No, I was biding my time. Being fucking quiet. Because no one could know what I was planning.
And now, it looks like it worked. Although it also looks like Grady is about to pop a fucking blood vessel.
But that’s no longer my concern because Abby has just come up to me.
“Aidan…” she says to me quietly and I turn to her.
“Quiet, babe,” I tell her, interrupting her and putting a finger to her lips. “Let me speak first.”
She looks surprised, but her eyes tell me that I should continue.
“First off, I know about the little baby,” I tell her and I see surprise go through Abby’s eyes. “CJ told me. Back when she thought I was backstabbing you.”
“Why didn’t you…” Abby says but stops herself as she tries to figure out what she wants to say. “You never said anything?”
I shake my head, coming closer to her. “I needed to get this done, babe,” I tell her. “Our book was never gonna out-compete the big publishers, right?” I ask.
Abby shakes her head. “But now, it will,” she says.
“Now, with everything that Bad Boy Publishing is already locked into doing, a sale for Huge Cock is going to mean a sale for Big Dick. And that means…” I trail off, letting her put the pieces together.
“That means that I’m not a small fry anymore,” she says slowly, realization washing over her.
“Aidan, do you know what this mean?” she asks me, and her eyes are wide. “With that amount of money, I could probably start my own publishing company. Maybe take on a few authors. Co-write on a few pen names. Have better artwork…” she trails off.
I look around. People are looking at us. They’re fucking enraptured. Literally, in this order this is what they’re doing. They’re getting the book that they pre-ordered. They’re reading the back. Reading the dedication. Going over to Abby’s little rinky-dink booth and buying a copy of Big Dick or going to the Rainforest.com storefront to buy it. And then looking up at the two of us talking on stage.
They’ve almost begun to see how this plays out as part of the book itself.
“Aidan, this means…” Abby trails off. Tears are coming down her eyes.
“It means we’re free, baby girl,” I tell her, using my fingers to brush her tears. “We’re free of everyone and everything. Only for each other. No one else.”
She wraps her arms around me. “You coulda told me,” she mumbles into my chest.
“No, babe, I couldn’t,” I tell her. It’s true. I realize that now. “I would never have been able to. Because I realize that I…I love you.”
She’s silent for a long moment and then she pulls back from me. Her eyes have the mark of tears but they’re no longer falling.
“I love you too, Aidan,” she says to me and buries her face in my chest again. I squeeze my arms around her. “So so much, oh my God.”
I smile. I mean, wouldn’t you?
This girl basically rescued me. You saw what I was like before this. You see me now.
If it weren’t for Abby Cleveland, I’d be nowhere.
“Although, I’ll probably have to start writing under a new pen name if we’re going to do a publishing company,” Abby says into my chest and I wonder if it’s bad fucking form to tell a girl to speak up after you told her you loved them.
“What usually happens now in the romance novels you write, babe?” I ask Abby.
She looks at me and a lascivious smile lights up her face and I go fucking weak in the knees as my cock wakes up and my brain forgets about everyone around me in the convention center.
“In the romance novels I write,” she says to me with a wicked gleam in her eye. “We get to go have a nasty but sweet long…fuck.”
Perfect.
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