He opens the elevator doors and smirks. “Get your nails and hair done while you’re at it. You have a few split ends.”
“Fuck you!” I shout as he disappears behind the closing doors.
Do I?
I grab a section of hair between my fingers and pull it in front of my face. My eyes flit over it, examining it, and I drop it with a curse.
“Bastard,” I mutter to the buzzing of my phone.
Kidding, he texts. Your hair is perfect.
I’m making you pay for that, ass**le.
Good.
I toss my phone on the bed and look at the time. Shit. Skype date with Liv!
I run into the front room area and pull my laptop from its case. The Wi-Fi connects in seconds, and two minutes later, I’m staring at the blond bombshell that is my best friend.
“Spill. Everything,” she demands.
“Hello to you too. I’m having an okay time but I miss you like crazy. Hope everything is good in Seattle.” I stick my middle finger up.
Liv laughs. “Everything is fine in Seattle, I miss you ten times more, and you should be having an amazing time. Not an okay one. I mean, hello! Have you seen Mr. Aaron Stone? He’s a walking f**king orgasm.”
“Considering I see him every day and sleep next to him each night, I’d say yes, I have seen him. I’m very well acquainted with him and his looks.”
“Sarcastic bitch.” She sighs. “Seriously, babe, what’s up? You look like you need a girls’ night.”
“Oh, Liv. I do. So badly.” I rest my head on my hand and stare at my screen. “This job is impossible.”
“Nah, it’s not, baby girl. You can get through it. Only four and a half weeks to go, right?”
“Right.” I sigh. “Liv?”
“Yeah?”
I chew on the inside on my lip as I mull over what to say. “Have you ever wanted someone so badly it hurt to look at them? Like, your world would fall apart if you didn’t have at least one touch from them each day? Like nothing else matters except the all-encompassing feeling of their lips against yours?”
“Yeah, I feel that way about you every day.” She laughs. “Kidding. Kind of. Um, not really.”
I sigh again, more heavily this time. “It sucks. It sucks Big Foot balls, for real.”
Her eyes soften. “If you want him that badly, why don’t you have him?”
“Because. It’s dangerous. I already have to kiss him a hundred times a day, touch his cheek, stare into his eyes like I’m helplessly in love with him… If I had to have sex with him too, I think I’d die.”
“You haven’t had sex with him yet?”
“That’s what you took from that?”
“Seriously? You sleep next to that each night and you don’t f**k his gorgeous brains out?”
“Liv!”
“Who the f**k are you and what have you done with my blunt-talking best friend?” She taps the webcam to make her point. “Sex is your f**king job, Dayton. It’s what you do for a living.”
“He hasn’t called it in. He said on the flight to Vegas it was optional, and he’s since said he won’t until I want him for him. Until I don’t treat him like he’s my client.”
“But he is your client.”
“Exactly.”
“I don’t get it.”
I bury my face in my hands and rub my eyes. “I do. I get it.”
“Explain.”
A small, bitter laugh leaves me—a bitter laugh tinged with sadness. “He remembers everything, Liv. Every single thing about that summer is encased in his memory, and every chance he has, he reminds me.” I swallow and look down. “Everything.”
“Holy mother of...”
“Yeah.” I nod roughly. “He wants me, Liv. Not as his escort or the girl to keep his bed warm.”
“Okay, you don’t know that for certain, do you?”
I smack the table. “He still calls me f**king Bambi!”
Her silence is telling. Ironically deafening. “Shit.”
“You really need to work on getting some stronger cuss words. Shit doesn’t cover any situation where Aaron Stone is concerned.”
She shrugs. “S’all I got, baby girl. What are you gonna do?”
“Long term? Not a f**king clue. Short term?” I hold up the card I pulled from the nightstand. His card.
“Is that a black Express card?”
I nod. “I’ve been ordered to go shopping.”
“Well, shit. Send something back for your poor model friend, won’t you?”
“I don’t think I can fit a hunky Australian in a box.”
“Plane tickets to said Australian will be fine.” She grins. “Look, I gotta get to work. By the way, you didn’t have to pay me back for that call. It’s cool.”
“Don’t be stupid.”
“Okay. Monique said your calls will be sorted in two days, so you can call me next time. Got that?”
“Got it.”
We end the video call and I close the laptop down. That was as helpful as it was a hindrance. I love her, but sometimes I wonder if having someone who understands anything past a casual hook-up would be a good idea.
***
The red strapless bra hugs my br**sts perfectly, giving them just enough lift above the neckline of the equally red dress I’m wearing. The satin hugs my body perfectly before flaring at my knees in a mermaid-style skirt. It’s the sexiest classy dress I’ve ever worn, and it leaves nothing to the imagination while keeping everything hidden.
I smooth my dark hair back and grab a lipstick from my makeup bag. The fire-engine red color is smooth as I slide it across my lips. I grab the black purse I bought to match the dress with a trembling hand.
Aaron decided to call at four and tell me that tonight isn’t just any party. It’s a party in his honor. For the man who will soon be the CEO, the boss, the owner of the global whirlwind that is Stone Advertising. “Sorry,” he said. “Should have mentioned that.”
“You ass**le,” is what I said. Give a girl some time to prepare appropriately.
For that, I spent an extra six hundred dollars on this dress and hated every cent of it. The temptation to whip out and hand over my own card was almost consuming.
I run my hands along my sides to smooth the dress. But damn, it’s worth every penny. Aaron wanted sexy, and sexy is what he’s going to get.
“Holy f**k.”
His voice echoes through the room and wraps me in a warm bubble of pleasure and smugness.