What an asshole.
The door opens and I see a petite blond woman walking toward the car, a beige clutch in her perfectly manicured hand. She’s got on a beige skirt and matching suit jacket with big black buttons that run up the side, and a pair of black heels that I’m betting cost more than my entire wardrobe. Her hair is done in a perfect chignon and her makeup is flawless. Large diamonds wink in her ears that I’m betting are no smaller than four carats.
The driver helps her into the car as JT slides over, and she sits down beside him, shooting me a quick glance.
She leans over and offers her cheek to JT. I’m wrapped up in a cloud of her perfume as I watch him kiss her cheek before turning to me.
“Amelia…this is Beck’s date tonight, Sela Halstead. Sela, this is Amelia Baxter.”
I smile and extend my hand across the limo. “Hello. Nice to meet you.”
She offers a return smile that’s neither warm nor cold, but merely accommodating, and shakes my hand. “It’s lovely to meet you.”
Amelia then turns from me and bestows a gorgeous smile on JT. “And how have you been doing, Jonathon? I can’t tell you how excited I was to get your call inviting me out tonight. I know our mothers have been trying to throw us together for years, so I hope this wasn’t their doing and that you’ve finally come to your senses.”
She gives a tinkling giggle and slaps her hand playfully on his chest. She stares at him with bright, earnest eyes, hoping beyond hope that she may have caught more than just a dinner date tonight. I can practically see her fantasizing about the size of the engagement ring she’ll put on her finger, and it makes me feel incredibly sad for her.
JT shrugs carelessly and turns his gaze to me while answering her question. “It’s just dinner, Amelia. So I can spend time getting to know Beck’s new Sugar Baby.”
While I can tell Amelia is immediately stung by his snub, she turns her head to me with eyes wide. She takes a cursory glance at my outfit, and then wrinkles her nose in distaste before turning back to JT. “She’s a Sugar Baby?”
Before JT can answer, I tell her. “JT’s mistaken. I’m not a Sugar Baby. I’m Beck’s girlfriend.”
“But Beck paid for your college, right?” JT says, and it irks me that he knows that. Irks me a little that Beck told him that, which makes me feel less than what I’d believed I was to him.
“Yes, but we did away with our agreement,” I say, my voice slightly shaking in anger and embarrassment.
JT shrugs again and turns to Amelia. His hand drops to her thigh, which is more than adequately covered by her sedate skirt that doesn’t even have a slit in it. His gaze roams over her face and his hand slides higher up her leg. He leans over, whispering in her ear still plenty loud enough for me to hear. “You look beautiful tonight. New blond highlights?”
His hand slides up a little higher and Amelia’s face goes red. Not sure if it’s from his creeping hand or the compliment he just paid her hair, which seriously…what guy ever notices shit like that?
Amelia nervously pats the back of her chignon and nods. “I did in fact get new highlights. I’m glad you like them.”
JT’s long fingers grip into her thigh, his hand resting practically near her hip. He growls seductively at her and murmurs, “Well, you know I love blondes.”
My lips curl in absolute disgust. I can tell that JT doesn’t have an ounce of attraction toward Amelia other than perhaps wanting to fuck her tonight because she’s handy and available. I imagine it will be quick and focused only on getting his rocks off, and I’m sure he’ll leave her the minute he pulls out. Watching Amelia blush again and then give a little sigh of appreciation makes me even more sad for her.
I start to turn my head to look out the window, but JT’s gaze snaps back over to mine, halting me. He stares at me a moment and then his lips curve upward. “You know, Sela…I think you’d make a terrific-looking blonde.”
My gut churns, and is it my imagination, or is that a taunt?
“I mean…you’re stunning as a brunette, but I think blond would look more natural with your skin tone. Of course, I can’t say what Beck’s preference is. He’s an equal opportunity man…fucked blondes, brunettes, redheads. He loves them all.”
His direct attempt to make me jealous is almost pathetic because he rattled me enough with the blonde comment and it wasn’t needed. I can’t tell to what extent JT is fucking with me, and I’m wondering if he knows who I am. I can’t imagine it. He’s too self-centered to recognize the woman he destroyed all those years ago. I’m sure of it.
Amelia makes a sound of dismay deep in her throat, because she’s not missed the seductive nature of JT’s tone when he told me I would look natural as a blonde. She sniffs and says, “Honestly, JT. That’s crude to say right in front of your date.”
“It’s not a date, Amelia,” he says, his eyes still trained on me. “It’s a favor owed to my mother. Don’t make it more than what it is.”
I wince, because that was harsh.
Amelia gasps and her face flames red. “Well, I don’t think this night is exactly what I had anticipated, so if you don’t mind, I’d like for you to just take me back—”
JT spins on her and his hand flexes, digging down into her thigh. Amelia’s mouth snaps shut in surprise and she even leans back a little from JT when he presses toward her. His voice is soft, low, and rich with promise as he plays her right into his hands. “But relax, Amelia. I’m sure it has the potential to be so much more.”
And just like that, she melts into him. I see the fantasy of the engagement ring getting bigger as her hand covers his on her thigh and she sighs like a lovestruck puppy. Just like that, JT managed to insult her and then have her practically spreading her virgin legs for him.
It sickens me, and the bubbling in my gut burns hotter.
Thankfully, I’m spared any more of JT’s mind fucks as the limo pulls up in front of the restaurant. JT turns to me, nods with a condescending smirk, and I curl my fingers into my hands to stop my own fantasy made real of clawing his eyes out.
Then the door is opening and I see Beck standing there beside the driver, his eyes warm upon me. He extends his hand and I take it, letting him help me from the car, where he pulls me right into an embrace.
“Hey,” he says, snuggling his face into my neck before pulling back and giving me a soft kiss on my lips. “You look fantastic.”
“Thanks,” I murmur as he pulls me back a few steps so JT and Amelia can get out of the car. “You look amazing too.”
And he does, the dark gray of his suit setting off those light blue eyes as they stare at me with happiness.
“You okay?” Beck asks as he looks down at me.
“Sure,” I say with a smile, trying to relax my facial features that still may have been holding some disgust over JT’s behavior in the car. “Just happy to see you.”
Beck likes that…I can tell because he gives me another kiss as his hand squeezes my waist reflexively. Then he releases me, turns to Amelia, and bends over to kiss her cheek. “Amelia…good to see you.”
I’m not surprised Beck knows her. I knew JT’s and Beck’s mothers ran in the same social circles, so I figured they were all just one big, happy clique of rich friends.
Then Beck reaches his hand out toward JT. “Thanks for picking my girl up.”
JT takes Beck’s hand and gives him a warm grin before pulling him in and giving him a half hug while they clap each other on the back. “What are friends for?” JT says as he squeezes Beck in a brotherly embrace.
My eyes trail up to Beck’s face, and I almost reel back from what I see.
Beck beaming pure happiness to be here with his buddy.
Grateful his friend looked out for his girl for him.
Beck completely stoked with the new “JT” and completely oblivious to the fact his friend and business partner is a douche and a rapist.
Willing to let him back into his life as if there’s nothing to worry about and all of the shitty thi
ngs JT’s done are simply forgiven and forgotten.
The burning in my stomach turns hotter.
Chapter 24
Beck
“Good morning,” Linda chirps as I walk by her desk.
“Morning,” I grumble, completely not feeling her sunny attitude.
She stands up from her chair, grabs some folders off her desk, and follows me into my office. “Well, you’re all bright and chipper this morning,” she says sarcastically.
“And not in the mood,” I tell her darkly as I plop down in my chair before rolling my mouse across the pad to disengage my screensavers.
Her voice is brisk and efficient when she lays the folders on my desk. “Mr. Townsend would like you to go over these proposals, and your two o’clock meeting got pushed back to three because Mr. Perkins’ flight got delayed out of LaGuardia.”
I reach for the folders and flip through them briefly with a sigh. “Okay, thank you, Linda.”
“Anything else you need from me right now?”
“No, I’m good,” I tell her distractedly as I log on to the system. She turns to leave and then I change my mind. “Wait…I could use some help locating a service that could deliver a Christmas tree to the condo.”
Linda just blinks at me, confusion reigning supreme on her face. “I’m sorry?”
“A tree…you know, something green and Christmasy-smelling that Sela and I can decorate.”
A bright, knowing smile spreads across Linda’s face, making the wrinkles at her eyes and corners of her mouth deepen with romantic appreciation. “Oh, that’s lovely. Of course I can locate something. Would you like something in spruce, or maybe pine? Those smell so good.”
Shaking my head, I give her a quick eye roll and tell her, “I don’t care. Just see if you can get something delivered today. Sela will be there all day.”
Lying in bed moping, I’m sure, but she’ll be there all day.
Linda leaves and closes the door behind her. Rather than jump into work, I turn my chair to look out the windows, contemplating the conundrum that Sela has recently become. While our dinner with her dad and Maria went fantastically Friday night, things started going downhill on Saturday. I don’t think she was mad that I couldn’t pick her up, but she was almost coldly reserved during dinner with JT and Amelia.
And I didn’t get it.
JT was making an honest effort with Sela. From the moment we all sat down at the restaurant, he was charming and tried to engage her. He spoke warmly to her, was interested in her background, and tried to win her over with absolutely no success. I know he may have been laying it on a little thick, but JT was trying. He was happy that I found someone, and he could guess well enough that Sela was in my life to stay and he was honestly trying. He’d shown up at work every day fresh and lucid, rolling up his shirtsleeves and diving back into his business with renewed vigor and passion. We joked around like the old days, and it was even refreshing to see him with Amelia. She’s a sweet girl, a little naïve, but JT doted on her all night. When it became clear that Sela wasn’t going to participate in the conversation with JT, he turned his polite and engaging attention on Amelia, making her preen and swoon under his attention. It was the JT of old…the one who made me excited with the possibilities of a bright future.
It was the JT I recognize on a cellular level.
That night, Sela and I cabbed it home, but she maintained her aloofness with me, claiming she wasn’t feeling well when we climbed into bed. I thought this might be a brush-off, but she had no hesitation in letting me at least pull her into my arms to go to sleep. It was the first night we hadn’t had sex since we’d been together, and I wasn’t put off by that. I was more worried about her cold attitude toward JT, but maybe she just needed more time to warm up to him. I’m sure he could win her over eventually if he kept on this path.
I figured Sunday would dawn bright, and I’d have the old Sela back. I found her up and in the kitchen when I awoke, sipping coffee and surfing the Internet on her laptop she’d bought last week. Winter semester had started, and when I walked in to kiss her on the top of her head, I saw she was reading an article entitled “Psychology of Criminal Behavior.”
“Class you’re taking?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said distractedly, leaning in closer as her eyes raced across the screen.
“Cool,” I said as I moved over to pour myself some coffee. She ignored me, the fingers of one hand idly circling the top of her mug that I know held tea. She religiously had two cups every morning.
“Want to put up the decorations today?” I asked, figuring that would get her attention.
I was surprised when she shook her head, “No. I’ve got a few chapters to read before Tuesday’s classes, so I thought I’d get a head start on that.”
Staring at the back of her head, I tried to figure out what the fuck was going on with her. Just two days ago she was practically jumping with excitement as we drove back to San Francisco, the backseat and trunk of the Audi loaded with boxes of lights, ornaments, a ceramic Christmas village her mom hand-painted, and a collection of what I considered to be hideous nutcracker Santas.
Something was fucking wrong, and I’m not one to beat around the bush. “What’s going on, Sela?”
She kept her back turned to me, face closer to the laptop. “Nothing,” she said in a voice that clearly said she didn’t even take note of the worry in my tone.
I walked up to the table, reached out, and put my hand in front of the screen to break her concentration. She looked up at me with those blue eyes and blinked in surprise.
So I repeated, “What’s wrong?”
“There’s nothing wrong,” she said calmly. “I just don’t feel like decorating today.”
“Try again,” I said as I gently closed the laptop and pulled the adjacent chair out. I sat down, took her hands in mine, and squeezed them. “You clearly didn’t enjoy last night. You barely said two words at dinner even though I thought JT did an admirable job trying to include you in the discussion. And now you don’t want to decorate for Christmas when you were about ready to pee your pants just a few days ago over the prospect, so I repeat…what’s wrong?”
I thought the fact I called her out on her behavior at dinner would cause her to turn sheepish and apologetic; maybe get an admission that she’s being a bit unfair to JT, but instead her eyes flashed with both fire and ice at the same time. It was such a powerful array of emotions that I flinched.
Her voice was frigid when she said, “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you last night, but clearly I just didn’t enjoy the company. So fucking sue me.”
Every instinct in my body wanted to rail against her outright refusal to cut JT a break, but I took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. “Sela…he tried last night. Why couldn’t you?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said in a quiet voice, and tried to pull her hands away from mine.
“It does matter,” I said softly, holding on to her tight. “JT’s my partner…my friend. Yeah, he’s been a prick in the past, and maybe still will be in the future, but last night…he was trying hard for you.”
“He was trying hard for you,” she bit out.
“For both of us,” I counter, and reach a hand up to her cheek. “He likes seeing me happy. He wanted last night to be fun for both of us. Hell, I think he’s even taking a page from my book and maybe thinking of settling down. He and Amelia seemed pretty taken with each other last night.”
Sela snorted, brought a hand to her mouth, and covered it so I wouldn’t see the smirk on her lips. But I saw it in her eyes. “Last night was an act. He suckered you.”
“That’s a little harsh,” I reprimanded her. “Where’s the benefit of the doubt?”
“It got erased in the limo ride over,” she snarled at me.
“Why? What happened?” My chest got tight and anger surged within me. It made it clear that while I thought JT did an admirable job last night, just those simple words from Sela had me thinking the worst ab
out him again. Clearly, I didn’t have the whole “benefit of the doubt” thing down to a science.
Sela leaned in toward me and said, “Nothing other than he was unbelievably rude to me and Amelia on the way to the restaurant. Made sure to point out all the ways I don’t measure up for you.”
“What did he say?” I asked, my voice forged with steel.
“Just pointed out all of Amelia’s good breeding and pedigrees and told her I was a Sugar Baby,” she spat out.
I smiled at her and tried for my most soothing voice. “Baby…he knew you started out as a Sugar Baby. I’m sure he was just trying to make conversation—”
Sela screeched at me and launched up from her chair. “Don’t you dare fucking defend him. You weren’t there…you don’t know.”
Her face was red and her eyes moist with frustration. I reached out to her but she spun away, ran down the hall to our bedroom. I followed her in there, finding her shoving her feet into her tennis shoes before grabbing a sweatshirt from the closet.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to the library to study on campus,” she gritted out, brushing back past me. I followed her back into the kitchen where she shoved her laptop in her backpack and slung it over her shoulder.
“Sela, just stop for a minute,” I said softly.
“I can’t talk to you about this right now,” she huffed, and barreled past me toward the door. I thought about grabbing her arm, making her stay, but anger started to flush through me over this bratty behavior. Clearly something must have happened to piss her off even more with JT, but she wasn’t seeing reason.
And frankly, I didn’t think forcing her to converse at this point would do any good in her current state of mind.
“I’ll be gone all day,” she muttered as she jerked the door open.
“Fine,” I snapped back her. “Maybe you’ll be in a more sane mood when you get back.”
It was a shitty thing to say, and yet it felt good at the same time. Her bizarre behavior had left me reeling and I wasn’t thinking clearly either.
Sugar Daddy (Sugar Bowl #1) Page 19