Paige watched as her father sneered. “You think you’re so smart, don’t you? A verbal agreement will hold up in court. And all the things I told you I’d do to you that day in the hospital? I promise you I’ll do all that and more.”
“Dad!” Paige cried. “What is wrong with you?”
“This…this punk thinks he’s going to come in here and get the better of me? I don’t think so!”
Paige moved toward the desk. “I don’t think he’s getting the better of you. You simply screwed up.”
“Paige!” her father snapped. “That is enough! As my daughter and an employee of PRW—”
“But I’m not an employee of PRW,” she reminded him. “Remember? I quit ten minutes ago.”
“You did?” Dylan asked, turning to look at her.
She nodded. “I did. But we’ll talk about that later.” Then she nodded toward her father. “Finish what you were going to say.”
Leaning in, Dylan gave her a quick kiss on the lips before returning his attention to Robert. “You can try to do the things you threatened me with, but you’ll only make yourself look like a fool. You probably haven’t noticed because you thought you were done with me, but I’ve been in the news. Actually, I’ve been in the news a lot. I had a feature story in Rock the World magazine, and I did a television interview with Entertainment Extra—you know, the top-rated entertainment show with Julie Mize? Well, that interview was their highest-rated episode last week. Needless to say, a lot of people saw it.”
“I saw it,” Paige said softly and blushed when Dylan smiled at her.
“You see, the public wasn’t looking at me like I’d relapsed. No one thought I was to blame for the accident. And all those people standing behind me? That’s my legal team and my label’s legal team and our insurance broker and the president of PR for the label. None of them see me as a risk.”
Robert’s jaw ticked, but he said nothing.
“Now, considering my arm is still in a cast, I knew I wasn’t going to be playing at any concert, and there was no way you could hold me liable for that. But considering your firm dropped the ball and you’re the ones who are going to end up looking foolish…well…I would think you’d be a little careful with what you say and do next.”
Turning, Dylan motioned for someone to come forward. Paige noticed the man in the Armani suit make his way over to the desk.
“Mr. Walters, I’m Erik Anderson of the law firm Anderson and Carter. From what I’ve learned from Mr. Anders and Mr. Shaughnessy, we have grounds for a case of slander against you. Normally that sort of thing can be handled without a whole lot of fuss, but in your case, I’d be willing to make an exception and make the biggest deal over it and drag your name through the press like you threatened to do to my client.”
“You can’t do that!” Robert cried.
“And when I’m done,” Erik went on as if her father hadn’t said a word, “do you think you’ll be getting many clients here at PRW? Do you think anyone will want to be associated with a firm that was going to lie and destroy a man’s reputation? And for what?”
Paige watched as her father slowly sank to his seat. “I was trying to protect my daughter,” he said quietly.
“No,” Paige said before anyone else could speak. “You were trying to control me. And I’m done with that. You don’t know me, and you certainly don’t respect me. And that adds to the list of reasons why I can’t work with you anymore.”
“But what about the concert?” Ariel cried.
Both Dylan and Paige rolled their eyes.
“Shaughnessy’s not performing,” Dylan said adamantly. “And not only because we don’t have a contract, but because we don’t want to do business with you. As for the other bands who were going to perform, they won’t be available either. Once we told them why we were pulling out, they said they would support us. And considering they didn’t sign anything, they’re in the clear as well.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
“But…but the concert was to benefit Literacy Now,” Ariel said weakly. “It wasn’t about PRW.”
And in that moment, Paige thought it was the most logical thing her sister had ever said.
“Dylan,” Paige began softly, “she has a point.”
But he shook his head. “I’ll talk to the people over at the Literacy Now office and explain to them that if they’d like to hold an event in the future, we’d be a part of it. But between this whole mess and my arm, it’s not possible right now.”
“And what about the other bands?” she asked.
Dylan studied her for a long moment. “If you—and only you—were working on it, I think we could make something happen. But I can’t make any promises.”
She nodded. As conflicted as she was about the entire situation—especially because this campaign had started out as something near and dear to her heart—Paige knew it was time to stop cleaning up everyone else’s mess.
“Considering I’m no longer an employee of PRW, it would not be for me to take over and organize another concert,” she said carefully. Then she turned to her father and sister. “I’m sure you’ll find a way to make something work. After all, you seem to think Ariel has all the answers and connections.”
Taking a step back, she looked at Dylan expectantly. “I need to head to my office to get my things. Daisy’s packing it all up.”
His smile was slow and sweet and sexy. “I’ll give you a hand.”
Riley stepped forward and kissed Paige on the cheek. “Why don’t you two go on ahead? I’ll help Daisy and get the things to your house, Paige. I think you guys need some time alone.”
They both nodded and said their goodbyes to Dylan’s support group. When Robert called out her name, Paige stopped and turned.
“Paige! You can’t simply leave like this!” he said heatedly. “Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?”
She thought about it for a minute and then smiled. “Tell Mom I’ll call her in a day or two.” Then she waved and left.
Silently, she and Dylan made their way to the elevators. When the door opened, she preceded him in and did a little happy dance inside when he stepped in close beside her and hit the button for the lobby.
Dylan pulled up his phone and smiled but said nothing. The doors opened on the main floor, and she stepped out ahead of him and then out the front doors. She had no idea where they were going, but when he walked straight ahead to a waiting limo, she stopped.
“What are you doing?”
“This is one of the cars we all took over here. Mick texted that we can take it and everyone else will fit in the other cars. So…”
A giggle escaped before she could stop it. “The last time I rode in a limo was for my senior prom,” she said as she carefully climbed in. Dylan held her crutches and then handed them to the driver as he slid in beside her.
“The Beverly Hills Hotel,” he said to the driver before closing the door.
The Beverly. They were going to his suite. The grin that crossed her face was too powerful to hide. A million thoughts raced through her mind—along with as many questions for him. But for now, she was content to be beside him. She wanted to hold his hand, but the casted one was the closest.
“Are you hungry?” he asked softly. “I can call the hotel and have food sent up.”
Before she could say no because she wanted to focus on talking to him, her stomach growled loudly.
Beside her, he chuckled. “I guess I have my answer.”
“In my defense, I didn’t eat this morning. I was too nervous about going to talk to my father.”
He nodded, pulled his phone out, and called the hotel. Paige listened and let her head relax against the seat cushion as he ordered for them—nachos, cake pops, and cookies. With a happy sigh, she turned to him, “You remembered.”
Dylan turned fully to face her so hi
s right hand could caress her face. “I remember everything, Paige,” he said softly.
With that one statement, she knew they were going to be all right. It didn’t matter what had happened over the past month—the time they were apart. After hearing what she did at her father’s office and the things Daisy had told her, she could pretty much figure out what had happened and why he had stayed away. And all that mattered now was that they were here together.
At the hotel, he helped her from the car, and together they made their way up to his suite. She hated the fact that they were both so banged up and in casts because she envisioned their reconciliation going much differently.
She sat on the sofa and Dylan put pillows under her foot and then got her something to drink. And when he sat beside her, she knew she couldn’t wait any longer. She reached for him and cupped his face in her hands and kissed him.
Casts or no casts, it was the exact kind of kiss she needed—hot and wet and needy.
On both their parts.
“Food…is…going…to…be…here…soon,” he said between kissing the line of her jaw.
The last thing she cared about now that they were touching and kissing was food, but as she was about to say so, there was a knock at the door. Dylan jumped up and she wanted to be offended, but he grinned at her.
“The sooner I answer it, the sooner they’ll leave.”
It was a good plan.
Dylan let the waiter put the tray on the coffee table for him and then tipped him and showed him out. When he returned, as much as Paige tried to ignore the food, she simply needed to eat something.
“Don’t hate me for opting for food at the moment,” she said and helped herself to a tortilla chip.
He chuckled beside her. “Never. Besides, I didn’t eat earlier either.” Together, they ate for several minutes in silence and Dylan was the first to speak again. “I never should have let anything keep me from you.”
She loved that he didn’t out-and-out blame her father—though they both knew he was at fault. “Dylan…”
He shook his head. “That day was hell, Paige. And so was every day after it until today.” He paused. “I wanted to come to you, to call you and talk to you, but I needed this whole threat to be out of the picture. I didn’t want that hanging over our heads.”
“I wish I had known sooner,” she admitted. “Daisy told me the things my dad accused you of the day of the accident, but I never thought it went beyond that. I thought you were mad at me because of our argument and…and…” Emotion clogged her throat, and she couldn’t speak.
“Hey,” he said, cupping her chin. “Never. I could never stay mad at you, Paige. I’m so sorry I put you in a position where I made you choose. And who am I to say what’s a healthy family relationship? It took me spending three months in rehab to finally tell my parents that they need to talk to me and how it’s okay to tell me when I screw up and disappoint them.” He released her chin and raked a hand through his hair.
“And have they?”
He nodded. “Granted, I’ve practically been a choir boy since rehab, so there hasn’t been too much for them to be disappointed about.” He chuckled. “Although they did tell me they were disappointed I was taking so long to go to you and beg for forgiveness.”
“You don’t have to beg, Dylan,” Paige said shyly. “You had good reason to stay away. I’m so sorry my father put you in that position. I’m so embarrassed.”
“Don’t be. That’s all on him and he’s going to have to deal with the consequences.”
She stiffened slightly. “Are you really going to sue for slander?”
Shaking his head, Dylan reached for his drink and took a sip. “No. That was never the plan. We needed to make him see he wasn’t holding all the cards. I don’t want to make things worse for you and your family. And if I destroyed PRW, that was going to hurt you.”
She shrugged. “I know it sounds cold but…not really. It felt so good to walk—well, hobble—in there and quit today!”
He smiled broadly at her. “I bet it did. I’m proud of you, Paige.”
No words had ever sounded sweeter. She leaned in and kissed him gently. “Thank you. I think this is going to be good for all of us.”
“What are your plans? Do you have another job lined up?”
“Not yet. I was thinking about starting up my own, much smaller, firm. But my focus right now is on recovering.”
“How are you feeling?” he asked, his tone laced with concern. Then he muttered a curse. “You had surgery, and you were so hurt and—”
She placed a finger over his lips. “My recovery has been great. I stayed an extra day in the hospital and I’ve had a home health aide staying with me ever since. Her name’s Kathy and…” She gasped.
“What’s the matter?”
“She went to help Daisy and I never texted her to let her know where I was!”
“I’m sure Riley took care of it, and Daisy knew what was going on.”
“Wait…what? How did Daisy know?”
“If you were still working for PRW, I’d say you need to give that girl a raise,” Dylan said before popping a cookie in his mouth. “She was the one who brought to our attention that Ariel had never sent over the contracts for the concert. It gave us the leverage we needed with your father.”
“Wow, I…I can’t believe. It’s so crazy to me.”
“Savannah planned a mini-intervention. I was staying with her and Riley and barely living, and she gave me the wake-up call I needed. She was the one who arranged the interviews and had the idea of reaching out to Daisy to try to get you to come. What the two of them ended up talking about—because you know how easily your assistant gets distracted—was how PRW was falling apart without you.”
“I don’t know if I’m upset or seriously impressed,” Paige commented.
“Go for seriously impressed because without her, I don’t know if we could have pulled off what happened today as magnificently as we did.”
Resting her head on his shoulder, she sighed. “I wish it didn’t have to come to that—for either of us.”
“I know, baby. And I’m sorry.”
“So what happens now?” she asked carefully. In her mind and her heart, she thought she knew where they were going—back together. Back to where they were before the accident. But she needed to hear it from him.
He was quiet.
And he kept being quiet.
Her heart started to race. Maybe she had gotten it wrong. Maybe she had misread the signs. Their kiss had been as hot as it always was, but maybe that was all this was going to be. Sex. Lust. Fooling around. They’d never exchanged house keys with each other or talked about a future so…
“Excuse me for a minute,” he said as he stood up.
Paige watched in confusion as he walked out of the room and into the bedroom, and she let out a weary breath. Would she be able to handle going back to the way things had been and knowing they weren’t ever going to progress? Could she realistically handle living in the moment and not having a plan? She looked toward the bedroom and saw him walking around, looking for something, and knew her answer.
Yes.
For Dylan, she could.
When he turned and walked toward her, she braced herself for what he had to say—the talk of how he needed them to go back to the way they were and how he’d be busy with the band and wouldn’t have a lot of time for her.
She took a deep breath and released it slowly.
You can do this, she told herself.
The last thing she expected was Dylan to scoop her up into his arms.
“Dylan!” she cried. “Your arm! What are you doing?”
“You asked what happens now and I figured you knew—I was taking you to bed and not letting you leave for a long time.”
His words were both thrilling and depressing
.
He laid her on the bed and stood and looked at her—at her cast—and then to his own. “You know we’re going to have to get a little creative here, right?”
She couldn’t speak, so she smiled at him and nodded. Wanting Dylan was never in question, but her heart hurt right now as all her fears were proven to be true.
This was sex.
This was lust.
This was…Dylan down on one knee.
What?
“What are you doing?” she whispered, afraid she was seeing things.
“The area by the couch was too confined for what I knew I was going to do immediately after.” He gave her a sexy wink. “Paige Walters, you gave me hope when I thought I had nothing to live for. You made me smile when my world was gray. You showed me how this man that I am is all that I need to be. I don’t need the fake public persona—I don’t need to pretend to be anything else. Who I am is good enough. You challenge me, you push me, you sometimes aggravate me, but more than anything, you complete me.”
“Oh,” she said breathlessly.
“I love that you’re this prim and proper businesswoman during the day and behind closed doors you turn into this sexy, dirty girl just for me. I love how I’m the only one who gets to see that side of you. And I want to see that side and every side of you every day for the rest of my life.” He paused. “Paige Walters, will you let me love you, through good times and bad, through happiness and tears, and through every day and every challenge life throws at us?”
She nodded anxiously, her hand pressing over her fluttering heart. “I will, Dylan. I will!”
He stood and leaned over her and kissed her. It wasn’t the dirty, erotic kisses she craved.
It was better.
It was slow and tender and…everything. She pulled him down on top of her and reveled at the weight of him there. So long. It had been so long since she’d felt him there and it was everything she wanted.
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