Page 24 of Wallflower in Bloom

Fuck, this is all going tits up. “It’s fine. I’ll figure something—”

“And I have a ton of work to do today.” She paced back and forth in front of her snowy bed, gesturing wildly with her coffee. “I’m so behind I’m not sure if I even have time for lunch.”

“Violet,” he said slowly, finally walking into her bedroom. He grabbed her shoulders to keep her in place. “It’s. Fine. I’ll think of something else.”

He wanted to pull her in for a hug but thought better of it given she was braless. He squeezed her shoulders instead. “You’re not responsible for my flight of fancy.” His thumbs stroked her shoulders, connecting with her soft, bare skin.

Ah fuck, how was he getting hard from shoulder strokes? He dropped his hands and willed his cock to stand down.

“But I owe you.” She peered up at him in earnest.

I am such an ass. He should’ve known she’d be scared of letting him down.

“That was a joke, Violet. Seeing Jennifer’s stupid face fall was payment enough. Don’t think another moment about it.” His lips curled into a half-smile, and he turned to go to his room.

“What time?” Violet said before he closed his door.

Might as well give her the chance. “Noon. A place called Fox and Forrest.”

“That’s beside Bloom. I’ll...think about it.”

That’s all he could hope for.

A few hours later, freshly dressed and ready, Jack wandered into the chic café for lunch.

He instantly spotted the simmering curvaceous statue of Shay, tapping her nails on the table in the open loft-style café. The dreamy white tablecloth was offset by her blood-red manicure and the harshness of her buzzcut. It was bleach blonde this time and only drew more attention to her dark, narrowed brows that contrasted with her pale skin.

“I am so fucking pissed at you.”

“Lovely to see you too, darling.” He leaned across the table and kissed her on the cheek.

“Oh, don’t you ‘dahling’ me. Sit your ass down. So, you’ll talk to me after I fly across the country, drive two hours through the middle of fucking nowhere, and find you after somebody tags you on social?”

He smiled his most charming ‘you love me’ smile. “You came all this way. I can’t be rude.”

She let out an exasperated screech, and people stared at them in the low-key, buzzy café. “I am going to kill you. The network threatened to end your contract.”

The panic roiling in his stomach lurched to the forefront of his mind.

“You haven’t made a statement. Unless you say why or apologize, the man you put in the hospital will sue you and the network. The network will make it all disappear if you promise to rectify your image. Do you know subscribers are canceling because one of the biggest stars in the network is quote a ‘horrible person’?”

“Oh, what? Because I was at a strip club?”

“Because you put a man in the hospital and then were thrown in jail.”

“That wanker was fine. I only broke his nose.”

“The network can kill off your character and replace you whenever they want. How will you fix this?” She tapped her nails on the table with each word.

Christ. He wanted to keep his spot on the top show on the network and the comfortable contract that came with it. He needed to support his dad and Shay. He was her biggest client by far.

Plus, there was the cast and crew of Beyond the Manor Walls. He couldn’t let them down.

She leaned back and crossed her arms, glaring at him. “You know they had you in mind for this year’s Christmas movie. Or you could, you know, let Jason Masterson get the lead again. Go back to LA and start auditioning. Bust out those headshots, have ‘meetings.’”

“God.” He rubbed his temples. What an absolute nightmare. He fucking hated Jason Masterson, the sleaze.

“I’ll set you up with an actress from the network. Go on some fake dates, build some network goodwill.”

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