Page 105 of Cherry Beats

Blowing out a breath, I placed my hands on my hips and studied his face. It was crazy to put my life in his hands—the kind of crazy I knew I couldn’t live without anymore.

“How insane is this about to get?” I asked quietly.

Presley’s mischievous grin flashed back at me. “Youth Gone Wild, wild.” He held his hand out for me to go to him, and just like that, he had me under his spell again.

What right did a mere mortal like me have to refuse a god like him?

What right did I have to argue with this love that was growing inside of me?

* * *

We had breakfast in London and dinner in Paris.

Another hotel, another city, but the bright lights all around had my eyes wide, and my heart giddier than it had ever been. This was only my second time out of the country, and I was trying my hardest not to look like a complete geek as we soared across the seas in a private jet.

A. Private. Jet.

From cattle economy to the most luxurious, white leather interior I had ever seen.

Playing it cool in the skies proved difficult, just like playing it cool around Presley had become exhausting. I was trying desperately to hang on to my identity—to stick to being the sarcastic, hard-working bartender I’d grown to be. I had so much gratitude for that girl. I’d nurtured her into something I thought was special and something she never dreamed she could be, yet here I was, waving goodbye to her and her life across the English Channel like she didn’t matter now a man had steered her heart in another direction.

Despite all my protestations back then, I’d now become a Gertrude.

An Anna.

A Blossom.

It was just so hard to linger on those concerns for too long when Presley wrapped his warm hand around mine and cosied up next to me.

When we left Charles de Gaulle airport, cameras flashed around us from every angle. I could see why the boys chose to wear their sunglasses indoors, and I was grateful the second Julia had leaned into me and slyly passed me a spare pair of her own.

“Save those retinas, sweetie,” she’d whispered.

It didn’t stop my head from rising and my feet from stumbling the very second I heard a reporter call out my name, though.

“Tessa Lisbon! Tess. Tessa! Over here.”

My head turned in several directions, and I hadn’t realised I’d stopped moving until Presley tightened his grip on me, pulled me closer, and began guiding me forward.

“They know my name in Paris,” I whispered up at him, and Presley smiled wickedly in return.

Our bags were collected, and we were shoved into the back of several big, black cruisers I didn’t even know the name of. Every window was tinted, and when the doors shut on the crazed paparazzi outside, my ears were left ringing.

I removed my shades and stared at the window where men were pushing their cameras against it, still trying to get their shot like animals.

“Thatwaswild,” I whispered to myself, mouth agape.

“I’ve seen worse,” Dicky answered abruptly. He’d yet to make proper eye contact with me since he’d seen me at the airport, and it didn’t take a body language expert to know he was pissed at me being on the scene.

No girlfriends, remember? And there I was, screwing that up for everyone.

Julia cleared her throat and plucked her phone out of her inside jacket pocket. There were just the four of us in this vehicle, the other guys having been bumped off into another waiting car.

“You did well,” Presley reassured me.

“Really?” I asked, turning his way, suddenly needing his approval… or anyone’s approval, actually.

“Really. It’s never easy.”

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