Page 33 of Blurred Lines

“Good.” Vi rolled her eyes. “San Francisco? What was Theo thinking?”

“He was thinking that we’d both advertise his stupid app, and he’d end up rich.”

“I hope Cristian doesn’t have an app.”

“He doesn’t, and he’s already rich. Vi, he lives in a waterfront mansion. And I’m a little scared too—what if this goes wrong?”

“Don’t think that way.”

Meanwhile, Cristian and Dawson were sizing each other up like two lions unsure whose territory they were in. Finally, Cristian held out a hand.

“Cris Garza.”

“Dawson Masters.”

“Good job with Senator Presley.”

“That wasn’t my finest hour.”

A shrug. “There wasn’t a US Marine alive who didn’t raise a beer to you that day.”

“Shame the Navy brass didn’t think the same way.” Dawson skewered Cristian with his gaze. “Don’t hurt Lauren.”

“I won’t.”

The atmosphere was frosty to start off with, but by the end of the day, the two men were getting along like old friends. And when Lucas Collins messaged Vi to see if we wanted to come over to his place for “welcome home” drinks, Cristian and Dawson decided they’d go out for beers together instead. Which was great because it meant they were bonding, but also slightly odd considering the way Cristian had stuck to me like glue since we got together. Still, I was glad he trusted my friends. And this morning, he’d left me alone in the juice bar while he went to run a few errands, only for an hour or two, but I’d written an entire chapter. The Ex Files was almost finished now, and my dirty prince was gradually loosening up, which was a relief. I loved him with my whole heart, my soul, and every other part of me, but I also didn’t want to be a Siamese twin. Hmm, was that possible? No, I’d researched that once and Siamese twins couldn’t be boy/girl. But you get the picture.

Cristian did insist on driving me to Lucas’s place, though, presumably to check he wasn’t an axe murderer in disguise.

“You introduced yourself as Cris,” I said on the way over. “Everyone else calls you that too. Should I be calling you Cris?”

“You’re not everyone else.”

“Is that a no? You prefer the Fifty Shades version?”

“Fifty shades?”

“It’s a book.”

“About what?”

Oh, sheesh, where did I start?

“So there’s this hot billionaire, and he meets a girl, and they have wild, kinky sex where he ties her up a lot.”

“Do you like being tied up?”

“I don’t know; I’ve never tried it.”

“I’m not a billionaire.” A shrug. “Maybe a quarter of one? I’m not sure—my accountant deals with the money stuff these days. Pretty sure I have some rope in the garage, though.”

“The key part is the kinky sex. There’s also spanking and a fun scene with vanilla ice cream. My meal plan doesn’t have ice cream, but we could try fro-yo.” I grabbed the seat belt as Cristian swerved across two lanes of traffic. “Hey! Where are you going?”

“To the grocery store.”

CHAPTER 13

CRISTIAN

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