by Aimie Grey
As we moved away from what felt like the hundredth middle-aged, Armani-clad man, I felt a pair of eyes on me. I looked up to find a familiar-looking guy staring at me. Usually when I came across someone who seemed familiar, they were a former client. “Carter,” I interrupted before his mother could make the next introduction. “I’m going to go get a drink. Would you like something?” I needed to get away, needed to hide. Hopefully he saw that in my eyes.
“No, thank you,” he replied. “Would you like me to go with you?”
“No, I’ll be fine. I’ll catch up with you in a little bit.” I smiled at Carter’s mother and then turned away as calmly as I could.
I made my way over to the open bar and ordered a Cosmo to steady my nerves. Drink in hand, I found an out-of-the-way corner to hide for a little while. About halfway through my drink, someone I hadn’t seen approach spoke, which scared the shit out of me.
“He loves you, you know,” the female voice said.
“Jesus!” I whipped my head around to see who was there, hoping it wasn’t an important client. Or worse. My eyes landed on worse. “Max, isn’t it?”
“Yes. It’s nice to finally meet you.” Carter’s ex extended her hand to me, and I briefly shook it.
“You, too,” I replied, not sure how much I actually meant it.
“As I was saying, he really does love you. During the rare times we weren’t crunching numbers, he would talk about you. I heard you found out about my history with Carter, but I want you to know I’m not a threat. He has no interest in me, and I moved on a long time ago.” I nodded, not sure how to respond.
“Please, don’t be upset with him, but during some of our chats he made a couple of offhand remarks that leads me to believe you’re a little insecure.” Her words made me feel so small, like a tiny animal being dissected by a scientist. “He’s a great guy, so please don’t hurt him.”
“I won’t,” I replied, not that it was any of her business. I love him, too. Gnawing on Max’s infuriating words, I handed my empty glass to a passing waiter and headed back to Carter before he decided to come looking for me.
Now free from his mother, Carter was walking away from my possible former client when I found him. I approached slowly to make sure I wouldn’t be noticed until there was significant distance between them.
“You were gone for a while. Are you okay?” Carter asked, pulling me aside.
He didn’t need to be reminded of my former life. “Yeah, just got a little overwhelmed,” I said, not technically a lie. “I ran into your ex. Why is she here? I thought she didn’t work for the firm.”
“Who? Max?” he asked.
“How many of your ex-girlfriends are here?” Fuck, I hadn’t even considered that scenario. How many people had he slept with? Had I worked closely with any of them during my short tenure at the firm? Did they all sit around and laugh at his latest conquest? Carter led me out of the room when I began to hyperventilate.
We sat on a bench around the corner from the entrance to the ballroom, and Carter stroked my back until my breathing returned to normal.
“I’ll answer your question if you really want to know. Honestly, I don’t want to hear about other men, so I assumed you wouldn’t want me to tell you about women from my past.”
Did I really want to know? Would it do any good? “How many women have you lived with?” I asked, deciding to torture myself.
“One,” he replied. My stomach twisted in a painful knot until he spoke again. “You.”
“Have you ever thought about marrying anyone?” Why couldn’t I stop? I should think about whether or not I really wanted to know, and if I decided I did, I should’ve brought it up in one of our sessions with Dr. Wyles.
“One,” he repeated. This time he was silent after he uttered the single word. My heart felt like it stopped beating, and I turned to look at him. His eyes were sad as they stared at mine.
“I don’t want to know who,” I said. I couldn’t handle the answer, especially if he said Max. Regardless of what she said earlier, she was the most likely answer since he’d shared so much of our personal business with her. He’d told her about my fears, and she had to be lying about his feelings for me, hoping I would freak out and leave.
“I’ll respect that for now, but I will tell you someday soon. You need to know.”
I nodded. “Can we go home now?” Earlier I wanted to leave to climb into bed with Carter. Now I just wanted the comfort of my room.
“Of course,” he replied.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Alissa
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Carter growled as he held my chair at the large conference room table. We were the first to arrive for the meeting at Ramsay Enterprises, which was largely housed on the first floor of a posh hotel where we were staying, and had been told to make ourselves comfortable. “This has to be the worst idea ever.”
There were definitely worse things than a free trip to Los Angeles and a meeting with people who wanted to give you money, but I understood Carter’s reservations about interacting with Thomas. “You know I tried to get out of it, but like I said, Desiree couldn’t make the trip because of the state auditors being at Saint Jerome’s this week and next.” God, I wish Desiree could’ve been here. Even though I knew every detail of the proposal, I was still scared out of my mind. Thomas was a good guy, and Finn seemed okay based on the one time Lisa had met him over a year ago, but I had no idea about any of the other attendees. Interacting with men in suits at the club was one thing; sitting around a table at an important meeting with them was another. “Thomas is going out of his way to help because I asked him to, and he’s very excited about the project. It would be extremely rude for me not to come at a time that was convenient for him.”
“He’s excited all right, just not about the project.” When I’d made the call to Thomas, I’d still been pretty upset with Carter. Now that I’d had some time to calm down, I felt kind of bad about putting Carter in this situation, although his discomfort irritated me. I gently smacked his arm as he took the seat next to me. “Do you really not trust me?”
“I trust you; I don’t trust him.” He crossed his arms tightly across his chest.
“And what do you think he’s going to do to me without my permission?”
“He’s going to look at you and remember what you look like without any clothes and think about how good it feels to be inside of you. He’s going to be thinking about how you taste, the sounds you make…”
“Calm down before your face explodes. You knew about my past when you came back for me.” And I hated that he chose this moment to remind me about it.
“I didn’t expect your past to be sitting five feet away.”
“If this is going to bother you so much, maybe we should just go home,” I snapped, half angry and half defeated from his words. I was sure he would’ve done the same for me if I had known about Max and freaked out. But he hadn’t told me about Max. I should’ve been more upset about that, but I think, in some fucked up way, it shows he loves me. He hadn’t wanted the situation to hurt me, and he also didn’t want to lose me. “We’ll find another way to raise the money, but you get to explain it to Desiree.”
“We’re here now, might as well hear what the asshole has to say.” Carter didn’t fool me; I knew he was afraid of my boss and didn’t want to be the reason she didn’t get the funding that was being handed to her on a silver platter. Desiree was one of the sweetest women I’d ever met, but working with rebellious teenagers for over a decade had perfected her scolding technique. Most of the time, she only had to narrow her right eye at someone to get them to fall in line.
“I know you don’t particularly like him, but he’s a decent guy. He has always treated me like a person, which is more than I can say for everyone else in my past, including my parents. He helped me when I really needed it, and he’s going out of his way to do it again. Please don’t embarrass me with unfounded jealousy.”
I laid
my hand over Carter’s and gave it what I hoped was a reassuring squeeze. Deciding a change of subject was in order, I brought up my idea for the next morning. “I’d like to visit Madison before we leave. What do you think?”
“Isn’t she related to Thomas?” he asked, not able to get my former client off his mind.
“Yes, but she was my friend before I met him. I’d really like to see her. Besides, she’s not Thomas’s biggest fan,” I added, knowing that would be a point in her favor. Madison and Thomas had somewhat mended fences, but Carter didn’t need to know that.
“Why’s that?”
“There was about a year of her life that was hell for her. I don’t know the whole story, but apparently Thomas made quite a few unwelcome contributions to it.”
Just then, the door opened and Thomas came in, followed by a half dozen other people. He made a beeline for me, and I rose to my feet.
“Alissa, it’s so great to see you!” Hearing my real name on his lips was almost as foreign as seeing him fully dressed. He pulled me into a tight hug, and I could feel the jealousy radiating from Carter. “I love the dark hair. It really suits you,” he said, twisting one of my flowing curls in his fingers when I pulled back. He made his way around the table and sat directly across from me. I recognized his brother Finn, who took the seat to Thomas’s right, but not the curvy redhead sitting to his left.
“So,” Thomas began with a stupid grin on his face, “I have a big surprise for you, but I need to make some introductions first.” Thomas went around the table and introduced the suits, mostly lawyers and accountants, before getting to the people on either side of him. “This is my business partner and little brother, Finn Ramsay.” When Thomas turned his attention to his left, I saw a brief flash of a look I’ve seen many times before. “And this is Julianne Griffith. Juli is my surprise.” Thomas was so excited that he looked like a kid in serious need of medication.
Juli took over for Thomas. “I’m a public relations representative and talent manager with Tremont Entertainment. Mr. Ramsay shared your project with my clients, and they want to help.”
The more confused I became, the more hyper Thomas grew. “I got celebrities on board! Not just anybody,” he exclaimed, not able to control the energy inside him another moment, but Juli continued to talk over Thomas’s outburst.
“With the donations from Ramsay Enterprises and my clients, the center should have more than enough money to create a top-of-the-line facility and sustain itself for at least five years.”
“That’s amazing!” They may be able to conceptualize the good this project will have, but it was nowhere close to the reality of it.
“We haven’t even told you who my clients are yet,” Juli said with a knit brow.
“We need all the help we can get, and I’m extremely grateful to whomever they are.”
“So, who are your clients?” Carter asked. Then under his breath, only loud enough for me to hear, he said, “Knowing Thomas, I wouldn’t be surprised if they turned out to be porn stars.”
I glared at Carter right before Juli replied, “Marina Alexander and Tate Parker.”
“You’re kidding, right?” I blurted in a very unprofessional manner. “Marinate wants to be a part of our project?” Juli visibly cringed at the mention of the amalgamation of their names, which was a moniker bestowed upon them by the press. I made a mental note to avoid using word going forward. “The hottest actors in the freaking universe want to help with our small project?”
I couldn’t count the number of times I’d pictured Tate Parker beneath me when I was in Lisa mode. He and Marina Alexander were constantly voted to the top of every sexiest celebrity list imaginable. Not only were they popular for their looks and their incredible talent, they were also known as really good and humble people. They’d been a couple since the beginning of their career, and they’d never been the center of any scandals. There was a story in a magazine recently talking about how they still lived in the same house they had before they started acting.
“No, I’m not kidding at all. Marina and Tate are releasing an animated movie at the end of the year. They’re being paid royalties only, and the film is projected to be a huge success. They would like to donate a lump sum to cover the startup costs. They will then use their royalty payment from the first two weeks’ box office sales, which will likely be in the high seven figures, and set up a trust for the center. We think doing it this way will use the film’s publicity to help promote the center and others like it. Once the center is up and running and has proven success, they will make additional contributions to make sure it stays open.”
I turned my full attention to Thomas. “Oh my God! How the hell did you do this?”
“We’re very indirectly related to Marina,” he replied.
“They wanted to be here today, but they’re stuck in the studio all week doing last minute voice-overs for the film,” Juli added.
“I think I’m going to pass out,” I said in my excitement. “Can you believe it, Carter?”
“You’re telling me that the two biggest actors in America—probably even in the world—want to be a part of this project? It seems too small for them.”
I’d never met pessimistic Carter before, and I really didn’t like him. In an attempt to dissipate Carter’s rudeness, I turned back to Juli. “I’m so honored they want to help us in such a big way. We won’t let them down, I promise.”
“I know you won’t,” Thomas replied. “Now let’s get started.”
The suits in the room took turns asking questions about the proposal, none of which I had any trouble answering. As the meeting progressed, I became more and more confident in my ability to make this happen. Carter slipped into professional mode and spoke with the other attorneys in the room about things I didn’t understand, which made me proud of him…and a little turned on. His brain was even sexier than his muscles.
When the meeting wrapped up, I went over to Thomas to thank him again while everyone else gathered their belongings. “I don’t even know how to begin to thank you.”
“You can start by accompanying me to dinner tonight, as friends of course. I’m sure your companion here can spare you for a few hours.”
I turned my attention to Carter and found his expression hard. “How about we all go?” I suggested. I knew Carter didn’t like Thomas, but surely he could be reasonable about it since the man just arranged to give the center every penny it needed and then some.
“You go ahead without me,” Carter said through gritted teeth. “As your boyfriend, I want you to be happy.”
“Great, I’ll pick you up at eight.” Thomas leaned in and gave me a quick peck on the cheek before heading back to his office.
Carter brooded about Thomas’s dinner invitation on the way back to our room, which made me feel like shit. Yes, Thomas had made miracles happen in the past couple of weeks, but Carter was my first priority. I didn’t want to do anything that would hurt him, especially if it was something completely in my control. Thomas wouldn’t back out of the deal if I backed out of dinner; he wasn’t that kind of guy. By the time we stood outside of our room, I’d made up my mind to call Thomas and cancel.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Carter
My hands went for the collar of Alissa’s blouse the moment we were in the privacy of our room. With one firm tug, the buttons scattered to the farthest corners of the space. After yanking the blue fabric from the waistband of her skirt, I pushed the shirt off her shoulders until her wrists were tangled in the sleeves behind her. Holding her arms in place with one hand, I used the other to pull her head toward me and then claimed her mouth with mine. By the time we were finished, she wouldn’t forget who she belonged to. Finally our negative test results would be put to good use as I marked her so deeply Thomas would smell me on her even after she took a shower.
With her writhing against my chest, I backed her up until the backs of her legs ran into the closest bed and moved in even closer until her only cho
ice was to fall back onto it. “What’s gotten into you?” she asked breathlessly. “Whatever it is, I kind of like it.”
I knew she hadn’t been impressed with my behavior at the meeting, so I was relieved to see she was into this. “It’s not about what’s gotten into me; it’s about what’s about to get into you.” Getting down onto my knees, I slid my palms up the inside of her soft, smooth thighs, pushing up her skirt and spreading her wide as I made my way to her panties.
I hooked my thumbs under the sides of the lace covering my intended destination and pulled. Reveling in the sound of the thin fabric ripping at the seams, I licked my lips at the sight of my prize. “By the time I’m done, there won’t be any question that you belong to me.”
As I dove in face-first, one of her pointy-toed shoes swung up and connected with my ribs.
“What the fuck?” I growled as I tipped backward and landed on my ass.
“Stop,” she ordered in a tone more authoritative than I’d ever heard.
My hand cradled my injured side, and I immediately sobered, my primitive anger fading enough to think clearly. “If you aren’t ready, all you had to do was say no; you didn’t have to bruise a rib.”
“We haven’t been together in months, and you want our first time to be about jealousy? You want our first time to be about Thomas?” Now on her feet, she worked to free her hands from her torn shirt as she spoke. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Am I just a shiny possession to you?”
Fuck. There had to be a way to make her understand how I felt. “Remember how you felt when I was at the office all the time? Imagine how you would have felt if Max still wanted me.”
“Sure, if I had known, I would have probably been jealous, but you didn’t give me a chance to find out,” she spat. “The difference is, I trust you. Apparently, that isn’t a two-way street. Besides, Thomas never wanted me, he only wanted Lisa.”