To Love Jason Thorn (Page 47)

Megan took a huge breath, gave him a death glare, and said, “Try to be quick.” Then she was out of the car, leaving us alone.

“You okay?” he repeated.

“There are so many people out there,” I replied, my eyes still focused on all the people screaming beyond the red carpet.

Jason’s fingers caught my chin and my attention shifted to him. “I won’t let you out of my sight. Would that make you feel better?”

His eyes were so gentle on me. He cared about me more than he cared about everything that was waiting for him out there. Someone knocked on the window and I jolted in my place.

I looked out through the back window of the car and saw that we were holding up the line.

“Don’t mind them.” Jason turned my head to him again; this time, his thumb gently brushed the underside of my bottom lip.

I took a few deep breaths and nodded to him. “I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t forget about me out there.”

“Olive,” he murmured, his head slightly tilted to the side. “I’m afraid it’s too late for me to forget about you at all.” My eyes dropped to the dimple.

Did he mean that?

While I was busy being stupid about a damn dimple, someone yanked open his door and leaned into the car.

“Mr. Thorn?”

“Come on,” Jason grumbled as he pulled me by my hand. “Let’s get this over with so you can see me kill a bunch of guys with no shirt on.”

I closed my eyes and, with his help, stepped out.

All the screaming and yelling that erupted all around us as soon as they spotted their favorite actor forced me to open my eyes and face the music.

Jason’s hand tightened around mine for a brief second as he searched for something in my eyes; whatever he saw must have satisfied him because he walked forward and gently tugged at my hand to follow him.

With my free hand, I furtively smoothed down my full skirt as I tried to keep up with him. Oh yeah, I was wearing a freaking white Burberry dress that I didn’t even want to know the price of. Jason had had his own stylist, Jewel, choose something for me as well, and after going over my options, we had decided to go with the Burberry dress. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever put on. The strapless bustier top fit my skin perfectly and did wonders for my breasts while the full skirt managed to make it look even more feminine. I never wanted to take it off, especially after I’d caught Jason sneaking peeks at my breasts more than a few times.

However, since he had such an anguished expression on his face whenever his eyes dropped lower than my chin, I couldn’t be sure if he loved the dress as much as I did or hated it.

Next to Jason Thorn, who was wearing a black suit that made every single woman in his vicinity lose their mind a little, I’d actually felt adequate before we had left the hotel. But now…as my eyes landed on his costars and other actors and actresses that were either giving interviews to the press or posing for pictures, I felt as small as an ant among them.

When our feet hit the red carpet, Jason pulled me to his left, toward the screaming fans. I couldn’t even guess the number of them. The barriers and the strategically placed security guards seemed to barely hold them back the way they pushed at each other to get closer to Jason. Some of them were crying.

Jason never let go of my hand as we walked toward them, but at some point a guy wearing a gray suit approached us to talk to him in quiet tones and then Megan was pulling me away from Jason, forcing me to drop his hand. Briefly, he glanced at me over his shoulder with a small frown on his face, but then had to face his fans and sign anything and everything they shoved at him.

A movement on Jason’s left caught my eye and I saw a kid, barely older than eight or nine, running toward Jason. He had managed to slip away from one of the security guards, but before he could get to Jason, another one caught him. The commotion must have caught Jason’s attention—as it did everyone else’s since the kid was yelling and struggling to get out of his captor’s hold—because he turned and motioned to the guy to let go of the kid. He kneeled in front of the boy when he ran to him. We couldn’t hear what they were saying to each other, but the kid was beaming at Jason with barely contained excitement. He shoved something in his hand and Jason signed it with a smile on his face. The kid looked my way and said something to Jason that was funny enough to make him laugh. The kid dropped his eyes from me, but Jason caught my eye and sent me a wink as he messed up the kid’s hair. The same security guard came and escorted the boy back to his dad. After that, he chatted some more and signed a few more arms.

When I thought he was finally done, he looked at me over his shoulder and motioned for me to come to his side.

I looked at Megan, but she had her back to me and was busy on her phone, so I shrugged and tentatively walked toward Jason. It was impossible to hear anything he was saying, but as I got closer, I saw that he was holding something thick in his hand. A book.

My freaking book.

Doing my best not to show my bafflement, I made it to his side and looked at him, at a loss as to why he wanted me there.

His warm hand touched my neck and he leaned down to whisper in my ear, “They want you to sign their book.”

“Me?” I mouthed to him when he looked down at me.

He nodded, smiled, and handed me the book. Someone came to my side and handed me a pen. In a daze, I signed more than twenty books.

Twenty freaking books!

When Megan appeared at our side to tell Jason that we needed to keep moving, Jason grabbed my hand in his—which made everyone scream even louder—and we made our way across the carpet so the photographers could take Jason’s photos.

There were so many flashes going off, so many people yelling Jason’s name—and my name.

I felt like I was in a dream, or maybe it was a nightmare; I couldn’t decide.

When we were standing right in front of the cameras, Jason’s hand landed on my back and he pulled me closer to his front. Per Megan’s instructions, I lifted my hand to show off the ring and put it on Jason’s stomach—a hard stomach that contracted at my touch, a stomach I had eyed for a good amount of time, and maybe even touched once or twice while he was sleeping the night before.

Just when all the flashes were about to blind me for eternity, one of them yelled, “Jason! A kiss! One with a kiss!

I tried so, so hard to not react, to not grin like the Cheshire cat, but when Jason gazed down at me and I tilted my head up to meet his eyes, I had the biggest smile on my face.

While everyone around us was still yelling, Jason’s hand touched my cheek and every single person around us disappeared for me. It was dead quiet in my mind. It was happening. I was seconds away from kissing my dream guy.

I watched his lips descend as my heart tried to force its way out of my chest. My little butterflies were getting ready for the takeoff of their life.

But…

But it didn’t happen like it had happened in the dreams I’d had about Jason ever since I could remember. Not even close.

While I was waiting for the very best first kiss in the history of first kisses, Jason only gave me a peck. A freaking peck! His lips pressed against mine for only two seconds, three tops.

I felt cheated.

And, well, since I’d dreamed about kissing him for such a long time—such a long, long time—I had a hard time not showing the disappointment I felt on my face. For a second there—a very quick second—I might have scrunched up my nose in distaste right after he pulled away from me. Just as quickly, I put a smile on my lips and let him pull me away to another station where he would be giving short interviews to numerous media outlets.