Part of me did, actually. A deep-rooted part of me trusted him when he said he would keep it in his pants. It was my head that thought otherwise, the reasonable part of me that knew what men were like and what temptation could do to a man. That was the part of me that said perhaps he was fooling around, or would fool around, given the opportunity.
Luckily, I had someone who had my back. “Donovan will look after him,” I told my mother. “He knows how to keep Weston in line.”
A muffled ringing sounded from somewhere in my bedroom—my cell phone.
“What’s that? Do you need to go?”
“I won’t know until I find my cell phone and check the caller ID,” I said, annoyed. I had stuck my cell somewhere when I was bitter with Weston, but where?
Oh, yes. Under my pillow.
The name on the screen said, Kincaid, D. “Mom, I gotta go.” I clicked off the home phone before she had a chance to say goodbye, and clicked on my cell. “What’s up, Donovan?”
“What are you doing? And why aren’t you here?” He was serious, straight to the point like always, but this time there was also a note of something I’d never heard in Donovan. Panic?
“I’m at home, and I’m talking to you. I am not where you are because I don’t know where you are.” Then I realized he was probably out with everyone else at the company, celebrating their new account. “Oh, I mean I’m not there because I don’t want to be.”
“You do want to be. Get down here. Now.”
I turned to look at myself in the dresser mirror, see if my makeup had still held up from my earlier outing to the library. It had, but it didn’t matter because I wasn’t going anywhere. I wasn’t jumping because Reach said so.
“What’s the point? Why do you want me there so badly?”
“Elizabeth, I should think you would trust me enough to not have to go into a lengthy explanation. Let me just tell you this—Sabrina is here.”
At the mention of her name, my stomach curdled. I had nothing against her personally; she was a nice woman. Probably. But I knew what kind of thoughts Weston had about her, and that made her dangerous.
But she was also an employee for the company, so of course she would be at the celebration dinner with the rest of the staff and higher-ups.
“Sabrina works with Weston every day,” I said, not quite so sure of myself.
“Tonight, though, they aren’t working.”
If Donovan hadn’t convinced me I should be there, the text message that waited for me when I hung up did. It had been sent earlier in the day, but I was only just seeing it now—Clarence Sheridan’s contact info, forwarded from Weston.
Sure, I’d asked him to send it, but I’d asked more than once, and he’d been pissy about it. Was it reaching to think he might’ve sent it to relieve his guilt about whatever he was planning to do with Sabrina?
I wasn’t certain, but I was damn sure going to find out.
I changed quickly into a dressy jumpsuit and heels. Instead of taking the time to wait for my driver, I went to the front desk of the apartment building and got the doorman to hail a cab. Twenty minutes after my phone call with Donovan, I was on my way to Red Farm.
It was easy to find the group I was looking for when I arrived at the restaurant. They took up most of the main room, the company staff spread out along two long tables. I spotted Weston, Nate, and Donovan immediately at the far end and headed over to them. The food had already arrived; dumplings were in the middle of the table being shared family-style. As if by fate, there was one empty seat waiting next to Donovan. Weston sat across from him, Sabrina at his side.
And Weston’s hand was on her thigh.
“Elizabeth!” Weston jumped up, eyes wide, voice pitched high. “What are you doing here?” It almost sounded like he was glad I’d come, but the sting of seeing his hand on the other woman’s thigh was fresh. Had he known I’d seen it? It was probable he didn’t. It was possible he did.
It was possible everyone knew.
And that thought pissed the hell out of me.
He bent to kiss me, but just before his mouth met mine, I moved away. His lips landed on my cheek. It was only for show anyway, not like we were kissing for the fun of it.
“My fiancé had a celebration. Thought I should be here,” I said, answering his question with the subtlest emphasis on the reminder of who he was to me. Real or not.
“I’ll move so you two can sit together,” Nate offered.
I waved him off. That would be the mature thing to do, but I was in battle mode. All of the people at this end of the table were in the know, and the rest of the employees didn’t seem to be paying any attention to what happened down here. If my fiancé could flirt with somebody else, so could I. Weston King wasn’t the only player in the world.
“Don’t be silly. I don’t need to sit by him. I’d much rather sit by Donovan.” I slipped in next to the man, who eyed me curiously. “Now. Next time the waitress comes by, I’m going to need a drink.”
Probably a double to give me enough nerve to go through with this. I put my arm around Donovan’s back and ruffled the hair at the base of his neck. “So. I’m here!”
I kept my eyes pinned on Weston’s, eager to see his reaction to my flirtation. He seemed annoyed, but not as annoyed as I would have preferred. It didn’t help that Donovan’s response was to bend forward to take a bite of his dumpling, acting as if I wasn’t even there.
And it most definitely didn’t help when Weston, sure I was watching, returned his hand to Sabrina’s knee. Thank God, he at least was subtle enough so that only Donovan and I could see.
“You said you weren’t coming,” he muttered accusingly.
“I hadn’t planned to. But.” I turned and looked at Donovan again, slipped my eyes up and down him longingly. Or I hoped it looked longing. “Donovan called and told me I needed to be here.”
Weston sneered. “Wasn’t that thoughtful of him?” Then the asshole scooted his chair closer to the woman beside him. “Sabrina, have you tasted the seared pork and shrimp dumplings yet?”
“No. Where are they?” She fluttered her eyes, all doe-like and naïve.
He lifted his chopsticks with a bite of dumpling on them. “Have some of mine.” Then the asshole fed dumplings to his little girlfriend in front of me. She even had the nerve to groan.
I could happily have murdered them both for this rude display.
Not to be outdone—“Donovan, the pan-fried lamb—“ I started for the dumpling on his plate, but before I could feed him anything, he picked it up and dumped it on my plate. “You can have it.”
Obviously, he was not playing along. I consciously smoothed out my frown and smiled at him. “Guess that’s better than swapping germs.”
“Elizabeth’s a germophobe,” Weston said snidely.
“I am not.” I grabbed the chopsticks next to me and attempted to pick up the dumpling, remembering too late that I’d never been very good with the things. “Just because I’m concerned about the diseases that come into my house doesn’t qualify me as a germophobe.” I chased the dumpling around my plate, growing more and more frustrated with each failed attempt to capture my food.
“She’s asked for a report of clean health.”
“I think that’s reasonable.” I’d only asked for his medical records because I knew it would rile him up. Because I’d felt riled. It was payback.
Finally, I snagged a piece of pastry and lifted it toward my mouth, but just as it reached my lips, it fell to the plate. “Goddammit.”
“Guys,” Nate sounded like he was trying not to laugh while hushing us. “Lovers’ spats are fun and all…”
Weston apparently didn’t get the hint. “Why do you even care when there’s no way I’m sharing anything I’ve got with you anyway?”
It shouldn’t burn like it did to hear him say that—twice in one day, no less—but it did. Especially in front of Sabrina, for some reason.
Well, fuck him.
I reached over and
stole the unused fork from his setting. “Big words, King. Just remember the thing you want out of this relationship isn’t as replaceable as the thing I want.”
I stabbed the pan-fried lamb and put it in my mouth, and it tasted fucking delicious. Like redemption. It melted on my tongue.
Melted like the conversation had melted into a tense silence.
“Speaking of replacements…” Nate said breaking the hush. “Did I ever tell you guys about the time I needed this original painting by this Brazilian artist, Luiz Hugo Sousa?”
Weston, who’d been staring at me, moved his eyes eagerly to Nate’s. “This sounds like the beginning of a good story.”
“The problem was, the girl who had possession of it didn’t want to sell. Fortunately, I was fucking her at the time. It wasn’t even particularly valuable, but my boss wanted it, and that made it powerful. I needed it more than I wanted her, and that’s saying a lot considering her oral skills.”
I needed Dyson Media more than I wanted Weston. That was the lesson here. Silently, I thanked Nate for the reminder. Eyes on the ball, Elizabeth.
“Skipping past the details: I got bombed on Jäger one night and decided to paint a replacement.”
Weston and Sabrina laughed, and so did a couple of other staff members who were now gathering around for Nate’s telling of the story.
“This is what made you stop doing Jäger?” someone asked.
“Oh, that came years and many adventures later. Long story short, there’s a reason I don’t paint for a living. I took the original and left a real Ecce Homo in its place. You should have seen this mess. Turns out I might have had a career as a ninja warrior, though, because the escape route I had to take to get out of her apartment that night was insane. If I hadn’t been drunk enough to feel invincible, I never would have tried it. I still have the scar on my upper arm from the barbed wire.” He started to pull down his shirt at the neck, searching for the mark. “It’s partly covered by the tattoo.”
“What did she do when she woke up and saw it?” Weston asked.
“Left me about a hundred messages threatening my life and manhood, until I tossed the burner and picked up a new phone. And then what could she do? She couldn’t display mine, obviously, but once her friends had seen the real thing, it wasn’t like she could hang any copy. It would have been glaringly obvious. Guess she has a white space on her wall now.”
“Is there a moral to the story?” Donovan asked, unamused.
“I suppose if you need a moral, Kincaid, it’s that there’s never a replacement for the real thing.” Nate looked at his partner hard. Real hard.
I glanced over at Weston, willing him to hear the point. But, surprise, surprise, he’d tuned us out and was whispering something in Sabrina’s ear.
“I’m not sure the person who needed to hear you got the message,” I said to Nate.
He looked from me to Donovan to Weston to Sabrina and back to me again. “There’s more than one person at this table tonight who needs to hear it.”
More people crowded around us from the other tables, the staff becoming looser from drinks and more jovial as the evening passed. The mood had lightened considerably since I had arrived. Weston got up from the table without a word, heading to the restroom, most likely. Someone took his seat, and another round of dumplings were set on the table.
Some nice guy from creative tried to get to know me by asking all about the wedding. It might have done my ego some good if I’d thought he was flirting, but I had a feeling he was gay.
And even if he was flirting, he wasn’t nearly charming enough to make up for the stab to my heart when, five minutes after Weston left the group, Sabrina nonchalantly left the table and followed after him.
Chapter Thirteen
I’d gone to the restaurant that night with every intention of flirting with Sabrina, and maybe making out with her in the back of a cab. I needed the reminder of what it felt like to have other lips on mine, needed to remember what it was like to kiss another woman, a woman who wasn’t Elizabeth. And maybe, with luck, I could get her out of my head.
I had zero intention of inviting Sabrina to meet me in the back of the restaurant for a buddy bang.
But when Elizabeth showed up, everything changed.
Before she came, I had my hand on Sabrina’s leg. The warmth of her, the soft silky tenderness of her skin that was supposed to get my cock going, only had me wondering what Elizabeth’s skin would feel like in comparison. Were her luscious thighs as soft to the touch? Would goosebumps prickle along her skin if I rubbed my thumb on her like this?
Even with a gorgeous woman beside me, with her attention completely on me, all I could think about was pale complexion, red hair, blue eyes.
And then the woman I was dreaming of was standing in front of me, dressed in a pale gray jumpsuit with lace over the arms and décolletage. She was more covered than Sabrina was, but my cock was more interested than it had been all evening.
I’d been grateful at first—she’d shown up! She’d come to Red Farm, even after all that fighting back and forth over text, she’d come out for me.
And my gut twisted with guilt and turmoil over the way I’d been flirting, but I thought maybe all could be forgiven, that the whole day would be turned around, and we could forget everything going on between us if Elizabeth would just sit by me.
I stood up to kiss her, and I don’t ever usually do that. Even for show, not since the engagement party. But it felt natural and right, and I wanted to.
And then she turned her head.
And I realized she wasn’t here to make amends at all.
Especially when she started flirting with Donovan. She couldn’t keep her hands off of him. What—had Clarence been busy for the night? She had to come and parade her disinterest in me in front of me? Every time she touched my friend, every time she glanced at him, it felt like a chess move, like she was taking out one of my pawns.
But I knew how to counterattack.
She ruffled his hair, and my hand scooted higher on Sabrina’s leg. She’d sharpen her gaze on him. I’d offer a forkful of food to Sabrina. It was intense and it was tedious. I was annoyed, but more than a little turned on.
But it wasn’t a game with casualties until she brought up how easily I could be replaced.
For weeks, I’d been teaching her how to be a better businesswoman, been bending to her rules, living in the same house, keeping it in my pants, been stifling my irrational planet-sized desire for her, been doing all of this so that she could get her hands on her company—and I could be replaced?
So I didn’t know if it was to hurt her or to get over her or because I was hurt—probably a combination of all three, and I was too fired up to narrow down the specific motivations—but I leaned down and invited Sabrina to meet me in the back of the restaurant.
I could replace Elizabeth, too.
Five minutes later, I was slipping into the cubby by the kitchen, a cutout in the wall covered by a decorative curtain, trying my hardest to turn my thoughts to the woman meeting me and away from the woman waiting back at the table.
Soon, I saw Sabrina walking past. I pulled her into the cubby with me, pushed her against the narrow wall, and pressed my lips against hers, kissing her aggressively, asking for permission with my tongue—permission to let me use her, use her to help me forget about that other woman, the woman I really wanted to be kissing.
Sabrina, sweet Sabrina, opened her mouth, her tongue meeting mine. She was familiar and safe. She was easy because I didn’t have to work for her. I didn’t have to second-guess what she wanted or what I wanted, for that matter.
But I did need to be sure she knew what I was after.
I broke the kiss and leaned my forehead against hers. “I’m going to be completely honest, Sabrina—this is a booty call and nothing else. You have every right to slap me and walk back out there. But I hope you don’t. I’m sensing you need a release right now too.”
Was it weird that I hoped
that she did slap me? Hoped that she kneed me in the nuts and told me I was a pig before walking away, never looking back?
She opened her mouth to respond, but before she could there was a rustling outside the closet. Someone walking too closely past, and I leaned even farther away from her than I already was so I could peek out of the curtain.
Donovan. Fucking Donovan. Checking up on me again.
“What is it?” Sabrina asked.
I shook my head. I couldn’t tell her that another one of the execs in the office knew that she was back here in the closet with me—how embarrassing for her.
And suddenly it hit me—how embarrassing for me.
What was I doing? I wasn’t into this buddy bang. The only reason I was semi-hard was because Elizabeth had shown up. I was a fucking shitshow, and honestly, because Donovan was out there playing boss—playing father again—it made me wish so goddamned hard that I could go through with this, but I just couldn’t. It was wrong on so many levels. Even if I could get my dick into it, my head was yards away.
“I can’t do this,” I said.
Sabrina’s head snapped up. “I was just going to say the same thing.”
I let go of her, and ran my hand through my hair instead. “I’m sorry.” Then I registered what she’d said. “You were?” That was a surprise. I thought she’d been into me.
“Yeah. It’s not…”
My mind filled in the blanks, while she tried to look for the right words. It’s not appropriate. It’s sleazy. I can tell you’re not feeling it.
Eventually she said, “The timing.”
“The timing,” I agreed. Fucking timing. Before Elizabeth and after Elizabeth. Was my life reduced to those two time periods forever?
“I’ll go out first,” she said.
I waited much longer than I needed to after she left. Three minutes, four. Seven minutes. I didn’t know what I was waiting for—to figure it all out, for my temper to settle down. Something.
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