I laughed, “we are related to an Earl.”
They squealed again. Alright, these two are annoying now.
“Is that…Orlando Bloom?” I asked and squinted across the room. The lie worked. They both whipped around to look and I escaped. I ran into countless more people and had meaningless chatter while seeing dozens of women I thought were her. My mystery girl.
Toward midnight I could feel the alcohol doing its job. I left the den in the basement and went out on the front veranda. I huddled in the far corner of Jacob’s massive deck and lit myself a cigarette. One long breath in and I felt complete. Looking up at the stars overhead I feel like I’m okay now. This is the life, isn’t it, I asked myself? Women, cars, money, looks, parties. If that’s the truth why do I feel…hollow?
“That’s a bad habit.” A woman to my far left said.
I looked back and froze. It was my redhead. She was gripping the rail and looking out; her body catching all my attention.
“Sorry?” I asked.
“Smoking,” she smiled. “It’s a bad habit.”
I looked at the smoke between my fingers and made myself focus on her words. “Oh, yeah. That’s what they say isn’t it?”
“Hey, as long as you’re happy, do what works for you. You could get hit by a bus and lung cancer will be the least of your worries.”
I smiled. “You’re funny.”
“In a morbid way. I think humor makes life bearable.”
I observed her. “Enjoying the party?”
She scrunched up her face in distaste. “It’s not my thing, but it was an improvement on my night.”
I came closer still waiting on her to look up at me. “Did your night need improving?” I asked.
“Blind date turned out to be batman, and Gotham put up the signal so he had to dash.”
“I’ll take it that means he stood you up?” I asked as the corner of my lips tipped up in a smile. “Well, one man’s toss away is another man’s pleasure. I’m glad your night turned out the way it did.”
She laughed, “is that you flirting? That was good. Insert applause.”
I laughed too then sided up closer. “Life has a funny way of making things work out, Love.” She nodded and I wondered if she was toying with me since there’s no chance she doesn’t know who I am. I studied her profile. “Admiring the stars?”
“Are they showing? I figured there was too much light from the street.”
“Look up, they’re fairly bright,” I said looking for myself.
She licked her lips and finally turned her head to me, “not bright enough for me, I’m afraid.”
Then I saw in the dim light of the street, that her eyes didn’t focus. Even facing my way her eyes didn’t meet mine or look me over, they looked right past me.
“Shit. I’m sorry.” I flicked my cigarette away. “I didn’t notice.”
“That’s okay. I left my, ‘I’m blind’ sticker at home.”
We laughed and I took a minute to stare. Understanding in my mind that since she can’t see me, I’m allowed to look as much as I want, even at things I shouldn’t.
“Still there?” she asked. “Silence usually means someone left.”
“It’s going to take a lot to get rid of me.”
She flushed a great pink. “You’re a brave one.”
“Are you dangerous? You look harmless to me. Dressed to kill, but otherwise harmless.”
“Brave because guys either avoid me or get bold. There’s never an in-between. So I’m guessing you’re the brave type.”
I frowned. “Men avoid you? Are they also blind?”
She struggled to conceal a smile, “Okay Mr. Trouble. I think you should rejoin the party.”
I lifted my brows. I love this woman! “Done talking to me already?”
“Yep, you sound like a player. You have that whole…smooth operator sound to your voice.”
I nodded, “Well, I’m British and I happen to know, that American women do find our accent irresistible. That’s not my fault. I was technically born to the role.”
She felt up the pillar of the porch to hold it with one hand. “You’re right. That’s labeling. Labeling is stupid.”
“Labels have purpose.” I leaned over the rail and set my forearms over it. “You’re a hot girl. That makes men want you. You’re also a blind girl, which some idiots must look at as an obstacle. So your label, from my point of view, is a hot blind girl.”
She shifted to face me, “What’s yours?”
“Ah, well, only fair I tell you now eh? Yes. I am a player, and alcoholic and a mi-.” I stopped on the word millionaire. Once she knows that I won’t see what type of person she is. I want her without the fan fair.
“Miserable.” She finished my sentence and I stopped to stand straight.
“What makes you think so?”
She tapped her ear, “other senses get stronger. I can’t see expressions, but people can hide those easy anyway. Voices are hard to filter. You said player like an admission of guilt and alcoholic like it carries shame. Sounds like you want to seem blissfully happy to people but you do a poor job convincing yourself.”
I opened my mouth twice. Once to tell her, ‘you’re wrong. Millionaire was the word and I’m so very happy.’ Then I opened it again to come up with an excuse. On the third go, I said, “Well played.”
She shouldered her bag, “Don’t worry. Labels change and they aren’t normally accurate. You can choose to stop drinking, and one day you might fall in love and stop playing. Then you won’t have to convince yourself of anything, and you’ll be as happy as you try to seem.”
“Love. People get used when they love because love can be…” I worried over saying the word.
“Blind,” she filled in.
“Yeah.”
“Blind isn’t so bad.” She gestured to herself. “You see more when you’re blind believe it or not. Maybe that’s what ‘love blind’ was supposed to mean.”
This moment is slowing down, almost like my mind is recording it all. Not just her words, but things to anchor the words to my memory. The smell of the night air, the sound of crickets, the light buzz of traffic, the heat, even the booming of the music from inside as it throbs against the house.
“What’s your name?” I asked. Time slowed even more. It felt very strange and comforting at the same time.
“Brianna.” She smiled then laughed. “We just went way too deep for strangers.”
I laughed too, “You’re very special Brianna. As beautiful on the inside as you are outside, and outside is … exquisite.”
She smiled, “wish I could say the same, but though you have a sexy voice, I have no clue what the exterior is sporting. Do you look like Prince Harry? I always fancied Prince William too so I’m not picky.”
I stepped back, “let me paint you a picture, yeah? I’m short. Like five foot. I have a very pronounced beer belly, and my face is covered in boils. No hair. I’m balding and I have a very-, stop laughing, that’s rude.”
Her giggles were spell binding so I stopped to listen. “You are a terrible liar.” She managed.
I came up close to her, “tell you what Miss Brianna. You lack the insight eyes can give so why don’t you see for yourself?”
She swallowed around a dying giggle. “Umm, I don’t- uh, it’s okay.”
“Scared?” I challenged.
Her back went straight, “no.” She took an unsure step forward and carefully reached out. Her seeking hand is small and her fingers are long. I took her wrist and guided her hand to my shoulder.
“Ah, ha.” She gently squeezed, “five foot my ass. First lie busted.” She brought up her other hand to feel both shoulders, “these are broad. How tall are you really? Six foot?”
“Five-nine.” I drank her in and marveled at the softness of her skin under my hand.
“How big is the beer belly? Are we talking a dad bod or just slightly out of shape?”
I guided her hand down my chest and she pulled ba
ck a little but I didn’t let go. I pushed her hand over my stomach and stopped so she wouldn’t get nervous. She spread her hand and pressed.
“Lie number two.” She bit her lower lip then released it, “Abs.”
“Gotta impress the ladies.”
She grinned. “Face covered in boils then? Was that a lie too?”
I took both her wrists and moved back up. She stepped closer as I set both her hands on either side of my face. She feels amazing. She’s touching my face but I feel her all over my body, it’s like being high.
She gently stroked the sides of my face. “No boils, but I feel stubble.”
“I like the dangerous bad boy Brit look.”
She nodded then felt over my chin. “This is going to sound weird but you have nice bones in your face.” She moved further up, “what color are your eyes?”
“Metal. Gunmetal.”
She smoothed her fingertips across my brow and I closed my eyes. “Still no boils…”
She moved down my nose to the stubble above my lip then lined the shape of my lips. “Wow,” she said and I opened my eyes, “kinda wish I had your lips. They’re full…”
“Here,” I took her hands in mine and lowered them between us, “try them on.”
I slanted my head and pressed my lips down on hers. Perfect. Perfect everything. Her lips parted on a breath and she pressed back. Her height, her taste, even her scent is all perfect.
She took her hands loose and set them over my shoulders. I scooped my arm around her waist and brought her against my body. I feel like I’m diving into a sea of greed. I feel greedy, needing not just more, but all of her.
Brianna trailed her hands up my neck and combed her fingers through my short hair. “You’re not balding,” she said breathlessly.
I shook my head and kissed her again, “no.”
“What’s-,” I kissed her again, “the,” I kissed her deeper, “color?” she finally got out.
“Brown.” I held the back of her head and kissed her harder. Why is she so perfect?
“I don’t know your name.” she pulled me closer by the back of my neck.
“Ga-.” There it is again. My inability to tell the truth. She’s not a giddy fan or a gold digger with motives because she doesn’t know who I am. “Gavin.” I lied.
Chapter Two
GABRIEL
She didn’t catch my hesitation so I kissed her again. Why is this so different?
“Brianna?” I asked. “May I take you home?”
She pulled back so I held her hands to keep her from going far. “With the lost advantage of sight, I really can’t get so swept up I drop all common sense.” She told me.
I get that, even if I don’t want to. “Right.”
“And you taste like, you were drinking.”
I pet her cheek and the underside of her chin, “you’re so different.”
“Not really.”
She’s not a drunken slut and she’s got a mind to consider drinking and driving a no, no. She’s very different.
“I don’t think you’re real,” I said out loud. Maybe if I get my fill, I’ll feel satisfied but right now all I want is to find an empty room in Jacob’s enormous house and have her. Maybe that wouldn’t do it, though; maybe I’ll need tomorrow too. All of the morning after into the day and maybe another night.
Then my phone rang. I broke from her to turn it off, but seeing it was my father, I sobered quickly. Now my own common sense is flooding in and I see my weakness in her eyes.
Pretty eyes can be deceitful, that’s what my father would say. Women can’t be trusted, that’s another. If you ever feel yourself thinking past a night, move on, that was another of his bits of advice.
I need to think and answer this call. “Could you excuse me? I have to take this.”
She nodded.
“Don’t go anywhere,” suddenly worried I sounded like I was blowing her off I punctuated that with a hurried kiss.
Then I rushed down the steps of the veranda and around to the side of the house. My phone stopped ringing by time I made the long walk. I had to call him back.
“Gabriel?” his voice crackled down the line.
“Yes Sir, I had to find a spot with signal.”
“I need you in a nine o’clock meeting with Jacob’s superiors tomorrow. They want to back out of the sale.”
I swore, “yeah, no worries. I’ll make sure I’m there ten minutes early.”
“Make it fifteen. The benefactors will want to unite and make you feel out of the loop. Get in the doors fifteen minutes before hand. I want you sitting at the head of that table, understand?”
“Yes Sir, I’ll get all the papers ready tonight.”
“Been drinking?” he asked.
I closed my eyes and felt my jaw go tight, “Just socially.”
“Then you’d better be socially sober by sun up. I don’t give a shit what trouble you stir on your own time but don’t let it conflict on mine.”
“No Sir, I won’t.”
“Also, I want you home by next week and in London by the seventeenth.”
I thought of Brianna for a split second but then shook her out of my head. She’s a one-night possibility and shouldn’t conflict at all with my plans. “I’ll be ready.”
He hung up on me. I pocketed my phone and took a breath before going to find Brianna.
BRIANNA
Chloe and Moses appeared on my left and I went stiff as a board.
Chloe grabbed my arm, “were you just smooching a
stranger? I saw from the other side of the friggin room, so don’t deny it! He was hot!”
I put my hand out to feel the rail of the veranda again and gripped it tight. “It’s a long story…can we go?”
Moses poked my side, “you okay?”
“Yeah, I just um, I dropped my walking stick and it rolled off the porch into the bushes so I was stuck here.”
Chloe sounded instantly panicked, “I’m so, so sorry Bri! I should’ve stayed with you-.”
“Chloe, I’m fine. Don’t freak. I actually wandered off, you didn’t leave me. I wanted outside of the house. The music was a little loud is all. That and some girl kept squealing about some celebrity being here. It was annoying.”
Moses got closer, “oh yeah. Jacob knows a few big shots and they slip in and out.”
I nodded but then I felt really exposed. That moment with Gavin shook my entire world upside down. I feel really gullible now. He openly admitted to being a player and there I was, playing right into his hands. I have no way to judge what kind of guy I was dealing with and now I feel stupid. “I don’t want to cut you guys short,” I rubbed my arm, “but I have to work in the office tomorrow and I’m worn out. Can we go?”
Moses sounded like he was leaving, “let me get your walking stick, I’ll be right back and we’ll bounce.”
After his steps faded Chloe wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “Don’t you want to meet up with your hotty?”
I tensed, “Come on Chloe, he’s either high tailed it like my date earlier or he’s in it for one reason alone.”
She sighed, “I refuse to believe that, he looked pretty damn in it to me. So what if it’s a one-time thing? Flings are good for the soul. Girl you haven’t gotten laid since-.” She stopped to think and I felt my neck go red with anxious heat. “Huh, when is the last time you got laid?”
I thought up a quick way around this, “I don’t know, it’s been that long.” LIE! In truth, it’s been never. Chloe is my best friend in the entire world. My sister really, but even she doesn’t know my secret. I’m still a virgin.
It wasn’t some pack I made with God, it was just how the cards stacked up. I was meeting sleazes through high school that just saw me as an easy and vulnerable lay, or guys were weirded out and saw me as a potential burden in life.
Here I am years later and selectiveness has led to celibacy. Chloe once assumed I’d had sex and I never corrected her so here we are.
I changed th
e subject, “was the guy I kissed as hot as you say?”
She gushed, “he was gorgeous! Bri, he’s sexy are you sure you don’t want to wait?”
Moses showed up and guided my hand to where my walking stick was. When it had fallen off the deck I’d yelled Plot Twist in my head, then because of being stranded I yelled it again because it led to a mind-blowing kiss from a stranger.
“Let’s go.” I smiled to seem sure and they led me out. I’m actually afraid he’ll find me. He was too wonderful and now I’m really feeling the idiot burn.
GABRIEL
I rushed back to the veranda to find no Brianna. My heart raced in an uncomfortable way and I skimmed the area like terminator. The idea I’d lost her for good was like a crushing reality I wasn’t ready for. I didn’t even get her last name, and she didn’t know mine since I’d given her an alias.
When I got home by way of a cab I drank some more. I argued to Jacob I could drive but he’s frim on that. I have the coldest looking condo on the planet. Everything looks like metal or steel and glass. The furniture and the appliances all have sharp looking edges and there’s no décor. Looks like I just moved in, but I’ve had the place for five years.
I worked up all the documents for the meeting in the morning and fell asleep in my desk chair. My forehead planted in the surface.
My housemaid Danielle whom I call Danny shook my shoulder gently and whispered in my ear, “Sir…? Sir?”
I sat up so fast my head spun. “What is it?”
“Sir, it’s five in the morning. Your father called about a meeting-.”
I turned my wrist to look at the bold face of my watch, “shit!” I was up before she finished. I started stripping my shirt as I ran upstairs to my bathroom for a shower, “Thank you, Danny!” I shouted down the steps.
Danielle is a college student. She’s worked for me three years and is the most efficient person on the earth. A petite girl with long arms and legs and a humble heart. She’s the only girl I’ve never tried to sleep with. No lack of looks on her part but it’s not worth losing her help. She also doesn’t judge me.
I showered like I was scrubbing tar off my body then dressed in a sharp gray suit. I ran out of the house only to remember my car was still at Jacob’s.
The Co-Parent (The Relationship Quo Series Book 3) Page 2