Page 8 of Mad for Madison

“I do. And honestly? I’d feel a lot better knowing you’re there.”

Bradley was quiet for a moment, his gaze thoughtful. Finally, he nodded, though his expression was still hesitant. “Okay. I gotta think about it. But if this goes sideways, you owe me.”

A grin spread across my face, the first genuine one I’d felt all day. This was the closest to a solution I had gotten so far. “Deal. Think about it.”

He chuckled, shaking his head. “Gran’s going to have a field day with this one.”

“Gran doesn’t need to know,” I said quickly, though I couldn’t help laughing along with him. For the first time in a while, the weight on my chest felt a little lighter.

As Bradley chuckled and shook his head, I couldn’t help but feel the tiniest flutter in my chest—a reaction I hadn’t expected, much less welcomed. There was something about the way he’d agreed, his quiet humility and that boyish charm, that made my pulse quicken. It was ridiculous. I couldn’t let myself go there. Bradley was the kind of guy who deserved something uncomplicated, someone who could meet his kindness with the same sincerity without dragging him into the mess of their past or the chaos of their present. And me? I was anything but uncomplicated. An adult film star with a reputation that preceded me, I lived in a world that didn’t make room for normal, much less for sweet, good-hearted men like Bradley.This plan isn’t about anything more than survival, I reminded myself. Bradley was my solution, not my possibility. And yet, as he shot me one of those genuine, slightly shy smiles that punched deep dimples in his cheeks, I had to wonder if I’d just made things more complicated than ever.

“Tell me about the guy,” Bradley said. “If we do this, I have to be ready.”

I held my breath for a few heartbeats. Exhaling, I began, “Dane Pierce. He’s all charm and confident swagger until you get close to him. He’ll make you think he’s glazed in honey until it’s too late. We had a…thing. Or so I thought.” It didn’t escape me that Bradley glanced away when I admitted to having had something like a relationship with Dane. “But he’s not a good guy, Bradley, not once you scratch under the facade. He’s manipulative, he’s passive-aggressive, and he’s controlling in ways that…it doesn’t matter. He’s just not a good guy.”

“Christ,” Bradley huffed. “Did he do something to you?”

I deflected. “He’s apparently starting a production company. He wants me to sign with him as if nothing… Never mind. I’m not doing it, but he’s not exactly the kind of guy who takes no for an answer.”

Bradley’s friendly, nonaggressive demeanor was gone. He seemed sharp and ready for a fight, which took me aback. “I see,” he said, his voice dropping to the range of a growl. “I didn’t realize it was that serious.”

Fuck, I thought and looked at my mulled wine. I should have kept it light and easy. What the hell had I been thinking? I practically told him I needed a human shield from a very bad man who had a lot of power in a small community. What the hell had I been expecting? Of course he would change his mind. “Look, I get it if you’d rather not get involved.”

“What?” Bradley asked, surprise replacing the anger on his face for an instant. “You think I’m pulling out? Like hell I am. We’re doing this, Madison. I’m coming with you.”

My heart leaped so suddenly that I barely kept it contained in my chest. “Are you sure?”

“Positive,” Bradley growled.

And for the first time in a very, very long while, I felt like I had a friend watching my back.

I was going to make it worth his while, that much was guaranteed.

CHAPTER 3

Into the Unknown

Bradley

Mama Viv workedout a new schedule at Neon Nights to give me Friday afternoon and the entire weekend off. Roman, who’d worked on and off as a waiter before scoring a job with a legal defense firm after making a grand stand against the Langley’s bulldozers in front of Neon Nights, said, “To be honest, I sometimes miss working here. It’ll be good to cover for you.”

I met Madison downtown, where nobody knew either of us, on Friday afternoon. We had lunch Madison insisted on buying, and I assumed it was the bribe he thought he owed me for doing him this favor.

“Got any second thoughts?” Madison asked after we chatted shortly about Neon Nights and the things we’d been up to for the last two days. Madison’s activities apparently amounted to “not much.”

I shook my head in reply. “Told you, we’re doing this.”

“Good,” Madison said, his face calm until a smile rippled across and disappeared. “We can improvise most of it throughout the night, but I thought that we should have some kind of a story ready.”

“Like, why does nobody know you’re dating,” I suggested.

“Easy,” Madison said. “I don’t bring my life to work and vice versa.”

I nodded. That seemed like the simplest answer.

“But then you’ll get the usual questions. Are you in the industry? No? Don’t you mind seeing your boyfriend’s work?” Madison cracked a smile like we were in on a private joke. Maybe we were. He knew I’d seen him, although I was never going to admit just how much of Madison I had seen since discovering his work.

A different thing made me smile and flush.My boyfriend, I thought. “I, uh, never had a boyfriend,” I said before my brain caught up with me and told me that was exactly the wrong thing to say right now.

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