Page 14 of Meet Hate Love
“Don’t ask stupid questions.”
He grabbed a menu, flattening the plastic sheet on the tiny table. “A dick is a dick.”
“A dick is a dick, but…” I latched onto his wrist, and my heartbeat stuttered. That little wobble in cardiovascular function could be nothing more than anxiety. Because it was most definitely not the result of animal magnetism. And while, yes, I may have gotten off in the shower to the idea of him a few short hours prior, I was stronger than primitive wants. Clearing my throat, I turned my phone around to face him. “This picture is evidence.”
His gaze dropped to the split-screen photograph. I waited for a flinch, a flicker of anxiety, but the guy played it off with a casual shrug. “Because I’m the only guy in the world with a birthmark?”
“One that looks like a heart…between your thumb and forefinger?”
“I assure you, statistically, there is another man with a birthmark shaped like a heart in the same spot.”
Maybe. Statistics were finicky creatures, and I was certain, somewhere in the universe, there could be another guy with a similar birthmark in a similar place, but what this thieving asshole didn’t think about was…
I swiped a finger over the screen, pulled up the load of screenshots Margot had sent, and then held up my device for his viewing pleasure. “I’m sure the company would love to know they’re not only funding trips for their magazine but trips for your Lonely Fans account.” I watched his Adam’s apple bob, hating that I found it attractive.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I swiped to another screenshot, one of him choking Paul in front of Mayan ruins. “I spent three hours last night making a spreadsheet. I matched up the dates of your posts with the locations, and guess what, asshole—every one of them lines up with your travel assignments.” I narrowed my gaze. “That’s not a coincidence.”
He silently stared at the evidence for what felt like an eternity. Each tick, tick, tick from the clock behind the café counter seemed amplified. I hated to admit it because I would never have considered myself a cruel person, but I found a sliver of vindication in the panic creeping across his face. Screw that. I was elated.
He sank back into his seat. “What do you want?”
“Simple. I want my trip to Europe.”
ChapterSix
VANCE
The hiss of the expresso machine faded into the background as I stared across the tiny café table and into the Mediterranean-blue eyes of Blake Brently. Not only had she found my Lonely Fans account and figured out it was me, but she was attempting blackmail? From a black eye to blackmail…
“Vance?” she said, my attention drifting from her pretty eyes to her pouty lips. “I want the trip you stole from me like a swindling asshole.”
“What do you expect me to do?” I asked, leaning back in my seat. “Even if I were to back out of it, Amanda doesn’t like you. She’ll just give it to someone else.”
Blake’s pink lips tightened into a frown. “No shit, Detective Dick Pic.”
I filed that name away to use when I went to London and visited the infamous White Chapel area—Detective Dick Pic on the hunt for Jack the Ripper—because Blake was not taking that trip from me.
“I know she won’t reassign it to me,” she said.
Now, I was confused. If she hadn’t expected Amanda to reassign it to her, what the hellhadshe expected?
I stared across the wobbly table for a few seconds, waiting for Blake to follow up on that last statement with something. When she didn’t, I let out a breath. “You’re not very good at this blackmail thing.”
“Oh, I’m very good at this blackmail thing. And since you stole my assignment—” She jabbed a finger at me—“like the thieving thief you are, I want you to buy me a plane ticket to Europe, or I’ll expose you for the double-dipping, dick-pick-taking purloiner you are.”
God, her and those ridiculous words. “Thief, Blake. Just say thief.”
She frowned. “Creativity is wasted on you.”
“And simplicity is wasted on you.”
“Get me a ticket. Leaving on Friday.”
“You’re insane.” There was absolute truth in the statement that the insane ones were always hot… Hot and angry and violent.
“Me, insane? I’m not the one taking my genitals on a Europenis tour…”
