Series: Fever Falls Series by Riley Hart
Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 96922 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96922 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
I sneered. “Oh, I do enjoy our little playful rivalry, but just so you both know, if I do find out either of you were in any way responsible for those pictures…”
“Dax!” Fred gasped.
“No, let him finish,” Ayda said, her expression stiffening, her faux-smile transforming into a smirk. “I want to hear what he’s going to do to us if he finds out the truth. Steal an account out from under our noses?”
I could read their guilt all over their arrogant expressions, and I wanted to fucking give them a piece of my mind, though I recognized this wasn’t the time or place.
“I’ll get the last laugh, you guys.”
“Well, we’ll enjoy ours while we can,” Ayda said, and she and Fred shared another. “Lovely catching up.” She winked, and they headed on their way.
“Fucking assholes,” Carter muttered as he perused his phone—no, my phone!
“What the hell are you looking at?”
“You left your messages with Jace up. What the hell? It’s only been two weeks. Are you checking up on each other on the reg?”
I snatched my phone from him. “Yes, we’ve been chatting ‘on the reg.’ What about it?”
He stared me down, simpering. “I’m not saying anything.”
“You don’t have to. You’re wearing it all over that goddamn smug face of yours.”
“Donnie and Fireman sittin’ in a tree…”
“Carter.”
“K-I-S-S-I-N-G…”
“Stop it right now,” I said through my teeth.
“…first comes love, then comes marriage…then comes little Shar-Pei in a baby carriage.”
He burst into a laugh as I finished rolling my eyes as overdramatically as possible.
“Daxy Boo.” My muscles locked as the sound hit my ears.
“Four o’clock,” Carter said. “Wait, no, maybe eight…or ten.”
I kept glancing in the wrong direction. “Jesus Christ, Carter, how bad can a person be at this game?”
I finally spied Serena at my “Two o’clock,” I stressed, annoyed.
“Oopsies.”
Serena pushed a hug on me. She was dressed to the nines in a red gown that matched the bright lipstick she wore, and her dark hair was done up.
“I thought you said you weren’t coming,” I spit out.
“I said I wasn’t invited. But then I thought, Oh, they’ll let Lil’ Donnie Gibson’s mom in.”
“You always knew how to work an angle. Just like old times,” I said, not intending any sort of nostalgia as much as digging at the way she used to take advantage of my success.
“You look fantastic, Serena. Love the dress.”
“Oh, thank you, Carter. It’s so good to see you again. Looking as dapper as ever.” She must’ve noticed my expression because she quickly changed her tune. “Oh, Dax. Don’t act so upset that I’m here. I won’t be in your hair. You know Mommy has to do her own schmoozing.”
I rolled my eyes at the thought of her running around, trying to impress all the a-holes she’d want to help her nab a new part in some crapshoot TV or streaming movie.
“But I do want to meet this Hottie Firefighter you haven’t told me anything about. You should have brought him with you. This would have been a great place for him to get some more exposure.”
“I doubt he needs any more exposure right now.”
“Well, I guess you would know, seeing as how you’re the bigshot PR guy,” she said, an obvious dig, considering she must’ve known she was right about the exposure. “I swear, you’re acting like all the attention is a great imposition, but you just need to play it to your advantage. Make hay while the sun shines.”
I’d called her after everything went down and discussed my predicament with Jace, but being who she was, she was more interested in me finding the angle that would benefit my career most.
“I’m clearly just getting under his skin, Carter, so I’ll be on my way, but, Dax, we need to have lunch and catch up.”
“Of course,” I said, realizing how much tension filled me since she’d started chatting with us.
She offered another hug before heading on her way.
Carter started to say something, but I blurted out, “Just leave it.”
We finished up at the party, and I grabbed an Uber back to my place, texting Jace: Gala went amazing.
Which outside of Freyda Inc. and the run-in with my mother, it had.
JACE: I expected no less. :)
DAX: Heading home, but good luck saving the world tomorrow, Batman.
JACE: Night, Hollywood.
DAX: Night.
It wasn’t the first time we’d texted each other good night, and I didn’t imagine it would be the last.
* * *
We continued our occasional texts over the next few days, and soon enough, I was at LAX, searching for my big hunk of Jace in the arrivals lane. He was impossible to miss, standing on the curb next to a rolling bag with a duffel bag strapped to his shoulder, tucked close to his waist. I pulled up alongside him, and as he spied me in the car, the corners of his lips perked right up, which made my dick twitch.