“I’d get one for my office desk. But I don’t want to put your job in jeopardy if your employer finds out we’re together.”
Night fell and we curled up outside in the beach tent watching the stars, which were much more numerous than they were in New York, where you were lucky to see any. I had put on the black lingerie I brought and we had sex that night but it was more slow and intimate than the lustful frenzy the night before. My clothes weren’t torched and there wasn’t any chocolate involved. Vincent came once again inside me and we cuddled afterward for the remainder of the night, sharing tender kisses and small irrelevant details about our lives.
The next day was spent packing up for travel and then traveling. It had been a mostly relaxing trip, and as we landed at JFK, I wished it could have lasted just a little longer.
Chapter Eight
By the time the cab dropped me off at my apartment, it was almost eleven p.m. Exhausted, I walked in and found Riley watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians. She was drinking a diet coke as always and wearing yet another pink and blue sorority t-shirt and shorts combo from when she was in college.
Riley paused her show and got up off the couch. “You’re back! I didn’t know if you’d be home tonight. How was the trip?”
I put my stuff down on the counter and opened the fridge hoping for something to eat. Thankfully, there was some string cheese that was mine. I grabbed it. “It was good. He has a private island with a cabin that we stayed at. The entire area is gorgeous.”
“A private island? Are you fookin kidding me?” Riley took a seat on a stool in the kitchen, where I was standing. “I’m so jealous. Look at that tan you’re getting with all these trips. I need to find myself a billionaire to jet me down to the Caribbean on the regular.”
I looked down at my forearms. It hadn’t even occurred to me that I would be tanning, but I was getting some pretty good color. “Dating a billionaire has its perks, I have to say.”
She laughed. “Things have been quiet here.”
I unwrapped my string cheese and pulled off a strand to eat. “You seem to be feeling better at least,” I said, chewing.
She nodded. “That I am. Better to be bored than sick. So how is Vincent, anyway? Have you two had the talk?”
“The talk?”
“You know, boyfriend/girlfriend, that kind of thing. It’s getting to be about that time, right?”
Could everyone see through me this easily? How would I ever keep dating Vincent a secret when people could read me like a book? I needed to remind myself to never, ever play poker. “We did, actually.”
“Oh yeah? How did it come up? Did you start it?”
I grimaced at the memory of the previous afternoon. It had ended well, but there were some bumps. “Kind of. We actually had a bit of a fight beforehand. While we were down there we ran into an ex-girlfriend of his.”
My roommate’s eyes widened. “On his private island?”
I shook my head. “No, we were on a bigger island nearby grabbing lunch and supplies for the cabin.”
“Oh okay. That sucks. Was she hot?”
I threw my hands up. “A little sympathy would be nice!”
She shrugged. “I’m finding out how much sympathy you need. Judging by your reaction I’m guessing she was a knockout. Sorry, that sounds brutal.”
I grimaced. “She’s a pro surfer. She was down there modeling, actually.”
Riley’s eyebrows shot up. “Did she flirt with him?”
“Oh yeah. Vincent said he thought she was testing me.”
It was her turn to grimace. “How did he react?”
Remembering Vincent’s reaction, or lack thereof, to Ariel’s flirtations brought a fresh bubble of nausea to my stomach. “He went along with it. Didn’t seem to think it was a big deal.”
“I can see why you had a fight. What’s this surfer chick’s name?”
“Ariel Diamond. And yeah, but the talk we had about it ended up being good.”
While I was talking, Riley had whipped her phone out and was tapping and swiping at the screen. Her mouth made an ‘O’. “Look at those abs, Jesus. I’m really sorry Kristen, having a girl this hot hitting on your man had to be excruciating.”
I snatched her phone from her grasp. “Riley, you’re really not helping!”
She tried to grab her phone back, but I pulled it away. “I’m just getting a grasp of the situation, Kris! Give me my phone back. I promise I’ll stop checking this girl out.”
I shook my head. “You haven’t even listened to the part that was good yet.”
She made one last attempt to grab her phone away, but I was too quick for her. Finally, she put her hands in her lap. “Okay, fine. So this borderline sea nymph with abs out of an anatomy textbook shows up. Then what happens?”
I snorted. She was going to be petulant about this. “Fine. here’s your phone, but no more comments about how hot Ariel is, okay? Or her body.”
Riley smiled and took the phone like a child receiving candy. “Thank you. So you ran into this woman and then what?”
“Well, we were in this little general store and she comes in. Everyone is staring because she’s wearing a bikini.” I watched my friend carefully, but she had a better poker face than mine. “She walks up to us and calls him ‘Vinny’ like they were lovers.”
At this, Riley laughed. “‘Vinny?’ Do you call him that?”
“No! I don’t think it fits him at all.”
She shook her head, still laughing. “Me neither.”
I told her about their dating history, leaving out the part about the tattoo. Riley nodded attentively. “So it sounds like they’re just friends now, right? Obviously their personal connection is helpful professionally, but he’s not actually into her now.”
I tapped my finger on the counter, thinking whether I should spill about the tattoo. “Well, there is one weird thing. He had a tattoo of a diamond on his ribs.”
I watched Riley process for a second before her mouth dropped. “Wait. Is it for her?”
I nodded. “He got it when he was twenty.”
Her mouth puckered as she considered. “He’s like thirty now, right? That’s a long time ago.”
“Thirty-one, yeah. He says there’s no reason to get it removed because they’re still friends. It’s not like things are ugly.”
“That’s fair, actually. If he still loved her but couldn’t be with her, it would hurt to look at that thing every time he had his shirt off. I know when I’ve a bad breakup I have to get rid of everything that reminds me of the guy.”
I rubbed my pinky. Sometimes you can’t get rid of every reminder.
“I guess you have practice,” I said.
Riley smiled. “I even throw out the underwear I’m wearing when we break up.”
“What?”
She half smiled. “Sorry, TMI?”
“Good lord, yes! Why on earth would you do that?”
She closed one eye, chuckling. “Do you really want to know?”
I thought about it, but shook my head. “You’re right, I don’t.”
She continued laughing for a minute before getting a hold of herself. “Anyway, he has this tattoo. You said there was a good part.”
I told her about how Vincent had assured me, as well as the picture he took. She was impressed that he would want a photo of me for his cabin and condo. Seeing how she reacted to the story made me feel better about my reaction to the situation. It had been a bit of a shock to see him around Ariel, but all in all things had ended up in a good place.
“Well that all sounds good,” she said. “I’m super happy for you. How’s the other part of your relationship going?”
“Which part?”
“The sex, silly.”
I blushed. Riley’s mind was never far from the gutter. “It’s going well.”
She waited, her blue eyes urging me to go on. “‘It’s going well?’ You can’t date a man that gorgeous and leave me with that. I’m watching reality televi
sion and chugging diet coke over here.”
I shrugged. It wasn’t something I liked to talk about, even with Riley.
“You were on his private island. If you stayed inside and did missionary before bed, I’m going to smack you.”
More heat rose to my cheeks as I thought about how far from reality Riley’s insinuation was. I knew she was trying to get a rise out of me. She knew being so blunt about sex would throw me off balance. “We didn’t stay inside all day, I’ll say that. But that’s all I’ll say.”
Riley jutted her lip, pouting. “Can’t you throw a girl a bone?”
She was doing a good job of looking pathetic, but I held strong. “Sorry. I just don’t like to talk about that stuff. You know that.”
She sighed, shoulders slumped. Sitting in her sorority outfit with her blonde hair in her face on a kitchen stool, she looked almost comical. “Fine.” she said after a moment. “But things are going well, all in all?”
I took a deep breath of my own. “Yeah. The thing with Ariel was scary, but the scariest part was realizing how much he’s beginning to mean to me.”
“Sounds like you’re getting serious pretty quickly.”
“I guess so,” I said, surprising myself with the note of sadness in my tone.
“Is he feeling the same way?”
Was he? He had told me he was crazy about me, and being in a picture in his cabin was a nice gesture, but I just had a hard time completely trusting him. He was gone so much in so many different places, and I knew the effect he had on women. On the other hand, he really hadn’t given me any reason not to trust him. Maybe it was something that would just take some time.
“He did say he was crazy about me,” I said. “I don’t know how much more he can do to make me know how he feels.”
“The island trips are also nice. Have you thought about dropping the L-word yet?”
Panic shot through my system. Had I already fallen in love with Vincent, after years of being uninterested in men? “No. That seems pretty sudden, doesn’t it? It hasn’t been that long.”
Riley got up and grabbed a glass of water. “It is what it is,” she said. She took a sip. “No need to rush it. I was just asking. Anyway, I should probably get to bed. See you tomorrow.”
I wished her good night and took the seat she had been occupying moments earlier. Did I love Vincent? Things had been moving so quickly I hadn’t even paused to consider my feelings. Time was passing, though. Whether I liked it or not, my relationship with Vincent couldn’t stay at the same place indefinitely.
***
When Vincent and I had landed at JFK yesterday, he’d told me he had to do a quick turnaround before he traveled back down to Brazil. He would be back as soon as he could, and would be sure to let me know. Even flying by charter as he did, I couldn’t understand how he could keep up his schedule. It sounded exhausting spending so much time in so many different places.
Monday morning found me in a very familiar place: in front of my work computer. Though the office was something I was still getting used to. I spent the morning sorting my inbox and reading through the long list of office memos waiting there. While I wanted to get to work on the more interesting task of creating Vincent’s investment plan, if I didn’t get through these emails now they would just build up and become unmanageable. It was an important part of my job to make sure I didn’t miss any communications that could be vital.
My diligence paid off when I saw an email from Carl sent ten minutes before I arrived in the office. The message said to meet him in his office at ten. He had an interesting opportunity on a potential client that he wanted to discuss. I set an alert on my calendar for the meeting and hurried through the rest of my messages.
The meeting was upon me before I could get started on the work for Vincent. I grabbed a notepad and hurried across the floor to Carl’s office. This time, his door was open, though he was on the phone.
He waved me in, and I stepped inside, waiting just in front of the door. “Ted, I’ve got a meeting. We’re going to have to continue this at lunch. Yep, got it, 12:30. Usual spot. See you then.”
He hung up and turned to me. “Kristen, thanks for dropping by. Shut the door and take a seat.”
I did so. Carl shuffled through some papers until he found the file he wanted. While he wasn’t a Luddite, he had more of a preference for dealing in paper than most of the people at the firm. It was why I was taking notes on a notepad rather than my laptop. Paying attention to little details like that was important at Waterbridge-Howser.
He clapped his hands together and rubbed them together, staring me over his glasses. “First off: Sorenson. I haven’t heard anything bad, which from my perspective means things are good. Am I right?”
I nodded. “Things are going great. Lining up the last bits of the strategy and I’ll be ready to present soon.”
“Great. That’s a tough client, so stay on your toes, but so far it sounds like you’re doing the business. Good work.”
“Thank you.” I smiled. Carl understood that part of being a good boss was making sure people felt appreciated when they were doing their job well. Every little bit helped.
“You deserve it. As always, let me know if I can do anything. Anyway, I brought you here because I have an interesting prospect I think you would be perfect for. Do you think you can fit another pitch into your schedule?”
Working on another new client pitch would mean many days of very long hours on top of what I was already doing for Vincent. However, as the pitch with Vincent had shown, working on new business was the best way to get bonuses and promotions. I had just received a promotion, so this probably wouldn’t mean another one, but it would be another drop in the bucket for my next move. With Vincent gone as much as he was, it wasn’t like I had anything pressing going on in my personal life. As I thought about it, the distraction would be welcome.
“Of course,” I answered.
“Great. You’re going to have an analyst working with you on this one, which should ease the burden timewise a bit. The prospect is a woman who has leveraged her fame as a fitness model by selling home fitness equipment.”
Did he say fitness model? My chest tightened. However unlikely it was, I had to be sure. “Is the prospect Ariel Diamond?”
Carl frowned and looked at the file. “No. Her name is Selena Richards. Who is Ariel Diamond?”
Relief swept through my body from my chest outwards. I thought of a suitable lie to tell about Ariel. “A professional surfer I learned about while doing research for the Sorenson account,” I said. That was mostly true, depending on your definition of research. “She does some fitness modeling too. Sorry for interrupting.”
“You do have a good grasp of that account.” He chuckled. “I have to say, it’s impressive. You’re really on top of that guy.”
I blushed, but he was looking back at the file and didn’t notice. After he had finished giving me the details about Selena Richards, he left me with instructions to get a plan of action and some materials to him by the beginning of the next week. I walked out of his office excited at the chance of another sizable client.
After I got back to my office, I texted Vincent about the news. A few hours later, he replied.
Sounds great. Will have to tell me more when we talk next. I will try to call this week.
Disappointed I wouldn’t be able to talk to him that night, I texted back.
You can’t get away tonight even for a little bit?
It took another fifteen minutes for him to respond.
I’ll be lucky to sleep tonight, sorry. As soon as I have free time, I’ll call.
Frustrated, I put the phone on my desk and went back to my work. It wasn’t like I didn’t have plenty to do myself. Vincent had said from the outset that he was a very busy man who usually didn’t have much time to give for a real relationship. I had brushed it off then, but maybe that was a deal breaker for me. Being in a relationship with a man who was constantly continent-hopping meant
spending a lot of time being basically single. That hadn’t been a problem before, but now I realized I might be getting attached.
The rest of the work day passed in a blur, then the rest of the work week. The weekend passed without a call from Vincent. Whenever I texted, it would take him so long to text back that a conversation was hopeless. Another work week went by until it was Friday again. I had stayed late on Thursday working on the Richards pitch, so when my phone buzzed half an hour early on Friday morning I was upset. I picked it up and saw it was Vincent.
Happy to finally hear from him, I picked it up and answered. “Hello,” I said.
“Hello, beautiful. Sorry to call so early. This is the first time I’ve had any free time at all in a couple weeks.” He sounded exhausted.
I rubbed my eyes, trying to wake up. “I was beginning to think you’d forgotten about me. Is everything okay?”
“Just about. I’m in Lisbon right now, actually. Flew in a few hours ago. I don’t know if I mentioned I was coming here.”
It was a little disappointing that he hadn’t told me he was traveling, but I guessed it didn’t matter. As I sat up in bed, I realized I was feeling a little nauseous. “You didn’t. What are you doing there?”
“More meetings. We’re making a push in the European market with some of our surf swimwear.”
“Sounds like life’s been pretty crazy.”
He sighed. “This is fairly normal to be honest. Like I told you, I’m all over the place pretty often.”
My nausea was getting worse. Had the Chinese food I’d eaten for dinner the night before been bad? Maybe I just missed Vincent that much. I hoped I wasn’t getting sick. Working on a pitch while you were ill was a good recipe for misery. “When do you think you’ll be back?”
I heard another man’s voice on Vincent’s end. He cursed. “I’m sorry Kristen, I have to go. The materials for my next meeting aren’t ready, apparently. I’ll let you know when I’m back in New York when I have a better idea. It’s going to depend on how the meetings here go. Sorry again. I’ll be in touch soon.”
Secret Surrender (The Forever Book 2) Page 10