Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 115308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
The muscle in his jaw clenched. “I hate that I can’t control when I’m going to feel this way about something. It just fucking happens. This time on film.”
“I will personally ruin any arsehole here if they ever publish that footage, Bear.”
His lips twitched. “Aye? Are you my protector now?”
There were those words again, desperate but terrified to squeak out of me. “Aren’t you mine?”
Baird’s expression turned tender. “Always.”
“I’m always yours too.” I leaned in and brushed my lips over his.
When I pulled back, his countenance had turned somewhat intense. “Maia, I—”
“Everything all right?”
Annoyance sliced through me, but I gritted my teeth against it and turned to see the instructor standing a few feet from us, a worried look in his eyes.
“Do you have water? And maybe a piece of chocolate or something?”
“I’m all right,” Baird insisted.
“You will be,” I promised.
Bruno joined us as the instructor darted off to retrieve the water and chocolate.
“I’ve had the camera crew delete the last few minutes of footage,” he assured us as he approached. “Is everything okay?”
“Baird didn’t eat before we left for the shoot,” I lied, covering for him. “His blood sugar dropped with the adrenaline.” I had no idea what I was talking about, but I hoped it sounded plausible.
Bruno seemed to think so and slumped with relief. “Oh, I’m glad to hear it’s nothing serious. We have what we need if you two want to go home.”
“Thanks, Bruno, I appreciate it.” The director had been much nicer to us ever since he got a scolding from Hilary Erstwhile about the footage permissions.
As Bruno departed, I helped Baird to his feet.
Without a word, he hauled me into his arms for a spectacular bear hug. He held me, his face buried in my hair, breathing me in.
My return embrace was tight, almost pulling, like if I could, I would have soaked up every bit of PTSD his injury had left him with.
No words were needed.
We just held each other.
Yet I fell faster and deeper in that moment than I had throwing myself over that river.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
MAIA
The music in the club was a wee bit too loud, but my friends were enjoying themselves, shouting over it to be heard, nursing their beers and cocktails. Callan had pulled some strings and gotten the entire VIP mezzanine for us. He said it was so we could dance in privacy if we wanted to since our escapades last time had gone viral on social media. I was looking forward to this campaign being over so Baird and I could explore our relationship in a normal environment.
My fiancé had his arm around the back of the booth behind me, his side pressed to mine as he talked and joked with Callan, John, and Sebastian. Ainsley had come with us and had brought a date, a gorgeous blond dude called Alex. The two of them had disappeared down onto the dance floor thirty minutes ago. I was being grilled by Beth and Lily about the wedding plans since the two of them, along with January, Belle, and Elle were my bridesmaids. I was grateful they’d said yes, considering how quickly everything had come together.
Two weeks had passed since the bungee jump. Bruno kept to his word, and we approved the final edit of the video. The public loved it, so Pennington’s asked permission to follow us around on a “typical date night.” Baird had taken me out for dinner and drinks while the public stared at us, wondering why there were two camerapeople and a director following us around town.
It had been a whirlwind few weeks. Pennington’s really ramped up the schedule for the campaign, and we’d filmed everything but the wedding and honeymoon. Thankfully, the company had decided it was more cost effective to book a studio with a pool and use green screen and just pretend they were filming us on our honeymoon than send an entire crew with us for the duration. They had some footage from the resort they’d booked for us in Bali (I couldn’t say I wasn’t excited for that!), and Baird and I would take handheld footage that Pennington’s would edit together with theirs. Our “honeymoon” shoot wasn’t for another week.
We had a break from filming for the campaign for a while, and I was glad because I wanted to focus on us.
After the bungee incident, Baird had agreed to reach out to the therapist the club had hired after his injury. He’d had two sessions with her so far, and we were both optimistic it would help. Baird assured me that just confiding in me had lifted a huge weight off his shoulders, and I felt incredible and humbled that I could do that for him.
Despite how busy we were, we’d managed to grab alone time. And while my period momentarily interfered with our sex life, as soon as it finished, we were all over each other. I swear I had a little more definition in my abs from how athletic the sex was.