Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 151384 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151384 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
“What? Me choking?”
“Before that,” he said.
Oh cupcakes.
She really didn’t want to talk about that.
“I’m not sure that there’s anything we need to talk about,” she told him as he finished cleaning the tiny scratches.
“No? How about the fact that bit—woman grabbed you, hurting you?” His face darkened as he spoke.
Had he been about to call her a bitch?
“She didn’t hurt me,” Immy told him, holding out her arm. “I’m fine. I mark easily. I think she just grabbed hold of my arm and her nails accidentally pressed against me. They are incredibly long and sharp. I wonder how easy it is for her to go to the bathroom.”
“I didn’t think of that,” he grumbled. “Now, it’s going to be burned into my brain.”
She let out a surprised giggle. “Sorry.”
“You should be.” He sent her a stern look.
For a moment she was worried that he was serious, then he winked at her.
“Still going to tell Jenner,” he said.
“Don’t,” she said quickly.
He raised his eyebrows, but didn’t say anything.
Immy let out a deep breath. “She didn’t mean to mark me and I don’t want her to get into trouble for an accident.”
“What if it wasn’t an accident?”
What? Was he saying that Lauren had been trying to hurt her?
She shook her head. “She’s just intense. I know she’s trying to do her best for Jenner.”
“By throwing that other woman at him? Didn’t realize he needed a pimp. How often has she wanted him to take that other singer out?”
Lauren had done that, even though Jenner refused each time.
“Tobias! She’s not . . . she’s not trying to pimp him!” she said, horrified by his insinuation.
“No? Kind of seems that way.”
“Promise me you won’t tell him,” she begged. Because that would be a disaster.
He just eyed her.
“Tobias, you can’t tell him. She didn’t mean to hurt me, you’re imagining things. All she wants is to do a good job and she is. I don’t want to make things tense between her and Jenner.”
“What happened wasn’t your fault, Immy,” he said to her. “And any consequences for her won’t be your fault.”
“Just don’t tell Jenner. Or Sampson. Or Abe and Isaiah. Cat. Just don’t tell anyone!” she cried.
“I’ll think about it.”
It wasn’t a no, but it wasn’t a yes, either.
She’d take it.
A knock on the door surprised her as she was setting up her snack station for the movie. She’d ordered a whole lot of snacks online and they’d just gotten delivered.
Instead of a bath, she’d had a quick shower after putting in her order. So now she was in her pajamas and she had braided her hair.
Tobias walked to the door, waving her back. He checked the peephole. Then he opened the door.
Jenner walked in.
“Jenner!” she greeted him. “What are you doing here? I thought you had commitments after the concert?”
He waved his hand dismissively as he walked into the room. “Don’t worry about that. What is going on?” Stopping in front of her, he cupped her face. “Are you all right? You look pale. Is that why you left so early?”
“I’m fine. I just had a small headache.”
His frown deepened. Uh-oh.
“A small headache? Have you taken some painkillers? Why aren’t you in bed? What is all this?”
“Well, Tobias and I were going to watch a movie. Can you believe that he hasn’t seen Harry Potter?”
“Baby, the last thing you need is all this sugar and to watch a movie! You need to get into bed. I’ll rub your head and we’ll turn out the lights so you can sleep. She can’t eat all this junk food,” he said to Tobias. “It’s not good for her at any time, but especially not when she’s ill.”
“But I’m not ill!” she protested as he tried to lead her to the bed. “Tobias! Tell him that I’m not ill.”
“She’s not ill. She had a slight headache so I brought her back here and she took some painkillers.”
“See? And now we’re going to—”
“But she did pretend her headache was worse than it was to get me to leave,” Tobias interrupted her.
“Tobias!”
“Why would she want that?” Jenner asked.
She glared at Tobias. He better not say anything if he knew what was good for him.
“She was worried I was going to cause a scene after what Lauren did.”
“Tobias, you promised not to tell him!”
“Not to tell me what?” Jenner asked. “What is going on? What happened with Lauren?”
Jenner’s phone started ringing and he silenced it.
“Shouldn’t you take that?” she asked.
“Nope. Tell me what’s going on. Now, Immy,” Jenner said sternly.
She sighed. “I was backstage when Lauren came up to me and said I shouldn’t be there. Guess she thought I was a distraction. When I refused to leave, she grabbed my arm. It was really nothing.”
“Show him your arm,” Tobias told her.
Seriously. What part of ‘don’t tell Jenner’ didn’t he understand? Someone really wanted more peanut butter in their sheets. Or perhaps their shoes this time.