by KB Winters
I froze in place. “Tess?”
A lamp flickered on to reveal Tessa balled up on the living room couch. She was wearing a black dress and stilettos to match. Her makeup was smeared all down her cheeks like she’d been crying her eyes out. I hurried over and sat on the couch next to her feet.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
She sniffed and my suspicion was confirmed. “He was supposed to call me,” she whimpered. ”We we’re supposed to go out tonight.”
“Oh,” was all I could manage to say. Tessa had been dating some rich guy that she’d met at a party. I hadn’t been introduced to him, but from the way she talked about him, she was convinced she was in the express lane to wifeville. “I’m so sorry, Tess.”
More sniffles. “Why are guys such assholes?”
I choked back a laugh. “Hell if I know.”
Despite my best efforts to push him out of my mind, Remy’s face came to the forefront. He was the last guy I was…involved…with and if I was really honest about it—still wasn’t quite over. Our last encounter had been so charged up with anger and passion that had led to the hottest night of sex I’d ever experienced. I hadn’t told Tessa about it. Mostly because I’d have to confess that our dining room table had been defiled, but also because, in some weird way, I wanted to keep it a secret—our secret—because it made me feel closer to him, more special. Remy wasn’t the type of hookup that could be dissected with girl talk and then tossed aside. He was something more than that.
I just didn’t know what to do about it, yet.
“Do you think I’ll ever find someone special?” Tessa asked, breaking into my rehashing.
“Of course you will. Come on, let me help you,” I said, wanting to escape the trap of a conversation as quickly as possible. I heaved Tessa up from the couch and marched her down the hall to the bathroom for a long bath before I went into my own room and collapsed into my own heap of hot mess.
The last thing on my mind before my exhausted body succumbed to sleep was the way that Remy smiled at me and the taste of his devilish lips.
Chapter Nine — Remy
I’d never sat around waiting on a woman before. Sure, I’d always had a penchant for the ones that played a little hard to get, but any girl who threw up major roadblocks wasn’t worth the energy when there were hundreds of other girls who would fall down in front of me, suck my cock, swallow like a champ and leave.
Yet again, Livvie was breaking all my rules and self-imposed principles.
Since the day she’d kicked me out of her apartment, she’d ignored all my calls and texts and refused to talk to me.
For whatever reason, she was burned into my memory and was apparently the only thing I was capable of thinking about anymore. Livvie was possibly the most beautiful, but also most infuriating woman I’d ever met. I wanted to help her, and I knew that while she might not want to admit it…she needed my help.
I’d failed her once before, and I wasn’t going to repeat my mistake a second time.
I was awake, showered, and shaved before the sun had even risen. I’d been studying the ceiling fan and the walls for most of the night, turning over the problem in my mind, looking at every angle, considering every outcome. And it had all led to the same conclusion…
I’d already set JJ on the case and he’d informed me that there was no physical address listing for the business but there was a nearby twenty-four hour coffee shop that seemed to serve as their temporary headquarters. So, I made that my first stop.
On Livvie’s company website, she had pictures of the staff, and I compared the images in my head with the faces around the shop as I entered. I immediately spotted her female employee, bent over a sketch pad in the corner. She looked up when I approached her and I could tell she’d been working a while. Poor girl looked like hell and the bags under her eyes were dark and puffy.
“Hello, my name is Remington Maddox. I’m a…friend of Livvie’s.” I introduced myself and took the seat opposite the haggard girl.
“Hi,” she replied. She looked a little confused as she stared at me. I wondered, for a moment, if she thought I was some kind of mirage.
“Kaylee, right?” I continued, worried about the look on her face.
She nodded. “Yeah, yeah.” She shook her head, lazily. Maybe she was a lot more tired than she led on. “Is Livvie coming? She is gonna be so pissed if she finds out I’ve been working all night again.”
It was my turn to arch my brow. “What do you mean?”
Kaylee peeked past me, as if convinced I was lying to her and that Livvie had set her up, although, I didn’t understand why. Weren’t dedicated, hard-working employees the goal in most companies? If Livvie frowned on that, it was no wonder her business was a non-starter.
“She told us that she couldn’t afford to pay us for more hours. Mitch, my fiancé, and I said we would put in extra hours for free, but she said no. But we both are really invested in this company, and Livvie too, and we wanted to help, so we’ve been talking to bands and even some solo artists, trying to get the company going.” She sighed and ran her hand through her hair. “Thing is, we’ve been doing it kinda secretly. Whenever she comes around, we just say we’re studying or whatever,” Kaylee explained.
“Aha. Well, your secret is safe with me,” I assured her. “I’m here to help, as well. But, Livvie doesn’t want me to, either.”
Kaylee nodded. “She’s stubborn. I mean, I love her and all, but she is so bent on doing this on her own, that sometimes I think…”
She broke off and stared down at her paper.
“What?” I prompted.
Her brown eyes lifted and she stared at me for a moment, as if assessing whether or not I could be trusted with whatever confidential information she held. “I think she pushes people away because she’s afraid they’re going to screw her over.”
I nodded. Kaylee’s assessment combined with the things Livvie had told me about her family dynamic growing up all started to click.
And, that thought led me to the conclusion that abandoning her the night we agreed to meet was the worst possible thing I could’ve ever done.
I suck.
My stomach turned with the sting of fresh guilt. It was something I’d been wrestling with for the past month. I’d woken up that morning, prepared to go and offer her anything she wanted or needed to get her business back on track, and then, somewhere in the afternoon, fear had seized me.
And I’m not afraid of anything.
I had a come to Jesus moment and realized that I was completely wrong for her, in business and in romance. Livvie was the type of girl who poured her heart and soul into everything she did. Meanwhile, I was a man of many secrets and was so used to hiding and putting up walls, that I couldn’t imagine us ever being able to get on the same page.
The night we’d planned to meet, I’d driven downtown, intending to go through with it, but as I sat in my parked car down the street from the bar, I found myself paralyzed by my own issues and spent two hours trying to talk myself into going inside, but in the end, I’d gone home alone.
I’d told myself that it was for the best, that Livvie needed something else, someone else.
But, even then, I’d known it was all a lie.
I wanted Livvie, and I wanted to be the person she needed. But now that I’d burnt that bridge, there was no telling if she would ever let me in again.
“All right, Kaylee. I’m going to make you a deal,” I said, pulling myself from my regrets long enough to focus on the bleary-eyed woman in front of me. “I want you to gather the team and meet me at six o’clock. I will have a catered dinner brought in and we can all sit and figure this out. I’ll pay you and the team time-and-a-half for as long as it takes to get things on track.”
“You do know it’s just me and one other person, right?”
“Oh,” I said, mentally scaling down the food service order. “Right. Well, bring whoever, and meet me there.” I stopped to fish out a card. It had my name and address on i
t.
She took the card and looked from its glossy surface and back up to me a couple times, as though comparing notes.
“But here’s the really important part,” I said. “You cannot tell Livvie.”
Kaylee cocked a critical brow at me. “Why?”
“It’s a surprise,” I answered, hoping I didn’t sound like too much of a stalker. “Please, Kaylee. I’m doing this to help Livvie, but if she knows I’m trying to help she will shut us down before we can even get any work done. I’ll tell her, I just need a little time to get the ball rolling. Okay?”
She studied me for another half a second, and then nodded and offered me a smile. “All right. I’ll call Mitch and we will both be there at six.”
“Great. Thank you,” I said, standing. “Text me if there are any changes, and I don’t think there will be.”
I stopped to order a large coffee for myself and then left the shop, throwing a wave back to Kaylee as I walked by the large glass window by her table.
***
At six o’clock sharp, the front desk of my building called to let me know that I had two guests waiting for me. I ordered for them to be escorted up and then went about the final touches. I’d cleared out everything in my office so we could hold the meeting there. The food was being prepared by the caterer in the kitchen.
“Hi!” Kaylee greeted me as I opened the door. “This is Mitch. My fiancé.”
I shook Mitch’s hand and ushered them both into the penthouse. I gave a brief tour to let them know where the vital things were located, and then we settled into the office. The caterer brought in some snacks and a fresh carafe of coffee and informed us that dinner would be ready in an hour.
“All right,” I said, once the office door was shut again. “Tell me what you have.”
Kaylee and Mitch exchanged glances and seemed to non-verbally decide that Mitch would be the spokesperson. He cleared his throat and folded his hands on the table top.
“We have four bands signed for representation. The biggest fish is a band called Downside. At this point, after all the phone calls and practically begging, we have several show venues that’ll give us prime time slots, which is great for the really unknown talent. But for bigger acts, like Downside, those venues are yesterday’s news. So, Livvie has been hitting the clubs every night to try and get deals with new venues, but so far, nothing has really happened. The three smaller bands we have are getting restless because they haven’t been able to get much going.” Mitch paused and glanced at Kaylee before turning back to me and adding, “Oh, and on top of all that, we have no money or assets.”
I sucked in a breath. “Okay. Well, that all sounds really, really bad.”
Kaylee’s eyes went wide and Mitch let out a nervous laugh.
“So, here’s how we fix it,” I said. I clicked a button on my phone and a presentation illuminated a blank space on my office wall.
I’d mapped out my entire list of contacts in the industry, went over the budget allocation for promotions, new talent acquisitions, payroll, and general expenses, as well as the plans for a proper office space.
“So, what I need you two to do is call these club managers and get some gigs for Downside. You’ll tell them you’re calling on my behalf. If they give you any trouble, hand me the phone. Meanwhile, I’m going to be working on getting us a real office. You guys can’t expect to run a professional business when the meetings are held in coffee shops and clubs. I’ll also be talking to some friends I have at a record label to see if we can get the audience.”
When I finished the entire presentation, Kaylee and Mitch looked like they had each been hit with some sort of stun gun. Blank stares and starry eyes were all I was getting in return.
Luckily, the caterer came to announce dinner was ready to be served and we were all able to take a break to process.
As I sat down to dig into the meal, Kaylee and Mitch seemed to have snapped out of their state of shock and were happily chattering away with all the plans and ideas they had.
Things were on the upswing. But I had a feeling the hardest part was just around the corner…getting Livvie to sign off on everything.
Chapter Ten — Livvie
Forty-eight hours without Christopher’s smooth voice purring in my ear cleared my mind and helped me see straight again. It had been fun and exciting to be lost in his high-end world for a spell, but at the end of it, that’s all it had turned out to be. A spell. After I rejected his advances at the club, he’d backed off. The only problem was that I felt more or less back at the beginning of my crisis, at least as far as my business was concerned. Without Christopher’s pull, I was suddenly blocked from contact with club owners that only days before had been throwing out the red carpet for me. It wasn’t me they were interested in at all. It was Christopher’s ‘old money.’
***
“This is it?” I asked myself, straining to look up at the tall high-rise. I compared the address to the one on my phone’s screen, and it seemed right. But what would Kaylee be doing at a place like this?
I went inside and approached the front desk. “Hi. Uhm, this is a little weird, but can you point me in the right direction? I need to go to suite number 3258.” I flashed him the address on the phone for good measure.
“Ah, Mr. Maddox’s residence,” the man behind the desk said with a knowing smile.
My stomach twisted into a pretzel. “I’m sorry, did you say Maddox? As in Remington Maddox?”
Please say no, please say no, I silently pleaded, hoping my ears were just playing tricks on me.
The man’s smile faltered. “Yes. That is who you meant, isn’t it?”
Before I could answer, the front desk phone rang and the man swiped the receiver up in a fluid motion. “Okay. Yes, sir.” He set the phone back down and smiled over at me again. “You can go right up. He’s waiting for you.”
I looked back at the glass doors that I’d just stepped through and considered running through them as fast as I could and never looking back, but something pulled my gaze to the central elevator bank, and up the long, glass-encased tube that led up to the higher floors above me.
“Miss? Would you like an escort?” the man asked.
“No, but if you have any variety of alcohol behind the desk, that would be swell,” I quipped. I turned away before he could reply and marched to the elevators. I smashed the up button three times, taking out my instant irritation on the LED panel.
I rode the elevator up to the top floor and sooner than I would have liked, found myself standing in from of Remy’s front door. All of my emotions were at war inside of me, clashing and mashing together inside my chest, but I forced my hand to push the ornate doorbell.
Seconds later, the door opened and the devil himself was standing there, looking way hotter than I’d expected in a dark purple, V-neck t-shirt and a relaxed pair of jeans. The tattoos on his arms were showing and I didn’t know why, but it surprised me. Maybe because he’d always kept them covered in a long sleeve shirt, or jacket—and he’d definitely been working out recently. His hair was tousled and pushed back like he’d been raking his fingers through it all day, and his green eyes were laser-focused on mine with heart-stopping effect.
My heart.
“Livvie.”
It was one word, but that was all it took to destroy my wanna-be calm, collected exterior. Before I could fully launch into a tirade, Mitch and Kaylee stepped into view over Remy’s shoulder.
“Hey, Liv,” Mitch said, with a slight wave.
“What the hell is going on here?” I said, skipping over Mitch’s greeting.
Remy stepped back and waved me inside. I stalked in, my hands shaking as I cast a heated glance between my two employees—people I’d considered friends—right up until this moment. Seeing them in Remy’s house was jarring and I wondered what they were doing here.
“Livvie, I can explain,” Remy started.
I whirled back around. “I sure as hell hope so!”
“Calm
down. I’m trying to help you. I’ve been working with Kaylee and Mitch for the last twenty-four hours and we’ve made quite a bit of progress,” Remy continued.
“I’m sorry, you what? Progress? You had no right to do this, Remy!” I exploded. “How could you guys go along with this? Without telling me?” I practically yelled at Mitch and Kaylee who were now huddled together like scared puppies.
“Livvie, we had to promise to not tell you,” Kaylee answered, her voice soft and sad.
“All right, slow down. Before you go off, let me explain,” Remy added. He reached for my hand but I pulled away and took a step backwards, bumping into an out-of-place file cabinet. “Livvie, please?”
My eyes darted frantically between the three of them. Kaylee mouthed, “It’s okay,” and I looked away, back at Remy. His eyes were intense but soft around the edges. Right now was not the time to melt. My heart was already pounding in my chest just looking at him and listening to his deep voice.
“Give us a minute,” Remy directed to Kaylee and Mitch. They nodded and disappeared down the hall. Remy watched them leave before turning his attention back to me. “I know you’re mad. But, I swear, this is only for your own good. Come here, I’ll show you.”
Without waiting, he started walking away and I had to do a half-jog to catch up. He led me into a room that had a couch, TV, and a few bookshelves filled with old books and fancy knick knacks. I wondered if he’d decorated himself, or if all the items contained on the shelves had been meticulously selected by a designer.
Once the door was shut, Remy took a deep breath. “I don’t need your staff to hear the nitty gritty here, if you don’t mind. God knows that the last thing I need is for word to get out that Remington Maddox is a broke joke.” He let out a sharp laugh at his own statement.
“Broke?” I repeated, arching a brow at him. “I hardly doubt that. I mean, what, broke in your world means you can’t upgrade your half a million dollar car on an annual basis?”
He didn’t so much as crack a smile at my joke and I got the feeling that I’d hit a little below the belt.