Page 89 of Kissing Games
He reached his arm across her body to pin her to the bed, kissing down the side of her neck. ‘Whatever it is, the answer’s yes,’ he replied, disappearing under the covers and finding her nipple with a groan.
She pulled away from him and lifted the duvet. ‘Charlie, it’s important. I’ve had an email from my agent.’
He rolled off her, staring up at the bed canopy. ‘Two days, Valentina. We have two fucking days left together. Can’t it wait?’
Silence.
Don’t be a fucking dickhead!He closed his eyes, willing his emotions to go away. ‘I’m sorry,’ he sighed. ‘Ask away, sweetheart.’ He reached over to her and made contact with the soft skin of her thigh. This would have to do for now.
‘My agent emailed me last night,’ she said quietly. ‘Saturday Night Livegot in touch. They want me to be a guest host.’
He rolled to his side. ‘Fuck, Valentina, that’s amazing!’
She frowned and chewed her lip. ‘I don’t know, Charlie. They want to make fun of my photos. They want to make fun of me. I want to forget about it. I want everyone to forget about it. I don’t want to make things worse than they already are.’
He took her hand. ‘If you can show the world you can laugh at yourself, that’s the fastest way for people to lose interest. They won’t keep bringing it up if it looks like you don’t care.’
She shrugged.
‘Has the cosmetics company said anything?’
She shook her head.
He arched an eyebrow. ‘Well then, surely no news is good news? You should definitely do it.’
Unease clouded her face. ‘Really?’
‘Yes. You’ll be brilliant.’ She smiled at him and he squeezed her hand. ‘Remind me when you’re working today?’
She smirked. ‘Charlie, you know my schedule better than I do.’ He grinned. ‘I’m working this afternoon, and then this evening…’ She rolled her eyes. ‘I’m storming the castle with my ninja army. We won’t finish till late. Why?’
‘I thought we could check another couple of things off your list when you’re done.’
‘In the middle of the night?’
He raised an eyebrow and she blushed. ‘It’s a clear night, so I thought we could stay up and watch the sunrise.’
‘That sounds lovely.’ She smiled, but her eyes looked sad.
‘And you’ll need to bring your character’s dress.’
‘Why? Are we going to burn it?’
He grinned. ‘We’re going to go one better. We’re going to blow it up.’
Valentina sucked in a shocked giggle as the fire alarm went off.
Charlie thundereddown the main stairs, Valentina following. He met Rory at the bottom as the fire alarm stopped. ‘What’s going on?’
Rory looked like a man dragged through the gates of hell. Charlie had seen him calmer in the middle of an ambush in Afghanistan.
‘Vlad,’ he spat.
Rory turned on his heel and they followed him to a room on the ground floor. Lying on the wooden floor in a massive puddle of water was a scorched dummy wearing what looked like Zoe’s clothes and wearing Kirsten’s curly red wig.
‘Fucking hell, mate.’ Charlie whistled. ‘He’s properly lost the plot.’
‘I’m going after him with Bandit,’ said Rory, his face grim. ‘Wanna come?’
