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Gannon King’s usual emotion was fiery temper that singed anyone within a forty-foot radius.
The female viewership worshipped Gannon’s shirtless physique, but Paige saved her lust for the furniture, not the man. With that talent came a passionate, argumentative, stubborn attitude that often held up shoots and pissed Paige off.
There had been more than a few on-set arguments between them in season one of the home renovation reality show. Gannon seemed to instinctively know what buttons to push to send her into an internal maelstrom.
Paige bit her lip. She was a field producer, not some love-struck teenage fan. And he was the narcissistic bane of her professional existence.
She never once lost her temper, a fact that fascinated him. Gannon came from loud, passionate Italian stock that wasn’t afraid to smash a plate to make a statement. Paige, on the other hand, systematically choked down any temper and, with frosty efficiency, made him dance like a fucking puppet.
Her whole life Paige had been—for the most part—unfairly judged as stuck up or disinterested. Gannon was the last man on earth she’d have expected to actually get her.
“Don’t you two look cozy?” Gannon dragged his gaze away from Paige’s face to his sister who was tucking her phone away and standing in the aisle. “We get along better when one of us is asleep,” Gannon joked softly, careful not to jar Paige awake.
“Whatever you say, big brother,” Cat said, reminding him that he was indeed two minutes older than she was. “But you could do a lot worse and, in my opinion, not much better than our Paige here.”
They were essentially writing her into the story as a love interest for Gannon. Her career as she knew it was officially over.
She felt like a jerk. A violated one. But she hadn’t even considered what this meant to Gannon. It was a hot fucking mess, and she couldn’t see a way out of it. Not with the network deciding she was now part of the story. If she refused, she’d lose her job. If she complied, she’d never be taken seriously again in the industry.
“So I have to know. Was your freak out at being linked to me only about work, or does the idea of being mine disgust you to the point of hibernating in your hotel room?”
He looked up, his gaze raking her, and she felt her toes curl in her boots while something fluttered in her stomach. Shit. A crush on a co-worker was generally inconvenient, but one on Gannon in their current predicament would be disastrous.
“I’m not risking my career for a night in your bed.” “We can use your bed then.”
She fisted her hands in his t-shirt and kissed him back. There was no slow thaw here. There was a spark that started a wildfire. The kiss was a battleground, each fighting for the upper hand.
“Oh my God. What are you doing?” Paige’s voice barely rose above the spray from the shower head. “I’m washing your damn hair.”
They were officially dating whether Paige liked it or not, whether she acknowledged it or not. And he wasn’t leaving her side.
Yeah, now was not a great time. Now was a clusterfuck, the fuckiest clusterfuck in the history of clusterfuckery. And her career, her reputation, were at the center.
There were a lot of things that surprised him about Paige, none of which disappointed him. She was tough as nails, gimping around the set without letting her injuries slow her down. She was a goddess in bed. Independent and smart-mouthed, she could handle him no matter what his mood. She never made any demands of him, at least not beyond work. And there? Paige challenged him to be better.
Irony of ironies, he’d gotten into reality TV—the fakest thing in existence—and met someone he had real feelings for.
She felt like he sucked all of the air out of the room, and she was left struggling for oxygen.
“I was never looking for a relationship. I just fell, you know? Let’s just chalk it up to working in the industry we work in. There are casualties every day. This time it was us. We were a mistake.”
She looked heavenward, her eyes still brimming with tears. “Why is this so hard?” “Because we have something worth fighting for. I can’t lose you.”
For Paige, fall had never lost that anticipation, that excitement, of the promise of new beginnings. It stemmed from childhood with the beginning of a new school year, a chance to be someone new, learn something new.
Getting swept up in the glitz and shine of TV was easy. Getting hurt by the darker side of it was even easier.
It was part of what he loved about her. Paige was never just out for Paige. She was a team captain ready to drag the rest of her team into the end zone for a victory. He could count on her, and he hoped she’d learn that she could count on him, too.
“Here’s your first bit of family business. I’m in love with Paige here, but she won’t give me the time of day. So I’m going to be wearing her down during the course of this shoot, and I’d appreciate you all singing my praises to her.”
Potential and vision were two things he was rarely wrong on. And that’s what he saw in his relationship with Paige. He may have had to drag her into it kicking and screaming, but they worked better than either of them had anticipated. And he’d had rather high expectations there.
The doorman, his cheeks rosy from the brisk air, let her in with a wink and a smile. Fortified by the friendliness of a stranger, her choice of outfit, and her own inner rage, Paige was more than ready to face the enemy.
“So that’s how long I’ve loved you. Twenty-one months, twelve days, and,” he checked his watch. “Ten hours.”
“You’re the best person I’ve ever known in my life, and if you tell Nonni that, I’ll call you a dirty liar. But you are the best, Paige. You’re smart and driven and so damn sexy and strong.
