by craziebabe45
"My name isn't Alice."
"Alexa. Alice. Close enough," he said stopping abruptly in front of a door with a brass sign on the front that read 'Employees Only.' Passing through that door, they walked to the end of the barren hallway and into what appeared to be, at first glance, a security room for the entire building. Dozens of monitors lined the walls each showing varying angles of what appeared to be a darkened warehouse. A few showed the lighted hallways they had just entered through along with other locales that Lexi had no knowledge of.
"Ok Ramsey, fill me in. Where the fuck are we?" she asked her feelings of apprehension had only heightened.
"This is where I work," he said flipping several switches on a board. Instantly hundreds of lights began to flicker on all around her. But she realized that despite the number of computer screens filtering light into the room, the majority was coming from straight ahead. Lexi's attention returned to the back of the room that she had originally thought was just a black wall and noticed that in fact it was an enormous window. She stepped forward to look through the panel of glass in front of her, and saw what appeared to be just an empty warehouse in the blackness come to life.
"Is this...a bar?" she asked mystified. Black granite-topped counters lined the walls on the bottom floor with hundreds of glass bottles atop of intricate shelving. High-backed black chairs were tucked into tables in one corner. A dance floor with a stage against the far wall took up nearly half of the room. Carpeted stairs led up to a more secluded area, what she would have guessed to be a VIP section, with posh leather booths and a bar stocked solely with top shelf liquor.
"Yes, well a club." He came up beside her staring out across the establishment.
"You work at a club?" she asked confused.
"Uh no," he said scratching the back of his head thoughtfully.
"Do you…run security?" she questioned him trying to put the pieces together. Why would he have waited so long to show her this? It hardly seemed like it was something to be ashamed of. Sure he could be a vice president within Bridges Enterprise, but if he liked this then she couldn't say anything about it. It sure would explain why his family utterly detested his job though.
"No, Lexi, I own the club."
"You own this place?" she gasped despite herself. Suddenly so many things fell into place. Memories of a distant past began to fill her mind. Lexi and Ramsey meeting at a club in New York, and him claiming to prefer to do business there. The fact that his entire apartment had been filled to the brim with people partying on a Sunday night, because they couldn't on the weekends. Those were all employees of the various clubs he owned which also explained the stocked bar he constantly kept on hand. A strange conversation with a bartender at the 755 Club at Turner Field about his new employment. He must have worked for Ramsey at some point. The way Ramsey had edged out of conversations about his employment, and just claimed that it was his job to know people. He obviously had to know people to be successful in this town, and everyone likely wanted to know him.
"Among others," he said nodding.
"How many others?" she breathed.
"A dozen or so."
Lexi's mouth dropped open as her eyes took in the scene below her. Everything in that room he owned. The building itself was massive and must have cost a fortune. Not to mention the location directly downtown along with property taxes and a sea of other concerns. The lawyer side of her brain was taking over, and she was quickly measuring up the building from a different perspective.
"About what Bekah said," he murmured reluctantly.
Stopping her endless calculations, Lexi was transported back to reality. She had completely forgotten Bekah. Yet, there must be something else to the story. Bekah had mentioned whores, and Lexi wasn't putting two and two together. Was this how he had met women previously? Was this why everyone had been so surprised that he had a girlfriend? Was he really just a player and all his employees his whores? So many more questions floated through her subconscious as she waited for him to further explain.
"It's just that not all of them aren't this type of club," he managed to get out.
"What do you mean? What type of club are they?" she asked turning away from the window to face him.
He looked at her expectantly as if she was just magically going to come up with the answer on her own. When she just stared at him blankly, he reluctantly continued, "What other kind of clubs exist?"
Lexi stared at him for a minute longer before realization dawned on her. She gasped in surprise just as her cheeks flushed red. "Do you mean strip clubs? You own strip clubs?"
"Yeah see this is why I never have a girlfriend," he said miserably.
After taking a second to let the concept sink in, Lexi reached out and touched his arm. "Ramsey, I don't care. I still like you. Though, I'll be honest, I don't much like that you spend a good deal of your time with strippers," she said unable to keep the angst out of her voice. "Especially because I've been oblivious to the fact the whole time."
The thing she hated most about the entire situation was that he had kept it from her. He had hid a huge part of himself from her for nearly six months. She had no idea the entire time what he did or who he spent his time with. The fact that he worked with women who were paid to take their clothes off was obviously not ideal, but she wasn't going to change that. What was infuriating was his deception. He had so easily hid something so endemic in his life from her, and apparently only her.
All of his friends knew where he worked. Bekah and the rest of his family knew where he worked. Jack even probably knew what he did for a living. After all, he had been one of the first to warn her off of Ramsey. It had to have been for good reason…or at least for some reason. With all this in consideration, all she could wonder about was what else he was hiding from her.
* * *
Again, as always, thank you so much to all the people who review my work. It makes me want to write so much more (and faster) knowing there are people out there reading and enjoying my work. Awesome reviewers: Cupid's Psyche (as always, you rock), WyldeLoneStar, helena33139, Kelly Rogala, ssolomon08, Ms. Vengeance, sunbeam07, jennalizing, and LoveAlways03.
K.A. Linde
Upside Down
Maybe this is wishful thinking
Probably mindless dreaming
If we loved again I swear I'd love you right
I'd go back in time and change it but I can't
So if the chain is on your door, I understand
But this is me swallowing my pride,
Standing in front of you saying I'm sorry for that night
-Taylor Swift "Back to December"
* * *
Chapter 9: Present
As much as Lexi wanted to follow Ramsey's advice, it was damn near impossible. Jack had cold feet. It hardly made sense for him to be unsure about this wedding. He had made his choice. He had chosen Bekah. It was that simple.
Or at least, she had been telling herself that for a year now to keep from really thinking about him. Time and time again she had let him choose someone else over her. She had always been second best. She had constantly been behind another woman, a job, a fling, whatever. She had been behind everything. Only in their brief stint in New York City had they had anything resembling a relationship, and even then he had been preoccupied in starting his career and had ended up cheating on her with his roommate nonetheless. The thought stung, as it normally did, but it was dull compared to what he had done just a year ago.
He had proposed to a woman with a fake of her wedding ring and only because she had found the ring in the first place. But maybe that was even a lie. Maybe she hadn't even seen the ring. Maybe he had wanted to do it all along. Maybe he had just wanted to hurt her.
No.
She shook her head. Jack was many things, but he wasn't a liar at least not outright. Not to her. They had been through too much where he could have lied to her and he had chosen against that option. He had decided to be honest with her even to his detriment. Thus,
there was no reason in this situation to lie to her about Bekah.
Yet here he was one week before the big day and he was chickening out. Sure Ramsey had talked him down somehow convincing him that it was just customary jitters, but how long would that last? Jack was pretty well known for rash decisions. But would he do anything that drastic a week before his wedding?
She couldn't even process all of this. He had claimed to love her once, but had walked out of the door when things changed. So obviously he was capable of leaving Bekah at the alter, but she wasn't sure if he would do it. He had been with Bekah for a year and a half before proposing. Then he had managed to stick it out for an entire year engagement with the witch. Why turn back now?
A smirk crossed her lips. He was terrified of commitment. The idea of being tied down to one woman for the rest of his life had always made him do crazy things. When his parents had divorced, he had been devastated and hadn't been the same since. Though he had always been in relatively long-term relationships, he had never been faithful to a single person in his life. Danielle. Kate. Lexi. Bekah. Bekah was just one person in a line of deception and infidelity. In fact, she was nothing special when taken from an aggregate perspective.
He had still slept with Lexi the day he had proposed. The fact that he managed to stay with any one person for a substantial length of time had more to do with the fact that he never got caught rather than his utter devotion to being committed. In fact, Lexi wasn't sure he even knew what the term meant. How could he be committed to anyone when he had always had someone on the backburner?
Now that Lexi was out of that position, she wasn't sure what would happen next. She wasn't sure if after he had gotten a taste of what an affair was like again he had reverted back to his old ways. She wasn't even positive that she was the first person he had cheated on Bekah with. He might have been diddling his secretary or the receptionist for his apartment building for all she knew.
Regardless, what she did know is that Jack was having second thoughts about Bekah. A part of her was jumping up and down with that news and not for a reason she expected. She wasn't happy for herself. Sure, she loved Jack. She would always love Jack. He had been everything to her for so long that she was sure she would never be able to fully let him go. The sight of him just made her weak. But she was feeling more euphoric at the possibility that Bekah might be hurt.
It was a terrible thought. A terrible, horrible thought to wish pain on another, but she couldn't keep it back. Bekah was one of the most destructive individuals she had ever had the misfortune to meet. She had used Lexi, Jack, and Ramsey all for her little game. She had attempted to ruin Lexi's life on numerous occasions, and really she wouldn't mind if the bitch had a bit of heartache. She was probably long overdue anyway. The only way people ended up this terrible was never being caught or having any consequences to their actions previously. Bekah must have been doing these sorts of things her entire life. As the baby of an incredibly wealthy family it only made sense that she was spoiled. What little discipline likely resulted from that lifestyle must have been snuffed out of her when she didn't have to work for anything in her life from her private school education paid for by daddy to the high end job in Bridges that she was given right after graduation.
Not that it was an excuse that her parents had created a monster. Ramsey, after all, was relatively normal. He had bucked the parental guidance though. If he had stayed the course as Bekah had, Lexi was afraid how he would have turned out. Would he be just another robot?
Which brought her back to Ramsey, as usual. Though things were complicated with Ramsey in ways that she didn't even like to think about, she still had very strong feelings for him. And when he said not to think too much into Jack's cold feet, she knew he meant something completely different. He meant don't think about Jack. Don't even consider Jack. Get Jack out of your mind once and for all. And most of all think about him. Think about what their future could be together and where that could lead them. Think about all the things he had given her that Jack had never even considered as an option…that she had never even considered as an option.
Knowing all that should have made it easier to not concern herself with Jack's cold feet, but she would have been more secure knowing Jack's feet were perfectly warm and content. That way she wouldn't have allowed herself to be even more muddled than she already was with everything going on between her and Ramsey.
It wasn't like she had just been Jack's other woman he had always been the other person for her too. So it was much harder knowing that he was having second thoughts at the same time she was. They were too compelled to each other for that not to matter. But compulsion be damned, Lexi did not want a repeat of history. She had specifically avoided him for an entire year despite dating his fiancé's brother, and a little bit of apprehension on his part was not going to make her change her mind.
With all of that running through her mind, she brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and smiled back up at Ramsey. "Don't worry. It's not as if they are going to call off the wedding," she told him attempting to reassure him while at the same time, herself.
"No I don't think so either," Ramsey said warily eyeing her.
"Then we don't even need to have this discussion," she said effectively cutting off the conversation. She had more to think about before being able to talk to Ramsey further about Jack. She knew she needed to figure out what she was doing with Ramsey first. Ramsey was the priority. He was the one she had been with for the last year and the one that she had left in Atlanta for the past month without contact. Sure he had called, but she had ignored his advances. She had needed time and now that she had had that she was ready to move forward. She wanted to know what was really going to happen between them. If everything they had gone through for the past year had been for nothing.
"Anyway, where are Brad and Jason?" Lexi asked realizing for the first time that she hadn't heard them yet.
"They're moving out," he told her.
Her mouth gaped open. "What?"
"Yeah," he told her. She noticed that for a split second his eyes stormed over and his face seemed sad, but then it was gone. She wasn't even sure if she had actually seen the look though. When he looked back at her, he seemed perfectly restrained.
"Why would they move out?"
"I just needed my space," he told her vaguely.
"But when did this happen? When did you decide?" she asked him unable to fathom the concept of him living alone. "I was here just a month ago."
"The decision was made a little over a month ago. They left this week," he told her.
"So you knew when I was here?" she asked surprised. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"There was a lot going on," he said looking at her pointedly. "I wanted to let you know, but then you were gone."
"So we're alone?" she questioned him still attempting to comprehend the fact that she was here without the ever present disturbances, interruptions, and friendly banter that his roommates typically generated.
His smile grew at her question. "We're very alone right now," he told her stepping closer in her personal space.
She remembered the familiar dance they played in and out of her personal bubble and couldn't keep a smile from creeping onto her face. A habitual trait that she had once so detested now made her giggle with shared memories. She hadn't actually intended for her question to come out so guttural and deeply sexual, but when his piercing green eyes gazed longingly into her own she couldn't help but feel desire for him.
It had been a very long month, and despite one interruption which she wished she wouldn't think about at this point in time, she hadn't had any physical contact. She could feel her lower half warming as his eyes crawled her body. He hadn't even reached forward to touch her but she could feel her lips parting in anticipation. She swallowed hard before releasing a quick pant at the sexual tension that was palpable between them.
When his hand reached out and gently rested on her hip bone, she shuddered at the feel of him t
aking an involuntary step into him. His hand did nothing more than stroke a circle into her exposed flesh, but she could see that he wanted more. He desperately wanted more. And he wasn't the only one.
His other hand reached up and lightly tilted her chin up to allow full access to her face. She instinctively licked her lips as she continued to desirously gaze into his gorgeous face. His mouth came down upon her lips gently at first just testing the waters. After a few seconds of soft, gentle lip locks, his tongue darted in between her lips and met her own. As their kiss became more feverish, the hand that had been resting on her hip, gripped her waist, and pulled her flush against his chest. Lexi's arms moved up and around his neck holding onto him as she allowed him to kiss the breath out of her.
Warning signs should have been going off that she needed to slow down. She had just been having inappropriate thoughts about Jack along with what she had to go through with Ramsey to make everything right between them. Not to mention the fact that she had just been thinking about her Mystery Man only seconds before Ramsey had kissed her. Her life was so complicated and all she wanted to do was enjoy this moment.
It was so nice just to feel Ramsey's lips press against her own and feel his rock hard body so close. His hand moved from her face down to her hip. He trailed his thumb along the inside of her shorts, and she shivered at his encouraging touch. When he reached the button on her pants, he expertly pulled it free of its enclosure before pushing the zipper down. She gasped against his mouth when he hooked his finger under the elastic of her thong and snapped the fabric gently back against her skin.
Just when she realized she was enjoying his teasing caresses a bit too much, he reached his hands back and grabbed her ass firmly in both his hands hoisting her effortlessly off the ground. She broke contact with his lips as she circled her legs around his torso for support. His eyes blazed with desire as she looked into the green orbs. She could feel her own passion rising at the feel of him through the thin material of his pants. A blush crept onto her cheeks at the intimacy of the position and her inability to keep from panting with desire.