Chapter 37
Holly
Â
“U
h, Jen? You're scaring me.”
Even as I said it, I didn't expect my words to have any effect. Jen doesn't believe in vegging out until
after
the ball drops on New Year's. Then she makes lists of resolutions and feels guilty for eating a boatload of holiday chocolate.
Although this time she had something different in mind.
Jen knotted the scarf even more tightly around my eyes. “I've already cleared it with your grandpa, Holly. So you're going to wear the blindfold and be
amazed!
”
“You know blindfolds and heels don't really go together.”
“If you think I'll let you stuff that spectacular black dress into the back of your closet, then Dominic Wyatt's pepper spray must have caused serious brain damage.”
Ouch. I really wanted her to stop bringing that up. I already felt like I couldn't escape ReadySet, even without my best friend's reminders. The band logo was everywhere from backpacks to lunchboxes to pencils. Worst of all were the enormous billboards plastered all over LA.
The guy hadn't so much as texted me and I still felt like I couldn't avoid him.
Not that I had expected him to contact me.
That's not what you do with a fake girlfriend. And since the Christmas photos had quickly jumped from my high school to
People
magazine
,
his timing for distance couldn't have been better . . . for him.
Oddly enough, the photos hadn't stopped me from getting messages from the popular kids who would suddenly
love
it if I came to their New Year's bash. Because telling a bunch of strangers intimate details about my fake love life would be so much fun.
Yeah, I decided to pass.
Although Jen wasn't going to let me have a quiet night in.
“Okay, now there's another step,” Jen warned as she escorted me out of the house.
“Can I please take off the blindfold?”
“Nope. Oh, good. Right on time.”
I didn't have time to figure out what she meant since the world tilted as my best friend
shoved
me into an abyss. I was falling into nothingness, and even throwing my hands out to break my fall didn't make it any more comfortable to land with a jarring thump. I had no idea what she was thinking, but I could tell I wasn't going to like it.
“Jen? What theâ”
“Have fun, Holly!” she yelled as she shoved my legs in with the rest of me. “Call me later!”
The car door slammed shut and a millisecond later it moved, pitching me off the smooth leather . . . something or other . . . and onto a thickly carpeted floor. Definitely time for me to invest in a new best friendâpreferably one who doesn't push me into her half-baked schemes. Grabbing at my blindfold, I braced myself for the worst.
“Good to see you, Holly.”
The worst I could imagine? Yeah, not nearly as uncomfortable as the situation I was actually in. For starters, I was sprawled out on the floor of a sleek limo that was probably rented out most often for the pleasure of entertaining foreign dignitaries or ridiculously expensive call girls. And that particular voice happened to belong to the one person I most wanted to
avoid
.
I flopped back onto the seat, mentally cursing my best friend, my high-heel shoes, and the rock star who had just interrupted yet another holiday.
Definitely time to play it cool.
“Well, it's, uh . . . good to see without the blindfold.”
He nodded and for a moment it was unbearably quiet in the car. “So how have you been?”
“Before or after
I was abducted!
”
He grinned and my idiotic heart lurched at the familiar expression. “I don't think it counts as abduction if I intend to take you home. Eventually.”
“Um.” I pointed at the blindfold. “It still counts as kidnapping, genius!”
“Considering that you illegally broke into my suite, you don't exactly have the moral high ground here.”
“That was an accident!”
He shrugged dismissively, and I went on the offensive. “Where are you taking me?”
“We'll get to that in a minute. Do you know how pearls are formed, Holly?”
I stared at him in disbelief. “
Seriously?
You
kidnapped
me because you wanted to give me a science lesson, Nick?”
“You haven't answered the question.”
I glared at him and then rolled my eyes. “Fine. How are pearls formed, Nick?”
“It starts when an irritating foreign object slips between a mollusk and its shell.”
“Fascinating,” I said drily.
“It is, actually. So the irritating objectâno surprise hereâkeeps rubbing the mollusk the wrong way. Annoys the hell out of the poor devil.”
“I'm guessing that the irritant in this charming analogy is supposed to be me.”
He smirked. “Naturally.”
Great.
I didn't want to hear any more. The prospect of spending any longer sitting next to him and feeling this crappy had me considering the ramifications of jumping from a moving vehicle. “Could you let me out now?”
“Nope. As I was saying, the irritant keeps frustrating the oyster. It could be another kind of mollusk, but let's use an oyster for now.”
“Yeah, because it's so important that we get all the details of this analogy right.”
“So the oyster gets annoyedâ”
“I take it you're the oyster.”
“Stop interrupting, Holly. See, the oyster's natural defense mechanism is to cover the irritant with the same substance as its shell. Eventually, that forms the pearl.”
I stared at him. “So you're saying what exactly, Nick? You want to smother me with a blanket?”
“At the moment, a muzzle holds some appeal. But no.” He raked a hand through his hair in frustration, making it stand up in familiar tufts. “Holly, you irritate the hell out of me.”
My stomach dropped even farther. So that's why he had kidnapped me. Dominic Wyatt wanted to explain his complete lack of interest in me, which Jen probably thought I needed to hear in order to get closure. Great way to kick off a new year.
“But you're also smart and funny and I miss spending time with you.”
“Uh . . .”
He continued as if I hadn't said anything, which technically I hadn't.
“And, yes, you're a completely tone-deaf morning person, butâ”
I kissed him.
And for the first time it wasn't a calculated decision intended to please the American public. It wasn't about protecting his reputation or trying to make the best of a bad situation. He had missed
me
. And if Nick was willing to risk a kidnapping charge he had to be interested in more than friendship.
There was certainly nothing platonic about the heat between us when he kissed me back. I had to make a concerted effort not to melt into the leather seats when I felt his lips move into that familiar grin.
I might actually have to thank Jen for being an accessory to my kidnapping.
When we finally came up for air, Nick handed me the black box. “I believe this is yours, Holly. And just to be clear: I want a real relationship this time.”
I grinned back at him. “Yeah, I picked up on that.”
“Good, because you have to be the densest girl in the histâ”
“
I
am a pearl,” I corrected loftily. “A shimmering treasure. A rareâ”
“I take it back. I didn't mean it.”
My laughter died pretty quickly when he took the necklace from my hands only to help me with the clasp in the back. There was something really intimate about having his fingers brushing the nape of my neck. I shivered.
“So where are we going?”
He shrugged. “I didn't actually have a location planned out. Jen didn't give me instructions on that part. Is there anywhere you want to go?”
“You know what? I'm already there.”
I slid my arm around his neck so that we were pressed even closer. “Now where were we?”
He didn't kiss me. Instead, he moved back so that he could look directly into my eyes. “I've just got one more question, Holly.”
I nodded, suddenly nervous. “Shoot.”
A decidedly wicked grin replaced his serious façade. “Any chance you still have that little elf costume? Because I was thinkâ”
I didn't give him a chance to finish his sentence . . . choosing to drag his mouth back to mine, effectively cutting him off instead.
Although I have the sneaking suspicion that he enjoyed being too preoccupied to speak every bit as much as I did.