Page 30 of Breaking the Habit

Marcus’ grin tightened. “Three hundred thousand.”

Levi was ready to agree then and there, but he needed to push it farther. “Five.”

“I can do four.”

Levi wet his bottom lip, counting to five before he said anything else. “Will there be opportunities for future work?”

“Perhaps. It’s hard to guarantee. Our needs are dependent upon the specific goals of our clients. But I can assure you—you won’t have trouble finding promotional work after we’re done with you. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got some modeling contracts along the way. Your hair alone—” Marcus gestured toward him, shaking his head. “You’re going to find plenty of work out here away from the cage. I can promise you.”

Levi studied the thick knobs of his knuckles, turning everything over. His gut was screaming “YES!”, right alongside his head. When the two were in agreement, it meant he should dive headfirst. Four hundred thousand dollars, combined with his hauls from winning fights, would let him breathe easy for the next couple years at least. And that alone was worth a couple months’ work fooling the tabloids.

“I’ll do it.”

Marcus offered his hand across the desk, and the two shook hands. “Excellent decision. This is going to be a fun one, I promise. Let me get the paperwork ready.”

As Marcus rummaged through a drawer, another text message came in.

GAGE: I neeeeed it.

LEVI: omg what is wrong w u?

GAGE: soo very thirsty

LEVI: drink some damn water

GAGE: I need the sticky orange nectar

LEVI: that stuff’ll kill u, u know that???

GAGE: don’t care, need it. I’m telling Tammy to get it or else I’ll fire her.

LEVI: u fkn try that and I’ll beat ur ass myself

GAGE: bring the orange soda

“Everything okay?” Marcus asked. Levi jerked his head up. Marcus had the contract ready, pen in hand. Levi blinked, trying to refocus on the task at hand. It was ridiculous that the biggest battle in his life involved convincing his brother to not drink sugary sodas, but here he was.

“Yeah. Sorry.” Levi snatched up the contract and read it as fast as he could. Tons of legalese and a lot of Roman numerals. He couldn’t understand half of it, but the parts he did understand seemed to reflect what they’d talked about. Marcus explained some of the more obtuse sections, but once Levi saw the figure at the bottom—$400,00 USD—that’s all he needed.

He signed the last page with a flourish.

“Great,” Marcus said. “We’ll deposit the first half of your payment next week.”

Levi’s heart skipped a beat. He couldn’t wait to check out his bank statement and see all those zeroes.

He didn’t have to circulate his own nudes. This was the definition of winning.

And he’d buy Gage a damn orange soda to celebrate.

Chapter 10

Riley had done an extremely good job at keeping things professional.

So well in fact that she deserved—no, NEEDED—an award. Because this facade was hard work. It wasn’t for the faint-hearted. No, actively resisting the sexiest man alive’s attempts to engage sexually, while still somehow not objectifying her, took a special type of prowess…and idiocy, she supposed.

Two weeks after Levi admitted she had sexy thighs, the words still echoed through her head damn near daily. She’d shut down their interpersonal communications as a last-ditch attempt to honor the fact that she was not going to get dragged into another up-and-coming star’s orbit. Not like last time. Which meant that the picture-taking for practices the last couple weeks had been the most professional she’d ever been. Hardly a word spoken to Levi. It was pure creative work and then studio.

And the worst part of all? Levi had stopped trying, which drove hernuts.

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