Set In Stone
Page 9
He was going to eventually call, and I didn’t want to intentionally avoid him by putting on the away message again. After the time we’d spent together, he deserved better than that. Maybe I could go out. The press had left the front of the hotel, and I had a feeling I had Killian to thank for that. So I could go somewhere.
But where? Summer was on location with Ethan taking pictures of Kiki Anderson’s prize show dogs out in LA, so she wasn’t available. Prize show dogs. How ridiculous. But I had to give Ethan credit. For all the doubts I’d had about him, he was a natural businessman, after all. He’d turned something he cared about into a viable business.
That business, however, kept my best friend on the other coast at the moment. I couldn’t go see my parents, even if the drive out to the house might do me some good. One problem. They both knew about Killian, and I had no doubt that the entire conversation would be about him. That was the last thing I needed.
The idea of going to see Diana crept into my brain, and I instantly dismissed it. We hadn’t spent any time together in ages. What would I say to her?
I walked over to the window to look out over the city as guilt began to fill me. She was my only sister in the world, and I never saw her, even though we lived in the same hotel.
Turning away from the world outside, I glanced up at the TV. He’d be calling soon. I felt it, like the time we’d spent together had made us close enough for me to know how he’d react to my not calling to thank him for the flowers.
Without thinking about where I was going, I left the penthouse and a few minutes later found myself standing outside of my sister’s door. Not even a suite, it was just a regular hotel room. I’d never understood why she insisted on living there.
Don’t do that, Tressa. She’s been through enough. Don’t say the wrong thing and upset her. She wants to live here, so leave it alone.
I knocked on her door as doubt about what I was doing began to make me want to leave. I didn’t, though, and when the door slowly began to open, I made sure to put a smile on my face.
Her reaction to seeing me wasn’t what I hoped, though. Tears filled her blue eyes as she asked, “What happened? Is it Mommy or Daddy?”
Immediately, I put my hand up to stop her from jumping to the wrong conclusion. “No, nothing’s happened. Everyone’s okay.”
Diana’s fear and sadness that I’d bought bad news were replaced with a look of confusion. “Then why are you here? You never come to see me.”
Anyone who thought I was the only Stone who could be blunt was seriously mistaken, but I deserved that. Forcing myself to smile, I said, “I wanted to talk to someone. Any chance you have some time for your only sister?”
She returned my smile with one that lit up her entire face. “Of course, Tressa. I always have time for you. Come in.”
I walked into her room and a feeling of disgust washed over me. The Richmont had suites she could choose from. As the daughter of the owner and the sister of the COO of the Richmont hotel chain, she could have her pick. Yet still she insisted on living in this regular hotel room.
As I looked around at the light tan walls every basic room in the hotel had, Diana said, “Please, sit down.”
Turning around, I saw her already seated on the couch, so I sat down at the other end. All that space between us made me feel like we were strangers.
“What’s going on that you wanted to talk about?”
“Oh, nothing much. Just thought it would be nice to catch up.”
Diana smiled sweetly. “Even though Summer and Ethan have been taking me out a lot more lately, I don’t leave this hotel room much, Tressa, so this is going to be a short conversation on my part.”
I couldn’t help but look around the room and frown. “Why aren’t you in a bigger room? Didn’t Daddy tell you how much nicer you’d feel in a suite?”
“I know this hotel has suites. It has a penthouse you’ve been living in for the past few months too. I like this room. It’s cozy, and it’s mine.”
The defensiveness in her voice made me hang my head. As always, I’d said the wrong thing, even if I did have the best of intentions. “I didn’t mean anything bad. I just wondered if you’d like more room to move around in. That’s all.”
“It’s okay, Tressa. I’m happy here. Daddy told me about your big news. Congratulations!”
Oh, God! My father had told Diana about Killian. Had he been going around telling everyone? “It’s not that big a deal. Really. Whatever he said, take it with a grain of salt.”
“I think you’re downplaying it. Becoming COO of the Richmont hotel chain is a big deal.”
Relief washed over me, and I burst out laughing at my mistake. “Oh, that. Thanks. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished with Stone Worldwide.”
We sat silently for a few moments before Diana asked, “Then why were you minimizing it?”
“I wasn’t. I just got confused about what you were referring to.”
“What did you think I meant?” she asked, leaning forward, curious.
Figuring my sister wouldn’t tell anyone, I said, “I thought Daddy had told you about this guy I bid on at a charity auction the other night. We had our date last night.”
Diana’s mouth dropped open and she stared at me. “I’ve never seen you like this. What’s his name?”
“Killian and what do you mean like this? How am I acting?”
Diana smiled and shook her head. “Like you like him. Like you like him a lot, in fact.”
I waved my hand to dismiss that immediately. “No, I don’t. It’s nothing big at all, in fact.”
“Then why are you blushing?”
Touching my cheeks, I felt them heating up against my fingertips. “I am not. It’s just hot in here. Why is everyone in this family so convinced I’m always blushing?”
“Because you are. You like this Killian. Is that why you wanted to talk?”
I shrugged and shook my head. “There’s nothing to say, really. He’s nobody special. Just a guy I had to go out with. We went out and that’s that. We’ve got nothing in common, so it can’t go anywhere.”
“Oh, okay,” Diana said quietly like she was disappointed. “I was hoping you’d come to talk about a guy. You’ve never talked about any with me.”
“That’s not true. Remember Corey Adams? I talked about him day and night in eighth grade. I’m embarrassed to think how much I talked about him, in fact.”
“Eighth grade? That was over a decade ago. I meant since we became grown adults who didn’t spend our time talking about how gorgeous some boy looked in his corduroys.”
Her memory of Corey’s corduroys made me giggle. “I did have a thing for those corduroy pants he wore. What were they grey or brown? Either way, I doubt it was a good look for anyone, including poor Corey Adams.”
Diana didn’t answer, and the way she stared like she was studying me made me nervous. “Why are you looking at me in that funny way?”
“It’s so nice to hear you giggle like you used to. I’ve missed that.”
“I’ve never been much of a giggler, Diana. You were always the one who giggled.”
She nodded and gave me a tepid smile as I thought about the last time I giggled before now. Killian. He made me giggle. He said such silly things sometimes. How could I not giggle at him?
“I’ve missed you, Tressa. We used to be so close.”
My sister’s words hit me square in the chest, like someone pressing on my heart. We were close. Never as close as Ethan and she ever were, but I always knew I could tell her anything and she’d understand. I missed that.
“We still are,” I lied in a voice full of forced cheeriness. “Things just got busy. That’s how life is, but we’ll always be sisters, no matter what. Nothing changes that.”
“I guess.”
Diana’s expression morphed into the one she always made when she was upset. Ever since we were children, whenever she was sad, she pressed her lips tightly together and drew in her eyebrows toward her
nose. It never failed to make every one of us want to do whatever we could to make her happy again.
I always screwed up like this. This is why I rarely came to visit her because I ended up saying something stupid that hurt her feelings. I didn’t mean to. I never meant to hurt my sister. I just didn’t know how to behave around her.
Hoping to cheer her up, I blurted out, “Would you like to see what Killian looks like?”
It didn’t take even a nanosecond to regret saying that. I knew if she saw me staring at him up on her enormous TV screen that she’d know I liked him more than I wanted to admit to her or anyone else.
But Diana’s eyes lit up with excitement at my offer, and she jumped up off the couch to turn the screen on. “Yeah! Definitely. What’s he do for a living? Is he an executive like you?”
“No. He’s an athlete. A quarterback.”
My sister’s mouth dropped open in shock. She had every reason to be surprised. I’d never dated anyone other than businessmen and executives. Even in high school, I had no interest in the jocks everyone loved, including Diana. Killian definitely wasn’t my type.
“A quarterback? The new one for New York? I read about him. He’s supposedly just what the team needs.”
She sat down next to me as I stared at her, confused how she knew all this. Turning to face me, she said, “What? Don’t you remember Daddy taking Ethan and me to the games when we were kids? I don’t know everything about the sport, but I know New York needed a quarterback and Killian Brenton is supposed to be how the team plans to get back to top form.”
“Then you know what he looks like already, so we don’t have to find a picture,” I said, grabbing the remote from her hands.
She took it back from me and pointed it toward the screen hanging on the wall in front of us. “No way. I want to see this man you say you bid on. Like for a date? How much did you pay?”
“It was for a charity, so please remember that, okay? It’s not like I’m in the habit of paying men to date me or anything.”
Diana grinned at my pained explanation. “Got it. So how much was your winning bid?”
“Ten grand,” I admitted sheepishly.
Her smile disappeared as a look of shock registered on her face. “Ten thousand dollars! Even for charity that sounds like a lot for a date. Where did you two go?”
I felt my cheeks getting warm again and knew I was blushing. Looking away, I said, “The National Club. It was nothing big.”
As I attempted to hide my obvious interest in Killian, Diana said to the TV, “Pictures of Killian Brenton, quarterback.”
A second later, dozens of images of the man popped up on the screen. Some with women, some alone, some with him in a tux, some of him in his Miami uniform. He looked phenomenal in all of them.
“Tressa, he is gorgeous! Are his eyes green? Wow, those are beautiful eyes. Are they as nice in person?”
I lowered my head so I didn’t have to look at all the pictures of the man who had rocked my world multiple times last night and this morning. “They’re pretty nice. The green is very light, like a color I’ve never seen in anyone’s eyes before.”
“And his tanned skin makes them even more beautiful,” Diana said as she stood up to walk over to stand in front of the TV. Looking back at me, she smiled. “He really is a gorgeous man.”
“Yeah. He’s all right. I mean, he wears a tux pretty nicely. You know how most men looked awkward in a tux? He doesn’t,” I mumbled.
“I see. You look pretty incredible in this picture I found too.”
My stomach sank at her mention of how I looked. That meant she’d found one of the pictures of the two of us at that charity auction event. Dread filled me, and I covered my eyes with my hand. “God, that isn’t the one where I’m looking up at him like I want to devour him, is it?”
“No. Look. It’s a nice picture of the two of you. He’s looking down at you and you’re looking up at him but not like you want to devour him. It’s more like you want to know more about him. Tressa, I promise it’s not bad. Look.”
Lowering my hand, I focused on a picture in the upper left hand corner of the screen my sister pointed to and realized I’d never seen that shot before. Unlike all the others the press had circulated, this one focused on Killian’s point of view instead of mine. He looked stunning as always, but I saw in his eyes something that said maybe he hadn’t exaggerated when he told me that morning that from the moment he saw me he couldn’t stop thinking about me.
“Yeah, well that’s him,” I said in my best casual tone, hoping to hide how much I liked that picture and what it told me.
“When are you seeing him again?” Diana asked as my eyes scanned the rest of the pictures on the screen. Whether he was in his uniform or in a tux or anything in between, the man never took a bad picture.
And as that thought went through my head, another one did too. How many women had he been with? Had he been photographed with every single one? In front of me, I saw no fewer than ten of his ex-girlfriends, each one stunning as they hung off his arm.
“Tressa, did you hear me? When are you seeing him again?”
I moved my head so I didn’t focus on all those women and looked at my sister. “I don’t know. Probably never. It was just a charity thing, you know, so I did my part and went out to dinner with him.”
Diana returned to her seat next to me on the couch and tilted her head like she couldn’t believe what I’d said. “I don’t understand you. I’ve never even seen you two together, other than that one picture, and it’s obvious to even someone like me who is as socially backward as they get that you like this person. Why are you acting like you don’t care?”
“We’re just very different. What’s the point of trying to date? Look at the man. He’s an attention whore. I’m the exact opposite. I keep my private life private.”
My sister didn’t buy my excuses. Shaking her head, she said, “You’re not the exact opposite of him. I am. You are a normal woman who’s had incredible success in business. People know your name, Tressa. They may not want to take your picture every time you step outside this hotel, but you’re well-known in this city and around the world. So what’s the real reason you’re acting this way?”
There again was that bluntness we shared. Even Ethan didn’t get to me like Diana could with her candor. No one else had a way of cutting to the truth like she did.
Well, no one other than me.
“I haven’t been successful with men, Diana. At some point, I just figured out that I’d have people I slept with from time to time and that’s all I’d ever have when it came to relationships. I don’t think Killian Brenton is going to be any different.”
She took my hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Maybe he could be if you let it happen. You don’t have to push everyone away, Tressa. He could be the guy who has just what you want in a man, but you’ll never know if you don’t give him a chance.”
Everything she said made sense. I hated that, but it was the truth. Nothing I could say would change that.
Diana lowered her head and added, “I know you probably are thinking that I’m no one to give advice since I don’t have anyone in my life. That’s true, but so is the fact that you don’t have to push people away, Tressa.”
“You don’t either, Diana.”
She looked at me, her eyes full of tears, and smiled. “That’s nice of you to say, but I don’t have any of the things you have going for you. You’re beautiful, smart, successful, and confident. If you want Killian Brenton, you can have him. I know you can.”
I didn’t know what I wanted when it came to Killian. All I knew at that moment was my sister had no idea how great she was.
“Well, I better get going. I have a ton of work to do. You know how I am. Work, work, work,” I said awkwardly as I stood to leave.
She followed me to the door and touched me on the arm. “Come back again, okay? I like seeing you, Tressa. And don’t work so much that you don’t have fun.”
Diana smiled and nodded eagerly. “I’d like that.”
“Good. We can do whatever you want, okay?”
I turned to leave and heard her say, “Next time I’m going to ask for details on Killian, so you’ve been warned.”
In a flash, my face heated up from a blush, and I looked back to see her smiling. For all that had happened, Diana wasn’t as awkward and strange as she thought she was. She was just a normal person working through some things. I’d forgotten that for too long.
Chapter Eleven
Killian
Two days. It had been two days since I last saw Tressa. I’d kissed her long and deep before walking out the door of her penthouse and missed the feel of her next to me before I reached the elevator. Then I’d sent her two dozen red roses I knew she’d received since I already checked with the florist.
I’d never called fucking florists to check on flower deliveries. Then again, I’d never had to. No woman had ever gotten flowers from me and not called for two days. Hell, no one had ever gotten flowers and not called five minutes later to thank me, usually with an offer I couldn’t resist.
Not Tressa Stone. Nope. She received the flowers the day I ordered them at eleven-fifty-eight. I knew she’d worked all day, but even assuming she didn’t get back home until that night, she’d still had those fucking roses for over thirty-six hours by now and I hadn’t heard a damn peep out of her.
I’d called her no less than four times in that thirty-six hours too, each time getting her away message. That infuriating away message that made me want to throw my fucking phone off the edge of my balcony.
She couldn’t be avoiding me. No way. Not after the night and morning we had together. She had a good time. I knew it. A man knows when a woman is into him. There’d been no faking orgasms with Tressa. I’d made her come until her thighs shook. She had a good time.
We both did. Fuck, we both had an incredible time. I knew there was a soft side to her, and I got to see it in all its glory that night and in the shower that morning. She was open and sweet and downright submissive at times, while at other times she was practically ravenous in how much she wanted me.