My teeth grind together. Anya steps forward and unfurls my fingers. To my surprise, I let her drop my wireless headphones in my hand. I glance up at her but she ignores me and heads back to the wall.
“May I?” I ask Sally, gesturing to the headphones.
“Go for it,” Sally replies, focusing on mixing her various potions.
I place the headphones in my ears, effectively stopping any other attempts by McBride to distract me. I quickly realize Anya has my phone. I look up at her and watch as she connects to my headphones and immediately Leon Bridges plays in my ears.
I huff a laugh and run my fingers across my mouth to hide the smile. God, she’s amazing. She’s given me a way to ignore McBride whilst distracting me from my irritation. I let the music play in my ears, ignoring the man next to me and resting my eyes on the only person in the room who understands exactly what I need.
***
I should have known my good day wasn’t to last. Despite Anya’s intervention in the truck, McBride has already pledged to make my life as difficult as possible. Today, I haven’t made it easy for him. I’ve ignored every incessant attempt to trip me up during a scene. I’ve kept a cool head.
It’s when we’re getting our mics taken off that he strikes.
“Like the hotel?” he asks, innocently.
I ignore him.
“Those suites are pretty nice,” McBride continues.
My shoulders tense. “What floor are you on?” I ask pleasantly.
“Seven.”
Two floors below me. I relax knowing that the prospect of him seeing Anya coming and going is pretty slim. Unless he sees her in the lobby. No, even if he did see her it would just look like she’s coming to get me for a work related reason, so unless she emerges with sex hair and rumpled clothes, we’ll be fine. Anya’s concern from this morning suddenly becomes a little more worrisome. Maybe we do need to switch up our schedules.
McBride is prattling on in my ear but I’ve got what I need from him. Patting the sound guy on the shoulder in thanks when he releases me, I walk away.
Anya is waiting by the car, her nose buried in her phone. She looks up as I approach, her face brightening with a smile that almost takes my breath away.
“Good day?” she asks, straightening.
I reach around her, crowding her against the car. “Yeah.”
Her eyes drop to my mouth, her pink tongue flicking against her lip. Teasing Anya is quickly becoming my favorite part of the day. I open the door and gesture for her to enter.
Once we’re on the move, Anya glances at Jaques before turning to face me. “Did the hotel speak to you about the linen?”
I’m confused for a second until I register herjust to go with itexpression. “Oh, no?” I ask, innocently.
She nods. “I’ll come and speak to them for you.”
Ah. “Yes, I really need my linen seen to. My whole bed actually, definitely needs a work over.”
She rolls her eyes but she can’t hide the grin on her face from me.
After saying a quick goodbye to Jaques, we bypass the lobby and any hotel staff who probably could advise on bed linen, heading straight to the elevators.
I take her hand in mine as soon as the doors close, tugging her into my space. She leans in expectantly, but I quickly relay my McBride woes.
“Oh,” Anya tries to take a step away from me but I pull her back into my arms.
“He’s not in the elevator with us freckles, we’re fine. It’s the communal areas we need to be wary of. No fondling me in reception.”
She snorts a laugh and presses a kiss to my lips. I chase her as she pulls away, the ping of the door forcing me to drop her hand.
Chapter 23
