Till We Pretend

Chapter Six

Thank you to @thedeadofmidnight for the gorgeous edit! ❤️

Chapter Six

"The studio could sue you." One of the suits who had a bag of frozen peas held next to Kyler's jaw hissed at me. "Do you realise how much his face is insured for?"

That had my eyebrows going way up. "I thought insuring body parts was just a rumour. Do people really do that?"

Kyler didn't meet my eyes and he pulled the bag of peas away from the woman sitting by his side, who was no doubt wishing me a painful and slow death. The man who had come in with them was less dramatic and was more interested in something on his phone but I noticed him glance up once or twice, take in me in all my baggy t-shirt glory and then go back to furiously tapping at the screen.

"Yes, they do and very bad things happen to people who damage the goods." She told me through gritted teeth and I feared she'd attack me with one of her pointy six inch Louboutins. I pegged her to be Kyler's manager or agent or whatever it was they called people like her. The moment I'd landed the first punch to Kyler's face she'd screamed the house down and caused the two bulky men shadowing Kyler to come at me like they wanted to tackle me to the ground. But for some reason Kyler had yelled at them to back off and had instead snapped at the woman, telling her to leave me alone. He had then very politely asked me if he could come inside and talk and despite wanting to kick him right out I'd taken one look at his throbbing jaw and felt bad immediately.

Being a do-gooder was a demon I had never managed to get rid off. So, stricken with guilt I had let Kyler and two other people in. Seeing how they were behaving right now, oh how I wished I hadn't.

"Julie would you shut up for a minute." Kyler glared at her and the petite woman who sported a platinum, pixie cut and a cream pant suit aquissed. I assumed that it would take someone who was probably signing her checks to get Julie to keep quiet and from the little I had learnt about Kyler Blackwell in the past few days, I knew that he wielded a lot of power. Not only was he starring in what was predicted to be the hottest series of films for teenagers in the coming years but he of course was also heir to his father's billion dollar empire, along with his siblings. It explained the mansion and it explained the control and silent authority he possessed. But I hadn't witnessed any of that the night we met. I remembered an intense, mysterious, hot as hell guy who summoned all my secrets out of me and made me feel like I was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. Now, knowing the kind of crowd he was surrounded by, I felt stupid for allowing myself to be led on like that.

"Fine, I'll shut up but you need to make this quick. We have a plane to catch and the studio wants this mess cleaned up as soon as possible. Harrison can brief you." Of course by mess she meant me.

"Right, okay here's what we need to do." The middle-aged, good looking man in a grey suit that looked way too warm for summer in Tennessee finally glanced at me directly. "Miss Nichols, as you're aware photos of you and Mr. Blackwell in a compromising position are currently circulating around the internet."

My cheeks heated at the memory and I swore I saw Kyler looking at me with an unreadable expression on his face. It was hard to guess what was going through his head right now but if it inched closer to amusement then I should have punched him harder.Oh well, there was always next time. But it further convinced me that I had massively overthought our time together and that while for me it meant a lot, for Kyler it might just as well have been one of the many times he got a girl in a hot tub.

"Excuse me?!"

"Jesus." I closed my eyes and groaned at my mother's shrill voice.

How long had she been standing there and listening? After she'd dropped the metaphorical bomb on me, I'd sent her to her room to gather herself but that process usually took some time and her going through a series of rituals. But she'd come back sooner than expected and I bet no mother liked hearing the words she'd just heard. Walking briskly towards the group that had collected in the living room, she looked at me as though she would incinerate me with a single look was she capable of it. It was new feeling for me, having never gotten in trouble before and I just felt odd like I'd woken up in someone else's body or like I was wearing clothes that weren't mine.