Page 45 of Last First Time
I nod absently. It’s definitely her—smart, funny, full of sass, and as gorgeous now as she’s ever been in her entire life. I still can’t believe I actually talked her into letting me kiss her, let alone all those extra delicious things we were photographed doing.
Okay, no. No boner at the courthouse before I give a press conference that I don’t want to give in a day-old rumpled suit that will smell a little bit like pee forever. No.
“Karisma,” I murmur her name like a prayer. I had wanted this, certainly, but to have her here now is almost enough to make me lose it. “What are you doing here?”
“Don’t be stupid, Reed. Stupid doesn’t look good on you.” Her lip curls up. “You actually look like crap for a change. Almost like you spent a whole night in jail for defending whatever is left of my honor.”
I reach for her, pull her next to me and all of her soft places pressed up against me have me talking down my dick again. “I didn’t know where you were.” She smells so much better than jail did. “Abernathy told me you left town.”
She wriggles free from my embrace. “I panicked a little bit. Don’t make a big deal about it or I’ll go get my money back and have you locked up again.”
I pull back and stare at her. “Did you do this?”
She shuffles her feet a little, no longer meeting my gaze. “Abernathy asked me to get the money together last night.” She glances up at me, her dark eyelashes partially covering the sparkle of her eyes. “He thought maybe your asshole dad was going to put up the cash to spring you.”
I laugh for the first time since I met up with the senator yesterday. The guards all whip their heads around to look at us, but then quickly pretend to be busy doing anything other than eavesdropping on our conversation. “My dad wouldn’t pee on me if I were actually on fire.”
Kar swats at me with her tiny, perfect little hand. “Reed, that’s not true. Your father would one hundred percent pee on you if someone was going to pay him enough money to do it.”
Either Huey or Louie makes a choking sound behind me. Yep, this is my girl. She actually came to my rescue and everything, and what have I done for her? Other than basically ruining her life, that is.
“Look, I hate to break up your touching reunion, but we really need you to get out there and say whatever to get them to pack up.” The guard at the metal detector is giving me the stink eye during this little speech, like I personally invited all these reporters to my moment of shame.
Kar comes to my defense immediately. “Look smartypants, you and I both know that Reed Harrington IV has been in jail since yesterday afternoon, so don’t go treating him like this is his fault. I’m betting a million dollars that this is another chapter in the dirty mayoral race orchestrated by the bad guy in this whole mess, Senator von Esrington.”
I flinch. How had I not done the math on this and she already has? “But how would he know where I am?”
She sniffs. “Who do you think made a big scene until you caught some federal charges?” She rolls her eyes, and even that’s sexy to me. Damn it, I’m such a mess for this girl. “I guarantee you that jerk bucket set you up by calling every reporter he could find and asking them to loiter outside until you gave a speech.”
“I don’t want to give a speech.” I pout. There’s no other way to describe it.
One of my escorts slaps me on the back. “You’d better man up, Harrington. The reporters aren’t going to be gentle with you. Or her.”
Kar’s eyebrows shoot up. “What are you talking about? I’m not the idiot running for mayor. And I’m certainly not going out there with the idiot running for mayor either.”
The giant wall of muscles shrugs. “I guess it’s up to you, but there’s only one way out of here.” He jabs a thumb toward the door and the noisy swarm of reporters.
“What about the back door or something?” I ask pitifully.
Kar snort laughs. “That’s what she said.”
I stop breathing for a moment. “Are you talking about anal again?”
Karisma’s eyes narrow dangerously. “What do you meanagain, Reed?”
Everyone pauses, waiting to see if she is willing to go ahead and murder me in front of all these witnesses. Law enforcement witnesses at that.
“Oh, um, nothing. My mistake.” I clear my throat and straighten my sleeves. No cufflinks, because they are sitting in my pocket.
One of the behemoths behind me pretends to cough, but he is definitely laughing. If he wasn’t fifty times bigger than me and well versed in murder, I’d definitely shut him up.
Kar taps her foot impatiently. “Let’s hurry up and get this over with. I want to get back to Towanda before she roughs up one of those fancy sports cars in the parking garage.”
I look at her carefully. “You sure you’re okay with all of this, Kar? It’s a big ask.”
Kar gives me a sweet, shy looking smile. “So much yes, Reed. We can do this together and that will make it less terrible, I promise.”
“Everything is less terrible with you, Karisma.” I can’t wait anymore, so I kiss her. I keep it very PG though, because we are out in public, but I really want to kiss her until she is breathless, and then muss up her hair, preferably by fucking the hell out of her against the nearest wall.
