by Audrey Dacey
She was surprisingly honest, and he liked that about her. Her forwardness let him know exactly what to expect. He had never met anyone like her. It was refreshing.
“I'm not going to stalk you. I don't even live around here. It wouldn’t be worth the time it would take or the money I’d have to spend to stalk you.” He held up his hand with his middle three fingers raised, mimicking her gesture from the night before. “Scout’s honor. So what's your name?”
“I have a judge on speed dial. We’re pretty close. It won't take long to get a restraining order.”
He shrugged and leaned back in his chair casually. “You won't need him.”
“Is this your first one-night stand? Because I was kind of hoping I wouldn’t have to walk you through it.”
He just sat there, staring at her. She was trying to break him, but it wouldn’t work.
She eyed him suspiciously. “My name is Alexis.”
“Are you sure about that? You wouldn't give me a fake name would you? It won't be hard to find out if you're lying. You were the maid-of-honor at my friends' wedding,” he said.
She didn't back down. “It's my name. And for the record, that sounded stalkerish.”
As she finished her sentence, the waiter arrived at their table with a tray of plates. He set the meals in front of each of them. As he was about to walk away, Ryan caught him. “Excuse me. Could you get her a fresh cup of coffee?”
“Sure thing.”
Ryan drenched his pancakes with warm maple syrup. He liked them completely permeated with syrup before he dove into them. He pushed the plate to the side and grabbed the small dish with the eggs and placed it in front of him. He added salt and pepper before reaching for the hot sauce. When he looked up, Alexis was staring at him with her mouth hanging open. He sat up and then leaned back in his chair again.
“What?”
“Are you going to eat all of that?”
“Why? You want some?” He glanced down at the small bowl of fruit next to a smaller bowl of yogurt that the waiter had set before her.
She shook her head and looked at her own meal. “No, I don't want any.”
He turned back to his eggs. “Then, yeah, I'm going to eat it all.”
“How?” She still hadn't touched any of her food.
“Stab it with a fork. Put it in my mouth. Chew. Swallow. Repeat.”
If he had known she was going to be a pain in the ass, he would have turned around, gone back upstairs, and ordered room service. He wanted a little conversation, not someone fussing over his eating habits.
“How are you not, like, the fattest man alive?”
There was that honesty again, but it wasn't all that charming this time. He ignored the question and continued to eat.
“I've seen you naked. You're amazing naked. You're ripped.”
“Thanks.” He moved on to his pancakes, which were now soggy with syrup. Perfect.
“How do you do that?”
Ryan shrugged and lifted a forkful of pancakes to his mouth.
“Do you work out a lot?” She stabbed a grape with her fork and dipped it in the yogurt. It did not look appetizing. It kind of looked like an eyeball covered in baby spit up. He shuddered and quickly turned his gaze back to his own breakfast.
“Couple hours a day.” It was the only hobby his job allowed, and he insisted upon it. Being an architect was a high-stress job, and exercise was the only way he could find release so that he could plow through the next day. It made him a better employee. Some of the others in the office went to bars and drank, but that was far too social for him. Social situations just added stress.
“I wish I could say that. Gyms aren’t really my thing.” That wasn’t obvious to him. There was not an ounce of fat on her tight body, and he had examined the whole thing very carefully. Eating like a bird didn’t hurt her cause.
Ryan ran a hand over his beard, hoping there weren’t any rogue food particles. “What do you do for a living, Alexis?”
She laughed. “I don't do anything.”
He shook his head and said, “I don't get it.” He not only didn’t get it, he was stunned.
She stabbed a piece of melon and whirled it through the air as she spoke. “I'm a writer, but I haven't written anything in a long time. I’m a professional heiress, so I don't have to do anything if I don't want to. I get a check every month that’s more than enough to get me what I need and pretty much everything I want.”
He looked at her in disbelief. He couldn't believe someone could do nothing with her life. Work was all he knew. “What do you do all day?”
“I don't know. It varies. It's not like I have a set schedule.” She put the melon in her mouth and looked down at the remainder of her food and grimaced. He couldn’t blame her; he thought it looked unappealing too.
Ryan stared at her, remembering the debauchery of the previous night. For a brief second, a twinge of jealously gripped his stomach, wondering if she spent her days working on the skill set she demonstrated last night, but he shrugged the feeling off before he could identify it. It wasn't his business. His business with her was over.
“Do you have a job?” she asked, looking around the room with a blank stare.
He finished chewing the piece of bacon he had just shoved in his mouth. “I'm an architect in Manhattan, which is why I won't be stalking you. Too busy and too far away.”
Alexis smiled for the first time that morning. “Really? That's fantastic.”
“That I'm an architect or that I am too busy.”
“Both, I guess.” She gave him a devilish smile and for the first time all morning she didn’t look completely put out. She had managed to finish her breakfast without him noticing, and she was looking around the restaurant again.
“Are you looking for someone?” he asked.
“Just the waiter,” she said slowly.
Suspicion rose in him again. “Are you sure you don't have a man in your life who you are afraid will catch you with me?”
Her eyes narrowed, sending daggers flying at his face from across the table. So much for the moment of cordiality. She lifted her bottom from the chair, grabbed the front of his polo, and pulled him to her lips. It was a hard, deep kiss that begged of sex and lust. A kiss not fit to be seen by his grandmother. Memories from the previous night crashed over him like waves, and he became nostalgic for the warmth of her naked body against his.
Alexis removed her lips from his and gently pushed him back into his seat. “No, I don't have a man. I just want my freaking coffee. And I never lie. “
“You know, if you need something to perk you up, I have just the thing.” Smiling, he crossed his arms over his chest. “Of course, I'd prefer to give it to you upstairs, but I'm not picky.” He was hot for her again, and he was glad the tablecloth was long enough that he wasn't proving it to the entire restaurant, though the shaming stares of their neighbors told him they probably already knew.
She stood up, and he thought she was going to take him up on his offer.
“I appreciate it, but I should get going.”
The bronze skin of her thighs that peeked out between the bottom of her dress and the top of the tablecloth drew his gaze. He wanted so badly to bury himself between those thighs one last time.
“What about your coffee?” He'd use any tactic to stall her at this point. If he had a few more minutes with her, he was sure he could talk her into one more for the road. Strange how the tables had turned over a few short hours.
“I'll stop at Starbucks.” She dug into her purse and pulled out a billfold. She opened it, pulled out a one hundred dollar bill, and left it on the table. “That should cover my breakfast. It was nice to know you, Ryan. Maybe this time we’ll actually part for good.” And with that she walked out of the restaurant.
It was for the best, he told himself. Alexis was intoxicating. Addicting. It was no wonder she had stalkers. But that wasn’t who he was. He spent most of his free time trying to avoid his conquests.
&nbs
p; He stared at the bill on the table and suddenly felt like a gigolo. At least now he was sure there wasn’t going to be a charge on his room bill for last night.
Ryan scooped one last bite into his mouth as he stood to leave, leaving the hundred sitting on the table, untouched. It was the waiter's lucky day.
Chapter 4
Riley Conner looked at her watch and then at the group of girls approaching her. They were whispering and giggling about something as they walked, sneaking glances in her direction. Riley wasn’t able to convince herself they weren’t talking about her and laughing at her expense. She looked down at her loafers and shifted her weight from one foot to the other, hoping they would pass by without incident, but she was never that lucky.
Sara, a short ash blonde, stopped in front of her, her entourage close behind. “Hey, Pieley.”
Riley looked up at her and glared. She hated her nickname. She wasn’t fat. She just wasn’t the bag of bones these girls were, and she made the mistake three years ago to ask for a second slice of pie at dinner. Since then most of the students on campus called her Pieley behind her back but not secretly.
“All alone on campus again?” Sara continued. “I guess you’re probably used to that sort of thing.”
“Screw off. My ride will be here any second, and I’d prefer not to be seen with people like you.” Riley turned away and looked down the street, willing Alexis’s car to come around the curve. Of course it didn’t.
“So I guess we won’t be seeing you in the Hamptons this summer.”
Riley turned back around to Sara and puckered her lower lip. “No, I won’t be able to help you recover from your nose job. Sorry.” She shrugged.
Sara walked past her and the others followed her lead. “What a bitch.”
“Have a great summer you bulimic hypocrites.”
There was nothing Riley liked about The Franklin School, and when she finally got a ten week reprieve from this hell-on-Earth, her sister was late to pick her up. Typical. Alexis even made her stay for a graduation ceremony for no one she liked.
Alexis was an even bigger bitch than the girls at her school. Which, when Riley considered it, wasn’t all that unbelievable. Alexis was a product of the school, and she’d had more time to marinate in her bitchiness.
A car’s engine could be heard coming around the circle, and Riley snapped her head around to see if it was the car she was waiting for. She peered through the trees, trying to make it out, but it wasn’t until the car was all the way around the corner that she knew it wasn’t her sister. Her sister wouldn’t be caught dead in a piece-of-crap Daewoo.
The car jerked and sputtered as it approached and slowed to a stop in front of her. The window was already down, and a guy looked out at her through a haze of smoke.
“Hey,” he said. “Do you need a ride?”
It would have been creepy, really creepy, if it weren’t for the fact that he was gorgeous. He had soft brown eyes, almost black hair, and a goatee none of the guys at her school would dare to sport.
Riley felt a light tingle spread from her chest up to her throat, catching her words.
“I don’t know you,” was all she could say. It wasn’t at all what she wanted to say, but at least it was true and wasn’t embarrassing.
“I think I know you, though. Don’t you go downtown to Mikey’s sometimes? I play there on Friday nights with my band.”
“Sometimes.” She looked away, feigning disinterest. Bars in town were the only place she seemed to fit in, and the price of a fake ID was a cheap way to escape the torture of other teenage girls.
Jimmy Black was the guitarist for Tragic Hero, and now he was smoking in the car in front of her. She hadn’t recognized him at first. He looked so normal. A few weeks ago their eyes met across the room, and she thought maybe he would talk to her after his set, but he was caught up with some other girls. Now he was offering her a ride. It was like a dream come true.
“Hop in,” he said as he grabbed a fast food bag off the passenger seat and threw it into the back.
Riley looked toward the trees that concealed the entrance to the school. Chances were pretty good her sister wouldn’t show for another couple of hours. Then she looked behind her and saw Miss Mackenzie, one of the dorm mothers, watching her carefully.
“Give me your phone,” she said as she took a couple steps forward and reached her hand into the car. “I’m putting my number in here so you don’t lose it. Riley. Text me.”
Jimmy gave her a wicked grin. “I will.” He looked past Riley and put his car into gear. “You won’t have to wait too long.”
His car jerked away with a puff of black smoke from the exhaust pipe, and Riley turned as Miss Mackenzie approached her. Riley rolled her eyes. Here we go. These women only perpetuated the bitchiness on campus, and Riley didn’t want to hear whatever it was she had to say.
“Can I call someone for you, dear?” Miss Mackenzie asked. Riley knew she didn’t care. What she was really wondering was “When are you leaving?” It was a pathetic attempt to pretend to care from an equally pathetic woman.
“No. My sister is coming.” At least she better be. Riley suddenly wished she had jumped into Jimmy’s car.
“Okay,” the woman said, “as long as you’re sure.”
“I am.” She wasn’t, and once Mackenzie left, she pulled up her sister’s information in her contacts.
§
Alexis walked out of the hotel into the damp late-morning air. It was already too hot. She removed the loose knit sweater and threw it over her arm. Despite the warmth, she still had goose bumps and her whole body gave an involuntary shiver.
That was close, she thought as she approached her car. She was too close to breaking her “no mornings after” rule, to which she had to make minor adjustments after he obstinately sat down and ate breakfast with her. At least she didn’t have to make any major adjustments to her rules.
More sex was absolutely out of the question, whether she wanted it or not, at least before seven o'clock that evening. But he was likely heading back to New York that day, and he had seemed a bit too eager anyway. Though, she had to admit it was probably her fault. She shouldn't have kissed him.
Alexis licked her lips remembering the maple flavor on his.
She threw her sweater onto the leather passenger seat of her Porsche 911 GT2 RS then slid into the comfort of the driver's seat. God, she loved this car. Driving it was a holy experience, and as close to orgasm as she could get in a hotel parking lot in broad daylight.
She always drove it like she meant it, much to the dismay of any passenger blessed to sit in her baby. It turned heads, and she loved to see the envy in a man's eye when he saw she was the one driving. The slick black exterior was impossible not to notice, and she adored the attention.
Alexis started the car and the engine purred to life. She threw her head back onto the soft headrest in relaxation. Just sitting in the car and feeling its power put her at ease. Wagner’s Das Rheingold rang through the speakers. The rumble of the low notes vibrated across the tops of her thighs, and she remembered the warm, wet kisses Ryan had delicately placed there a few hours earlier.
Maybe she should go back. It wouldn’t be the worst thing she’d ever done, and it’d be worth breaking rules for.
Just as she was about to open the door and head back in to find him, the music stopped and the car informed her she was getting a phone call. It was her sister, and for a moment she considered ignoring it. Riley was a big girl and could wait until Alexis was in the mood to talk to her. Then again Alexis was also a big girl and could handle a—hopefully—brief conversation with her seventeen-year-old sister.
Alexis took a deep breath and pushed the button on the steering wheel, answering the call. She plastered a smile on her face even though she knew her sister couldn’t see her and said, “Hey, Riley.” She hoped the smile could be heard through the tone of her voice, but it didn’t matter. The heavy breathing coming through the speakers let her know Rile
y was already angry.
“You forgot, didn't you?”
Seventeen was not a good age for her, but sixteen hadn’t been either. Or fifteen. Riley was a grade-A—not that her report card had an A anywhere on it—pain in the ass, and she knew it. At least she had a good reason, unlike the other girls at her school.
“I don't know what you're talking about,” Alexis responded through gritted teeth. She was glad she only saw her sister in the summers and major holidays when the school closed. The Franklin School was worth every dime automatically debited from her bank account every month—not that it was Alexis’s money. At the end of the summer she always made a huge donation to show her gratitude for taking Riley back—that was her money. This summer—oh, no. “Never mind. I'll be there in an hour.”
“I've already been waiting an hour. Everyone is gone. The dorm mothers are pissed!” Riley yelled. She was really into yelling this year.
“I can only drive so fast.” Top track speed was over 205 miles per hour, but Alexis knew she’d get pulled over if she tried. Besides she wasn't willing to do it for someone who was yelling at her. “I'll be there in an hour.”
She pushed the button on the steering wheel again, ending the call before Riley started shrieking as was her tendency when she didn’t get her way. She slid the gear shift into reverse and smoothly pulled out of the parking spot.
As she pulled away, she saw Ryan leaving the hotel, a duffle and a garment bag slung over his right shoulder. She should have gone to bed with him again. The situation with her sister would have been worse, a lot worse, but at least Alexis would have had a real smile on her face again. She felt a twinge of regret in her stomach. Oh, well. It was too late now.
Alexis glided onto the highway and cursed her parents. Why did they have to have children twelve years apart? More importantly, why did they have to die and leave her sister with her? There were plenty of other relatives who would have taken a large sum of money to watch over their youngest. They might have enjoyed it. They may have even done a good job with her. Alexis considered dumping her on one of them at one point, but boarding school seemed less like she was saying, “Here, I don’t want this. You take her.” By then, Riley wasn’t welcome in most of their homes anyway.