“Ouch.” He frowned. “Sounds like that wasn’t according to your plan.”
“Absolutely not. After tomorrow, I’ll be earning less than half of what I was and with bills that Mum and I could barely keep up with before. I’ll look for jobs, but I’ll be lucky to get one. I can’t afford to stop working for days let alone all that time.” I sighed. “Let’s change topic again. I literally just got laid off when I ran into you. I don’t have enough money to get drunk, can’t get drunk because I need to drive home, but want to get hammered, so for my sanity, let’s move riiight along.”
Rick laughed, and the tendons in his neck popped out as he tipped his head back. His jaw was sharp, highlighted by being held high. It was only his neck but seemed far more intimate angled the way it was.
My tongue moved back and forth behind my lips in want, and the centre of my chest fluttered to life harder when around Rick Delaney. That flutter became faster filling my chest to the degree breathing became secondary.
Some things could be severed by death, but not few infinites. Rick seemed to have felt that enormous, but invisible change, too. It was the only reasoning, I surmised as he closed the gap and wound his hand around my back, feathery and gentle. The underhand connection between us, brushed away by what was forbidden, solidified. In that moment, I felt something so physical the tips of my ears flamed and heat poured into my chest. Like he was pouring himself into me. When his fingers pressed into my skin, I obeyed and came to him, burying my face into his chest.
Being held by him was everything. It was the high when I smoked something I shouldn’t have, the come-down when the happiness wore away, and the dreams for more of it for every night as long as I could foresee. Rick was my personalised antidote, and I took from him the medicine every fibre of my being craved, hoping no one else had taken his heart from me yet.
“Vee,” he breathed into my hair, unfurling a blanket of hope down my neck.
I mumbled and rubbed my cheek further into him. I’d climb inside and never return if I could.
People passed and the bell chimed with their comings and goings. The scent of bourbons and sweet liquors hung nearby in the air around us, and I could hear his heart beating far clearer than I could my own voice. It didn’t matter a dime to me, but I had things to say to him even if being held by him was enough for now.
I leant up so my lips brushed his earlobe. “Want to get out of here?”
He pulled me away with his fingers wrapped almost all the way around my upper arms and stared hard, pulling his lips tightly together. “Come on.”
As I stepped outdoors, the wind bit at my exposed chest, arms, and legs. It wasn’t that cold when I checked the forecast before my shift. So much so, I thought I’d be safe without a cardigan. I rubbed my hands on either arm, regretting my decision. Either weather was cooler this year than it was the same time last year or I had withered away, in both mind and body.
Rick’s face seemed hardened as I looked at him now. He bit the inside of his lip and searched my face. “I’m actually off to work. Bodyguard,” he said, and then went on to explain some more. “I was going to use the bathroom, but I suddenly don’t need to go anymore.” A small smile. “I wish I could,” he added, softer, and it felt like it blew away with the wind into oblivion of the night.
Right then, my hope drained and fell into a puddle at my feet. I felt hollow inside. I misread him. It was the chilliest feeling I’d had since—I caught myself before I went there. “Oh. Okay, then.”
“I’d like your number,” Rick said, chin dropped meekly as if he felt awkward asking for it. As if he really did have to work.
I said ‘hi’ and texted it to the number he ran off. He texted me back, ‘Hi yourself,’ and then pocketed it in his coat.
“I’m parked down Little Lonsdale. Where about are you?”
I shivered and told him it seemed like I was parked in the same complex as he was, hoping I’d get to walk with him at least.
“Are you cold?” he said, and then pausing barely enough to take a breath before he answered his own question. “You are. Here.” He shrugged out of his coat and fanned it over my shoulders. My mouth wouldn’t quit beaming back at him, so I thanked him with a full row of teeth and lowered my nose to my shoulder to sniff it in the split second he had walked on. It smelt the same as he did in the laundry room from his party.
The parking lot was a block up, so we didn’t get to talk much in those couple of minutes. Plus, it was hard when we were both too focused on walking through the crowd while we actually had our minds on our hands—hands that found each other’s discreetly, as if we’d done it by accident.
At my car, he looked at our linked hands for the first time and acknowledged it with a smile that grew from a mere twitch to the brightest thing I’d seen all week. We parted, dodging left and right, and in the end, leaving without a kiss at all.
I had to remind myself I truly had Rick Delaney’s number as I unlocked my car, sitting in my seat as I turned the car on, and as I belted up. As I realised I didn’t need to turn the heater on because I had a warm coat.
But it was the crushing seatbelt buckle against my hip that made me stop dreaming of his number. I had his coat and his phone. I went to call him to tell him so, and then slapped my forehead with my hand at the very stupidity of my dazed thoughts.
I did a lap of the parking lot and found him exiting right at the other end of the exit strip. I gunned it down and followed him out, no idea where I was going except where he was. It was almost midnight now, and taxis and cars were everywhere at this hour. Truth be told, my heart wasn’t into clubbing solo anyway. Especially not now since I’d found him again.
I only lost him once, and then hurried to catch an amber light and found the glow of his taillights ahead. We drove for a couple of minutes through traffic, and I was almost going to turn around when he turned down a dark side street, one I’d never been down before.
Hope surged. I turned also.
He slowed, pulling into a driveway blocked by tall, black iron gates that led to a fat building with neon lights against the brick exterior, reading ‘The Rental.’
I didn’t know what company The Rental was or what type of bodyguard work he did, but assumed he could need his coat and mobile. I watched him swipe a card along the flashing black box. The gates opened and he rolled through to the secured parking lot out the back while I parked by the kerb and locked my car.
Rick stepped out of his car and looked around with curious eyes, patting down his body. He obviously realised he’d left his things with me. I smiled and called out, waving. There were lights in the parking lot. It was dark, but the sparse lighting lit me up enough that he’d clearly see me waving.
“Vee,” he choked on my name, and I could see his face pale under the sparse light like someone had drawn a curtain of fear.
“I’ve just got your coat and mobile,” I said. “Sorry if I scared you.”
He didn’t acknowledge any of what I said, so I approached the gates and held my arm out, the one with his mobile in the coat pocket and the garment draped over it. He came over and swiped me through, making the black gates groan open for my entrance.
I got a chance to take in the building as I approached him. It had three levels and ran wide. It would have taken up four or five times the space of the building next door, although I hadn’t taken notice of it on the main street, so I wasn’t sure. Inside, the rooms had soft yellow glows that escaped from the sides of the blinds, and as I reached Rick, I even heard a sensual, slow beat, unlike any music I’d heard in retail stores or clubs. It was something else entirely.
I’d just met Rick’s sharp gaze as I saw the text beneath the bright neon lights twisted to read the name of the company, The Rental. It said, ‘professional, polite, and passionate company’ and like the ferocity in Rick’s glare, a similar darkness cut right through my chest and sliced me down the middle. I was part confused and part terrified of what he’d say.
I was not
meant to follow him here.
I was not meant to know he worked here.
But I did, and even in that passing moment, I felt it deep in my gut like the hot sensation of alcohol sliding to the bottom of my belly.
Nothing would be the same now.
“Maybe you should come with me inside to hand those over.” He gritted his teeth and ran his hand down his messed brown hair. His glare deferred mine, but his one word response was clear. “Fuck.”
6
THE RENTAL SMELT of sin. I couldn’t describe the atmosphere any other way.
Rick took me down a long hallway filled with that same sensual, wordless music from small speakers high on the white walls. He kept a faster pace than I did no matter how swiftly I moved my legs, and when we reached a door, and he stopped, I nearly didn’t stop myself in time.
Inside, it was decked out with supplies to make even a model cry. There were freestanding racks of dresses—silky, sequined, gauze, knitted, slashed, strapless, mini, and more. On the other side were scarves, skirts, tops, and shoes. There were accessories and wigs in another section. Rick guided me to a sofa along the wall, bold white in colour and wide like those I’d only seen on TV ads.
“Thanks,” he said. He took the coat from me that I had forgotten about. His hands lingered on mine, and his fingers curved against the softest part, brushing comforting strokes.
I peered up to his eyes. He was already taking me in. My breathing hitched at the sight of his trembling lips—like he wanted forgiveness—and his eyes that told me he wanted me in his arms.
“Don’t ask the questions you don’t want the answers too, Genevieve,” he warned. Using my full name felt formal, exactly like Dad when he got impressively mad at me.
“You work here,” I said, but I said it flat so it came out as a statement. “It doesn’t bother me.”
He skipped a breath and rubbed my hand.
“I know how hard it can be with jobs and money,” I added.
“I don’t want you here,” he whispered. He took in a deep breath and met me with his stern brown eyes.
I didn’t have to ask why. You could see it in his eyes he wanted to shield me. “Prostitution.”
He shook his head. “Similar concept. Above board.”
“Rick. It’s not like I care. Friends, right?” I even held out my hand in the spur of the moment.
Rick looked at my hand briefly, and gritted his teeth, struggling to control himself. Then something snapped in him. I could see the moment he decided what he wanted.
Supporting his weight on the sofa cushion, he leant forward and caught his breath a moment from my lips. I sucked in the air of his proximity and closed my eyes, dropping my hand to the sofa, too.
I’d waited years for his kiss, and when it finally happened, fireworks exploded above us, marking our moment with the sweet taste of success. From the moment that he knelt on bended knee, washing mine, he’d wanted this.
At the back of my neck, his clenched hand kneaded his passion in an unmistakeable dominant gesture. He parted my lips with his tongue, and invited himself around my own, licking a map that seemed like he never wanted to forget what this felt like. I kissed him back and moaned when the softness of our tongues found each other’s.
If yin and yang could feel solid, it would feel like us. I swirled my tongue over and around his with force, and the change stilled his body for a split second. He came back harder with two tight fists in my hair, closer hips, and a long, satisfying moan. I moved my hands to his waist, reaching around his back fluidly. He trailed his fingertips down my neck, shoulders, and a fiery path along my ribs. I shivered as those hands circled my waist, fingers claiming me with the weight of his touch.
He parted with a thrust of his lips and whispered, “Not friends, Vee. I never want to be just your friend.”
I gulped and ran a shaky hand down his chest, over his shirt. “Still want me to leave?”
He didn’t move at first and then gulped as deeply as I had. He shifted his head up, down, up.
“What are you afraid of?”
It made no sense whatsoever. Every sense had told me yes, yet he was telling me to go.
“You finding out.”
“Finding out what?” I shook my head lightly, smiling. I wasn’t afraid of where he worked. I’d accept him, of all people, no matter what he did. Didn’t he feel he already had me? “What are you afraid of? I won’t judge you.”
He matched my stance, running soft fingers down the centre of my chest. He let them fall to my thighs. “It’s not me I’m worried for.”
“Then who?”
But I knew. I knew before he opened his mouth, and then licked his lips before he spoke.
“Us.”
Okay. Maybe I didn’t.
I had no idea what world I had just stepped in.
• • •
THE APPROACHING FOOTSTEPS were there one moment, and at the foot of the door to the room that we were in the next. I shot a warning glare to Rick, but he placed his hands on either side of him and pushed upright. Whoever it was didn’t seem to bother him although I felt heat flush down my body.
“Probably Amber or one of her minions,” he said just before the door opened.
In stepped a tall woman, although she was wearing thin heels, and probably was as average as I was without them. However, with her straight set of shoulders, bold magenta lip colour, and fitted silk top and skirt, I doubted anything about her was as average as I was.
“She has eyes not only at the back of her head,” Rick said, sitting on the arm of the sofa, arms crossed over his chest in a way that made me think of our kiss, “but in most corners of The Rental.”
“Rhett,” she acknowledged. She looked right into his eyes and he smiled back. “It must be Christmas in—well it’s not yet July, but we’ll be there soon enough. Who are you?” she asked, turning only to direct the last bit at me.
I stood and smoothed down my dress. I felt like she was interviewing me for a job, so I stopped fidgeting and held out my hand. I extended a sure, calm welcome, and she took it, shaking. “Genevieve Wyland, but people call me Vee.”
“Sorry, Amber, we were just—” Rick started.
I cut in, fearing he’d ruin whatever this was. I wanted to hear her out before he dismissed us, especially because she seemed to be someone superior and I’d intruded on her property. “Just saying a quick hello. Rhett here forgot his coat and mobile. I apologise if I’ve inconvenienced you, or if I shouldn’t have come.”
“That was kind. Are you here to sign up?”
Signing up sounded like work, and The Rental sounded nothing like my mind-numbing remaining position at the leisure centre where I froze under the air conditioner of the reception desk or sweated my ass around the pool on my feet for hours. The Rental seemed like it could bring me the flirtation I’d seen in those stripper’s eyes at Rick’s twenty-first, but it was all above board and legal, so it couldn’t be any more than they’d done. I’d watched that show with a quivering need to feel something as passionate. Getting high gave me that, but it cost me everything from a lonely gap between the already distant relationship with my remaining parent to silly decisions that made me say yes to Justin when nothing might have ever developed without the catalyst.
I smiled. “I am now, ma’am.”
Rick shot a warning look my way, but I raised my hand and waved him off. He had to give me a chance. I was eighteen, but I could be mature and work at the same place as he, even if this place sounded like it offered pleasurable services. I’d seen those women touch him in ways I had wanted to, but it turned me on, not fuelled jealousy. He had a lot to learn about me if he thought I couldn’t handle it. I wanted to show Rick I was stable enough for him, for us, and to handle anything.
“Why don’t you follow me to my office? I’d like to have a chat if you would?”
The three of us were standing in a triangular shape, Amber near the door, me a metre or so farther, and Rick to the side of the room
. It felt like a standoff with the tenseness rolling off Rick’s chest.
“Fantastic.” She widened the door and smirked. “I came in here to see who was snooping on my property and I find you. Follow me.”
She headed out, and Rick rushed to my side, hands on my forearms. “Vee, what on earth are you doing? You’ve got no idea what this is.”
Sure, I agreed with him there. However, I had nothing to lose and everything to possibly gain. That aside, it also meant a reason to learn more about him. I didn’t want another relationship where we hid things from each other. And he was pushing me away. I doubted I’d see him again if not for tonight’s accidental run-in. Even as he gave me his number, I felt something off.
“But I want to know. I have responsibilities, and I don’t see myself getting a well-paying job anywhere else in a hurry. I just want to learn more, okay? I don’t care what I hear. I won’t hate you for it,” I said, and then added, “I promise,” for extra reassuring.
He flicked his gaze outside where Amber had well retreated toward her office and then over my body. His hands were still clinging to my forearms, and when he returned to look at me, his eyes slightly rolled, and he tightened his grip, pulling me in. His pants brushed my stomach and from the contact, a slight hardness.
I pulled my arms back, and he released, letting me follow Amber.
I didn’t look back. If I had, I’d have stared long and hard at the want in his pants. The idea of where it had come from—what it meant for us—both scared and thrilled me.
And I had a job interview to attend.
I caught up to Amber and followed her around corners into a couple more hallways before the final one opened to a wide foyer area. Lavish, deep red carpet with a diamond pattern covered the floor. There were glass automatic doors at the front entrance, and on the opposite side of the room was a reception. She led us past and to the next-door down.
The Rental Page 5
