Page 11

PART VII

By the time they got back to her brownstone, Selene was exhausted.

After filming, she'd gone into a fitting with the costume designer for one of her final costumes. A sparkling gown for a scene on the stage at Lincoln Center. It was one of her dreams when she'd been a young singer. She'd dreamed of going to Julliard. Maybe find herself performing opera or classical music, something grand.

The more popular she'd become doing pop music, the more people liked putting her down for not doing 'real' music.

This movie?

Well, it was a chance to do something she'd wanted to do .

Two things.

Perform 'serious' music and do it on the Lincoln Center stage.

It may not be a performance with ticket holders, but it was a performance.

And she wanted to open some eyes.

She just hoped-

A knock at the bathroom door turned her head. "Yes?"

"Are you hungry?"

She considered being delicate for a moment.

A single moment.

Then she went with real.

"STARVING!"

She heard William's laughter and smiled in response.

"What do you want?"

Selene looked down at her feet in the shower and saw that they were red from the heat of the water.

She knew she needed to get out before she boiled herself.

That would be a news story.

"I'm done in the shower!" She shut off the water. "Think about what you want, and I'll be out in a second!"

"Okay. Take your time."

She stepped out of the shower and the cool air of the bathroom hit her skin .

Selene felt like she was likely throwing off steam and turned to look at the mirror.

Luckily, she hadn't turned herself into a lobster. Maybe, she'd just managed to parboil herself.

She reached for the over-sized towel and quickly patted her skin dry.

When she stepped out into the bedroom, she was alone.

She went back into the bathroom to hang up her towel and came back out, walking out of her bedroom and to the banister. "William?"

She heard his voice below on the main floor and walked down the steps, listening in.

Probably not the nicest thing to do but she was really curious why he was laughing as much as he was. Maybe it was his sister, Mary?

"No, Ares. We've got this handled. Yeah. Yeah. I hear her. Both of them. Give Heather my love and Karolyna, too."

She was nearing the bottom of the steps when his voice turned a little gruff. "No, I'm sending you love, you idiot."

He hung up the phone and turned around, stopped short when he saw her.

"Who... who was that?"

William looked a little contrite, but not by much. "That was Ares. One of the other bodyguards from Big Sky. He didn't come with us to this job. His wife just gave birth to their daughter and they're at home in Montana. Ares says they can come if we need them."

"And his wife?" She knew what the answer was but, she wanted to hear it.

She loved finding out about William's life.

Selene was storing away every bit of information for later.

"Well, Heather's okay with him having assignments, but Karolyna's still a baby. And," he shook his head, "I think he's only asking because he feels bad that he can't be here."

"I know I'd want help with the kids if that was me."

The look in his eyes was... mysterious.

She didn't know what she was seeing in them.

Or maybe she didn't want to see what was in his eyes.

After all, it was all wishful thinking on her part.

It was hard to admit the ways she'd dreamt about having him in her life, but she had.

"Kids?"

She brushed away the question and crossed to the table against the wall. "I've got some menus here in the drawer. You'd be surprised how many of these get handed to you when you walk down the street."

She pulled out a handful, leaving a bunch inside the drawer. "What are you interested in? Indian? Korean? There's a good Hawaiian BBQ place a few blocks over. Oh!" She slid over a brochure from a SUB place. "This one is new. Just opened a few weeks ago, I think." She turned the brochure over and looked at the notes she'd made. "Yep, three weeks ago."

She busied herself looking at the Greek brochure in front of her.

"So many good places in the neighborhood to eat."

It took her a moment to realize that he hadn't been looking at the menus beside her.

When she looked over at him, he was standing there watching her. "You're not hungry?"

She'd asked him the question, but he took his time with the answer.

"Is there something wrong?"

She felt her skin flush a little.

She wasn't sure what he was looking at specifically or what he was waiting for.

She didn't like feeling off-balance.

"I'm hungry," he told her, his gaze unmoving from her face, "but I'm curious what happened just now."

She moved another menu toward him on the top of the table. "I thought we were picking somewhere to order from."

He shook his head. "Before that. We were talking about Ares staying home to help Heather with the baby."

She smiled and nodded, wanting to get off of the conversation as quickly as she could. "And now, we're talking about food."

He looked back at her and she turned her eyes away.

"I'm a girl who's serious about her food. You don't want me to get hangry."

He smiled at her. "No. Hangry is not a good idea." He tapped the menu she'd put in front of him. "Thai food?"

She nodded, almost desperate to get food. Food that meant they could curb the conversation.

He nodded, almost copying her movements. "Why don't you order a bunch of stuff? I can pretty much eat anything. I can jump into the shower. I'll let Badger know I'm going to be out of reach for a few minutes."

He reached into his back pants pocket, and she found herself frowning at him.

"What are you doing?"

He took a card out of his wallet and held it out to her. "Here. Use this for the payment."

She shook her head. "I can get dinner. In fact," she gave him what was likely a smirking smile, "I'll get all the food while you're here. We can get stuff for Badger, too."

William took a step back in her direction, his card held out. "We have expense reports."

"And you're taking care of me, Will. The least I can do is feed you. "

He gave her a look that said he wasn't going to argue. And then he put his card down beside the menu. "Please, Selene. Use the card."

The look she gave him back said she was going to do what she was going to do.

She saw his reaction to it.

A shake of his head and a smile.

He left the room a moment later and she moved over to the door that led down to the ground floor apartment.

The panel beside the door had a set of numbered keys but it also had a microphone and speaker. She tapped it and waited to hear if Badger picked up.

"Badger here."

She smiled. "Okay, Honey Badger. I wanted to know if you wanted something to eat from the Thai restaurant?"

"I just started eating. Thanks for asking."

"Oh?" She leaned in closer. "What are you eating?"

"I found a pub down the street and stopped in to order some food. I'm sorry. I should have-"

"Please," she laughed. "No worries. For a few minutes I wasn't going to order anything and dig through my cupboards and then I decided I was starving!"

"If you'd like me to go out and pick up something for you-"

"Nope," she shook her head at Badger's offer. "I like to patronize the local businesses and the local delivery drivers."

He chuckled. "Sounds like a great idea. I'm here if you need anything."

"I'm good, Badger... Evander... Whatever I'm supposed to call you tonight."

He laughed and she laughed along with him. "You can pick whatever name you like."

"Why is it that your comments seem a little more proper with your British accent than they do without it?"

"Because everyone knows that British men are more proper than other men. We're superior to Yanks."

She snorted a laugh at that. "Oh, I kind of walked into that one."

Before she walked away from the speaker, she leaned back into the microphone. "Later on, I'm going to ask you if you've ever met the King. Or the Prince. I've always been fascinated about the Royal family."

He didn't respond immediately, but when he did, she couldn't help but smile.

"You can ask, Selene, but I might not be able to tell."

She heard the humor in his tone, but before she could call him on it, he spoke again.

"I used to work for the King, but I would be limited to certain topics of discussion. "

"Oh..." She bit into her lip for a moment. "This is going to be great."

"Enjoy your dinner, Selene."

"Enjoy yours too, Badger."

She went back to the menu, ignoring the card that William had set down on the table and picked up her phone to order.

It didn't take long to get their food. William had ample time to get through a shower and have a quick meeting with Badger and Alex on a video call before the delivery person showed up.

A delivery person who wasn't expecting a fairly hefty tip. "Thanks, dude."

"Thanks for delivering it. Stay safe on the road."

The guy, who didn't look like he was a day over eighteen, gave him a salute and a bright smile. "Okay, dad."

William rolled his eyes and stepped into the house, smiling.

"Was that Chase?"

"Chase?"

William looked at her.

She gave him a grin. "About a hundred and twenty pounds of gangly young man with a bicycle helmet and a big, bright smile?"

He nodded. "That's a spot on description. "

Selene came over and took the bag from him. "Chase delivers around this area. If I call to order from someplace, they route the deliveries through local kids in high school and college. Give them a chance to make money. I like that." She grinned at him and then turned her head down as she started digging through the bag. "Oh, it smells so good tonight."

"You want to eat that here? Or should we take it somewhere else?"

She looked up, her cheeks heating up with embarrassment.

"I guess we should go somewhere with chairs?"

He shrugged. "I don't mind if we do. But you've had quite a day. If you sit on the floor-"

She laughed, nodding. "I might not get up again." She tipped her head toward the living room. "We can go in there."

She already had the bag open and a takeout container in one hand.

Before she could start to pack it up again, William reached over and picked up the bag. "Come on, Hangry. Let's get a move on."

She rolled her eyes but laughed as he stepped back to wait for her to precede him.

She edged by him and made her way into the living room. "Sorry. You must think I have the most horrible manners. "

He laughed and set the bag down on the massive coffee table. "I think you're just hungry. You should be around me when I'm hungry and hanging out with friends. They're lucky if they get anything off my plate." He gave her a smile as she sat down, drawing a leg under her. "You, I might share with... Might."

She gave him a measured look as he pulled out one of the drinks from the carrier and held it out to her.

Selene took it from his hands and pulled the seal off of the lid and set it down on the table. "The other one is for you, unless you don't like Thai Tea."

He shrugged. "Sounds good."

"Oh," she nodded, her eyes wide, "it's goood."

They opened the rest of the plates and when they were done, William had to shake his head. "That's... a lot."

She was already sipping her tea. "It's enough for four. I thought it might be a good idea if Badger gets hungry."

He thought he heard a little hesitation in her voice and didn't want her to worry. "Hey. I can eat. You don't have to worry about eating in front of me. You could eat like a linebacker, and I'd be okay with it. I'm not here to judge you, Sel. If you're hungry. Eat."

She looked at him as if she wasn't quite sure if he meant it .

He didn't blame her for it.

He'd heard from Mary about people fat shaming Selene for having hips. There was an infamous bathing suit shot when she'd been on vacation and people thought they saw a little fat.

William's jaw tightened as he thought about it.

People could be so fucking cruel.

He looked up and saw the way she looked at the food on the table.

"Wow... That was a lot of food."

Fuck.

He didn't want her to think that there was a reason not to eat if she wanted to, but he had a feeling he could say it until he was blue in the face, but he didn't want to badger her into eating. That wasn't what he wanted to do.

So, he reached out and grabbed one of the spring rolls and pointed it at the sauce in the container. "What's that?"

She looked over at it and he saw the interest in her eyes and the little bite into her bottom lip before she answered. "That's sweet chili sauce. It's good."

He smiled at her tone. There was more life in it than it had a few moments before when she looked at the table with regret.

"Good, huh?"

He dipped the end of the roll in it and lifted it to his mouth .

It was a single bite and a little chewing and then it hit him.

Sweet and heat.

"Mmm."

He pointed at his mouth with his free hand.

"Mmm."

She looked at him with a raised brow and a curious expression. "Is that good? Or I burned myself?"

He covered his mouth with his free hand and spoke as well as he could. "Both."

Then he kept his lips open as he panted over the food in his mouth.

Selene smiled at him and picked up her chopsticks and broke them in half before rubbing them against each other. She also kept her gaze on him as well as she lifted another container. Holding it over her plate she tipped it a little to the side and with the thicker ends of the chopsticks she pushed some of the noodles onto her plate.

He forgot that his mouth was on fire.

He was just watching her as she opened a smaller container and lifted it to her nose to breathe it in.

Swallowing, he watched her closely. “Smell good?”

She looked over at him and nodded. “Jasmine rice.”

When she set it to the side, he frowned a little and asked her if, “we’re not going to eat it? ”

“Dessert,” sheexplained with a smile that lit up her face. “Sooo delicious.”

Ah fuck, his mind was stuck on her. His heart, too.

Spending time with Selene was like a drug. He’d been addicted to her from day one, but he didn’t think he’d ever forget it. The problem was that he could never see her falling for him.

Sure, they had chemistry for days!

Just their first kiss told him that they would be fire together.

The kiss last night?

It was clear that they both wanted each other.

Waking up with her almost wrapped around him like a glove?

He’d been soclose to losing his control.

It was crazy in some ways.

With just a few hours, he'd found himself not just attracted to Selene, but halfway in love with her.

The connection had been immediate and had rocked him down to his core.

He'd chalked it up to falling for her personality, her talent, and her beauty.

Then they'd been apart. Different continents. Crazy time zone variations.

But they'd texted. Left voice messages sometimes.

A few lucky phone calls.

With all that time between seeing her up close and in person and now, things should have died down if it was just a 'crush.'

Just the kind of superficial attraction of meeting her and spending a few hours together.

Sitting there together, eating, laughing, and listening to whatever music popped up on her iTunes app, he found himself falling deeper and deeper under her spell.

Even though she laughed at him burning his tongue.

He'd laughed, too.

And it had been stupidly funny.

It was fine by him because it made her smile after the day she'd had.

Shit. He'd do worse to himself to distract her from the destruction of her dressing room.

Selene shifted on the couch beside him, and he looked over at her.

There was a sweet smile on her face, but there was something in her eyes that caught at him.

There was a bit of humor but there was also something… almost mischievous.

She was excited.

He could see that in her cheeks, the warm coloring there.

He could see her breaths, quicker than they had been moments before.

She looked at him and then she darted her glance down to the container in her hand. “It’s time,” she said in almost a whisper.”

“Time?”

Nipping her bottom lip with her teeth she crooked a finger at him, beckoning him closer.

"Time," she explained, "for you to try some dessert."

The breathless quality to her voice was dangerous.

Dangerous to his heart.

And his soul.

"Want to try?"

Her question was innocent enough, but there was a part of him that couldn't see it that way.

He had been half hard since she'd laughed at him burning his tongue on the spring roll.

Just looking at her gleeful expression and the way she'd curled up on the couch beside him?

He was hard as nails.

He liked this side of Selene, maybe better than the other sides he'd discovered.

There wasn't a side of her he didn't like.

And if he allowed himself to see it, he might already be in love with her.

She scooped something out of the dish and held it out toward his mouth. "I just want you to try a bite."

She held it out and he saw the anticipation in her eyes .

He swore he felt a shiver of excitement roll through her as she leaned forward.

"Just a bite."

Of course he would.

He'd be hard pressed to find something he wouldn't do for her.

Yeah, he was in over his head and drowning, happily.