Celeb Crush (36 page)

Do I want to look like the uncooperative bitch?  I mean, it comes naturally to me, and it's fine—but not when someone wants to assign me that role so they can look like the good guy.

“Sure, why not?”  I give them both my best sugar-coated smile.  “Sounds like so much fun.”

Luke chuckles quietly at my monotonous delivery.  “Behave,” he murmurs in my ear, and has the nerve to smack my butt.  I think he secretly likes my crappy attitude.  Turns him on or something.

I try to appear as harmless as possible, widening my eyes like Kat.  “Of course,” I say demurely.

He just smirks back at me, letting me know he’s not buying it.  Kat clears her throat nervously and half-turns away.  “Let’s go in the house, okay?  Don’t worry, Bo.”  She sends Luke a playful smile over her shoulder.  “I’ll have your girlfriend back before you know it.”

Luke grins back at her.  “Thanks, Millicent.” 

Yes, please use those stupid nicknames in front of me.  It doesn’t piss me off at all.  And he sounds grateful.  Why does he sound grateful?  There’s a sub context here, something meaningful passing between them—I can tell even through his sunglasses.  They hold eye-contact for—one-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand, four one-thousand—four seconds! 

Oh, son of a bitch.  I know exactly what happened.   He put her up to this.  He told Kat to make nice to me, and I bet he made it seem like she’d be doing him a huge favor by putting up with me.  Ugh, they're in cahoots!

Bo finally manages to pull his attention from Millicent to focus on little ol’ me.  “Come find me after, okay?”

“Sure.  Hey, can I see your sunglasses real quick?  There’s something…”

Looking confused, Luke pulls off his Oakleys, and holds them out to me.  I snatch them away and snap them in two, casually letting the broken pieces fall to the ground.  Luke’s gaze zips to my face.  My expression is bland, but my eyes feel like hot coals burning in their sockets.  Kat is staring at me like “OMG, I can’t believe that non-famous person just did that.”

“Got it…
Bo
,” I say sweetly.  Then I look over at Kat, raising an eyebrow.  “Ready whenever you are.”

“Oh…kay.  Um, this way.” 

Before we go, she gives Luke a private sympathetic look that has me groaning inwardly.  I know I’ve come across as the psycho jealous girlfriend, while she looks like the cool sane one.  But hey, I’m not the one who faked a pregnancy scare.

Ignoring Luke, I follow Kat back to the house.  We go in through the sliding glass door that opens into a spacious open living room where small groups of people are hanging out.  Kat briefly greets everyone who calls out to her, but doesn’t stop to chat.  I walk directly behind her, not making eye contact with anyone.

We furtively head toward the staircase.  Kat keeps glancing around to see if anyone is watching us.  Of course they are—it looks like we’re going somewhere private to hook up with the way she’s acting.

Once upstairs, she starts opening doors and poking her head in.  On the third door down, she gestures me inside.  Thank the stars; it looks like a home office and not a bedroom.  There’s an L-shaped desk, two computers, and three chest high file cabinets. Judging by the polka dot window curtains and cutesy posters of baby animals taped to the walls, I’m going to assume that this is Damon’s girlfriend’s domain.  It’s kind of frilly, though, for someone who makes her living selling hexes and voodoo dolls online.

“Close the door,” Kat orders me while dropping gracefully into a black leather office chair.

I was just about to, but now I just look at her and deliberately leave it open.  I sit down on the rolling stool while Kat glares at me.  I don’t think she likes me.

She sits very primly, with her knees clamped together and her hands folded in her lap.  Her expression is unfriendly, but not outright hostile the way mine probably is.  I’m glad she’s sparing me the America’s Sweetheart act.  Just looking at her award-winning beauty makes me want to draw a villain’s moustache on her face with a permanent marker.

“I know you worked out that Lucas put me up to this,” Kat begins her in her cool cultured way.  She looks me straight in the eye.  “So I’m not going to say ‘I’m sorry, let’s be friends.’  The only person I owe an apology to is Lucas and—well, that’s between me and him.”

I can’t believe I once thought this self-involved creature was kind of cool when actually she’s a dick!  “Fine,” I say shortly. 

We eye each other like gunslingers at high noon.  Then Kat heaves a sigh.  “I’ve known Lucas for a long time, and I know him better than you do,” she says.   “For some reason, he thinks he’s in love with you.  So I guess I have to accept that you’re going to be a part of his life.”

A delicate look of pain touches her face, and her tone turns wistful.  “I miss him.  We used to be so close, but now he’s pulling away.  I know it’s because of you, and because of how jealous you are of our relationship.”

“Yeah, it’s all on me,” I snort out, rolling my eyes.  “It doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that you
faked a pregnancy scare
.”

Kat looks mortified. She flicks her ponytail over her shoulder with a nervous toss of her head.  “Like I said, that’s between me and him,” she says icily.

“You nearly broke us up,” I growl at her, leaning forward on my stool.  “That’s between you and me.”

We go back to glaring at each other.  Then Kat rolls her eyes.  “So, what?  You want an apology?”

“Yeah, actually I do.”

“Fine.”  I watch as she forces her expression into composed lines.  A taut smile appears on her shiny pink lips.  “I’m sorry.”

I cross my arms.  “Well, don’t say it if you don’t mean it.”

At first, Kat just looks around like she’s looking for her imaginary audience.  Or maybe a hidden camera.  I glance around too, because you never know.  Then she just shakes her head.  “What the hell does he see in you?  Why you?” she mutters.

I glare at her, leaning back in my seat and—whoa, I forgot I was sitting on a stool.  I try to correct my balance, even as I’m inexorably falling backwards.  The next thing I know, I’m just lying on my back, staring up at the ceiling.  Legs up in the air.

Quick like a cat, I right myself and scramble back to my stool fast, like nothing happened.  Smoothing back my hair, I sneak a glance at Kat.  She’s not even laughing.  She’s just looking at me like something she found on the bottom of her shoe.  I would have laughed.

She shakes her head again.  “Look…can we just pretend to get along for Lucas’ sake?  You can go back to hating me in private.”

I take my time considering her proposition before finally deciding that it would be good strategy for me to accept.  I know there’s a saying about keeping your enemies close, and it makes sense.

“Fine,” I say finally.  I abruptly stand up.  “Are we done?”

Kat nods, looking away from me.  “We’re done.”

Just as I’m about to go out the door, her voice calls me back.

“I love him, you know.”

I freeze in place, flinching internally.  She sounds unnaturally hoarse and vulnerable, like she’s holding back tears.  My hand clenches the doorjamb in a death grip.  Am I supposed to feel bad or sympathetic because of the raw honesty in her voice?  I don’t.  I feel threatened because I know she means it—this beautiful and famous woman who would undoubtedly be a better choice for Luke than me.  They belong together, and he and I don’t. 

How long will it be before she can convince Luke of that?

Chapter 30

I really don’t want to talk to anyone right now.  I open a door to a random bedroom and slither under the queen sized bed, out of sight.  I press my cheek into the plush white carpet and just lie there with my eyes closed.

The peace lasts for a few minutes.  My eyes fly open when I hear a scuffling at the closed door.  It flings open and two pairs of feet—a man’s and a woman’s— stumble in.  It’s pretty obvious what they’re doing from the noises they’re making as they head towards my hiding spot.

Please, no.

It’s my own fault that I’m stuck under a bed that people are doing it on.  I try to pass the time by guessing who the amorous couple is by the grunting sounds they’re making.  I’m pretty sure the guy is Nate.  I recognize the jeans and shirt lying on the ground as the ones he was wearing when I spotted him earlier.  Plus, I’ve heard him groan like that before when he’s eating something he really likes.  Food, I mean.

After what seems like an hour, they’re finally done.  “Mm, that was amazing,” the unknown woman murmurs as she gets up to get dressed.  I freeze when she crouches down to pick up her dress—thankfully she’s looking down at her clothes, her shiny black hair falling forward to obscure her peripheral vision.  Hey, it’s Antoine Lewis’ wife!  I don’t know her name, but—Nate, you dog!

They exchange a few pleasantries, agreeing to meet up when she can get away again.  Only after she leaves does Nate get up to get dressed.  While he’s putting on his jeans, something falls out of his pocket and bounces under the bed, landing right in front of my face.  His phone.

Before I can think what to do, Nate is on his hands and knees, peering under the bed.  His eyes meet mine, and we just stare at each other in shock for a few seconds.

“Hi, Nate.”

“Hi, Andi,” he replies blankly.  “Were you under there that whole time?”

“Um.  Yeah.”

He pauses to consider this.  “Is it weird that it kinda turns me on?”

I shove his phone at him.  He helps me slide out from under the bed before he resumes getting dressed.  Because it’s Nate, he doesn’t even think to ask me why I was there—and because it’s Nate I don’t bother scolding him about hooking up with Antoine Lewis’ wife.  That guy is huge though, and always angry.  He plays a monstrous demon in the Soul movies for a reason.

“Are you hiding from Luke?” Nate wants to know as he finishes tying his shoelaces.

“No,” I lie.  I stare down at my dress, smoothing out the wrinkles.

I hear Nate let out a sigh.  “What happened this time?  Oh, let me guess—Kat, right?  I saw her heading over to you with a determined look on her face.”

I glance up at him.  He’s busy fixing his hair, using the mirror over an elegant mahogany dresser.  “Do you think I should be worried?” I blurt out.

“About Luke and Kat?”  Nate looks at me over his shoulder.  He gives a small shrug, dropping his arms.  “Those two have a twisted history.  Luke would never cheat on you, though.  You’ve got to know that.  He doesn’t see anyone else but you, kid.”

I go over to where he is, leaning against the dresser and crossing my arms over my chest.  “No one’s rooting for us, Nate,” I say morosely.  “It complicates things.”

Nate turns to face me with a sympathetic smile.  “I know.  But…look, I’ve known Luke since he was a fifteen year old runaway with nothing but lint in his pockets.  I think I have more insight into how he thinks more than anyone else.  So believe me when I say that you’re it for him, okay?  You have nothing to worry about.”

“I seriously doubt that.  How many girls a day did he go through?  And now I’m supposed to believe he’s going to be satisfied with just me?”

Nate opens his mouth, about to say something—then changes his mind.  He sighs.  “Trust me; he won’t look twice at anyone else,” he assures me.  “No matter how hot she is.  Really, it’s unhealthy.”

“Your choice of sex partners is unhealthy,” I retort, my voice gruff with restrained happiness.  “Antoine Lewis is going to castrate you with his bare hands when he finds out you’re doing his wife.”

Nate just grins in that charming rich boy way of his.  “That’s part of the thrill.  Not the part about Antoine handing me my balls.  But the risk of getting caught makes the sex that much hotter!”

I roll my eyes at him.  “You’re sick, Nate.  Truly disturbed.”

“You really wanna talk kinky turn-ons, little Miss Tie-me-Up, Tie-me-Down?”  Nate smirks at me, wagging a finger in my face.  “Your fucking looks like fighting, and vice versa.  You bleed the shit out of Luke—and the kinky bastard likes it!”

I snap at his finger like a dog with rabies.  He tries to pull back in time, but I strike like lightning and draw blood.  I have naturally sharp teeth and a bad biting habit since the age of two, as a few unlucky souls have discovered.

“Jesus, I’m bleeding,” Nate whines, nursing his finger like it’s a war wound.  “You’re an animal.”

“Serves you right, fuckboy.” I scowl at him.  “And stop being such a damn voyeur.”

“Hey, keep it in the bedroom if you don’t want anyone walking in on that.  I went into the kitchen to get a Popsicle—not to see Luke banging you on the breakfast bar—where I
used
to
eat my Oatey Pops.”

I can’t help the flush that comes to my face.  Clearing my throat, I avoid eye contact.  “Yeah, well, you have the condo to yourself now.  So, whatever, shut up.  Let’s go back downstairs.”

“What a great idea, Anderson,” Nate says, opening the door.  “Cheating sex always makes me hungry.  You know what?  You should get me some ribs.  To make up for that whole biting thing.”