My Bride Chose Her Publicity Stunt novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Her Rules

Maura turned her phone face down on the dash and did not explain.

"Not now," she said. "I'll tell you. I swear I will. But not tonight."

"Then I won't ask tonight."

She looked at me for a long time.

"Where do you live?" I said.

"Glendale. One bedroom. There's nothing in the fridge."

"I don't care what's in the fridge."

She started the car.

Her apartment was on the second floor of a stucco building, with a bike in the hall and a plant dying by the door.

She shut the door behind us and put her back against it.

The room was dark except for the streetlight through the blinds.

"You said something at the grocery store," she said.

"I said a lot of things."

"You said the last woman who stood this close to you picked a stand-in."

My face burned.

"That was a cheap shot."

"It was." She pushed away from the door and walked toward me, slow and steady. "And I've been thinking about it for two days. So I'm going to tell you something, and you're going to listen."

She stopped with her chest an inch from mine.

"I am not standing in for anyone. Not for her, not for him, not for the person you were before. I'm here, and I want you. Say you hear me."

"I hear you."

"Say it the way you mean it."

"I hear you, Maura," I said. "You."

She took my face in both hands and kissed me.

It was nothing like the lookout.

It was slower, and it was worse, because there was no anger in it to hide behind.

She tasted like coffee and the cold air from the car.

I got my hands under her blazer and pushed it off her shoulders, and it fell on the floor.

Under it she wore a gray tank top and a shoulder holster.

I stopped.

"It's empty," she said, almost smiling. "I'd never bring it into a bed. Take it off me."

My fingers shook on the strap.

She stood very still and let me unbuckle it, and when it was off she set it on the table beside the door.

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