by Shel Stone
He had her attention now; he could see the shine of her eyes in the darkness.
“There was potential with us,” he continued, knowing he was laying things on the line, admitting to things he normally kept pretty close to his chest. He just needed her to know that this had all meant more than some drunken grope. He really wanted her to say something at this point, to relieve the tension of an honest confession.
“There is no potential with us,” she said, getting up off the sand and wiping the stray sand off her backside. “There never will be.” There was no bitterness in her words, just a statement of fact. “Let’s not read any more into this than there ever was.”
She walked away, back towards the bar, leaving him with the acrid taste of rejection in his mouth. There had been no fire of indignity on her part, just an indication that he was reading all this into something that had never been there in the first place. It actually hurt more than if she’d riled at him, pounded on him with angry fists. This was just dismissal, as though he wasn’t worth garnering any anger over. Apparently, in her mind, he wasn’t.
A cab was pulling into the carpark and a couple got out. As he watched, Trish jumped up on the building’s open ledges and grabbed her purse off the table before running for the cab, getting in and closing the door behind her. He could see her speaking to the driver and he drove away. She never bothered to look back.
His lips drawn tightly, Cory turned his attention back to the dark sea, which gently washed up the shore. Any hoped he’d harboured had crashed and burned. Trish wanted nothing to do with him, and not in a fire and rage way; she just wasn’t interested.
Chapter 56
THE TAXI PULLED OUT onto the main road down the coast and Trish brought her knees up, feeling as if she was coming apart. She had just firmly closed the door on Cory, and it hurt like hell. Tears were crawling down her cheeks, and the reason for them was exactly why she had firmly enforced that they were not going to go there.
He kept on sniffing around, but then couldn’t entirely make up his mind. They would go through this whole palaver again, and probably again. Cory was just not boyfriend material; his eyes ran with every girl that walked past.
She couldn’t afford to consider what it was he wanted from her, but she knew it would be a disaster. Some other poor sucker would have to take on the taming of Cory. When it came down to it, he was a selfish prick and she deserved better. A deep well of sadness hit her, but she knew it would pass. Better a quick, sharp pain now, than months of dragged out heartache. This was for the best, and she was grown up enough to know she was avoiding a drama-filled mine field.
Still, there was a part of her that wanted to tell the taxi driver to turn around, run back to him. Things could so easily have gone another way. They’d be having sex a bit further down the beach right now if she had chosen differently. Her stomach clenched in fruitless expectation.
There was no denying that she still turned to putty with the thought of him touching her, but she needed to be strong. He was temptation even standing doing nothing. His thighs were just … Want stole through her, making her insides clench. It was just attraction; it meant nothing.
A shuddering sigh passed her lips. This had to be. She was being strong.
Chapter 57
HER APARTMENT WAS a mess. Clothes lay on the floor and a knocked over wine bottle sat in a puddle of white wine on the floor. At least it wasn’t red, she conceded as she walked past into the kitchen, where Cheyenne opened the freezer door and took out a frozen mini cheesecake, popping it in her mouth.
She couldn’t bother waiting until it was thawed. It lasted longer this way. Not that she should be starting the morning with cheesecake.
Turning to the window, she looked out. It might not actually have been morning. She’d fucked some guy last night, a waiter out the back of the restaurant while the baron was sitting patiently at their table—behaviour she couldn’t quite explain in herself, a strong urge had just overcome her and she needed a cock inside her, not particularly caring which.
It was just tension. All this uncertainty in her life was stressing her out. This is what Alexi had done to her. He should pay really, she thought, twisting the melting cheesecake in her mouth.
The phone rang, making her jump. She could hear it, but had no idea where it was. Until someone cleaned this mess up, she couldn’t bring the baron back here. Shouldn’t a cleaner come and sort this? Someone should be fired for this.
Shifting around, she tried to listen for the phone, but it went to voicemail before she could reach it. She searched where she’d last heard it and finally found it inside a pocket of a velvet jacket she had gotten from the Miu Miu show last year. She couldn’t even remember wearing it lately.
Ricky’s picture was on the screen, her handler at her agency. Maybe she had a job, she thought, her optimism soaring.
“Hey Ricky,” she said brightly as he answered.
“Hey, doll,” Ricky said in his effeminate voice. Ricky was lovely, but he could be hard to charm unless you were thick and muscly like a gorilla. Hence it was tricky to charm Ricky. “Now sweets,” he started. This couldn’t be good. This was the precursor to bad news, “we’ve been a little concerned about you.”
“Concerned? There is nothing to be concerned about.”
“That’s not what we hear, and you know we always want the best for you.”
She’d been around too long to believe that bullshit, but she nervously grasped the phone. This couldn’t be happening.
“You’re one of our strongest assets, but we feel like you’re losing it a tad.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“You had a call last week that you didn’t turn up for.”
“There was an accident on the way to the airport. I was stuck there for hours.” It was a complete lie. She had no memory of a call last week at all. Must have been a mix-up at the agency that they were now blaming her for. But it wasn’t worth setting them straight until she knew what this call was really about.
Silence filled her ear. “We’re concerned that’s all. We think you need to spend a month in rehab.”
“Ricky,” she went to argue, not believing her ears, but he cut her off.
“And then you can do the Givenchy show in Paris when you get out. They’re still really interested in you.” He stressed the still as if it was surprising.
She did not need to go to rehab; were they mad? But she wasn’t stupid enough to know that from the agency’s perspective, it was a lifeline. They would never call her again if she refused to go. Her shoulders slumped. Fuck. She was trapped, and she itched to tell Ricky he could fuck off. But she needed this. Modelling was all she had now, and she wasn’t ready to give up the kudos and creds it afforded her. She certainly wasn’t ready to be a has-been model.
“It’s completely unnecessary. I’m always clean; you know that. But I suppose the stress has been getting to me,” she said between gritted teeth. This was all bullshit and she was being forced into this.
“Just a month’s holiday and you’ll be back on the catwalk, sweets,” Ricky said.
Cheyenne wanted to scream and rant down the phone, her voice shook with her anger. “Of course. I’m so lucky to have you watching out for me,” she said sweetly, while she cursed his deviant personality. “Book me for Givenchy,” she said firmly.
“Booked in. I’ll have a car pick you up, take you to the airport. There’s this lovely little place in Switzerland. You’ll love it.”
Fuck you, she screamed inside her head and hung up before she actually did. How dare they threaten her like this? Rehab—what was she, some loser kid? She was fucking Cheyenne.
Her aggravation returned her to the freezer where she popped another mini cheesecake into her mouth. She never had more than one. Maybe her control was slipping a little. She did need to regroup, before she exploded like a fat balloon, and lost the baron. She couldn’t afford to lose the baron, her golden ticket.
The End
&n
bsp; New releases are coming, sign up to the Shel Stone readers’ group for dates and giveaways.
Other Books by Shel Stone
Marbella Cool – Marbella series book 2 - Bored and drunk is how Felix Dunbury spends his time. Although still young, there isn’t much he hasn’t already done and he knows exactly what motives people hide behind the glittering veneers of Marbella, including more than a few dirty little secrets.
Along with the rich and connected, Marbella attracts the ambitious and the devious, and Felix sees sexy little Shania Tyler for what she is, a grafter trying to get her greedy hands on anything she can. Somehow this girl has wheedled her way in with his little sister, Esme, and annoyingly, people refuse to acknowledge what she is.
A Thin Line –D’Arth series book 1– Bella Burrows knows that the corporate environment is difficult to navigate at the best of times. It is especially difficult when the important account lead hates the very sight of her. Damon D'Arth is a corporate warrior who knows his way around the politics in the world for major infrastructure. Jane needs to stand up for herself and her mentor's interests.
This job is the key to Bella's future and she's been given a great opportunity, but now she needs to prove that her promotion was justified. She just isn't sure she can survive in this high pressure environment with hidden dangers and equal exhilaration. Her mentor's support is the only thing that is keeping D'Arth from ripping her to pieces.
Coast – Getting a job at the local Coast Burger outlet wasn’t exactly the height of social success, but I, Pepper Minnow, was unfortunately not in the position to just hang out all summer waiting for college to start. The uniform looked like death, the customers were awful, and they even smelled worse than the burger grease at times. And then there were the co-workers, a complicated story. Riley, in particular, was just an asshole. He wasn’t ugly, but I could definitely talk myself into seeing him that way.
Shel Stone - Author
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