Page 82 of Fame & Obsession

He stares at me in disbelief. “I don’t know him, Pheebs, but I promise he’s not over you. Do you realize how hard you are to get over? You’re beautiful, smart, funny...” He stops, his cheeks flushing. “Any man lucky enough to have you wouldn’t be able to give you up that easily.”

“He’s not,” a rough voice behind me answers.

I close my eyes as all five senses spring to life at once. “What do you want, Julian?”

A hand clamps onto my shoulder, and I flinch at the contact. “It seems you’ve lost your phone, princess...all of them.” Julian drops a bouquet of chocolate-dipped strawberries on the table in front of me.

“I’m working.”

“I can see how hard your day has been.” His tone oozes sarcasm as his hand tightene on my shoulder.

Nate locks an icy gaze on him over my head. Cursing, he throws a few bills on the table and shakes his head. “Man, stop stalking her.” He stands and offers me his hand. “Come on, Pheebs, we’ll go back to the office.”

“She’s not going anywhere,” Julian says evenly.

Shrugging his arm off my shoulder, I grab the bouquet and slip out of the chair. In one step, Julian blocks my path and grabs my wrist.

Meeting his stare, I whisper, “Get out of my way.”

“No,” he says, his simple answer filled with arrogance.

Damn him…

He looks amazing, and the sight of him hits me like a punch to the chest. He’s wearing tight-fitting jeans with a graphic gray T-shirt that accents the dark ink coating his arms. When he scowls, I notice the dark circles lining his eyes. They match the ones I’ve seen in the mirror every morning for eight days.

Before I can say anything else, Nate takes my hand and pulls me out of the deli.

“I’m not finished, asshole,” Julian curses, stomping after us. Closing his fingers around my elbow, he swings me around. Those jade eyes penetrate me with one heated glance.

Exhaling, I cross my freed arms in front of me.

“I’m sorry, I forgot who I was talking to—what Julian wants, Julian gets. Well, here’s your platform, big shot.” I gesture around to the streets of Manhattan. “Open mic night.”

He glances around him, then shrugs with a smirk. “Fine. You want public? Have it your way.”

“Wait, what the hell are you—?”

Clearing his throat, he yells, commanding the attention of anyone within earshot. “Can I have everyone’s attention, please?”

“Julian, what the hell? Shut up!” I smack his arm, but it only encourages his volume. With my heart pounding, I search for Nate, only to see his head lowered as he opens the door to the Ralston Media building and disappears.

“My name is Julian Bale, I’m with the band Lords of Lyre.” As if a freak thunderstorm has descended, incessant buzzing spreads all around us, and cameras flash in rapid succession. “This is Phoebe Ryan, and she works for Ralston Media. Most of you know her from theAccess Livecoverage andBlogosphere Daily.”

I’m going to puke and die, and he’s eating up the attention like it’s candy.

“Phoebe seems to think I’m going to let her ignore me. So let me be clear to all you good people of the media...” Hooking his fingers around my waist, he pulls me to him. “This is the woman I want.” He tightens his hold, the glint in his eyes challenging me to contradict him in front of the cameras. “Do you hear me, Phoebe? I don’t know what you’ve done to me, but you’re not getting rid of me.” Lowering his lips to my ear, he whispers so only I can hear him. “Plan to ignore me now?”

As more cameras flash with lightning speed, I shake my head.

His smirk widens, that ghost dimple sinking deep within his cheek. “Now I’m going to bend you over and kiss the hell out of you.”

The kiss lasts longer than the paparazzi. Only one flash remains, and Julian has me too wrapped up in his assault to call his attention to the fact that it belongs to a simple camera phone. By the time I mention it, the figure has already bolted behind a building and disappeared. Still, a shivers travels up my spine as I stare at the figure in a black hoodie fading into the distance.

Twenty-Three

Julian

It tooktwo days for Phoebe to stop beating the shit out of me for the paparazzi stunt I pulled outside the deli.