Page 15 of Doll Face

“Okay, my day was good. I did another lingerie ad but this time it was actually stuff I’d wear.” She shrugs. I can’t help it but now I’m picturing her in that lingerie set I saw on her Instagram, and I’m clenching my thighs together. Because fuck if I didn’t think about getting myself off to that when I saw it.

“You okay? You look pale,” she teases. “Something I said?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I take a cracker off the plate she set up and force it in my mouth. I can’t blush while I’m eating. Fuck my pale complexion for giving me up so easily.

“Have you been seeing anyone lately?”

“You mean besides you?” I joke.

“Yes.” She clenches her jaw.

“No, I mean a few dates here or there but that’s really it.” I wait for her to say something but she just nods. “What about you?”

“I had one serious girlfriend, but she wasn’t you. And I think she knew that I wouldn’t be happy with her long-term, so she ended things,” she explains. It hurts, but only for a second. She can have a life without me. She’s only here for a week, anyway. Why would I care if she’s seen someone in the five years that we’ve been apart?

“Oh,” I mumble quietly.

“I think I’ve always been in love with you, Barbie.” Kenzie smiles.

“I don’t know how you could know something like that.”

“What?”

“I don’t know how you could be so sure of something like that,” I clarify.

“It’s just how I feel. I get if you don’t feel the same anymore, but you keep agreeing to see me so I think there’s something here.”

“I … I …” I don’t know what to say so I follow my gut and lean in for a kiss. This time it’s longer and steamier than our last. Our tongues tangle together, tasting of expensive bubbly and the crackers I’ve been munching on.

“I didn’t see that coming,” Kenzie says as I pull away.

“Neither did I.”

“Oh, you have some of my lipstick on you.” She leans forward with a napkin and brushes her fingers across my chin. She does it so slowly that we lock eyes, and I’m wondering what she’s thinking.

I move my attention to the sunset in front of me, and I smile. It’s beautiful. I take out my phone and snap a few photos of the sky before the sun sets completely.

“Do you want to go to our next spot?”

“There’s more?” I ask, surprised.

“I rented a hotel room.” She points to the building near us and at one of the windows with the view of the skyline. “It’s right over there.”

“Isn’t that a little presumptuous?” I fold my arms over my chest.

“You’re the one with your mind in the gutter. I did it so we could continue to watch the sunset without bugs biting you and maybe have some dinner ordered in since you hate going out,” she explains, and I instantly feel like a jerk. She didn’t pull that answer out of her ass; she had actually thought about it ahead of time.

“Oh.”

“So, is that okay with you?” She smirks.

“Yes. That sounds nice,” I add for good measure.

She starts to clean up the stuff around us, and I down the rest of the champagne in my flute before giving her the glass. She hands me the bottle to carry, folds up the blanket, and then we walk toward the hotel. It looks more like an apartment complex than a hotel. She heads right past the front desk to the elevators, and we stop on the third floor. After walking down a long corridor, she puts a key in the lock and I hear the clicking of the mechanism.

“Make yourself at home. I stopped by earlier after my shoot,” she explains.

“Are you staying somewhere else for modeling?” I ask, confused.

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