It is easy to live in the worlds I create, but when you live in bullshit, that’s all you get.
It takes courage and strength to be true to yourself.
From now on, that’s what I’m going to try to be. Real.
Thank you, Mila Elderkin, for saving me from the bullshit.
A muse isn’t just a muse. Not when that muse turns out to be your life.
Your real life.
So this is me, Thomas St. Clair, former jerk dickwad, saying don’t hide in bullshit. All it will do is leave a bad taste in your mouth.
TSC.
“Oh.” The single word left her on a soft breath.
“The post has already been picked up by the Times and USA Today,” Josie said. “Plus, it’s all over Twitter. The hashtag nobullshit is trending. People are going crazy, coming clean about stuff.”
Mila looked up at her.
Josie frowned, chewing on her bottom lip. “I told him he didn’t deserve you, to stay away from you. But maybe…maybe I was wrong. Maybe you should go talk to him.”
Mila swallowed, handing Josie her phone back.
Josie gave her an expectant look. “Don’t you think?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I think I have to get ready for class tomorrow.”
Josie’s eyebrows dipped and she let out a sigh. “Mila—”
Mila held up her hand. “Please don’t. Thomas and I are from two different worlds.”
Josie snorted. “You’ve been living in his world for a few weeks now. It seemed you fit quite well, so don’t give me that excuse. If you’re scared, admit it, but don’t lie to me or yourself about Thomas St. Clair.”
Stomach clenching, Mila shook her head. “What if I get there and he’s changed his mind? I deceived him. What if he can’t get past that?”
Josie leaned forward and squeezed her hand. “He’s already gotten past that, sis. You have to get past it now. You’re a high achiever. You can’t get any higher an achievement than being with the person you love.” Josie squeezed her hand again with a smile. “Right?”
She blinked. What was she doing? How could she be so stubborn? “Oh God, I’ve got to go. I’ve got to see—”
She jolted to her feet, snatched up her satchel, and ran for the door, where she slammed into her boss, knocking the slight, balding, perpetually scowling man backward.
“In a rush, Miss Elderkin?”
“I’m sorry, Duncan.” She steadied him with a firm hand. “I’m just on my way out.”
“Out?” His scowl deepened. “Not before you explain the truck full of Apple laptops that have just been delivered to the school.”
“Truck full…” A prickling heat crept up her throat. “How big a truck? How many laptops? Enough for a class?”
Duncan shook his head. “Enough for every student in the school.”
“Every student?”
“Every student. And if my math is correct, one for every teacher as well. All addressed to you from someone called TSC.”
Josie burst out laughing. “Oh my God, sis. Go to him now.”
“Sorry, Duncan.” Mila hitched up her satchel, grin wide. “I’ve got to go.”
She ran from her room.
Getting to the Upper West Side in a hurry wasn’t going to be easy. Not in a car, at least.
She ran to the subway.
Way too many minutes later, heart thumping and throat tight, she knocked on Thomas’s door.
Inside, Reaper started barking. And barking.
And barking.
The door didn’t open.
She knocked again.
There was more barking from Reaper, but the door stayed closed.
“Damn it.” She pressed her forehead to the door, eyes closed.
“He’s not home,” a deep male voice said behind her.
Oh God…
Thomas stood on the bottom step, looking up at her. His hair stood on end, like he’d worried it over and over. Stubble darkened his jaw and chin. His eyes were haunted. And yet in their blue depths…was that hope?
“You look like crap, St. Clair.”
He chuckled, the sound dry. “There’s my goddess.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Gorgeous?”
She shook her head, her pulse wild.
He began to climb the steps. “Babe?”
Her stomach clenched. “Not that, either. Not at this moment, at least.”
Stopping at the step below the landing, he gazed into her eyes. “Muse?”
“No. Not that.”
“What can I call you, Mila?”
“Yours?”
He closed his eyes, a ragged breath bursting from him. “Oh, Mila. You have no idea how much I—”
She kissed him silent.
He grabbed her hips and hauled her to his body.
Inside the house, Reaper barked and scratched at the door.
Pulling away, she cupped his face in her hands. “I didn’t come back because of the laptops. I need you to know that.”
“I don’t care. You’re here. Kissing me. That’s all that matters.”
“No, St. Clair, this is serious.”
His lips twitched and he brushed his thumb over her cheekbone. “How unlike you to be serious.”
“Shush.”
He smiled. “Why did you come back, Mila Elderkin?”
“Because…because it’s time for me to get real. And I am really, really in love with you. The real you.”
He drew in a deep, slow breath. “If I say and they all lived happy every after now, will you hit me?”
She chuckled. “Probably.”
He grinned and nudged her forehead with his. “And they all lived happy every after.”
She gave his shoulder a slight slap and smiled up at him. “The end,” she whispered.
He shook his head and drew her closer to him. “No. Not the end. Not even close, babe. Our story is just the beginning.”
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About the Author
Lexxie Couper started writing when she was six and hasn’t stopped since. She’s not a deviant, but she does have a deviant’s imagination and a desire to entertain readers with her words. Add the two together and you get romances that can make you laugh, cry, shake with fear or tremble with desire. Sometimes all at once.
When she’s not submerged in the worlds she creates, Lexxie’s life revolves around her family, a husband who thinks she’s insane, a indoor cat who likes to stalk shadows, and her daughters, who both utterly captured her heart and changed her life forever.
Contact Lexxie at [email protected], follow her on Twitter http://twitter.com/lexxie_couper or visit her at www.lexxiecouper.com where she occasionally makes a fool of herself on her blog.
Discover the Muse series…
The Stubborn Billionaire
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The Mistaken Billionaire (the Muse series) Page 21