I could still taste her. Feel the satin of her skin.
“Prim. You met her at the—”
“No, I know who she is, Grayson. I mean who is she?”
“She’s my—” Well, who was she to me? She felt like… like… my girlfriend.
“Do you even know anything about her?”
A derisive chuckle broke from me. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.” It was his tone that caught me off guard. That had the short-lived chuckle die off. “Since you seem to only be thinking with your dick, I had my friend do some digging. She works at Virago. Did you know that?”
To say my stomach bottomed out was an understatement. Virago—our leading competitor. The blog that tried to discredit damn near every post written by Stud. Virago—The blog run by Quinn who openly disliked me.
Was that why Prim ran from me?
My shoulders offered a limp shrug as a hoard of boulders were dumped behind my ribcage. “So?” I busied myself with cleaning my desk. “Lots of women work there.”
“But did she tell you?”
I stilled.
“Damn it, Grayson. What if Quinn set her up to this? You and I both know that woman’s just about capable of anything. She could be using you. Trying to get an ear in on what we’re doing here.”
“Prim wouldn’t do that,” I said, a jolt of anger straightening my spine. “You don’t know the first thing about her. Prim is good, Harry. She’s never once asked about you or this blog. She’d never do that to me.”
His gaze softened in a way that burned a hole in my stomach. “Are you sure about that?”
He didn’t give me a chance to answer. The door shut behind him as I stood there staring into space. Why hadn’t she told me where she worked? What purpose was there to keeping it a secret?
The phone buzzed on my desk. Pressing the button, I said, “Yes?”
“There’s someone here to see you,” Gwen said.
“Who?”
“Primrose Amberly.”
My heart hammered off-kilter against my chest. Straightening my tie, I said, “Send her in.”
She wore a tentative smile, holding up a paper bag, when she came in. “I come bearing food.”
“I like food.” My smile was strained as I watched her hand tremble when she set the bag on my desk.
I moved around the wooden structure, then pulled her into my arms. Almost desperately.
“I missed you,” she said, her lips against my neck.
Though I was scared, my heart and body couldn’t help but react to her. “I missed you, too.” Letting her go, I pulled out one of the chairs in front of my desk. “So what brings you my way?” I rounded my desk to sit opposite of her.
She fiddled with her hands against her lap. When she wouldn’t meet my eyes, it rattled the words loose that Harry had left behind. I’d wait to speak them. No matter what, she deserved the benefit of the doubt. I knew what it felt like to be judged and left to the wind because someone had already made up their mind and wouldn’t stop to listen—really listen—to the facts.
“Grayson, I haven’t been entirely truthful with you.”
I swear my heart stopped beating. Harrison’s words hammered at my thoughts as I watched her squirm in her chair. “How so?”
“I… umm… well, I… There’s really no good way of saying this.” She let out a tight breath. “I work at Virago. Well, that’s not technically true, either. I’m on a probation period. If all goes well, by the end of the month, then I’ll work for Virago.”
The moment she said those words, I let out a huge sigh. “Would you believe Harrison told me this morning? Just before you got here.” A hitched exhale rolled past my lips as my shoulders relaxed a little. “You could have told me, you know.”
“But how could I? How would that have made me look when you found out? Knowing I worked for your biggest rival would have been reason enough to walk away without a backward glance.”
My expression softened. “Knowing me like you do now, do you really think I wouldn’t listen to what you had to say? That I wouldn’t have given you a chance to explain?”
Her eyebrows dipped. “You mean… you’re not mad?”
“Mad? No. Disappointed? A little… I just wish you would have trusted me with the truth.”
Her sigh was brittle. “I didn’t tell you because, well, as you know—”
“Our blogs, well, our bosses, don’t get along.”
“Exactly,” she continued. She nibbled her bottom lip, eyes glassy. “You don’t know how long I struggled with wanting to tell you. It just… it never felt like the right time.”
Seeing the worry in her eyes tore at me. “The truth is hard sometimes. I get that. But hey, if you want to look at the silver lining to this, it’s that it will make social events more bearable knowing we’ll see each other there.”
Her laughter flittered with mine as she fumbled with the paper bag she brought. “I-I brought you this. It’s my specialty.” She reached for the bag on my desk, then pulled out a small Tupperware container. Inside were tiny sausages rolled in biscuits. “Pigs in a blanket,” she said with a small smile. “I know it isn’t fancy. With four sisters, I didn’t get much time in the kitchen.”
“You know, my aunt used to make these for me as an after-school snack.” I popped the top off, picked one up, and then bit into it. “If nostalgia has a taste, this is it.”
Sunbeams shone through her eyes.
As I munched on what she brought, I noticed something off about her. She was quieter than normal. If I had to guess, I’d peg it to being unsure about what happened the night before. I’d been with enough women to know that look. Uncertainty. A need to know where she stood, but a will not to ask.
“About last night,” I said as I set the container on my desk and dusted my hands off.
“Grayson, you don’t have—”
I held my hand up. “Just hear me out. Last night, I did all that to prove something to you. To show you how I feel about you.” I took her hands between mine. “I’m not big on putting titles on things, but Prim, in this case, I’ll make an exception… I’d like you to be my girlfriend.”
When she jolted, I chuckled. I watched her posture melt. The smile I’d fallen for surface. “Me?” she asked, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
Even I was shocked by how easy I found the words. By how right it felt to call her my girlfriend. A term that had once been comparable to trap in my head. But as I sat across from her, from the woman who peeled away every one of my reservations, I knew I meant it to my soul.
“Yes, you.”
“Really?”
“Truly.”
She leapt into my arms, peppering my face with kisses. I couldn’t stop the laughter that seemed to pour from my soul. The happiness that wrapped around my heart.
“And I want to make it official,” I said, feeling on a high. “Can you be ready around eight tonight? I want to take you out. Show you off.”
“Eight is perfect.”
Only Then
“Prim, this is some really good stuff,” Poppy said as I stood in front of the mirror.
She paced behind me, reading the printout of the notes I wrote to appease Quinn. It was a lot of filler. Most of the stuff I knew Quinn really wanted, I couldn’t bring myself to write, so I kept them with my secret notes.
“I mean, shit. You actually make me question if I’ve been doing it wrong this entire time.”
“It’s nothing, Poppy. Just a bunch of words scrambled together.”
She caught my gaze in the mirror. “You’re wrong. It’s like you’re a guy whisperer or something. The tips you’ve listed… it’s like you can see into their soul. No wonder Grayson asked you to be his girlfriend.”
I swallowed, finding it harder and harder to look at myself in the mirror. Barely even able to enjoy the fresh label of girlfriend, one I’d never carried before. I’d told Grayson about Virago out of guilt. To lessen the burden. And although I knew it
was entirely selfish, I still did it.
I wasn’t expecting to find out Harrison had asked about me.
“What’s there to find?” Quinn had said when I brought it up to her. “A Kansas girl trying to make it in the Big Apple? You have nothing published, and the only people who know about your article have zipped lips. He’ll know after you’re published. But by then, Grayson will be an afterthought, right?”
It sickened me to nod. To pretend Grayson could be an afterthought, because there was no way I could ever let that article be published. I couldn’t hurt him like that. Not after all he’d been through. Not after falling for him.
I just… I had to find something else Quinn would want instead.
“Quinn is going to flip when she reads this.” Poppy plopped on to my bed, hands in the air. “Gah. I’m so jealous of how you write. You know… you’re going to be big.”
“You write beautifully as well. Don’t discredit yourself.”
She jolted upright. “Who said I was discrediting myself?”
My eyes flicked to the ceiling, though I was smiling.
“So.” She rolled to her stomach and propped up on her elbows. “Where is he taking you?”
“Momofuku.” Reaching for a pair of amethyst earrings, I caught the tail end of her sticking her tongue out in disgust. “What? You don’t like ramen?”
“Despise the stuff.”
“How did you survive college?”
A slow smile built on her face. “You’d be surprised what a little flirting with the janitor can get you.”
This time, I was the one screwing up my face.
“Don’t be gross.” She lodged a pillow at me. “Keys to the cafeteria after hours.”
Sighing at her absurdness, I picked up the pillow and tossed it onto the bed.
When my phone buzzed, she grabbed it before I could. “Lover boy?” she snorted. “You have him stored as Lover Boy?”
“Give me that.” I tried to take it from her, but her crazy kicked in. She leapt off the bed and ran toward the living room, a fit of giggles trailing behind her. “Poppy,” I called, feeling like I was dealing with my little sisters.
“He says, and I quote…” She cleared her throat, deepening her tone as she stood on the couch. “Hey, babe. Looking forward to tonight. Can’t wait to taste you again.” Her mouth dropped open, her eyes widening and filling with humor. “Taste? Raunchy. You’re holding out.”
I snatched the phone from her, then held it against my chest. “We made out.”
“And?”
“And…” A scorching blush rose up my neck. “And maybe a little more.”
I swear her jaw was going to disconnect from her head if she kept dropping it open like that. “Primrose Amberly. I’m offended.” She sat on her knees on the couch, a pout forming on her lips. “And here I thought we were best friends.”
“We are.” I sat across from her. Tucked my legs under myself. “It happened last night. Between the guilt of telling him where I worked, finding out Harrison was looking into me, and being asked to be his girlfriend, I guess I sort of just got lost in the mix. I’ve barely had time to sort it all out, let alone tell you.”
“Was he…?” She held her hands out, widening the length.
“Poppy!” I smacked her hands down.
“Come on. Tell me.” She snuggled closer. “Okay, look. I’ll give you info if you promise to give me some. Finley was…” Her hands widened, widened, and then widened some more, enough to make my eyes bulge.
“How did you… “
“Oh, it was definitely unique finding the right positions that worked to fit. Which was part of the fun. We bought a Karma Sutra book. Wrote out positions on slips of paper, then filled a jar with them. Every day, we’d choose one to try and kept track of what we liked.”
“Wait. Did you say every day?”
“Trust me.” Her hand covered my thigh. “When it’s good, you’re going to crave it every day.”
I’d only just felt a penis for the first time. I couldn’t fathom having sex every day.
“So…” she dragged out, pouty puppy-dog eyes on me.
I held my hands out, feeling like I was crossing some sort of boundary with Grayson. Though I knew my sisters talked about this kind of stuff as if they were merely talking about the shift in weather, it still felt weird. Personal.
“So he’s like a healthy zucchini?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t really focused on vegetable comparisons at that moment.” The humor twisting her features was the exact reason I didn’t want to talk about this with her.
Her smirk widened. “I got you, girl. Did he…?” She made the sound of an explosion.
Laughter ripped out of me so hard I doubled over. “Oh my God, there was so much of it.”
“He must have had clogged pipes.”
My laughter paused as I looked at her funny.
“It’s a good thing. Means he’s probably been inactive for a while.”
I hadn’t even thought about that. The thought of him with someone else made my stomach twist. Awoke a feral, possessive sort of feeling.
Her expression turned serious. “Are you… are you thinking about going farther?”
I met her eyes. Felt a shift of flurrying heat in my stomach. “I… I think so.” I paused a beat as the confession sank in. “I don’t know. I mean… this is all crazy.”
“Sex. It does a number on the brain.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Well,” she said, slapping my thigh. “I guess I should go if you’re going to make it to Lover Boy on time,” she said, drawling out the name.
“Go!” I said, laughing.
When she was gone, I wandered to the mirror, trying to look myself in the eyes.
I couldn’t.
Grayson picked me up in an old black Chevelle. He opened the passenger door, then pulled me against him, kissing me with enough passion to make my cheeks burn. “I’ve been wanting to do that all day, girlfriend.”
I giggled. “There’s plenty more where that came from, boyfriend.”
His grin reached higher than the buildings around us when we got inside the car.
“My father would kill for a ride in one of these,” I said as we wove through traffic.
“Yeah? Maybe he can take a ride in this one soon.”
I liked that he included a future with us. With mention of meeting my parents. I couldn’t even get past the moment, let alone think about what could be.
When he pulled up to the valet outside of an expansive shopping mall, he came around and opened the door for me, then handed his key over. With an arm hooked through his, we strode inside the building. I wasn’t prepared for the looks thrown our way. People stopped and pointed at him. Questions on their faces when they stared at me. Cameras pulled out and our pictures being snapped.
“Don’t worry. They won’t be able to follow us into the restaurant. Just pretend they aren’t there,” Grayson said, keeping his focus straight ahead.
I heeded his words, though it was hard to pretend when they called out his name time and time again. Some giggling followed after. He guided me toward the elevator.
Once the doors slid shut, canceling out the noise, I let out a thousand-pound sigh.
“Is it always like this for you?” My lungs finally expanded from the small break.
“No. Just when I’m uptown.” He spun, pulling me into his arms. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, Prim. I know it’s a lot. I just thought… “
“No. I can handle it.” I knew as long as I was by his side, I could handle anything.
When the doors slid open, there were even more people staring at us. As if word had spread like a virus around the building. I’d known Grayson was famous, I guess I’d just underestimated how famous he was. Tucking myself even closer against him, I hid my face as best I could. They were like parasites, appearing around every corner.
When we arrived, we were taken to a room near the ki
tchen. “Privacy. You don’t know how much you love it until you have none.”
I tried to smile. Really, I did. But my heart was still hammering, the hundreds of eyes swimming in circles around my head.
“Prim?” He reached for my hand, grabbed it, and squeezed.
“I’m okay,” I lied. “It’s just…” I placed my hand on my chest, trying to steady my breathing.
I heard him curse under his breath. “People. They give you anxiety. I shouldn’t… I shouldn’t have brought you here.” He paused. “Forgive me, Prim. I wasn’t thinking.”
Hearing the panic in his voice sort of brought some clarity to the madness in my head. “No. I need this, Grayson. I can’t live my life in a box. I don’t want my sisters to be right.”
“What do you mean?”
I stole a breath. “They didn’t think the city was right for me. You know… people and all.” I adjusted my glasses. “I can’t let them be right, and the only way to do that is to face what scares me most.”
He squeezed my hand again. “You amaze me.”
“And you make me feel alive.”
We talked about everything as samples were brought to our table. It was like a dam had been opened. He shared childhood memories with me. Let me see a little more of the dark from his past.
And when dinner was finished, we rode to his place with an unspoken anticipation swirling between us.
“I want to show you something,” he said as we entered his apartment. “I’ve been working on renovating it for a while.”
He took me to a set of stairs that led to the rooftop.
“It’s my favorite spot in my house.”
He pushed open the door that led to a terrace. The small space covered by a pergola with ivy laced around the beams of wood. In the middle was a small fountain. A few cushioned lounge chairs sat on either side, overlooking the city.
“It’s beautiful, Grayson,” I said, skimming my fingers through the water.
Distant summer thunder rumbled through the sky. I loved the sound of thunder. Like the sky was cracking its bones from a long slumber. Like the echoes of our mistakes, haunting, washing away in the rain. I could hide within a storm. Let the sleeves of rain pull me in and drown away my lies.
Virginal Headlines: Love Between The Headlines Page 17
