To Love Jason Thorn (Page 38)

You’re a calm waterfall, a purring fucking cat.

At first, he rested his forehead against mine and we just stood like that for a moment, breathing each other in.

Gently. Slowly.

His nose touched mine.

Then, nothing. Absolutely NOTHING! His phone started ringing and his hands stiffened against my suddenly heated skin. For a moment there, it had felt like he was right there with me and there was no one else in the world other than us—but then, nothing.

His damn phone was a cock blocker after all.

His eyes still focused on me, he took a few steps back, answered his phone, and only then broke the eye contact. Had his eyes darkened? Was I starting to see things?

I lifted my fingers to touch my lips. How could I feel like his lips had caressed mine even though he hadn’t even touched me?

I walked back inside to where I had left my clutch and picked it up.

When Jason came inside, I was ready to leave before I did something stupid.

I was going crazy.

Chapter Seventeen

Olive

The moment I was in my apartment, I walked straight into Lucy’s room. My hands were already covering my eyes when I said, “For the love of all the cute puppies out in the whole world, if there are any penises dangling, tuck them away.”

I heard Lucy’s laugh. “I’m alone, you dork.”

Dropping my hands down, I closed her door and leaned back against it. Lucy straightened up in her bed and put down her laptop. “What happened? You never answered my texts.”

I took a deep breath and then slowly let it go.

“Jason asked me if I would like to marry him.”

Lucy stared at me unblinkingly.

Lifting my hand, I looked at it and then up to Lucy again. “My hands are shaking.”

“Excuse me?”

“My hands are shaking,” I repeated.

“Not that. Could you repeat what you said before that? I don’t think I got that.”

“He asked me if I would marry him.”

“Okay. Am I dreaming or are you really in my room, telling me that Jason Thorn proposed to you?”

I covered my face with my hands and groaned.

“Could you come here for a second?” Lucy asked calmly.

After a few steps, I was sitting right beside her. Reaching out, she pinched my leg.

“I already tried that on my way over. Not a dream.”

“Holy shit!” she breathed out, covering her mouth with her hands. “Holy shit, woman! Did you put a spell on him or something? Damn but you’re fast.”

“Lucy, I need you to listen to me very closely, can you do that for me?”

“Sure, I believe I’m capable of hearing what you are about to say. By the way, I’m very impressed and equally shocked right now, if you couldn’t tell.”

“Yeah, I don’t think you’ll be that impressed after you hear the whole story.”

Hugging her pillow to her stomach, she motioned for me to go on.

“Apparently the alley—”

“No, wait!” She pressed her finger against my lips and jumped down from her bed. “I’m gonna get the tequila I hid in the kitchen. We need shots to celebrate.”

“We are not celebrating anything, Lucy!” I hissed behind her back, but she was already gone.

When she came back she was holding two shot glasses and a half full tequila bottle. She handed me the shot glasses and poured the tequila.

“We’re not celebrating,” I said again.

“Fine. Bottoms up anyway. I need alcohol in my system to listen to this. Humor me.”

We took the shots and she took her seat, the tequila bottle clutched tightly in her hands.

I started again, “Apparently the alley video did more damage than we had thought.”

“How come?”

“No questions,” I warned.

She opened her mouth, but I closed my hand over it before she could ask anything else. “I need to tell it all at once, okay? I’m having a hard time staying calm right now as it is. I’m letting you go, but no questions.”

She nodded, so I pulled my hand back.

“Ok, here goes nothing. Like I said, apparently the video messed things up big time for him. Because of that, his publicist and agent want him to marry someone.” Her eyes grew huge, but instead of speaking, she took a mouthful from the bottle, grimacing when it burned down her throat. “You know, become a family man or whatever the hell they are thinking. So they have been showing him headshots. Freaking headshots, can you believe that?”

Keeping silent, she nodded enthusiastically.

“Well, I can’t. Anyway. Long story short, he didn’t like any of the potential brides they were showing him. Enter me. When our photos went public and everyone seemed to think we were blissfully in love, his publicist suggested that I would be the perfect bride-to-be because of our past together. He said no one would think it was a publicity stunt to clear the negative press around him. He must agree with their brilliant idea because he asked me if I would like to marry him and become his roommate.”

“Can I talk now?”

“Yes, please.”

“Good. Okay, just a second.” She took another swig from the bottle and offered it to me. I took two big sips.

“So, you said yes, right?” she asked as I was wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. “Tell me you didn’t say no. Because if you did, I might have to punch you in the eye and I doubt that would look good on the cover of those tabloids.”

“I freaked out and left.”

“Clearly you’ve lost your mind.”

Pushing me away, she got up from the bed and placed the back of her hand on my forehead.

“You don’t seem to have a fever.”

I slapped her hand away.

“What am I gonna do, Lucy?”

She leaned down so we were eye to eye and emphatically said, “You’re going to marry Jason freaking Thorn of course.”

I fell back on her bed. “I don’t think that’s a good idea Luce.”

“Why the hell not?”

“It’s not going to be a real marriage. What if he br—”

“No.” She shoved her finger in my face. “You’re not gonna start with all the what if this happens, what if that happens crap.”

“Did you hear something?” I asked, rising up from the bed.

Tilting her head, she looked back at her door and listened. “I’m not hearing anything.”

“Sounded like someone opened a door. Who’s home? I’m not supposed to talk to anyone about this. I got my warning right before he dropped me off.”

“Marcus isn’t in and Char is not feeling well. Last I checked she was sleeping.”

I relaxed. “Still, let’s keep it down.”

“This fake marriage, this is your opportunity, Olive. This is your chance to make him fall in love with you.”

“I’m not sure if we are still talking about the same thing here.”

“Look,” she started in her, ‘I’m a very patient person’ tone. “You’re still in love with him, aren’t you? Always have been, and I believe, always will be. I saw those photos, Olive. He is into you. You can’t fake that kind of chemistry. Okay, maybe he is not in love, at least not yet. I’ll give you that much. But you have to give yourself a chance. You said you’ll be living with him for crying out loud. What more do you want?”

My reluctance already dissolving, I turned my hopeful eyes up to Lucy. “You’re right. I know you are right. I want to marry the fuck out of him. But he is also the fucking Jason Thorn, Lucy. If he was a normal guy, just working a normal job, I wouldn’t even think twice about it. But he is Jason Thorn. I mean, he could do much better than me.”