If I thought it was loud before, the second he got out of the limo, the volume dial got turned all the way to extreme. There were fans screaming his name, cameras flashing, bright lights, and fast-moving people whirring all around. And the noise, it was...inescapable. It felt like it was coming from everywhere.
Liam, of course, was a consummate professional. He fixed a wide smile onto his face and squared off his shoulders. A part of me was beaming with happiness that I was his date for the night.
His fake date.
But another part of me couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if we weren't interrupted in the limousine. Would we have actually kissed? Because that part didn't feel fake, at least not for me.
Suddenly, Porter's voice came into my head, and it was never a good thing when that happened. As I looked at Liam, the concerns that Porter and Steel had raised echoed in my mind.
The guy was a professional. He was in the media, so yeah, this probably was what he'd said it would be. A fake date. Nothing more and nothing less.
He was more interested in believability, and making Mrs. Langley happy, than he was in me. I just had to accept that. Which was why I was surprised to feel his fingers slip into my hand as he walked up the red carpet, half a step in front of me.
Believability, I reminded myself. He was just doing it to make it seem to the world like he was on a real date.
I was so busy looking at the chaotic scene around us that I almost crashed into him when he suddenly stopped and started posing for the cameras.
"Liam, who's your date tonight?"
"Liam, what piece are you looking forward to seeing tonight?"
"Liam, how do you feel about winning Daylesford’s Hottest Derriere?"
I gently slipped my fingers out of his hand, cupped my hands together behind my back and moved a few steps away. The shouting pack of hyenas were interested in him and not me.
He was standing there, silent but smiling widely. For a moment, despite his outward appearance of poise and happiness, I saw the faintest glimmer of sadness. There was a certain vulture-like quality to the scene I was witnesing when I saw it up close and personal, standing there on the red carpet like I was.
He was just one man, silhouetted against a pack of hungry, rapacious, and roaring vultures. The questions kept flying at him and he kept on ignoring them. His smile remained plastered on his face, and as he turned from side to side, the cameras moved with him. It felt a little voyeuristic, predatory, and just...sad.
I'd always felt like there was more to him than just being Daylesford’s hottest weatherman, with what was now, officially, Daylesford’s hottest ass. But it was always just a feeling, something that I put down to simply having a crush on the guy.
But now I knew there was more to him.
He had a deeper side. He cared about the environment and important issues. He wanted to make a difference in the world, a real difference. Yet here he was being paraded like a circus animal.
After a few moments, he turned to me. He motioned with his head for me to come back to him. I stepped up beside him as he whispered in my ear, his wide smile never faltering, not even for a second.
"Save me." His warm breath filled my ear. "Hold me, look happy for a moment, and then pull me away. Please."
"Okay," I whispered back to him. I stretched the biggest grin I could manage onto my face. "I got you."
I wrapped my arm around him and the camera bulbs exploded in a flurry of light. So did the questions coming from the voracious media pack.
"Liam, is this your new boyfriend?"
"Can you both turn to the left?"
"Liam, what's the weather for tomorrow? I forgot to watch the news."
The questions kept coming, but I figured since he wasn't responding, we just had to stand there, pretend we couldn’t hear them, and take it.
Liam slipped his hand back into mine. I could feel him shivering, so I rubbed the back of his hand with my thumb to reassure him and calm him down a little. It seemed to work. Within a few moments, the shivering had completely gone.
I was just about to pull him away, when one of the reporter's questions stopped me dead in my tracks. It rang out above all the other questions that were being hurled at us.
"Liam, is it true you're moving to New York to join Wake Up America?"
What was that about? Was Liam really planning on leaving Daylesford, or was it just another stupid rumor that I shouldn't believe?
I certainly felt like a deer in headlights, well more than I was already feeling that anyway. It was Liam's gentle touch—he was now stroking the back of my hand with his thumb—that brought me back to the red carpet.
"We're almost done," he said to me, and I was impressed at his ventriloquist skills. His lips barely moved, but he was as clear as day.
"Show us your ass."
"Yeah, turn around and show us your ass."
The vultures were turning feral.
I felt Liam's grip on my hand get firmer, and as I turned to look at him, I could see his jaw was clenched as well.
He clearly hated this, being reduced to turning around and showing off his ass. I could tell that it was really pissing him off. I thought the reporters would back off, since they weren't getting Liam to turn around, but no, they intensified their calls.
"Liam, turn around."
"We need an ass pic."
"Do it, Liam, turn around."
My blood was starting to boil and I could see Liam begin to lose his composure a little. As the cries rang out louder around us, we looked at each other. I didn't know what came over me, but in that moment I knew that it was the right thing to do.
I grabbed Liam, swung him around so he was draped across the front of my body, tilted my head, and leaned in for a kiss. Liam's lips met mine and the touch felt electric, just as good as his body felt in my arms.
The shouting stopped and the reporters were reduced to silence. All I could hear was the sounds of the cameras flashing, but soon, they faded away as well.
It was a soft kiss on the lips. I mean, we had to keep things PG. But it was long enough that when I finally lifted him back up to standing, his taste still lingered.
"How was that for believability?" I said, taking his hand and walking up the rest of the red carpet, with Liam half a step behind me.
The next morning, I didn't even get the chance to look up when Liam walked through the front doors of the gym. He ran up to the front desk and threw all of Daylesford's newspapers in front of me.
"What's all this?" I said, looking up and seeing him beaming at me.
His dark gray eyes were sparkling like I had never seen them sparkle before. He was practically buzzing with excitement.
"Look at these," he said, pointing to all of the newspapers now scattered across my front desk.
I picked one up.
"Holy shit," I said, looking up at him.
He was nodding his head manically.
"We're on the front cover of The Daylesford Times."
I couldn't believe it.
"Not just The Daylesford Times. All of them, Hudson," Liam said as he flicked his fingers across the newspapers.
I looked down, and he was right. We were on the cover of all of the newspapers in Daylesford, and the photo they had all used was of our kiss on the red carpet.
The image was the same on all the covers, or a slight variation of the same, depending on where the photographer had been standing. The only difference was in the headlines.