Falling Into Love with You (The Hate-Love Duet Book 2) Rowe, Lauren (read aloud TXT) 📖

about Laila’s contestants. He asked her in there so he could finally make his move.”

“Oh, for the love of fuck. Even if you’re right about that, don’t you trust Laila? She wants you, man. Not him. You.”

I run my hand through my hair. “But does she, though? Right now, I feel the same way I did when Laila didn’t come to my room during the tour! I thought she wanted me then, too, Kendrick. I would have bet any amount of money. But she never came to me and ignored me and blocked my number, and to this day, I can’t understand why! And now, here I am wondering why she’s spinning out of control, simply because I invited Charlie to our house—”

“To prove she’s a liar.”

“To help her get into character!”

“Okay, calm down.” Kendrick sighs. “I’m sure she’ll explain herself tonight. But for now, let’s get some lunch and let the girl do her job, okay? She and Colin are up first after lunch, so they really do have work to do before then. Let’s let them do it.”

I place my elbows on the table and my head in my hands. “I swear, that woman has taken years off my life.”

Kendrick pats my back. “At some point, you’ve got to decide to trust her, Savage. That’s what this all boils down to—you finally deciding to trust a woman, completely. To let your guard down with Laila, once and for all, and trust.”

Emotion surges inside of me. “How can I trust Laila when she didn’t come to my room, when I was so sure she would? How can I trust a woman who wanted to be with Malik fucking Wallace after he so clearly showed her and everyone at that restaurant what a flaming asshole he is? How, how, how, Kendrick?”

“And how can Laila trust you when she thinks you’re the guy who fucked that waitress and all those groupies? You weren’t her boyfriend at the time, true, but she thinks she knows how you roll, man.”

“She has to know I was full of shit about all that stuff by now!”

“But does she, though? Have you come clean to her about everything yet?”

I rub my forehead. “No. Once I get started talking, it’s gonna be a lot. I want to be sure I’m all-in before I head down that road.”

“Well, then, if you ask me, you can’t be too surprised when she doesn’t trust you any more than you trust her. My advice? You two need to sit down and talk this out, from top to bottom. Just talk to her and tell her everything.”

I throw up my hands. “You specifically told me not to tell her a goddamned thing until I was positive of my feelings for her, or else you’d beat me up.”

“That’s still true.” He smiles sympathetically. “But it seems to me you’re pretty fucking sure about your feelings at this point, man.”

I process that for a beat, and then lean back in my seat, feeling overwhelmed. “Kendrick, I’d crawl over a hundred miles of broken glass for that woman. I’d do anything for her. Literally anything. And yet, clearly, no matter what I do, she doesn’t trust me as far as she can throw me. And I don’t understand why.”

Twenty

Laila

I take a seat next to Colin on the couch in my dressing room and begin opening my box lunch. “Thanks so much for meeting with me about my team,” I say excitedly. “I can’t wait to hear your thoughts about—”

“I didn’t ask you here to talk about your team,” Colin interrupts. “Sorry. I only said that to get you away from Savage.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “Oh?”

“There’s something I need to talk to you about, Laila. Something confidential.” Colin places his box lunch on the coffee table in front of us. “I’m breaching my NDA with the show to tell you about this, but, as your friend, I can’t keep it from you. Please, don’t tell the producers I told you. Also, don’t tell Savage. That guy’s a loose cannon.”

I nod and wait, my stomach tight with dread. I’m not sure I won’t tell Savage whatever Colin is about to tell me, but I’m too nervous to speak, one way or the other.

Colin runs an anxious hand through his dark hair. “I found out yesterday the producers want me here to create the potential for a love triangle with you and Savage. They want me to create the impression that I’m your ex during our scenes together. I guess there’s some chatter about that, online, and they don’t want me to dispel it.”

“Well, it’s not true, obviously, so we’ll just be ourselves, and—”

“That’s not the part that made me feel like I needed to talk to you. I’m just giving you background.” He sighs. “The big thing is the bonus they’ve offered me. During a break this afternoon, they want me to lure you to that patio in the back of the studio and make a move on you. They said they’ll pay me a hundred grand if I do it today. Fifty grand if you’re seen leaving my place in the early morning hours over the next two weeks. They didn’t say it, but the implication was they’d arrange a photographer, who’d then ‘leak’ the photo to a click-bait farm. Or maybe they have faith someone out there in the world would organically take a photo of us. I guess that’s pretty realistic, considering how much press you and Savage get. Basically, they want it to look like it’s at least possible you’re cheating on Savage with me. Or that you’re tempted. Or maybe I’m your ex and you’re not totally over me. They hit me with a lot of weird shit, Laila. I don’t even know if they know what they want. All I know is they’re looking to screw you over, and I’m not going to be a party to that or let it happen on my watch.”

I touch his arm, trembling