Page 16 of Let Me Say It Again

In the meantime, I walked behind the desk and sat down in the leather chair, leaning back slightly with my elbows resting on the arms of the chair and my hands together in front of me. “See, it’s nice to be pampered.”

Jade was practically vibrating with anger, her nostrils flaring. “I’m still training. This is highly inappropriate, and when Maria finds out—”

I held up a hand, stopping her. She didn’t honestly think I hadn’t thought of everything, did she? Because if that was the case, she needed to take a crash course on her fiancé. I didn’t do anything half-assed. Never had. Half-assed work was for losers who were either too afraid to go the distance or jackasses who couldn’t figure out a way around a brick wall that was right in front of their faces. Neither of which described me.

“Relax. Maria already knows. I promised to send her the link to the gallery so she can weed through the photos herself.” Shrugging with a cocky grin, I added, “Memories and whatnot.”

As more people on the team began swarming like bugs to the smell of a carcass, Jade tried to duck and dive in her chair, grinding her teeth as she stared me square in the eyes. “When you told me about the engagement party, it would have been nice if you clued me in on this, too.”

Oooh, someone was angry. Why couldn’t she have been like every other woman I’d been with who ate this shit up, only being with me so that I could do more things like this for them? That was right, I hated those women, and I’d broken up with every single one of them. Don’t even start with me. I knew I was complicated as fuck.

I was like the SATs—no matter how hard you studied me, you would never figure me out. Was I gloating about that? Yes, yes, I was.

Being easy to crack was as snooze-worthy as back-to-back infomercials.

Leaning back in the chair more, I caused it to rock slightly. “I was going to, but then I realized I don’t owe you an explanation. As long as you didn’t have to lift a finger, I figured it’d be fine.”

“Don’t you think I need a ring, genius?”

Shit. I left it at home. Maybe I didn’t think of everything. No worries, though. I was quick on my feet. “Maria will be letting you use hers.” Once I called her and offered to pay her for the loaner.

Her mouth shut faster than a mousetrap that caught its victim.

The hair stylist brushed through her hair, but the brush got stuck and Jade squealed. “Ow!” She turned around, upsetting the makeup artist, and shouted at the woman. “How would you like it if I did that to you?”

“Sorry, ma’am, but you have a lot of knots in your hair.”

Jade made a noise that was reminiscent of a jungle cat’s growl. “It’s called a messy bun. I’m working at a magazine. I’m not a goddamn model.”

Fired up, her eyes wide as ever, she commented back to me. “As for you, Red, you figured wrong. If we’re going to be engaged, then I want to know everything.”

“Noted. I’ll let you know the next time I go to the bathroom.” I knew that wasn’t what she meant, but seeing her get riled up made me so incredibly happy. Sick? Maybe. True? Unfortunately.

“So help me God, Red, if you make a bathroom schedule and send it to me—”

“I’m not actually going to do that.” I laughed, leaning forward a bit to stop the chair from rocking every few seconds. “I will let you know when I get my balls waxed, though.”

“Real intelligent to say that in front of all these people. I thought rich people were supposed to have class.”

“I do,” I said and mimed drinking tea with my pinky in the air.

“And be smart.”

“Most aren’t. I am, though. They all signed a non-disclosure agreement. Anything we say, they can’t repeat. I use my brain.” I looked sideways, analyzing her desk. “Not that I can say the same for most other people.”

She heaved a sigh. “How are you going to get an announcement of our engagement in the paper so fast anyway? Don’t you have to plan that stuff in advance?”

“I’m Reddington Lyons,” I replied, as though that was explanation enough. To her, it might not have been, but it was.

“Thank you for reintroducing yourself.”

I smirked. “All I have to do is ask for something, and it’s mine.”

Silence for a beat, but then Jade spoke up. “Must be nice.”

“I don’t hate it,” I conceded, drumming my fingers on the desk before getting up. “I know the owner of the paper, and he’s going to run it this weekend.”

I walked over and got a better look at the work I was paying to have done. I wasn’t surprised by how beautiful she looked. Jade was even attractive to me with knotty hair. What I wassurprised about was how fast they managed to be pulling this all together. Usually, people were slow. It must’ve been the insane amount of money I was paying them for a short amount of time.

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