by Kasey Krane
I couldn’t help but notice the sparkle in her eye as she said it.
Both our cars were parked outside Sean’s apartment building and we walked together to it.
“So, my place or yours?” I asked. Keira threw me a threatening look, pursing her lips together tightly.
“This is a professional relationship and that’s strictly how we’re going to keep it.”
“You make out with all your clients?”
Her cheeks flushed again and she looked around nervously, trying to avoid my eyes.
“Have you noticed the cameras?” she asked. I knew she was trying to avoid the subject I’d brought up, but this was important too.
“Yeah, they’ve been following me around everywhere. It’s fuckin’ ridiculous.”
Keira crossed her arms and nodded.
“They’re circling you like sharks, and you’re not going to be able to shake them off any time soon. They want the inside scoop on your life because everyone is interested.”
“Interested in what? My life?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“Because everyone on the internet thinks I’m a train wreck and it’d be fun to watch me disintegrate?”
Keira peered into my eyes, and for a moment, I thought she’d tell me she felt sorry for me. But then the softness from her eyes was gone again.
“Yes. It makes them feel superior, makes them feel good about themselves because they can look at someone else’s life and laugh.”
I wanted to punch something. I wanted to kick the car. Anything to get rid of this pain coursing through my veins. The only way I could manifest this pain was through aggression.
“But because they’re all watching you all the time, this would also be the perfect opportunity for us to use it to your advantage.”
Keira’s voice was calm. Her composed presence was the only thing that’d kept me from lunging at the paparazzi clicking away. Did they really think they were well hidden? Maybe they weren’t even trying to hide.
“Advantage how?”
“We can make sure we get your story across. We need the cameras to pick up your grief, show the world that the only reason you’re acting out and acting this way is because of the loss you’ve recently faced.”
Her eyes twinkled again. I figured this was her bright-idea look—when she got excited about a new idea she had.
“I am grieving. We don’t have to put on an act. I lost my parents. Both my parents. Tragically, suddenly, they were the people I was closest to in this world and now they’re gone. This is not a story you have to spin.” I’d lost control of myself. My voice was raised as I spat the words out at her. Keira watched my outburst closely, and eventually, she nodded.
“This is the side they need to see. People need to find out the truth about you and what you’re experiencing.”
“Well, these people aren’t invited for a peep-show into my life. I’m not going to give them a demonstration or make a speech.”
“Then you have to follow my plan. You have to do something that will make you sympathetic in the public eye.”
“I just want them to leave me alone.”
Keira shook her head. “That’s not going to happen. Now that the trolls have sunk their teeth in you.”
Thirteen
Keira
When Everett asked where we were going to continue the conversation—my place or his, I was embarrassed. He made fun of me for falling so easily into that kiss.
I wanted to forget about it. Firstly, it’d been in Sean’s bedroom while my brother was outside getting excited about showing off his music collection. Secondly, Everett was a client. I prided myself in my professional ethics. By kissing Everett, I had broken every code of those ethics. A code I’d never thought of breaking before. Thirdly, and most importantly—this was Everett Baker. Notorious for sleeping around and being an all-round party bad boy. The polar opposite of the kind of guy I needed in my life.
In fact, he was the polar opposite of the kind of guy I was usually attracted to. He wasn’t my typical type.
But he was sexy. He was so freakin’ hot.
We talked for a little while at our parked cars and then I told him to follow me back to my office so we could talk about some of the finer details of my plan. I wanted us to be on neutral ground. My office would be the perfect spot to avoid getting anywhere close to him again.
If I worked really hard at remaining professional, and didn’t give into my primal instinct of wanting him between my legs—just maybe, we’d be able to move away from the incident in Sean’s apartment.
I had a feeling Everett wouldn’t even remember it in a few days. As a matter of fact, he was probably high right now and wouldn’t even remember hiring me.
We got into our separate cars and in my rearview mirror, I saw him parked up right behind me. He looked directly at me and caught me staring.
I was tempted to stare back. To look straight into those intensely blue eyes. I liked it when he watched me. Like he studied every inch of me, committing me to his memory.
But I looked away.
I couldn’t encourage him.
Everett Baker was just being himself—charming, sexy, and a guy who always got the girl he wanted. Just for that night.
So it’d be my responsibility to keep a distance between us and maintain professional integrity.
If I gave in to him, he’d chew me up and spit me out overnight. And that’d be the end of my emotional stability and probably the end of my career too. I couldn’t let that happen. I’d worked too hard all my life to get to where I was. I had Sean to worry about.
I wasn’t going to throw it away because of one irresistible man.
George waited nervously at Alisha’s desk when Everett and I walked out of the elevator together. They both looked at us. Alisha stood up and I sensed the paranoia coming off her. She clearly regretted her actions now, and with time to think about it, she must’ve figured I knew she was the one who gave Sean’s address to Everett.
I narrowed my eyes at her and she seemed to shrink into a ball. Then I smiled at George, just to reassure him everything was back on track.
Obviously, he had no idea what had transpired between us, but would simply assume that I’d played my magic on his most coveted client.
For the sake of staying in the good books of my boss, for being worthy of my new promotion and being on track for the career goals I had in mind—I needed to find a way to make this work with Everett.
“All good?” George asked as we walked past him.
Everett gave him a mock-salute, while he ignored Alisha. I momentarily felt bad for Alisha. She’d been played by him, as I was sure countless other girls had been played by him over the years…and yet, I was the one he wanted to kiss today. He wanted even more than a kiss from me.
A thrill ran down my spine because I knew something nobody else in the office did. Exactly what Everett Baker’s fully erect cock felt like against my body.
I shut the glass door behind us when we stepped into my office. Even though everyone could see us from outside, they wouldn’t be able to hear a word exchanged between us.
“How do you get anything done in this place? With all these eyes on you all the time?” he asked. He’d made himself comfortable on the chair across from my desk, stretching his long strong limbs to accommodate his big presence. My office was filled with the scent of his cologne which I now recognized. It made my skin tingle with desire.
“I have nothing to hide,” I replied with a shrug.
Everett found that amusing and he smiled at me as I sat down.
“Hit me. Whatever your damned plan is, I want to hear it,” he continued.
I had a sneaking suspicion he wasn’t going to like what I had to say. He had already been pretty resistant to all my suggestions so far, and maybe he thought the girlfriend thing was just a joke. He hadn’t taken it seriously, but I was completely serious about it.
It was integral to the plan working. It was at th
e core of rescuing his reputation.
“You know how cheesy romantic movies work? The key plot point that gets people all teary-eyed?”
I could already see he didn’t like where this was going and he narrowed his eyes suspiciously at me.
“I’ll tell you. Good girl meets bad boy but brings him to his knees. You’re the bad boy, but you’re going to win people over by allowing yourself to be tamed by a good girl.”
The smile disappeared from Everett’s face pretty quickly after that. I was sure he’d get up and walk out.
“So you were serious about your ridiculous plan.”
I nodded.
Why did his face have to be this perfectly chiseled? Why’d he have to wear that flannel shirt like it was his second skin? I still felt his hands all over me. Cupping my ass. My breasts pressed against his chest…his tongue halfway down my throat.
I wanted to touch myself. It was my first instinctual reaction when he looked at me like this…like he saw right through my clothes.
I cleared my throat, trying to force a smile.
“I know this sounds crazy, but you wouldn’t be the first person in the world to do something like this.”
“You want me to get a fake girlfriend? And where the hell am I supposed to find one?”
“You don’t have to do it. I’ll find someone for you. Someone who’d be perfectly suitable for the camera, someone who will make you look good.”
“A good girl,” he said in a hollow voice.
“What do you have to lose? All you have to do is make a few appearances for the camera. Maybe do a few interviews together. She’s going to gush and talk about how nice you are, how perfect your romance is, how heartbroken you are over your parents’ death. People won’t be able to point the finger at you for defending yourself when it’s someone else doing all the talking. She just has to be likable. The all-American girl next door.”
Everett’s eyes traveled up and down my body. Thankfully, I was mostly hidden by the desk or he would’ve noticed how tightly I pressed my legs together. I wanted my clit to stop swelling and throbbing. How much more of this would I have to take?
Trying to put on a show of nonchalance and calm in front of him made my head spin.
He took a deep breath.
“For how long?”
“A few months at least. Just until things die down and the trolls move on to the next person whose lives they want to butcher.”
He didn’t look very happy with that information either, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it.
“But you have to behave yourself in the meantime. You have to stay out of trouble. You have to make the relationship look believable for the cameras.”
He stood up abruptly, banging a fist angrily on my desk before spinning away from me.
“You’re the expert. I guess I don’t have a choice.”
Then he was gone, without giving me a second look. And I really hoped he had already forgotten about what happened between us. I knew I wanted to, but there wasn’t any hope of that.
Once Everett was gone, I just sat there at my desk, pretending to type something on my computer for anyone looking in.
What I was really doing was fantasizing about him.
It was as far as I’d let myself go with him, as much as I would’ve wanted that kiss to turn into something else.
I already felt pretty guilty about what happened between us. Even that kiss was too far.
I had a career to think about, a professional reputation to protect—it was pretty obvious by now, he didn’t care about his.
The sexual electricity between us was undeniable but hopefully in a few weeks, once this project was over and I didn’t have to see him in person anymore, it would fade. I had no other choice.
Any kind of relationship with Everett Baker, no matter how short and casual, wouldn’t be healthy for me.
I didn’t do one night stands. I didn’t even do casual flirtations. Steffi called me uptight. She was convinced I’d end up alone and lonely if I didn’t change my ways, but I didn’t care what she thought. Or what anyone else thought.
I’d never been the kind of girl who casually slept around. I had responsibilities, namely Sean. And even though he’d grown up now and wasn’t in my life in the same way anymore, I was still responsible for him.
He never had a ‘normal’ childhood, and he was most likely not going to have a ‘normal’ adulthood either. And I couldn’t get my head messed up by a guy who didn’t give a crap about me. I just didn’t have the time for that.
When I looked up from my computer screen, I noticed Alisha staring at me through the glass wall. She sat quietly at her desk. She was probably pretending to work too.
I could guess what was going through her mind. She was trying to figure out if she’d already lost her job. I knew she’d never warmed to me. I’d never warmed to her either. But there was one undeniable fact becoming very clear to me now.
Alisha had that all-American look I was in search of.
I hadn’t even started looking yet, but my best idea was I’d have to hire a professional actress to fill the role of Everett’s fake girlfriend. But why hire someone from the outside when this could all be kept in-house?
Alisha looked away from me sharply, embarrassed that I’d caught her staring. I picked up the phone and dialed the intercom number that rang on her desk outside. She answered in a shaky voice, afraid of what I’d say.
“Could you please come in here? I have a proposition for you that’ll allow you to keep your job despite what you did today,” I said.
Fourteen
Everett
In the two days it took for Keira to come up with my first meet-date with the girl she’d selected for me, we’d exchanged a few emails back and forth.
They were mostly professional and polite from her end, while mine were more suggestive. I couldn’t get that damned kiss out of my mind. If we weren’t at her brother’s apartment, I was sure we would’ve ripped each other’s clothes off.
She could shout it from the top of a mountain and I still wouldn’t believe her if she told me there wasn’t anything interesting going on between us.
I wanted to see this woman again and she made it a point to avoid me.
I’m setting up your meeting tomorrow night at the Silk Lounge. Just a few cocktails, nothing crazy. She’s excited to meet you.
Are you going to be there? Because I’m excited to meet you.
Why would I be there? This is going to be the first meet and greet between you and your new girlfriend. I’m positive the two of you will get along like a house on fire.
Do you remember when you and I set your brother’s house on fire?
She didn’t reply to that one for several hours.
I’d turned away everyone who’d shown up at my house in the past two days. Keira had specified she wanted me to behave and I knew I’d have to make an effort. I needed her help. I needed to do this for the sake of my family, as stupid as it sounded to me. So there wasn’t any point jeopardizing the plan she’d worked on.
Besides, ever since I met Keira, she occupied all my thoughts.
I’d used alcohol and the parties to forget about all the other stuff I didn’t want to think about. But thinking about Keira had taken care of that.
So I sat drinking by myself in my living room in a house that was suddenly unusually quiet for a Saturday night. My phone pinged with an email from her and I experienced an adrenaline rush when her name popped up on my screen.
Just be there tomorrow at eight.
Your wish is my command. You’re the boss, remember?
Yes, I do remember. Then you’re going to take it as a command when I tell you to make this work. For your sake and mine.
I’ll do it for your sake.
She didn’t reply to that either.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d sent flirty texts to anyone. All of a sudden, it felt like I’d been transformed back into a teenager again.
I had a damned smile on my face when I fell asleep later.
Point to note—I’d actually fallen asleep. Instead of just passing out.
Clearly, I was making progress and I hoped Keira would be proud of me.
For a guy who lived in the kind of house I did and was heir to the kind of fortune I was, anyone would assume I wouldn’t encounter the problem I’d had now—I had nothing to wear on this date.
That was because I hadn’t been on many dates in my lifetime and I had no idea what I was supposed to wear.
The Silk Lounge was an upscale bar at the priciest hotel in the city, which meant I had to look the part to fit in.
The flannel shirt I usually wore every day wasn’t going to cut it.
I pulled out pants and slacks and suits and shirts and ties, and none of them seemed like anything I’d wear and be comfortable in. But Keira’s voice kept ringing in my ear. She wanted me to make an effort.
I assumed there’d be more cameras following me to the hotel, and some of them may even be getting shots of me and this mystery girl leaving the bar together. Keira would want me to look like a respectable man on a date with a girl who had swept him off his feet.
Even though it’d be a complete fabrication.
It was her fabrication. Something she’d put her energy and time into.
And why did I care?
Why did I care if she’d spent time on this project? She’d get paid by my family to do this. It was her job.
I needed to keep reminding myself that Keira wasn’t interested in me.
She intrigued me. She turned me on. I wanted to hear her voice again and taste her lips, but she didn’t want anything to do with me.
As far as she was concerned, that kiss had been a big fat mistake and she wanted to forget about it.