Your Endless Love (The Bennett Family 9)

I straddle his lap, shaking my head vehemently. “No, those are just fringe benefits. You can’t blame me, though. Not really. You display all this muscle before me, what do you expect me to do?”

“I can’t believe you’re real, and mine. You make me so happy, Summer.”

My heart expands in my chest. “Hmm... define so. Like this?”

I hold my hands in front of my chest, with just a few inches between my palms. Then I move my hands further and further apart, stealing glances at Alex. “You tell me when to stop.”

When my arms are opened wide around me, and I can’t possibly move them further apart, Alex hugs my waist, kissing my neck, nipping it gently. I can feel his grin against my skin, and it’s contagious.

“More than that,” he whispers. My grin widens. “I’ll miss you, Summer.”

God, the things this man makes me feel. Pure bliss spreads through me, reaching every cell. He moves his hands from my waist up to my breasts, fondling them. I have no choice but to call him out on it. “You’re so full of shit. You were accusing me of looking for an excuse to feel you up?”

“Never said I wasn’t looking for one too. You’re quite irresistible, Ms. Bennett.”

“Why, thank you for the compliment, Mr. Westbrook. In case you’re trying to bribe your way into my panties, you already had me at I’ll miss you.”

He tugs my lower lip between his teeth, but the ringtone of his phone interrupts us. He grabs it from the between the cushions, and I sigh.

“Preston is working overtime again,” I comment.

“He works all the time.”

I climb from his lap as he takes the call, putting it on loudspeaker. It seems to be his preferred way to take work calls, but I don’t mind.

“Have you seen Amy’s Facebook Q&A with fans?” Preston asks without further ado. “She couldn’t do more than five minutes before the comment section got out of control.”

“No, but I’ll take a look now at the comments. Wait a second.”

He taps on his phone, pulling up the Facebook app, scrolling. Then Amy’s voice fills the room.

“Hey everyone! Welcome to this Q&A session. Just type your questions in the comments, and I’ll do my best to answer them.”

He mutes the sound, but little icicles pop along the back of my neck. “I’m reading through the comments now. Jesus, they hate us.”

“It’s not a stretch to imagine it will be worse when you’ll be doing promotional appearances together.”

“No, not a stretch,” Alex answers dryly.

“It would be good for the two of you to be seen together before your first appearance. Take her out somewhere. The more public your outing, the better. It’ll make the story of you two still being friends more credible. There’s already talk at the studio of pulling back some of the promotional activities. They’re already writing this off as a box office bomb.”

“Are you kidding me? It’s too early in the game to draw that conclusion.” Alex rises to his feet, locking his eyes on me. I’m hugging my knees, my stomach tight all of a sudden.

“I’m going to meet with them, try and talk them out of it,” Preston says.

“Okay. Thank you. I appreciate this.”

The weight of the world seems to be pressing on Alex’s shoulders after he ends the call, slumping on the couch next to me.

“Comment section so bad, huh?”

“A lot of fans talk about boycotting the movie. They feel duped that we broke up. Some even accuse us that is was all fake just to sell them the first movie. Which is true... was true, at least in the beginning.”

“That’s messed up. What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“You think Preston’s right, that you should meet with Amy, be seen together?”