Break Me Down (Alexis and Reid, Book Two) (A Sexy New Adult Romance)
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BREAK ME DOWN (Alexis and Reid, Book Two)
By Locklyn Marx
Copyright 2013, Locklyn Marx, all rights reserved.
Chapter One
The airport was dead at five am, and Reid was grateful for it. He liked to get into a zone before a client meeting, a zone that involved lots of silence. The only problem was, Alexis seemed like she didn’t really feel like being silent. In fact, she seemed as if all she wanted to do was talk.
“Are you going to get a coffee or anything before we get on the plane?” she was asking. She’d brought along one tiny suitcase, a flimsy duffle bag that didn’t look like it was holding much of anything. He, on the other hand, had two large suitcases, a garment bag for his suit, and a separate bag for his laptop.
He’d tried to explain to her that he didn’t know how long they’d be gone, and that she should pack accordingly. When it came to trips like this, you never knew what kind of meetings and brainstorming sessions the client was going to want. If the people at Vista Collection wanted him to stay in Tampa and work closely with them, Reid would have to drop everything else he had going on. Alexis had seemed to understand this when he told her, and yet she’d still only packed the one bag. It was a foreign concept to him, a woman traveling with only one bag.
“I wasn’t planning on it,” Reid said.
“Oh, okay.” Alexis pushed her long blonde hair back from her face. “I just didn’t know if you were going to sleep on the plane, or if you were going to try to power through with caffeine. You know, since you were up most of the night.”
He almost laughed. Sleep? What was that? “I’m going to stay awake.” He shrugged. “We can get a coffee if you want.”
“Good.” She brightened, like it was that most exciting thing she’d heard all morning. He followed her over to the Starbucks that was nestled in the corner of the airport.
“I’ll have a cappuccino with an extra shot of espresso,” Alexis told the barista.
“Oh, and can you add a vanilla shot? And put whipped cream on top?”
“Sure,” the barista said. She looked at Reid.
“Just a plain coffee. Black.”
Alexis rolled her eyes. “Boring.”
“It’s not boring,” he said. “It gets the job done.” He’d always taken pride in the fact that he could drink his coffee black. He didn’t need anything to mask the taste or take away the bitterness.
“Yeah, but what’s the point?”
The barista was sliding their paper cups across the counter, and Alexis picked hers up and took a sip. Reid handed the barista a ten-dollar bill and told her to keep the change.
“The point is to get caffeinated,” Reid said.
“Well, yeah. But I’m getting caffeinated, too, and I’m actually enjoying what I’m drinking.”
“Yes, but not needing anything extra for my coffee puts me at an advantage.”
She frowned. “What kind of advantage?”
“Well, if I were someplace where they didn’t have cream or sugar or whipped cream or espresso shots, I’d be fine with just a plain coffee. I wouldn’t feel like I was missing out on anything.”
Alexis shook her head. “That’s ridiculous. When was the last time you were somewhere that had coffee but no cream and sugar?”
Reid just sighed and said, “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Probably not.” Alexis looked at thoughtfully and nodded, like she’d just figured something out about him.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Reid asked, frowning. He didn’t like people analyzing him. It made him nervous.
“Well, you’re obviously a control freak. So it would make sense that you like to drink your coffee black.”
“I’m not a control freak.”
Alexis was moving through the airport now, back toward the gift shop. He followed her, glancing up at the arrivals board as he went. Good. Their flight was on time. If there was one thing Reid hated, it was flights that were delayed. Waiting in the airport was the worst. It was like you had lost control of –
Wait. Was it true? Was he a control freak?
“I’m not a control freak,” he said again, as if saying the words out loud would make them true.
“Yes, you are,” Alexis said cheerfully.
“No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are.”
“How do you know? You barely even know me.”
“I know that you color-code the suits in your closet. And I know that your sweatshirts look like a display at the GAP. And I know that your bathroom is cleaner than any guy’s bathroom I’ve ever seen, and that your takeout menus are in alphabetical order.”
“I just like to have things organized. That doesn’t mean – ” He stopped. “Wait a minute. How do you know all that?”
“All what?” She set her bag down on one of the chairs in the waiting area and suddenly became extremely busy rummaging around in her stuff.
“The things you just said. About my suits.”
“Oh.” A look of guilt passed over her face. “I don’t. I was just guessing.”
He looked at her. “Jesus,” he said, stunned. “You went through my shit!”
“I had to make sure you weren’t an ax murderer.” She pulled a hair tie out of her bag and flipped her head over, gathering her hair into a ponytail. He got another view of that luscious cleavage and the image of her in that towel yesterday flashed into his mind.
He remembered how soft her skin had looked, how easy it would have been for the towel to accidentally fall from her body.
“Whatever,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m going to get some snacks for the plane. You want anything?”
“No, thanks.”
He started to walk to the gift shop, but she called after him.
“Hey, Reid.”
“Yeah?”
She held up her cup and gave him a smile. “Thanks for the coffee.”
***
Reid didn’t seem mad at her for poking around in his apartment, which, Alexis had to admit, was pretty cool of him. She followed him through security, setting her bag on the conveyer belt and walking through the metal detector. She wasn’t sure if it was because she was moving even further away from Philadelphia or because Reid wasn’t pushing her to talk about what happened last night, but for the first time in the past forty-eight hours, she began to feel relaxed.
She’d only had one panicky moment, when they’d first gotten to the airport and the airline clerk had asked for her I.D. Alexis had been tense as she’d pushed her license across the counter. She was half-expecting herself to be on some kind of no-fly list that would cause her to be pulled aside and arrested. Of course, deep down she knew that was ridiculous. What she’d done wasn’t against the law. Running away from your life was perfectly legal.
Alexis followed Reid down the tunnel and onto the plane, and once they were settled into their seats, she snuck at glance at him out of the corner of her eye. He was studying something on his phone. He seemed very focused and intense. He was wearing a suit, which she found completely crazy. Who wore a suit on a plane? She guessed business people did. But still. He had to be uncomfortable. Of course, he didn’t look uncomfortable. He looked strong and in control.
The captain came over the loudspeaker and asked everyone to turn off their electronic devices. Reid put his phone away, then opened up a notebook and started making notes.
“What are you working on?” Alexis asked, trying to sound nonchalant. She always got nervous during takeoffs and landings, and she found it helped to have someone to talk to. Not that she flew
that much. Being a teacher didn’t exactly give you the money to be jaunting all around the country. And Leo certainly hadn’t been willing to pay for any trips.
“Refining some notes for a meeting.”
“What kind of meeting?”
“A meeting with a client.”
“Has anyone ever told you that talking to you is like pulling teeth?”
“Yes.” He continued to work, sliding his eyes over his paper, his pen making scratching noises as he wrote.
The plane’s engines roared to life.
“So what kind of client are you going to meet?” Alexis asked.
“A woman’s clothing company.”
“Nice.” She shifted on her seat as the plane started speeding down the runway.
“Do you have many women working on the campaign?”
“No.”
“No?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Why not what?”
She sighed. “Why don’t you have many women working on the campaign?”
“We don’t have many women in our office.”
“Oh. Well, good luck. I doubt a twenty-three-year-old guy knows much about women’s clothing.” Her tone was light, but she shifted again on her seat. The plane was ascending now, and she was gripping the armrests so hard her knuckles were turning white.
“You okay?” Reid asked.
“Yes.”
“You seem nervous.”
“I don’t like take offs and landings,” she admitted.
“It’ll be over before you know it.”
The plane began to level off, and she let out the breath she’d been holding.
“See?” he said. “All done.”
“You don’t get bothered by flying?”
He grinned and glanced at her out of the corner of her eye. “Guess I’m not that much of a control freak after all.”
***
They spent the rest of the flight in silence. Reid let her use his iPad to read a book while he worked on refining his pitch.
By the time they touched down in Tampa and Alexis’s stomach had stopped flipping around from the landing, she was excited to be in a new place. She was going to think of her time in Florida as a chance to recharge her batteries, to take a little time for herself before she got to work on rebuilding her life.
They took a taxi from the airport to the hotel.
“Wow,” Alexis said as they walked into the lobby. “Your company likes to travel in style.”
“In order to be successful, one must portray success at every turn,” Reid recited.
Alexis rolled her eyes. “That’s such bullshit.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Yes, it is. If you’re truly successful, you don’t give a shit about what other people think, because you’re too busy working and being successful.”
He tilted his head, thinking about it. “Huh,” he said. “Not a bad point.”
As they made their way through the marble-tiled lobby, Alexis began to feel more and more out of place. The girls here all looked like they’d walked out of a fashion magazine or a music video. It wasn’t even that they were good-looking, although all of them were. It was something else. A sense of style, or maybe the way they carried themselves. They all had expensive bags slung over their shoulders, long hair that hung in perfect tousled curls, and impeccable tans that didn’t make them look orange or aging.
Even the two women she saw coming from the pool wore elegant cover-ups and trendy high heels, with huge oversized sunglasses perched on their noses.
Alexis was wearing the new jeans she’d bought yesterday, along with a long-sleeved white t-shirt. She was probably going to have to at least buy a bathing suit while she was here. She’d taken three hundred dollars out of the ATM before they’d left New York this morning. It was the most the bank would allow her to take out at one time.
She didn’t want to have to use her ATM card in Florida if it could be avoided.
“I got us adjoining rooms,” Reid said, coming back from the check-in desk. He held up the key cards.
“Are you sure it’s okay that we’re doing this?” she asked, taking one of the keys from him. “I mean, I don’t want to get you in trouble.”
“For getting you a room and putting it on the company’s tab? Nah, they don’t care.” He leaned in close to her and whispered in her ear, “If you want to know the truth, I’m kind of a big deal.” His breath tickled her skin, sending warmth and desire sliding all the way down to her toes. Stop. Just because he’s gorgeous doesn’t mean your hormones have to get all crazy.
“Oh, really?” she asked, stepping away from him and walking toward the elevator.
“Yeah.” He stepped into the elevator and pushed the button for the third floor.
“And so they want to keep me happy.”
“By letting you book hotel rooms for random women?”
“Yup. Even though I don’t need hotel rooms to get random women.” He grinned and she rolled her eyes.
They stepped off the elevator and made their way down to rooms 304 and 306.
“Here they are,” Reid said. “Right next to each other, as promised.”
“Thanks.”
“So I have a meeting in a couple of hours,” he said, and she saw the look of worry that passed over his face. He was probably concerned about leaving her alone.
“I’m fine,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You do your work. I’m going to take a nap and then maybe relax by the pool.”
“I don’t know if you should be sitting in the sun,” Reid said. “What if your head starts acting up?”
“The sun is good for you. And besides, there are probably a million people down there. I’ll be safer down there than I would in my room.”
He hesitated. “Fine. But I don’t think you should go swimming.”
“I won’t swim.”
“Okay.” But he still hesitated.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
She slid her keycard into the door to her room, and then pushed it open. “I’ll call you if I need anything.”
Reid glanced at his watch. As he did, the arm of his suit slid up and revealed a muscular forearm. Her pulse quickened. She shook her head and pushed the feeling of attraction away. It’s just because he’s being nice to you. That’s the only reason you’re getting all hot and bothered.
But Reid was being more than just nice to her. He’d let her stay in his apartment.
He’d brought her to Florida with him. He hadn’t pushed her to talk about what had happened last night. She watched as he slid his key card into the slot and then disappeared into his room.
He didn’t seem like he was a particularly nice guy. So why was he being so kind to her? She shook her head and told herself to stop thinking about it. He probably had some kind of weird thing about rescuing women.
And besides, she was definitely not in any shape to be thinking about a guy, romantic or otherwise.
***
Alexis immediately curled up in bed and fell asleep. The bed in her room was ridiculously comfortable, with silk sheets and soft pillowcases.
She’d never stayed in a place like this, ever. Most of the hotels she’d been in were Super Eights or Holiday Inns. They didn’t leave mints on your pillow or have a stocked mini bar. Not that she was going to take anything out of the mini bar. The bag of M&M’s alone cost eight dollars. Eight dollars! And it wasn’t even a full bag -- it was one of those snack-sized ones.
But she did need food. So when she woke up at around two o’clock, she took a shower, dried her hair, and slicked on some lip gloss. She pawed through her bag until she found a hot pink t-shirt that wasn’t too wrinkled.
She headed downstairs and poked around in the little hotel store, browsing through the sandwiches and flipping through the rack of bathing suits. But everything was ridiculously overpriced, and so after a few minutes, she walked outside.
“You should definitely get that,” the clerk said when Alexis emerged from the dressing room to look at herself in the three-way mirror. “It looks fabulous on you.”
“I don’t know.” She pulled at the straps on the top of the red bikini. “I usually only wear a one piece.”
The clerk laughed. “Honey, nobody wears a one-piece in this town. Not even my grandmother.”
Alexis checked the price tag again. Forty-nine ninety-nine, but it was on a seventy-percent off rack, probably because no one else in Tampa was a size eight. From what Alexis had observed so far, if you weren’t a zero or a two, you were practically plus-size.
She paid for her bathing suit and a pair of flip-flops, then stopped at the deli next door and bought a cobb salad and a lemonade. She sat outside on a little wrought-iron table, watching people pass by as she ate.
When she returned to the hotel, she headed back up to her room, changed into her bathing suit, and then pulled on an oversized t-shirt to use a makeshift wrap. She slipped into the beaded purple flip-flops she’d picked up at the swimsuit store for three dollars.
Something told her that beaded and purple weren’t going to exactly be the footwear of choice at a place like this, but it was the best she could do on a budget.
When she got to the pool, she picked a chair down by the end. The sun was bright, with just the perfect amount of warmth, and she turned her face to the sky and sighed contentedly. Luckily, whoever had been there before her had left a huge stack of trashy magazines – Cosmo, US, InStyle, and Star
Alexis was happily ensconced in an article about Kourtney Kardashian and all her fashion problems, when a waiter in white shorts and a hunter-green polo shirt came by and offered her a drink.
“Would you like a cocktail, ma’am?” he asked.
Of course she would have liked a cocktail. The air was warm, and the drinks looked delicious – all bright-colored and icy, with little umbrellas poking out of the top.
“Oh,” Alexis said. “Um… ” They probably weren’t going to ID her, but she was pretty sure the drinks weren’t complimentary. The hotel couldn’t just go around giving away alcohol, could they?