She couldn’t stop a giggle from escaping. They were in the most intimate, dirty position, bodies slick from frantic sex and he had to go and be all sweet. But then again, that was Dean.
That was her Dean…
“Do I get to wear your class ring?” she teased. “Because I want everyone to know that we’re going steady.”
Sheer joy covered his face. “You can even have my letter jacket, babe. So everyone knows we’re really serious.”
So much happiness—Emma buzzed with it. “I love you, Dean Colter, and don’t you ever forget it.”
“Never going to leave you,” he promised. “You can tell me every single day so I don’t forget.”
The ice inside was gone. Nothing but fire remained.
Chapter Seventeen
Dean didn’t walk into the office the next morning—he strutted. Yup, he John Travolta’d his way into the building, because goddamn, there was nothing else for a man to do when he was riding the biggest high of his life.
Love.
He was filling a cup with coffee when he finally clued in to the dead silence. He glanced over his shoulder to discover his partners leaning against the wall in identical positions, legs crossed, arms crossed. Identical shit-eating grins on their faces.
“I swear your feet didn’t touch the ground once, Colter.” Parker poked Jack in the side. “I wonder what’s got him grinning like a Cheshire cat?”
“Fuck off,” Dean offered lightly.
“Dean Colter!”
Shit. He hadn’t noticed Didi sitting at the staff table. Man, he was off his game this morning…and he didn’t care one fucking iota.
He was in love.
“Sorry, Didi.”
“Apology not accepted.” She eyed him sternly. “Go put a quarter in the swear jar.”
“We have a swear jar?” He shot a blank look at his partners, which got him a rueful nod from Jack.
“I’ve already financed a small country.” Jack pulled a rude face. “Didi caught me talking to one of the caterers who screwed up and kept score for the entire twenty minutes I reamed them out.”
“You two have the manners of sewer rats,” Parker taunted. “Didi’s right. We have a certain decorum to maintain around here.”
“Suck it up a little harder, bro,” Jack muttered, clipping Parker with his shoulder as he led Dean down the hall toward the offices. “You’re lucky the woman’s never heard you ordering Lynn around during sex.”
“You’ve never heard me order Lynn around during sex,” Parker blasted back. “And you’re never going to.”
“Don’t be so sure.” Jack ducked Parker’s halfhearted swing. “That road trip we took? We need to stay in hotels with thicker walls, that’s all I’m saying.”
Dean expected to be interrogated further, but both the guys vanished into their offices without another word.
Go figure—the day he was ready to spill them all the details the minute they pressed, they were too busy to rag on him.
Asses.
His phone rang as he strode into his office, and as if on cue, his heart did a silly little flip that made him want to rag on himself. Jeez. This love thing was getting out of control.
But a glance at the screen showed not Emma’s number, but Suz’s.
“Hey, Jonesy,” he drawled into the phone. “How are you doing this fine day?”
“Dean! Dean! Oh my God, you—wait, no. I mean, I’m great. Awesome. Fan-tabulous. How about you?”
He wrinkled his brow. “How much coffee have you downed so far today, Jones?”
“Four cups, but that’s beside the point.” Her breathing kicked up a notch on the other end of the line. “So…um…not to be a drama queen or anything—”
He snorted.
“But we have a little situation.” She paused. “Okay, maybe not so little. It’s kind of big. Or maybe colossal is the right word. Have you talked to Emma?”
Whoa, that was an unexpected tangent. “Not since a couple hours ago. Why?” His concern increased rapidly as he remembered an important detail. “Wait—weren’t you supposed to have breakfast with her this morning?”
“I did. I left the diner twenty minutes ago. Emma got a phone call right as we were paying the bill, and dude, it sounded serious.”
Unease turned to worry. “Who was it?”
“I don’t know. Her assistant, I think. Or someone from New York. She didn’t give me a chance to ask too many questions. She just shouted The sky is falling! then said she had to go.” Another pause. “Well, she didn’t actually say the sky-is-falling part, but it was implied. And her side of the conversation I overheard involved words like arrested and fucking jerk and a lot of oh my Gods.”
Lorenzo.
Dean’s chest tightened as he instantly deduced the source of Emma’s latest emergency. What the hell had that Italian idiot done now?
Then he froze, as something else registered. “She left. Did she head back to the hotel?” Oh fuck. She wouldn’t leave town without calling him, would she? But if Lorenzo had been arrested…
“That’s all she—”