache between my breasts just as Jagger turned his head and spotted me.
“Shaw,” he mouthed my name, and I felt my knees go weak all over again. “It’s not what it looks like.”
As he spoke, he took a step toward me, and then I had to blink because Kayla stepped out into the hall behind him. Only, she was dressed just like Dana was, in one of Jagger’s T-shirts. Which didn’t make sense to me. Maybe I’d only known Kayla a short time, but I knew she was very much not into guys.
While my eyes had been locked on Kayla in confusion, Jagger had been making his way toward me. Slow and steady as if he were approaching a feral lioness. I shifted my gaze to him, locking in on him like a predator homing in on its prey. Hands up imploringly, he stopped midstep.
“Baby, you wouldn’t let me explain,” he murmured softly. “Cannon thought this was the only way to make you understand.”
