Chapter 20

Twenty

Harlowe

“Iknow you don’t want to talk about it—”

“Then why do I think that won’t stop you?” I asked, giving my agent a side-eye glance. We’d only been riding for a few minutes when Grant had decided to break the silence of the car. Roc sat across from me with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes closed, but I could have sworn I caught a tremor at the edge of his lips.

“You know I don’t want to keep asking, Har.”

“Then don’t.” I followed Roc’s lead and closed my eyes in an attempt to shut out my agent and the questions I knew he was going to ask.

Grant released a sigh that sounded so tormented I wouldn’t have been shocked if he’d revealed a hair shirt beneath his polished, cotton designer one. “It’s just that the deal with the studio won’t last forever. “

I didn’t open my eyes. “It’s been less than a day since the last time you asked.”

“You know I hate to be this guy. I’m on your side, sweetie.”

I wasn’t always so sure about that. I had a feeling Grant was always on Grant’s side. “I told you I wasn’t sure about committing for another three seasons. I feel like the longer I play the bad girl, the more I’ll get stuck in that role.”

“A lot of actresses would kill to get famous playing the bad girl.”

Everything he was saying was true. I was lucky to have the part. Lots of actresses would kill for it or kill to have steady work. Getting a three-season deal was a coup. If all of this was true, why did I get a sick feeling in my gut every time Grant mentioned it?

I finally opened one eye. “I appreciate you getting the deal for me, Grant. Truly, I do. But I need a little more time to make such a big decision. I’m sure you understand that, right?”

His cheeks mottled pink, and he patted my knee. “Sure, I do. You take all the time you need.” He paused. “Actually, I don’t mean that.”

“I know you don’t.” I grinned at the guy. “Give me until the end of this shoot. After the plane going down yesterday, our truck breaking down, and us ending up in that motel, I just need some recovery time.”

He nodded. “Understood.” His voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper. “You want to tell me why you were sharing the honeymoon suite with your orc bodyguard?”

“Aside from the fact that it was the only room available, and I refused to let Roc sleep on the sidewalk, nope.”

His eyebrows lifted, before he made a motion of zipping his lips and throwing away a key. “You don’t have to worry about me. I won’t tell a soul.”

Unless you need to drum up some press, I thought, looking away from him and glancing at Roc, whose eyes were closed. There was no doubt in my mind he was listening to every word and probably had strong opinions about my agent, the deal, and my reticence to take it.

I allowed my gaze to linger on the swell of his chest muscles beneath his crossed arms, as his black shirt stretched over them and strained the buttons. As my pulse quickened, I closed my eyes to block out the sight of him.

But I didn’t need to see Roc to remember what it was like to touch him. It was all too easy to be pulled back to Roc’s soft lips on mine, Roc flipping me onto my back, Roc hovering over me. My fingers buzzed with the memory of moving urgently over the fabric of his pants. I’d been desperate to undress him and see all of him, feel all of him. But he’d stopped me.

Even now, I exhaled a relieved sigh. What if he hadn’t stopped me? What if he’d let me unfasten his pants? What if I’d been able to finally see how large his—?

“Har?”

I opened my eyes to find both Grant and Roc looking at me.

“Are you okay, sweetie?” Grant twisted to look at me more fully. “You were moaning in your sleep.”

“Was I?” I put a hand to my cheek, which was burning, and kept my gaze far away from Roc. “I guess I was having nightmares about the plane.”

Grant nodded but didn’t look remotely convinced. ”Maybe we should have you checked by a doctor when we get to the site.”

I shook my head. “I’m fine. It’s just been a traumatic twenty-four hours.” That wasn’t a total lie, but at this point, the part that was haunting my brain had nothing to do with the plane’s emergency landing and everything to do with the hot orc sitting across from me. I could sense his gaze on me, and I shifted in place, my body sizzling with prickly heat that made it hard for me to sit still.

“But you’ll be able to do the shoot?”

I rolled my eyes at Grant. “You know I would never back out.” Then I put my hand on his and reminded myself that he was my agent, and it was his job to make sure I was at my best. “I promise that I’ll be as good as new as soon as we get there. It will be like nothing ever happened.”

I’d said the last part as much for myself and Roc as for my agent. I needed to pretend that I hadn’t gotten tipsy and kissed my bodyguard, that he hadn’t talked dirty to me and made me almost boneless with desire, and that I hadn’t groped his cock through his pants. I needed to forget all of that if I was going to pull off this shoot and act normally around Roc.

As I turned my head away from Grant and he busied himself on his phone, I couldn’t help locking eyes with Roc. He was no longer stifling his mild amusement at my conversation with Grant. His dark eyes were molten as they pinned me in place, holding my gaze to his for a moment. Then he closed his eyes and broke the spell, releasing me so I could sag into the leather seat and try to remember how to breathe.

How did I go back to normal when I wasn’t the same person I’d been before he’d touched me—before he’d warned me that I would be his?