Darkly (Follow Me 4)

She lifts her eyebrows, shaking her head slightly. “What don’t you get about this?”

At the moment, what I get is that Addie reacted like an immature brat—which she is—and took it out on Skye, which pisses me off to no end. But instead of saying this, I put on my business hat.

“Here’s what I get,” I say. “This is an opportunity for you. Would you have this opportunity if not for me? Maybe not, but it’s still an opportunity that has presented itself. Take it, Skye. You’re a fool if you don’t.”

“A fool? How dare you—”

I gesture for her to stop. She does.

“Don’t get all excited. Anyone, including me, is a fool not to take advantage of what’s thrown in his lap. Do you think I haven’t taken every opportunity that’s come my way? I won’t leave you in suspense. I have, and some of them came along simply because I was in the right place at the right time. They had nothing to do with me.”

“I can’t believe that.”

“Why not?”

“You’re a self-made man, Braden.”

“For the most part, that’s true. But do you truly think I never had any help along the way? That opportunities fell into my lap simply because I’m me?”

She doesn’t know the half of it. File one thing in particular under that heading of “things I don’t talk about.”

“I’ve read all about you,” she says.

“The media never tells the whole story.” They can’t, because I don’t talk about the whole story, and I make sure no one else does, either.

She smiles. “Will you, then, Braden? Will you tell me the whole story?”

My lips twitch. Yeah, I should have seen that one coming. This is a woman who sees me coming from every direction. Damn.

“You are a challenge, Skye.”

“You’ve said that many times,” she says. “Has it escaped your notice that y

ou’re also a challenge?”

“I never said I wasn’t.”

“What will we do, then?”

I swallow a bite of food. “I’ve never backed down from a challenge.”

“Neither have I.”

“Then you’ll do the post for Susanne Cosmetics.”

She freezes, her forkful of food stopped midway between her plate and her mouth. She walked right into that one, which was wholly my intention.

“You don’t play fair,” she says.

“Sure I do. I’m just more experienced than you are.”

“Posting about lip stain isn’t exactly a challenge.”

“Of course it is. It’s something new. It’s something you’re not sure you’re up for, but it fell in your lap. You can take your own pictures, Skye. Get credit for them. This is what you want.”

“I want to take photos of things that move people. No one’s going to be moved by me wearing Susanne lip stain.”

“How do you know?”