Page 117 of Just Friends
We broke into a fit of laughter.
“Hey, Piper!” Ainsley blurted in a fit of excitement, her phone in hand. “Have you checkedyour social media lately?”
I shook my head. I’d stayed off my phone all night. “No, why?”
“Take a look.” She showed me screen and quickly scrolled through thousands of Soulmate tweets, all made within the past hour. “Soulmate is blowingup,Piper. You guys are going viral.”
The girls made noises of excitement on my behalf. But I didn’t know what to say. After the last time Soulmate ‘blew up,’ I wasn’t sure if I could trust it.
“Good viral or bad viral?” I asked cautiously.
She looked at me like I was crazy. “Are you kidding? All anybody can talk about is how sweet Jax’s speech was, and how much sense it makes that you guys are dating now. A bunch of people who deleted the app are saying they’re going to download it again to actually give it a try. But now, because of the live-stream, there’swaymore people finding out about it for the very first time.”
Slowly, it began to dawn on me—Jax’s live-stream might have saved Soulmate. My app might have a second shot at life.
“Seriously?” I asked, stunned.
She bobbed her head emphatically. “Yeah, seriously. Soulmate’s taking off!”
I squealed a long note of happiness and threw my arms around Ainsley for a hug, then the others, too. I couldn’t believe my luck—everything was coming up roses for me. I almost felt like I didn’t deserve this.
“I gotta tell Jax!”
I broke free from the group and rushed across the ballroom to Jax. He ran his greedy eyes up and down my body, barely able to restrain his raw, masculine desire.
“Hey!” I pinned myself to his side. “Can I tell you something real quick?”
“Sure.” He split from his friends and guided me, with his hand on the small of my back, to a cozy corner of the ballroom. “What’s up?”
I put my hands in his and told him the good news; that his live-stream had people flocking back to Soulmate in droves. So there was stillsomehope that Soulmate might end up earning me its money back—and maybe even make some money someday.
“That’s fantastic,” he said. “Congrats.”
I held up a cautious finger. “No congratulations just yet—I don’t want to jinx it.”
“Jinx?”
“Well, what if everyone hates it?” I asked, biting my lip nervously. “But if nothing else, at least this time, people might actually give the app a chance before they decide they hate it?”
He grinned. “No one’s going to hate it. They’re going to love it.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you’re a smart, capable woman who can do anything you put your mind to. And you poured your heart and soul into that project. And you know what else?”
“What?”
“The appworks.”He put his arms around my waist and pulled me close. “We’re proof of that.” His hands slid up and down my bare arms, tantalizingly slow, making the tiny blonde hairs on my arm stand on end. “I can’t get over how smooth you feel,” he growled, his breath hot against my neck, shivers shooting up my spine.
“I have to admit, I’m not always this smooth,” I admitted coyly. “If you want to keep me all silky soft, you might have to spoil me at the spa every now and then.”
“That can definitely be arranged,” he said, a glimmer in his eye.
“Perfect,” I purred. I tugged on his neck tie and added sultrily, “P.S. Just wait until you see how smooth Ireallyam.”
“I don’t know what that means”—he eased back, his expression somewhere between confused and turned on—“but God, it sounds hot.”
I giggled. “Good. I want you thinking about me all night.”
