by Alexa Land
I nodded. “Sorry about the shoddy presentation. I should have taken the time to wrap it.”
“You got me a present? You didn’t need to do that. You certainly didn’t need to wrap it, either.” Alastair opened the end of the cardboard box and extracted a cylinder of bubble wrap. He pulled on one end of it, raising his arm up over his head as it unfurled in a long strip. The little red convertible dropped into his other hand.
His mouth fell open and his eyes went wide. He stared at the four-inch car, and then at me, and then at the car again. Alastair dropped the bubble wrap and held the toy gingerly with both hands, as if it was the most precious thing in all the world. “I only mentioned these once, when we first started dating,” he whispered.
“I found one right away, the night you told me about your collection of Dunford Racers,” I said. “It took weeks to arrive.”
“But these cost hundreds of dollars, and you barely knew me back then!”
“I already knew you were someone I needed and wanted in my life. I also knew it would make you happy, so buying it was a no-brainer.”
He laughed delightedly and kissed me, then jumped off the bed. I sat up and watched him. Alastair crouched down, held the car to the floor, and drew it back, revving its wheels. When he let it go, it shot across the attic and he whooped with delight. “It’s just fantastic,” he exclaimed as he got up and ran after it. He brought the convertible back to bed, climbed on top of me, and kissed me again. “Thank you so much, Sawyer. I can’t tell you what this means to me.”
“It means everything to me too, to get to see you this happy.”
He put the toy on top of his journal, very carefully, and used a fingertip to fold down the cloth roof. “It’s the best gift anyone’s ever given me,” he said softly, before kissing me again.
After a few minutes, he leaned off the bed and pulled something else from the suitcase. As he draped the sheer, white, lace-trimmed chemise on my chest, he asked, “Will you do something else for me and put that on?”
It still had the tags on it, and I contemplated the silken garment for a moment. I’d bought it on a whim years ago, because I’d thought it was pretty. It was by far the most feminine thing I owned, years away from my hard-edged black leather corsets. And it was the purest, most undiluted expression of that other side of me, going so deep that I’d never actually had the courage to wear it, not even when I was alone.
I sat up, so I was face to face with Alastair, who was straddling my thighs, and tore off the tags, being careful not to rip the delicate fabric. When I pulled it over my head and looked down at myself, I smiled a little. I’d worried that it was a step too far, but it felt good.
“You’re so incredibly beautiful, Sawyer.” Alastair’s voice was husky as he ran his hands down my sides, clearly enjoying the feel of that wonderful fabric. We laid back down, and he curled up in my arms. After a moment he said, “I was stupid to come home without you. Since you’ve been here, it all just seems manageable somehow, the job, my family, all of it. You’re essential to my well-being.”
“I feel the same way about you.”
He glanced up at me, his fingers idly tracing the lace neckline between my pecs, and said, “What if I asked you not to go to the interview at that strip club?”
“Then I’ll cancel it. I’m not going to do anything you’re uncomfortable with, Allie. I don’t want to do anything to embarrass you, either.”
“It’s not that. I just know that job isn’t what you want. If you give me a few days, I can come up with something so much better for you, something I think you’ll love.”
“You don’t have to put me on the payroll,” I told him. “Seriously. I’d feel like a bum if you were paying me for no reason. And that’s what it’d have to be, since I’m hardly qualified for any of the jobs at your company. Well, aside from late-night security guard, but that position’s filled until Kenneth retires.”
“Just trust me, alright? Cancel or postpone that interview, and by Friday, I should have something to show you.”
I kissed him and said, “I’ll cancel first thing in the morning. Thank you for thinking of me. I feel bad though, because you already have so much on your plate without also trying to help me.”
“I’m realizing the only way I’m going to survive this job is by learning to delegate, a lot. My father never wanted to do that, because he was a complete control freak. I handed off a couple minor projects today, and already, I feel loads better. I also hired a brilliant personal assistant, and she’s helping me pull together the surprise for you. Not that I’m handing it all off. This is important, and I’m making sure it’s exactly right.”
“Well, thank you again. Any hints about what you have up your sleeve?”
He kissed the tip of my nose and grinned at me as he said, “Absolutely not.” Whatever it was, I knew I’d love it, because of the way it made his eyes light up. But then his expression grew serious, and he said, “We’ve managed to keep you distracted all evening, but I know you’re upset about what happened with Tracy earlier tonight, so let’s talk about it.”
“But it’s late, and I don’t want to keep you up and make you listen to my problems.”
“This is important. You’re important. And if something is bothering you, I want to help.”
I studied his face for a moment. His expression was one of perfect sincerity. We both settled in, and then I started talking quietly about everything that had happened with my ex, and how bad I’d felt.
Alastair didn’t try to offer advice or opinions. All he did was hold me and listen. It was exactly what I needed.
Chapter Fifteen
I ran a comb through my just-washed hair before crossing my apartment and sitting on the bed. It was my only option. The place could have benefitted from a table and chairs, no doubt about it.
It was Friday night, and Alastair was due to pick me up in less than an hour, at the stroke of midnight. I still had no idea what he was planning, but I appreciated his flair for the dramatic. I retrieved my laptop from under the bed and leaned against the headboard. The blue kimono he’d given me after our first night together fell open when I bent my knees to rest the laptop on them, revealing my freshly shaved legs, some new white lingerie, and a pair of sheer, white, thigh-high stockings, selected as much for Alastair as for me. I’d done a little shopping that week, and had been delighted when I’d found a shop that catered to cross-dressers and drag queens, which meant understanding salespeople and plenty of things in my size.
I waited for the laptop to power up, then checked my email. Every day, in addition to checking my main account, I took a look at the mailbox I’d gotten just for Tracy. The messages had stopped after Monday night and the dinner date that never was. I’d emailed him once since then, reminding him I was there if he needed to talk, or if he wanted a friend. He hadn’t responded. I was going to keep trying, though.
There were a few emails from friends, and I was happy to see one from Elijah. When I read that he wanted to talk, I fired up my video chat program to see if he was online, then clicked the icon next to his name. A few moments later, he appeared on screen and exclaimed, “Hey! I just emailed you.”
“I saw. How’s everything, Elijah?”
“Fantastic! The house is great, and Jed’s a fun roommate. His brother Jessie came to dinner last night with his husband and their daughter. It made me feel all grown up, co-hostin’ a dinner party. That probably sounds dorky, right?” He grinned a little and pushed his blond hair behind his ear.
“Not at all.”
“Yeah, it does. I’m almost nineteen and all excited about learnin’ to make a lasagna and gettin’ to serve it on nice dishes instead of paper plates. Meanwhile, Alastair’s only a little bit older than me, and he’s runnin’ a huge company. It makes me think I’m like, stunted or somethin’.”
“Actually, you’re amazing and totally gifted. Never compare yourself to Alastair, because you both have your own unique set of skills. Hell, if I com
pared myself to him, I’d be completely depressed.”
“You’re doin’ great, though. And what you said about my own unique skill set? Right back at ya.”
“Except you’re a math genius, and I can draw a bunny on top of a latte and walk in five-inch heels.”
“Totally kick-ass skills.” I chuckled at that, and he asked, “Speakin’ of math, are you still likin’ your online classes?”
“Yeah, I am. Next semester, I may take more than two at a time. Unless I’m busy with work, in which case I’ll stick with just a couple.”
“Did you find a job?”
“Possibly. Alastair has something up his sleeve, and he’s planning to spring it on me tonight. I had applied for a job in a strip club, but I was happy when he talked me out of it.”
“So, how long are you and he gonna be stayin’ in London?”
“Hard to say. For now, he has to be here for his job. Maybe down the road, he’ll have more flexibility. This is all I know for sure: I plan to be wherever he is.”
Elijah smiled and said, “You two make me happy, both because it’s awesome when nice things happen to good people, but also because you’re makin’ me believe in love.”
“You didn’t already?”
“I want to,” he said. “I hate to be a total pessimist, you know? But…I don’t know. For someone like me, it’s pretty hard to believe I’ll ever get it together enough to have a real relationship. What I had before, with Colt…it wasn’t love, but sometimes I think that might be the closest I’ll ever come. I just don’t know if I have it in me to open up my heart and let another person in.”
“You have all the time in the world, Elijah. And you know what? When the right person comes along, it’ll just happen, and you’ll wonder what you were ever worried about.”
“I hope so.”
The doorbell sounded, and he glanced to the right as Jed yelled, “I got it,” in the background.
I told him, “I should let you go, since you have company.”
“That’s probably Colt, Chance, and Finn. We’re gonna barbeque some corn and salmon and use the pool. I swear, this place is like a resort! The pool guy’s cute, too,” he said with a shy smile.
“Have fun. It sounds like you have a great summer day planned.”
“I’m glad we got to catch up a bit. Tell Alastair hey for me, alright? I message him a lot, but I know he’s real busy.”
“He is, but he loves hearing from you. Never hesitate to get in touch with either of us, okay?”
“Alright. Talk to you soon, Sawyer. You look nice, by the way. I like the red lipstick on you.”
I grinned and said, “I actually forgot I was wearing it.”
“You should wear it more often. It suits you.” I thanked him for the compliment before we said our goodbyes and disconnected.
I spent the next few minutes trying to decide what to wear. It would have helped if I’d had any idea where we were going. I just knew it was a big deal, based on the way Alastair had been acting all week. Eventually, I decided on black dress pants, paired with a royal blue button-down shirt. Then I thought maybe I should have gone with my suit, but I decided to stick with the original outfit, mostly because I liked the way I looked in that shade of blue. I had to laugh at myself when I realized I was acting like a schoolgirl, but that feeling of excited anticipation was fun.
At twelve sharp, Alastair knocked on the door (despite the fact that I’d given him a copy of my key). When I opened it, he murmured, “My God, you’re absolutely gorgeous, Sawyer.”
As he handed me a big bouquet of stargazer lilies, I asked, “Is the lipstick too campy? I was just playing around with it earlier. And if this outfit isn’t right for whatever you have planned, I can change.”
He was wearing a suit, of course, since he’d just come from the office. It was pearl gray and flawless, and he’d paired it with a crisp, white shirt that was open at the collar. I still marveled at his ability to look so pulled together at all times, even after a very long day at the office.
“You’re perfection,” he told me. “Don’t change a thing.”
“Thank you for the flowers,” I said as he came into the apartment. “I don’t think I have a vase, but I can figure something out.” When he pulled a vase from behind his back, I kissed his cheek and said, “You always think of everything. I just left a mark on your face, by the way, and now I see the drawback of wearing lipstick. I’m going to go take it off, so I can kiss you properly.”
When the lipstick was removed and the flowers were arranged in the vase and centered on the dresser, I drew him into my arms and gave him a long, slow kiss. “That was the very best part of my day,” he murmured as he slid his arms around my shoulders.
“Well, the day’s only five minutes old, so we’ll have to see if we can top it. Do I get to know where we’re going yet?”
He shook his head and kissed me again, then said, “Still a surprise. And we should probably get going, since I’m parked illegally.”
I grabbed my leather jacket, and we headed downstairs. When we emerged onto the main thoroughfare from the narrow side street, I exclaimed, “Your Acura! I didn’t know you had it shipped from the U.S.”
He ran his hand over the gleaming red paint and said, “It was indulgent of me, and now I’ll have to get something else to drive whenever I’m in San Francisco, but I missed the old girl. We had a lot of good times together.”
“I’m surprised you had time to make the arrangements.”
“I didn’t. My fantastic personal assistant handled it. Her name’s Lorelei, by the way, and she’s looking forward to meeting you.”
“She knows about me? That I’m your boyfriend, I mean?”
“She does. Lorelei also knows she’s never to discuss it with anyone else in the company. I trust her to be discreet.”
“Out of curiosity, what happened to the assistant you inherited along with your dad’s office?”
“I reassigned her to another department. All I ever heard was ‘that’s not how the senior Mr. Penelegion did it.’ Last thing I needed.”
He held the passenger door of the Acura for me, and once we were both seated in the cream-colored leather interior, he turned the key and grinned at the roar of the engine. That made me smile, too. It felt great to see him happy. After a minute, he said, “If you decide you want your Harley here, I can have it shipped over as well. I almost did it as a surprise, but I didn’t want to overstep.”
“That’d be great, actually.”
“Then consider it done.”
As we drove across town, I peppered him with intentionally dopey random guesses about our destination, including, “You decided I need to continue my education, so you’re dropping me off at clown college.”
“Clearly.”
“You’re taking me to McDonald’s for a Happy Meal, because you figure I must be missing the U.S.”
He smirked and said, “Yes, that’s it. You’ve utterly ruined the surprise now. I hope you’re happy.”
“I’m not, but the Happy Meal will take care of that. It’s right in the title. Are you taking me to—”
“Stop guessing! What if you accidentally stumble across it?”
“If I was even sort of in the ballpark with clown college and fast food, I’m going to need you to slow down just a bit so I can jump out of this moving vehicle.”
“Don’t forget to tuck and roll. Safety first.”
“Good tip, thank you.”
“I’m here to help.”
After a few minutes, we rounded a corner and the world-famous Penelegion’s department store loomed before us. The nearly two-hundred-year-old, six-story building took up an entire city block. Its golden-yellow brick façade glowed in the darkness, lit by dozens of concealed floodlights, and a series of domes and turrets along the roofline made it look like a castle. I was awestruck, and I murmured, “My God, it’s beautiful.”
It was odd to see my boyfriend’s last name spelled out in big, lit lette
rs on the marquee, and when I mentioned that to him, he said, “It’s always struck me as a bit surreal, to be honest.”
We pulled into a VIP parking spot beside the store’s main entrance. As we got out of the car, the double doors swung open and Roger stepped outside with a security guard and a young, black woman in an impeccable suit. As we approached the trio, Alastair said, “You didn’t have to see to this in person, Lorelei, it’s late! But since you’re here, meet Sawyer.”
She gripped my hand firmly and said, “I’ve heard a great deal about you. It’s a pleasure.” Lorelei had a quick smile, a refined British accent, and enviable hair, which grazed her shoulders in perfect ringlets. She turned to my boyfriend and said, “I don’t mind late hours, Alastair. You know that.”
He told her, “Well, thank you. I want you to know I appreciate it, and all you did to help pull together tonight’s surprise.”
“Instead of thanking me, text me later tonight and tell me what happened. Never mind the hour.” They had an easy rapport, more like old friends than employer and employee.
“And where’s my thanks for burning the midnight oil?” That came from Roger, who’d crossed his arms over his chest and was trying to look stern.
Alastair kissed his cheek, which made Roger color slightly, and said, “Thank you, Ro. Didn’t mean to make you feel under-appreciated. You too, Harry.”
The security guard grinned and said, “I’ll take a pass on my kiss if it’s all the same to you, Mr. Penelegion.”
“Alastair.”
“Alastair,” the man echoed. “We all set then?” When Roger told him we were, the security guard nodded to us and took off down the sidewalk, whistling as he went.
Roger told us, “I shut off the security cameras, and the building is empty of all personnel. Harry and his team will be patrolling out here, instead of their usual routes. That means you’ll have plenty of privacy. Good thing, since I can only assume you two have tawdry plans involving the mattress department.”
Alastair chuckled and thanked him, and as he ushered me into the building, I heard Lorelei tell Roger, “Come on, mate, I’ll buy you a drink. There’s a grand lesbian bar just a couple blocks from here.”