I watch as the three dots bounce on the screen.
My fingers type out a message quickly.
Keats: Don’t send me the picture. PLEASE don’t send it.
Pace: Help me out here.
I turn to set off on foot to the nearest subway stop, typing as I go.
Keats: I’m on my way. Don’t respond to anyone, Pace. No one. Keep your mouth shut and your dick in your pants. I’ll fix this.
I will. This is a speed bump. I’ve helped other clients recover from worse. Pace will be just fine.***“You’re looking at it, aren’t you?” Pace swings open the door to his loft.
I keep my gaze pinned to my phone. “I’m looking at what?”
“My cock.”
I grimace. “Hell, no.”
He cants his head to catch a glimpse of my phone, but I shield it from his view.
I’m sneaking a peek at something I shouldn’t, but it has nothing to do with what’s in Pace’s pants. I’m currently in Tribeca. Maren lives in this neighborhood, so I opened the map app on my phone to see exactly how far her apartment is from this place.
I might pull a teenager with a crush move and stroll past her building when I leave here. I don’t expect her to be there, but I’ll at least get a glimpse of the lobby.
“What am I going to do, Keats?”
I finally look up to see the naked chest of my client. He’s wearing nothing but a pair of gray sweatpants. I dart my gaze up quickly because I don’t want to be looking in the direction of his dick while I’m talking about it.
“You’re going to do a charity calendar.”
His eyes widen. “What?”
“You’ve seen them before.” I brush past him to make my way inside his massive living room. “You’ll pose nude with a baseball bat between your legs or a glove. Hell, I have no idea of that size of that thing, so maybe a baseball will suffice.”
He grabs his crotch. “It’s big, Keats. It’s huge.”
Shaking my head, I laugh. “I talked to the network on my way over here. They’re on board for the calendar idea. They’ll even let you push it on air. I’ll call in some favors to get enough players for a year’s worth of half-naked shots.”
“That’s going to fix this?” he questions.
I slap him on the shoulder. “You’re going to need to say something on your socials. I’ll help you craft that. We’ll keep it light, and we’ll weave an apology into it.”
“And then I’ll be good?” He perks a dark brow. “Everyone is going to know what my dick looks like.”
“They’ll forget about it as soon as someone more relevant drops a nude shot.” I sigh. “Stop taking pictures of it, Pace. That’s a big no from here on out. Understood?”
He nods. “Understood.”
I point to where his phone is resting on his coffee table. “Stay off that all day. I’ll drop by later with a statement you can release.”
“Okay.” He nods. “Did Maren happen to see the picture?”
Shaking my head, I laugh. “If she did, she wouldn’t be impressed.”
He joins me with a chuckle. “I saw the way you looked at her in the elevator. You like her, don’t you?”
I’m not diving into that gossip pool with him. I’ve worked hard to keep my personal life just out of reach of my client’s curiosity. That blew up when Fletcher and his dad met Maren and decided she was my girlfriend. “Don’t worry about that. Worry about what your mom’s going to say when she realizes what you’ve done.”
“Oh, shit.” He hangs his head. “I need to figure out what I’ll tell her.”
“I’ll help you with that too,” I say, grateful that we got off the subject of my assistant. “I need to fix your fuck up, so I’m out of here.”
“You’re the man, Keats,” he calls after me. “You’re the best.”
When Maren thinks that, I’ll believe it. Until then, I’m doing what I can to be a better man every hour of every day.Chapter 24MarenTalk about a hard day on the job.
I laugh to myself as I glance toward Keats’s office.
As soon as I got to work today, Myrie, one of the women who work in the legal department, brought up the Pace Callahan scandal.
Those are her words, not mine.
She flashed me a picture of an erect penis on her phone just as I was swallowing a mouthful of hot coffee.
I’m sure I scalded my tongue as I stood speechless and motionless.
I didn’t want to see that.
Myrie did. After she showed me, her fingers slid over her phone’s screen as she zoomed in.
Why?
I wanted to ask her that, but I can’t judge what anyone else finds interesting. I’d rather see a man’s penis in person than flashed all over the internet.
When Keats arrived to work, he was greeted with a round of applause.
I didn’t join in because although he looked hot as hell in the gray suit he’s wearing, it didn’t deserve a standing ovation.