Page 39 of Cocky Bastard

“That’s so sweet,” Jenna said, happily rolling with what was being thrown at her. She probably had enough content for months but I wouldn’t be surprised if half of it appeared on TikTok in the next ten minutes, especially since she seemed to have someone filming on a camera and another person on a phone. “What was your favourite part about working together?”

“Oh, one hundred percent the fact that he would bring me coffee every morning,” Priya said, patting my chest fondly.“Especially when he was off and I was still in hair and make-up, and he’d turn up with coffee and pastries for me even though he didn’t have to be up, let alone on set.”

“I didn’t want you starving,” I said with a smile. “Especially not when you get hangry. Also it meant I had an excuse to get coffee and pastries.”

“Now the truth comes out,” Priya said, laughing brightly.

“Hey, they had pistachio croissants,” I said, glancing up at Austin. “I couldn’t miss out.” Austin was smiling, his eyes dancing with fondness. I was so happy he was here and that I hadn’t let my nerves get the better of me.

We finally moved on from Jenna to the next people in line, Priya joining us so we could do the press together.

Austin’s hand stayed firmly in mine, anchoring me to reality.

And my heart kept fluttering wildly.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Austin

Walkinghand in hand with Kanan into an afterparty was something I’d never imagined happening. Yes, we’d left them together plenty of times, but entering them together? That was unheard of.

In my head it felt like a bigger deal than it actually was, but to me it signified another shift in our relationship. We weren’t just out in public for the sake of it—because we thought it would help our personal “brand” or our careers, net us an extra few minutes of press coverage and a couple of lucrative brand deals. We were out for us, because we didn’t want to have to hide our relationship every time we stepped foot outside one of our front doors.

I’d told Kanan I was happy to keep it secret if that was what he’d prefer, but I was glad he’d said no because in truth keeping it hidden sounded fucking exhausting. And I was too fuckless to do the whole secret relationship thing. I wanted to be able to show Kane off, introduce him to all my friends, and use a giantmegaphone to stand on the top of the Shard and announce to all of London how I felt about this man.

And speaking of friends, I was pretty sure my phone was currently blowing up with messages from everyone I knew who’d seen the announcement, demanding to know what was going on and why I hadn’t told them. If I could’ve put money on it, I’d have put a tenner on Theo leaving a series of gradually more incomprehensible voice notes until the last one was just excited screaming.

He was going to be bloody insufferable, but I deserved it because he’d been right.

Not that I’d tell him that.

But Theo and the rest of them could wait until tomorrow. Right now I wanted to celebrate my beautiful boyfriend and help him bask in his success.

“First things first,” I said, noticing the crowd starting to gather around us. “If you want to get out of here at any point, just say and I’ll kidnap you, no questions asked.”

“Thank you,” Kane said softly, smiling politely at everyone. Most of them were members of the cast, but there was some of the production team, a few executives, a few other actors and celebrities, and what appeared to be a couple of influencers thrown in to hype up the film to their followers. “I feel like I’m about to be thrown to the wolves.”

“Would a drink help?”

“Possibly, but I don’t want to get drunk. Otherwise who knows what I’ll say.”

“At least none of the influencers have their phones. I noticed security taking them off people at the front door.”

“That’s something at least.”

“Come on, let’s get you to the bar,” I said, gently steering Kane away from the mob and casually putting myself between them and him. I wasn’t a trained bodyguard by any stretch ofthe imagination, but I was big enough to put a few people off, especially if I glared at them.

Maybe I needed to look at getting a few more neck and hand tattoos. That’d put people off. Or maybe we needed to look into getting Kanan some security again, especially since he was about to be fully catapulted back into the spotlight. I remembered there’d been a lot of security around when he’d been in Underground Dreaming because some of the band’s fans had been next-level obsessed, but it had been more for the group than individual protection.

I made a mental note to bring it up to Kane in the next few days and see what he thought. Miles was bound to know of some good agencies we could talk to.

The bar was as crowded as the rest of the room, but it didn’t take us too long to get served and walk away with two of the party’s signature cocktails, which had been given the names of various tropes from the film, like enemies to lovers and only one bed. There was also a giant tower of cupcakes styled to look like an outlandish wedding cake, and I was very happy to help myself to one, licking the thick icing off with my tongue.

I glanced up, buttercream still clinging to my lips, and saw Kanan staring at me with wide eyes and flushed cheeks. I kept my gaze locked on his as I swiped up the last of the icing and winked at him, which made the blush on his cheeks darken.

“You’re a dick,” Kane said under his breath, his tone laced with fondness.

“What?” I asked as innocently as I could with a mouthful of buttercream.

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