Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
When I looked up again, English stood with a small group. Her eyes were on me. Or more precisely, Poppy. Her face was perfectly neutral. But English said so much in that look.
When the next song ended, I took a step away from the dance floor.
“Another one,” Poppy said with a feral grin as she reached for me.
“Let’s go talk to Gavin and Robert.”
She sighed. “Seriously?”
“We can dance after. Look, this song sucks anyway.”
She huffed but nodded. “Fine. I do like Robert.”
It was a weak excuse. I really wanted to see English. I wanted to know exactly what she was thinking behind those mysterious blue eyes. Because she shouldn’t feel anything but relief that I’d brought someone else.
Poppy and I headed across the room to where English stood with Robert, Gavin, and a girl that I didn’t recognize but presumed to be Gavin’s date.
“Kensington,” Gavin said, grabbing my hand. “How the hell did you land Poppy Arlington?”
Poppy fluttered her eyelashes at Gavin and wrapped her hands around my bicep, leaning her head against my suit. “Just lucky, I guess.”
The way she’d been acting all night, I didn’t feel lucky. But I didn’t disagree with her statement. Not as my gaze shifted to English.
“And you remember English?” I asked Poppy.
Poppy’s brow furrowed. “You came to Robert’s party.”
“I did,” English said.
“She’s my publicist,” I added even though I hadn’t that night.
English pursed her lips. “I am.”
“Wow. So, you, like, fix people’s problems and handle their schedules and shit?”
“Pretty much,” English said.
“She’s being modest,” Gavin said grandly. “She’s the best in the business. She’s even making Court look like—what did you say, Court?—the golden boy of the Upper East Side?”
Poppy laughed, low and breathy. “No one could be good enough for that. We all know you’re the bad one.”
She bit her lip as she stared up at me. I wanted to rip my arm out of her grasp, but I left her there.
“Thankfully, I am good enough for that,” English bit out, her voice acerbic.
“Are you taking on new clients?” Poppy asked. “I could use someone like you to help with my image. Rehab is so tiresome.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Oh, I can pay,” Poppy assured her.
English’s eyes narrowed. “You can’t afford me.”
Poppy giggled as if she had never heard something so absurd. “Oh, I think I can. How much?”
“I didn’t mean the money,” she said, her voice dripping acid.
Poppy scrunched her face together. As if she couldn’t think of another reason English wouldn’t want to work with her. I had to keep my face blank or else I’d bust out laughing.
I changed the subject before Poppy could figure it out. “So, you showed up with Dawson?”
English looked startled. “What?”
I pointed between her and Robert, where they stood together. “You’re here together.”
“Whoa!” Robert said. “No way, bro.”
It was my turn to look confused. “I thought…”
“Wrong,” English snapped. “You thought wrong. Robert is here with Whitley. She just saw a client and went to say hello. I, on the other hand, showed up alone.”
“Sucks,” Poppy said. “Couldn’t find a date?”
“Oh,” was all that came out of my mouth.
English ignored Poppy’s question and glared daggers at me. “Yeah. Oh.”
“Can we go dance again, Court?” Poppy asked, already bored with the conversation. She meandered back toward the dance floor without waiting for my response.
“Yeah, Court,” English said, taking a step back, “go dance.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but what the hell could I say? It wasn’t my problem that I’d brought someone else and she’d shown up alone. She was the one who was married anyway. And I was perfectly single. She had no right to be upset. No fucking right.
“I think I will,” I finally said.
“Good,” English said. She smiled faintly at Gavin and Robert. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to find the restroom.”
Before I could say another word, she stalked away from me and out of sight.
Robert smacked my arm. “Why would you think I was here with English? I’m not stupid enough to go against Camden’s word.”
“Right,” I said. “I just assumed.”
“English is a bit intense anyway,” Robert admitted. “Hot as fuck but really intense.”
She really was. Intense in every aspect of her life. It’d been stupid of me to think she’d show up with someone else. My assumption had made me act like an idiot in front of her. But what else was new?
I wanted to go after her. But what would that solve? We’d slept together, and that was that. Chasing after her would just give her the wrong impression. It would look like I wanted this to work between us.
And I didn’t.
I… didn’t.
English was too complicated.
It’d be safer to follow Poppy out onto the dance floor. To forget that English and I had ever been anything more than client and publicist.
22
English
Fuck Court Kensington.
He’d been strutting around the entire reception with a woman at his side he hardly tolerated, let alone liked. And then had the audacity to come at me about showing up with someone else. When I had come alone.