Page 40 of Drawn to You

“Yeah.”

“I’m doing you a favor,” he says as we walk out to the car that will take us to the hotel. “Lucas is nice and all, but he’s not the guy for you.”

“Oh? And how do you know that?”

“Because I know him. He’s too emotional.”

I laugh at his reasoning. “Meaning what?”

“When his last girlfriend cheated on him, he was a mess for like two months. He doesn’t know how to button it up and move on.”

“So he’s not a manwhore like you? That makes me like him more.”

He furrows his brow. “Just because I don’t like committed relationships, that doesn’t make me a manwhore. I’ve never promised a woman more than I was willing to give.”

“So you’re up front about it? You tell them it’s only going to be one night?”

He shrugs. “If it comes up, which it usually doesn’t.”

“And then what? The next morning, they try to give you their number and you say no thanks?”

“I try to avoid that conversation by not being around the next morning.”

I cringe. “Look up manwhore in the dictionary sometime.”

We find the dark SUV with the driver taking us to our hotel, both of us getting in the back of the vehicle.

“So anyway,” Dane says. “I think you should start your own company.”

I get a good, long laugh out of that suggestion. “I’m a junior publicist without any experience running a business. Once I pay my bills next week I’ll have about eighty bucks to my name.”

“I could help seed you with money.”

My stomach rolls at the idea. “Absolutely not. I can’t afford to owe anyone money.”

“Look, you’ve got a niche thing going here. Watching over pro athletes. I’ll become a model player and say it’s all because of you. Then, you hire more people to do this job for other athletes, actors and musicians. It’s a gold mine.”

I can’t believe he thought of this. It’s not a bad idea at all, but I’m too risk-averse to try it.

“Maybe,” I say, knowing if I tell him no, it’ll cause an argument.

“The number one rule my agent taught me is to know your own value. You’re undervaluing yourself in a big way, and your aunt is taking advantage of it.”

It hurts to hear someone say that about one of the few family members I have left, even though he’s probably right.

“I’ll think about it, okay?”

He nods, typing into his phone. “I’m ordering Chinese delivery to our room. What do you want?”

I haven’t eaten anything but half of a sub sandwich at lunchtime and I’m ravenous.

“Veggie fried rice, crab Rangoon and an egg roll.”

He grins at me. “Is that all?”

“That’s all.”

Our driver drops us off at the door of our hotel and we go up to our fourth-floor room. The hotel staff left a gift basket on the desk with fruit, champagne, bottled water and snacks. I shake my head as I open it and take out a bag of chips.

---