“Oh. Oh yes. Yes, I know who you’re referring to.” Seph fiddled with her glasses once again. “Um, you say you’re in love with him?”
“I am.” Keirah didn’t try to deny it, nor would she feel shame because of it. Just because certain people didn’t share her point of view didn’t mean she was wrong in thinking and feeling the way she did. She didn’t need to explain herself to anyone. “Is he here? Do you think I could see him? You have no idea how much I’ve missed him.”
“Um, well.” Seph looked away again, and this time it was obvious that she was trying to figure out the right words to say to Keirah without being rude about it.
“Please. I need to see him. You have no idea what I’ve been through to get here, to get him back.”
“Wait, you want to bring him back with you?” Seph asked, even more confused than before. “Why?”
“Because I love him.” Keirah took a step back, keeping a level fix on Seph. “I need to see him, Seph. I need to at least know that he’s here. That I’m in the right place and that I didn’t sacrifice–as you put it–everything for nothing. Please, Seph. Please.”
Seph adjusted her glasses and let a sigh slip out of her lips. “Fine,” she said. “Fine. Come with me.”
A huge smile broke out onto Keirah’s face. It was finally happening. In mere moments, she would be reunited with Noir.
19
“So tell me how this beach-pool party thing is going,” Andie said, glancing back over at Jack who was currently slipping off his business attire to change into pajamas. She paused for a moment, waiting to brush her hair as she watched him change. God, he had such a beautiful body. Her lips curled up as a bunch of naughty thoughts raced through her mind. This would ultimately be the death of her – having a sexy husband that she couldn’t seem to keep her hands off of.
Jack threw her a glance as he pulled on one of his many white wife beaters before running his fingers over his cropped hair. Andie frowned at the action, noticing the tiredness that touched his jade green eyes, and quickly finished her brushing so she could be closer to him.
“Well, after agreeing to do it at the University of Onyx, Vanessa changed her mind and reserved the Ritz hotel anyways,” Jack all but growled. Andie’s frowned deepened, realizing Jack still seemed upset by the fact, and her dislike of Vanessa increased even more substantially. “When I confronted her about it, she said that it wouldn’t be good PR to invite all those celebrities to a university. I don’t think they’ll actually care, but she was adamant about it. We finally came down to a compromise when she agreed to hire some kids from the university to help out as hosts, hostesses, waiters, waitresses, and the like.”
“Jack,” Andie said, taking a seat at the edge of the bed before furrowing her brow as she regarded him, “you shouldn’t have to compromise when it comes to your business. I know that she wants to invest in my shelter, and she’s trying to do this cutesy thing where our companies are working together without it being obvious that you’re investing in the shelter because you’re my boyfriend, but that doesn’t mean she’s the boss.”
“Yeah,” Jack murmured through a sigh. “I know.”
“I just don’t like to see you so…” Andie let her voice trail off, trying to think of the right word to say. Jack looked down at her, arching an inquiring brow and trying to keep the amused smirk from slipping onto his face. “…stressed.”
“I’m always stressed,” he told her before deciding to take a seat on the bed next to her.
“Yeah, but not always always,” Andie pointed out. “And there’s a good kind of stressed and a bad kind of stressed, and no offense, but it appears to me that what you’re experiencing is the bad kind.”
“Oh?” Jack asked, turning his head to read Andie’s profile. This time, the smile sprawled itself over Jack’s lips without any hesitancy. “And you know this how, Dr. Shepherd?”
“I’m a doctor,” Andie told him, returning the smile. “I know everything there is to know.” She paused, and then cocked her head to the side as she regarded him with a steady gaze. “But seriously. What should I expect at the party? When is it, anyways?”
“It’s a week from Saturday,” Jack informed her before rubbing his palms down his face. “And the dress code is bathing suit, with some sort of cover-up only. No business or birthday suits. There will be food and dancing and pictures being taken and press and-”
“Everything you pretty much hate,” Andie commented, giving Jack a doubtful look. Was he sure he wanted to spend time and money on something he wasn’t even excited about?
“Pretty much,” Jack agreed, nodding. “But…” His smile turned teasing as he slipped his arm around Andie’s waist and pulled her tightly against the side of his body. “I’ll have the hottest date there.
“I also managed to check out the whole secret admirer thing,” Jack continued. His tone became more serious as his eyes descended until they rested on the golden crown of her head. “Apparently, Bill had been released from jail a couple of months ago, but is under heavy parole. Currently, he’s residing with dear old Daddy, but is mandated to keep at least one hundred feet from you. I don’t know how, but he’s also managed to keep that job of his. Anyway, I followed him for the past couple of nights, and he didn’t seem to call you, send flowers, nothing. In fact, if you think about it, the person sending you the flowers has to have a lot of money. Trust me; those bouquets don’t come cheap. And I don’t think Bill has access to his father’s funds yet.” He paused, feeling his grip on her tightening. While it was good to know that it wasn’t Bill who was tormenting Andie, his conclusion also meant they had no idea who it was, exactly. “Have you received anything else, anymore flowers?”
“Hmm,” Andie murmured into his strong chest, admiring the natural warmth it gave off, “just a couple of phone calls, really. The ones where they don’t do anything except breathe a couple of times, and then hang up.”
“I checked Bill’s phone records,” Jack told her. “He hasn’t made any calls to you. What worries me is that whoever has been making these phone calls knows your personal cell phone number, our house number, and your work number.”
“The scary thing is,” Andie said, her voice a bit weaker than normal, “that the person calling always seems to know where I am. I mean, they don’t just call my cell phone, you know? When I’m at home, they call me here. When I’m at work, they call me there. And when I’m neither here nor there, they call my cell.” She paused, furrowing her brow as she tried to pull Jack closer to her. “It’s like Big Brother is watching, you know?”
“Trust me,” Jack said softly, using one hand to rub Andie’s back in a comforting manner, “there’s no way someone can come into the house and plant video cameras without somebody knowing. I would have to be incredibly distracted for such a thing to happen, and the only person even capable of such a distraction would be you.”
“So…” Andie began before biting her lip and pulling her head away from Jack’s body so she could look into his eyes. “What should I do?”
“Just…” Jack began, but faltered. What should she do? It would have been easier to give her advice if she was any other person living in Onyx. But she wasn’t. She was Andie – his Andie, and the fact that she was scared of some nobody who thought it was funny to play some stupid joke on her enraged him to no end. “Just be safe,” he mumbled, knowing that even that was crap advice. If anyone was safe it was Andie. Hell, whenever she watched America’s Most Wanted, she locked every door and every window in the entire manor, a task that could take up to a half an hour. The problem was, she already was safe. What more could she do?
Andie seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Jack due to the texture her eyes took on, and her furrowed brow. Instead of pressing him on the matter, she merely nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “Of course.”
“You know, Andie,” Jack said before gently cupping both of her cheeks with his hands in order for her to look him in the eyes. “You know I won’t let a
nything happen to you, right? You’ll always be safe with me.”
Andie curled her lips up into a knowing smile and nodded her head. “Of course I know that, Jack,” she told him, trying to ignore the goose bumps that had erupted on her skin due to the fact that his thumbs were currently caressing her cheekbones. “I’ve never felt safer than when I’m with you.” She paused, swallowing before she continued. “It’s just… when I’m without you, you know? You can’t protect me forever. Self-defense class will only teach me so much.”
“You actually signed up for self-defense class?” he asked, his jade green eyes sparkling in a teasing manner.
“Yes!” she exclaimed. “I already told you this, remember? After the whole Bill ordeal, I didn’t want anybody doing anything without me putting up some sort of fight. By the way, thank you for listening to me. You know, I should probably demonstrate what I’ve learned on you, and then maybe you’ll learn to listen when your girlfriend tells you things.”
“I listen to you,” Jack told her, tilting his head towards her so his lips were a few centimeters from her own. “I listen to you when you don’t even speak.”
“Oh yeah?” Andie asked, arching a brow.
“Yeah,” Jack said, smiling wolfishly as his eyes fixated on her lips. “Like right now… you’re just hoping I kiss you.” Before Andie could respond, he captured her lips with his, and for the moment, Andie couldn’t argue with his reasoning.
For whatever reason, though Jack refused to currently acknowledge it, this felt like the calm before an impending storm.
20
Reese had been staring at her closet for the past forty minutes, trying to figure out if there was an appropriate outfit to wear when one had to talk to her friend about partnering up with said friend’s boyfriend in order to fight crime at night in secret like a bunch of superheroes. The phone call with Andie had gone a lot better than she expected it to, and Andie didn’t push for any details over the phone. They were going to go out to dinner together so they could talk about everything, get it all out on the table. She was relieved. Really, she was. But was also nervous as fuck.
It took another ten minutes, but Reese finally decided on a pair of basic skinny jeans, a white t-shirt, and an over-sized forest green sweater that drowned her petite frame. She ran a brush through her hair a few times, deciding to leave the locks down, and applied only mascara and lip gloss. This wasn’t a fancy dinner; there was no need to get dressed to the nines. This was a serious dinner where a serious conversation would take place, and she wanted to seem approachable. Casual. Her normal self, minus the miniskirts and Mary Janes.
“You know, if you’re worried about everything, I could go with you,” Ollo said from behind Reese, who was still inspecting her outfit in the full-length mirror that acted as a sliding door to the closet. She rarely, if ever, wore jeans, especially in the spring and summer, and the feel of the denim against her legs–the look of the denim against her legs–felt weird. She almost didn’t feel like herself, and she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
“Do I look like I’m trying too hard?” she asked him, locking eyes with him through the mirror. “Do I look like myself?”
“Do you feel like yourself, darl?” Ollo asked, adding emphasis on the word feel. He perked his brow up, indicating that that was the question that was more important than her initial ones.
“I don’t know how I feel,” she replied honestly. “Nervous.” She fidgeted with the end of her shirt. “What if she doesn’t believe me? What if she thinks I’m doing this to get to Jack, or that I’m trying to steal her boyfriend away? I have never been and never will be a homewrecker, Ollo. If guys liked me, I always made them break up with their girlfriends before anything happened.”
“I really didn’t need to hear that,” he told her.
“I don’t want Andie to think of me that way,” she went on, completely ignoring his flat comment. She shook her head, placing her thumbnail between her teeth. “And what if it comes out crazy? What if she can’t look at me the same way because she thinks I’m spewing out nonsense? Even you have to admit, Ollo, it sounds crazy. You know that, right?”
“That’s why I suggest you let me come with you so I can help explain–”
Reese shook her head. “No,” she snapped, harsher than she originally intended to. She turned her head so she could look at Ollo directly, an apologetic look on her face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap.” She reached out to touch his arm, needing to feel connected to him on a physical level. “It’s already going to sound crazy explaining my role. I know I’ll have to explain you, but I don’t want to overwhelm her with both of us being there. I don’t want to feel like we’re ganging up on her because she might run away or get defensive.”
“I think you need to give Andie more credit,” Ollo pointed out. “Clearly, she knows a lot, considering she knows Jack is really Black Wing.”
“Yes, but I don’t think she truly understands the significance behind that. I mean, it’s easy to grasp that your boyfriend is some vigilante dressing up like some kind of angel in order to protect the city from the bad guys. I could wrap my head around that. But to drop the bomb that her boyfriend is actually an angel from Heaven here to protect the city as a punishment for his arrogance and to be the last line of defense from a war breaking out between angels and demons, that might be a harder concept to grasp.” She paused, taking a breath. “You know what I mean?”
Ollo smirked. “Darl, it sounds to me like you’re frustrated,” he said. “Very sexually frustrated. You know I can help you with that, right?”
She couldn’t stop a giggle from coming out of her mouth or a blush from littering her cheeks if she tried. Ollo’s grin only deepened, causing his dimple to pop, and he reached toward her, wrapping her waist in his arms.
“You smell good,” he murmured in her hair.
“I smell like you,” she replied. “I ran out of my body wash and had to use yours the past few days.”
“No wonder.”
Reese closed her eyes, enjoying the moment for just a little while more. She knew, eventually, she would have to leave. In fact, if she didn’t get going soon, she would certainly be late, and she didn’t want Andie waiting on her. If she wanted to get this over with, the best thing would be to leave now.
“All right, well,” Reese murmured, turning around in his arms. “Wish me luck.”
He smiled down at her before placing a soft kiss on her cheek. “There’s no such thing,” he replied.
They met at the diner–their diner–and though Reese was notorious for showing up late the majority of time, she managed to snag their usual booth in the back before Andie showed up. The diner itself was more high-end than not, but still offered customers affordable prices and a casual dress code. The food was greasy, which was what probably made it amazing, and Reese used the diner whenever she had a cheat day and felt she needed to stuff her face in order to forget about her problems, however temporary.
Andie looked quite pretty, as she usually did, and very put-together. Ever since she started dating Jack, she had this air of confidence that surrounded her, causing her to walk with a little more oomph than she had had before. Either that, or she had been enjoying sex between herself and Jack. Cosmo did say that you could tell which women experienced real orgasms on a frequent basis by the way they walked.
Reese felt a stab of jealousy prickle her skin before she pushed it away and mentally scolded herself for it. It was easy for Andie to enjoy sex–if that was the cause of her new-found confidence, after all–because she knew where she stood with Jack. They were together, they were exclusive, and they lived together. So what if Jack was in the tabloids every other day; Andie got a commitment from him. Andie knew exactly her position in Jack’s life.
Reese, on the other hand, wanted that same confidence. She wanted to know where she stood with Ollo, especially after they… well, after they consummated their feelings for each other. Except Ollo still had
yet to tell her just how he felt about her. They still had yet to talk about what their love-making meant for them. Ollo teased her about having sex again, but did he want it because he wanted to have sex with her or because he wanted to have sex? He was more affectionate with her, yes, but that didn’t technically mean they were together. Did he even want to be in a monogamous relationship right now-at all–or did he prefer the freedom singleness promised? She didn’t know, and it hurt her head trying to work it out.
No wonder her walk had gotten stale, even if she had enjoyed a real orgasm.
“Hey!” Andie greeted warmly as Reese stood up to give her friend a kiss on the cheek. “It’s so good to see you, especially since we don’t have classes together anymore.”
“Oh, I know,” Reese agreed as they sat down. “AP everything sucks without you.”
“I can only imagine. I’m glad I don’t have to go anymore,” Andie said, looking down at her menu. “I’ve been so busy with everything, I don’t feel like a regular seventeen year old. I feel as though I’m missing out on the experiences we should be having. Like, I highly doubt I’ll be able to go to prom this year.”
Prom. Reese had always dreamed of going to prom–and she had back in Beverly Hills, when she was both a freshman and a sophomore–but she hadn’t even thought of her junior prom this year. How could she, when she didn’t even know if she would survive to see it?
Was that a little morbid? Maybe she just shouldn’t think about it in the first place.
Both young women looked through the menu and placed their orders to one of the waitresses who knew them. Once she had walked away, Reese took a deep breath. She knew that now was the moment of truth.
“Listen, And,” Reese began, resting her elbow on the table between them, “I know I’ve been really cryptic with you the past week or so about… everything, but I wanted to go out with you tonight to talk to you about it. I’m not trying to scare you or confuse you or blackmail you or anything remotely crazy. I’m here to tell you everything so it’s out in the open now. As my friend, it’s important to me that you know, and it’s also important to Jack.”
The Dark Paradise Trilogy Box Set Page 75
