Cruel Desire

by K. A. Linde

  Gavin whistled as I stepped into the limousine. “Our angels are complete!”

  Katherine looked me over and then nodded. “Dark is fitting.”

  I grinned at her and then took a seat with Court next to me. Katherine along with Whitley and her date, Robert, sat along the back wall. Sam and Gavin were next, dressed in “costumes” that appeared to just be suits. Next to Gavin were more of Katherine and Lark’s crew—Lewis with his girlfriend, Addie, and then Rowe with his boyfriend, Nicholas. We had to have been the last stop because the limo was packed full.

  It seemed that the only people missing were Lark, who was busy on campaign, and Camden, Penn, and Natalie. And after the interaction between them all at Penn’s wedding reception… maybe this was better.

  The limo pulled up in front of Club Marquee, which had the full red-carpet treatment for the attendees. Katherine’s Halloween party was the biggest event of the season. She’d sold out the massive club months in advance and raised millions for an animal charity. I was surprised to find out that she had a particular charity that she always worked with, but also, it made sense, considering this was the Upper East Side.

  This felt so familiar to me though. Even if this was the Upper East Side and I was the outsider, I’d been to enough premieres and award ceremonies to know the drill. I’d been in this world for six months, and I still couldn’t get over the fact that I was part of this and not just on the sidelines.

  And this event felt even more unbelievable.

  It was my first event with Court.

  Not just as his publicist, but as… his. No hiding in the shadows tonight. This was our debut. And I had a feeling that he wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off me. Not when I was in this outfit.

  Katherine was herding everyone out in order, saving the three of us for last. We wanted to make an appearance, of course.

  Court firmly kissed me once on the mouth. “I’ll wait for you after Katherine steals your attention.”

  I laughed and kissed him again. “Can’t wait.”

  He disappeared, exiting behind Nicholas. I pulled my phone out, intent on sending him a sexy picture when I saw I had a text from Taylor.

  Anna, I need to talk to you. Call me right now.

  I huffed. I hadn’t heard from Taylor in weeks. She hadn’t called or texted or met up with me since she asked me for money. And tonight of all nights, she wanted to try to reach me. Not even a, Hi, how’s it going? Just a, Call me right now.

  I can’t talk right now. Busy. I’ll call you tomorrow.

  I snapped the shot for Court, sent it to his phone, and returned my phone to my clutch.

  “Ready?” Katherine asked us.

  I nodded.

  Whitley grinned like a fool. “Fuck yes, Katherine.”

  Then, Katherine stepped out of the limo. I could hear the intake of breath at her appearance. She was clad in red lingerie with red Louboutins and bright red angel wings. Her dark hair fanned all around her. Her muscles were toned to perfection, as if she had been killing it in the gym lately. She looked like a goddess. And tonight was her night.

  Whitley went next, ironically clad in virginal white. The light to Katherine’s devil red. The light to my darkness as I followed.

  Katherine stood with her hands on her hips before the photographers clicking away, flashes blazing. Whitley moved to one side, and I stepped up on the other. A mirrored set. Katherine red with her dark hair. Whitley white with her current red dye job. And me black with my platinum-blonde hair.

  Applause came from the awaiting crowd as they took us in. I picked out Court nearby. He looked hungry. And it made me giddy. This was real life. It was hard to believe that we’d made it to this moment. That we were here.

  We followed Katherine around for a few minutes as she answered questions about the charity and posed for pictures. Then, she waved her hand at the photographers and bustled toward the entrance.

  Court snatched me up before I made it inside. “You’re a natural.”

  I swatted at him as he dived in to claim my lips. “I just followed Katherine’s lead.”

  “Psh,” he said, disbelieving.

  My gaze swept behind him to the cameras flashing at us. “Well, I guess we’re out now, aren’t we?”

  “That was kind of the plan, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes. I’m glad we’re not hiding anymore.”

  “Me too. Because if I’d had to watch one guy hit on you tonight in that outfit, my fist would have found his jaw.”

  I rolled my eyes and pulled him inside after our friends. “You’re outrageous.”

  “On occasion.”

  Club Marquee was an enormous multi-floored club with balconies and all sorts of private booths. Katherine already stood in her place of honor in a booth next to the DJ. I didn’t know how she’d gotten there so quickly when the dance floor was packed with women in lingerie dancing suggestively against men in suits.

  Court took my hand in his and veered us through the maze of people until we reached the booth. We stepped past the bouncer and found it full of all of our friends. Penn and Natalie had apparently decided to make an appearance. Seemed ballsy, considering how precarious their relationship with Katherine was. Even Camden stood off to the side, surveying the room like it was his job.

  “I’m shocked they’re all here,” I told Court.

  He shrugged. “Welcome to the Upper East Side. Once you’re in, there’s no escape.”

  “Sounds ominous.”

  “Can be.”

  Court grabbed us both drinks, and I sipped on my gin and tonic. Whitley appeared a minute later.

  “Going to need her, Court,” she said with a wink. “She needs to lose her halo.”

  Court gestured before him. “By all means.”

  I laughed as Whitley dragged me away, and we started grinding to the music. Katherine eventually agreed to join us. I was just missing Lark. I could not wait for that damn campaign to be over. Not just for me, but also for her sanity.

  “So, how are things with you and Robert?” I asked Whitley.

  She grinned. “I mean, I think I’m generally a bad girlfriend, but he likes it. It’s so strange.”

  “He likes that you’re a bad girlfriend?”

  “Yeah… like all the things that normally happen to me that drives other guys away, he’s kind of into.”

  “Like what?” Katherine asked.

  “Well, like getting calls and texts from my exes. I’m not into them anymore, but I still keep up with some of them.”

  “You also ruin some of their lives,” I pointed out.

  “They had it coming!” she said, gesturing wildly. “But anyway, he doesn’t seem to care that I like my space. That I don’t want to come home to some clingy person after working all day in surgery. He doesn’t seem to care that I’m bisexual. I mean, I like women, but that doesn’t mean I want to hook up with one with him.”

  “That seems reasonable,” I said.

  “You’d think!” Whitley said. “I don’t know. He’s very accommodating. It’s weird and strangely nice.”

  “Sounds like a keeper,” Katherine said softly.

  “We’ll see. If we make it past three months, it might be something.”

  “You’ve never dated anyone longer than three months?” Katherine asked.

  “Oh, I have,” Whitley said. “But… the three-month mark is how I know whether I can handle their bullshit.”

  “And whether they can handle yours?” I finished for her.

  She snorted. “Something like that.”

  For some reason, my gaze dragged over to Gavin, who hadn’t brought a date. When we’d asked him about it in the limo, he’d said he planned to pick someone out at the party. All bravado. But just as I’d suspected, he was watching Whitley. I wondered why he didn’t make a move. It seemed very un-Gavin-like.

  But as soon as he caught me watching, he returned his attention to whatever Robert had been saying and ignored Whitley entirely. Bizarre.

>   “No,” Katherine whispered under her breath. She had stopped dancing.

  “What?” Whitley and I asked at the same time.

  I followed her gaze and found Fiona had just entered the booth. She was dressed like a Playboy bunny, complete with ears and a tail, just like the invitation had requested. And I knew she was also the last person that Katherine had wanted to see at her event.

  Fiona had been Camden’s side piece before Katherine and Camden entered their arranged marriage. As far as I knew, he’d cut off ties with her after the wedding, but he’d stumbled upon Katherine and Penn alone together, and that had all changed. He started showing up to events with her again.

  Then, the night of the raid at the gambling ring that had started this entire thing with me and Court, Camden had apparently abandoned Fiona to help get Katherine to safety. Their relationship hadn’t been… perfect since then, but I hadn’t seen Fiona around either. She was a menace.

  “Tell her to leave,” I said.

  Katherine shook her head just once. “I can’t.”

  “I didn’t know that was still happening,” Whitley said gently.

  “It’s whatever,” Katherine said dismissively. But she hadn’t taken her eyes off of the woman.

  “Why is that okay?” I asked her.

  Katherine lifted one shoulder. “Because she’s nothing. And if I send her home, then she wins.”

  “No, she doesn’t. She wins if you let her stay,” Whitley said. “I’ll send her home if you don’t.”

  “No,” Katherine said harshly. “Trust me. It’s not worth it.”

  And my heart broke for Katherine in that moment. I didn’t think that I’d have it in me. Having Natalie and Fiona in the same place, in her space. Sometimes, I didn’t understand the Upper East Side at all.

  31

  Court

  “What the fuck is Fiona doing here?” I asked Camden.

  He looked at me. “Why do you think she’s here?”

  “I thought you’d moved on from her. Why do you even like her?”

  “What makes you think that I like her?”

  And he was serious. This woman he’d been sleeping with on and off for years, and supposedly, he had no real feelings for her.

  Camden was my best friend. I didn’t judge him. He didn’t judge me. But that didn’t mean that I always understood him.

  “Don’t go to see her, man,” I said instead.

  He smirked. “Why ever not?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Your wife maybe?”

  “Katherine doesn’t care.”

  I snorted. “Like hell.”

  Camden’s eyes darkened, but he remained silent. Just staring at his little Playboy bunny standing on the edge of the booth.

  “Why don’t you just tell Katherine how you feel?”

  “And how do I feel?” Camden asked.

  “You love her.”

  Camden didn’t even meet my gaze. “Is that what you think?”

  “I can’t think of another reason why you’d marry her.”

  “It’s an arranged marriage,” he said flatly, finally looking at me. “A contract. A business transaction. That’s it, Court. Feel free to delude yourself with romantic platitudes in your own life, but don’t attribute them to mine.”

  “Fine,” I bit back.

  “And anyway, if Katherine cared one way or another, then she’d send Fiona away. Let’s wait and see if she does.”

  His eyes shifted to his wife where she stood with Whitley and English. She watched Fiona like a hawk. There was nothing in her expression. She was carefully blank. Then, after a minute, she turned her back on Fiona and the whole situation.

  “See?” Camden said as if that proved his point.

  But I didn’t think that it did.

  Not that he seemed to care as he patted my shoulder and then strode away from me, straight to Fiona.

  “Idiot,” I muttered under my breath.

  Sam raised his eyebrows. He must have caught the tail end of that conversation. “Well, the Upper East Side is sure showing its true colors tonight, huh?”

  I laughed. Leave it to Sam to cut straight to the point. “You have no idea.”

  “Am I supposed to understand what’s happening between Katherine and Camden?”

  “Not the slightest. I still don’t get it.”

  “Good. But I’m happy for you at least,” he said with a smile. “You and English actually work together. It’s a miracle.”

  “A bit. Though I guess I should thank you, too. You were the one who made me stop fighting her on everything back in the Hamptons.”

  Sam shrugged. “Hey, I just told you to stop acting like a dipshit.”

  “Worked out.”

  “It did. I’m going to grab another drink,” Sam said. “Want anything?”

  “Nah, I’m good.” I held up my still-half-full dirty martini.

  Sam nodded and then headed to the bar.

  I was just about to go steal English away from the girls when my brother appeared in front of me.

  I arched an eyebrow. “Penn.”

  To my surprise, he stuck his hand out. We shook, and it was amicable. No posturing of any kind. This wasn’t the same person who had ditched me when I first started back at the company. There might even be repentance in the blue eyes that matched mine.

  “So, you’re still with the company, and you’re dating English,” Penn said. “That’s all new.”

  “Yeah. That’s right.”

  “She seems to be good for you.”

  “We work,” I told him. “Mother even offered her a job with the company, and she turned it down. She wasn’t even mad that we were together.”

  Penn’s eyes darkened. They shifted back to Natalie. “Guess she only made that mistake once.”

  “Thanks for taking the brunt of it.”

  Penn just shook his head. “I don’t know how to say it,” he said with a sigh. “But I acted like a dick the last time we were together. I thought you were just fucking around, but you’ve really done a one-eighty.”

  I mockingly put my hand to my chest. “Is that almost an apology?”

  He snorted. “Yes. And don’t make me regret it.”

  I laughed and held my drink up to his. He clinked his against mine, and we both took a swallow.

  “How did it even happen?” Penn asked. “I thought everything you were doing was all bullshit.”

  “It was,” I told him honestly. “But for one, English believed in me. And two, somehow, I just stopped pretending. And I realized this was just me.”

  “Huh. I didn’t think that you had it in you.”

  “Me either,” I admitted.

  Penn looked around with a worried expression on his face. As if he were just seeing the room for what was going on.

  “Is Camden going home with Fiona?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “Uncertain.”

  “Jesus, Katherine must be sick.”

  He was staring over at her as if he was going to march over there. But I just shook my head. Not a good idea.

  “She looks fine to me.”

  “Maybe I should go talk to her,” Penn said.

  I put my hand out to stop him. “Uh, no. You do realize that even though Katherine is your oldest friend, you also fucked her for, like, a decade, right?”

  “I…”

  “It’s better for everyone if you don’t. You’ll make it worse.”

  His face hardened. “Yeah. You’re probably right. I should just go find Natalie and not get involved.”

  “See, you can learn, too,” I said with a laugh.

  “Plus, it looks like you have incoming anyway,” Penn said, nodding his head.

  I turned and saw English storming across the booth toward me, like an avenging angel. Sam was close on her heels, speaking hastily as if to calm her down. What the hell?

  But at the same time, I could see it in her face. I could see that she knew. That it had all come out somehow. Even though I’d been so careful.


  A cool feeling of dread settled in my stomach.

  “What the fuck did you do?” English spat at me.

  I swallowed. “I, uh… what do you mean?”

  “You went to see Jane!” she accused me. “You saw Jane, and you were photographed with her!”

  Fuck.

  32

  English

  How could he?

  My blood boiled. My hands were clenched into fists. I thought about throwing one into his perfect face. This was the most idiotic thing that I could think of him doing. It was so fucking stupid that I hadn’t even considered it. Hadn’t thought for a second that he would do something to put everything in jeopardy.

  The minute Sam had come over to me to say that Lark had been trying to call me, I had known something was wrong. He’d handed me the phone, and she’d relayed that images had been leaked, that it was being reported already, viral. Words that made me want to vomit.

  And the next: betrayal.

  He’d gone, and he hadn’t told me. On purpose.

  Why? Why the lies? How could he claim he hated lying and then go see his ex-girlfriend in prison without telling me?

  I stood before him, shaking with barely suppressed rage. And he just looked like a child who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

  “Say something,” I demanded.

  He sighed. “What do you want me to say?”

  “Anything, Court. Is it true?”

  “Yes,” he said finally.

  Penn sighed next to him, nodded his head at me once, and then ducked out of our conversation. I didn’t blame him.

  “There are pictures. Lark has seen them. She was trying to get ahold of me, but I haven’t checked my phone all night. She finally went to Sam, who found me. And now, it’s everywhere.” My voice broke. “Everywhere.”

  “I didn’t know.”

  “You didn’t care!” I barked back at him.

  “I thought I was careful.”

  I laughed at him. “How exactly could you be careful in this instance?”

  “I just didn’t think that I was followed or that anyone saw me.”