To Love Jason Thorn (Page 41)

Looking around the interior of the café, it only took me a few seconds to spot Olive almost cowering behind her laptop in the corner.

I rushed to her side.

She noticed me and jumped up to her feet, her face as white as a sheet. “Thank you for coming so quick,” she said in a low voice, her eyes darting around.

“Are you okay?” My hands acting on their own, I cupped her face and gazed into her dazed eyes.

Her hands landed on top of mine for a brief moment as if she wanted to assure herself that I was there with her. Then just as quickly, she dropped them down. “I’m fine. I just didn’t know what to do, what to say to them. They were all yelling at once, and the owner of the café isn’t happy about this.” She discreetly motioned to her right with her head. “They already asked me to leave once.”

My eyes darted around and I saw a stern woman standing behind the counter, staring at us.

I turned back to Olive. “We’ll leave in a minute. My car is parked just around the corner.”

“Jason, I look like crap.” She looked down at herself and touched her hair, which was in a messy bun on top of her head. To me she looked just as beautiful as she had the night before. “I just came here to have lunch with the girls. Call me vain, but I don’t want to see myself plastered everywhere like this.” She gestured to me, and added, “Especially next to you, not when you look like that.”

“Jason Thorn? Are you really Jason Thorn?” someone asked. I turned around to see who was talking to me.

“Oh, you are. You really are. Can I take a selfie with you? I just have to show this to my friends, they will never believe me if I don’t have proof.”

I forced a smile on my face and nodded. “Of course.”

I never turned down a fan who was asking for an autograph or a picture. It wasn’t my thing, but at that moment, I wished it was. I took the damn selfie with her face inches away from mine as she hugged me as if we’d known each other not merely for seconds but for months.

As soon as she left, five other people found the courage to approach me and asked for autographs and pictures.

When I turned back, Olive had sat down and was looking down at her closed laptop. I knew we needed to have a quick talk before more people swarmed us. At this rate, we were bound to have trouble leaving the place if everyone started posting that I was here.

I took Olive’s hand in mine and pulled her up.

“Where is the bathroom in this place?” I asked as I grabbed her laptop with my free hand.

“There,” she pointed to a narrow hallway in the back.

I dragged her behind me and made sure to lock the door to the tiny bathroom once we were inside.

“If we stay longer, more people will hear that I’m here and we’ll have a real problem on our hands. We need to leave right now.”

She nodded.

“But before we go out there, I have to ask you… I’m sorry, I don’t want to pressure you, Olive, but I need to know so I can either—”

“Yes,” she interrupted me in a rushed but clear tone. “If you are talking about the…thing you asked yesterday. It’s yes.”

My heart sighed. Smiling at her, I relaxed. Her hand was still in mine so I squeezed it. “Yes?”

She nibbled on her bottom lip and my attention shifted from her bright eyes to her full pink lips. “Yes,” she repeated a little softer.

I cleared my throat and forced my gaze away from the danger that was her inviting lips. “So we are doing this?”

She smiled and nodded. “I think we are.”

My eyes still on her, I reached back, unlocked the door, and was about to step out when she pulled me back. “Wait, give me the laptop.” I had completely forgotten about it. I handed it over to her and she pushed it into her huge handbag. I went for her hand again, but she drew back.

“Just wait.”

We were gonna get stuck in the damn bathroom.

Reaching up, she took a small clip out of her hair and it all came tumbling down around her face. Pushing her fingers through it, she gave it a few good shakes, and then looked up at me with a pretty flush on her face.

I groaned. Damn it, now all I could think was how it would feel to have her vibrant hair wrapped around my hand. Damn it all again—now with her sexy bed hair, she looked like she had just been fucked. By me. Which was the exact exclusion the paparazzi would come to.

“You shouldn’t have done that, little one.”

She glanced at the mirror. “Do I look worse? This is all I got. I’m sorry.”

“All you got would probably kill me, so I’d say this is more than enough. Come on, we need to leave.”

This time she was the one reaching for my hand.

“We are not saying one word. Don’t look directly into the cameras, just follow my lead and we’ll let my publicist handle the rest.”

She nodded and we stepped out of the bathroom. There were a few people waiting for us to get out, but for the first time in my career, I apologized and turned all of them down.

The moment I stepped out of the café with Olive clinging to my hand, the paparazzi were ready for round two. Every single one of them were shouting random questions at us, snapping pictures nonstop.

Olive was looking at the ground and her steps were hurried, but I still had to slow down a little so she could keep up with my long strides. Suddenly she lifted her gaze and our eyes met. We both smiled at each other. Before I could enjoy the moment myself, every pap around us saw the quick exchange between us and went into a frenzy, yelling our names louder.

Even though the paparazzi were in our way, we finally made it to my Spyder in one piece and I opened the passenger side door to help Olive in.

As I finally drove away from the madness, I knew exactly which shot they would use the next day.

Chapter Nineteen

Jason

“That was something,” Olive said after a few minutes of silence had passed.

I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye to make sure she was actually okay. “Welcome to my world. You okay?”

She lifted her arms in front of her. “A little bit on the shakier side, but still in one piece. You?”

“They rarely get to me any more. You get used to walking down a street with cameras flashing all around you.”

“Comes with the job, I guess.”

Unfortunately, it did. Most of the time, I could get away with wearing sunglasses and a baseball hat and simply blend in, but it didn’t work every single time. “I think we should head straight to my publicist’s office. We need to plan how we’re going to handle this.”

“Now?”

“Yeah. Running away won’t work. We can’t be trapped in a café like this a second time. They won’t just trail me; they’ll focus on you. The more we stay silent, the harder it’ll be to shake them off.”

“I’m sorry, I should’ve handled it better,” she said in small voice.

Taking a left turn, I kept my eyes on the road but reached out to grasp her hand. I was starting to do that a lot lately.

Holding her hand. Keeping her close. Breathing her in. Touching her. Looking at her ass. And more importantly, fucking seeing her.

“If anything like this ever happens again when I’m not around, I want you to call me immediately. If I can’t come myself, I’ll send someone who can help you. If we’re going to do this, I need to know you feel comfortable. I don’t want you to be scared to go out because of me.”