Page 53 of Little Monster
Though I’ve come to like Morgan and her no-nonsense approach to LGC, the jealousy in her eyes tastes sweet. I know that look, havegiventhat look too many times to count. But I’ve never been on the receiving end of it. And it feels better than it should.
Am I wrong for feeling this way?
“They’re waiting for you,” she says, her tone clipped, words short. The friendliness she used to look at me with has vanished. Then she turns and walks back down the hall, her wedge heels clopping out an aggressive staccato rhythm.
Was she only friendly with me because she didn’t see me as a threat? As competition?
A door slams, making me jump.
“Fuck,” Dex whispers behind me. “You’re gonna get us in trouble.”
“Like you wouldn’t enjoy it,” I say back, which makes him chuckle.
We head down the hallway, past the recording studio, and into a meeting room at the end of the corridor. Michael, Lucas, and Sebastian are already seated at the big mahogany table, and they look up when we walk in.
I don’t know what gives us away—maybe it’s my tousled hair and the heat in my cheeks—but Michael is the only one who doesn’t look surprised. Lucas’s eyes narrow as he looks us over, and beside him, Sebastian blinks his big brown eyes, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. Maybe he was so drunk that night coming home from Velvet that he doesn’t remember Dex kissing me at my door under the porch light.
“Nora!” says a familiar friendly voice, and my gaze shifts to the right, where Ashton stands from the table to gesture to the empty seat beside her. “Come in, come in.”
My body doesn’t want to move from Dex’s side; it’s like we’re magnets and there’s an invisible force drawing us to each other, trying to hold us together even as the world tugs us apart.
I force myself not to look back at him and walk around the table to join Ashton. She rolls the plush office chair out for me, and I take a seat, startling a bit at the cold faux leather against the backs of my bare thighs. Across from me, Dex rolls out a chair and sits down. I allow myself to glance at him, but when I catch his gaze, he gives me a heated smirk that sends warmth flaring to life between my legs. Before anyone can notice, I look quickly away.
Seated at the head of the table are four people—two men and two women—I’ve never seen before. They’re dressed in tailored business wear, and looking at their gleaming watches and sharp-edged MacBooks, I can only guess these are the people who run the label.
Who run the band.
“Nora Miller,” the man closest to me says, offering a hand for me to shake. “My wife and I saw you at the orchestra this past October. A phenomenal show. Always such a pleasure.” His handshake is firm, but not too firm, and his eyes are kind behind his black-rimmed glasses.
The heads of the label introduce themselves, but the whole time, all I’m wondering is why they called us—me—in here for this meeting in the first place. Dex keeps staring at me from across the table, and it takes all my willpower tofocus on the label heads and not him. He sure isn’t making it easy though.
Finally, one of the men places his elbows on the table, steeples his fingers, and says, “‘Ghost’has far exceeded our expectations. It’s LGC’s fastest-selling single to date.”
The guys let out a round of gruff cheers, and Sebastian pounds his fists on the table—Ashton, however, stops him with a quick cutting glance.
“And,” the man continues, “we have no intention of letting this momentum die. So, we want to keep the ball rolling with a music video. And we’d like you, Ms. Miller”—his gaze shifts to me, and I tense up in my chair—“to feature in the video.” His smile is kind, unpretentious. He looks genuinely excited. “What do you say?”
I’m not sure what I expected when Dex told me this was going to be a surprise, but I’m fairly certain this wasn’t it. I thought maybe,maybethey’d ask me to play on another track, and I would’ve said yes to that in a heartbeat.
But a music video? My hands go clammy just thinking about it. I’m not even in the limelight, was just seen in pictures with Dexonce, and my online life has become a living hell because of it. What is everyone going to say if I appear in a music video with him?
I tear my eyes away from the man, and Dex catches my gaze. The smirk is gone from his face, and now he’s looking at me with something like encouragement in his pale blue eyes. And with just that one look, I know he wants me to do this. He doesn’t even have to say it aloud.
What should perhaps scare me is that seeing him looking at me like that makes me want to say yes to anything. It feelslike I’m wholly incapable of going against him when he has that look in his eyes.
So, without even turning to look at the man again, I say, “All right. I’ll do it.”
Beside me, Ashton squeals and squeezes my hand. The heads of the label look at one another and share small triumphant smiles. But really, I don’t care about them or what they want; I care about Dex, and right now he’s running his fingers along his lower lip and smiling, and I’m too caught up in him to even consider what I’ve truly just agreed to.
There’s more to be discussed—dates and contracts and payment—and then everyone is shaking hands and standing from the table and leaving the room in a subtle cloud of expensive-smelling cologne and perfume.
“This is gonna be epic!” Sebastian says, skirting past Ashton to wrap his arms around my waist. He picks me up and twirls me in a circle, and I laugh, somehow perfectly at ease surrounded by these men I used to only see in magazines. “We haven’t made a video in forever.”
“It’s only been a year,” Lucas says from where he’s leaning back lazily in his chair.
“Well, it feels like forever.” Sebastian sets me down and gives me one of his twinkling smiles. “And it’ll be more fun with Nora anyway.”
“It really will be,” Ashton says, elbowing Sebastian aside so she can pull me in for a hug. She’s soft and warm, and when her scent—like clean laundry right out of a dryer—washes over me, I feel immediately calmer. “We’ll need to get your measurements for the wardrobe team, but I can give you a call tomorrow, and we’ll set it up around your schedule.”
