Quantum Boxed Set: The Complete Series

by Force, Marie

  “That’s what Sue said.” Leah is friends with the woman who runs the main office and gets all the best gossip from her. “Who else could it be but your friend Flynn?”

  “God… I can’t believe he did that. He said he wanted to help them and asked if there’s a fund or something. But I never imagined…” Tears fill my eyes when I imagine Aileen’s reaction to receiving that kind of money.

  “It’s good of him,” Leah says.

  “It’s amazing.” I’m stunned and overwhelmed and more eager to see him than I was before.

  “Pull yourself together. You’ve got a hot date with a hot man in five minutes.”

  Still reeling from Flynn’s incredible gesture, I force myself to calm down and try to relax. “What’re you up to tonight?”

  “I picked up a shift at the bar. Still trying to pay off Christmas.”

  “Which means you’ll be a wreck tomorrow.”

  “It’ll be worth it to pay off that beast of a credit card. No tutoring today?”

  I shake my head. “Myles’s grandfather is in the hospital, so we’re not meeting at all this week. But get this—his mom is still paying me because it’s not my fault we couldn’t get together.”

  “You have all the luck lately, Nat. We should call you Lady Luck.”

  If only Leah knew what a huge price I paid for any luck I may be receiving now. For the longest time, I wondered if everyone else had gotten my share of the luck quotient. But lately… Lately things have been good, and I hope they stay that way from now on. No matter what happens, however, nothing could ever be as bad as what I’ve already been through. Knowing what I’m capable of gives me the courage to face each new day and every challenge that comes my way.

  “I need to make myself pretty,” I say to Leah.

  She rolls her eyes at me. “Puleeze. You were born pretty.”

  Though I was born a redhead with green eyes and freckles, I bear no resemblance whatsoever to that girl anymore. I wear special contacts that give me brown eyes, and I regularly color my hair, which is much longer than it used to be, to keep it dark. Other than a once-a-month change of contacts, I never see my green eyes anymore. I’ve gotten used to my new look, but it didn’t happen overnight. The new looks were nearly as hard to come by as my new identity, not that Leah would have any way to know that. “Whatever you say.”

  “Can I stay until he gets here?”

  “Sure.”

  “Am I allowed to talk to him?”

  “Yes,” I say, laughing, “you can talk to him. I already know him well enough to know he’d want you to be normal around him.”

  “Not sure I can promise normal, but I’ll try.”

  While I run a brush through my hair, she finger combs her much shorter locks and makes funny puffy-lip model faces that have me laughing so hard I worry about tears sending streams of mascara down my face. “Knock it off, will you?”

  “Hey, Nat, do you think you’ll ever look at him and say to yourself, oh, there’s Flynn? Just Flynn. Not Flynn, the movie star?”

  I think about that for a second. “I already do think of him that way sometimes. When we’re sitting on the sofa chatting about a movie or how we like the same food or something one of his sisters said in a text, he’s just Flynn, just a regular guy. Then he gets a call from Marlowe Sloane, and I remember who he is to the rest of the world.”

  “I don’t think I could ever forget that. And Marlowe Sloane… Watch out for her. Rumor has it they’re a hot item.”

  “All rumor, according to him. They’re close friends.” I hold up a mirror from my purse and apply a light coat of plum lip color. “And besides, what’s the point of spending time with him if I can’t separate the man from the fame? There’s much more to him than his career, you know?”

  “Is that right?” She eyes me shrewdly. “Have you kissed him yet?”

  I look away, intently focused on my mirror. “Maybe.”

  She pounces on that immediately. “That’s not a no!”

  “Shut up, Leah!”

  “Tell me everything, and don’t leave anything out.”

  “Sorry, no time for that. Gotta go. If you’re walking out with me, try not to act like a freak.”

  She links her arm through mine. “Oh, I’m walking out with you, and no promises on the freak thing.”

  “Great.”

  Chapter 9

  Sitting outside Natalie’s school in the Range Rover, I debate at ridiculous length whether I should wait for her in the car or get out and risk someone recognizing me. That it’s fucking freezing keeps me in the car until I see her emerge from the building with Leah.

  They’re both so young, they could easily be mistaken for students if this were a high school rather than an elementary school. I experience a pang of guilt when Hayden’s words resurface to remind me she is way too young and unspoiled for the likes of me. Yet, even knowing that, I can’t walk away from her.

  She spots the car and heads toward me.

  That’s when I get out and go around to meet them, bowing gallantly. “Ladies.”

  “Hi there.” Natalie’s lips are glistening with some sort of purple gloss that I want to lick off as soon as possible. Yes, that’s my first thought, and no, I’m not proud of that.

  I kiss her cheek. “How was your day, dear?”

  She dazzles me with her smile. “Excellent, you?”

  “Long and boring waiting for school to get over. Reminds me of the not so good old days.”

  “See?” Leah says. “He agrees with me. School sucks.”

  “Lovely to see you again, Leah.”

  “Mmm,” she says suggestively, “same here.”

  “Can we give you a lift somewhere?”

  She eyes the car longingly and then glances at Natalie. “Home?”

  “We can do that,” I say before Natalie has a chance to reply. I open the back door for Leah and the front passenger door for Natalie.

  When I get into the driver’s side, I notice Natalie giving me an odd look. “Do I have something on my face?” I rub the cheek I recently shaved in anticipation of seeing her.

  “No,” she says, laughing.

  “Then what?”

  “I’ll tell you later.”

  “When I’m not here,” Leah says from the backseat.

  “Then let’s get rid of her ASAP,” I say.

  “Hey! That’s not nice.”

  Natalie laughs at Leah’s pretend outrage. The two of them amuse me. Leah is as mouthy and ballsy as Natalie is reserved. They make for an odd pairing that seems to work well despite their differences.

  Natalie’s cell phone rings, and she glances at the caller ID. “Aileen,” she says, glancing at me. “Hi, Aileen.”

  I can hear the other woman’s high-pitched screams coming through Natalie’s phone.

  “I heard about that,” she says, looking over at me again.

  I feign ignorance as to what’s happening even though I know all about it. The donation was made anonymously because I don’t want anything from it other than to know that Aileen and her kids are taken care of during this difficult time.

  “I’ll tell him,” Natalie says after several minutes of mostly one-sided conversation. “Talk to you soon.” She ends the call and stashes the phone in her purse. “Can you believe someone made a half-million-dollar donation to the fund we set up for their family?”

  “I wonder who could’ve done something like that,” Leah says.

  “That’s great,” I add. “Good for them.”

  Natalie gives me another of those looks that lets me know I’m not fooling anyone. That’s okay. The best thing about having money is being able to help people who truly need it.

  When we arrive on their street, there’s not a parking spot to be found.

  “I can jump out here,” Leah says. “You want me to take Fluff out for you?”

  “Would you mind?”

  “Not at all.”

  “Thanks. Flynn’s not her favorite person.”

/>   “Aww, is the old bag of bones jealous?”

  “Don’t say that about her! She’s not a bag of bones.”

  “But she is jealous,” I say smugly.

  “Ha,” Leah says as she opens her door. “I knew it. See you later. Or tomorrow. Stay out all night. Have a wild time.” She closes the door before Natalie can reply.

  “She’s a freak,” Natalie says.

  “I kind of like the way she thinks.”

  She rolls her eyes at me as I pull back into traffic. “You would.”

  I reach for her hand and love the thrill that travels through me when her skin rubs against mine. I can’t even begin to wonder what sex with her would be like if holding her hand is one of the most sensual experiences in what’s been a rather sensually indulgent life. With her sitting so close to me, I don’t dare indulge those thoughts. “You look very kissable with those purple lips.”

  When the light in front of us turns red, she leans over the center console, her intentions clear.

  Being no fool, I meet her halfway and revel in the sweet taste of her lips. “Mmm, hello to you, too. I missed you today.”

  “I missed you, too.”

  “So why were you giving me that funny look when I picked you up?”

  “I was just enjoying the exceptional view.”

  “Is it Friday yet?”

  “One more day.”

  “I’ll never make it.”

  She smiles, and neither of us looks away until the driver behind us blows their horn when the light turns green. Damn impatient New Yorkers.

  “In California, stoplight kissing is encouraged and supported much more than it is here.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Yep. I’ll show you when we’re there.”

  “I can’t believe I’m actually going to LA with you.”

  “Believe it. As soon as I got your text earlier, I had my assistant, Addison, contact some of the stylists we’ve worked with in the past. She’ll have you all fixed up with a million options by the time we get there Friday night.” I glance over to find her worrying her bottom lip with her teeth. “What?”

  “These stylists you’ve used in the past… You’ve done this before? Invited a nobody to an event and then had to outfit her?”

  I’m touched and amused by the hint of jealousy I hear in her tone. “First, you are not a nobody. Don’t say that again. Ever. Second, I’ve used them for me, silly. Believe it or not, there’s a lot more to showing up at all these events than throwing on a tux and combing my hair. I have my favorite labels, but I need to keep up with the latest thing, and I don’t have time to be bothered figuring that out on my own.”

  “Ahh, I see.”

  I squeeze her hand. “You’re the first person I’ve ever asked to attend something like this with me who wasn’t already in the business in some way or another.”

  “Oh.”

  “Oh what?”

  “Nothing… I’m just… This whole thing is incredibly overwhelming. It’s exciting, too, of course, but overwhelming for someone who’s never done anything like it before.”

  “Trust me when I tell you it’ll be so much fun. You’ll feel like a queen for a day or I’ll fire ’em all and make sure they never work again in Tinseltown.”

  “Stop it. You’d never do that.”

  “No,” I say, laughing, “I wouldn’t, but I will make sure you’re the most pampered woman in all of Hollywood on Sunday. That you can count on.”

  “I hope you know I don’t need all that.”

  “I know you don’t need it, which is why it’ll be so much fun to make sure you get it.”

  She takes a deep breath and releases it.

  “You okay over there?” It’s taking forever to drive uptown in the late-day traffic.

  “Yeah. I’m good.”

  “I got tickets to ‘Wicked’ for tonight at seven.”

  She spins around in her seat and stares at me. “Tonight as in today tonight?”

  “As in two and a half hours from now tonight.”

  “Oh my God! You’re too much, you know that?”

  “You said you wanted to see it, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, I want to see it, but I didn’t expect you to go out and get tickets.”

  “Technically, I didn’t go anywhere. I made a phone call, and the tickets are at will-call.”

  She sags into her seat. “Are you for real? Am I going to wake up and find out I’ve dreamed this entire thing?”

  “I sure as hell hope not.” I glance over at her. “Will you be okay getting home around eleven?”

  “And getting to see ‘Wicked’? Yeah, I think I can handle that.”

  “Just to be sure, the ‘Wicked’ thing is good? Yes?” I can’t believe how insecure and uncertain I am around her—two things that I’ve never been when it comes to women. Well, except for the bitch I married, but who wants to think about her when I’ve got the lovely Natalie to focus on?

  “It’s ‘Wicked’ good, but you know what’s even better?”

  “What’s that?”

  “What you did for Aileen and her kids.”

  I’ve been expecting her to mention that, and I’m ready for her. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Yes, you do, so stop pretending otherwise. It was… It’s incredible, Flynn. Truly. I can’t even begin to tell you what it’ll mean to her, to all of them. And what it means to me… Thank you.”

  “I still don’t know what you’re talking about, but you’re welcome and so are they.”

  She encloses my hand in both of hers, and the sweet gesture is a total turn-on. Everything about her turns me on. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been this attracted to a woman outside my chosen lifestyle. For the first time in more than a decade, I’m entertaining the possibility that a vanilla relationship might actually satisfy me.

  That doesn’t mean I’m prepared to completely give up a lifestyle that has defined me in many ways. It just means that I’m considering making some changes that would’ve been unthinkable only a few days ago.

  Something my father once said to me has been rattling around in my mind since I met Natalie. It was after the disastrous breakup with Valerie when I asked him how he’d known that my mother was the woman he wanted to marry. “Someday,” he said, “probably years from now, a woman will come strolling into the room, and all the oxygen will seem to leave with her arrival. Your chest will be tight, your heart will beat a little faster, and you’ll know. You’ll just know.”

  “Is that how it happened for you with Mom?” I asked him.

  “Exactly like that. I knew the second I laid eyes on her that there’d never be anyone else for me.”

  And there never has been. Forty-four years later, they’re going strong and more in love than ever. As I get older, I find myself envying them as well as my two oldest sisters, who’ve found true-love matches with guys I like and respect.

  “You’re quiet over there,” Natalie says. “What’re you thinking about?”

  I like that she asked. “My parents, actually.”

  “What about them?”

  “Tomorrow is their anniversary. Forty-four years.”

  “That’s awesome.”

  “I need to send them something, but I’m trying to decide what it should be. What do you get for two people who have everything?”

  “I have no idea. Flowers seem too simple. Gift cards would be silly in light of who they are…”

  “You see my dilemma.”

  “Could you take them out for a nice dinner while you’re in LA?”

  “That I can do.” At the next light, I grab my phone and get Addie on the Bluetooth.

  “What’s up?” We’ve already spoken about six times today and got the “how are you?” preliminaries out of the way hours ago.

  “Can we pull together an anniversary dinner for Max and Estelle and the girls Saturday night if they’re available?”

  “We can do that. I’ll make some calls.”
/>   “Include Natalie in the count, and you should come, too.”

  “Of course I should.”

  “You’re the best, Addie.”

  “I know. I tell you that every day.”

  Laughing at the predictable reply, I end the call with the push of a button on my steering wheel. “Done.”

  “Wow, that was kind of… impressive.”

  “Addie is fantastic. I’d be lost without her.”

  “She sounds fantastic, but I mean the whole thing—from idea to implementation in five minutes flat.”

  “We get things done.”

  “I see that.”

  I glance at her tentatively. “Does it all seem… I don’t know… pretentious to you?”

  “No, not at all. I’m sticking with impressive.”

  Her reply makes me smile as we finally reach the entrance for my garage after a slow crawl uptown. I punch in the code and drive down the ramp. Without waiting for me, Natalie gets out of the car and meets me at the elevator. I like that she’s falling into a comfortable routine in my life.

  Upstairs, I take her coat, and she looks down at her clothes. “I wish I’d known to dress up more for the theater.” She’s wearing sexy black pants, high-heeled boots and a turquoise sweater with a scoop neck that hugs her full breasts, making me want to peek inside for a better look.

  “You look gorgeous. Perfect for the theater. People don’t dress up like they used to. You’ll fit right in.” With my hands on her hips, I draw her in closer to me. “In fact, you’ll class up the joint.”

  “Sure I will.”

  I tip my head and lay my lips on hers in an undemanding caress that I feel all the way through me. Though I don’t intend to take it any further than a quick kiss—at least not yet—when her hands slide up my chest and curl around my neck, I’m lost.

  Her mouth opens, and her tongue meets mine in a sensual caress that makes me moan from wanting more. I already know, days after I first laid eyes on her, that I’ll never get enough of her.

  I hadn’t intended to devour her in the foyer, but she’s totally irresistible, especially when she’s pressed against me, kissing me with such innocent eagerness. That innocence has my cock hard and throbbing as I reluctantly withdraw from the kiss, mindful of what she said to me the day we met. If I seduce her into giving me what she said she’d never give, she’ll hate me afterward. The thought of that is worse than denying the desire that beats through me like a living, breathing thing.