Up in his penthouse, Michael peeled all his wet clothes off inside the door and jumped into a hot shower. He didn’t know what had come over him lately. There he was proving to a fake fiancée how different he could be, and she wasn’t even talking to him. When had the lines blurred from casual dating to trying to change himself for a woman? A woman he’d been so sure was after his money. But now, after radio-silence for two weeks, he wasn’t so sure. She wasn’t lying about her grandmother’s medication. Fool as he often was, he recognized the grim determination in her face, the worry etched in her eyes and how she was barely able to straddle the edge of holding herself together and falling apart completely.
Truth was, he wasn't sure of anything anymore. Definitely not who he was. Michael knew he wanted Sophia. Something he never anticipated when he took her to the Valentine’s gala. He couldn’t imagine she cared about him now. But he couldn't help his desire for her. The few times he’d managed to get his hands on that sweet little body of hers, only teased him with wanting more. He ached to see the soft swell of her breasts, to see the pink tips and feel the weight of them in his hands when she had danced for him that night. He really did. He couldn’t though. He couldn’t bring himself to see her that way.
Inside those frosted walls of a strip joint.
When he was paying her.
He’d wait until she was ready and willing to show them to him. Be it by dancing for him or because he’d managed to get past first base, but there had to be legitimacy there like there’d been that night at his house. It was the first time in a long damn time that he could recall wanting a woman on her terms, for more than just the sex. He sensed she wasn’t as experienced in the sex department as he was, even though she danced naked for a living. He liked her. Found her intriguing and ambitious. A natural care-giver. His dick twitched at the thought of what it would be like to sink into her, to break his no-kissing rule for one night—if not for ever—just to feel those smooth, plump lips again on his.
Taking his dick in hand, he thought of Sophia, and he vowed that he would do whatever it took: move the Rocky Mountains, beg for forgiveness or whatever he needed, to get Sophia back into his arms again. Once depleted and semi-sated, he reveled in the heat of the shower as it sprayed his back and acknowledged that it was going to take a lot to win Sophia back.
Once he was out of the shower, he checked his phone and thoughts of Sophia quickly got derailed when he saw that Mindy had called. He almost ignored it, but then something in him decided to call her back.
“Michael. I’m so glad you called. I need you, Michael,” she pleaded.
Michael shook his head. “You don’t need me.” Nor do I want you.
“I do. I broke it off with Rex. I want you, Michael. It’s always been you.”
“What makes you think I could even believe you, Mindy? Or trust you?” he asked.
“You can trust me. I promise. I’ve kept everything personal about you from the press all these years—”
“You hacked into my Together account!” His voice rose.
“You told the media it was a fake!” She countered.
“It doesn’t give you the right to do it. When will you ever understand that you can’t go around doing things to me that only help yourself?”
Snotty sobs came through the phone line. Michael took a deep breath, not trusting himself to speak. She deserved the worst.
“I did it because I love you. I want to be with you. I thought if I could get you to forget about that woman, you would see me again. You would see how great we can be together. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. When we were together, we had such a great time, didn’t we?”
Michael’s heart ached for what they’d had. Of the love that was lost. How she’d effectively turned him away from listening to his feelings. How she had led him to close the door on relationships, dealing with all his fucked-up emotions and how after her, he’d become an impersonal human being who couldn’t even be bothered to help the inner-city kids at the Art Foundation - thinking money alone would be enough. How he’d turned into a man that was too impersonal to have a family photo in the living room or a toaster or coffee machine on his countertops.
She’d turned Michael into a man that no longer wanted to kiss a woman.
For fear of letting his messed-up emotions get in the way.
“Yeah, Mindy. We did have a great time together. But if I’m going to even think about another relationship with you, you’re going to have to be honest with me.”
“Of course. This is exactly what I—”
“I have to know something, how did you come to the conclusion—Sophia is her name by the way—was such a money-hungry stripper? How’d you know?” he asked.
“I didn’t. I don’t. Who cares about her anyway? I made it up.” She laughed and that pouty voice of hers that he’d been attracted to for so long finally grated on his nerves.
“So you’re saying she was never after my money?” Michael clarified.
“Hell, I don’t know, Michael. I never actually chatted her up and asked! I only went in there that one time to take pictures of her and her photo ID, so you would believe me that she worked at The Glass House. The rest of the stuff, well, I added it in to make my story sound better. Are we good now, Michael, baby? Can I come over?” she asked.
A weight lifted off his shoulders. “We’re good, Mindy. So good, that I’d say there really isn’t any hope for us after all.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve shown your true colors to me over and over, and I’ve been so wrapped up in not allowing myself to get hurt that I never actually allowed myself to get over you.” The fullness of what he’d been afraid to feel or afraid to show finally went off in his mind like a firecracker. He got it. He fully understood what the hell he’d been missing for allowing himself to hide from the heartache she’d caused him all this time.
“I don’t get it,” she said, dumbfounded.
Hell, he didn't either. He had no clue if he was even making sense. All he knew was that he was done with Mindy.
For good.
“I’m done with you, Mindy. It’s over. I’ve let you rule my emotions for so long that I’m tired of it. I’m sick of pretending there is only one side to me. I have to go. Let me go, Mindy. Let us go.”
“Michael—” Her voice was five octaves higher as he hung up on her.
That felt refreshing. He couldn't believe how blinded he’d been by her to not understand what she had been doing to him. The real him. Thinking back to before Mindy, when he’d first gotten the idea of creating Together.com, he was a guy full of emotions. He kissed, he begged, demanded, loved. Michael gave his all to relationships and everything else in his life. He volunteered places. He was happy. When was the last time he flew to Fiji on a whim? After her, he dwindled. He gave his all to the only things he knew wouldn’t be able to hurt him: his company and his money.
If he could donate money to the Art Foundation, he wouldn’t have to volunteer. He wouldn't be put into a situation where he would have to care about someone, get close to anyone. He wouldn’t have to feel what it was like when something happened, and those kids were no longer part of his life. He wouldn't have to be someone anyone depended on. Someone to look up to. Funny how all the shit he’d tried so hard to avoid fell directly into his lap with one fake profile on Together.com. Michael could think of only one thing to do, and at this hour, with no Aslan, it would require public transportation.
Fuck.
Chapter Sixteen
“What is he doing here?” Her voice shook with unwanted excitement.
“Guys don’t ask that kinda shit. He’s waiting for you in the Alabaster room.”
Jericho stalked off down the hallway, and Sophia resisted the urge to run after him and jump onto his back. What in the hell was Michael doing there? There was no way she could dance for him again. Not after the last time she saw him. Not after he made her realize how completely different they were. She'd just finished a s
tage dance, and there was no way she could go see Michael the way she was currently dressed, wearing black crocheted booty shorts and a see-thru matching top. She threw on a slinky summer dress over her get-up, thankful she wasn’t going to have to go outside in the snow, and doubly thankful that she could hide behind it when she dealt with him.
Trepidation stole through her veins as she made her way to Alabaster, thinking of her performance that night. Was he there for another dance? How irritating could one man be? She opened the door, and her breath caught in her throat. Michael sat exactly where he sat the last time they were in this room together. Instead of a suit, he wore faded denim jeans and a flannel shirt with rolled up sleeves. He was heartbreakingly beautiful. Would there ever be a woman good enough to tame him? His dark hair was tousled, and she imagined him sitting inside his office running his hands through it over and over.
Sophia made her way to stand in front of him. He grinned at her in a boyish way, and her tummy clenched because she didn't know this Michael. She wasn't sure what he wanted from her this time. A dance? To accuse her of being a gold-digger? To apologize?
“What are you doing here?” She bit her lip and looked away.
“I came to see you.” His confident voice sent shivers down her spine.
“Why?”
“To apologize,” he said.
“Oh yeah?” She met his gaze and waited for him to continue.
“Yes. I’m sorry I accused you of wanting me to better your financial interests.”
“Something you hadn’t really believed until Mindy told you. She has quite the hold over you.” Sophia pointed out.
“Look.” He blew out a breath, and it felt like Sophia's life was holding on to that air, that whatever he was going to say next was going to make all the difference. “You were right about her. I’ve allowed her to run my life for long enough. I’m done with her.”
“Were you going to get back with her?” Sophia asked, ignoring the fact that the potential answer would ruin her.
“Honestly, I thought about it. We were good together. She knows me. She knows what I like. But if I got back together with her, there would always be certain things missing from our relationship.”
“Like what?” she asked, even though she didn't want to know. She hated the emptiness that expanded inside her chest. Hated how he talked about his past relationship with Mindy. Hated how Mindy got to experience a Michael who had once been free of skepticism and full of youthful innocence.
“Like trust. Love. Real things, you know? I don’t love Mindy anymore. She ruined me when she left me at the altar.” His deep laugh echoed throughout the room. “You know how you were making fun of my empty counter space in my penthouse?”
“Yeah…”
“I became that empty counter space. Void of all things personal. Void of things that might be used against me to hurt me.”
Sophia wanted so badly to wrap her arms around him and promise him that she would never hurt him, that she would love him and be everything he needed. But she had to hold her ground. Michael and she still came from different worlds. Fighting insurance companies to pay for medication didn’t exist for him. Even if he recognized how toxic Mindy was to him, it didn’t change the fact that he was a self-made billionaire, and she was a topless dancer working her ass off to become a nurse.
Goals.
Sophia was insane to play in this fairy tale and to think he could, too.
“I’m happy you were able to figure out how screwed up she was. And that I’m not a gold-digger.”
“But?” he asked.
“But nothing, Michael. I meant what I said at your place that day. We’re so different. You ooze money, sex appeal, charm—you can have anyone and anything you want at the snap of your fingers. I don’t. I work my ass off and still come nowhere near you. I take public transportation. I deal—”
“I took the bus to get here tonight. It was horrible. I don’t know how you do it.” He shuddered, and Sophia couldn’t help but laugh.
“You took the bus here? For me?”
“Aslan still has time off, and when I walked out of my penthouse, it was pulling up, so I hopped on.”
“You actually had exact change?”
“No, I had to drop a twenty.”
Sophia laughed again. “I’m flattered. I really am. And you coming to apologize means more to me than you’ll ever know, but it doesn’t change anything for us. I’m still not giving up my dream of becoming a nurse, and to do that, I need this job. Something else you made clear would have to change if anything more were to happen between us.”
He sighed and stood. He moved toward her, and the spicy smell emanating from him warmed her, comforting her in a way that shouldn’t be possible considering there couldn’t be anything between them. He reached out slowly and ran his fingers along her cheek, brushing her lips with the pad of his rough thumb. She could feel the sexual magnetism that made him so self-confident.
“Contessa Sophia, there are so many glorious things I want to do to you. So many things I want to say to convince you you’re wrong about us, but I’ll wait. I have a feeling you will change your mind. And when you do, I will be back to hike your pretty little ass over my shoulder and carry you out of this place.”
He bent down and placed a feather-light kiss against her lips. So soft, so gentle, her mind flip-flopped as he changed from website mogul to lover in a matter of seconds. Her mouth parted on its own accord, and he took the opportunity to slide his tongue along the inside seam of her lower lip.
One of them groaned. Sophia couldn't be sure if it was her or him, but her body reacted, and she was all over him, happy he decided to break his no-kissing rule where she was concerned. She was lost, pressing into his hard body, meeting the demands of his tongue with her own, seeking a way to get his hands to touch the heavy weight of her breasts as her nipples hardened in response. The man was delicious. Sinful. She would give him anything he wanted from her.
She pulled away, knowing full well they needed to stop. If they were anywhere else but the Alabaster room, where she didn’t doubt for a second that there had been countless sexcapades in, she would let him take her. She would give him all of herself. She just didn’t want to lose her virginity in here.
“Come with me. Tonight, Sophia. Come home with me.”
“It’s not going to work, Michael. I can’t.”
He didn’t ask again. His eyes lost their gleam. A silent, defeated nod and he turned away.
Another small chunk of her heart broke off and followed him out as he left the club. If she was honest with herself, completely honest, she wanted Michael. But she couldn't give him that piece of her, knowing they would never make it. There was no way a lifetime could exist for her with him and because of that, she had to keep her body and her soul tucked safely away where she wouldn't be tempted to hand it over.
Sophia stopped in front of Gayle, her hands on her hips. “Who threw away my paint brushes?”
“I have no idea. It’s pretty clear they’re for the painting project,” Gayle said.
“You would think. The person didn’t even wash them off. Just threw them in the trash like they had no idea what to do with them,” Sophia said.
Sophia stalked back to the supply closet and retrieved new paint brushes. Charlet was surely going to have a fit about this. That woman gave zero wiggle room to anyone. Sophia almost felt sorry for the poor volunteer who threw the paint brushes away. They wouldn’t be hearing the end of that. Maybe that particular volunteer had never painted before and didn’t know paint brushes could be cleaned off.
Highly unlikely.
But it could happen.
It was clear the volunteer wasn’t comfortable in their surroundings with the paint. Some of the square boxes that were painted, Sophia had to go back and fix the spots where the person had painted outside of the lines. Basic cleaning up stuff. But she didn’t mind it. She was so happy to be volunteering and painting as a way to help the Art Foundation.
She’d long given up painting and the simple act of having a brush in her hand was good enough for her.
Sophia hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Michael all night and into the early morning hours since their kiss, and she’d been an unbelievably hot mess. Was she crazy to think things couldn’t work between them just because they were from different social classes? Was she being too stubborn to realize all that she was giving up? She laughed out loud, the sound bouncing around the empty room. She realized what she was giving up, who she was giving up. The man who made her laugh, made her smile. Who understood the importance of grandmothers. An amazing man who took her from basic to a hundred degrees’ heat between her legs in a matter of seconds.
He’d once fallen in love and gotten his heart broken. And closed himself off from the rest of the world. All because of Mindy. Now Michael was courageous enough to go to Sophia to ask for her forgiveness. He wanted her. All sexy and smart, almost nerdy, Michael Vilander wanted her. Not Mindy. But this topless dancer.
There was major thrill in that, she couldn't deny.
Hours later, as she dipped her paint brush into the blue paint, a light bulb went off in her head. She was being everything Michael had become after Mindy. She wasn't those empty counter spaces, but she had been acting like she couldn't be bothered with any emotions. She wasn’t letting herself love Michael because she was so sure there could be no future between the two of them. She hadn't even been willing to give it a try. Wasn’t that the same thing she’d been giving him crap about? Just rolled up in a different ball?
Sophia was scared.
That was the truth. She was afraid to admit how badly she’d fallen in love with Michael and how much it would hurt her if things didn’t work out between them. He’d offered Sophia a chance to start fresh and see where it would take them, and she’d denied him. She was so blind. How could she not have noticed how selfish she was being? She was acting like such a fraud. This had nothing to do with Michael, but herself. Something she would have noticed right away if she hadn’t been too busy trying to list all the reasons why they couldn’t work.
Nothing But Trouble Page 17
