“Well, you’re stepping into my world,” Nick’s arm tightened around me, and he looked out over the hordes of press with a measured smile, “I thought it was only fair that I take a few pages out of yours...”
I tried to nod, but it felt like my head wasn’t working. With so many pairs of eyes upon me, I suddenly felt as though I couldn’t do anything. Nothing felt natural. Everything felt staged.
Was this how I usually stood? With my feet angled like that? What about my hands—so clunky and in the way. Where the hell was I supposed to put my hands?!
“Hey.”
A gentle voice cut through my panic, heading it off before it could begin. I lifted my eyes to see Nick staring down at me, those blue eyes twinkling back into mine.
“Are you okay?”
All at once, I felt a sudden rush of confidence. Maybe it was the new clothes. Maybe it was the private jet. Maybe it was the fact that not only was I snuggled up in the arms of one of the most desirable men on the planet, but he was a man that I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, I could absolutely trust.
No matter what the reason, I lifted my chin and gazed boldly out across the hangar.
“Yeah—I’m fine.” My blood rose with the challenge. “Let’s do this.”
And that...was when everything fell apart.
I didn’t take one step—not one step—before the world around me lit up with blue. But not just any sort of blue. Not the kind that you could see through, or was, god-forbid, even remotely intermittent. No—this kind of blue pierced through your eyes even when they were closed, burning the retinas while effectively eliminating everything else around it. And it didn’t come and go. I realized this even as I caught my breath, waiting for some kind of relief. Nope, once it started, this kind of blue was here to stay.
I was blind. Absolutely, inescapably, blind.
“Nick—”
“I know,” he said softly, finishing my thought before I had to do it myself.
It was in this moment that I realized something: while all of this was terrifying and new to me, it was as normal to him as his morning run. As his two dozen cups of afternoon coffee. (of course I’m exaggerating about his coffee, but it was a lot!)
This whole time, the last two years, we’d been living in two completely different worlds.
Me—safe on my side of the camera lens.
Him—trapped on the other.
There was a shifting beside me, and I felt the tickle of warm breath as he leaned down to whisper in my ear. “It’s okay...I’ve got you.”
A second later, the ground beneath me disappeared.
I stifled a shriek as a pair of warm
arms circled around me, lifting me off my feet as if I weighed nothing more than a doll. A cloud of familiar cologne misted over me, and I turned my head instinctively into Nick’s chest as he carried me effortlessly down the stairs—no doubt flashing his perfect smile the whole time.
I measured the time in terms of his heart beats—steady, despite the madness closing in on every side. One second...two seconds...three...
Every silent marker was punctuated with a million screaming cries, firing at us from every direction.
“NICK—who’s the new girl?!”
“NICK—what happened to Ella?!”
“NICK—will you sign my baby’s face?!”
...a baby’s face?!
Was that one normal? Had I always just tuned that one out before?
I cringed farther into him, and his chest shook slightly, as if he was trying not to laugh. I supposed, from a client’s perspective, this had to be the ultimate revenge.