Page 80 of Driven Daddy

Travis also seemed to pick up on the tension as his smile faded. “Normally, he has far better manners.”

“She’s not into manners from me.”

Before any of us could speak, Penn took off, heading away from the lush bedroom set-up to the sitting room. He dropped sullenly into a chair in the corner with his notebook and opened it, pulling a pencil out of his forest of curls.

His long, elegant fingers aggressively attacking the pages with a tool probably not meant for his tantrum. Good, hope he ripped his paper.

“Ms. Savage, I don’t know what’s gotten into my brother. I’ll speak to him.”

I glanced away from Penn and to his brother. The tension lines around his mouth made me give him an easy smile that I definitely wasn’t feeling. “No, no need. I’ll let you guys get to it.” I touched his arm to let him know I was fine. There was a fair bit of empathy in his demeanor for a stranger which I appreciated. “Can’t wait to watch your shoot.”

And that was enough peopling for me. I slipped between the crew members who were discussing angles and things that were far above my head technically. Normally, I’d be watching from every angle to learn something. My brain automatically looked to add something more to my already overfull catalog of jobs to write about.

Today, not so much.

Why the hell did Penn have to be here?

I stopped at the food table for a bottle of water. Travis and Bridget were getting direction from the photographer, but they didn’t really seem to be paying attention to anyone other than each other.

The heat rising between them made me regret my choice of sweater.

Then the way he dragged her close made the back of my neck prick with the memory of another moment, another firm touch. My gaze tracked to Penn and his was locked on mine.

I cracked the cap on the bottle and drank it down, but I couldn’t stop staring at him. And I definitely noticed the way his Adam’s apple bobbed with his hard swallow.

The low groan that came from the bed made me flush.

Then my bag buzzed with another call from Melissa. She was determined.

Now was as good as it was going to get. I dipped into my bag and grabbed my phone, taking the call. “Melissa, one sec. I’m at the shoot. Let me get out into the hall.”

“Finally. I’ve been calling you all day.”

“I know, I know.” I slipped around the crew then a makeup girl who had been called from the photographer to touch up someone. It was a lot of chaos for one little shoot, but I wanted the end product to be as professional as possible.

And based on that chemistry, the cover would be amazing if the photographer could get the shots right.

I glanced at Penn on my way out the door of the hotel room which was still propped open because of all the cords and whatnot. He sat forward, poised to get up before he relaxed back into the seat.

I couldn’t worry about him now. Once I got down the hall enough that I had a tiny bit of privacy, I lifted the phone to my ear, wishing for my earbuds. “What’s going on? You’ve been blowing up my phone.”

“I know. Why the hell haven’t you contacted me back?”

“I was working earlier, and then I nearly forgot about the photoshoot today.”

“They have these things called handsfree headsets in a car, you know.” Melissa’s voice was dry.

“I know, I know. A lot of things are going on.”

“What kind of things?” Her voice was innocent, but there was a degree of hedging to it, as well.

“What’s going on, Melissa?”

“Have you been online by chance?”

My stomach jittered. The voices increased behind me, and a half dozen people from the crew poured out of the room and down the hall toward the stairs. What the heck was going on? “No. I’ve been avoiding it as much as I can, honestly.”

“Good.”

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