I stop walking and look down at her. “No. She’s not stalking me. Please don’t worry about her, Mal. She’s of no consequence to us. Don’t let her ruin our evening.”
Ana comes over, looking apologetic. “Oh, my God. I’m so sorry, Thad. I had no idea Jonah was going to bring her here. Do you want me to ask them to leave?”
“No,” Mallory says. “We don’t need to cause a scene. We’re all adults here.”
Hayden snorts, looking over at Heather. “Well, most of us are anyway.”
“Okay,” Ana says. “But if I see any drugs, she’s gone.” She turns to Mallory. “Find me later, I want to show you those samples from the new clothing line I told you about.”
I smile at their exchange. I’m happy to see Mallory getting along so well with my friends. And I love how they seem to be protective of her.
The rest of the night passes with only minor annoyances from Heather. She and Jonah end up leaving early. Probably because I failed to give her any attention. Why that girl keeps after me, I’ll never understand.
Mallory leans her head on my shoulder in the car on the way home. “Ana says she wants to meet Julian,” she tells me.
“Really?”
She nods sleepily into me. “Yeah. She said if he’s anything like us, he’s someone she wants to know.”
I shake my head at the notion. “Can you imagine Julian with Ana?”
“I can, actually,” she says, stifling a yawn. “I think it’s a great idea.”
“Well, she’ll be in New York with me in May for our Blind Shot junket. I guess they can meet then.”
“Ummhmm,” she mumbles.
I run my fingers through her hair, massaging her head as I think about the days to come. Mallory leaves on Sunday. In two short days. I want so badly to go back to New York with her, but I’ve got meetings all week. I’m sure as hell not waiting six weeks until the press junket in May to see her again.
I worry about what she might be walking back into now that her name went public. I’ve made some arrangements that will hopefully make things easier. Still, it kills me to know I won’t be there to help her handle it. Julian—he’ll be there. Shit. I realize getting Ana out there might not be such a bad idea after all.
I look down at Mallory, peaceful and sleeping on my shoulder. This week has been perfect—take away the Megan debacle. I think back to the day Mal arrived, when I thought she would break up with me. No way am I giving her time to think about doing that again.
I pull out my new phone and text my travel agent. I tell her to book two tickets to JFK on Friday. And then I text Ana and ask her to clear her schedule.
Chapter Twenty-two
Mallory
I got recognized in JFK. Me. Just walking from the gate to the luggage carousel. I’m glad Julian was there to meet me. He said Chad called him and asked him to come get me just in case anything happened. Nothing did, other than my being spotted by a girl as I walked through the terminal, and then some guy took a few pictures when Julian and I got into the cab.
Even though Chad’s people still claim we’re just friends, pictures of us kissing on the beach and holding hands in a restaurant went viral. One photo was a close-up and you could see the expression on Chad’s face as he looked at me. Anyone could see it wasn’t the way one friend looks at another. I took a picture of the photo and made it my phone background.
On the way home, I tell Julian all about Ana. “I’m happy to meet her, Mallory, but I’m not sure I want to date a celebrity.”
“She’s gorgeous,” I tell him. “And nice. Nothing like his other leading ladies.”
“I’m sure she is, I just don’t want to have to deal with everything,” he says.
We turn onto my street. “Deal with what?” I ask. As far as I know Ana doesn’t come with the baggage Chad does.
We approach my house only to see several strange cars parked out front. When the cab pulls into my driveway, he can’t even get close to the house because one of them is parked right in front of my garage. “Isn’t it illegal for them to park in the driveway?” I ask Julian.
Julian tells the cabbie to wait while he walks me to the door. I eye the sleek white Lexus SUV in the driveway. “Geez,” I say. “These guys must make a lot for their pictures.”
“Mallory! Are you Thad’s girlfriend?” a stout little man asks me from the other side of the white picket fence.
Another one asks, “Did you stay at his house in L.A.? Did you sleep in his bed?”
When we’re almost at the door, the first guy shouts, “What about Courtney Benson? How do you feel about being the other woman? Do you really expect him to leave her for you?”
I can’t help but turn around and spit fire at him with my eyes. Bad idea. I hear a hundred clicks of their cameras.
“Ignore them, Mal. You know they only say shit like that to get a good picture, right?”
I nod, putting my key in the front door. “I know. But he just said what everyone is thinking.”
“Since when does Mallory Schaffer give a flying fuck what people think of her?”
“Maybe since I have twenty-one nine-year-olds looking up to me,” I say, walking through the door. Julian puts my suitcase inside and gives me a hug as I thank him for bringing me home.
“You know I’m always here for you,” he says.
“It goes both ways, you know,” I tell him. “I’m here for you, too, Julian.”
“See you Wednesday,” he says. “Melissa is bringing Steve, so we need reservations for four.”
“Sounds good. See you then.” I close the door behind him and throw my purse on the coffee table, sinking into the couch where I can finally breathe. I can breathe again, but not easily. It’s hard when I left a big piece of me back in L.A. I haven’t seen him in seven hours and already it’s too long. I miss having him come home to me. I miss eating breakfast and dinner together every day. I miss waking up next to him. Nine days with him wasn’t nearly enough. How are we going to do this? I know I’ll see him again on Friday, but right now, Friday seems like an eternity away.
There’s a big box on the coffee table. I sit up and read the card on top.
Mallory,
I miss you already and I’m writing this before you’re even gone. Please use everything in this box to keep the woman I love safe until I can be by her side—a place I will strive to be forever.
All my love,
Chad
My eyes mist up as I open the box. I laugh as I pull out an assortment of hats, sunglasses and even wigs. There is a hoodie inside that mimics the thought I had a few minutes ago. It reads ‘I left my heart in L.A.’ I bring it up to my nose and smell it. God, it smells like him. Just like the pillow and blanket did for my movie night. I take off my coat and pull the hoodie over my head. There’s another small box at the bottom of the big one. When I open it, I almost pee my pants. It’s a key fob. And it reads: Lexus.
I run to the front window and peek out to admire it. He bought me a whole car? There is still a paparazzi outside, so I can’t go out to see it. My emotions are at war with each other. I can’t decide if I should feel like a giddy little girl on Christmas morning, or if I should feel like a kept woman.
I go back to the coffee table to find my phone when I see something else inside the key box. A sticker with numbers on it, but I don’t know what it is.
I tap Chad’s gorgeous face on my favorites screen. It doesn’t even ring before he answers. “Did you make it home?”
I laugh into the phone. “I did. And it appears Santa came very early this year. You know it’s too much, Chad.”
“It’s not too much, Mal. I need you safe. I didn’t want you driving around in that little box of yours.”
I contemplate arguing with him, but I know he’s right. My small car offers little protection from anyone who might want to see inside. “I know,” I say. “Thank you.”
“Do you like it?”
I get up and peek out the window again. The photographer is
still hanging around. “I’m sure it’s wonderful, but I haven’t had a chance to really see it yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because there is a photographer standing in the road in front of my house,” I tell him.
“Fuck,” he huffs into the phone. “Did he say anything to you?”
“When I came home, there were two of them and they both asked me personal questions. I didn’t talk to them, but they might have gotten a picture of me.” Or a hundred.
“Call the police when we hang up. Tell them you were harassed. They’ll make him leave.”
“He isn’t trespassing,” I say. “He’s on the other side of the front gate.”
“But he made you uncomfortable with his questions. That’s harassment, Mal.”
“I don’t want to get anyone in trouble, Chad. He’s just doing his job.”
He sighs into the phone. “My girlfriend. Always thinking of others,” he says. “Just please make sure to keep your doors locked. You still have an alarm system, right?”
“Of course.”
“Good. Use it. Have your dad move your old car out to the end of the driveway and put your new one in the garage so you don’t have to go outside.”
“My old car is still here? I thought you would’ve traded it in.” Then I think about what I said and feel stupid for saying it. I doubt he would have gotten more than a few thousand for it. Not even enough to cover the sales tax on the Lexus.
“It’s in your name, Mallory, I couldn’t have done that. You can sell it yourself. Or maybe donate it.”
His suggestion brings another smile to my face. “Oh, yes. I’ll donate it to Hope. What a great idea. Thank you.” I walk back over and eye the smaller box again. “What’s the sticker with the numbers on it?”
“I leased you a parking space in a Midtown garage. It’s only a few blocks from Melissa’s place since you seem to stay there a lot. And it’s close to many of the shops and clubs you like to go to. I don’t want you taking the train or subway anymore. It exposes you too much. Use the Lexus or take cabs from now on.”
I’m still stuck on I leased you a parking space. “What? You might as well have leased me a whole apartment for what that parking space must have cost.”
“I will if you want me to. Just say the word.”
“Lord, no. You’ve done quite enough already. I hate that you’re spending so much money on me.” I look around my familiar living room. “Plus, I’m not sure I could leave my dad.”
“Stop it, Mallory. The only reason I have to spend that kind of money is because of who I am. It goes with the territory.”
I sit on the sofa, getting a whiff of Chad’s cologne every time I move around. “I love the car, but I think my favorite thing in the box was the hoodie. I’m wearing it now.”
“You are?” I can hear the smile in his voice.
“Want me to send you a picture?”
“Hell, yes,” he says. “Wait, is your dad home?”
“No. I don’t know where he is actually, which is strange now that I think about it.”
“Take your phone into your bedroom and lock the door,” he says.
“What? Why?”
“Because I want to see you in the hoodie. And only the hoodie,” he says, with a low growl. “And then I want to make you come while you’re wearing it.”
“Chad!” I squeal in surprise. I think my insides just melted, spreading warmth between my legs. Could I do such a thing knowing he could see me?
“We’ll do it together,” he says, reading my mind. “I’ll be right there with you.”
A bothersome thought flashes through my head. “Have you ever—”
“Never, Mal. You’d be my first,” he says. “You’ll be my only. And I promise you, you’ll be my last.”
I think he just made my heart flip over in my chest. How can I say no to him? And I might as well get used to this now. We’ll be spending a lot more time apart in the future. I take the stairs two at a time. “I’m beginning to really like your promises,” I say, locking my door behind me.
And then with his words, he makes the most passionate love to me.
~ ~ ~
Chad and I have spent a lot of time on the phone in the six weeks since I left L.A. A lot. He came out to visit every other weekend and for Kyle’s med school graduation. Ana came with him on several of his weekend trips so she and Julian could get to know each other. They hit it off well, and now Julian is here with me at their press junket photo shoot. The four of us are going out to dinner after.
Julian and I are sitting in director’s chairs, tucked away in a corner of the studio as Chad and Ana get dolled up for some Blind Shot promo pics while they are here promoting the upcoming release. Julian is tinkering around on his phone. “I wonder what shit they’ll think up to print after they get pictures of the four of us tonight,” he says.
I laugh. “Maybe that we’re swingers?”
The press has been having a field day printing all kinds of rumors. First, I was stepping out on Thad with our longtime friend, Julian. They showed pictures of me hugging him at my door and pictures of our ‘double date’ with Mel and Steve. And when Julian escorted me to the Blind Shot premiere, we caused quite a stir. But Chad’s manager insisted Chad only show up with Ana on his arm, and since it wasn’t Courtney, I told Chad not to bother arguing the point. Then one night, when I crashed at Julian’s place, the pap even got pictures of me exiting his building early the next morning.
The second big story the press is salivating over is that Courtney Benson has been MIA for weeks. They say she’s in hiding because she was dumped by Thad for ‘the school teacher’ and she’s too heartbroken to make public appearances. We have no idea why she’s gone off the grid, and I could care less. Chad is worried she’s lying in a ditch somewhere after having OD’d on drugs. His only concern is that she be able to fulfill her obligations for the Defcon sequel.
I try not to think about the filming he’ll have to do with her this summer. Eight weeks of filming, four on location in Sedona. Day in and day out they’ll be together. They will have kissing scenes and sex scenes, and even though Chad has tried to tell me how it’s not as bad as I would think, she will still have her lips on his lips and her hands on his body. The thought of it makes me ill.
“Whoa!” Julian says, grabbing onto my arm.
I look up to see Ana coming out of her dressing room. She’s wearing a short red dress that barely covers her ass cheeks, and her legs look a mile long in the six-inch stilettos she’s wearing. Her platinum-blonde hair has been made to look windblown and her flawless makeup screams that her face should be on the cover of every fashion magazine. “You get to have dinner with that tonight, you lucky man,” I whisper to him.
“Holy shit, Mal. She’s gorgeous,” he says. “I mean, she’s always beautiful, but . . . damn, is it wrong of me to want to take off my shirt and cover her with it? She’s barely dressed and everyone will see her like this.”
I stare at him, watching him watch her. “You really like her, don’t you?”
They met the first time Chad brought Ana out last month. And she came out a second time with him a few weeks later. That was when they had their first official date. Julian can’t stop talking about her. Chad says Ana is the same way. Julian doesn’t even bother looking at me when he answers. “I do.”
I smile. Maybe this one will stick. I’ve never seen him so giddy over a woman before. Not even when we were dating. It makes my heart feel good knowing that he’s finally let his heart move on from me.
My own protective senses go into overdrive when I see Chad come out of his dressing room. My eyes bug out and I wipe the proverbial drool from my chin. “What was it you said about wanting to cover them up?” I ask Julian.
Julian laughs at me as my eyes are glued to my super-hot-and-sexy boyfriend. He’s in black jeans. Jeans that are slung so low, I can see the beginning of his happy trail. And he’s wearing a black leather jacket. With no shirt underneath
. His perfectly ripped abs are showing. Oh, God.
“And you get to go out with that,” Julian says. He elbows me. “Do you think they will let them keep the clothes?”
They pose Chad on a motorcycle and Ana next to him with her hand smack in the middle of his bare chest. She looks over and flashes an apology at both Julian and me. But somehow, neither of us seem to be bothered by it. This is Ana. You’d have to look far and wide to find anyone as sweet as her. She wouldn’t hurt a fly. And she says she thinks of Chad as a big brother. Of course, it helps that they never dated. I wish she were Chad’s Defcon co-star instead of Courtney. If I have to watch Chad stick his tongue down someone’s throat, I’d rather it be her.
For the next hour, Julian and I stare at our dates as they make fuck-me eyes at each other, laughing and joking between photos. I have to admit, they look stunning together. They could even pass for brother and sister, both having gorgeous blonde hair and blue eyes.
Just before they wrap it up, Chad calls Julian and me over, having the photographer snap pictures of the four of us and then each couple. For our photo, Chad stands behind me, wrapping me inside his jacket as I gaze up at him out of the corner of my eye. His expression is even hotter than when he posed with Ana. There’s so much emotion passing between us. Admiration, desire, love. I know these photos will become some of my most cherished possessions.
I walk Chad back to his dressing room, peering up at him in disbelief.
“What?” he asks.
I shake my head, smiling. “I just can’t believe you’re mine,” I say, raking my gaze over him.
He pulls me into his dressing room and shuts the door. “Believe it, Mallory Kate. It’s true. It’s true now and forever,” he says right before claiming my lips with his.
~ ~ ~
“That was the best meal ever,” Chad says, rubbing his stomach in appreciation. “Thanks, bro.”
I’m grateful Chad doesn’t let his superstar ego get in the way of Julian paying for dinner. It’s important for Julian to be able to do things like this. And although Julian’s paychecks are hardly in the seven figures like Chad’s, he does quite well and I’m proud of him. Plus, I think he wants Ana to know that he’s perfectly capable of providing for her.
Stone Promises (A Stone Brothers Novel) Page 22
