Chapter Nineteen
Kate
The out-of-town restaurant where I was supposed to meet Kim and her boyfriend had been specifically chosen by me so that we could all have a hassle- free dinner without the stress of the paparazzi hounding us while we ate. To make myself stay under the radar, I had the cab driver drop me just around the corner, so I could approach the building just as everyone else did, on foot.
My cell rang and I tried to ignore it at first, not wanting to answer it out on the sidewalk when I was on my own in an unfamiliar place, but the thought that it could have been Jonathan calling about his mother forced me to stop walking and stand by the side of a closed clothes shop and take the call.
It was Kim.
“Kate is that you?”
“It’s me, are you there yet? I’m just round the corner.”
“Kate, I can’t make it,” she said quickly. “I’m sorry, Max is in the hospital and I’m on my way there right now.”
“Crap, is he okay?”
“I think he’s fine. He came off his bike really bad, but I won’t be able to get across town quick enough to meet you.”
I thought of Max injured and knew I’d have done the same.
“It’s fine, honestly.” I reassured her. “Jonathan and I will just treat it like a date.”
“Is he there?” she asked. “I’m so sorry!”
“It’s fine,” I repeated. “He was going to be late anyway. Don’t worry.”
She sighed with relief.
“Okay, bring him over to the apartment at some point before you get married okay?”
“Of course. Tell Max to take it easy. ‘Bye.”
“I will, thanks. ‘Bye.”
I ended the call and put my cell back into my bag, and in doing so I saw ahead of me a man with a camera pointed towards me.
Damn!
I turned and continued to walk towards the restaurant, aware that he was following me. I didn’t stop to think how crazy the situation was as I ducked out of view down another street and ran, hoping to lose him.
I kept going around, expecting to come to a back entrance or a worker’s exit, but there was nothing and then I heard it—footsteps behind me and voices.
I turned to face them, fear in my stomach as it really hit home that I was alone out there.
Shit!
On every side of me there were now paparazzi, and without Jonathan I felt the panic rising slowly.
“What do you think of his family?”
“Are you getting married because you’re pregnant?”
“Does his mom think you’re a gold digger?”
“What do you have, Kate, that other women don’t? Why you?”
I pushed past them as best I could, keeping my head down and out of the flashes from their cameras. All I wanted was to get back into the cab and go home. I wanted to curl away from the madness that being an overnight celebrity brought.
I left the crowd and hurried back down to the sidewalk, but they followed—to my side, behind, and in front of me, some with their cameras directly in my face.
“Back off!” I shouted, but it was no use. My voice couldn’t be heard over the excitement and buzz from the crowd.
I scanned the shops to my side, hoping to see at least one open, but they were all closed, and I knew that even if I wanted to, I’d never be able to push through everyone to get to them.
I felt someone fall into me, and the weight of them against my back made me trip. I fell against someone else, the mishap making the cameras click faster than ever.
I was trapped with nowhere to go.
“Can you all just stop?” I tried to shout above everyone. I had no choice but to push my way through them with force, but the harder I pushed, the more the circle closed in around me until I could barely walk forward anymore.
I was out of options; the only thing I could do was stand there and let them get the shots they wanted.
I reached into my bag for my cell to call the cops, when suddenly the crowd of paparazzi eased up and then I heard shouting.
Their lenses clicked a dozen times faster, and a renewed excitement erupted throughout them. Then, I saw the culprit of their energy. It was Jonathan, and he had one of them held up by his jacket.
I ran over to him, grabbing onto his arm.
“It’s not worth it!” I said quickly, “Just get me out of here!”
He looked at me, the anger disappearing from his eyes to see me properly, but a photographer accidentally pushing into me from somewhere behind reignited it, and he pushed past me to hold them up.
The others went crazy documenting every second of it.
“Don’t you ever touch her again!” he growled deep and low to the paparazzo. “You’d better get the hell out of here.”
He put him down, and the man fell to the floor exaggeratedly.
“Take my hand,” Jonathan instructed. I took it and he pulled me out of the crowd and down the sidewalk in an almost run.
We heard them coming up beside us, but he wasn’t fazed, as in an instant he had his cell out in his hand.
“Got her,” he said into it before ending the call, and almost instantly James pulled the car up alongside us.
Jonathan opened the door, pushed me inside, got in behind me, and closed the door.
The car screeched away from the pavement and off towards the city.
I closed my eyes with relief and took a deep breath, daring not look at Jonathan beside me. I didn’t want to see the look of anger or disappointment on his face.
“Jonathan, I’m—” I began, but he put his hand up to stop me.
“You’re lucky I was nearby, Kate. You have everything you could possibly need back in the city, yet you want to come out here to eat?”
I nodded slowly. The whole idea now sounded ridiculous, and I couldn’t bear to think of what I would have done had he not been there.
He took a deep breath and moved himself closer to me in the car.
“You’re going to be my wife, Kate,” he said seriously. “That means that people are going to be watching every step from now on. They’ll be there waiting for you to fall, and they’ll be the ones to document every mistake that you make.”
“I’m sorry, I just…”
“I know,” he said, stopping my words before they came out. “Believe me, Kate, I know.”
He slid his fingers around the back of my neck and stroked my skin, looking into my eyes intently.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?”
I shook my head and touched my leg.
“Only my ankle when I fell…”
He shook his head as though it was his entire fault, and then he rested a hand over mine before allowing it to travel down slowly, keeping his eyes fixed firmly on mine until he had my ankle in his warm grip.
“Better?” he asked.
“Better,” I repeated.
He used his other hand to pull my head towards his, and I thought for a moment that he was going to kiss me, but instead he lowered his voice and whispered deeply, his breath stroking my face with every word.
“Don’t ever do it again, Kate.”
“I… I won’t…” I shook my head, his demanding words sending shivers through my body. In the past, if a man had been so controlling and possessive, I would have told him to get lost in an instant, but Jonathan was different. He knew the exact words to say to make me lose my train of thought and want him. He made me forget about the fear and panic that I’d felt when the paparazzi had been closing in, and he made he forget the pain that seared through my ankle when I fell on it. I couldn’t deny that the power he had over me was fascinating.
I moved my lips closer to his, but he pulled away slightly, still watching me intently, enjoying the game he was playing by making me want him but not delivering.
He sat up straight and moved back to his seat as though nothing had just happened between us. I cleared my throat, tuning to look out the window in the hope that the obvious blush would disappear from my cheeks.
“Mandy?” I heard him say into his cell. “Hi, it’s me. I think we’re going to have a situation on our hands. Yeah. Okay, that’s fine. I’ll need you to liaise with Carlton in the morning before the world develops their own opinion on things. Okay. Yeah, the paparazzi attacked Kate. Yes, she’s okay, but it shouldn’t have happened. We’ll talk tomorrow. ‘Bye.”
He ended the call and looked at me.
“I have one of the best legal teams in the country. I’ll have this sorted out by tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me,” he said simply. “You’re my fiancé, Kate. I’d do anything for you without question.”
I reached across the space between us and took hold of his hand, squeezing it in silent thanks.
“James,” he said, leaning forward slightly. “Take us to the Central Park residence. We’ll stay in the city tonight, as I have an early start.”
We continued to drive in silence, and the thought I’d been trying not to let occupy my mind with, crept in and consumed me. Was I ready to have a life like that? Was dodging the press something that I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing? Was I always going to be on edge and worried about disappointing Jonathan?
“Honestly, what do you want from me?” I asked him after a moment of silence. My voice a little more stern than I’d expected. “I’m trying my best.”
He looked at me surprised by my mini outburst.
“Kate?”
I shook my head.
“You’re disappointed, I can tell, but I’m only human. What the hell do you want from me? I’m not used to being famous, I’ve never had people follow me around before and I—”
“I was scared, Kate,” he said seriously, moving back toward me again. “I was fucking scared that you were in that crowd getting trampled. Do you even know how long it took me to get through them? Do you know what was running through my mind? You’re a hot topic right now, and if anyone gets a questionable photo of you falling out of bars or fighting the press… Those guys make tens of thousands. They’re going to be all over you, and I’m scared shitless because I won’t be able to protect you if I’m on the other side of town.”
I took a deep breath.
“I just don’t know how long I can go on disappointing you.”
He put his hands on the top of my arms.
“Listen to me, Kate. You’re not capable of disappointing me, do you understand that? You scare me, arouse me, and make me crave you, but you’ve never, ever disappointed me. In a number of days, Kate, you’re going to be my wife, and I haven’t done this whole love thing before. I don’t know what I’m doing or how good a husband I’m going to be, but as long as you let me protect you, I know I’m half way there, okay?”
I nodded.
“Will you let me look after you, Kate? I want to hear you say it.”
“I will.”
He pulled me towards him and kissed me finally, our lips pressed together urgently in the kiss that he’d previously refused me.
It started with fire and heat within the first couple of seconds, and before I knew it, he had me pressed up against the door and window of the car, the intensity turning up a notch almost every second until our hands were roaming all over each other.
“I can’t get enough of you,” he groaned quietly, pulling his lips away from mine for a second before pushing them back, his hands running up and under my blouse, across my skin.
I let him touch my stomach, not dwelling on what he might be thinking, and I turned my whole body towards him. He clicked my belt open to free me, almost scooping me up into his arms and gently placing me down.
“Not here,” I whispered, aware that James was just beside us driving. “Not…”
He kissed down my neck and across my collarbone making me lose all train of thought and reason.
Initially, the idea of James being the silent driver who saw everything but said nothing was fine by me, but now that I was lying on my back in his car heading towards sex with his boss, I felt self-conscious.
Jonathan pushed my skirt up roughly, almost splitting the material, and I toyed with wanting him instantly and the embarrassment of having him in front of his staff, but all too quickly he stopped and withdrew his hand from my leg.
I felt the pull of lust as he pushed himself back to a sitting position, the moment over.
I sat up, straightening my clothes, and turned to him.
“What just happened there?” I asked, confused.
He took a moment before answering and kept his voice low enough for James not to hear in front of us.
“When I want you, Kate, I want all of you. I know you’ve got a lot on your mind right now, I can tell. It’s probably bad timing on my part.”
“No, I—”
He pressed a finger to my lips silencing me.
“There’s nothing more to say on the subject. Now, did you get a chance to look over Louis’ color board?”
I nodded slowly, not ready to end the previous conversation, but I knew with Jonathan that once it was done, it was over. As I listened to him talk about our wedding day, I just hoped that the same mentality wouldn’t cross over into the way he felt about me, because now that I had my real feelings and thoughts invested in our relationship and marriage, I was more scared than ever of being hurt. Jonathan had the power to take the biggest chunk of my heart, that I’d ever allowed anyone to have, away with him.