I rolled my eyes but laughed as she meant me to. “Okay, okay, I’ll just try to enjoy.”
“I know you don’t get this,” she said, stepping closer to take one of my hands, “but you deserve to be happy. This isn’t about luck, this is about the hard work you’ve done to be a good person who deserves good karma, to be the best actress you can be, to be the sort of woman a man like Adam fucking Meyers could fall in love with.”
“Oh, I don’t know about love,” I said, waving away her words as a blush warmed my cheeks.
Ro’s eyes gleamed. “Well, I guess we’ll see about that. Break a leg, knock ’em dead, may the force be with you, and all that jazz. Call me tomorrow for a complete debrief.”
“I will,” I promised.
“Do you want me to take Miranda back to the guest house?” she offered, already moving towards my mum to take the handles of her chair.
“I love you,” I told her, because I seemed overstuffed with the emotion and needed a safe place to vent some of it.
She grinned as she pushed Miranda to my side and accepted my kiss on the cheek before waiting for me to do the same to mum. “We love you, too.”
The moment they left, my gut twisted into knots.
I moved to pick at a hangnail and cursed myself, clasping my hands behind my back as I twisted to face the mirror again.
“Just who do you think you are?” I asked the admittedly beautiful girl in the mirror.
“My future bride,” a familiar, crisp British accent sounded from the doorway behind me.
I angled myself in the reflection to see Adam, and I put my hand to brace myself against the frame of the mirror to steady myself.
He was an absolute vision.
The suit he wore was a deep charcoal that was almost black, a stark contrast to his crisp white shirt, which was unbuttoned at the throat. There was a vivid yellow silk pocket square in his breast pocket that exactly matched my dress and brought out the emerald green of his eyes. He had his hair pushed back from his forehead with product in a manner that only highlighted his masculine beauty, his strong features, and dark brows, as well as the dimple in his square chin. He looked exactly like a movie star should, almost otherworldly and so beautiful I had to blink away sunspots.
“I could certainly be convinced to marry you if you agree to wear that to the wedding,” I said, going for playful and failing because my voice was too breathy.
Damn, he looked incredible.
For a moment I felt sixteen again, watching Adam and his wife leave with Miranda and Bobbi for one of their glamorous events in London. That I was the woman here with him now was utterly surreal.
He chuckled as he pushed off the doorframe and stalked toward me, that predatory gait that made my thighs clench even though I’d already come multiple times that day.
Knowing how skilled he was with his hands, his cock, his sinful mouth, and that depraved, devious mind only proved to amplify his beauty tenfold.
I would have sunk to my knees if it wouldn’t ruin the lines of my dress.
His grin was wicked, as if he could read my mind as he came to a stop behind me.
The sight of us together in the mirror as he slid an arm around my waist took my breath away. And suddenly, being on his arm didn’t feel so surreal anymore. We looked perfect together, so golden we seemed to glow.
“Look at you,” he murmured, eyes raking over every inch of my reflection. “Just look at you. I’m not sure I knew a woman could captivate me the way you do.”
I arched a brow. “You’ve been married and dated your fair share of actresses and models.”
“Which means I am an authority on the matter,” he countered coolly. “So you should believe me when I say I have never in my life seen a more striking woman. You will be the envy of everyone on the red carpet.”
“You like the dress, then,” I said with a pleased little smile.
“I like you in anything,” he corrected. “But seeing you in your own art is especially appealing, I have to admit. You look ravishing.”
“Thank you,” I said, because his praise felt like cool rain flushing out the lingering toxicity of Miranda’s biting criticisms in the past.
He pressed a kiss to my head and then reached for the jewelry box left open on the chest of drawers. “Allow me to help you with these.”
