Page 37 of Flirt
She had to be the strangest person he’d ever met, and he knew people in Hollywood. She couldn’t have been taller than five foot flat, and he was pretty sure his thigh was bigger around than her waist. Pin-straight black hair streaked with neon pink and pale purple fell past her ass, and her eyes were the most unusual shade of reddish-brown, almost like rust.
He couldn’t stop staring.
She wore a black, leather corset over a bright blue tank top, a rainbow tutu, blinding yellow leggings, and knee-high black boots with four-inch heels and about a million pink buckles. Flawless skin shined beneath a minimum of makeup, except for the obviously drawn-on freckles. It was kind of like Rainbow Brite and Batman had a baby, then dipped it in crazy.
He shook her hand, but dropped his quickly, afraid he might inadvertently crush her. “Asher.” Taking a step back, he cleared his throat. “Nice to meet you, Maddie.”
Cameron smiled and shook his head. “Okay, I’m going to go see if I can talk my sister down from the ledge…or at least out of the bathroom.” He pointed a finger at each of them in turn. “Play nice.”
“Don’t worry,” Maddie answered, her gaze raking over Asher, but not in a sexual way. More like she was trying to decide how best to dismember him. “I won’t bite unless he asks me to.”
Despite the fact that he could probably squash her like a bug, she kind of terrified him. Catching Cameron’s hand before he could leave the main room of the store, Asher barely bit back a plea to accompany him. He could feel Maddie’s eyes on him, and he had the unsettling urge to protect his throat.
“Good luck,” he said instead, because he was a grown ass man and more than twice her size. No way would he admit to being afraid of fucking Vampire Barbie.
“There are Starbursts by the register,” Cameron whispered. “If she gets cranky, just give her one of those.”
“I heard that!” Maddie called to his retreating back. With a dramatic huff, she turned to Asher, popping one hip out to the side and folding her arms over her breasts. “So, you’re the boyfriend.”
“Yeah, that’s me.” He’d never been called anyone’s boyfriend before, but it felt kind of nice. “You’re the…?”
“Manger, friend, shoulder to cry on.” Uncrossing her arms, she waved a hand around dismissively. “What do you do?”
“I’m a writer.”
“Anything I might have heard of?”
God, he hated when people asked that question. How the hell was he supposed to know what they read? Worse, there was only two ways to answer—arrogant or insecure—and it all depended on inflection.
“The Marshall Kane series.” He decided to go with arrogant.
“You’re Asher Dare,” she blurted, maybe in case he hadn’t known that.
“That’s what they tell me.”
“Big fan, but that last book was a total mess. Evil twin? Really? What the hell were you thinking?”
Technically, it had been multiple sets of twins, and the guy being evil had nothing to do with him being a twin. He’d been a central character throughout the book, not hastily thrown in at the eleventh hour like she was suggesting.
Everyone’s a critic.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Instead of waiting around for more suggestions on how to improve his craft, he decidedto change the subject. “Do you think Cameron is making any progress?”
“I don’t—”
“Go away, you fucking jackass!” a female voice screamed from the back of the store. The bathroom door did nothing to muffle the sound.
Maddie shrugged. “I guess that’s your answer.”
“What the hell happened anyway?”
Wandering over to the register, Maddie plucked a pink Starburst from a glass bowl and unwrapped it with a sigh. “She left here around eleven to have lunch with Aiden. She came back twenty minutes later, locked herself in the bathroom. That’s all I know.”
He watched her toss the candy into her mouth with a frown. “Who’s Aiden?”
“Boyfriend.”
“Huh. Breakup?”
