Trace of Innocence (No Control Book 3)

Chapter 45 - part ii

(No Control - 45. Up All Night - second part)

The paps are waiting outside Craig's, and of course they recognise my number plate and start taking pictures before the car has even come to a stop.

I can see Jess is biting her lip nervously, and my instinct is to put my arms around her to shield her from it all, but that's the last thing I'm allowed do.

"Let's get inside as quickly as possible," I say, trying to let her know I understand her apprehension. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah, fine," she says, but she's not fooling me.

She suddenly lets out a hysterical giggle and presses her lips together to control it, and I look over at her in confusion, but she just shakes her head and looks away.

The paps are noisy and intrusive as usual. They shout and shove and cause a commotion as we get out of the car.

I make eye contact with the waiter as we walk in and he brings a bottle of Dom Perignon over immediately, and I can tell Jess is shaken by the large sip she takes.

"Are you sure you're ok?"

She looks terrified.

"Yeah, I just wasn't expecting it. Sorry. I'm not used to all this."

It's second nature to me now. I occasionally forget it used to be scary at the beginning, when I wasn't used to it.

"Don't apologise," I try to reassure her. "Comes with the territory with me, I'm afraid."

I can't tear my eyes away from hers. There's something about her vulnerability that makes me want to protect her from this superficial and pretentious world.

She doesn't belong here, I think suddenly, and my stomach lurches at the thought of her not being part of my life. I don't know where that came from, and it's made me feel uneasy.

She takes another drink from her Champagne flute and I throw caution to the wind, reach across the table and touch her fingers lightly with mine. For this brief second I don't care who sees. I don't care if it's front page fucking news. I don't care if it's tweeted and retweeted by every One Direction update account. I don't care if the world knows this beautiful girl is with me.

And then I come to my senses and remember the shit I have to deal with on a daily basis, and the struggle I have to keep my private life private, and I gently pull my hand away and curl my fingers around the stem of my glass instead.

"So are you having a good time so far?" I ask her.

"You mean tonight, or this week?" she asks, and then looks embarrassed, and I grin.

"Well I was actually meaning tonight, but we can talk about the week if you want," I tease, and her face starts to go red.

"Tonight is fantastic, thank you," she says, and it comes out all nervous and squeaky.

"And this week?" I press, unable to stop myself from beaming at her discomfort. And her beauty, obviously.

"Also fantastic," she says faintly.

"Good," I smile. "Me too."

She blushes deeper and I press my lips together nervously and run my tongue between them. I take a quick glance around the restaurant to make sure we are not being overheard, but no one is paying any attention to us.

"Have you been to the US before?" I ask, after the waiter has taken our orders.

"Once, when I was about ten, I think," she replies. "We went on a family holiday to Disney World. Why?"