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“Ohhh, nice swing for the fences,” Kell laughs out. “But that’s barely the first half of a spare, darling.”
Maximus grunts. “You mean that’s barely a base hit?”
“Sure. Whatever.” She waves a hand while sauntering back toward the door. “You two have ten minutes, and you’ve already wasted thirty seconds of it.” She lifts her other hand, wiggling the phone in it. “Timer’s on!”
“What? Are you kidding—”
Maximus slides his hand to my elbow, halting my retaliation before it becomes a regret. He’s still gracefully composed. My own reclining lion.
“Breathe, beautiful. She’s doing this for you.”
“Because she’s the world’s most awesome sister.” My drawl is only half a joke, and he knows it, proven by his warm buss to the top of my shoulder.
“A sister who knows what it’ll take to keep your mother at peace,” he states. “A circus I’ll gladly perform in too if that means it’ll buy us some time to figure out our next steps.” He curves a finger beneath my jaw, gently guiding me to turn and meet his gaze. “I’ll do a can-can on top of an elephant and let it go viral if it’ll keep you and the twiglet safe.”
A giggle spills from me until the point that my lips press up to his. As soon as our mouths meet, my intent is serious again. Dedicated. With the surrender of the kiss, I give him my trust. With the high sigh in my throat, I give him my soul. With the wrap of my hand around his neck, I give him all the conviction in my spirit. The commitment to remain by his side. To stay there until we have a workable plan for all this—if such a thing exists.
Can we actually do it?
Thwart Hecate’s war cries while staying out of Hera’s crosshairs? At the same time, protect my siblings—in HollywoodandIremia—from the fray? And the other people that Maximus and I care about, like Reg, Sarah, Nancy, and now even Arden…by a fractional margin. How is all of this going to affect them? We’re confronting the task of stopping an inter-realmswar…
Kell and her timer can stuff it. Right now, I need a long and tight embrace with the most important person of my existence. I tell him so by roping both arms around his neck and burying my face in his hair. The thick strands still smell like sunshine, surrounding my senses in warmth and my mind in longing.
“What if the twig and I just want to jump in your truck and drive somewhere no one can find us?”
Maximus, returning the urgency of my clasp, exhales hard into my ear. “I’d say that you and our amazing offspring were on to a great concept—in any other situation except ours.”
He doesn’t elaborate. He doesn’t have to. I tell him that by resting my head against his pectoral and savoring the low thrum beneath my ear. The heartbeat of the man I love more with every passing second. More importantly, the incredible human being I’m committed to despite the fact that his father can drop a pin on us wherever we go in all the cosmos.
It is, as Maximus has perfectly said, just part of thesituation.
CHAPTER SEVEN
MAXIMUS
After a day full of fittings, fashion consultations, and even a full facial—which, I admitted to Kara during our rare moments behind closed doors, was unexpectedly close to a religious experience—I thought I’d be heading for the darkest corner of the trendy restaurant on the Pendry Hotel’s rooftop for some much-needed solitude.
I should have known better. And definitely should have remembered that when Veronica Valari’s running the show, there’s no such thing as solitude.
Still, it’s impossible to be miffed at the woman, who’s thoroughly in her element while guiding Kara and me along the wall of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a tonier section of Sunset Boulevard. She’s dressed in form-fitting leather that’s in line with the casual-elegance fashion dictate for the event, which hasn’t stopped boggling my mind. Casualandelegant?
Admittedly, I don’t dissect the subject too deeply. Not when I’m getting away with an untucked button-up, fitted jacket, dark-wash jeans, and a pair of obscenely comfortable boots. Without a tie closing in on my windpipe, I’m actually enjoying myself a little between the photo ops to which Kara and I are being brisking shuttled. Unbelievably, I’m actually smiling for those cameras too.
But the biggest reason for my perpetual grin is the woman by my side. And, more than I expected or hoped, in my arms. The photographers don’t have to push hard for us to moon and peck at each other as if the romance Christmas movie season has come early. There’s an awesome freedom in obliging them.
No. More than that. It’s amazing. Exhilarating. The most magnetic female in the building, rocking a dark-red pantsuit with a frothy black blouse beneath, is the woman I can now openly worship with the rest of LA’s elite—and, via all their social media, with the world. There’s so much we’re still hiding from all of them, but the enormity of our love isn’t one of those elements anymore. For now, I can and will be grateful for that.
Veronica turns us toward another lighted photo-op area, where there’s a large display with drawings and three scale models of buildings complete with working lights and “guests” in all their two-to-three-inch, formal-clad glory.
Jaden’s already standing next to the display, fielding questions from at least a dozen reporters.
“All three of these theaters, historic landmarks in the city, suffered significant damage in Monday’s quake,” he tells them. “Part of the funds from tonight’s event will be dedicated to historically relevant renovations and retrofittings for them. In addition to job opportunities for hundreds of Angelenos, we’re preserving key parts of the city’s history. Movie theaters are as vital to LA’s heritage as the Broadway houses in New York, the jazz clubs in Chicago, or the—”
“Kara! Maximus!”
The reporters bellow it so many times, I wonder who they’re clamoring to drive the point into. Remembering my own name was only a problem during the first minute I beheld Kara in her finery for the night. It’s not an issue now, even with the photo flash storm that erupts from every angle.
“Whoa,” I mumble. “Wow.” And realize, several seconds too late, that the other photo stops were mild warmups for this main show—which, in my dazed opinion, Jaden was handling just fine on his own.
