Star Crossed (Stargazer #1)(20)
Author: Jennifer Echols

His lips left hers, but his face hovered near. He looked into her eyes and brushed his lips against hers once more. Then he lifted his middle finger to stroke a long blond lock away from her face. “Good enough?” he murmured. “Colton was watching.”

Oh. Of course. He hadn’t kissed her because he’d wanted to. He’d done it because she’d asked him to, for the sake of her job. Oh.

WITTY COMEBACK. She should make a WITTY COMEBACK now, but her mind was empty of words again. It was full of pleasure, an insane lust for him, and disappointment that he didn’t feel the same.

Then, thankfully, she produced the comeback after all. She hadn’t held this job for six years for nothing. She grinned at him and quipped, “Now that is how you do PR.”

“Good.” With one hand he stroked her bare back. With the other he twisted a lock of her hair into a rope and wound it around his finger, reminding her that she’d allowed herself to be caught. “Because now I need a favor from you.”

5

Wendy gazed up at Daniel, her blue eyes dark with the kiss they’d just shared, her jaw set against the favor he was calling in.

He had no idea what he must look like to her, but he felt like he’d gotten high and lost his mind.

Reluctantly he let go of her silky hair and slipped his hand out from under her blouse. He wished he could have explored her mouth with his until they were both wild with want. Without exchanging a word, they would escape from this crowd and make their way up to his room or hers, where he would zip her out of that sexy skirt. But she wouldn’t have allowed it. She’d been clear from the beginning that she was only using him. He might protest for show, but he was very, very happy for Wendy Mann to use him all she wanted. However, he kept in mind that in the end, they were both here for one thing, and it wasn’t a lay.

Unfortunately.

“What kind of favor?” she asked.

Daniel smiled. He could feel that the smile didn’t quite make it to his eyes—which was good, because the bruise on his cheekbone had begun to ache all over again when Wendy got his blood pumping with that kiss. He said stiffly, “I have a proposition for you.”

Wendy raised her golden brows. “Do you, now.”

He let his eyes dart briefly to the inebriated dancers crowding their table. Colton wasn’t watching anymore—he and the Lakers player had followed the famous mistress of a shamed governor across the bar—but Daniel let Wendy think he was surveying his client as he covered her hand with his. “It’s great that we’ve gotten together like this. We’ll keep playing it up and serve as a good example. As you know, the public loves it when star couples reconcile. All we have to do to fix Colton and Lorelei’s PR is get them back together before the awards show on Friday.”

“No!” Wendy exclaimed, jerking her hand out from under his.

Momentarily stunned by her quick refusal, he gathered himself and said, “You haven’t even let me explain what I had in m—”

“Absolutely not,” Wendy said. “He’s violent. He hit you.”

“He hit me by accident.”

“That’s what battered women say, too. Every bruise on their bodies was an accident.” Her voice rose. He was very thankful that he was the only one who could hear her over the loud music as she said, “I’m not letting Lorelei near him, and if you were any kind of man, you wouldn’t, either.”

That blow stunned him more than Colton’s had. “Colton swung at the paparazzi,” Daniel said. “I got in the way. You think I would let him hit me on purpose?”

“No,” she admitted. She watched the crowd for a few moments, reconsidering. “You want them to get back together for real? Or should we just release it to the public that they hooked up?”

Daniel shrugged. “Does it matter?”

“Yes, it matters,” Wendy said. “Lorelei is in a fragile state right now.”

“Not too fragile to sniff coke off her dead mother’s Stratocaster,” Daniel pointed out.

“That was three years ago, and it was a rumor,” Wendy said sternly. “I don’t want to tell Lorelei what to do. She’s free to make her own choices.”

Daniel was astounded. “What planet are you from?”

Wendy lifted her chin. “Lorelei has loved and lost. The last thing she needs right now is to get involved again with your client, who publicly demeans her.”

“Wendy,” Daniel said reprovingly. “You got kicked off the Darkness Fallz case this morning. You must be in hot water at Stargazer. If Lorelei loses her concert tour because she won’t stop tweeting photos of her underwear, you’re done in this business. How are you going to repair her reputation so quickly without my help? You need me.”

Wendy frowned. She was still beautiful when she frowned—but she doubted him. He wasn’t concerned about Lorelei’s bodily safety in a relationship with Colton, but Wendy truly was. She was playing Daniel straight, at least on that point.

He needed her to agree to this plan. Getting Colton and Lorelei back together, or simply putting out the word that they’d made up and forcing them to play along, would assuage the awards ceremony and do wonders for this pivotal week of their careers. But he knew that even if Wendy did say yes, and even if they did continue to play at this game of being lovers, Vegas would be no fun for either of them. They wouldn’t be riding the roller coaster at the New York casino, or hiking the Red Rock Canyon, or falling into bed together. All their fun was over.

“I just got here,” she murmured. “I haven’t even introduced myself to Lorelei yet. I haven’t had time to assess the situation with her. I don’t think it’s a good idea, and this is definitely not the place to discuss it.”

He leaned forward with his elbow on the table and his chin in his hand. “Then let’s discuss it tomorrow.”

She sank back exactly as far as he’d moved toward her, shaking her head no. “Avoiding each other, and having Lorelei and Colton avoid each other, would be a better course of action.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Oh, you’re going to avoid me? Don’t expect me to make out with you anymore, then.”

“We weren’t exactly making out,” she grumbled.

“Don’t expect me to pretend we’re together, either,” he said lightly. “Your choice. I’m not the one with the problems at work.”

She opened her mouth to respond—and he was really looking forward to what she would say—when a commotion distracted them both. All the dancers had stopped and faced the center of the room as if a dance-off were going down for cash. The disturbance was so intriguing that someone notified the DJ, who lowered the volume on the electro-garbage until they could hear the beat of different music in the outer room, and above it all, very close by, Colton bellowing.