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Oh, she had plenty of times when she felt grounded. She went home to Texas to her bungalow or stayed with her momma for weeks at a time. She rubbed the dog’s ears and refilled his water bowl. There might be song lyrics sparking in her mind while she did those things, but they werenormalthings.
Nothingabout her current situation was normal.
She paced to the last window and whipped around to head the other direction. The photos of their engagement were released. Photos she didn’t even know existed.
How silly and naïve of her to never considerwhyJulius chose to create such a magical moment for their engagement. Now she saw the reasoning behind it. The world would never believe it if they didn’t see it in some dramatic technicolor display. He gave them that.
The reason behind it did put a damper on the whole thing, though. While she didn’t have regrets over what happened back in her hotel room, she did feel a little sad that it wasn’tonlyfor them.
Which was plain silly. This was a transaction, she reminded herself. A means to an end, a way to get the horrible monkeys off her back and send them running with a rumor that Julius was her lover in that video…and they were in love.
She’d made this choice. Now she had to live with it.
She spun again. The knock on the door made her jump even though she’d been expecting it. After all, she’d stormed off like a spoiled prima donna, something she never did and was kind of embarrassed about.
The last thing she wanted was Julius thinking of her like some silly, emotional child.
“Come in.” Her tone reflected the misery she felt.
A set of broad shoulders filled the doorway. Julius shut the door and twisted the lock.
She blinked at the move. He’d been in her hotel rooms plenty of times but never locked the door before.
That was before they’d shared a night of passionate, bone-melting sex.
Her nipples pebbled, and she snapped her arms over them to conceal her reaction to the man striding toward her like he was coming to sweep her off her feet…
“Let’s talk.”
She sucked in a breath. Nobody ordered her around, but the way he said it sent a ripple of desire through her entire body.Everywhere.
She wet her dry lips. “What about?”
Dark brown eyes burned into hers. “About Vegas?”
“Okay, I know that I overreacted in there. It’s just that—”
“You don’t want your wedding to be quick and meaningless.”
“Exactly!” She was glad he understood, because she hardly did herself. Her shoulders drooped.
“Honey, we don’t have to get married in Vegas.”
“You’re being super giving. I know this whole thing is a big blow to your ego. Pretending you’re the guy on the video…”
“I don’t care about that.”
He really was so sweet and he always seemed to know the right thing to say.
“I want my wedding to be special.” Her statement came out on a quiet lilt.
He reached for her but when someone knocked and then tried the door handle, he dropped his hand to his side. “Dammit. We can’t talk now.”
“What? Why? What’s going on?” Her stomach bottomed out. What if her stalker was here and he’d really come into the room to get her to safety and then she sidetracked him with unimportant worries?
He wrapped his fingers around her upper arm. “The big press conference. Did you forget?”
The warmth of his touch was an instant balm smoothed over her jumping nerves. Okay, press conferences she could do with her eyes closed. Fleeing her hotel room with a madman on her trail wasn’t.
