Page 27 of Saving Ian Pope

“It’s weird.” Chloe kicked her feet up on the coffee table between the chair and the love seat. “You guys have known each other for what? Twenty-four hours? He already has a pet name for you, you’re mooning around asking if he needs help unpacking, and it’s clear that you can’t keep your paws off each other. Sex must be phenomenal.”

“It’s been closer to thirty hours, and yeah, the sex is great.” The smile I’d been battling spread across my face.

“Don’t let it blind you to his faults. He’s had plenty of fuckups.” Chloe threw a pillow at me. I caught it with one hand and buried my warm face in it. She asked, “Does he know about you?”

My head shot up at the same time Ian stepped from the hallway. “Tink, I need to ask you a question. Can you help me with something?”

“Yep, sure.” I rose on a pair of unsteady legs. Had Ian heard Chloe’s question? As I walked past Chloe, I whacked her on the top of the head with the pillow.

I walked into the bedroom and heard Ian clinking around the bathroom. I grasped the door jamb and leaned into the bathroom. “What do you need?”

He nodded at the counter. “I don’t want to crowd you. Where should I put my stuff?”

I squeezed past him and swept up several items that I used infrequently and shoved them into a few drawers. “You can have this space.”

Was I really giving a man space in my bathroom? Maybe Chloe was right. Iwasin danger.

Putting away his stuff, he caught my eye in the mirror. “Thanks for believing in me out there. I became aware of the buzz this morning. Jack sent me the pictures and some of the posts. I didn’t want to tell you. I reckoned you might find out later, but I didn’t want to spoil anything between us. I wasn’t trying to hide anything from you. Does that make sense?”

Did it ever.

I slid behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist, resting my head on his back. “It does. I’m just livid that someone is subjecting you to this garbage and that so many people believe it.”

He covered my hands with his and moved them up to his chest, so I could feel his heart thumping beneath my palm. “I don’t even know if most people believe it. They just get off on the buzz and piling on.”

“Who’s responsible for it?” I poked my head around his body to watch his face in the mirror.

“I don’t know for sure.” He dropped my hands and rearranged some items on the counter.He knew.

“What do you want to do for dinner? I’d like to take you out to thank you for...today.”

“You know what I really want?” I jabbed his side with my elbow. “I wanna see those pictures.”

“You naughty girl.” He flicked my earlobe with his finger.

Covering my heart with my hand, I said, “For purely educational purposes. You told Chloe it should be obvious why the dick isn’t yours. I’d like to see with my own eyes. Unlike Chloe, I am intimately familiar with your...todger. I’m an expert witness, at this point.”

For the first time since we encountered judge, jury, and executioner Chloe, Ian gave me that brilliant smile that could light up a room bigger than this one. “Not sure I like the idea of you ogling someone else’s package, but I suppose in the name of judicial fairness, you should have a peek.”

We walked into the bedroom, and Ian plumped up a pillow against the headboard and got comfortable, positioning his back against it. He patted the bed beside him. “Get prepared to be blown away.”

“Not sure that’s the phrase you should be using in connection to dick pics.” I hopped on the bed beside him and hovered over his shoulder as he scrolled through his phone.

“Here you go.” He held up his phone. “This is supposed to be me.”

I gasped. “No fucking way.”

Chapter 10

IVY

My eyes almost popped out of my head, and I grabbed Ian’s phone to get a better look. “No way. I’m sorry, baby, you are quite well endowed, but this is porno sized. It almost looks CGI-generated.”

He jutted out his bottom lip. “You don’t have to be that sure that fast.”

I snorted and dropped the phone on his lap. “The idea that random people online actually believe that monster belongs to you, and that you’d DM pictures of it to your fans is ridiculous. Emphasis on the dick.”

“Told you.” He swept the pictures off his display with a disgusted grunt.

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