by K. A. Linde
They passed Tiffany & Co., and Bryna shot it a wistful look.
“You really don’t need anything else from there,” Trihn said, grabbing her arm and tugging her away.
“I met Hugh there,” she said with a sad smile.
“Didn’t you just see on the news that he’s dating some movie producer? He’s fine.”
“It was fun while it lasted though,” Stacia said with a giggle. “How about that mansion?”
“Feels like a lifetime ago,” Bryna said.
“Well, I’m speaking for everyone when I say, I prefer you with Eric than as a gold-digging bitch,” Trihn told her.
Bryna shrugged. “He is pretty great.”
“He’s, like, godlike status,” Stacia chimed in.
“Ah!” Bryna said. “We’re here!”
Trihn looked at the entrance to La Perla, and it made her miss home where upscale boutiques were lined up on Fifth and Madison. Nowhere really compared to New York City in her eyes.
“What’s the occasion?” Trihn asked as they stepped inside.
“I don’t need an occasion to get sexy lingerie. I pretty much live in it, but you need to get fucked tonight. So, we’re going to work on that,” Bryna said. She breezed by Trihn with a confident strut in her step.
“Whoa! Rewind. I am not having sex tonight.”
“You’re going to see Damon at Posse tonight and repeat last weekend until you feel better again.”
“I’m fine!”
Even Stacia’s look was withering. “You’re so far from fine.”
“We had two options—ask ask you to talk about it, which we knew you wouldn’t, or take you lingerie shopping for the hot sex you’re going to have this weekend.” Bryna exchanged a look with Stacia. “We obviously chose the latter.”
A sales clerk approached them with wide eyes, clearly having just heard their conversation. “Can I help you, ladies?”
“Yes. I need a new lingerie set, and my friend here needs something to get fucked in.”
The woman smiled shyly but hardly batted an eye at Bryna’s language. Trihn wasn’t surprised. Bryna smelled like money. The clerk had probably seen it when she walked through the door.
Her father was a famous movie director, and her mother was an actress. They’d met at LV State, which was why she had come to the school. She was a legacy.
Trihn’s parents were on the opposite of that spectrum. Her father had skipped college to pursue photography and became a professional fashion photographer. He’d met her mom at Glitz where she was currently a senior executive for the fashion magazine. Her sister, Lydia, had followed in their dad’s footsteps while Trihn had ended up on the more artsy side of fashion rather than the business end.
That was why, despite the fact that she had no intention of sleeping with anyone this weekend, she tried on all of the La Perla lingerie the girls had thrown at her and left with a bagful of goodies that could totally get her laid.
“Damon’s not here.”
Trihn raised her eyebrows. “Hi. It’s nice to see you, too, Maya.”
“Oh, yeah. Hi. Here’s a gin and tonic. Damon’s not here,” Maya said, pushing a drink her way.
“Well, I didn’t come here for him tonight. I come here every weekend.”
“You so want to get fucked tonight. I mean, you’re wearing a corset top.”
“Nothing to do with Damon!” Trihn cried. She snatched her drink up and took a long swig. It burned on the way down, leaving behind a floral aftertaste. Good stuff.
“I do love that fucking skirt though,” Maya said, leaning over the bar to examine it. “Where did you get that?”
Trihn beamed. “I made it!”
“Look at you, Miss Fashion Designer. Well, I’ll take one of those when you have a chance.”
“Sure. I’ll get to it in my spare time,” Trihn said.
“Good.”
“So, wait,” Trihn said before Maya could go pour someone else a drink, “he’s really not here?”
Maya flashed her a bright smile. She looked Trihn up and down, as if taking her measure. “I knew you were here to get some ass.”
“Oh my God, honestly?”
“Honestly, he’s not here.”
Trihn nodded and tried not to think about that. She didn’t even know what had compelled her to ask Maya about Damon. She wasn’t interested. It had been a one-night stand. That was that.
A couple of drinks later, “Heartbreaker,” her favorite new Chloe Avana song, came on. She grabbed Bryna and Stacia and forced them out onto the dance floor. Their bodies grinding against each other were every guy’s wet dream.
Trihn let the freedom of the dance take over. It was practically hypnotic, the way the mixture of the alcohol, music, and movements could relax her like nothing else—except for sex. And since it was pretty clear she wasn’t going to be having any of that…
“I love this version!” Stacia cried.
Bryna shrugged. “Chloe is…okay.”
Trihn knew that Bryna had some issue with Chloe, who had been in a movie with Bryna’s ex-boyfriend Gates Hartman, but she really didn’t know what it was. Bryna was a buzzkill for Chloe’s music though.
“This version should be on the radio,” Stacia said.
Trihn realized where she had heard this before. Her eyes traveled up to the DJ booth. This was the mix that Damon had said he created when she went to see him in the booth last weekend.
Damon was here.
She was one hundred percent sure of that now.
Trihn spent the next hour wondering if and when Damon was going to come down from the DJ booth to see her. She was sure Maya had lied and said that he wasn’t there to keep her from obsessing about it.
She had just gotten another drink from Maya when she saw a circle forming on the other side of the club. Stacia was occupied with Marshall, who seemed to be giving into her antics. She guessed it was an off-again time for Stacia and Pace. Bryna was glued to Eric against the bar, making a sickeningly cute display for everyone to see.
Trihn pushed her shoulders back and decided to go figure it out for herself. She was pretty sure she knew what she was going to find.
It wasn’t Damon.
But it was his two friends from the other club they had gone to before school had started. The African American guy was warming up his break moves while the other guy kept glancing around the circle, as if waiting for something. Or someone, Trihn reasoned.
He caught her eye across the circle and started weaving around the crowd to her. “Hey, I’m Jimmy,” he said with a head nod.
“Trihn.”
“Yeah, I know who you are.”
Trihn raised her eyebrows for an explanation, but he didn’t give her one. He was about eye-level with her and kept his head tilted back, an imitation of Damon. She wondered if they were friends or if Jimmy just idolized him.
“You know Damon?”
“Grew up together.”
“Ah.”
“Don’t jerk him around, you know? He’s a great guy, and he doesn’t deserve that, even from someone as hot as you.”
Trihn shook her head with a sigh. Jimmy was just being a good friend. She would do the same thing for any of her friends if it were needed. But she wasn’t jerking Damon around. She thought she had been clear that she didn’t want a relationship, and if the flowers were any indication, he thought he’d made his point clear, too.
“Got it,” she said.
“Good. You seem nice. I’m just looking out for him.”
Trihn looked directly into his little puppy-dog eyes. “You really don’t know anything about me. Maybe I’m not nice.”
“Damon likes you, and he has good taste. He sees the good in people, even when they don’t see it in themselves.” Jimmy sounded like he had been on the other end of that speech before.
Also, she was pretty sure idolization was higher on the list than friendship.
A hand clamped down on Jimmy’s shoulder, and Trihn’s gaze moved upwar
d to find Damon staring at her.
“What’s going on here?” he asked Jimmy.
“Uh…nothing,” Jimmy squeaked.
“Yeah. It’d better be nothing,” Damon growled.
He actually seemed irritated with his friend. Or is that fear clouding his eyes? Is he worried about what Jimmy had said to me?
“Go do that move I taught you last week. Xavier probably needs a break.”
Jimmy saluted him with two fingers and then glided into the center of the circle to the cheers of the onlookers.
Trihn and Damon stood there together with a sexual tension that she couldn’t deny. His eyes drank her in, as if he’d been dying of thirst during the week apart. She could feel need rolling off of him, and she wanted to lean into him. It made her want to forget all the rules she had constructed for herself about the one-night stand and rethink those walls she had just rebuilt around her heart. But she needed those for protection. A hot guy with a few charming words was more destructive than a nuclear bomb to the heart.
“Maya said you weren’t here,” Trihn said when she couldn’t stand the silence any longer.
“I thought it would be easier for you if you didn’t know that I was here.”
“And then you played that Chloe song.”
He grinned. “It was requested.”
“It was a dead giveaway.”
“Maybe I couldn’t stand up there in obscurity any longer while the one thing I wanted tempted me from afar.”
“Damon,” she said, turning away from him.
Her cheeks heated at his words. He made something so minor sound so meaningful that it was hard to ignore him.
“Did you get the flowers?”
“Yes.”
“And the Kiss?”
She turned to face him with a sigh. “Yes.”
“You know why I sent it, right?”
“As a joke?” she guessed.
“Because I plan to earn back the right to your kisses. In the meantime, I’ll just send you chocolate ones to remind you of me.”
Damon held out his hand and passed her a Hershey’s Kiss.
She tried to refuse. “Stop saying those kinds of things to me.”
“What kinds of things?” he asked. He tucked his hands behind his back so that she had to keep it.
Defeated, she kept it in her palm. “Sweet things.”
“Not if you think they’re sweet,” he said with a grin.
And that British accent wasn’t helping her resolve any.
This was a bad idea, a horribly bad idea. He was hot and charming and sweet and trying to get her to open up to him, but the last thing she wanted was to attach feelings to another human being. It’d ended with Preston choosing Lydia over her and Neal likely cheating on her and deciding they were incompatible after a year and a half of dating. Mostly, it’d just ended in heartbreak.
“I should go,” Trihn said, backing away.
“Trihn”—Damon reached out for her and took her hand—“don’t go.”
Her phone buzzed in her purse, keeping her from having to respond him. Saved by the bell. “Sorry. I have to take this.”
She dug into her bag and pulled out her phone. She nearly groaned when she saw who was calling. If she had known it was Lydia, she might have braved the conversation with Damon.
She and Lydia used to be best friends, but after the stuff with Preston, botching all of her and Lydia’s plans to live and go to NYU together, and Trihn leaving the city, their relationship had never really repaired itself. Lydia acted like it wasn’t as big of a deal as it was to Trihn, but that was her hippie sister. Plus, she had won.
“Lydia, I’m in a club. Give me a minute to get somewhere quiet,” Trihn said into the receiver.
She mouthed, Sorry, to Damon, but he just held on to her hand.
“I have to be back in the booth soon. I’ll wait for the end of your call.”
She nearly groaned but just nodded. He followed her as she sought out a place to talk to Lydia. She was not looking forward to having these two conversations all in one place.
Trihn finally made it to the back patio. During the warmer months, it was an outdoor pool area, and Sunday afternoons, they would have crazy parties that attracted all the hottest crowds in Las Vegas. But tonight, it was cold and empty. Trihn was glad she had worn a blazer over her corset top.
“Sorry, Ly. What’s up?”
“Oh my God, Trihn! I’m so glad I got ahold of you.” Her voice was shaky, and she sounded like she was in tears.
A part of Trihn was excited for Lydia’s discomfort, and then she silently smacked herself and got back into sister mode.
“Lydia, are you okay?”
Lydia sniffed twice. “I’m just so emotional.”
“It’s the middle of the night in New York right now, Ly! What’s going on?” Trihn asked.
“Preston proposed! We’re getting married, Trihn!”
“I’M SORRY. COME AGAIN?” Trihn said.
Whatever Lydia had just said couldn’t possibly be real life.
“Preston proposed, and I said yes!” Lydia cried.
Trihn pitched forward. Someone reached out for her before she fell down, and she dimly realized that it was Damon.
She couldn’t form coherent thoughts. There was nothing coherent about the statements that Lydia had just made.
“Preston…proposed…”
“Yes! We were out late, walking through Washington Square Park, and he just got down on one knee right there. It was so romantic.”
Trihn took a seat on one of the stray lounge chairs and tried to remember to breathe. This couldn’t be happening. She needed to get it together—at least while she was on the phone with Lydia. She could freak out after she got off the phone.
“Wow,” she said with fake enthusiasm. “That’s great, Ly.”
“Thanks. You could try to sound excited for me.”
“I just didn’t realize you guys were that serious. It hasn’t been that long.”
“Almost two years. Well, two years in May, but whatever.”
Trihn felt the knife stab through her chest and twist.
Trihn had met Preston two years ago in June. He and Lydia had been dating for a few weeks prior to that, but Lydia had claimed they weren’t official until August, right before Trihn had left.
Trihn hadn’t realized that they acted like those months hadn’t existed with Trihn in them.
“Oh,” Trihn said.
“But we wanted you to be one of the first to know. I have to call Mom and Dad next, but I had to talk to you to ask you to be my maid of honor!”
Trihn leaned forward and put her head between her knees. She thought she was going to be sick. “Really?”
“Yes! It will be so amazing. We don’t have a date yet, but we’ll let you know as soon as we do. I’ll talk to you later, Trihn.” When Trihn didn’t respond to her comment, Lydia hung up the phone.
Two years. Married. Maid of honor.
Her head was spinning. She was definitely going to be sick. She slipped the phone back into her purse and blankly stared forward at the brick wall.
Trihn had never in a million years thought that Lydia and Preston would make it to this moment. She had been shocked when they made it past six weeks. The thought of them being together for almost two years and getting married was unthinkable.
How could two people who made absolutely zero sense together get married? Lydia was a free-loving hippie. Preston was a philandering asshole. One or the other was going to end up cheating, if they weren’t already in that boat. Trihn had her money on Preston. He’d set a precedent.
Who am I kidding? This whole thing was going to be a fucking disaster, and she would have to stand by and watch the train wreck happen.
“Trihn?” Damon asked uncertainly. “Is everything okay?”
She glanced up at him and took a deep breath. “My sister is getting married.”
His face lit up. “That’s great! Congratulations!” When he n
oticed her frown, he held back on his enthusiasm and looked puzzled. “Is it not great?”
“I’d rather not talk about it,” she said, standing up and trying to regain her composure.
“You looked pretty upset when you were on the phone.”
“And, now, I just want you to fuck me,” she told him.
His eyes widened in surprise. “What? How could you go from upset to sex that quickly?”
“Have you never had angry sex? Hate sex?”
He frowned. “I have, but I don’t think that’s what you need right now.”
Trihn placed her hands on his chest and leaned into him. “I really think that I should be the person to determine what I need. Right now, I need you to find a private place for us to fuck.”
Damon put his hands around her wrists. “I’m not really sure what’s going on with you, but maybe we should just talk about it rather than hiding it with sex.”
“Why am I the only girl in the world who begs a guy to fuck her and he refuses?” she asked. She pulled her arms back from him and waited for his response.
“Trihn, I thought I made myself clear last weekend. I don’t want to be just a one-night stand, and I don’t want to be your fuck buddy either. I wouldn’t mind you taking your emotions out on my cock,” he said coarsely, moving closer to her again. He dragged her body against him and leaned forward, as if he were going to kiss her. His voice was deep and husky with that smooth British accent that made her knees weak. “In fact, I would love nothing more than to be inside you again, but I want to know that you’re not running from every step we take forward.”
“And what if I do?”
“Then, I’ll leave you alone. I don’t want that, but I don’t want to be used either. A couple of months ago, I would have been all for this, but I’ve changed since then. I can’t go back to the person I was.” Damon looked away from her and sighed. “I have to get back in the booth or else I’m going to get in trouble at work. But will you stay until I get off work?”
“For a repeat of last weekend?” she asked hopefully. It would be great to forget about Preston and Lydia for a night.