Boy Meets Geek (16 page)

19: Whirlwind

The rest of the day was a whirlwind of activity. It started with an exclusive signing ceremony for people who paid for the top level VIP package which meant they each got about five minutes with Sean after he signed one of their books. After that we had time for a quick bite to eat and then it was off to a panel where he answered questions from fans.

Most of it had to do with where the series was going, though there were a few people who were angry that it’d been a few years since his last release with no release date for the next one. I realized I had a very real power if I wanted to use it or abuse it. I could just ask him what was going to happen with the books.

Only I dismissed that thought almost as soon as it occurred to me. Sean had opened himself up to me, despite the subterfuge and the outright lying about who he actually was, and I decided in the middle of that Q&A session that I wasn’t going to take advantage of that trust. I wasn’t going to ask him any questions about his plans for the books or why the latest one wasn’t even announced, despite the burning curiosity I had about where the series was going.

I also felt something new and interesting in the Q&A session. Jealousy. I’m not proud of it, I was reluctant to even admit to myself that was what I was feeling, but by the end of the session I couldn’t deny it.

I’d been absolutely correct in my assessment that Sean was a man who attracted quite a bit of interest from his female fan base. How could he not attract interest the way he looked and being as rich as he was? I thought one girl was having a seizure when she went up to the microphone and Sean repeated her name back to her. It turned out she wasn’t having a seizure, not at all. She was just freaking out that Sean Taylor actually said her name, and she told him as much at least five different times while she was asking her question.

Apparently that first crazy girl who was so excited about hearing him say her name gave ideas to another creeper who came up to the microphone a few questions later. She had her phone out and she was taking a video, only she didn’t have a question. No, she was just interested in hearing him say her name while recording it for posterity. I tried not to think about what she might do with that video.

Of course that was nothing compared to a girl who came up to the microphone and actually had the audacity to ask him how big his cock was! He’d fielded all the other questions pretty well up until that point, but even that one obviously threw him for a loop. It threw me for a loop as well. I was standing and about to walk across the aisles to the microphone to scratch her eyes out when I saw him pointedly look to me and make a motion for me to sit.

I didn’t want to, but he had more experience with this sort of thing so I was going to defer to his judgment. For now. Maybe if I saw her out in the convention hall later I’d scratch her eyes out. Security came up and pulled her away from the microphone as she kept screaming her question over and over while people around her took pictures and videos of her display.

I also have to admit to feeling a sense of smug satisfaction as I listened to her screaming. I knew the answer to her question. I knew it in the most intimate way possible. In a way she’d never know.

Of course all those girls were nothing compared to her. The same girl I’d from the opening ceremony. The girl who’d been staring daggers at me and had been staring with barely concealed lust at Sean. She was sitting back on the stage, the same stage where he delivered the opening keynote, and she was staring at him the entire time with a blissful expression on her face. Except for one brief diversion. One moment where her eyes swept out across the crowd and she noticed me sitting near the front. Then that blissful expression turned to a glare.

Even more interesting was how she reacted to those girls asking their stupid questions, particularly the last girl with the cock size question. Stage girl was reacting in much the same way that I was. With a possessiveness that made me want to jump up on stage and scratch her eyes out along with the girl who was being carried out by security screaming at the top of her lungs.

Who was that girl? And what the hell was her problem?

Seeing all these girls throwing themselves at him was unsettling. Once again it brought up some of those doubts I’d been feeling since I found out who he actually was. If he had all of these girls throwing themselves at him, and some of them were pretty good lookers, what could he possibly see in me?

No. I wasn’t listening to my worst-case scenario brain. I was going to enjoy the Q&A and laugh at all of those girls who couldn’t have what I’d already had. What I hoped to have again later tonight!

Of course that didn’t stop me from asking a few questions when we got out of that Q&A session.

“So that was interesting,” I said.

“Was it?”

“Those pretty girls who asked you to say their name? What about the one who asked about your cock size?”

I was incredulous. I couldn’t believe it. He shrugged as though that was no big deal. As though nothing all that odd had happened. Can he really be that oblivious? Or was that actually normal for him? I’m not sure which prospect was more terrifying.

“All that?” he said. “That sort of thing happens at all of those Q&A sessions. It’s just something I’ve learned to tune out over the past couple of years.”

I stopped in the middle of the tunnel and stared. My mouth must’ve been hanging open because a look of concern flashed across his face when he finally realized I wasn’t walking next to him anymore and he turned to see where I’d disappeared to.

“You can’t really be that nonchalant about that?”

A sympathetic smile crossed his face and he stepped forward to wrap his arms around me. I closed my eyes and inhaled his scent as I enjoyed the feel of those muscular arms surrounding me. I felt so safe, so secure, every time he did that. Every time he wrapped his arms around me it was as though all my insecurities were washed away.

Never mind that they’d probably come crashing back in full force once he no longer had his arms around me. I was going to enjoy the moment.

“I’m so sorry Jessica,” he said. “That really was throwing you into the deep end. I’ve been dealing with this for so long that I forget it’s all brand-new to you. I hit it big when I was about your age and I’ve had a decade to get used to the crazy. I can’t imagine how that must’ve looked to you.”

I looked up at him and I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. Damn it. I was not going to do this. I was not going to lose control. I was not the jealous type!

And yet here I was, definitely feeling just a little bit jealous of all those girls who were taking a small piece of him. Sure I’d gotten one hell of a big piece of him, but I still had this ridiculous worry that if all of those girls took those small pieces of him then there was a chance one of them might take away the whole thing from me.

I wiped a tear from my eye. “I’m sorry. I know I’m being ridiculous.”

“No, not at all,” he said. I just have to remember that you’re not used to this life. Not yet.”

That sent a thrill. Yet? That implied there was a future to this. Only at this point I didn’t dare hope for something like that. We’d only just met. Sure we seemed to have really clicked, but I wasn’t going to hope for too much. Hoping meant the crash would be that much more painful when it eventually came. Focus on the convention. On the here and now.

“No,” I said. “I have no right to act like this. It’s not like we’re actually dating or something…”

His hand moved out and cupped my cheeks. I felt like I was on fire where his hand made contact with my body. His thumb stroked my cheek and I felt another thrill run through me. It seemed like life was one thrill after another when I was near him.

“Aren’t we?”

“Are we?”

“I know where I am on that Jessica,” he said. “I flew you across the country so I could see you. I just had one of the most intense experiences of my life with you in that hotel suite. You’re the one who calls that particular shot though.”

I smiled and decided it was my turn to do a judicious changing of the subject that he seemed to be so fond of doing himself. I certainly knew how I thought I felt about him, but I didn’t want to say it. Not this soon. Not when we’d only really met one another for real for the first time earlier today. Giving voice to what I felt seemed stupid, headstrong, the kind of thing that would chase him away if I actually said it.

“We’re going to be late to your next event if we don’t get a move on,” I said.

He blinked and I resisted the urge to giggle at the look on his face. Let him enjoy a taste of his own medicine. Let him feel the frustration of somebody changing the subject when important questions were being asked. I could prove to him that he wasn’t the only person in this relationship to have a little bit of frustrating mystery.

Relationship? Was that how I was starting to think of this? I guess if I was completely honest with myself that’s what I was hoping was happening here, though I was still reluctant to call it that. There was something inside me that was saying I’d ruin everything if I went ahead and said it prematurely.

“I suppose you’re right, we’d better get a move on.”

The next meeting was less eventful than the Q&A. It was a meeting with his publishers which was interesting because they were talking about the next book, or rather how the next book had failed to materialize after two years.

After a little shouting at the beginning it quickly devolved into talk of sales figures and how much money everybody in the room was making which really didn’t interest me at all. I got a few glances when I trailed in behind Sean, but after that everybody pretty much took it as a matter of course that he’d bring a random girl along with him to one of these meetings.

I knew I was being ridiculous, I knew I was reading too much into their reaction, but I couldn’t help but worry at their nonchalance about me showing up to that meeting. Were they acting so nonchalant because Sean Taylor was the one who brought me, the big boss who controlled all the purse strings, and there wasn’t anything they could say about it one way or another?

Or were they acting so nonchalant about a girl showing up to that meeting because that was the sort of thing he did at every convention? Was I just the latest piece he’d brought to a parade in front of them before he whisked me away to do more of this Cinderella at the ball routine to dazzle me into letting him into my pants?

Damn it! Why did I keep thinking like this? Why did I keep letting these thoughts intrude?

Thankfully that meeting was a fast one. Both because it was ridiculously boring, I did get a couple of glares when I pulled out my phone as though I was some sort of  corporate spy using my feminine wiles to get secrets out of them, so I put it away and sat in bored silence.

Mostly I was relieved that the meeting was over quickly because that meant I wasn’t alone with my traitorous brain for very long. I could concentrate on how nice it felt to have his arm wrapped around mine. I could concentrate on how nice it was just being with him after so much time getting to know one another online.

I glanced at my phone after we got out of that meeting and was surprised to realize it was getting pretty late in the day. I looked up to Sean. “So are we getting close to the end of the schedule? Maybe we’re getting close to going back to the hotel room?”

“Just one more thing today,” he said. “We have the opening day banquet in the convention center. I have to give a speech and then we’re done. You do get a free meal out of it though.”

My stomach rumbled at the mention of food. We’d been going full tilt all day and I hadn’t even had a chance to grab a quick snack while we were moving around the convention center. I wouldn’t mind having a quick meal.

“Free food sounds good,” I said. “Is it anywhere near as nice or as expensive as lunch?”

Sean chuckled and shook his head. “I’m afraid not. It’s your typical hotel catering stuff. Twenty bucks of cafeteria quality food that the hotel charges fifty bucks a plate for because they can.”

My stomach growled again. “Whatever. At this point I’d be willing to hunt down a cow and kill it with my bare hands if it meant getting a steak.”

Sean chuckled again as we emerged from the tunnels under the convention center into a massive room set up like a banquet Hall.

“You might have to hunt down that cow. I don’t think steak is even on the menu. That would cost extra,” Sean said.

“Whatever. Where do we sit?”

“There’s a table right near the front. It’s mostly people from the publishing company and a couple of high level volunteers who’ve been helping out. But I made sure they got you a seat front and center right next to me.”

I smiled. “Sounds good to me.”

So I found myself sitting at a wide round table near right in front of the stage where Sean was supposed to give his big speech. He made sure I was situated and then he disappeared to get ready for his speech. Though he promised there weren’t going to be any of the shenanigans like earlier when he was wearing that ridiculous costume.

Despite the roller coaster ride that was today, despite how overwhelming it all was, and most definitely despite how I’d had that little breakdown under the convention center earlier in the day, I was feeling pretty good about myself. The day was actually ending on a high note. Aside from my breakdown and the occasional bout of crippling insecurities there’d been no major disasters and I was actually feeling pretty damn good about myself and how things were going with Sean.