“Rebecca?”
“Hmm?” I was so lost in thought that I didn’t realize Devon had been trying to get my attention. “What did you say?”
“I just commented that it looks as though Rick’s got everything under control. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that he could have handled this whole case by himself.”
He virtually has been, I thought, but didn’t want to admit to Devon how poorly I’d been performing during my trip. There was no doubt about it. With everything going on in my personal life, I was off my game, and if I wasn’t careful, I’d make a mistake that may prove costly, to both me and to Caesar and Krause.
“I wouldn’t say that.” Rick’s false modesty made my eyes narrow, as I wondered what he was up to. “Rebecca’s still taken the lead on this, and I don’t think we’d have been able to move things along so quickly without her input. Two minds have definitely been better than one in this case.”
“It certainly looks that way.”
Rick gathered his papers together to get ready for his meeting with Charles Daily. “Now, are you sure you don’t want to come with me, Rebecca? Your input’s always valuable.”
I didn’t have to fake the stabbing pain in my head. “Much as I’d love to, the painkillers have barely taken the edge off my headache. I don’t think I’d be of any use to anyone if I came along. But I need you to keep in regular contact with me. Text me with any unforeseen developments and call me whenever you get a break, just to let me know how it’s going. Play it right, and we could have this whole wrapped up by dinner and be on the next flight home.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice?” Rick winked at me when he knew Devon wasn’t looking, and I couldn’t stop blushing. All I wanted was for this case to be closed so I could get back home and process the strange mix of reluctance and need Rick inspired. There was a possibility I could find a reason for Rick to be transferred, but if not—well, maybe the time had come for me to truly move on anyway. No more anger at what had happened in the past and no more hope for the future.
I still didn’t know what was going on between me and Devon. I hadn’t had a chance to mention the woman I saw him with yet, and there was a part of me that wondered whether he’d come all this way just to break up with me. Hell, he probably had. After all, he was a spoilt rich kid when it came down to it. He thought nothing about spending money just because, and although I’d enjoyed discovering the best restaurants and clubs in New York, with all the benefits that being on the VIP list entailed, there was every possibility that that kind of over-the-top attitude also extended to flying out to officially break up with me so he could give all his attention to the new love in his life.
“You better get going, Rick. You’re scheduled to meet with Charles in twenty minutes, and you know how much he hates to be kept waiting.”
“Sure thing.”
Rick extended a hand to Devon, who shook it. “Well, it’s been good to have your input on the case, Devon. There were a couple of points you picked up on that I missed, so with any luck, we really have got all our bases covered now. Joe Clark doesn’t stand a chance!”
“Good luck, Rick. I think we’d all like to get this one sewn up today.”
Rick nodded goodbye to me. “Rebecca.”
“Rick.”
He headed off to the door.
“Don’t forget to keep me updated!”
“Don’t worry, Rebecca. If Joe Clark so much as sneezes, I’ll be sure to let you know.” He patted the pocket where he kept his cell and left to meet with Charles.
I turned to face Devon, and for once, I had absolutely nothing to say to him. We’d both cheated on each other, but at least I had the advantage that Devon didn’t know about my night with Rick. Still, it was weighing heavily on my mind, and I couldn’t help but wonder how our relationship could come back from that.
Eleven
“So do you want to tell me what’s really going on with Rick?”
I couldn’t stop the blush that covered my face and neck. “What do you mean?”
“I saw the way he looked at you. That’s not the look of a man who’s happily divorced.”
“Yeah, well, if Rick is still hung up on me, that’s his problem. Besides, forget about Rick. What about… what was her name… I know the article mentioned it… India Mays?”
Now it was Devon’s turn to look uncomfortable. The silence between us stretched out a little too long for comfort, and although I was doing my best to keep up an outward appearance of being upset—my arms crossed, my foot tapping as I waited for his answer—inwardly, I was increasingly nervous. Did I really want to know the truth about him and India?
At last, Devon turned away from me and sighed. “Look, I’ll order up some coffee. I have a hunch that your headache might have a little something to do with alcohol, and by the looks of it, we need to talk. It’ll be easier with some coffee inside us.”
This didn’t sound good. It took everything I had to resist the urge to crawl into bed, pull the covers over my head, and make believe that the world around me had disappeared while Devon called down to room service.
When he hung up the phone, he turned to face me, and an expression of concern came over his face. “You look really pale. Why don’t you sit down for a moment?”
I sat down on the edge of the bed and Devon sat next to me, putting his arm around me. I rested my head against his shoulder and closed my eyes. If this was to be our last embrace, I wanted to be able to remember everything about it, the smell of his aftershave, the smooth sensation of his suit material against my skin, the sound of his heart beating, how right it felt to have him hold me.
I couldn’t lose him. Not now. Not ever.
“Are you crying?”
The tears had started falling down my cheeks without my even noticing, but now that Devon had pointed them out, it was as though the floodgates had opened. I began sobbing, great, big, racking sobs that had my whole body shaking.
“Hey, hey, shhh… It’s all right.” Devon put his hand under my chin and lifted it to face him, then gently kissed the tears away. I kept my eyes tightly shut, unable to look at him. There was too much pain and I was too ashamed of myself. Whatever he had to tell me about India, I’d done infinitely worse with Rick.
There was a knock at the door, startling us both. Quickly, I dashed away my tears as Devon got up to answer it. The waiter took away the breakfast trolley and left a tray of coffee things on the table where we’d had our meeting with Rick.
“Come over here. Let me pour you some coffee. It’ll help you feel better.”
I did as Devon suggested, still sniffing from crying as I crossed the room. I must have looked a complete mess, just the icing on the cake of what was shaping up to be one of the worst days of my life.
“First of all, I owe you a massive apology for not mentioning India sooner. You really shouldn’t have found out about her from the press.”
“No, I really shouldn’t have.” The more excuses he gave me to be angry, the easier it was to hide my fear.
Devon sighed. “You don’t make it easy, Rebecca.”
“What, so you being unfaithful is all my fault?”
“Who said I was unfaithful?”
That stopped me right in my tracks. I’d been gearing up to letting him have it with both barrels, but that one question took the wind right out of my sails. “Well… er… that’s what the article said. It claimed that other people in the restaurant who saw you said you were getting very cozy. It even mentioned wedding bells.”
Devon laughed. “Oh come on, Rebecca. You of all people should know not to trust a thing you read in the newspapers. How many times have they said things about us in the months we’ve been together? If it were up to the gossip columnists, we’d have been up and down the aisle three times already!”
I couldn’t help but laugh with him, but it was a laugh tinged with bitter regret as I thought about what I’d done. “So who is she, then?”
“A new client Dad wanted
me to wine and dine. He figured that if she thought she had a shot with one of New York’s most eligible bachelors, we had a better chance of signing her business—and through her, her father’s business. Ivan Mays is worth billions, and rumor has it that he’s recently fallen out with his lawyers. Dad’s always been great at spotting an opportunity, and you know how important it to build up a personal connection with premium clients.”
“But what about all those people who said you were getting all lovey dovey?”
“What about them?”
I fixed Devon with one of my looks, my eyes narrowing. I always knew when he wasn’t being entirely honest with me, and this was one of those times.
“All right, all right, you got me.” Devon threw up his hands in surrender. “Nothing happened between us, I swear, but I will admit to a little bit of flirting. Come on, Rebecca. You’d just turned down the chance to move in with me. For all I knew, you didn’t want to see me anymore. You can’t blame me for wanting to enjoy a bit of company.”
“Just because I don’t want to move in with you, doesn’t mean I don’t want to stop seeing you.” I put my hand over Devon’s. “It’s just…”
“What?”
I sighed. “I don’t know if I can put it into words. Rick and I married young. We were childhood sweethearts, and it was as though I went straight from my parents’ home into another controlling situation. Rick is a very dominant character, in case you hadn’t noticed, and once we were married, everything became about him. You’ve no idea how hard it was to get the courage to leave him. Once I got out, I wanted to enjoy my freedom, and now that I’ve got my own place, I’m not quite ready to give it up. Yes, Devon, I want to move in with you one day, just not right now. Things are great as they are. Why do they have to change?”
“Because I’m not so sure things are that great.”
“Are you kidding me?” Images of our lovemaking rose in my mind. The time I went down on him in the company elevator to get him just worked up enough, before acting all innocent when the doors opened on the next floor. The time he got revenge by playing with my breasts just before an important meeting, knowing that my erect nipples would be clearly visible through my top. The countless orgasms I’d enjoyed with him, screaming his name over and over. When sex was that good, you knew you had a strong relationship.
“Well, look at us, Rebecca. You see an article in the newspaper and what’s the first thing you do? You jump to conclusions instead of talking to me. I thought we’d been over this before. If you want to know anything about what I’ve been doing, anything at all, just ask. I’ll always be honest, and I told you: if I ever felt the urge to be unfaithful, I’d have the basic decency to break up with you first.”
I couldn’t tell whether Devon was making a dig at me because he’d guessed about Rick or making a simple statement of fact, but either way, I couldn’t bring myself to look him in the eyes.
“It seems to me that our relationship is suffering from a serious lack of trust, and I don’t know what we can do about it,” he said. “If you can’t trust me after all these months, I don’t know what I can do to change that. And if you can’t trust me, well… we don’t really have much of a relationship at all, do we?”
I felt as though my heart had just shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. “Are you breaking up with me?”
“I don’t know.” Devon shook his head. “I just don’t know, Rebecca. I could see myself spending the rest of my life with you, but if you can’t even bear the thought of living with me, how could I even think about marriage?”
“Marriage?” I couldn’t hide the sudden shock. “Whoa. How did we get onto marriage so quickly? Jeez, Devon. We’ve only been together a few months.”
“Almost a year.”
“Even so. That’s nowhere near long enough to know if we should get married. Trust me. I know.”
“And that’s our problem.” Devon looked so sad that it broke my heart all over again. “You see, I do trust you. If you think it’s too soon, then I’ll follow your lead. I won’t try to talk you round or convince you otherwise. But you’ll have to forgive me if I need a bit of time out to see how I feel about things. If we’re not traveling in the same direction, then it’s best if we call it quits now to save us both a lot of heartache further down the road.”
“Devon, you can’t—”
“Can’t what? Fall in love with someone who doesn’t love me back? Want a future with someone who’s stuck in the past? Too late, Rebecca. It’s already happened.”
He reached into his jacket and brought out a small Macy’s box, which he put on the table between us. “Go ahead. Open it up.”
I did as I was told, opening the box with trembling fingers, and gasped when I saw the stunning ruby pendant inside. Shards of light splintered off the perfectly cut jewels of the necklace. The deep burgundy color stole my breath. I looked up at him, speechless.
“I figured that this was a nice way of letting you know how much I value you and how I was willing to wait. But now that I’ve come up and seen you and we’ve had this talk, I just don’t know what to do.”
He stood up. “What I do know is that we both need some space. I had been planning on staying in town for a few days, offer a bit of support to you and Rick for your case, maybe show you round town a bit. One of my favorite restaurants isn’t far from here, and there are some fantastic clubs I wanted to take you to. But I think that, under the circumstances, it’s best if I go back home to New York while you wrap things up here. We can talk when you get back—it’ll only be a few days, after all. That time will give us both a chance to put things in perspective and figure out what we really want. I hope it’s the same thing, but if not…” He shrugged. “Well, it’s been fun while it lasted.”
“Devon—”
He leaned forward and kissed me as if it were the last time our lips would meet. I arched my back, my body desperately wanting more, but, abruptly, he let me go.
“I’ll see you back in New York.”
He turned and strode out of the room. I was too proud to run after him, beg, make a scene. Turning away from him, I was too numb even to cry, and all the while, in the middle of the table, the ruby necklace he’d given me sat there, mocking me with its brilliance. Had I made the right decision?
Twelve
I had no idea how long I sat there after Devon left the room. This was the last thing I’d expected. If he’d only sent Rick out to deal with the case on his own, none of this would have happened. I would have been able to talk to him right after our argument, explain why my apartment was so important to me, and everything would have been fine.
Devon was used to getting what he wanted—Daddy had seen to that—but he had never struck me as a spoilt little rich kid until I told him that I wasn’t ready to move in with him. Everything seemed to fall apart from that moment on, and I had no idea how to put the pieces back together again.
My cell beeped and I jumped at the sound. Picking it up, I could see that it was Rick.
Bad sign. Joe Clark late. Charles Daily fuming.
I sighed and tapped out a reply.
Do you need me there? Maybe I can calm him down.
Rick took his time answering.
It’s all right. Joe’s just walked through the door. Deliberate tactic to get Charles angry so he’ll make a mistake. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure he stays on track.
I wrote back, Keep me posted, and tossed my phone back on the table, unsure of my next move. My head was feeling better, and I was too worked up to spend the day lying in bed. However, it was clear that Rick could deal with the negotiations by himself, and, to be honest, I really didn’t want to have to deal with Charles, who clearly had a strong streak of misogyny running through him. I had enough demanding men in my life as it is.
In the end I decided to treat myself to some retail therapy. A few new outfits might not be able to heal my mess of a love life, but at least they’d make me feel a little better.
#
When I stepped out of the hotel into the glare of the sunlight, for a moment, I wished I had stayed in my room. I pulled my Givenchy sunglasses out of my bag and put them on, the dark lenses going a long way to take the edge off the pounding in my head.
I grabbed the nearest cab and told the cabbie to take me to wherever a person could spend a lot of money. Soon he pulled up outside a row of upscale designer boutiques. Looking at the displays in the window, svelte mannequins dripping designer suits in exquisite fabrics and velvet pillows showing off priceless jewelry, I saw this was exactly the sort of place I had in mind, so I gave him an extra-generous tip and stepped out. I stood on the curb gazing up and down the strip, wondering where to start.
“How about here?” I mumbled to myself, breezing straight ahead into the place right in front of me.
I walked through the glass doors and aimlessly browsed the racks, waving away the assistant who came forward, eager to make her commission for the day. Although the clothes were just the kind of thing I’d usually go for, suitable for work but with just enough of an edge to make me stand out, I was awash in disinterest as I picked through a few ensembles before unceremoniously snapping the hanger back on the rail, not even bothering to try anything on. What was the point? It didn’t matter how good I looked. Devon wasn’t there to see it.
Walking out, I decided on a change of plan. I didn’t care that it wasn’t yet lunchtime. I needed alcohol to get through the rest of the day.
Before I could hail a cab to find a bar, I heard my phone beep with the arrival of a text. It was Rick.
Meeting cut short. Joe Clark refused to discuss any details today and wants to reconvene tomorrow. He’s playing silly games to get Charles to react, but I’m on top of it. How about we meet for lunch? Or do you have plans with Devon?
It hurt like hell to have to write back that no, I didn’t have plans with Devon, but much as Rick was the last person I wanted to see, even I had to admit that drinking on my own in the middle of the day wasn’t exactly the most sensible thing to do.
The Red Eye (The Red Eye Erotic Romance Series Book 2) Page 6
