She giggled. “You’re welcome?”
“I’m serious,” he said. “There’s no one else I’d rather bury a body with. I’m really glad we met.”
“Aw.” She turned around in his arms to face him, chest to chest, laughing lightly at his words. “I’m really glad we met, too. I feel really close to you already. We’re basically bonded for life now over that damn doll.”
He grinned. “Partners in crime.”
She pushed a lock of hair out of his face and smoothed her finger across his cheek. “I feel like we were meant to meet.”
“Maybe we were,” he mused.
“Maybe we were,” she confirmed.
Chapter Six
When she woke up the next morning, Josie could feel the ache of the tequila pounding in her skull. She groaned, rubbing at her temples as she tried to focus on a way to make the pain go away.
“Not feeling so hot?” Callan asked her, yawning as he was just coming around to waking up. His arms were wrapped around her torso. “All that tequila yesterday would do it.”
Josie made a moaning sound in response because that was about all she could manage at the moment. She backed up into his body farther, curling into his warmth.
“I’m taking that as a ‘not feeling so hot,’” he replied, gently peeling himself from her and standing up from the bed. “Can I get you anything? Water? Aspirin?”
“Yes and yes.” She put her head under a pillow and blocked out the sunlight streaming in through the window. “And anything else you can find to fix a hangover.”
Memories of last night came swarming back to her. Did we bury a sex doll together? Oh, God. She needed to stop drinking.
Callan snorted, laughing. “How about some French toast and strawberries from room service?”
“Ding ding ding,” she replied, sticking a hand up in the air. “I’ll take two.”
“Great, well, I’ll place the order.” He picked up the phone on the nightstand. “Stay as long as you’d like. I have a work obligation at eleven, so I have to leave in a few minutes.”
“Where’s my phone?” Josie scrambled out of bed so fast, she nearly rocketed from the sheets. “It’s not eleven already, right?”
“It’s ten o’clock,” he informed her, checking the time on his iPhone. “We definitely slept in.”
“Shit. Shit. Shit.” She ran to the bathroom and turned the shower knobs quickly. “Mind if I take the fastest shower in the world?”
“Go for it,” he told her. “So, is that a no on breakfast?”
“No time!” she shrieked, jumping under the stream of water and beginning to clean herself as fast as her hands could lather soap across her body. She had less than an hour to be clean, dry, and sitting with her brother at his press junket in front of hundreds of reporters. He was going to freaking kill her if she wasn’t there. Hell, he was already probably freaking out that she wasn’t at the house. She’d definitely missed the morning call time, having already supposed to be mic’ed-up and in front of the cameras this morning.
Shit. She was in deep shit.
Why did she even care? She paused for a moment, almost considering crawling right back into bed and fucking the hell out of the beautiful stranger she’d just met.
That would certainly be better than living her life. More like, living her brother’s life. But she did what she had to do for the family. That was just part of being a Gray. It was the only life she had ever known.
She quickly finished up the rest of her shower and hopped out, drying herself off and looking for her clothes. She’d tossed them everywhere last night.
“Here,” Callan said, walking up to her with a garment bag. “I had the hotel send this up while you were in the shower. I think it’s your size.”
She blinked twice, looking at him with surprise. “What?”
He unzipped the garment bag, and inside was a very professional-looking sleeveless white dress that cut off at the knees. “I figured you were late for a work event or something, and maybe this would come in handy. Seems like it would work for any type of event, really.”
It was freaking perfect. Now she would actually look like she had tried for the press junket and not just rolled out of bed and done the walk of shame.
She balked at the grandness of the gesture. “You’re just going to give me this?”
“I mean…you can bring it back,” he said, a teasing smile on his lips. “I’d love an excuse to see you again.”
Josie grinned, loving the not-so-subtle way he’d managed to sneak himself back into her life. “I think I would be willing to return the outfit tonight. I might need some help unzipping it, after all.”
“I’m very good at taking off clothes,” he teased with a wink.
She laughed, taking the dress from him and bringing it into the bathroom. She slipped on the dress and glanced at her reflection. It fit perfectly, like a glove. In fact, she looked downright amazing. She was definitely going to see him tonight, but she might not give this dress back—she looked too damn good in it.
Upon exiting the bathroom, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him squarely on the lips. “Thank you. You’re amazing.”
He lifted her off the ground, growling lightly against her neck. Walking her over to the bed, he threatened to toss her onto it.
Josie squealed and smacked at his shoulders. “Put me down! I have to go!”
“Just one more romp in the sheets,” he teased. “You’re so fucking sexy in this dress.”
She wiggled out of his arms, finally freeing herself. “You are impossible.”
“Because I can’t wait to see you again?” He kissed her on the cheek. “Some would call that romantic, my dear.”
“Don’t forget the rules,” she reminded him, a flutter of nerves—or was it excitement?—in her belly. “No falling in love.”
“I didn’t make any promises about not falling in lust.” He smacked her ass as she walked away, making an mmm noise. “That booty, though.”
She laughed, putting an extra sway in her walk to purposely make her ass shake as she moved. “Goodbye, Callan.”
“Goodbye, Josie,” he called after her as she left the hotel room. “See you tonight. Same time, same place.”
She waved at him and headed down the hallway. The moment she got on the elevator, she powered up her cell phone. Sure enough, it beeped for a solid minute with notifications coming in.
37 unread text messages.
10 missed calls.
3 voicemails.
Ah, her work was never done. Being her brother’s personal assistant was exhausting sometimes, but it paid the bills. And it paid well. Like, really well. Almost as well as being one of the characters on Gray’s Angels, the reality show that she and her family often starred in, even though her brother was the main character. Being his assistant and sister meant she had a main role in his life and, therefore, a main role on the show.
She was able to afford a really nice life in the city she loved because of what her brother did, and for that, she was really grateful. None of them would have found fame or success if it hadn’t been for his career and bringing them to the limelight. She just had to remember that. She had to keep that in the foreground of her mind instead of thinking about all the what-ifs, the maybe-insteads, the I-could-have-beens.