CHAPTER 35 BOWER
BOWER
Bennett: Gretchen wants to meet us today. You available tonight?
Bower: Yeah, just let me know the time and place.
Bennett: Got it. P.S. I can still taste you on my tongue.
Bower: Good. Maybe you can have another taste later.
Bennett: Count me fucking in. Miss you, beautiful.
Bower: Miss you. XOXO
“You had sex with Bennett, didn’t you?” Adalade says from across the table, where she’s looking through curtain swatches. She wants to redo her office, even though she doesn’t ever do much in there.
“What?” I ask, surprised as I set my phone down on the table.
“Don’t mess with me. I can tell from the look on your face. You had sex, didn’t you?”
I bite the corner of my lip and Adalade’s eyes widen.
“Goodness, you had a lot of it.”
I bury my head in my hands and squeal, unable to hold back, causing her to laugh. “Ahhh, Adalade, I made a huge mistake, one that I made over and over and over again.”
She chuckles and pushes the fabric swatches away. “I’m disappointed that you’ve been here for over two hours and you haven’t said anything to me. That seems like it’s grounds for being fired. Tell me why I should keep you around when you’re withholding such information from me?”
“Because I’m still trying to comprehend all this and accept it myself.”
She eyes me suspiciously. “I can understand that. I don’t like it, but I can understand it. So, tell me what happened.”
I let out a deep breath and recount what happened last night, Bennett showing up at my door, begging for me to be with him, going to his place, him not being there, only for him to show up later and take me in his bed.
“Wow.” Adalade picks up a brochure from the table and fans it in front of her face. “He begged?”
I nod. “It broke me.”
“I can see how that would break the strongest of women. And what happened to Cougar?”
“I let him down the best I could.”
“Did he accept it?”
I nod, thinking back to how understanding he was. “He did. He was really nice about it, which of course made me feel more guilty. I kind of wish he was a jerk about it, you know? Would have made it easier.”
“Yes, but at least you were honest with him.”
“I was.”
Adalade has a glint in her eye. “You know, I was researching him the other day out of pure boredom. And did you know his real name isn’t Cougar?”
“It’s not?” I ask, surprised.
“No. His real name is Logan.”
“Logan?” I ask, my eyes widening. “Why on earth does he go by Cougar?”
“I watched an interview where he said his high school coach gave him the name for being a cougar on the field, and he thought it was fitting, so that’s what he goes by.”
“Goodness, someone needs to tell him Logan is better.”
Adalade chuckles. “I don’t know, I wouldn’t mind a little Cougar in my life.”
“Adalade.” I laugh.
She casually adjusts the bracelets on her wrists, as if what she’s saying is completely normal. “Consider me infatuated after my google search. Glad to hear he’s on the market.”
“Shall I make an introduction?”
“No, no, I’ll put it into fate’s hands.” She winks and then folds her hands together. “I’m happy for you, though. It seems like you have a lightness about you, like perhaps this is what you should have been doing for a while now.”
“That’s what it kind of feels like,” I say, admitting to the feelings I think I might have been harboring but not realizing it. “I’m still kind of sick and nauseous over the whole thing and what we’re going to do when it comes to Gabby, but Bennett said we will work it out together.”
“A good man.” She picks up a plaid swatch and tests the material with her fingertips. “Now, when are we going to a game?”
“You want to go?”
She looks up at me. “I demand that we go.”
“Then I guess I should look into tickets.”
“Make it a suite,” Adalade says. “I don’t tend to mix with the general public.”
I chuckle. “You got it.”
“Bennett?” I call out when I walk into his apartment. I set down my bag and keys, not even bothering to go to my apartment.
“Baby,” he calls out as he slides on his sock-covered feet from his bedroom right into the living room. When he stops, he runs right up to me, picks me up, and plasters me against the wall.
His mouth is on mine before I can even say hi, while his hands find their way up my shirt.
I chuckle against his kisses from his excitement, causing him to pull away and give me the cutest look ever. “Uh, I’m seducing you. You shouldn’t be laughing.”
“I’m sorry, you just did this whole Tom Cruise slide-in thing and then like a happy dog, excited to see their owner, just started attacking me. I wasn’t expecting it.”
“Excited dog, huh? Want me to lick you all over like a dog would?”
My brow furrows. “I feel like you might have thought that was something sexy to say, but I didn’t like it.”
He scratches the side of his face and says, “Yeah, didn’t hit right. Either way, I want to lick you. Let’s get you out of these pants—”
“Gretchen is coming over.”
“Babe,” he says, in a serious tone. “I can get you off in thirty seconds, and you know it.”
“That’s very cocky of you.”
“It’s true. Do we need to revisit how quick you got off this morning when I had you on the kitchen counter?”
“You were putting ice on your tongue and flicking my clit. I had no chance.”
“So what you’re saying is…you want a repeat? Not a problem. Just take these pants off.”
I chuckle while stopping him. “She’s going to be here any minute. Just wait until she’s gone and then you can do whatever you want to me.”
“Is that a promise?”
“As if you need a promise,” I say, leaning into him. “The moment she’s gone, I’ll be shedding your pants off.”
“That’s what I like to hear.” His lips find my neck and I sigh into him as his hands roam my body and he kisses all the way down my neck and starts tugging on my shirt again.
“Bennett.” I laugh just as there’s a knock at the door.
“Fuck,” he mutters and then pulls away, planting a kiss on my lips and then going to answer the door.
Without a hello, Gretchen steps into the apartment and says, “I don’t make house calls, so there better be a reason for this.
” She walks right past Bennett and straight to the dining room table, where she takes a seat, crossing one leg over the other.
When she looks between us, her expression falls to irritation as she says, “I knew it.”
She then reaches into her bag and pulls out a folder.
“Knew what?” I ask, joining her at the table, along with Bennett.
“Knew that you two were fucking.”
Wow, way to be eloquent.
She pulls out a pen, slaps open the folder, and pushes a document toward me. “Fill this out and sign at the bottom.”
“What is that?” Bennett asks, taking the form from me before I can even start reading it.
“It’s an NDA. If you two are an item, she needs to fill it out. I make every person I work with who is dating someone, or in your case, fucking, fill it out.”
“We’re more than just fucking,” Bennett says, insulted by the term, which I think is pretty cute.
“Call it what you want, but I need that signed and I won’t be leaving until it is.”
“It’s fine,” I say, grabbing the form.
“No, babe, you don’t just sign something because someone tells you to.”
“It’s an NDA, as if I’d say anything about us to anyone else. Plus, I already signed one for the book stuff.”
“That’s why you don’t have to sign it, because I trust you.”
“That’s cute,” Gretchen says. “But unfortunately, trust doesn’t get you anywhere in this business, especially when it comes to matters of the heart. She needs to sign it. It will protect you from any backlash if this relationship ever comes to an end.”
“It’s not going to end,” Bennett practically growls at Gretchen.
“I’m sure it’s not, but she still needs to sign it.”
“It’s fine,” I say, trying to grab the form again.
“Just let me look through this for a second,” he says, scanning through the pages.
And I let him, because it’s cute that he wants to protect me. As he reads, I awkwardly smile at Gretchen and say, “I like your nails.”
They’re painted a matte black, very businesslike and dark…probably like her soul.
“You don’t need to talk when he reads,” she says in response, clearly fine with silences.
“What’s this?” Bennett asks, pointing to a paragraph. “Bower would have to assume all blame for the breakup if it were to happen?”
“Typical protocol for a celebrity/peasant relationship.”
“Peasant?” I ask, insulted.
“Yes, when one party is more valuable in the public’s eye than the other, the less valuable party will take on the burden of the breakup to save the image of the higher-valued party.”
“How the fuck is that fair?” Bennett asks.
“It’s not, but that’s business.” She looks down at her watch and then up at us. “Please, I don’t have all day.”
“It’s fine, Bennett,” I say, not caring at all. I take the form from him, and before he can protest, I sign.
“Bower, I wasn’t done reading it.”
“Like I said, it’s fine. I don’t care. If something goes wrong between us, I have no problem taking on the blame.”
“Nothing is going to go wrong.”
“Aww, that’s sweet,” Gretchen says, sarcasm dripping from every word as she snatches the paper from me and stuffs it in an envelope. “Now, who knows about this relationship?”
“Um, well, it’s kind of private,” I answer. “We aren’t really telling anyone, because his sister is my best friend, and if she found out, she’d be very angry, and we’re trying to work that all out before we go public.”
“Is that right?” Gretchen glances over at Bennett. “Then why does he have a guilty look on his face?”
I turn to look at him, too, and sure enough, he does look guilty.
“Who did you tell?” I ask.
He tugs on his hair in that cute, boyish way before saying, “Uh, I might have told—”
“Do not say OC,” Gretchen says.
“OC,” Bennett responds with a nod.
“For the love of God.” Gretchen pinches the bridge of her nose.
“And Graydon,” Bennett adds.
“Bennett,” I say in surprise.
“And Nolan Hart,” Bennett says on a wince.
“My God, Bennett, did you have a gossip session?” I ask, surprised he told so many people.