Fuck, this isn’t happening. Now, I can’t tell which of us is gripping the other harder. My fist isn’t as innocent as Hadley’s, though. No way I survive this encounter without bloodshed.
“I don’t want to be a model,” Hadley snaps.
“But, you have the bone structure. And the height! Wouldn’t she be a fantastic model, Julian?” Pearl asks me. “Tell her.”
Hadley grunts, and finally eases up on my hand enough for the blood to flow again. I run my thumb over hers, as much to soothe my anger as comfort her.
I lift a brow, scanning all of them to make sure I have their attention. “Do I think she’d be a fantastic model? Yes.”
Everyone nods a triumphant I-told-you-so, while Hadley glares at me and tugs her hand away. I lean back and cross my arms. “She’d be a great model because Hadley would make a fantastic anything. She’s a fantastic PA. A fantastic friend. A fantastic girlfriend. She’s just a freaking fantastic human being, so yes, anything she decides to do will be amazing.”
My words settle awkwardly over the table. The others avoid my gaze, visibly smarting from my subtle reprimand. Good. May they choke on their snobbery and stupid miniature food. This time when I meet Hadley’s eyes, they’re obscured by a glossy sheen.
Thank you, she mouths, resting her hand on my thigh.
I scoop her fingers in mine and bring them to my lips. With a soft kiss, I let go as the servers burst into the room with the next course.
Naomi shifts beside me, and I glance down to see her fist hovering under the table. I smirk and tap it with mine.
CHAPTER 10
HADLEY
I wanted a fake boyfriend to annoy my parents, not a knight in shining armor who was going to re-wire my entire relationship with them. I still can’t get Julian’s speech out of my head, the way he knocked the critiques from their judgmental mouths.
No one said much after that. The rest of the dinner courses came and went with awkward conversation about the food, the weather, and anything but the usual topic of how I’m wasting my life because I chose not to be them. Because I like being in the background. I’m not settling, I want to be the person making someone else shine. I’m a detail person, a rule-follower as Julian says, and I love my rules. Order. Having the freedom to make mistakes and hide when I want to. The only thing I don’t love about my life is their refusal to accept it.
Julian doesn’t even know he’s wearing a superhero cape as we say our goodbyes and rush from the stifling restaurant into the cool evening air.
I watch him the entire ride home, captivated by the way his eyes scan the road. The way the muscles in his forearm stand out below his rolled up sleeves when he grips the wheel. How his hair is so perfectly messy right now and begging to have my fingers run through it. Was anything he said tonight true? What if it was? What if those touches were real and those public confessions were also private messages for me? Does he really think I’m beautiful? I know he does. He’s said it before. But what about the rest? I suck in my breath at the thought.
I want to touch him again. To reach out and feel his thigh on my palm or the constriction of his bicep in my fingers. I burn at memories of his solid arm, the corded muscle on display when he leaned back on his bed the other night. I’d do anything for another shot at that moment. Maybe I’d still pick a fight, but I wouldn’t leave this time. I’d rile him up until his fists clenched and that devastating body was coiled in taut energy ready to explode. And then… my gaze drifts to his jeans and my heart beats faster.
I remember Julian in a towel. His hair wet, his eyes… I close my own, fighting the sudden surge of heat. It floods my body, burning in forbidden places. Why Julian? How can this guy I hated just days ago ignite fires I didn’t even know I had? Because I’m blazing right now, pulling in long breaths of cool air to soothe the burn.
“You okay?” he asks, those gorgeous eyes flickering to me after he pulls into a parking space at our building. Naomi is asleep in the back.
I swallow and drag my gaze to the windshield. “Thanks for what you did tonight. You went above and beyond the call of duty.”
“Anything for Viv,” he teases, his lips curling up when I glare at him. I swat his arm, but the contact sends another surge of electricity through me. My open palm lingers where it struck him. It’s like I can’t pull away.
“Julian…” My voice is soft. I don’t even know what I want to say.
Concern etches his face as he waits, the lines deepening the longer I maintain the silence.
“I’m sorry if I overstepped,” he says finally when I still don’t speak. “Your family is just… It’s bullshit, Hadley. You know that, right? Everything they said is complete freaking bullshit.”
I blink up at him, the earnestness in his eyes taking my breath away. It’s like he’s begging me to believe him. Everything he does is always so intense, his heart on his sleeve, take it or leave it.
I reach over and touch his cheek, my palm resting against the rough surface of two-day stubble. Geez, could he be more beautiful right now? That perfectly symmetrical face, those eyes that demand and give so much at once. My thumb moves, drifting over his lips. I watch in awe as it glides slowly, envious of its bravery because me? I’d never make that mistake.
He’s a hurricane; I’m the barometer.
I pull my hand away and tuck it in my lap.
“I should go. Thanks again for your help tonight,” I say. But his eyes. They’re not done with me yet. I swallow the lump in my throat, my body trembling as I fight the pull of his gaze. In seconds I’m swept into the abyss. “Julian…” I whisper again.
His slight smile rips through me. “You keep saying my name.”
“I know. I’m sorry, just…” I stop.
Just.
Just what?
He raises his eyebrows, waiting.
“Just, I like saying your name,“ I finish finally.
His smile spreads into a grin. “I like you saying my name too.”
I lean back, as if putting more space between us will tame this raging fire. “You’re not what I thought.” The words come out almost breathless, probably because I stopped breathing a while ago.
He studies me for a moment, his gaze landing on my fingers as they caress the door handle. I can’t tell if they’re preparing to open it so I can flee, or hold it shut to lock me in this excruciating, delicious tension. Is he wondering the same?
“Well, you’re exactly what I thought,” he says smugly. “I just didn’t know I liked it so much.”
What are you doing?! Crap, crap, crap.
I pace the foyer of Julian’s apartment, biting my thumbnail with each frantic step. He carried his sleeping niece up from the car and is now tucking her into bed for the night. Oh, and asked if I wanted to come up. And I said yes. And now I’m here and… are you insane?!
I should just leave. I’ll text him and say I was pretty tired after all. He’ll understand. We both have an early start tomorrow.
I reach for the door and freeze at the memory of Julian walking through it with Naomi in his arms. The soft look in his eyes as he gazed down at her and whispered he’d be right back. Every female hormone in my body came together for some weird symphony in that moment, rocked by the rare glimpse of a different Julian Campbell. Who knew the guy who could take on an army of teenage thugs and stand up to my parents without so much as a blink, would also have a tender streak?