Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
DANGEROUS TALK
Wasp
Something was up with Taylor. A phone call from my brother had us scrabbling to dress before he showed up with his agent to our hotel room, and though Taylor had returned my snatched kisses, she wasn’t meeting my eye.
A fresh text from Ally told me they were nearly with us, so I only had a minute before things got crazy. He’d confirmed that his eye had only worsened, so I knew what I had to do.
Even if it had my stomach in knots.
“Tay?” I stopped the lass and held her in front of me.
“What’s up?” she asked brightly, but she still wouldn’t look at my face.
“Eyes on me, lass.”
That worked. She stopped moving and raised her gaze. For a moment, I studied her, seeking for any sign of whatever was bothering her. But the emotion lurking under her surface kept itself well hidden, her perfect makeup concealing her from me.
“If I have to do this thing this morning, can ye make me a promise?”
Taylor inclined her head, inviting me to continue.
“Don’t leave me.” I was already halfway to being a wreck. A headache built over my eyes, and worry for my career had me in pieces, let alone concern for fucking up my brother’s livelihood, too.
If she left in the time I was working, I’d lose my ever-loving mind.
In the weirdest way, that was another reason I volunteered to help Ally. I could do nothing for Taylor. She hadn’t given me an inch of headway into her thoughts or problems. All the angst I had to fix her went to helping my twin instead.
“What are you talking about?” Her gaze gentled, and she raised her fingers to touch my face. “I wasn’t going to leave.”
I huffed in acknowledgement but moved a little closer. “Then why is there this distance between us this morning?”
With a smile forming, Taylor eclipsed the space between our bodies. “What distance? Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
My own answering grin came unbidden, and I ducked to rest my forehead on hers, liking the closeness more than I could say. In fact, I needed it. Right now, her touch anchored me. “I know we haven’t had any time to go out together. This wasn’t the trip ye had in mind.”
“I’m not worried about that.” She traced lines in my beard. “Is today going to be a problem for you?”
Fuck. This, I didn’t want. Her worrying about me and my messed-up head. “Nah. It’s no big deal.”
Taylor kissed me, once and carefully. “Please don’t do that.”
“What?”
“Lie to me.”
“I didn’t mean to.” Though I was diminishing a clusterfuck of shite spinning around my brain. I slid my arms around her and lifted her from the floor. “Maybe we can try something else today. Total honesty.”
Taylor wrapped her legs around my waist and settled into my hold, gazing into my eyes. “I have no idea how to do that.”
“Try it, aye?” I swallowed, sensing a precipice I was primed to fall over. But hey, what else could the universe bring me that it hadn’t already. “I’ll tell ye how I’m feeling right now if you do the same.”
“Dangerous talk, but okay,” she agreed, her words slow.
“I’m worried that hitting Rex last night will have me booted from the tour. I’m worried that Ally won’t get this job because I’ll flip out and mess it up. I’m half expecting my head to explode with the pressure coming in from all sides…” I drew a hard breath. “And then there’s you.”
“Me?” she whispered, her face open but her gaze wide. Almost terrified.
“And this. This us.” I hadn’t intended to open up a conversation about feelings, but here we were, square in the middle of them. And I wasn’t about to declare my undying love, but there were words I had been thinking that I’d kept to myself.
Emotions had risen for sure.
Hungry, greedy, possessive ones.
“Do you mean the jealousy thing?” she said.
“Amongst others.”
“What—how many others?”
“More than a few.”
Taylor nodded, sliding her gaze right like she was working out how to respond. The moment stretched out, and I clamped down on my impatience, giving her the space to speak.
She wasn’t freaking out anymore. This was a good sign.
A knock rattled the door.
For Christ’s sake. This conversation had been timed spectacularly badly. Or maybe the interruption was good. I wasn’t sure I could take being shot down in flames right now.
“To be continued.” Trying to reinstate the guards I’d put around myself, I pecked her on the nose then placed her down.
“Wait.” She took my hand, and I paused in my step. “I have a few, too.”
My heart gave an almighty thud. “Ye do?”
“Honesty, right?”
“Right.”
“Then yeah. A few. Or more.”
I stared at her, then another more impatient knock came.
“You’d better answer that and see what your morning looks like.” Taylor flashed a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
She now looked how I felt: wary and on the edge. I had the idea this was bigger for her than it was for me, and I had the ground shifting beneath my feet.
But I couldn’t leave my brother and his agent waiting. “Time to talk later, aye?”
“It’s a date,” Taylor said, quiet and pale.
Right. I opened the door. Ally waltzed in, Jennie hard at his heels. Then another man followed with a case in his hands.
“Hey,” I greeted them. I winced because my brother’s eye shone, a dark purple contusion marring his skin.
Ally grunted in reply, misery on his face. “So sorry. This is on. Jennie thinks it’ll work.”
“Set up on the dresser there.” Jennie directed the stranger. “We’ve got thirty minutes, so quick and precise, if you please.”
“Wasp.” She turned to me, and I tore my gaze from my brother. “Alasdair said you’d stand in for him this morning. Do you have any scars on your head or neck?”
“What? Um”—I ran a quick mental check—“not that I remember. I do on my arm—”
“Won’t matter. Face is king today.” She gestured to the other man.
“Antonio here will cut your hair and beard. I’ve been told our timeslot has been reduced, which is lucky, but we will still need to shave your upper half.
Waxing would be so much better, but there’s no time to reduce the redness.
Now, I’m anxious to see what’s under the beard. Take a seat, please.”
“Shave my upper half?” I turned, tracking the woman as she circled me. “Wait, cut my hair?”
Across the room, Taylor’s hands flew to her mouth. “Oh no!” She pointed at Ally. “Can’t you use makeup to cover the bruise?”
“No makeup allowed. So sorry.” Ally sat heavily on the bed and fell backwards, his arm over his eyes.
“It’s very simple.” Jennie tapped her foot, a model of brisk energy.
“Wasp, all you have to do is be your brother for the meeting. You don’t smile.
You don’t need to take the catwalk. All you do is listen to my commands.
They’ve already chosen your brother on the strength of his form.
Today is for the head honchos to come in and give the nod.
You’ll go into the building, strip to your underwear, walk into the room, stare straight ahead, I’ll say some things, then we’ll walk out again. ”
The other man, Antonio, placed a hand on my shoulder, guiding me into a chair that had magically appeared behind me. He picked up a pair of trimmers and slid the button, producing a buzz.
I had a moment of what the fuck? before coming to my senses and giving him a reluctant but resigned nod. Then my beard disappeared, and my hair followed.
And a whole new Wasp McRae emerged.
Thanks to my brother’s pestering, I kept up the same physical routine as him, working out in the castle gym every day and watching what I ate. There was little between us when it came to appearance. With Antonio finished, I took a pack of razors to the bathroom and shaved my chest and arms.
“And armpits,” Jennie called from the bedroom.
Great.
A light knock came, and Taylor cracked the door open. “Can I help?” she asked.
I gave her a swift nod, and she joined me, taking the razor and catching bits I’d missed.
“I’m grieving the loss of your hair, but there’s something I need to tell you,” she said.
“Go on.”
“You are so hot right now. Your cheek bones are popping.”
I grunted. “Ally’s look.”
She pawed my bare chest, her grin spreading. “Yours now. I didn’t like it on your brother. On you? Whoa.”
I watched her. “That’s because you like me.”
“True fact. But now you have to go.”
I did. Under my hard surface I was quaking.
Her gaze found mine in the mirror. “If you want, I can come with you?”
It was that, that tiny offer of support, in the midst of being together for days that had something click inside me. When we’d kissed at the crofthouse, Taylor had told me she wasn’t capable of love. Then the conversation this morning had thrown me for a loop. She did feel. She cared.
My objectives turned on their head.
I lifted my chin, accepting her offer, and we left the room together.
Antonio and Jennie gave me a once-over, approving the plan, and then we set off for the modelling studio.
Ally took himself off for a sour-faced stroll, and Taylor stayed with me.
She didn’t know what she was doing—this shoring me up—something my family instinctively gave.
I’d never have asked.
She did it anyway.
At the building, our cab came to a halt, and we climbed out.
“I’ll be here.” Taylor indicated to the steps outside. She gave me a quick kiss and then took her phone from her pocket.
“Showtime.” Jennie slapped her hands together.
We entered the cool reception, and I put on a game face like I never had before.