“Apparently, in Portuguese the d and e together make a soft g sound, like in judge or fudge. And while his mom and dad had agreed to name him Cade, his mom hadn’t seen how it was spelled until it was on the birth certificate. The first time they took him to Brazil to visit her family, everyone called him ‘Cage’, and it became a sort of running family joke.”

“That’s funny. Does he hate it?”

“He doesn’t seem to. Why?”

“Bummer. It would’ve been fun to torture him with that.”

“You have a death wish.”

“Nah, just a maim wish. Besides, he’s not going to do anything to me. He’s too besotted with you. Which reminds me, have you told him you love him yet?”

Olivia winced. “No.”

“Why not?”

Olivia placed the last chair and straightened with a sigh. “Is it bad that I’m scared?”

“God, no.” Sadie let her chair drop with a thump. “Being scared of scary shit is smart, and what’s scarier than love?”

“Tell me about it.”

“However,” Sadie went on, nudging her last chair into place, “if you let being scared keep you from getting something you want, that might be bad.”

“Dammit.”

Sadie slung an arm around her. “You’re a brave bitch, remember.”

“I hate being brave.” Feeling sulky, Olivia dropped her head to Sadie’s shoulder.

“Girl, same,” Sadie said with feeling, and Olivia laughed. “Look. Do you trust him?”

With my life. “Yes.”

“Does he make you feel safe?”

Olivia thought of the way he took care of her after every scene, the way he made sure her car had a full tank of gas and she got enough protein in her diet. The way he touched her constantly, in small, seemingly insignificant ways. The way he carried her to bed when she fell asleep during a movie, and the firm way he corrected her when she forgot one of the rules.

“Yeah,” she finally said, her voice tight with emotion. “He does.”

“Then my guess is, you can trust him with this.”

Olivia lifted her head to smile at her friend. “You know, you’re pretty wise for a brat.”

“I have hidden depths,” Sadie drawled. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“I’m a vault,” Olivia vowed, laughing as they turned to walk out of the demo space. Then she froze. “Oh, shit.”

“What?” Sadie looked up at the man standing in the doorway. “Oh, shit. Is that Kyle?”

“Yeah.” Olivia wiped her palms on her thighs and wished she hadn’t chosen this outfit. The corset paired with nothing but panties and stockings made her feel pretty and sexy, but at the moment, she wished she’d chosen armor instead of lingerie. “I haven’t seen him since we broke up.”

“You don’t have to talk to him,” Sadie said, keeping her voice low as Kyle looked around the room. “Where’s Cade?”