by Ashlee Price
When he lets me go, I fall back on my knees and swallow as much of that puddle as I can, finding the taste neither good nor bad. A few drops trickle out of my mouth and down my chin. I wipe them away with the back of my hand and then wipe my tears.
I hear a zipper closing. I look up and see Hector standing above me, his pants back on. His hand falls on the top of my head again, but this time his fingers stroke my hair instead of pulling.
“Did you enjoy that?” he asks.
I nod. “Yes, sir.”
It’s not a lie. To my surprise, I did enjoy it. Well, not the almost choking part, but I did enjoy the rest, maybe a bit more than I should have.
“Good girl.” He pats my head, then takes off my collar. “That’s all for now. You can put your clothes back on and go downstairs.”
He hands me back my ring.
“The same car that brought you here will bring you home, unless you’d rather stay.”
I shake my head as I take the ring and slip it back on my finger. I’m tired, but I don’t want to stay.
Not tonight.
Hector leaves the room. I stay still for a while as I wait for my breathing and my heartbeat to slow down. When they have, I put my clothes back on. I grab my heels and go out of the room and the other room. I grab my purse and walk out the hall and down the stairs, more quickly than when I climbed them. In my haste, I almost stumble, in fact, but I recover and go on.
I go straight to the front door and past it. Outside, the chauffeur is waiting by the black BMW. When he sees me, he holds the door open.
I run inside and take a deep breath as soon as I hit the seat. I’m completely exhausted now, first from the classy party and now, from this… experience.
I glance at the mansion out the window.
What a night.
~
“Rough night?” Scott asks as he puts my mug of coffee in front of me.
I look up at him through my sunglasses and exhale. “You have no idea.”
“Wow.” He glances at my hand. “That ring is huge. No wonder you need sunglasses. That stone can probably blind you if you’re looking at it all day.”
I hide my hands under the table. “Thank goodness I have better stuff to do.”
He grins. “I guess I should say ‘Congratulations’?”
Should. Something tells me he doesn’t want to.
“Thanks. Oh, by the way, I brought your sunglasses.”
I get out of my seat to reach for my handbag, which is on the chair across me.
“I’ll get it,” Scott offers.
I sit back down as he rummages through my purse.
“Wow,” he says. “They weren’t kidding when they said women carry their houses in their purses.”
I chuckle. “Yeah, although I probably forgot to put my washing machine in there this morning.”
I lift my mug to my lips.
“There it is.” He lifts the pair of sunglasses. “I guess you don’t need them anymore now that you have a bodyguard.”
He gestures behind me and I turn my head to see Dwayne standing at the entrance of the cafe.
I shake my head. “I feel like I’m the president’s daughter being guarded by the Secret Service.”
He tucks his sunglasses into his apron. “Well, it’s one of the perks of being the fiancée of a Hollywood celebrity, I guess.”
I snort.
“Do you need anything else?” Scott asks.
“No.” I shake my head again and glance at my watch. “I actually have somewhere to go.”
Chapter Nineteen
Noah
“You’re not going to give me yoga classes anymore?” I ask Dani in a mixture of surprise and disappointment as I stand at the bottom of the stairs.
“I’m sorry, Noah,” Dani answers with a sigh. “My fiancé doesn’t want me having male clients. He gets jealous easily.”
My eyebrows go up. “Fiancé?”
I didn’t even think Dani had a boyfriend, especially not with that reaction she gave me when she first saw me.
“Yup.” She shows me her ring.
I blink, surprised at the size and gleam of the diamond on her finger.
At the same time, though, jealousy bursts in my chest.
I knew Dani was too good for me. I know she deserves someone better. Still, I couldn’t help but wish she was mine, and there was a time during her last visit that I thought I had a chance.
I guess I thought wrong.
I scratch the back of my head. “There’s nothing I can do, then.”
She nods, pursing her lips.
“I’ll miss you, though,” I blurt out.
She looks at me with eyes wide.
Shit. I shouldn’t have said that.
“I mean, because even though I never got the chance to do yoga with you, I can tell you’re good, and no one’s ever been as nice to me as you…”
“You know what?” Dani cuts me off. “My fiancé might have told me not to have male clients, but he didn’t say anything about me having male friends.”
I blink as my hand freezes on my neck. What?
“We can still be friends… if you want.”
My lips curve into a smile. “Sure. I’d love that.”
I’m stupid, I know. I’m still hoping she’ll be mine.
“Then it’s settled.” Dani places her hands on her hips. “We’re friends.”
“Then, as my friend, can you do something for me?”
“Yeah, sure.”
I grab her arm and lead her into one of the rooms where I have my canvas set up. Ever since I got better, I’ve been working on a new painting, one of Dani. I’ve almost finished it, too, but I can’t seem to put in the perfect finishing touches.
“Is this where you paint?” Dani asks.
I nod. “I was wondering if you could pose for me.”
“What?”
“Not naked, of course,” I tell her.
Well, I wouldn’t mind painting her naked if she didn’t mind. Just the thought of it sends a surge of heat up my spine.
“Oh. Okay,” she says. “That’s fine, I guess. How do you want me to pose?”
“Just sit here.” I stand by the stool against the window.
She puts down her purse on a chair and sits on the stool.
“How do you want me to sit?” she asks.
“Sideways,” I answer as I help her get into position, quickly pulling my hand away when it brushes against her thigh. “Oh, and I need you to wear this cloak.”
I drape it over her shoulders.
“And hold this.” I place a stem of plastic cherry blossoms in her hand. “Don’t look at me. Just look at the flowers.”
“Okay.”
“And don’t smile.”
“No smile.”
I walk to my own stool. I take the cloth off my canvas, sit behind it and pick up my brush.
“Ready?”
“Ready when you are,” Dani answers as she glances at me.
“Oh, don’t move too much.”
“Right.” She takes a deep breath and keeps her eyes on the flowers.
Beautiful.
I dip my brush into the paints and dab its tip on the canvas.
I shift my eyes from the canvas to my model and back to the canvas again as I move my brush in slow strokes. “But you can talk.”
“Okay. I guess you feel better now, huh?”
“I actually felt better shortly after you left,” I tell her without looking at her. “It’s all thanks to you.”
“You mean thanks to the Tylenol,” she says. “Well, now that we’re friends, maybe I’ll ask you a few questions.”
“Sure.”
I set my brush down, then grab a tube of paint and squeeze it onto the palette.
“How long have you been painting?”
I shrug. “Since I was a child. Well, you couldn’t call it painting at first, but I liked art even then, just as much as I liked writing.”
“When did you have y
our first book published?”
I pick up my brush and mix the paint. “I was fifteen, I think.”
“Wow.”
“It didn’t do well, though. People said it was too dark for teenagers.”
“Oh. I thought teenagers like dark.”
“Not too dark,” I tell her.
She pauses. “Why do you live alone in this big house, if you don’t mind my asking? Where’s your family?”
“My father’s dead. My mother’s back in Japan. She has a new family.”
“She’s Japanese?” Dani asks.
I nod. “I carry her last name, Takahashi, although God knows she never wanted me to. She fell in love with an American. He left her. It turns out he was already married. She wanted to go back to Japan then, but she couldn’t because she was about to have me and her parents would never accept that. When my mother thought I was old enough to live by myself, she left me.”
Dani gasps. “That’s horrible. What mother would do such a thing?”
I don’t answer that, because I don’t know the answer. I press the tip of my brush against the canvas.
Ah, finally, I have the right color.
“How did you survive?”
“I just did,” I answer. “It’s a good thing I was able to get a writing job online so I was able to earn money before I ran out of it. I just kept writing. The money kept coming. I earned enough for college, but I didn’t go. I just wrote books and scripts.”
“Wow,” Dani gushes in admiration. “That’s… amazing. I mean, I feel bad for what you’ve been through, but you got through it without any help. You rose above it all.”
I say nothing as I dip my brush into the paint again.
Yes, I survived, but I’m not sure I’ve risen above it all. I endured a lot during those tough years, and they’ve stayed with me. They’re always there, lurking in the shadows.
But I don’t tell her that.
I don’t want to ruin her image of me as some kind of hero. It feels good.
“Have you ever thought about writing a story about your life?” Dani asks me.
“No. I don’t think I will.”
“But your story is so inspiring. I’m sure a lot of people would love to read it.”
I just shrug.
“Have you been to Japan?”
“No.” I look at her and find her twirling the flowers in her hand. “Don’t move.”
“Sorry.” She stops moving. “Why don’t you go? It seems like you love the place.”
“I do,” I say simply as I make longer strokes with my brush.
Finally, the painting is getting where I want it to be.
It’s almost there.
“What about you?” I ask her as I drop the brush and pick up another. “Do you live with your family?”
“My parents are gone,” Dani answers. “My father died of a sickness when I was still a kid. My mother died a few years ago.”
I add a few more strokes. “But you have a sister, right?”
“Yeah. I’ve been living with her, but she’s moving away tomorrow so I’ll be all by myself. I’ll be just like you, I guess.”
I look at her across the room as I hear the sadness in her voice.
“Sorry.” Dani sniffs. “I’m not supposed to move, I know. I just…” She takes a deep breath. “I’m going to miss my sister. She and I have been through so much together.”
I frown as I continue painting. “You sound like you want to go with her.”
“I do,” she admits. “But I can’t.”
“And she can’t stay?”
“No. This is for the best.”
“But not for you,” I point out.
“I’ll be fine,” Dani assures me, although it sounds like she’s talking more to herself than to me.
“Well, I’m here if you ever need anyone to talk to,” I tell her. “After all, that’s what friends are for, right?”
She smiles. “Thanks.”
In the next moment, she turns serious. “Oops. I shouldn’t be smiling.”
“That’s fine.” I put down my brush. “I think it’s done.”
Funny. I’ve been struggling to finish it, but all it takes is a few minutes with Dani and the painting is done. What’s more, it’s even more beautiful than I imagined it would be.
Dani gets off her stool. “Can I see it?”
I nod.
She stands behind me and places a hand on my shoulder. “Is that…?”
“You.” I turn to her. “I mean, it’s inspired by you.
She bends forward to take a closer look at the canvas. “I told you you were good. It’s beautiful.”
I smile. “Thanks.”
“I love it.”
To my surprise, Dani wraps her arms around me. Her breasts press against my chest and my heart stops. Heat rises to my cheeks and elsewhere.
Suddenly, she pulls away. She looks away, too, as she tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear. A tint of red coats her cheeks.
She’s blushing?
“Anyway, I really think it’s good,” she says.
I stand up and fix my things. “I’m glad. And I’m sorry I made you sit still for so long. I guess it’s something friends don’t normally do, but I wouldn’t know since I don’t have any.”
“Nonsense.” She reaches for my hand. “It was just for a few minutes. Besides, friends help each other out. That’s what they do. It’s perfectly normal.”
“Really?” I look at her. “Because I know I’m weird.”
Dani chuckles. “Trust me. You’re one of the more normal people I know.” She touches her chin. “I wonder what that says about me.”
I grin.
She glances at the canvas. “So now that this is over, what’s next?”
“I actually have work to do,” I tell her. “Someone wants me to write a script based on a book.”
“Really?” Dani’s eyes grow wide. “What book?”
“Black Solstice,” I answer. “Well, there’s already a script, actually, but I have to make some changes.”
Her eyes grow wider. “No way. Black Solstice?”
“I heard it’s going to be a big movie. Hector Davis is producing it, apparently. Do you know him?”
She shrugs. “I’ve heard of him. If he wants you to write a script for him, it must be big and you must be really good.”
Dani squeezes my shoulder. “I can’t wait to see what you come up with. I’m sure you’ll do great.”
I smile. “I’ll do my best.”
Chapter Twenty
Reilly
“I did it,” I inform Dani over the phone as I lean on the granite kitchen counter with a huge smile on my face. “I got the role.”
“Congratulations!” I hear the excitement in her voice. “Then again, I knew you were going to get it.”
“Thanks.”
“So what role is it?”
I chuckle. “The role of Martin, the protagonist’s half-brother in Black Solstice.”
Dani gasps, then falls silent.
My eyebrows furrow. “Dani?”
“Sorry. I just can’t believe it.”
“Me neither. I’ve heard about the book. I might not have the starring role, but I have a feeling this project is the break I’ve been waiting for.”
“I have the same feeling,” Dani says. “By the way, who’s playing the starring role?”
I turn around so my back is against the counter. “They didn’t tell me, but I’ve heard it might be…”
I stop, remembering that she’s now engaged to Kaleb Wilson. He should probably tell her himself when it’s official.
“Who?” Dani asks.
“I think you’ll find out soon enough,” I tell her. “Oh, and by the way, I have to congratulate you, too. It seems you’re engaged.”
“It seems.”
“So you accepted Kaleb’s offer, huh?”
Dani draws a deep breath. “About that, please don’t tell anyone what I told you. Kaleb’s mana
ger will kill me.”
I nod. “I understand. Are you okay with this, though?”
“Yeah. It’s not so bad.”
But it’s not what she really wants, either. Well, it’s not like I can help her with that.
“There’s a problem, though,” Dani says.
I straighten up. “What?”
“I can’t be your yoga instructor anymore. Kaleb forbids it. Or his manager does.”
“I see.” I tap my fingers on the counter. “I guess I understand.”
We may live in modern times, but it’s still not good for an engaged woman to be seen in the home of a single man, even if it is for work. It’s especially not good if said man and woman have been erroneously reported as a couple before.
“Sorry,” Dani says.
“It’s fine,” I assure her. “I’ll be busy anyway now that I have my big role coming up and all.”
“I’m sure you’ll do great. Well, I better go. I’m taking my sister and her kids to the airport.”
“Take care.”
“You too.”
She hangs up and I put my phone in my pocket before heading out to the patio. My mother is sitting there, reclining on one of the chairs with her sunglasses on and a magazine in her hands. A green drink sits on the table beside her.
“Who were you talking to?” she asks me without looking up from her magazine.
I sit on the chair next to hers. “Dani.”
She puts her magazine down on her lap, takes off her sunglasses and turns to me. “Your yoga instructor?”
“Not anymore.” I lie down with my arms behind my head. “She just quit.”
“I’m glad.”
My eyebrows crease. “What?”
“Well, I don’t like her.” My mother puts her glasses back on. “There’s just something about her.”
I sigh. “You don’t like any of the women I spend time with.”
“Besides, you slept with her, didn’t you?”
I look at her in surprise.
She picks up her magazine. “A mother always knows these things.”
“Fine, I did,” I admit. “But just once.”
“Once or a hundred times, it doesn’t matter.”
I sit up. “Then why does it seem to matter to you?”
She lowers her magazine. “Like I said, I don’t like her. I thought she smelled like trouble. And I was right. Isn’t she engaged to Kaleb Wilson now?”
