“Excuse you, Ms. Adler, but his films are nowhere near as boring as your cheesy romances.”
“Shoot. Shoot. Bang. The end.” She rolls her eyes. “I mean, come on.”
“It’s entertaining.”
“No, it’s cheesy in the other sense.”
“We’ll agree to disagree on that.” I pause, bringing us to a stop. “Now, hold on. How did you know I liked Tarantino?”
A blush covers her features. “I know a lot of things about you.”
“Like what?”
“You like Muse’s music and want “Resistance” to be played at your funeral. You thought reading for assignments was boring and barely turned them in. You’re grumpy in the morning and used to only drink black or iced coffee. Now, you only consume black with one gram of damn sugar.”
I smirk. “And you still managed to mess it up a few times.”
“It was on purpose because you’re a jerk, in case you didn’t know.”
“Shocker. Might want to report that to someone who cares.”
“Do you channel the twat tendencies or do they come naturally?”
“A little bit of both.” I stare at my watch. “Time to go home for that BJ before I’m cock-blocked.”
“Not yet.” She bites her lower lip.
“Not yet? What else do you intend to do in this sodding weather that made kings and queens give up these lands?”
“Just walk.”
“You sound more suspicious than a traitor with a torch.”
“Just do as you’re told or my mouth won’t show you some love.”
“I already paid for that. The cheesy film, remember?”
“Don’t care. This is part of the bargain.”
I groan, inwardly kicking my pussy-whipped dick for agreeing to this in the first place. I could’ve taken her back to the house and had not gotten a BJ but the whole package.
But when she said she wanted to spend time outside, I couldn’t say no. In a way, this is our first date.
Fuck you, Junior. Are you on my side or hers?
“Also”—she glares at me—“you should’ve told me about Uncle Henry. I was so flustered.”
She was. But when she came back, she looked the happiest I’ve seen her in recent memory.
“You both needed closure,” I say simply.
It was one of the things that bothered her, and apparently, I made it my mission to get rid of them one by one.
What happens next completely takes me aback.
Nicole gets on her tiptoes and kisses my cheek.
Well, fuck. Is it wrong that I want to grab her by the throat and kiss her against the tree while everyone is watching?
“What was that for?” I ask instead.
“A thank-you.” She swallows. “I thought I’d lost him for good, but turns out, he was always searching for me.”
“If you want to really thank me, that kiss can go somewhere down below.”
She fixates me with a playful look. “I said later.”
“Later isn’t a measurable time so it’s meaningless. In fact, later could be the fifteen minutes we’ll spend on the drive home.”
“Nice try.” Nicole’s laughing now and I can’t get enough of the sound. Of the carefree nature of it.
The fact that it shines through pain is what makes it even more special.
I would sell both my kidneys in a buy-one-get-one-free package if that means I’ll see her laugh more.
So I try to keep it on her face as we take the fucking stroll, twice, while I’m holding her hand. Because fuck it, I’ll be sappy if it’s with her.
Once we sit on the bench, she fingers the healing wound on my temple, her brows knitting together. “Does it hurt?”
“Not really, but I’m seriously worried about the fact that it’ll scar. My magazine cover status is in jeopardy.”
She laughs. “It’s their loss. Besides, scars are beautiful.”
“How so?”
“We’re humans, we’re not supposed to be perfect.”
“Aren’t you the philosophical one?”
She leans back on both her palms and stares at the sky, as shitty and cloudy as it is, I wish I’m that sky right now. “I just learned to appreciate things and erase others.”
“Was it hard?”
“Sometimes. But I didn’t let it bring me down.” She smiles and I want to trap that smile in my chest. Better yet, I wish I was there all these years she’s been struggling on her own.
I wish I didn’t let my dick dictate my actions and how I felt.
“I need to check on Jay.” Nicole rummages through her bag. “Ugh, I can’t find the thing. Can you call me?”
I would rather not. I like the peacefulness of this moment too much to ruin it, but I do so anyway.
She pulls it out and releases a sigh. “Found it.”
I pause at the name she saved me as and snatch her phone away. “Are you calling your boss a bloody idiot, Ms. Adler?”
A blush spreads over her cheeks and neck. “All assistants do.”
“When did this start?”
“When we were eighteen.”
“This won’t do.” I tell her to unlock the phone, then change the name to Daniel surrounded by two hearts. Then I take a selfie while I kiss her lips and put it as the designated picture.
Nicole calls me silly, but she’s smiling like the hopeless romantic she is.
We spend some more time in the park before she insists that we buy groceries.
“You know I have staff who keep the fridge stocked, right?” I push the trolley as she throws all sorts of things in it. “They’d have a mini-stroke and call you Americanized behind your back as they sip their Earl Grey tea.”
She throws a smile at me over her shoulder. “I’ll drink with them. I love tea.”
“Congratulations for being one of the many Brits who consume unhealthy amounts of it.”
“You don’t. You prefer coffee.”
“Which is why my staff call me the Americanized Sterling behind my back, too. So we’re mates, you and I. Congratulations again.”
She stares at me while squeezing a packet of something green floating in a snot-like liquid. Please tell me she’s just checking it out of curiosity and not actually going to take that.
“Have your staff stayed in the mansion all these years?”
“All eleven Christmases of them without a single present from yours truly.”
“But why?”
“They come with the mansion.”
“But they’re people.”
“Extremely annoying ones with a sense of loyalty that resembles a samurai’s second hand. You know, the one that finishes them off after they disembowel themselves. In my case, if I choose to go, they would poison my coffee.”
“Why?”
“They hate that stuff. Last I heard, it’s considered blasphemy to prefer it over tea.”
“No, I mean why did you keep them?”
“I didn’t. They were technically fired eleven years ago, but they’re more stubborn than my ‘I couldn’t care less’ attitude.”
“Who pays them, then?”
“My brother, through my owned shares. He’s been managing the whole thing and probably bribed them with premium Chinese tea to be a thorn in my side.”