by Kris Buendía
A lot of lace. The best is that you could not wear underwear and people would not notice.
“You look beautiful.” Says Mona, she is wearing, like me, a beautiful dress. But leaving her legs uncovered and is white. It is supposed that tonight's theme is that “everything is worth it” and no one can criticise you. Graysson Publicity is about taking advantage of everything and taking big risks no matter what.
“It is too much. Do you think they wil recognise me?” I ask touching my hair.
Mona insisted that I wore it loose and smooth to the side.
She is beautiful and looks like a big platinum blond wave. I wanted to highlight my makeup only on my lips, leaving my eyes natural.
Mona was right, nobody has recognised me for the simple fact that nobody real y sees me, the real me. The conservation in overal s or out of it. The girl serving expensive coffee.
I have not seen Paris or Pippa either, that is a good signal. I am having fun.
“The boys wil be coming soon.”
“Did you invited them?”
She nods thril ed.
“I have planned this party with your help, they also deserve to be here, also, among more people better.”
I agree.
The party is amazing and I wish it would never end. But my feet are kil ing me.
After a few hours Jimi and Gracie have arrived.
We have had a great time and we have danced a lot. The drinks stil do not take me home, unlike Gracie and Jimi who, of course, wanted to take the party elsewhere. Mona is having fun, but she is also working and must look good with her bosses.
“Excuse me, I need fresh air.” I tel the guys, who do not take their eyes off me. When they saw me tonight, they could not believe it because of how different they looked at me. But more than different, it was if as everything was done for me and not the other way round.
The room is big enough, but I need a little more fresh air and the night can also be more beautiful outside.
Mona said that the terrace was beautiful, so much that it did not need any decoration. Although no one would actual y be there if the fun was inside.
So I decided to go check it with my own eyes.
I take the short route when I see Paris and Pippa talking to a couple of people. They dress elegantly as expected. I do not have time to notice what they are wearing in detail nor I want to see them, so I make my way out and do not take the elevator. I arrive fast at the second floor and reach the door to the terrace. When I open it, the air breaks through. I feel the smel of the night, it is ridiculous but those things are noticed by a person like me, like the smoke of cars and freedom.
The night here is calm. And it is true, it is beautiful. It is not like the typical concrete floor terraces. It is thin ceramics, with gold touches to be just a terrace and colourful skins in different armchairs around.
My mind betrays me when it takes me to the memory of what happened the last time I was in a terrace. It was not that big, but it looked like that until I heard Thomas's voice.
“It is not the same.” I say out loud and I walk to the railing. It is my same height despite the fact that I wear heels. But the view is more beautiful that makes you want to cry.
In the distance, the sound of the cars. I wonder if during the day the streets are more crowded than they are at this time of the night.
The cold does not matter to me. It is been a long time since I felt the cold breeze in my hair, in my face and the feeling of freedom.
I want to be free.
From my memories, from my fears and impossible dreams.
“Aren't you thinking about jumping, are you?”
I gasp in shock when I hear a man’s voice. It is not any voice and neither is any man. Despite the darkness, I manage to clear my eyes, let the moonlight il uminate his face. A beautiful face known.
I can not believe it.
Is he drunk?
I could not forget that beautiful English accent even if I wanted.
“Mr. Graysson.”
I completely forget about my attire and give him a look of respect, not like one of the guests at his party. He does not even imagine it.
“Mr. Graysson was my father.”
He says it with moody tone and without feeling the slightest pain. I have guessed that he is drunk and he convince me with the glass he carries in his hands, whose dark drink stirs my stomach. He says more than one word in that state or the drink helps him being a son of a bitch and a complete snob.
“Your name.” Demand.
He wears a three-piece black suit and no tie. I a, able to see a glimpse of his chest whose bush of hair threatens to lean out of the button that was not fasten. I would like to see the tattoos that Mona says he has. He is al a bad boy who does not matter if he is an idiot, looking like that he can give himself the pleasure.
He wants to know my name. The last time he did not seem to care too much. But as expected, I am not the girl who cleans floors in his company and not the one who insulted his mouth with the Irish coffee I prepared the other day. He does not know I am the same girl.
“I do not like to say things twice.”
I glare at him and he looks at me from head to toe. I do not know if he watch me in a lusty way, it is difficult to decipher that empty and serious look.
Coming from him I would say both. But what I do know is that he is hungry for what could be under my dress.
“El a.” I answer and take my eyes off him to keep looking the way the cars go down there.
“El a.” I did not know that my name would sound so good coming out of his mouth. I like it and I do not understand what happens to me. I could run away right now. But I can not do it, not because I can not, but because the more I look at him talking to me, the more I want to stay.
“I suppose you already know who I am.”
“You suppose wel , Mr. Graysson.”
I see him out of the corner of my eye when he take a sip of his drink.
“You should not drink like that here, it is dangerous.”
“Do you want to push me?”
That question makes me look at him with anger. How dare he says something like that?
“I am going to take your comment as a result of your drunkenness.”
“It was not a comment.” He reject. “It has been a question. There are not a lot of women like you, you worry more about the place I drink instead of wanting to drink with me.”
“I do not like to drink.”
His mouth stays in a straight line. There we go again with wanting to be smart when he does not even know me.
“Back down there you did not think the same.”
I open my mouth, surprised. Has he been watching me?
“It is my party, it is my company and that means you are my guest or one of my models.
Even though I have never seen you before, I think I know you or you look like someone I know. The question is, El a, why are you lying?”
“I am not lying. I can not believe that you have been watching me and being cheeky about it.”
He does not seems to like that word. He comes a little closer to the point that I can already feel his masculine and exquisite perfume as wel as his breathe, despite the alcohol.
“Be careful of what you say.”
“And you better watch your words. Not your guests. I am Mona's friend, the one who made this party. What makes you be in the background.
Therefore you should not observe me.” What leads me to something else. “Nor fol ow me.”
He does not say anything. Again he plays the role of a cold and mysterious Mr. G. Whatever his problem is, I wil not fal into him. He is Paris property which makes him more dangerous now.
I do not like the way he looks at me. It is like he want to read my mind. Does he even know how to do that?
“You are wrong, I did not fol ow you. But if I had, I would not be sorry. You are not a common woman, probably that is something people tel you very often.”
Now I
am confused.
“What do you mean? I did nothing.”
“That is why I am stil here, because you have not done nothing. Women tend to offer themselves without shame. I am surrounded by women who would kil for having a conversation of more than five words with me.”
He is over his head.
I rol my eyes. If what he wants is that, he should just be an idiot, it is the next thing so nobody wants to talk to him.
This man is surrounded by hol ow women with big boobies who only seek to sleep with him. There must be a problem with him. It is not that bad, is it?
“I assure you that I have not kil ed anyone. And you are wrong in something. Women like me, we do not like having this kind of conversations with men like you.”
“Men like me?”
“Yes, of those who think they are irresistible, that they can have everything just be snapping their fingers. I assure you that I am not one of those and I am definitely not interested in offering anything but my apologies, I have to go.”
He takes my arm when I am about to run away. His touch, his touch and his breathing that is now faster, has ruined everything.
That is not what I expected.
“Yes, you are not like al of them.” I do not know what he mean but he has also felt it when he touched me. It is like what I felt when his fingers brushed mine in the caffe.
“The woman who is with me one night, is not the same again. The way in which I fuck her is not the only thing that makes them crazy, but what comes next.” He whispers in my ears. “First, I start with her lips and traverse their necks to reach the tip of their breasts. I embrace their nipples with my tongue and pul them until they are about to bleed.
They love it and I am a god, I wil be your god if you asked me to. I am not a gentleman, I can hurt you if I wanted to, get on your knees and make you suck my dick, I know the effect that my words have on you, your bristly skin tel s me, and your flushed cheeks.”
My god. That tone of voice makes me tick and I do not know when we got to talking about sex. He does not know me and does not know who I am. I doubt very much that he do this with a stranger, but the more I listen to him, the less I want leave now.
My legs are clumsy and they do not obey my order to walk and get out of here before it is too late.
“When I penetrate them, I do it so hard that many times they reach the orgasm right there and I think you cam imagine what it is like to get fucked when you are done. Your vagina is so tight that you can finish over and over again, but you would not because I wil not let you. You wil want more but by the time you wake up, I wil not be there to give it to you. I am not a man who repeats with the same woman. It is not a rule, it is survival.”
I move away to see him in the face. I must be red. He looks for his drink and takes in one gulp. It is when I realise what I want and it is not to run away, at least not alone. He is wrong if he thinks he can have me.
First I wil have him and he wil be he the one who wants more of me. I am going to wake up him from his dream and hit him to reality.
“You do not intimidate me, Mr. Graysson. On the contrary. You have been exposed and right now I only think of one thing.”
He looks at me sideways.
“What thing?”
This time I am the one who approaches him and I do not whisper in his hear, rather in his mouth.
“You have angered me, you have disrespected me talking to me that way. So I have no choice but to show you that yes, I am real y not like those women. I wil be the one who leaves you wanting more and wil land so hard that you wil never believe such a thing that you just said. I wil show you that we are strong women, determined women who are wil ing to have a night stand and avoid the walk of shame. To avoid cal ing you the next day and be rejected or worse, need it. I wil show you that you can be one of those nights. And my satisfaction wil be that you wil never going to see me again and either me. You have angered me so much that I have not other reparation than to order you to take me out of here so that you can do al the things you said before. Only if I want and I feel like it. Now, Mr. Graysson with al due respect, do you think you can handle it?”
I leave him with the word in him mouth when I turn around and walk away from him. I am lack of air despite of being up here.
I feel my face hot and I do not know myself. It is what happens when you behave like a son of a bitch with me.
Gideon thinks that he is irresistible and that if I spend a single night with him I will not be the same.
It wil be him who will not be the same when he realises that I am not one of his models. But rather the girl who cleans the floor of his company and the one who misuses his coffee.
“El a.” He cal s me but I ignore him. I run down the stairs without fear of stumbling and I hear the murmur of music. It is enough for one night. My stepsisters are here and I afraid they can recognise me. The boys are having a good time, so I do not bother going to tel them I am retiring for the night.
…
I am trying to cal a taxi at midnight. There are many people walking among her drunk coming out of the club.
“Hey, beautiful.” One of them speaks to me and I ignore him while I wait for a taxi. “Do you want some company?”
“Leave her alone.” His friend tel s him. I guess they are in their twenties, more or less. I do not know if they work for Graysson or are invited. I do not care.
“This bitch thinks that she can ignore me, she does not know who I am.”
I glare at him when I hear how he cal ed me.
“Go to hel , you drunk shit.” i hiss him and that makes him angry.
He pul s away from his friend’s grip and pounces on me, but before he can hurt me a hard, strong body protects me by pushing him to a side and giving him a blow on the face, leaving him knocked out on the ground.
“Walk.” He orders me. I am stil surprised to see him here more than what the drunkard could have done to me. “Get in.”
Gideon Graysson appears in my rescue and forces me to get into his truck. What he does not know is that everything that happened up there vanished with the fright and more now that he looks at me with those eyes ful of fire.
“What were you thinking about talking to a drunkard like that?”
I can not believe he is scolding me when a few minutes ago he was nothing different from him. At least, he did not try to hurt me. Not that I know.
The truck starts up. He drives, I thought he had people to do that for him. But I see that not only does he buy his own coffee, he also drives by himself. As if he was someone useless, and he is not. I do not know what the hel is wrong with me when analysing so much what he does.
He is stil waiting for an answer from me. Wel , that is too bad, because I wil not give them to him.
“Are you going to be quiet?” He sighs without taking his eyes off.
“I do not have to explain it to you. What is more, I wil get off right here, park.”
I swear he has laughed at me. I am not sure and I know he wil not stop either.
“Let's see how brave you are. Up there you asked me to fuck you.”
He is crazy.
His truck seems like an ice cave. It is quite cold and I do not understand any of the buttons on the board.
“I am cold.” I demand so that he turn on the heating. But he does something total y unacceptable. He takes off his jacket, exposing his big and muscular arms over his silk shirt and hands it to me.
It smel s like him.
It is hot as if his body burned. Since I know I have no other choice and I am dying of the cold, I put it on. It is as if his body was somehow connected to mine now that I wear his jacket. I must be exaggerating besides crazy.
There is a lot of silence and as if he was reading my thoughts he puts some music.
Instrumental, dark and Celtic.
An strange choice, but he is wired so it is fine.
We stop in front of a glass building. It is like a contemporary castle, or a dark glass tower wi
th a neon light in the last pyramid above.
I did not know that it looked like that at night, I realise that I do not take us much time to arrive, so we are stil in downtown Seattle.
The valet parking waits for him and my door is the first that opens. He is crazy if he thinks I wil go in there with him. The guy notices, so Gideon circles the car to force me down.
“Get out.” Although it sounds like an order, he seems kind. “Please.”
I give him a look in retaliation.
“You do not know me. What makes you think that I wil enter that place? I do not even know what it is.”
I know we are stil on the street, while he is stil standing next to me.
Waiting for me to go down. But I wil not, not unless I have a reasonable reason, but coming from him, at this point, nothing seems reasonable.
“Please, El a.” Listen to that accent, makes me laugh and intrigues me at the same time. “You are right, we do not know each other. That building you see here is where I live. We wil have a drink, water for you, a beer for me and we wil talk. You can go whenever you want.”
I squint, waiting for something else, but I can not. Know each other. I know Mr. Graysson, Mr. G.
who, everyone fears, the boss of my boss and owner of almost everyone.
“Al right.”
I go down without his help and I take a look around me, there is no one who can recognise me.
He walks behind me and I keep clinging to his jacket, as I pass the lobby, the few people here bow to him. Something tel s me that he also owns the building and not just one floor where he says he lives.
We enter the elevator and he takes out a kind of gold key from his pocket. The elevator marks a direct floor, the last floor.
“Nice key.”
“So nobody bother us.”
“In the elevator?”
He makes me laugh and I smile in mockery.
He does not stop looking at me and I know why, he knows that the night wil be long and that he wil not get away with it, at least I hope so. I know I wil be asking myself every second what I am doing here.