Page 35 of Cocky Bastard

“I really appreciate it.” I glanced across at Austin, who was lying next to me with a beaming smile on his face. Somehow it was that smile which made it feel even more real. “I can’t wait.”

“Good. It’s going to be a lot of fun. Well, I’ll let you get on. Are you okay if I give Henry your number? I think he wanted to meet up with you.”

“Oh yeah, that’s fine.”

“My only caveat is you’re not to have sex. I won’t have my production ruined by the two of you falling out beforehand. And I’ll tell him the same.”

My face flamed at the barrage of information, but all I could say was, “It’s fine. I have a boyfriend. And he’s, er, well, I don’t think we’d be up for…” I trailed off because we hadn’t exactlytalked about exclusivity, work, and all of that. I didn’t want Austin to give up his job, because he loved it, but I wasn’t going to talk to Jenny about the ins and outs of my relationship before I’d worked things out with Austin.

“No worries, I just wanted to mention it. Henry’s lovely, but a more dramatic flirt I’ve never met,” Jenny said with amusement. “We’ll speak again soon, Jude, and congratulations.”

“Thank you,” I said again before Jenny hung up. I dropped my phone and stared at Austin, my mouth hanging open. “I got the part.”

“Yeah, you fucking did, darling,” he said, launching himself at me and pulling me into a kiss.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Austin

“You’ve got something…just… no, up a bit.” I wiped the side of my mouth with my thumb, grinning as I watched Kanan trying to mirror me and catch the stray bit of pistachio cream stuck to the dusting of stubble on his top lip.

“Did I get it?”

“No,” I said, reaching across to brush it away. “You’re so messy.”

“You usually like it when I’m covered in cream,” Kanan said with a smirk as he picked up the large cup of tea in front of him and sipped it slowly, making me nearly choke on my own tongue.

“Oh, I see, that’s how it’s going to be.”

“See what? I did nothing.”

I hummed and picked up my own coffee, letting my eyes roam across the garden. We’d gone down to Penny’s to buy breakfast and had debated staying there, but all the little outside tables were full and I was a bit worried about someonerecognising Kane and ambushing him while we were trying to eat.

He’d gone for the typical celebrity disguise of a pair of sunglasses and a hoodie, which had made me laugh because it was an old Underground Dreaming tour one, and while itseemedto have worked, he’d also not said much to stop his voice from giving him away. And since we hadn’t actually discussed our relationship, I didn’t want it announced to the world on TikTok before he and I had a chance to get our heads around everything.

So we’d grabbed our croissants and come back to mine to sit in the garden, basking in the morning sunshine like lizards on a rock. It meant we could be ourselves and not worry about anyone sneakily trying to take photos of us or ambushing Kanan while he had pistachio cream all over his face.

I hadn’t done as much with the garden as I had with the house, but I’d taken down the fence between both my garden and the studio house’s garden to open the space up since both of them were pretty small on their own. I’d gotten a nice patio put in to join both together, as well as a hot tub, because it was good to film in if nothing else. There was a small lawn too and some flower beds that were getting a bit overgrown. I needed to hire someone to come in and tidy them up.

“What are you doing on the twenty-fifth?” Kanan asked, putting his tea down and pulling his phone out of the pocket of his hoodie.

“Not sure, why?” I asked, grabbing my own phone and opening up the calendar. There was an entry that said “filming with Theo and Felix?” but I hadn’t reached out to confirm with either of them. Mostly because I’d been so wrapped up in Kanan for the past few days that I’d forgotten. “Might be filming, but I can always rearrange it.”

“I didn’t know if you fancied coming to New York with me?” There was a soft blush across his nose and he wasn’t quite meeting my eyes. For someone who was usually so confident, it was sweet to see him so nervous. “They’re doing a little premiere slash launch event for that new rom com I’m in for Netflix. And I wondered if you… if you’d like to be my date?”

“To the premiere?”

“Well, yeah. There’s no point you coming all the way to New York otherwise.”

I laughed because that was fucking obvious and I didn’t even know why I’d asked. Maybe it was surprise? Had I expected him to want to keep me under wraps? Except… that wasn’t Kanan. This was the man who’d forced his record label to let him come out because he refused to live his life by the rules they’d laid out for him. The man who’d decided he wanted to be an actor and was forging his path through the industry in defiance of everyone’s opinions or expectations for an ex-boy band member.

And even if he’d not always been allowed to live life his way, the older he got, the less he seemed to be taking shit from other people.

It was another reason I was proud of him.

“I’d love to,” I said, reaching across the table to take his hand in mine and squeezing it gently. “Do you want to go full-on relationship hard launch at the premiere? Holding hands, red carpet kiss, the whole nine yards?”

“The hand-holding might be a bit much,” Kane said teasingly, his fingers still interlaced with mine. “People might get the wrong idea.”

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