Page 48 of Never Been Worse

“Do this?” I ask, smiling.

“Is making out off the table?”

A light blush burns on her cheeks, and my heart skips a beat like this is my first girlfriend instead of a woman I’m married to, but I smile wide.

“Definitely not,” I whisper, pressing my lips to hers once more before stepping back and straightening her dress. Then we gather the rest of her things and head out the door hand in hand.

My phone won’t stop buzzing, and, from the corner of my eye, I catch Harper continuing to hit ignore on her phone as we drive in silence.

“I’m not going to apologize,” I say under my breath, eyes on the road.

“What?”

“I’m not going to apologize. For leaving the set, for yelling at Marty. I’d do it again. Leo’s going to tell me I should make a formal apology, release a statement, blah blah blah.” I look to her quickly before looking back at the road. “I’m not doing it.” A moment passes in silence, and I expect her to argue, to tell me I have to, but, as tends to be her way, Harper surprises me.

“You shouldn’t.”

“I shouldn’t?”

“No. It’s good, you know, for the image. It seems more…real.”

I groan at her words and the fact that this still isn’t penetrating her shell, that she still thinks this is nothing but some kind of arrangement, that?—

“Even if it’s becoming something more,” she adds.

I smile then, looking at her, and see she’s looking at me, a shy smile on her lips, a pink blush to her cheeks.

“Good to hear, baby,” I say. My phone buzzes again, and I hit ignore before a text pops up on the car’s screen.

LEO: ANSWER ME NOW, ASSHOLE.

I sigh. “But I am going to have to go to Leo’s office and talk him off a ledge,” I say, reaching over and squeezing her knee. Her small, soft hand covers mine, and she gives me a reassuring squeeze back. “I’m going to drop you off at home and head over there.”

“That’s fine,” she says, “The girls are going to want a full update anyway.”

I smile at that, at Harper giving Jules and Ava a full rundown of the chaos of our morning, and I’m beyond grateful that Jaime told me Ava is fully on teamHarper and Wes.

“Stay home until I have an idea of how we should handle this from Leo,” I tell her a few minutes later as I unlock the front door and walk her inside. Even though my phone keeps buzzing and Leo is probably having a heart attack at this point, I need to make sure Harper is okay and gets inside safely. “I don’t want you in an uncomfortable position with paparazzi hounding you.”

There’s no one around, the scavengers stuck behind the gate, but this is all new for Harper. I don’t want her getting overwhelmed by the press and thinking this is too much for her before I fully get past her walls.

“Wes?” she asks once I close the door behind us and turn to her, staring for a few moments before she breaks the silence.

“Yeah, baby?” I step into her space gently, a hand moving to her jaw and my thumb stroking along her cheek.

“I, uh. I’m starting to get it. Me being yours.” She licks her lips and closes the gap between us, putting a hand to my neck. “And you being mine,” she says low.

“Yeah? Does that mean you’re going to stop giving me such a hard time?” She smiles, the look teasing and devious at the same time.

“Probably not.” I let out a small laugh and wrap an arm around her waist.

“Wouldn’t want it any other way.” Her fingers play with the hair at the nape of my neck.

“You should probably go, before Leo shows up at the house on a rampage.” She smiles wide, and I like this, this joking between us, the freeness. “But kiss me before you go.”

That last sentence is said in a whisper, that blush on her cheeks deepening, and I grin before doing just that, my hand on her jaw, tipping her face up to me and pressing my lips to hers gently, holding it there for not nearly long enough before breaking the kiss and stepping back before I get lost in it.

I can’t do that right now, not when I have shit to do, not when there is the temptation of no one watching and a dozen beds nearby. Instead, I use the hand on her cheek to push her hair over her shoulders and center the W necklace around her neck, stealing time I don’t really have but desperately want before stepping back.

---