First Touch

by Laurelin Paige

  I set the empty bottle on the table and looked at my watch. I needed to get going so I would be ready for my dinner with Reeve.

  I’d just opened my mouth to announce my departure when Chris said, “I’m sure you have other things to do. But before you go, want to get naked?”

  “Chris!” I wasn’t just disgusted with his timing. “You have a fiancée.”

  He smirked. “I had a girlfriend the last time we banged.”

  “You didn’t tell me.”

  “It didn’t come up.”

  “No. I don’t want to get naked. I won’t do that to another woman.” I stood up, grabbing my purse from the bench next to me. “Besides, I really do have to go.” And sex with Chris was not something that was ever happening again, not just because of Reeve’s appearance in my life.

  Fuck. Reeve. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about him now that I knew what I did. It wouldn’t be figured out here with Chris, though.

  Chris followed me to my car to say goodbye, sweeping me into a tight hug and kissing my cheek before pulling away. “Thanks again. And talking about Missy was good. Maybe I can get some closure. Overall, good afternoon, even though you refused my bedroom invite.”

  “I’m ignoring that comment,” I said. Then I narrowly glared, giving him one final warning. “Remember, not a word, Chris.”

  “I got it.”

  “Good.” I opened the door of the Jag.

  “This is what you’re driving?” He whistled. “I have to get on that show.”

  I cursed myself for not parking around the corner. Though, if I wasn’t paying for my mother, if I was less conservative with my spending, I suppose the car could have been purchased with my own salary.

  Deciding not to comment, I smiled and climbed into the car. I started the engine, and with a wave, I drove off.

  CHAPTER 19

  Three blocks away from Chris’s, I pulled into a drugstore parking lot and let out a long, shaky breath. I massaged my temples, sorting through what I knew and what was merely a guess. What was still unknown, what actually mattered.

  As horrible as it was to admit, I didn’t care two figs about justice for Missy. She was dead. It was sad. But I didn’t know her and it was in the past.

  What I did care about was why she died. Or how she might have died, because it was still possible that she’d really just fallen. However, there was also a very good chance she’d been pushed. Silenced before she could lead authorities to the Vilanakis family. To Reeve’s family.

  No. I didn’t know that for sure. But I would have bet money that if I called Joe and told him to look for Reeve’s mother as Elena Vilanakis instead of Elena Kaya, he’d find something.

  Then he’d tell me to get the hell away from Reeve. He’d tell me again that searching for Amber was a lost cause. He’d tell me he’d do what he could, but it wouldn’t be much considering whom we were dealing with.

  I closed my eyes and tapped my head on the steering wheel. “Dammit, Amber,” I said out loud, talking directly to her for the first time in weeks. “What the hell did you get yourself into?”

  Seeing no other options, I gritted my teeth and pulled my burner phone from under the driver’s seat where I kept it. I hit dial on the only contact that was programmed.

  “What’s up, Em?” There was concern laced in Joe’s voice. It made me paranoid for a second. Made me feel like he knew where I’d been and what I was doing.

  But then I realized he was probably only anxious because I never called him. “Not much,” I said with as much cheer as I could muster. “Just…” God, Chris was going to kill me. Well, he’d never know. “I want to pull the investigation. Can I do that?”

  I’d still keep looking for Amber, but I couldn’t lead Joe or Chris to the same possible fate as Missy. It wasn’t fair to risk so many innocent people. As for myself… I hadn’t really been innocent since I’d first joined her and Rob in the bedroom. And she’d walked into the fire for me. She deserved my reciprocation.

  Joe was silent a beat. “Why?”

  I knew he’d ask, and it still caught me off guard. “Because I finally realize it’s a waste of time and money.” Please, let that sound honest.

  “Did Sallis threaten you?”

  “No!” That was the last thing I wanted Joe thinking, especially since it wasn’t true. I had to be more convincing. “Reeve isn’t a threat at all, Joe. In fact, the more I’ve gotten to know him, the more I see he didn’t do anything. The rumors about him are exactly that – rumors. He’s all bark and no bite. If Amber’s still in trouble, it’s with Vilanakis and not Reeve. And I’m not getting mixed up with the mob.” It was basically all of his previous points regurgitated. I couldn’t get more convincing than that.

  But he still didn’t buy it. “This is fishy, Emily.”

  I leaned back against the headrest and stared out the front window. “I know it sounds fishy. It’s not. Things are going really well and my relationship with Reeve is now more important than this investigation. I don’t want to mess it up.” My voice cracked on the last line as I realized it was actually true. Yes, I was more fearful than I’d been before about my involvement with him, but mostly because I couldn’t bear to give him a reason to leave me.

  Jesus, I was fucked up. I pinched at the corners of my eyes. “Sorry. I’m really feeling guilty about going behind his back.”

  “I can see how you’d feel that way,” Joe admitted. “You’re sure he’s safe?”

  “He’s very safe. A kitten in lion’s clothing.” More lies, but it didn’t feel as far from the truth as it could have. As scary as he’d made himself out to be, he hadn’t ever hurt me.

  Funny, how I could still comfort myself so easily. My gut knew it was false security and a little voice inside my head repeated the words I’d said to Chris earlier. “It’s hard to see when you’re in it.”

  “All right.” Joe still sounded hesitant. “If you swear that —”

  “I do. I swear. You can send the final bill to my accountant and I’ll get you paid.” I wanted to be done with the conversation. Even if he wasn’t convinced, he wasn’t going to keep up his digging if he wasn’t getting any more checks.

  “I’ll do that.”

  “And, Joe, I appreciate all you’ve done. Thank you.” I took another shuddering breath, afraid the real crying would start any moment.

  I was about to hang up when I remembered. “I’m tossing this burner phone now. Is that good?”

  “In a Dumpster some place you never go. Erase all your texts and history first.”

  “Got it.”

  The call ended and I gave myself exactly one minute to let the tears fall. I didn’t even know why I was crying exactly. Because I was afraid for Joe and Chris? For Amber? For myself?

  More likely because I was alone in my search now.

  As it should be, I told myself. No matter what men had come and gone in our lives, it had always really only been Amber and me. It was almost wrong to have involved anyone else.

  I moved the car out of park, intending to drive behind the drugstore to throw the phone in the bins there. But a black car a few rows down started up at the same time and even though it left the lot ahead of me, I was suddenly paranoid. Because I was almost sure that car had followed me in the lot to begin with.

  I waited to toss it until I found a car wash Dumpster a few miles away, when I was certain I hadn’t been followed. Then I drove home.

  When I got there, I found Reeve waiting for me on my front porch, sitting in the same chair he had when he’d shown up the first time, dressed in a suit, as he had been that day. I smiled as I came up the walk. It wasn’t even forced. He did that to me, sick and sad as it was. He made me happy. He made me want to be transparent instead of hidden.

  But Reeve didn’t return the expression. His body remained still, his face even. And I knew before I put the key in the lock, before I even got close enough to feel the rage radiating off of him, that I was in real trouble.

  Th
e urge to run passed through me with lightning speed – there one second, gone the next. It wasn’t even a thought I could feasibly entertain. I couldn’t run from someone like Reeve Sallis. Even if he weren’t standing five feet from me, he could hunt me down.

  Besides, there was no logical reason to think that he knew anything about my afternoon, knew what I’d discovered about him. Sure, he was obviously angry, but maybe he’d simply had a bad day.

  God, I was good at lying to myself.

  Or you’re just excellent at survival, my head said, in that voice that sounded an awful lot like Amber’s.

  If that were true, I wouldn’t be letting this probable killer into my house. And I was. I even held the door open, gesturing for him to go on inside.

  Reeve moved behind me and took the door from my grasp. “No. After you.”

  Only three words spoken and yet they said so much. They said, I’m in control here. I’m the one who’s calling the shots. And you’re the one who agreed to follow them. What’s more, you like it.

  Did I still like it? Now that I knew what I knew?

  Fucked up as I was, I still did.

  So though dread curled in my stomach like the remnants of a bad meal, I walked past him into the house, leaving him at my backside where I was vulnerable.

  I heard the door latch closed. The next thing I knew, he had me pinned to the wall with my hands held firmly behind my lower back.

  “Hey,” I said, wriggling to get loose. “You’re hurting me.”

  He only tightened his grip. Without a word, he leaned in. Leaned in toward my mouth. Relief flooded over me, and I lifted my chin to meet his lips, more than a little turned on by his rough greeting.

  But he didn’t kiss me.

  Instead, still holding my arms behind me, he slowly knelt, dragging his nose down the center of my body. When he was on his knees, his face in my crotch, he sniffed. Several times. Smelling my cunt through my clothing. Sniffing at me like a dog seeking out its bitch. It was weird and vulgar and depraved.

  And damn if it didn’t make me weak in the knees.

  Then, just as suddenly as he’d grabbed me, he let me go. He stood and backed away, distancing himself from me as though he were Superman, and I was his kryptonite.

  I stared at him, dumbfounded. “What the hell, Reeve?”

  “No,” he snapped. “You don’t get to ask any of the questions here.”

  “If you don’t want questions, you better start talking.” Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to pick a fight with a member of the Vilanakis family, but I had a feeling we’d fight eventually whether I did or not. His anger was palpable, and if he was going to be mad at me, I at least deserved to know which of my transgressions had set him off.

  His expression was ice cold, his eyes sharp-pointed swords. “Chris Blakely.”

  My stomach dropped with the weight of a boulder, but somehow I managed to keep my composure. “What about him?”

  Except, he wouldn’t have asked about Chris if he didn’t already know about him, so I might as well give Reeve what he wanted. “I spent the afternoon with him, is that what you’re after?”

  He rushed back toward me and pounded his fist against the wall by my head. “Yes, that’s what I’m fucking after. What the hell did you think you were doing?”

  He’d been calm before, in control despite his mood. Now he was raving and rabid. His hands shook. His voice rumbled.

  He’s jealous, I thought. At least I hoped that’s what this was. I could defend myself easily enough for that, since I hadn’t actually committed any crime that warranted jealousy.

  I forced sugar into my voice. “I was just helping him go over his audition, Reeve. He’s a friend and he’s trying to get a spot on NextGen. I gave him some pointers.”

  “At his house? Alone? Wearing that?”

  I looked down at the jean shorts and long-sleeve V-neck T underneath my duster. It was casual wear and not particularly sexy. “What do you want me to be wearing?”

  “Something that doesn’t have your breasts falling out on display.” He was pacing now, seemingly more agitated with each thing I said.

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “I have big tits, Reeve. There’s very little I can wear that doesn’t put them on display. And if you’re suggesting that something happened —”

  He cut me off. “I’m suggesting that it wasn’t appropriate for you to be at his house, alone in the middle of the day, regardless of what happened.”

  I’d definitely been with men who were controlling, but my circumstances had changed so much since then that I was out of my realm now. Reeve gave me presents, yes, but he didn’t keep me, and with several years of independence under my belt, I wasn’t prepared to have someone telling me what I could and couldn’t do.

  It pissed me off.

  “Jesus, don’t you trust me?” I threw my purse and duster on the couch so I could do some pacing and pointing fingers of my own. “You go lots of places with gorgeous women surrounding you and I can’t spend a day helping a friend? I didn’t fuck him.”

  “That isn’t the point.”

  “Then what is the point? That you just want a say in what I do? That wasn’t something you ever spelled out as part of our relationship.” It was strange that he wasn’t that concerned with whether I’d messed around with Chris, just that… Unless…

  I spun toward him, hands in fists. “Is that why you were sniffing me? You were trying to see if I smelled like sex?” The idea made my blood boil hotter even though it was also admittedly provocative. “You could have just asked me.”

  Reeve shrugged dismissively. “My way was faster and more conclusive.” He picked up the purse I’d dropped, and opened it.

  I gaped. “Um, excuse me. That’s mine.”

  “Do you have something to hide?” He continued rifling through my belongings, and I said a silent prayer of thanks to whatever God existed for telling me to toss the burner phone.

  “It doesn’t matter if I have anything to hide. It’s my purse.”

  At least Reeve seemed calmer now, preoccupied as he was with his snooping. After a minute, he pulled out the sides I’d taken for Chris and skimmed them before tossing them and my purse back on the couch.

  I smiled smugly, happy to have proof about the reason for my afternoon visit. “That was the script I worked on with Chris. Happy now?”

  He ignored my comment and took a menacing step toward me. “The point is that you shouldn’t have been with that guy, no matter what you were working on. So why did you think it was a good idea to go?”

  He wasn’t calmer after all, I realized now that I was eye-to-eye with him. In fact, he might have been even angrier, his rage pulled in and controlled, ready to unleash in a concentrated fury.

  It would have been wise for me to back down, but I had to know if my crime was because I’d been with a guy or that I’d been with that guy. Did Reeve know what Chris knew about Missy? Did he worry Chris would tell me?

  “Why shouldn’t I be there?” I asked, not quite as confident as I had been a minute before.

  “Emily,” he warned.

  “Because you don’t like him? Because —” Something suddenly occurred to me. “Hey, how did you even know I was there?”

  “That doesn’t matter. Answer.”

  “Like hell it doesn’t matter. Are you having me followed?” God, oh God, what if he was? The black car from earlier – that had been him! Or one of his men. What if he had my phone tapped too? My house bugged? Who had I called? What had I said? What could he know?

  “Only when your Jag shows you somewhere you shouldn’t be.” He took another step toward me. “Answer my question.”

  Sometimes I didn’t know when to stop. “Is that the real reason you gave me the Jag? So you could track my whereabouts?” How the hell had I not thought about that before?

  As quickly as he had the first time, Reeve pushed me back against the wall. He wrapped one hand in my ponytail and yanked it roughly to the side. Then he cla
mped his other across my mouth, silencing me. He leaned in so he was only inches from my face and in a quiet, eerily controlled voice said, “Stop with the questions, Emily, or so help me I am going to lose it with you.”

  My heart clamored in my chest and my eyes widened. His hand over my mouth was disarming. Meant to keep me from talking, it felt close to smothering. For a moment, I considered biting his hand, but then decided it was probably not in my best interest and instead forced a deep, calming breath through my nose.

  “Now.” Reeve wound my hair tighter around my ponytail, getting a better grip. “Like I said, I’m the one who will be doing the asking. So I’m going to remove my hand, and you’re going to tell me why the hell you thought it was a good idea to be at a man’s house – a man who will fuck anyone he can and Hollywood knows it, a man who most certainly wants to fuck you – alone, hugging him in the street where any asshole with a camera could get a picture of you together.”

  He removed his hand, and I opened my mouth to answer. But I was distracted by what he’d said about Chris. Was he concerned about the paparazzi then? And not about Chris himself?

  The question slipped out. “Does this have anything —”

  Reeve pulled my hair tighter, snapping my head to the side and cutting off my words. “Take your time if you need it, but I want an answer to be the next thing that leaves your mouth. Nothing else.”

  Fuck. I was in trouble.

  I was arguing with a devil. A man with money and power. A man who wasn’t happy with me. It was exactly the time to be scared and cautious and indulging, and I was scared. But I wasn’t being cautious or indulgent because the dominating bad boy type was my weakness. I liked seeing him come out to play. I wanted to keep him around.

  But I also wanted to submit to him. Wanted to please and gratify and charm him. I wanted to say the right thing, more than I’d ever wanted to say the right thing in my life, but I wasn’t sure what the right thing was. I’d have to make a guess. And from what he’d given me, I’d say it was being seen alone with a man like Chris was the error. The situation could easily put me in the most unreliable of gossip rags as his lover. I hadn’t thought that Reeve cared about public opinion.