Page 71 of Pink

Gigi flashed her teeth in a wicked smile. “Yeah, well … it was that or they cut three inches off the bottom to get rid of the pink. I can’t work a high bob, or a pixie cut, and nobody was shaving this head, right?”

“Why’d you do it in the first place?”

That wasn’t an easy answer. Or maybe it was, and she just didn’t want to say it.

“Well …”

Lev reached for the beer he’d sat on a nearby table and tipped it up for a drink while he waited for her to continue. She liked that he didn’t push her; everything, even their conversations, was always on her terms and time. It was so unlike every man she had ever dated in the last five and a half years, although there hadn’t been that many. And she wasn’t even dating Lev.

It just … was a glaring difference she couldn’t ignore.

“I wanted some kind of control,” she finally admitted, grabbing her own glass as well and then downing what remained in the bottom just because it felt appropriate. “Something to say fuck you without saying it. I wish I could explain to you how pissed off my manager and agent was the day I posted the pink hair. Not because I did it, but because it was my most-liked post all year with the highest positive engagement. There was no way they could do anything to me beyond the fine because they couldn’t spin it to the public, right?”

Lev laughed huskily, the pride clear when he replied, “So that passive-aggressive fuck you worked, then.”

“Basically. To an extent. And now all my private appointments have to pass from my assistant through the agency and management to make sure I don’t pull another Gigi. Or that’s what they’re calling it.”

Lev made a noise under his breath that didn’t come off as happy. “Sounds …”

She passed him a look.

Lev made a noise under his breath and shook his head.

“Say it,” she told him. “I already know.”

“You know what, let’s just get back to darts instead.”

She nodded. “That’s fair.”

Stepping up beside her for his next turn, Lev didn’t even wait for Gigi to head forward and pull her dart from the wall. According to him, no one really used the dartboard in the bar anyway, so they were just fooling around. There weren’t even enough darts to have a proper game, he explained. She didn’t know anything about darts, to begin with.

Except that she liked watching Lev play it. Gigi was a sucker for a man with nice arms, and he certainly had those. She didn’t mind taking a step back, so she could enjoy the way his arms looked flexing in the rolled-up sleeves of his white button-down … or admire his back when he considered his shot. She was such a sucker for a good back on man.

She hadn’t even asked if he had someone in his life—like maybe a girlfriend, or a wife. A part of her didn’t care to know but another part just knew he wasn’t that kind of guy. He wouldn’t be here flirting with her and looking at her the way he did if he had someone waiting for him at home. It didn’t seem like Lev’s style.

“Got a nice view back there?” he asked.

Gigi grinned, entirely unashamed when he peeked over his shoulder. That cocked brow and his knowing smirk were enough to make a heat bloom in her belly. A warm shot of lust traveled lower and lower until she was shifting in her ankle boots to relieve the new ache that started between her thighs.

It didn’t help.

At all.

“I mean, it’ll do,” Gigi replied, tampering the neediness trying to fight its way out of her mouth.

That had Lev gawking at her. “It’ll do?”

She couldn’t help but throw her head back and laugh.

Lev’s loud sigh echoed before he told her, “Save your pride, then, woman. I won’t fault you for it. Laugh it up.”

She sure did.

That was the great thing about this man—he knew how to take a joke. That hadn’t changed, and they could still make each other laugh without barely any effort at all.

He was kind of perfect.

And that’s terrifying, her heart whispered.