Covered: Part One Read Online Free

to see if what I felt was real.”
    I sighed again, as I often did in Jenny’s presence. “Fine,” I said, not wanting to see Gavin again, but also on some level kinda hoping he’d be there.
    “Yay!” she said and stood up, leaving her take out coffee cup on the table. “I’m going to go tell those girls from the Dirty Bishes Book Blog, they’re a hoot and have been dying to party with us.”
    She scampered off, leaving me with her garbage and a table of tired old swag to clean up and pack back to my car.
    I stood up, grabbed a box and started tossing the bookmarks into it. I heard a small commotion a few tables up, a buzzing sound in the crowd of women just outside the doors in the other room.
    I looked up and saw a small crowd forming.
    The women parted like the red sea, and Gavin James strolled towards me with a purposeful intent. His long strides almost shook the ground as he walked, and his shirt strained against his huge chest muscles. I wondered what kind of space age thread kept his buttons from popping, he was seriously about to burst out of it like that thing on the Alien movies.
    I forced myself to close my mouth as I watched him walk past me, make it two tables, scan the rest of the women in the room and turn back. He walked directly to me and I thought I was going to fall over from sheer fright and delight.
    “Hey there,” he said with a grin on his face, “I wanted to make sure you were okay after your little stumble.”
    “How kind of you to call it a stumble,” I replied, wondering where I found my voice and amazing myself with my ability to talk to Gavin Fucking James like he was a regular human mortal. “I’d call it more of a knock out, fall down, full body flail.” I flashed a little grin of my own afterwards to let him know I was kidding. I pushed my glasses up my nose and waited for him to reply.
    “You hardly flailed,” he said and kept grinning, “you were very graceful about it, even when your legs were helicoptering above your head. Nice panties by the way.” He winked and my helicopter legs just about gave in right then. I almost had another fall; this one wouldn’t be as graceful as the last.
    I blushed bright red though, and felt the heat in my cheeks. “Uh, thanks,” I mumbled.
    “I’m sorry, I went too far. Let’s take a step back, to a point before I said the wrong thing and upset a beautiful woman,” he said. His accent was unreal, I wanted to close my eyes and listen to him read from the phonebook. Voice porn, I never knew there could be such a thing.
    “It’s okay,” I said, “I’m okay.”
    “You say that an awful lot, love,” he replied, “but are you?”
    “I really am. I’m okay.”
    “Okay then.” He smiled again and I lost my head…again.
    “Okay.”
    “Let’s start this entire thing over, from before the fall, shall we?” He stuck out his hand, his forearm was perfect, a slight brush of hair covering the thick muscles and beautiful tattoos. I’d read somewhere that they had meaning, but he’d never shared during any interviews. “My name is Gavin James, I’m pleased to meet you.”
    I took his hand and felt an electric jolt that almost knocked the wind out of me. His hand was perfect, dry and smooth, strong but not too strong. Perfection in five digits. “My name is Sarai Britton,” I replied, “and I’m also pleased. To meet you.” I stumbled a little but managed to get the words out.
    The crowd was thickening and women were whispering to themselves in envious voices. I was the center of attention, and on some level I was revelling in it, but on another level I wanted to crawl under a rock and go back to a place where people weren’t recording my every move on their phones.
    “Will you be attending the event at seven?”
    “I, uh, no. Wait, yes, I will be going.”
    “I hope to see you there,” he said and smiled.
    “I do hope to see you there as well,” I replied, cringing on the inside at how dull I sounded. I was like a