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“No, you can’t discriminate.” He arched a brow at her, enjoying their verbal sparring and wanting to hear more of her rasping voice.
Her frown deepened. “Thanks for the update. Please leave.”
Her tone and shuttered expression had him back-tracking. He’d fucked this up completely, but he could turn it around, he always did.
He stepped forward again and she stepped back, practically jumping away from him.
“We’ve got off on the wrong foot.” Flashing her a disarming smile he continued. “I’m Will Crawford, pleased to meet you.” He held his hand out, but she didn’t acknowledge it.
“This conversation is over.”
“It’s just starting. I’ve introduced myself, normally you would do the same and say ‘Lovely to meet you, come back tomorrow and we’ll get to work’, and then-”
“Look, Precious. Whatever it is you’re selling with your fancy-ass clothes and too expensive midlife crisis car, I ain’t buying.” Her southern accent thickening delightfully the more she talked.
“Precious?” Will’s lip quirked at the nickname. “I’m just trying to sell you my time?”
“Well, I don’t want it. Now for the last time, leave,” she growled, her cheeks flushed. He took in her fight or flight stance, her hard expression and knew this wasn’t going well. He needed to regroup.
He held up his hands in surrender. “Okay, I hear you. I’m going.” He paused for a moment, the businessman in him demanding he convince her, but his experience had taught him when he needed to back off or he’d lose altogether. He nodded then shot her another smile, trying to cover the fact that he was memorizing her face.
He sauntered back to his car, his steps light and excitement running through him like he hadn’t had in a long time. The thrillof the challenge, the chase. He had a plan, and he would be back in the morning.
He grabbed his phone from the back seat then drove off, calling hisMomagerhandsfree.
“Change of plan,” he said when she answered.
“Will! What the hell are you doing? Driving from Tennessee to L.A. Are you joking? Are you high?”
“Relax Mom, I’m not doing that,” he soothed her ruffled feathers.
“Thank Christ, you gave me a heart attack and I’m too young to die. Okay, so GQ are ready for your ‘Fabulous at Forty’ shoot on Friday. As I said, it’s topless so no solid food after Wednesday and no liquids from Thursday morning. I’ve booked you a chest wax on Wednesday, hopefully by Friday the swelling and redness will have gone down, you do have such pale skin, Will. Filming starts tomorrow, screentest and wardrobe fitting tonight. They’re really wanting to carve out your image this season, still lots of dark prints and cuts to reveal your tattoos, it’ll really hammer home the persona and-”
“Mom!”
She sighed. “Yes?”
“Change of plan, I’ll be sticking around here for a bit, I’ll see you in a couple of weeks.”
There was deathly silence then a shriek the likes of which only belonged to fabled Banshees. “What! What the fuck, Will! Are you fucki-”
“Bye Mom, love you!” he called, cutting off her rage before he ended the call. He laughed as he headed back into Citrus Pines to rent out his new favorite cabin for the next few weeks.
Chapter 3
When his car was out of sight, Rebelle gasped out a breath, heaving the air from her lungs. She bent forward at the waist, clutching her trembling knees with shaking hands as she tried not to dry heave.
He’d startled her.
She wasn’t expecting to step outside and see him. He, Will, as he’d introduced himself, clearly had no idea how intimidating he was to someone like her. Someone who had been through so much at the hands of a man half Will’s size.
She worked to get control of her breathing, but having such an imposing man in close proximity, trying to force his way in, had triggered something. She wiped frantically at her mouth as she felt saliva trying to escape. Panic attacks weren’t pretty, but they were frequent. She had been working with Justine to cope with her attacks, but it was taking longer than she had hoped to get a handle on them. Her limbs turned to Jell-O and she collapsed into the dirt.
He could have hit you.
Could have dragged you behind the shelter and-
“Stop!” she gasped out, trying to cease her‘could haves’.Not every man was abusive, but her brain sure acted like they were. She lay there in the dirt, the sun beaming down on her, covering her in its comforting warmth, bringing life back into her skin. Blood pumped freely through her veins until she came back to herself.
