Page 48 of Get Undressed With Me

“Whoa, where’s the fire, killer?”

“There’s no fire, but I have a schedule.”

“And you have time. You shouldn’t be pushing that ankle so hard so soon after hurting yourself.”

“Not that much time. Not enough for you to finish flirting with some girl. You’re technically at work, by the way.”

Gus stopped in his tracks, pissed at her words but also immediately realizing.

“You’re jealous.”

She whirled on him, her eyes on fire in a way that heated his blood.

“I’m not jealous,” she said, her voice dripping with acid. “I just have a schedule that I’d like to keep.”

Gus moved forward, crowding into her space. So far no one was really paying them any attention, but that could change at any moment, and he had no desire to cause a scene. But there was no way he was going to let this slide.

“You’re jealous,” he stated, loving the flare of rage in her eyes. “I’ve spent this weekend watching men drool over you and take pictures of you and make jokes with you without being able to say a word about it, and now one woman flirted with me and you’re pissed.”

“I’m not pissed,” she lied.

“Liar.”

They glared at each other, and Gus had never been so turned on in his life. Brittany opened her mouth to retort, probably something sassy that would make him want to both smack her ass and worship her, when a voice interrupted them.

“Hey, Brittany! Gus!”

Gus reluctantly looked away from Brittney to find Devery heading toward them, her smile big and genuine until she got closer and could focus on the looks on their faces. It must have been clear they were arguing, because she stopped a few feet away.

“Um, sorry, I was just heading to your panel and saw you. Thought I’d keep you company on your way there.”

Brittany was the first one to recover, plastering a smile to her face.

“Hey, Dev. Thanks for coming to the panel, you sure didn’t have to.”

Ignoring Gus, she walked with Dev, chatting away as if the last few minutes hadn’t happened. Gus followed, allowing them the space that Brittany clearly needed. As far as he was concerned, they weren’t done talking about this. Because Brittany had just revealed she was as affected by him as he was by her, and once his mind latched in

on to that idea, there was no way in hell he was going to let it go.

Brittany’s first panel went well, and the rest of the day was a blur after that, filled with rushing to panels, quick makeup refreshers, some photo-ops for her page, and a thousand other tiny things. Gus was tired and couldn’t believe Brittany was still standing since she had barely had a rest during the crazy day. At one point, he had shoved a protein bar at her with a bottle of water, just to be sure she wouldn’t collapse, but still. She had been on her bad ankle almost the entire time, and he could feel it like a timer in his head that she needed to sit, and she needed to sit soon.

Now they were in her last panel, thank god. She was speaking eloquently on how newcomers could start their own streams and grow their numbers, and on the surface, she looked happy and engaged and full of never-ending energy. But Gus knewher, better than he should, and he could see the strain she was holding back, how tired she was, and how she kept subtly shifting her ankle around. Brittany needed a break. Luckily, this was the last panel for the day.

“How’s it been going?”

Gus turned to find Val there, dressed in her form-fitting suit, looking like she walked out of a Dior ad, even as he knew she could throw him on the ground and make him regret his actions if he so much as looked at her funny.

“No word from the stalker since his last text message.”

Val nodded, her own eyes scanning the crowd of people sitting at the panel.

“Heard you moved her into your place.”

How the hell she knew that already was baffling, but Val had an ear to the ground. At this point, Gus was used to it.

“She got hurt yesterday in a fire alarm gone wrong. I didn’t want her laid up in that not-even-a-little-secure hotel room she was crashing in.”

“So she’s at your place for the job, is what you’re saying.”

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