“Fuck,” he murmurs, pulling me closer so that I’m nearly lifted off the desk. He searches my mouth with his tongue and bites down on my lip.
I’m nearly there, and let him know with a small moan and a scratch of my nails against his back. Waves of pleasure overcome me and I find his lips again. He slows down his pace after a few more minutes and falls forward on top of me, sighing loudly.
Nuzzling his face into my neck, he plants a soft kiss on my skin. “You’re fucking amazing.”
“You too,” I say, still finding my way back to earth.
He backs himself off of me as I lay limply on the desk. Grabbing my hands, he helps me sit up. He slides his boxers back on and hands me my clothes from the floor, but I’m in such a state of bliss that I can’t even move.
“Fine by me, but we’re not going to get any work done that way,” he jokes.
I shake my head slowly, close my eyes, and smile.
“That good, huh?” he asks.
I nod and lean in for another kiss.
Chapter Twenty-One
I’m back in my clothes, sitting across from Austin, who decided to stay shirtless. Very distracting, but I can’t complain.
“So, we’re going to need to catch her doing something bad. Something that would make it seem like it was understandable for you to break up with her,” I recommend.
“I can’t imagine Cassidy doing anything wrong, she’s like Little Miss Perfect.”
“I know…but can you think of anything she may be hiding? Do you know anything about her past that we can dig up?”
We’re playing dirty now, but I don’t care. She deserves it.
“Hmmm,” he taps his pen to his chin and stares at the ceiling.
“Any ex-boyfriends we can get some dirt from?”
He rests his elbows on the desk and leans in. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea. When we first got together, she had to kick her other guy to the curb. But what was his name?”
I pull out my cell and search the web to dig something up. I search for “Cassidy Evans ex-boyfriend,” and to my surprise and delight, a name pops up on an old blog post.
“Does Tyler Kraft ring a bell?”
“Yes!” Austin jumps up from his chair and slams his hands down on the arm rests. “Tyler, that was definitely it. She talked about him a lot at the beginning. I think she really liked him, but her quest for fame must have won over her relationship.”
I search the web again with his name, but it doesn’t seem like he was famous. All that pops up is a Facebook page. He’s actually pretty cute, with smooth mocha skin and bright brown eyes.
“Should I friend request him?” I ask.
“No…too obvious,” he says. “Try and find out where he works or hangs out so you can casually run into him.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Maybe the CIA will want to recruit me after I hang up my publicist hat.”
“Maybe you should wear a black bodysuit and a pink wig while you’re at it,” Austin says, biting his lip.
“Let’s not make this into one of your role-play fantasies. Come on, we need to concentrate.”
“Ok, ok. But, it would be pretty hot…”
I roll my eyes. “Shut up.”
I search until I find what I’m looking for. “Got it. He works at the Coffee Bean. Up for a caffeine run?”
Austin shakes his head. “I think you’ll need to go this one alone. I can’t really sneak around this town like you can, remember?”
I nod. “True, true, Mr. Movie Star,” I tease. “I’ll try to pay Tyler a visit after work tomorrow.”
“Perfect,” he replies, smiling wide. “I think this may actually work.”
“I think so too.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Forget breakfast, I can hardly keep my hand steady enough to brush my hair. This could be my last day as a professional PR person, or worse, my last day in LA. I’m certain that Priscilla is going to fire me, tarnish my name, and send me back to Florida after all the shit that went down last week.
I gather my thoughts in the elevator as I make my way up to the 23rd floor. As the doors open, my first instinct is to push the button back down to ground level, but I know I need to face my mistakes head on.
“Welcome back,” Mandy says, rushing to greet me as I set my bag down on my desk. “You don’t look so good.”
“I don’t feel so hot either.”
She leans in close to whisper. “I don’t know how much Priscilla knows about what actually happened. Cassidy’s manager called at the end of the day while you were flying back, but I couldn’t hear the conversation.”
I nod. “Thanks for the heads up.”
“Of course.” She grabs my shoulders. “My advice – don’t say a word, just let her do the talking.”
“Good idea.”
She leaves my cube as Priscilla walks through the door. I follow her quickly to bring in her coffee, and set the cup on the desk.
“Take a seat,” Priscilla instructs.
I pull out the chair quickly and nearly sit on my hands to keep them from trembling. I know my verbal beat down is about to begin.
She grabs her drink and takes a sip. “How was the trip?”
Is this a trick question???
“Great,” I say with a smile, hoping it looks natural.
“Good,” she says, starting up her computer. “The coverage has been crazy so far. Can you pull a report together by 10AM?”
That’s it? Am I dreaming? How did I escape without punishment?
“Of course, I’ll get right on it,” I say, pushing my chair away from the desk to get up.
“Oh, and Olivia,” she says, tearing her eyes away from her screen. “Set up a meeting with Austin and his people. We were able to recover from his engagement stunt pretty quickly, but it can’t happen again. Got it?”
“Yes, I’ll do that now. Thanks.”
I run out of her office before there’s a chance for anything else to come up, but it doesn’t sound like Cassidy told on me about hooking up with Austin. A weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I feel like running a victory lap through the halls of the PWR Group.
Instead, I quickly scurry back to my cubicle and turn on my computer.
“You OK?” Mandy mouths over the cube wall.
I nod and smile. “Lunch later.”
She shakes her head up and down in agreement.
I pull together a media coverage report of all the press clips from the past week. It seems that other than the photo of Cassidy’s ring, the second most re-blogged, re-Tweeted, and most talked about photo was the one of Austin in his half-zipped wetsuit. I’d like to set it as my background image on my computer, but that might come off as a little unprofessional.
The photos of Austin and Cassidy at the airport show up on a bunch of sites too. They look so infatuated with each other that even I still can’t believe it’s fake. She looks like such an innocent teenager. I can’t wait to show the world the type of person she really is.
I send Priscilla the report and call Austin’s manager to set up a meeting for tomorrow afternoon. He agrees to be at the office after lunch. I doubt I’ll be invited to the meeting, but I’ll still need to remind Austin to keep his flirty comments to himself while he’s here. Priscilla may be in the dark about what happened between us, but she’s not dumb. If she sees him hitting on me, she might take me off his account or not let me go to any of his events just as a precaution.
Mandy and I walk down the street for lunch, settling in at our usual cafe.
“Ok, so by the lack of screaming or crying, I’m assuming you’re still employed,” she says.
“Yes, thank God!” I respond, before taking a big bite of chicken salad.
She picks up her fork. “You know, you had me freaking out all week!”
“I was freaking out too! But it seems like Priscilla is completely oblivious about my relationship with Austin.”
“Relationship? What relationship? I thought you two were just hooking up.”<
br />
Shit, I think I said too much. I rest the side of my head in my hand and take a deep breath. “I don’t even know what it is, but I know it’s more than just hooking up.”
“But he’s a Hollywood player, Olivia, you can’t trust him.”
“I know it seems that way, but I do trust him. He’s sincere. He doesn’t want to marry Cassidy. He…he wants to be with me.”
I swear Mandy almost chokes on her diet Coke. “You guys can’t date. Priscilla will kill you.”
I raise my shoulders to my ears. “I dunno, we’ll figure it out.”
“Oh…kay…” She shakes her head disapprovingly.
“C’mon, Mandy. I’m trusting you with this information. The least you could do is be supportive.”
“I am, I am, but…I just don’t want you to get hurt or fired. I just don’t see how any of this can have a happy ending.”
“I have to at least give it a shot. I really like him.”
She gives up the argument and sits back in her chair. “So what about Cassidy?”
“Ugh, that’s a whole other ordeal that I’m trying to take care of.”
“Take care of? You’re not gonna hire a hit man, are you?”
“I wish it were that easy,” I say with a laugh. “No, I’m figuring something out.”
“That’s it? Come on, tell me. Maybe I can help.” She crosses her arms, waiting for a response.
“Fine, I’m trying to dig up dirt on her so I can frame her for doing something bad. Something so awful that Austin would have to break up with her and people wouldn’t think he was being an asshole for doing so.”
“Hmm…” She scratches her finger to her chin. “I like where this is going. What can I do?”
“Wanna come with me to the Coffee Bean later? I think her ex works there.”
“Yes! I’m totes down for that,” she says, excitedly.
“Awesome. Let’s leave after Priscilla heads out the door tonight.”
“Do I need a disguise? I think I have a scarf and big sunglasses in my car,” Mandy says.
She really is too much. “I think you’d get too carried away with your disguise and forget our mission. Besides, this guy won’t even know who we are!”
“Ok, fine Miss Super Sleuth. I’ll be ready to go when you say so.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mandy and I are out the door at five-thirty. We pull up to the Coffee Bean and enter the store.
“Let me see his pic again,” Mandy whispers.
I pull up his Facebook page and pass her the phone. I browse the store, checking out each employee as inconspicuously as I possibly can.
“I don’t see him,” I whisper. Damn, I knew this sounded too good to be true.
“Should we just ask if he works here?” Mandy says.
“No, we don’t want him to know we’re looking for him.”
I grab the phone back and search the web for his name again. “Bingo.”
“What is it?” she asks.
“He just Tweeted. Look, it says he’s at Sweet Cakes, isn’t that nearby?”
“Yeah, they have the best cupcakes…mmm I want a cupcake so bad right now.”
“Screw the cupcakes, we need to find Tyler before he leaves!”
We scramble out of the Coffee Bean and drive a mile down the street to the bakery. There’s not as many people at the bakery as there were in the coffee shop. We hang back and try to peek in the glass door.
“Holy shit.” I jump back from the storefront and turn my head.
“What’s wrong?” Mandy asks.
“I think Cassidy’s in there!” I quickly stand behind Mandy. “She can’t see me!”
“Oh my God, what is she doing here?”
“You should go in. I’ll wait in the car,” I say.
“Okay, okay.”
Mandy opens the door and a bell rings. I sprint to the car and try to watch the scene as I crouch behind the dashboard inside.
Mandy calls attention to herself wherever she goes with her platinum blonde hair and her penchant for always wearing at least a five-inch heel on top of her already five-foot-seven frame, making her tower over most other females. I hope for today she at least tries to blend in.
A few minutes pass and she sends me a text.
“Ordered cupcake. Couldn’t resist. Think Cassidy is sitting w Tyler. Bodyguard looking dude in corner. No one else seems to recognize her.”
I text back. “What are they talking about?”
“Not sure, but they look happy. Smiling, laughing, feeding each other dessert. Weird.”
“Take a pic!”
“I can’t, too obvious.”
“Try, this might be our only shot.”
Not a minute goes by before Mandy runs out the door to our car. She hops in the passenger seat and hands me a bag.
“Did you get it?” I ask.
“I got you a cupcake.”
“That’s not what I meant. Did you get the photo?”
She takes out her phone and sighs. “It’s really blurry. I was afraid to point the phone at them so I pretended to talk and sort of turned my ear toward them while pushing the button.”
“Thanks, at least you tried,” I say. “I should probably call Austin.”
“Go for it.”
I put him on Bluetooth in the car. “Hey, Austin, it’s me, Olivia.”
“I recognize your voice by now Liv,” he says.
Mandy turns to me and punches my arm. “Ohmygod!” she whispers.
I giggle.
“What’s going on?” he says.
“You are not going to believe this. We went to find Tyler, and guess who was with him?”
“Who’s we?”
“Oh sorry, I have Mandy with me, she works at PWR Group, but don’t worry, she’s cool.”
“Hi Austin!” Mandy says.
“Hey…”
He sounds pissed, but he’ll get over it once he finds out how she helped us out.
“So…Tyler was with Cassidy!” I exclaim.
“Interesting.”
That’s all he has to say? Interesting? I thought he would be much more excited than this. What did I do wrong?
“Yes, it is interesting. Especially because Mandy was able to go in the store and spy on them.”
“Yeah, it looked like they were on a date,” Mandy says. “I tried to take a picture, but it kind of sucks.”
“Still, I think we need to investigate further. Maybe she’s cheating on you,” I say.
“Maybe,” he responds, dryly.
Jeez, you’d think I was telling him about my last college exam, not incriminating details that might be the key to setting him free!
“Okay, well I’ll see you later then,” I say.
“Yeah, I’ll be in your office tomorrow. See you then.”
He hangs up quick.
“What a jerk,” Mandy quips. “We just did him a huge favor and he can’t even say thank you?”
“I know, I’m sorry, he’s usually not like that.” Although, I don’t know actually know what he’s usually like. I’ve only known him a few weeks.
“Are you sure this is worth it? Like, losing your job worth it?” she asks.
I nod, but I’m not so sure that it is anymore.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I struggle to wake up as my phone buzzes next to my head. My eyes slowly adjust and I read the text from Austin.
“Can you come over?”
I glance at the clock. It’s two in the morning. Is he out of his mind?
“What do you think I am? A booty call? I’m going back to bed.”
I toss the phone next to me and place my head back on the pillow. After the way he spoke to Mandy and me this evening, I’m really not interested in any of his antics.
Another buzz.
“I miss you.”
Fuck…I just want to sleep!
“Are you drunk?” I ask.
“Kinndaa”
“I thought you stopped.”
/> “Never said that”
“Austin…”
“I like it when you say my name… come over”
“Stop sexting me you freak. I’m going to bed.”
“It’s not sexting unless I send u a dick pic.”
“Please don’t. Let me sleep!!”
“Im sending a car to pick u up. Where do u live?”
“No. Drink some water and I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”
“Only vodka here. want u in my bed.”
I shut my phone off and try to remember the way he looked at me when he said he wanted to be with me. I don’t remember him looking deceitful, but could it all be a lie? Am I just a big, gullible fool? Maybe Mandy’s right; should I really be putting myself on the line to save his ass?
The next day at work is brutal. My stomach’s in knots as I anxiously wait for Austin to attend his meeting. Priscilla has me pulling more reports and setting up a media tour for Cassidy and Austin to discuss their engagement with the press. I barely have time to grab lunch, not that I could eat with my nerves anyway.
He better behave himself in front of Priscilla and agree to whatever her terms and conditions are. And I hope he apologizes to Mandy for his attitude yesterday, and to me for his obnoxious drunk texts. Otherwise, I’m not sure what to think about him anymore. All I do know is that I can’t be blinded by his good looks and amazing sex.
At half past three, Austin’s manager strolls through the double doors. He speaks to the receptionist then sits on the couch, scrolling through his phone. Priscilla speed-walks by my desk to greet him, but Austin hasn’t arrived yet.
Priscilla taps her foot rapidly on the carpeted floor as they wait. She hates waiting.
By quarter of four, Austin finally enters the office. His unkempt hair is covered in a grey beanie and he has a bit of stubble on his face. He’s wearing snug black jeans and a grey t-shirt. It almost looks like he just rolled out of bed…and knowing the state he was in last night, he probably did.
Priscilla leads them to the meeting room, passing by my desk again. Austin doesn’t stop to say hello. Not that I’d expect him to, but I guess a quick glance might have been nice.
“That bastard,” Mandy whispers over to me.
Player in Paradise Page 10