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“Let’s do it together. I’ll hit dial. You speak.”
He presses Call and puts it on speaker phone. It rings a handful of times and then someone picks up.
“Hello, you’ve reached the Regency Hotel. How may I help you?”
Laz speaks in a cheerful voice. “I’d like to speak to the events coordinator, please.”
“One moment.”
Another dial tone sounds, and then a woman picks up and announces herself as Kelly, the events coordinator.
Dead air. Laz stares at me.
“Hello?” Kelly says again.
My jaw works.
Am I really going to do this?
I reach out and hit the red button, hanging up the call.
Laz rubs the back of his neck, his face falling. “Ah, Bambi. Why’d you do that?”
Because this isn’t just about the party.
“I can’t. We can’t. You’remarried. I know she’s unreasonable and selfish sometimes, but she’s my mother.”
“You’re too fucking noble,” he growls.
“And you’re going to get yourself killed.”
He gives me a hard, sarcastic smile. “No shit. I’m a Rosetti, after all.”
“What?”
Laz breezes past that statement. “There are only two things I want, my money so I can buy my garage, and you. I can’t have my money yet, so I’m going to have you.”
He tries to kiss me, but I put my hand over his mouth, stopping him. “I’m not your consolation prize.”
He takes my hand away. “Bambi, you’re my grand prize.”
Our lips are so close together. I could kiss him right now. A lover’s kiss, more about feelings than sex. Wanting my stepdad is one thing.
Falling in love with him?
Insane.
I pull myself out of his grip and back away.
“I can’t be your anything. I really like you, I care about you, I’m always thinking about you, but this isn’t right.”
The expression in his eyes flickers between anger and pain. “If you wanted to say the words that would make me back off, those aren’t it.” He moves toward me like a hunter stalking prey. “You like me? You care about me? That’s oxygen to me.”
I was trying to remind him that he has good qualities and not to throw his dreams away on an affair that might get him killed.
I’m reminding myself, too. He’s the man who goes up to bat for me when no one else will. His protection feels like warmth pouring through my body. We can’t destroy all that goodness by acting like idiots.
Laz takes me in his arms and his mouth descends toward mine in a hungry kiss.
