“No problem. Let me know if you need anything else,” I reply, and she nods and reaches across to kiss Laurel on the cheek.
As her body moves away, she sucks in a sharp breath, clutching her arms around herself and doubling over. “Mum!” Laurel shrieks, “Are you okay?” She reaches down to put her arms around her and my heart beat races at the familiar feeling, but I push that aside as quickly as it comes.
“Honey, I’m fine. Just need to rest. Good night.” She shrugs out of Laurel’s arms and walks hurriedly out the door. I tug on Laurel’s hand to get her attention, “Don’t worry. I’m sure she’s fine.” I lie. Again. I can’t seem to stop lying. “She’s probably just tired from working like she said. You said she does like fourteen hour days. That’s a killer.” Then I flinch, regretting my choice of words immediately.
Laurel doesn’t notice and relaxes slightly, nodding in agreement, “Yeah you’re probably right. It could be anything. I’m just being silly. I haven’t seen her with so much as a cold in years though so it’s strange.”
She shakes her mood and a slow sexy smile appears, completely replacing the frown. Her body moves up close against mine and I know exactly what she’s thinking. When her tongue comes out to wet her lips and her gaze narrows onto my mine, I see the fire in her eyes which shows me how much she wants me. Her eyes drop to my chest and trail back up to my mouth, and I’m overcome with the need to be closer to her. To take away any anxiety and fill her with happiness. Even if it’s only physical and doesn’t last, it’s something. I follow her lead, and let her take this moment anywhere she wants it. And I’m relieved when her kisses become deeper and more urgent. My hands reach round to her butt and I pull her flush against me. I’m hard, no denying it now, and I’m gonna have to take one ice-cold shower when I get home, but it’ll be worth it to watch her fall apart in my arms. She lets out a little moan as my tongue delves in to her mouth and she grips the back of my head so tightly to her that our teeth clash and our lips are raw but if she needs this, I’m going to give it to her.
“Touch me. Please.” She croaks out and pulls away quickly, grabbing my hand to move it up to her breasts. I reach into her top and cup her soft skin, squeezing gently and enjoying the way she grinds against me, pushing herself towards the release she needs. I shove away from the side of the counter and bring her round so her back crashes against the fridge, nipping her bottom lip and squeezing harder. Sex has never meant anything more to me than fun, or a release at the end of a stressful day. But now, it’s something more. It’s reassurance; it’s emotion and connection and adoration for a beautiful woman who’s changing up my life in a way I never thought possible. Never thought I’d want, let alone need.
I move down to the button on her jeans and undo it with desperate hands. She’s getting to me, making me feel like a teenager over and over again. I reach in and cup her sex, pressing my palm against her. She jerks her lips away from my mouth to tilt her head back against the stainless steel. Her lips part and her eyes close, lost in the feelings I’m giving her. Me. Her hands reach up to clasp my biceps and I love that I’m getting to know her signs. The little things she does that let me know how she’s feeling without saying anything.
“Move your legs further apart for me babe.” She complies instantly, and I start moving my fingers slowly over her clit, gentle strokes that I can feel shake her whole body as I kiss her soundly on the mouth.
“Yes.” She says loudly, too loud, so I cover her mouth with my hand whilst I thrust a finger inside her. Her eyes flutter back and I feel her clench snugly round it. She’s so fucking wet I’m thinking maybe a little rough sex will turn her on. I tuck that thought away for another day.
“You like this?”
Her eyes widen above my hand and her head nods her affirmation.
“I can feel how much you do. Come for me babe.”
I slide another finger inside her, and she lets out a muffled moan whilst her walls tighten and spasm round my fingers. I keep thrusting leisurely until I can feel the pulses slowing, and her eyes open, heavy and lethargic.
She reaches up to my hand and pulls it away from her mouth, gripping it tightly and squeezing. My drenched fingers leave her body and she eyes them carefully as I lift them to her lips. She parts them and caresses the whole length of my fingers with her tongue, and sucks gently. Her eyes glow, I can see she enjoys the way she tastes. She then turns my hand round to my mouth and I do exactly the same, but I lick everything off them so the only thing that’s left is the subtle smell of her arousal.
“Fuck, Laurel. You have no idea how sexy you are. I’m gonna be tasting you in my dreams tonight.”
She blushes, which is way too cute considering what she’s just done in front of me. I kiss her again; long, slow, demanding swipes of our tongues and arduous draws of her lips between mine.
The longer it goes on, the more likely it is I’ll want to fuck her against the fridge, and with Judy upstairs that’s out of the question, so I yank my lips away from hers with as much willpower as I can manage.
“You gotta go, huh?” She asks with a satisfied grin on her face.
“Afraid so. But I’ll be back.” I promise with one last kiss on her lips. “You’ll always keep me coming back.”
Chapter Seventeen
Laurel
“Hello?” I croak groggily into my phone. I can see the clock flashing at ten a.m. I haven’t slept this late in ages but I have a couple of days off and I obviously needed the rest.
“Laurel, I’m so sorry to ring you but we have a slight problem here and I don’t know what to do.”
“Jess?” I confirm as the voice wakes me up and I sit up against the headboard. “What’s wrong?”
“There’s been a huge mix-up with appointments. Somehow. I don’t know. But I have six angry customers with their entourages in the showroom and it’s just me. They’re not being very reasonable.”
“Six? Oh my God. You shouldn’t even have an appointment until 11 a.m. Then Meg will be in anyway. Have you looked in the diary?”
“Yeah, and it says what you’re saying now. But they are all telling me their appointments are booked for ten!”
It’s a struggle to find anything to say because I’m completely shell-shocked. Every appointment I confirm gets written in the diary and I never reschedule unless there’s an emergency. I know for a fact that I did not book those appointments for ten. But I remember James’ cool, calm demeanour and relax. I have no choice but to sort this. First things first, the solution.
“Jess, I’m coming now. My mum’s home so I’ll get her to come with me too. They’ll never know. I’ll ring Meg on the way and see if she can get in any earlier. We’ll sort it don’t worry but for now, you need to get them to fill out that style preference questionnaire, that’ll kill ten minutes. Keep them talking. And give everyone a glass of Bucks Fizz. Hell, give them just Champagne if they want. There’s enough in the back fridge. But whatever you do, don’t let them leave unhappy. We need them.”
“Okay, I will do. Thanks Laurel. I’ll see you soon.” The relief in Jess’ voice settles me and if I didn’t have to get there so quickly I could probably start crying right now. Something strange is going on and before the end of the day I will make it my mission to find out.
I open the front door to the store and I’m hit with over twenty women giggling and laughing around the sofas. Thankfully, I have enough people now to deal with them, especially as I managed to get two more of my staff to come in as well. Now we’ll all be able to take one group, the only logistical issue will be the fitting rooms but we can manage that.
“Hi ladies, I’m so glad you could all make it to Proposals. My team and I will be happy to serve you. If you have any questions at any point just let your consultant know and we’ll do our best to answer them.” I watch as the slightly tipsy faces all now smile back at me and I walk confidently over to the fridge, pulling out another bottle. “Anyone for a top-up before we get started?”
Th
e flurry of voices that all mutter confirmations has my heart rate coming back down to normal. Another couple of hours and this will all be over.
The girls are great, they’re friendly and helpful and I owe them one for this. My mum’s in her element. She loves a good wedding and her eyes even get teary when the Bride’s family cry. We get four orders out of the six and two make appointments to come back.
“Thank you all so much for your help today. That was crazy. But we pulled it off. They all went away happy, so I’m happy.” We all stretch back on the sofa for a few minutes of calm.
“It was close though. What happened?” Meg asks, and I don’t even have an answer for her. I don’t know what the hell happened.
“Laurel, I overheard something. I don’t know if it’s relevant but my Bride had a brief conversation with her mum saying you sounded nothing like you did on the phone when you rescheduled. A different accent. She laughed it off saying everyone sounds different on the phone, but I just thought you should know. I know you wouldn’t make a mistake like that with appointments. It’s not happened in four years, so why now? It just seems strange to me.”
Jess makes a good point and I find myself nodding along to what she’s saying, scared that the reality might be someone is trying to sabotage me. My first thought is that it must be a member of staff but how could they do this? I’ve had the same girls working for me since I opened and seeing how three of them pulled together today, I just can’t picture it. Maybe that makes me naïve but I still have absolute faith in them.
I let my mum go home and I stay to help clear up for a while. So much for a rest. My mind just keeps going back to who could have changed my appointments. They’d have to have access to the store at some point which doesn’t help because it could be anyone that walks in. Maybe they asked one of the girls to find a dress in the back and saw the diary on the desk. It sounds like a competitor. That’s the only reasonable answer I can come up with, but I don’t find that as cut and dry as I’d like. How did they do it? And who is scared enough by Proposals that would do something like that? The nearest bridal store is in the next county, it just seems so pitiful.
My phone rings and I smile with relief as I look at the screen.
“Well, hello. I didn’t expect to hear from you until later.”
“I missed your voice.” He says bluntly, and I can hear the smile as he speaks. “What are you up to?”
“Well actually. I have a story for you…” I tell him what’s happened today and I can tell from his tone, he’s thinking the same thing as me. It must be a competitor.
“That’s the second time something’s happened babe. It has to be more than coincidence. I don’t mean to scare you but maybe we should look into it further. You know with the police. I know there’s no proof anything illegal has been going on, but I know someone who may be able to at least just file a report on it or something. In case it happens again. They need a record.”
“Do you think it might?” The worry in my voice is obvious so he does his best to put my mind at ease.
“I really don’t know. But it wouldn’t hurt to just let them know. And if nothing more comes of it then, great. Anyway, sounds like you handled it well. I’m proud of you.” His voice relaxes, and it means a lot to me to hear him say that. I choose not to tell him it was because of him, I don’t think his ego could take it.
“How about I swing by tonight and pick you up? We’ll go out, do something. Take your mind off it. I haven’t seen you in what, like forty-eight hours? Way too long.”
“That sounds good. I need to relax. Does seven work?”
“Seven is perfect. I’ll see you later. Bye beautiful.”
“Bye James.”
My voice cracks, and I hang up feeling more overwhelmed by emotion that I’ve felt in a long time. He always knows just what to do and say to put a smile on my face and he’s been nothing less than the perfect boyfriend since we first got together. I’m letting him in, and he’s settling in a way I swore I’d never let another man do after Darren and my dad both disappeared from my life. But so far he’s stuck around. I just know I’d be crushed if he left me. The more time we spend together the more certain I am that he now owns a piece of me. I’m becoming a much stronger person because of him, but he also has that same power to knock me down again. I know it’s the risk you take when you fall in love, you give all of yourself to someone and have to trust that they’ll look after you but when you’ve been burned, you’re scared of the fire. That fire also happens to be what I crave, what I yearn for, and now I’ve felt it, I don’t think I could live without it.
James
Her voice when she hangs up sounds so vulnerable and defeated, I don’t know what I can do to change things. It must be hard to watch these problems happen when it’s something you’ve worked so hard for. And to not be able to control it would be even worse. It’s hard for me, and I’m just on the side-lines. The most important thing she needs to know is that I’m here, no matter what. I can’t even contemplate the Alex situation at the moment. She’s been ringing and leaving voicemails for the past couple of weeks. I’ve been ignoring her and the numerous voicemails. I just want to forget about it. I’ve been working flat-out at the site with Blake in order to finish the work, and that’s about all I can manage.
Seven comes and I drive round to pick Laurel up, but she’s quiet and reserved. Not the Laurel I’m used to.
“Is this about what’s happening at the store?” I ask, trying to get her to open up as I cover her hand with mine.
“Yes.” She sighs, and I pull away from the kerb, thinking the quicker we stop, the quicker I can hold her.
“You know it’s not your fault don’t you?” She looks at me out of the corner of her eye and just like that, I’ve gotten deeper into the heart of the problem. She blames herself.
“Babe, come on. You didn’t know this was going to happen.” I shake my head and look out the window, squeezing her hand to show some kind of support.
“I know I didn’t know. But if it’s the staff, then I should have seen it, and not got so friendly with them. I should be tighter on security, not leave the shop with only a couple of staff in it. If there had been more, there would have been someone there to see it happen.”
“More staff will always help, but it’s just not viable, you know that. And you’re a great boss. They love you, and do whatever you ask to the best of their ability. You told me they came out last minute today to help. That doesn’t sound like a team that doesn’t respect their boss.” I watch her closely in between looking in the mirrors, and she looks so hurt but I can see her thinking about what I’m trying to say.
“Please stop beating yourself up over this. It isn’t your fault.” I say adamantly because I can’t let her carry on thinking that way.
She smiles weakly and nods her head but I can see she still doesn’t believe it. The more I get to know her the more I realise that how she comes across when you first meet her is not how she is all the time. The cool, calm, confident Laurel hides away sometimes and she’s plagued with insecurities and self-doubt just like the next person. It makes her seem more accessible, more human. But still an angel to me. I may not believe in fate or destiny but I’ve always been a big-believer in us all having something to offer or teach other people. Maybe this is what I can give to her.
I pull into my drive and cut the engine and it snaps Laurel out of her daydream. “I thought we were going out?”
“We still can if you want, but I thought you might like to stay in. I’ve got a bottle of wine with your name on it, and a bunch of chick-flicks I will never watch on my own.”
That cracks a smile, and she gets out, seemingly relieved she won’t have to put up any pretences tonight.
I walk straight into the kitchen and pour her a glass of wine, as she shrugs out of her coat and sits on a stool at the counter.
“So, how was your day anyway? I’m sorry, I don’t feel like I’m ever asking about you.” She takes a
long sip from her glass and looks up at me guiltily.
“It’s fine. Work was good. Blake and I are just finishing up at the site round the corner, then I’ve got a few smaller projects lined up. Pretty quiet really.”
Apart from Alex hounding me every chance she gets.
“So do you want to watch a movie? Or we could do something else? I hear Chess could be quite interesting?”
She laughs, and I haven’t heard the sound for a few days so I revel in being the reason behind it.
“A movie would be good.” She follows me into the living room, settling herself down on the sofa and I love how at home she appears in my house. I open up the blanket to place over her and turn the lights down low.
“Thank you.” She says, looking at me intently, and fiddling with the sleeves of her cardigan.
I stop rooting through my DVDs to look at her, “For what?” I ask curiously.
She shrugs a shoulder dismissively, “Oh you know. Just being here for me. And trying to lighten the mood. I haven’t been very good company but I do feel better being here with you.”
“Good, that’s what I’m aiming for. So what film do you wanna watch?”
She beams up at me, meaningfully, and I know exactly what she’s thinking. “Hitch.”
We’re at the beginning of the film and she’s got a huge grin on her face waiting for her favourite part, the bar scene, and her face lights up as she watches how we first met play out in front of her.
The rest of the film goes by hazily and in between giving it my vague attention, I notice every laugh and giggle and even tear that escapes her. As the credits roll, she lays her head back against the cushion and looks over at me.
“Come here, babe.” I open out my arms and she climbs into them, straddling me.
“Do you think I’m cooler than Will Smith?” I ask her, only half-joking. I always get an inferiority complex after watching that film, he’s just so damn smooth.
Sweet Reflection (Truth) Page 17