Work In Progress (Red Lipstick Coalition #3) - Staci Hart Page 0,96
fierceness of feeling was all the insurance I needed.
Gus bounded back, launching himself into my lap, jaw working that ball and tail wagging hard. I grabbed his face and scruffed it, rubbing his ears and telling him what a good boy he was. His eyes closed with satisfaction.
I snatched his ball and flung it again, and he took off after it.
Visions of Amelia rose and fell like waves in my mind, slipping over me and sighing away. On my arm in that red cape and thigh-highs, smiling at Zayn Malik like she wasn’t terrified. The fear in her eyes after Vivienne Fucking Thorne had cornered her in the bathroom. The feel of her in my arms on the dance floor, her body pressed against mine. The relief on her answer, on her yeses. The taste of her skin, the sweet softness of her, of every curve that had never been touched.
The treasure of her body, the gift of her self, was one that I would forever hold sacred.
But the moment that always stayed near the surface was when she’d said yes, her face open and hopeful and afraid. So afraid. But I’d meant what I’d said—I’d protect her with everything. Fuck a morality clause. If anybody laid a finger on her, they’d have to fucking lock me up anyway.
I kept my promises, and I believed she would, too. So I’d tell her all my secrets, knowing she’d protect them.
Gus was halfway back to me when the bolt on the door clicked. He skidded to a stop, turned on a dime, and took off for the door, reaching it just as it opened.
Amelia giggled, stumbling as she tried to absorb the force of impact, and I hopped to my feet, hurrying to help heel the incorrigible dog. He didn’t listen, to no one’s surprise, so I clamped my fist around his collar and yanked until she was free of him.
“Hey,” I said, leaning down to kiss her briefly, holding the wriggling dog away from us as best I could. “How’d it go?”
She closed the door and sighed.
One of my brows rose. “That bad?”
Amelia shrugged out of her coat and hung it onto a hook with her bag. “You know, I always feel like I know what I’m doing until the second I walk into her office.”
I chuckled. “I feel like that with my agent and editor all the time.”
She didn’t look comforted. I picked up Gus’s bear, shook it around to get his full and undivided attention, and tossed it across the room.
I pulled her into my arms, held her head against my chest, kissed the top of her head, waited for her to relax. “Janessa is one of the most intimidating women I’ve ever known. I always get the sense she’s talking out of both sides of her mouth.”
Another sigh, and she melted into me. “I know. But I don’t want to talk about her. I’ll handle her.”
My brow quirked, and for a split second, I wondered what exactly needed handling. A flash of fear shot through me. Could it be possible that something else was going on, something I couldn’t see, didn’t know?
I brushed the thought away. Amelia would never. If something were going on, she’d tell me.
She smiled. “What I do want to talk about is your word count.”
“Crushed it.”
She leaned back to look up at me, her lips pink and smiling. “Did you? I wasn’t even gone that long.”
I shrugged. “What can I say? I was inspired.”
“You got them all the way out of the caves?”
“Well, almost. A plot twist worked its way in.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh God. Do you have time for a plot twist? What is it? Did the fight end like you thought? Or did—”
I laughed. “I’m not telling. I’ve already sent the pages to your Kindle.”
She groaned. “Dammit. I need answers, Tommy!” She shifted, reaching for her bag, but I didn’t let her go.
“Later,” I said, angling for a kiss. “Truth is, I finished fast so I could kiss you when you got home.”
She gave up the fight, smiling sweetly as she wound her arms around my neck. “Oh?”
“Mmhmm,” I hummed and did just that.
For the next hour, that was all I did—kiss Amelia, hold her.
And I lost myself in the currents of that trust and affection I’d found in her.
Shark Bait
Amelia
I hung on to Tommy’s massive arm, the rocks under my galoshes slick and uneven, but my smile was as smooth and genuine as it had ever been.