“Cara, hey. It’s going fine. No big news to report yet.” I hoped she didn’t hear the deflection in my voice.
“Good. Can I talk to Drea? She wasn’t answering her phone. Is she okay?”
I cleared my throat, tearing my gaze away from the closed bathroom door. “Of course she’s okay. Why wouldn’t she be? She’s in the bathroom, but I’ll tell her you called, okay? Call you tomorrow.” I hung up the phone, still sweating with nerves.
Nothing had happened, but I felt the guilt sinking in, like I was hiding something from her.
Eventually I got tired of waiting for Drea to come out of the bathroom, and I went to bed.
I was glad we were leaving tomorrow, but that car ride was going to be the longest hour of my entire life.
Chapter Fourteen
Drea
The car ride back was similar to the one on the way there—quiet and weird.Neither of us spoke the entire way until we got back into town.
She refused to let me take her home, so I dropped her off at the bookstore and she got a car from there. I wasn’t willing to argue, and it wasn’t like I wanted to see where she lived anyway.
I was lying when I said I didn't understand how people liked her books. I was ashamed to admit that I had read most of them, more than once.
I found her novels well-written and inspiring, but I couldn’t exactly tell her all that now without getting a snarky comment.
A week had slipped by, and I was sitting in my office, staring at the blank walls, still thinking about the festival. Cara owed me big for that weekend. I wouldn’t tell her exactly why, but she did.
My mind hadn’t stopped spinning since the phone interrupted what would have inevitably happened. I had been seconds away from kissing her, from knowing what her lips tasted like.
My fingers still vibrated from the feeling of her soft skin underneath them. I had been inches away from the hem of her shorts. It would have been so easy to slide underneath and?—
“I’m sorry, Drea, but she insisted.” My door flung open, jerking me out of my thoughts and causing a damn near heart attack.
Kaia’s frantic voice forced me to look up and see her standing next to a furious looking Blair. But when was best-selling author Blair sterling not looking at me furiously?
The night you pushed her against the wall, and wanted to kiss her until you both forgot your names…
“Kaia, it’s all right. Why don’t you go take a little break? I’ll keep an eye on the store.”
Her eyes ping-ponged between us hesitantly, but I nodded reassuringly. She put on a faint smile before closing the door.
Blair was still standing there, staring at me with a burning intensity in her eyes.
“Please, sit down and tell me what I’ve done to piss you off this time. Would you like me to start a list?” I said dryly, reaching for a sticky note and a pen.
She gave me a curt smile. “Cute. You know what you did… or… almost did!” She stormed over, slapping her palms on my desk. The audacity she thought she had, coming into my office—You promised Cara…
I took a calming breath before responding. She wasn’t going to get a rise out of me today. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I don’t actually know what you’re rambling on about. So, could you just tell me and get it over with? I’m very busy today.”
“With what? The imaginary long line of customers circling the building? I’m talking about the festival, Drea. The kiss?”
I froze. I wanted to say something about her little dig about my business, but all thoughts flooded out of my mind at her mention of the kiss. “I’m sorry, the what?”
She rolled her eyes. “You are many things, Drea Voss, but dumb is not one of them! You know exactly what I’m talking about. After the festival, when you pushed me up against the wall, you were going to kiss me.”
“I…” I was speechless. I hadn’t stopped thinking about that night since it happened. I’d been so sexually frustrated, I’d had to lock myself in the bathroom until I knew she was asleep. I couldn’t risk the temptation, and if Blair Sterling was anything, it was extremely tempting.
I didn’t know what I was thinking. I guess all the tension built up, and when she was yelling at me, all I could think about was how I wanted to take her up against that wall and fuck the attitude right out of her. She looked so?—
“I’ve been trying to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why you would have thought that would’ve been a good idea in the first place. I mean, seriously, what the hell, Drea? What exactly were you trying to do? Were you trying to make me think you actually had feelings for me or something? Maybe I would get so offended that I would break my contract. Am I really that difficult that you would try any tactic you see fit to get rid of me?!”
