Page 113

Suddenly the brakes were jammed.
“Uuuuph,” Taylor said as her seat belt snapped against her chest.
“What the hell,” was Derrick’s response.
“Shit,” was Henry’s.
Taylor looked ahead and saw the street completely blocked off with a crowd of people: news crews, paparazzi, and everyday joes with cell phones in hand were all banded together.
Taylor looked at Derrick. “Well, wanna just get it over with?”
Derrick looked at Taylor in horror. “Please tell me you are not thinking of going out there?”
Taylor raised her brows at him. “You got a better idea?”
“That is a bad idea,” Henry said.
“See?” Derrick said, pointing at him.
Taylor took a deep, irritated sigh. “Look, they want to see us. They have been dying to see us together. Let’s just get it over with!”
“Taylor, this is crazy, you can’t just—”
“Okay, I’m done,” Taylor informed everyone in the car. She opened her door and slid out. The other doors opened rapidly in succession, and then Taylor, Derrick, Henry, and Luke were walking toward their offices. Taylor grabbed Derrick’s hand and held on tight. This situation terrified her, and she was sick of it. She was tired of being scared of things, especially when she had been starting to relax with almost every other part of her life.
“Are you sure you want this?” Derrick asked. They were still yards away from the crowd outside Preston Corporation, so she knew he was still giving her an out, but she wasn’t going to bite.
“No, I don’t want to do this, but it is an inevitable part of our life,” she answered, feeling the butterflies come up her throat as they approached the crowd.
Somewhere in the crowd there was a shout, and then the whole group was turning toward them. In seconds they were rushed. Taylor tried to keep herself steady, head held high and just kept walking with Derrick by her side. But steadily the flashes and shouting and pushing increased until Taylor was encased by her male security team. It was suffocating. It wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be, nope.
It was worse.
This had been a very bad idea, and her throat burned as she swallowed down regret. She wanted to shrink away and get the hell out of there.
But then she remembered something: she was in charge.
Taylor came to a stop. “That is enough!” she shouted.
Everything and everyone stopped around her. The quiet was an eerie change from the chaos that had reigned only a moment before, and Taylor realized she needed to take advantage of it quickly.
“I get you all want a picture,” she announced in a booming voice. “But is this the one you want? Us mushed between bodyguards? I bet no, and someone is going to get hurt. If everyone backs off and gives us some space so we can continue on to work, Derrick and I will pose for a few shots,” she looked to Derrick. “Is that okay with you?”
Derrick nodded. “Sounds fair,” he agreed.
“Cool, Henry?” she asked her bodyguard, who was beyond his stress threshold, which was obvious by the fire-engine red color of his neck and face. He gave Taylor a quick nod as he kept scanning the crowd.
“All right then. Now if everyone will back up, please, we will pose on the sidewalk here,” Taylor announced, and shockingly they all moved—in a pretty organized fashion, to boot.
Derrick and Taylor made their way up onto the sidewalk, Derrick slid his arm around her, and they turned to the waiting photographers. Taylor smiled at the cheers and the voices calling their names. People offered congratulations and asked about babies and ring carats, but they answered nothing.
After a while, Derrick leaned down to her ear and said, “I guess you really are in charge.”
Taylor turned to him, smiling. “And don’t you forget it,” she said back to him.
“Kiss her!” someone shouted from the crowd, and Derrick grinned.
“You got it!” he shouted back and dipped Taylor, kissing her full on the mouth. The shouts were deafening. Derrick brought her upright and smiled at her. Taylor was forced to wipe lipstick from his lips, or the rumors would be epic.