by Frost, H. Q.
“You and Caesar went?”
“Yeah, and my friend Camille. You don’t know her. Probably won’t, she’s a fat bitch. We met Ian up there ‘cause he can get us right in.” There was my confirmation.
“Karen?” It’s out of my mouth, sounding like a pathetic little girl.
“No,” she says compassionately and puts her hand on my shoulder. “Babe, you know I don’t hang with Karen like that for one. And for two, Ian wouldn’t bring her out. Plus, she’s still laid up in bed.”
I can’t ask Ashley if Ian behaved. I don’t think she’d tell me the truth anyway, but I think she sees it all over my face.
“Ian was pissed the entire time we were there. He got shitfaced and Caesar had to practically carry him up to his apartment. He sat in the corner booth and drank alone the entire night.”
Even though that’s a sad thought, I feel better and I picture him pouting in the corner and I don’t mean to, but I smirk.
***
We enter Janet’s beach house and it’s more amazing than Mitch’s in Barbados. The all-windows view is surreal. Aggravation is starting to boil in me because I know I’m not going to want to leave this place.
“I have to call Ian,” I mutter, walking down a hall.
“Janet said we’ll be alone so pick a room!” Ashley calls out to me.
“Ian Jacks,” he answers his cellphone and I think that means he’s in a meeting, or in front of someone that can’t know it’s me.
I muster up a sweet voice because I don’t want him to be upset. “Hi, baby. I’m with Ashley.”
“And where’s that?” His stoic business tone is inalterable.
“Um.” I look around at the room I’ve secluded myself in and it’s beautiful with the sun beaming through the huge ceiling to floor windows, warming the hollow feeling inside of me. “Florida.”
“Florida!” That business tone became unsustainable, but only briefly. “Well that’s a feat. How’d you manage that?”
The fact he can’t yell at me because he’s around people has me quietly laughing.
“We’re doing a job. She’s gonna take some pictures of me.”
“In Florida,” he says dryly.
“Her client insisted I be photographed in her beach house in Florida. I’ll be back Wednesday for dinner with Robert Tanaka.”
“Ohh.” A deep, dark chuckle rumbles from him and I know it’s because he’s more pissed than he was three seconds ago. “That’s amusing. We’ll be in touch.” He hangs up on me.
My racing heart is slowly changing my compunction to anger. Screw him.
LUXE 3
His soul can’t help but connect it
I’m sitting at lunch with my father and three of his work colleagues because he’s drumming up more business for me. My head was in the game before Lily called me. She’s in Florida. She just spent the fucking weekend with her mother, now she’s in Florida for three more days! Six fucking days! I haven’t seen her in six days. She’s trying to leave me. I know it. She’s doing this shit to stay away from me. Fuck! I’ve completely lost my train of thought and I have three men staring at me with an abundance of questions.
When I don’t address Jim Neilson’s concern about confidentiality, my dad uncomfortably chuckles. “Ian?” He clears his throat before fielding the question for me. “I assure you, Jim, all your information is protected and it’s all done in confidence. You won’t meet with anyone other than Ian and the girl of your choice. You may deal with his secretaries occasionally, but these are girls that are daters. You won’t speak with any third parties. Ever.”
I excuse myself from the table. I want to call her back right now, but I can’t. I can’t get into an argument with her in a restaurant. I shouldn’t even be arguing with her. That’ll only push her away more. I need to see her face, I need to look into her eyes when I ask her if she’s going to leave me, then I’ll know.
Lunch was fine up until this point, but now I want to tell them all to fuck off; who gives a fuck about business? I make it through lunch and get rid of my father. He was trying to hang out, get drinks, talk about my life plans with two gold diggers at my side. He assures me he likes them both, but he can see through both of them; they’re both like my mother. Even though my mother was with my father before he had money, he still views her as a gold digger.
I get in my car ready to call Lily, but Caesar’s calling me. “What?” I answer with a huff.
“Shit,” he growls. “I’m sick of you being a fat fuckin’ cock. Get the fuck out of it.”
I don’t feel like listening to him whine about my attitude.
“What do you need?”
“I have someone I want you to meet. Possible new girl.”
“When.”
“Now.”
“Now?” I huff, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Where are you?” My watch says it’s quarter after six and I’m just now leaving work after being here since five a.m.
“Park Grill.”
“Yeah, okay,” I mutter and hang up.
Luxe needs another girl and I’d rather get one in sooner than later. Caesar has only ever brought decent girls into the company. They’ve all quit to move onto more conventional jobs, but for the time they were employed through me, they worked out. This is promising.
Caesar waves me over and as I’m approaching the table, I see that woman, the one that was in my apartment Sunday morning. I can’t remember her name, but I have to say I’m relieved it’s her. She’ll work out fine.
“Ian, this is Renee.” He introduces me to the girl sitting next to him; the one I didn’t even notice when I approached the table.
I shake her hand quickly, then look back at the girl whose name I can’t remember.
“Heidi,” he says.
“I met her.” I point, unbuttoning my suit jacket and sit.
“So Renee is looking for a job.” Caesar says.
Sitting here, I know these girls don’t know what I do, he just mentioned I could possibly get them a job. Subduing the disappointment on my face is tough because it’s not Heidi looking for the job.
I look at Heidi. “You looking for a job too?”
“No.” She chuckles like it’s an ignorant question. “I’m employed.”
“By?” I pompously ask.
“Rebel Beauty,” she arrogantly replies. That means she’s a model. I can see that.
Remaining impassive, I bring my attention back to Caesar before I look at Renee. She locks me with her interesting eyes and I smile. She will not work out. I could kill Caesar for this, but it has given me the chance to see Heidi again. I hate that fucking name. Not that I’m interested in this girl, she’s just nice to look at.
“Where’ve you worked, Renee?” I act interested, but I will, in the future, never allow Caesar to rope me into something like this again.
We order and being I’m not hungry, I don’t eat. I stare at my food, wondering what the fuck Lily’s doing. Heidi starts to talk and I can’t help but watch her and push Lily to the back of my mind. She’s talking about music and I like everything she’s saying; she’s got good taste in music. Nothing like Karen. Karen’s all about radio hits; if it’s not on the radio, she doesn’t know it. I don’t even really know what kind of music Lily likes. Maybe she doesn’t even like music. That’s fucking stupid, why wouldn’t she like music? Why don’t I know what she likes to listen to?
*LUXE*
Karen’s recovery was progressing faster than expected so he let her return to work Wednesday and he was eager to get her moved back into her place. With her up and moving around, it made living with her a hell.
Lilith missed his calls and he missed hers while she unwound with Ashley in Florida.
Ashley had to get her drunk to be able to actually snap the photographs because misery was predominant in Lilith’s facial features.
Wednesday morning, Ashley gave her a pill that would help her relax before they headed down to the beach to get a few shots. Lilith gazed out in
to the choppy waters while wondering if she’d really be happy living the life she agreed to. The thought of not being with Ian was nauseating, but the thought of never feeling the pang of jealousy was so soothing it almost felt worth leaving Ian over and disappearing.
***
Ashley pulled into the driveway of the condo where Tony was already waiting to take Lilith to her date.
“Have fun.” Ashley pecked her lips. “This weekend let’s get together. I still want to take the pictures of you at a club.”
“Yeah, we will. Saturday?”
“Yeah. Hey, I’ll show you the pics before I frame them.”
“Are you gonna start painting today?”
“No this was for actual photographs of you. Why do you think I brought the good camera?” She chuckled.
Lilith huffed; Ashley seemed to leave things out when telling Lilith about her art. Art that Lilith was the center of.
“Please show me. K?”
“Yes. Will you please go see a doctor for your depression? You’re depressing me and I’m getting rid of you.”
“Bye.” Lilith wiggled her fingers at her while getting out of the car.
Tony got out and waited by his car for her. “Hey, Lily. Here’s your outfit.” Holding out a garment bag, he waved to Ashley.
“Can’t wait,” Lilith muttered. “You wanna come in, have a few drinks? Drive me around?”
He chuckled. “Water’s good. Oh, hey, Ian said to give you these too. This is your bank card, insurance card, and client flash.” He handed her two cards and a flash drive.
“What do I do with this?” She held up the flash drive.
“Organize your clients. Right now you only got Dude on there, but you add them as you go and you give it to the recep every update you make. Who you will and won’t want to see again. You’ll see when you open it. Oh shit, and this.” He ran out the door.
Lilith huffed at all the information she couldn’t process in that moment. She walked into the bedroom with the clothes: a short, black skirt and a white button up shirt and a black corset to go over. Lilith looked it over deciding the outfit looked fun. Pulling her flowing dress off, she walked around her room in her underwear.
“Lily?” Tony called out.
“In here,” she muttered, not thinking twice about walking around in her modest underwear in front of Tony.
He entered the bedroom with a laptop in hand, continuously looking her up and down to see what he missed in the dark sauna room the one and only night they shared together.
He managed to speak. “So yeah, just plug it into here, it’ll be pretty self explanatory.”
Lilith chuckled, annoyed that Ian wasn’t going over her job with her.
Feeling nauseous, she wrapped her arms around her stomach. “Get out,” she mumbled with the look of sickness twisting her facial expression.
“Happened?” Tony pointed to the fading slashes across her ribs.
“I don’t know. Get out. I’m gonna puke on you.” She pushed the door closed and lay back onto the bed. “Tony!” she called out a minute later.
“Hey, I’m gonna have one of these pops, okay?” He called back.
“Yeah, will you pour me one into a glass please?” she yelled and got up to dress.
“Lily.” He knocked on her door.
“Come in.” She was painting her nails blue. Wearing only the skirt, she had a few more steps to be fully dressed. “Hopefully this helps. Ashley drugged me this morning and it’s making me sick,” she muttered, taking a drink of the carbonated soda.
Watching her paint the nails on her left hand blue, he grimaced and said, “I fucking forgot. Pigtails, black nails, red lips. Sorry.”
“Dammit, Tony!” she bitched.
“I’m sorry,” he groaned, walking to the bedroom door.
“Fucking stupid,” she mumbled, walking into the bathroom for nail polish remover.
Clearly she was irritable, so Tony avoided her until it was time to go.
Getting into the backseat of the car, she answered her ringing phone.
“Hello?” she snapped as her coat got stuck in the door.
“Hey, baby,” Ian said softly.
“Hi,” she grunted, tugging her coat. “Hold on.” It was several minutes before she sighed into the phone again.
“What’s goin’ on over there?”
“Almost ripped my coat. What happened to the sweet sixteen look?”
“This is a combination, I guess.”
“I look like a whore.”
“Mmm,” he groaned. “I bet you look delicious.”
“Cotton candy spray?” she barked.
“Yeah,” Ian huffed.
“Hold your breath, Tony,” Lilith said and spritzed herself. Gagging and coughing into her hand, she grumbled, “It’s so bad.”
Laughing at her, Ian asked, “You all right, baby?”
“No. This smells like a child prostitute!”
He laughed harder and she smiled at his laughter, forgetting about the chemically sweet air in the backseat of the car.
“I miss you, baby,” she mumbled.
“God, Lily,” Ian breathed. “I miss you so much, you have no idea.”
“Come home tonight.” She glanced up at the rearview, seeing Tony’s eyes were focused on the road.
“Baby,” he breathed. “I want to so much—”
With a huff, she dryly said, “But?”
“Karen’s back at her place and I told her I’d stay to help her get situated.”
Suddenly her indignation vanished. “When’d that happen?” She was delighted Karen went home.
“Today’s the first day.”
Their conversation abruptly ended when she said, “I’ve arrived. I’ll try and call you later.”
“It’s only dinner, no drinks after. He’s paid for three hours.”
Expressing how annoyed his instructions made her, she grumbled, “Good night.”
“I love you, baby.”
“You too.” She hung up and glanced at Tony, who stared at her in the rearview.
“Ready?” he asked and she nodded. “You got yourself a boyfriend?”
“Something like that.”
He took the hint she wasn’t going to talk about it and got out of the car to retrieve Mr. Tanaka. Robert slid in and kissed Lilith’s cheek, overwhelming her with the smell of strong liquor from his breath.
“Hello there.”
“Mr. Tanaka.” Amiably smiling, she asked, “Colleagues or friends tonight?”
“Neither. Me and you.” His fingers snaked between hers and his gaze dropped to her black fingernails.
Lilith tried to relax, but her body ached for her own bed and promised relaxation when she got there.
Tony opened her door when he stopped in front of the restaurant. Taking her arm, he whispered, “Don’t fucking kill me, but I forgot to tell you you’re supposed to be seductive tonight. I’m sorry I’ve fucked this up, Lily, I usually don’t have to brief the girls, it’s all on the client flash.”
Not having time to be pissed at him, she confirmed, “Is there anything else?”
“No.”
Lilith walked around and took Robert’s arm before they were brought to a table behind a curtain, shut off from the other restaurant patrons. The seclusion was comforting; she didn’t have to feel as ridiculous about her attempt at being seductive. It was hard for her to get into character because nothing about her felt enticing that night; she felt tired and sick from the pill Ashley gave her that morning.
When she noticed Robert growing increasingly frustrated and check his phone for the third time, she realized she was bombing an easy job. Pulling a complete three-sixty, she started giggling more and added more contact.
“You’re so funny, Robert.” She batted her lashes. He seemed to be more pleased with her ridiculously girly behavior. “You like my necklace?” Playfully spinning the charm around the chain, she let it fall to her cleavage.
“Very nice necklace,
Lil.”
That nickname sent a disgusted shiver through her and her eyes briefly closed, but she quickly smiled to redeem herself from the distaste. When she noticed him continuously rubbing his shoulder she finally got the hint he wanted her to massage him.
“Are you tense?” Carefully, she placed her dainty hands to his shoulders. Leaning into his ear, she lied, saying, “You have very strong shoulders, Robert.” When her lip intentionally grazed the back of his ear, he inhaled.
“You smell divine, Lil.”
The second she grimaced, he spun to her, but luckily pressed his nose into her neck and missed the sour expression on her face. Sharply inhaling from the twitch in her clit caused by his contact, she giggled. They flirted back and forth, but never stepped over any lines they couldn’t turn back from.
“Let me rub your feet.” He had her ankle before she could agree or decline. When he pulled her shoe off, he observed her teal toenails from when she was in the Caribbean. “Black would be nicer,” he said, wrapping his hands around her foot.
“If I would have known you were going to treat me to a foot massage, I would have done that.”
It seemed he strategically placed her foot in his lap while he massaged; his erection kept pressing into her instep. Subtly, she began rubbing her foot against him while his strong hands kneaded her feet. After five minutes, he let her foot go and leaned back onto his hands to let her stroke his cock through his pants with the appendage she’d been working so well. No idea what she was doing, she managed steady movement and he seemed to enjoy it. The lewd act was turning her on and the pulsing between her legs ached for her to satiate it. It only took seven minutes for him to orgasm from her rubbing foot. His brows furrowed and he let out a quiet moan. Giggling, she lowered her foot, sliding it back into her shoe.
“I won’t make you pay for that.” Biting her lip, she winked and he laughed.
Quickly standing, he told her, “I need to clean up,” before exiting the curtain.
The pull between her legs was so intense she couldn’t ignore it, and unable to stop her own hand, she slid it between her thighs, opening her legs wider. Exploring her swollen clit through her panties, she didn’t see the waiter enter to her left. Upon opening her eyes after riding out a silent orgasm, the gawking waiter was the first thing she saw as he rushed out of the curtained off area. Lilith gasped then put her hand over her mouth to quiet the laughter she couldn’t hold back.