Page 64 of Bad Love

“You lookbeautiful.”

My heartskips.

Okay.Recalculating.

We’ve done “This product is unacceptable,”as well as “I’d feel fucking fantastic inside you.” I have no idea what to do with “beautiful.”

Now, his raised brow reminds me I’m staring dumbly athim

I glance at the files in front of him, realizing they have nothing to do with ourproject.

I’ve never seen him with paperwork. Especially not what looks likefinancials.

“Hunter’s Cross?” I can’t resistasking.

“Yeah. I’m filling in the marketing director role until the board meeting. I’ve been spending every damned hour onit.”

Which explains why he’s beenquiet.

But it doesn’t explain why he’s doing the one job he seemed hell-bent onavoiding.

I ask thequestion.

He rubs a hand over the back of his neck, which drags my attention to both parts of his body in an unhealthy way. “The guy we had in the job decided to leave last week. Now I’m picking up thepieces.”

“Must be a steep learning curve.” Empathy works through me. “You said you hate that kind ofwork.”

“I hate it because it’s not my strength,” he admits, his mouth twisting at the corner. “But otherwise it all falls to my best friend, and I won’t watch him suffer for my mistakes.” The sheer decency of that affects me, and my chest tingles. "Monty’s saved my ass more times than I can count, starting in highschool.”

“You went to college together too?” I’m curious about the guy Hunter would put himself on the linefor.

“Yeah. Then I took off a couple years formodeling.”

“That must’ve been amazing. How’d you start in that? I’m guessing you don’t just show up somewhere and say, ‘Please give me money and photographme.’”

Hunter cracks a grin. “Yeah. Not so much. I did some campaigns as a kid for my mom’s charity work. Wound up with an agent who was dogged enough to keep calling when I was studying for exams. I’m glad she did.” Hunter’s shoulder lifts easily. “I got to travel the world on someone else’s dime. It’s long days though, and physical. Not the working out part either. I mean working on set. Living out ofhotels.”

“It soundslonely.”

A light breeze plays with his hair, and his gaze is chocolate in the bright outside light. “Sometimes. The secret is you can’t take it too seriously. You gotta let rejection roll off you because people tell you no more often than they tell you yes. It’s not as glamorous as itlooks.”

“Most things aren’t.” I nod at thefinancials.

He barks out a rueful laugh that has me smiling with him. “True. Anyway, Monty and I both took business in school. He did a double major with engineering. He's the smartest asshole I know. He has integrity fordays."

"He has a good friend in youtoo."

Hunter's gaze softens. "Thanks,Peach.”

We share a look that has my stomachflopping.

“How’s your week going?” he asks atlast.

“About the same as yours. I’m on the committee for this talent show at Rory’s school. One of the other moms is ridiculous, and…” I shake my head, realizing I’m talking all about personal stuff and this is supposed to be a businessmeeting.

But I like talking personal with him. He’s a goodlistener.

It’s cleaner if we focus on business. Lessdistracting.

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