“They’re…the usual.”
“Sure you don’t want me to join you after I wrap things up here?” With him away for the weekend, Saffi had told him it would be a good time to join her family in the Hamptons. Staffan knew now that she was the youngest child and only daughter of Senator Samuel March as well as being the much-loved sister of Steel March, whom his own stepfather did business with. The knowledge had unsettled him a bit, making Staffan feel like Saffi was someone he didn’t deserve. It didn’t matter that he was a famous rock star or that he had a billionaire for a stepfather. Saffi had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Staffan had come from the streets, and there would be no changing that.
Staffan frowned when Saffi didn’t reply. Unused to Saffi’s reticence, he demanded, “Tell me what’s wrong, baby.”
“Nothing---” But her voice caught at the end.
“Saffi, no more f**king lies, remember? Tell me what’s wrong so I can do something about it.”
“I just…miss you.”
He closed his eyes, his chest easing with relief at the words. He pictured Saffi lying on what was probably a four-poster bed, surrounded by all things pink and lacy. No doubt her childhood bedroom would be everything sweet and girlish, just like Saffi was.
The image made his heart constrict. That innocent girl in his mind was now his, and no f**king way would he ever let go of her again. Staffan said gruffly, “I f**king miss you, too, koukla mou.”
She giggled, but it was a shaky sound. “Do you have to add f**k to everything you say?”
“Fuck yes.”
Her giggle sounded genuine this time, and she said teasingly, “I just don’t fuh-uh-ucking get it.”
The way Saffi stumbled all over the word made him laugh, but it also made Staffan wish he was back at his apartment, with a na**d Saffi in his bed. “Why the f**k does everything you do or say make me so goddamn horny?” he demanded, but he was only half-joking.
“Don’t ever ask that again,” Saffi pleaded. “I don’t want you figuring out how not to want me.”
“See? That just made me even hornier.”
“Staffan!”
He grinned. “Fucking love you, baby.”
Moisture gathered in Saffi’s eyes. Even after spending almost every night with Staffan this past month, she still couldn’t get used to hearing Staffan say he loved her. It made her want to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.
Staffan Aehrenthal, the rock star she adored from afar all these years? The guy she personally dubbed Mr. Rock Star Chic, not knowing the nickname would stick – the man women all over the world literally worshipped as a sex god…how could this man be hers?
She started to tell Staffan she loved him too, but someone was calling Staffan’s name. She heard Staffan answer, his voice muffled, as if he was covering the mouthpiece of his phone.
When he got back, Saffi said brightly, “I know. I get it. You need to go.”
“Of course not---”
“Staffan, I’m a fangirl, remember? I need only three guesses to figure out exactly who’s talking to you and why you’re needed. First, it could be a backstage interview request. Second, it could be---”
“My know-it-all baby.” The smirk in Staffan’s voice was absolutely sexy.
Saffi couldn’t help making a face at his words even though Staffan couldn’t see her. “That’s soooo funny, har-har.”
“You love me, Saffi,” he said easily. “So of course you find it funny.”
Her mouth opened and closed several times. She could not figure out how to answer that.
Staffan suppressed a smile even as he nodded at the guy who was begging him silently to follow him for the backstage interview. Saffi had guessed correctly. “Saffi?”
He got garbled noise, like Saffi was trying to speak but was unable to.
This time, he couldn’t help smirking. “Yeah, I get it. You really love me---”
More garbled noise.
He chuckled. “Fuck you later.”
Saffi stared at her phone as Staffan ended the call. Fuck you later?
Annoyingly adorable aholehole!
Her phone buzzed with a message from Staffan.
Call you back in thirty minutes. Don’t go to sleep – I want to make you come before you do.
Her lips trembled. She didn’t know if she wanted to cry or smile at his message. It was so…Staffan. And then she tasted something salty, and she knew the tears had won the battle. Hurriedly wiping the tears away, Saffi pinched her cheeks to bring back some color into her suddenly pale face. She checked herself in the mirror where her reflection stared wanly back at her.
Damn. She needed to apply more makeup. Steel was going to whisk her to the E.R. if he saw her like this. Her hand shook as she applied lipstick. She needed to look cheerful and healthy, the way a well-loved girlfriend should. The way an expectant mother should.
The lipstick fell from her hand at the last thought.
Fuck you later. His words played in Saffi’s mind over and over.
Someone knocked on her bathroom door. “Saffi?” Jeremy’s quiet voice was lined with concern.
Without planning to, Saffi fell to her knees, sobbing. She was sure most people would tell her it was just pregnancy hormones. But it was not that. It was because she was scared. She was so terrified, her heart ached with fear.
“I’m forcing the door open if you don’t come out in three seconds, Saffi.” Steel spoke the words matter-of-factly, and Saffi knew her oldest brother meant it. He always meant what he said. She wished she could be like him.
She wished she had been like him from the very start.
Three seconds passed, and Steel kicked the door open. Staffan was going to wonder about that, she thought absently as Steel knelt down next to her with a curse. Staffan thought she was with her family, but she wasn’t. She couldn’t be with them, didn’t dare go home until she was sure of what to say or do if, as Staffan would so aptly put it, the shit hit the f**king fan.
A hysterical choking laugh escaped Saffi at the thought.
Saffi’s brother carefully drew her in his arms. “Saffi.” Steel’s voice was bleak.
“I’m scared,” she whispered. “What if Dad loses the election again because of me, like he did the last time? What if Staffan doesn’t believe me when I tell him the baby’s his?”
“You have to tell him the truth, Saffi. I can kill this story for now – but I can’t do it indefinitely. It will go out sooner or later.”