Page 38 of Cherry Beats

At one point, he even put his manager on speaker, dropped the phone to the sofa and let his head fall back on the cushion. I seriously thought he was going to fall asleep.

“West? West!” his manager called out, forcing Presley to bring the phone back to his ear.

“I’m here.”

“Were you asleep?”

“Not far off. Jesus Christ, Dicky, you go on more than a woman.”

“Hey!” I mouthed in defence of my fellow sisters of the world, but one wink from Presley, and I was soon rolling my eyes and chewing my nail again. Sorry, ladies.

“Can I speak now?” Presley muttered, sounding bored.

“Whatever is about to leave your mouth better be good,” Dicky barked.

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen. It’s Janey Dominic. She’s found out where I am.”

“And where the fuck are you?How the hell does that raging bitch know your location and I, your boss, don’t?”

Presley glanced my way. “I’m with a… friend,” he said smoothly.

“A friend, like a guy you used to go for a beer with, or a friend you once fucked?”

“The latter.”

“Oy vey.” Dick groaned. “Is it her?”

Presley continued to stare at me.

“Please tell me it isn’t her.” Dicky sighed.

“It’s her.”

Her?

“I thought we’d agreed that was a no-go area.”

“Shit happens.” Presley grinned.

I scowled at him, demanding answers I wasn’t going to get.

“I swear you need those two words tattooed on your handsome goddamn forehead. Shit does, indeed, happen, but it’s also the by-product of you making a really stupid fucking mistake.”

“She’s not a mistake.”

“Debatable.”

“Listen, I don’t want to get your blood pressure rising again. I need one night away from the circus, and I promise, I’ll be back with you tomorrow morning. I fucked up by hitting that guy, and I need to get my head around that—remember who I am, not who the press want me to be.”

The loss of him before he’d even gone hit me in my chest. No matter how much I lied to myself, it was going to hurt saying goodbye. We could stay an entire room apart tonight, and I would still ache for him in the morning.

“Dicky, I need you to get rid of JD for me. I can’t have her snooping around Cherry’s place.”

“Cherry?” Dicky asked, and through the phone, I could hear his surprise. “That’s her name?”

“When she’s with me, yeah.”

“What happened to you keeping her a secret?”

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