Page 17 of Merry Me
I looked up through the tangle of leaves and regret, and there he was.
Easton Maddox.
Just standing there. Like a fucking Calvin Klein ad, or whatever other kinds of ads movie stars were doing nowadays. His hands were in his pockets, his dark hair tousled, an unruly grin on his ridiculously handsome face. His green eyes sparkled with amusement as he took in my predicament.
Why had he gotten hotter over the last couple of years? Why wasn’t he at leastpretendingnot to be perfect?
Hadn’t life heard of karma?
A wart. That’s all I was asking for. A wart. Or a receding hairline. Or one of those unfortunate chinstrap beards.
Even bushy eyebrows would have been nice.
Or something.
Not the overwhelmingly delicious specimen that I suspected no one was ever going to live up to for the rest of my life.
I knew I’d been right to compare every man to him.
“Oh, for the love of…” I muttered, trying to untangle myself without giving him the satisfaction of helping me.
“You know,” he said, his tone far too smug, “most people use the door.”
I glared at him as I struggled to untangle myself, my cheeks on fire as I tried to ignore the fact that my panties were suddenly soaked from him muttering one sentence.
It was the Hollywood effect. I was sure of it. They probably gave their actors magical powers that somehow gave them a direct line to a girl’s pussy.
“Why are you here?” I finally growled, trying to discreetly pick out the leaves and twigs that were currently tangled all over my hair.
“Levi invited me,” he said, crouching down so we were eye level. “But you already knew that.”
I scoffed, because he sounded like he used to when faced with my antics—attractively amused, like I was some charming hurricane he’d just been waiting to get caught in again.
Absolutely unacceptable.
“Not here,here,” I hissed. “Like, here at this exact moment.” I attempted to discreetly flick a beetle off my sweater. “Watching me fall out of a window.”
He grinned wider, leaning forward like he was enjoying every second of this. “And miss you making a dramatic…exit, Trouble? I would never.”
My stomach flipped.Trouble. Heaven help me.
“Ugh, don’t call me that. Just go inside and pretend this never happened.” I groaned, finally freeing myself and scrambling to my feet. What was with these people and old nicknames?
And why the fuck did Ifeelsomething every time someone called me one of them.
Easton didn’t move. Just stood there, watching me with that same maddening, handsome smirk. “Not until you say please.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Notice I’m not laughing.”
“Only thing I’ve noticed is that you’re covered in leaves,” he shot back, brushing a twig off my shoulder. His touch lingered for half a second too long, sending an unwelcome shiver down my spine.
“I hate you.”
“You used to say thata lotright before you kissed me.”
I scoffed, ignoring the bolts of thunder spreading through my thighs.
“And how beautiful you look. I’m definitely noticing that,” he muttered suddenly, a pained expression crossing his freakishly hot features as he took me in. “Pretty hard not to notice that when you’re still the most gorgeous girl I’ve ever seen.”
