by Jessie Cooke
Alex knocked on the door of Kelly's luxury apartment. She lived in a building he owned. It was another thing he'd given her when they split up, a decade of free rent in one of the most luxurious, spacious apartment buildings in the city. He knew he had a problem with the guilt. He hadn't done anything to her to feel like he owed her so much. But he wasn't going to miss the money either…so what the hell. The door was pulled open slowly after his second knock. Kelly's perfume escaped before she appeared. She looked stunning, as usual. She was wearing a light green gown that shimmered under the crystal chandelier in her foyer. Her hair was up in a twist of some kind and the highlights in it looked like they had just been touched up, they shimmered as much as her dress. He couldn't see her shoes but judging by the way they're almost eye to eye, she was wearing her usual six-inch heel.
“Well, look at you,” she said, running her eyes over him, almost hungrily.
“I'd rather look at you,” he said. “You look lovely.”
She stuck out her prettily painted bottom lip. “Just lovely?”
Alex smiled. He didn't want to overindulge her ego and give her any ideas about them starting things up again. That was never going to happen, and he didn't want to have that conversation with her again. “You know how beautiful you are,” he said, leaving it at that.
“Do I at least get a hug?” Alex opened his arms and she slipped into them. She held onto him a little longer than necessary and when he finally nudged her back gently, she let her lips brush his cheek. “I'm really glad that you're back,” she said. “I can't wait to hear all about your trip,”
“It's pretty dry stuff,” he said. “I'm looking forward to hearing more about Ragged Beauty. I saw the write-up in the Post last week, it was favorable.”
“Yes. Martin will be there tonight.”
“Good,” Alex said, holding out his arm. “Are you ready to go?”
“Do you want to come in for a drink first?”
He made a play of looking at the Rolex on his arm. “It's actually getting late. We should get on our way. We can have a drink in the limo if you want.”
She frowned but then probably thought about the lines that might leave on her face and smoothed it out quickly. “Okay,” she said, picking up her wrap off the foyer table and handing it to him. Alex took it and draped it around her shoulders as she turned her back to him. He felt her lean backwards so their bodies were touching, and he realized that Levi was right…this might have been a mistake. Hoping that ignoring her advances might give her a hint, he took a step back, picked up her bag and handed it to her and held out his arm. She took it and he led her out to the elevator. On the way down from the twelfth floor where she lived to the lobby, she stood a little too close and continued to clutch onto his arm. It was almost a relief to hand her off to his driver who was waiting with the door to the limo open. Once she was inside, he climbed in and realized that she'd barely left him enough room to sit on the eight-foot leather seat.
As soon as the car was on the road she said, “What about that drink? I could go for a glass of champagne.” Alex reached into the mini bar and pulled out a bottle of Dom Perignon. Taking two crystal flutes out of the lazy Susan in the center, he pushed the button to open the sunroof on the car and popped the top on the champagne. After he poured them both a glass, he started to take a drink but she stopped him. “What about a toast?” she said.
“What would you like to toast to?”
“To us,” she said with a seductive smile.
Alex didn't clink his flute against hers. Instead he set the glass down and said, “Kelly, maybe I've given you the wrong idea by agreeing to accompany you tonight.”
“Alex, please don't ruin this for me. I know we're not getting back together. I just want one night where we don't talk about that, okay? I'm not asking you to fuck me…although if that came up…” Alex gave her a look and she rolled her eyes and said, “Fine, we're not going to fuck, I accept that. Why can't we just be two old friends, having a nice time together, just for tonight?”
“It just feels more like seduction than friends,” he said.
“Well it's not. This is how I relate to people, you should know that by now.” She had a point. Everything she did or said either felt like seduction, or a knife in the chest, depending on her mood. He supposed he should be happy that she didn't have the dagger out.
“Okay, I apologize,” he said, tapping her glass with his. “To old friends.” She rolled her eyes but took a sip of the champagne. The rest of the drive they talked about his trip to Singapore and that seemed to relieve some of the tension that had built up between them. By the time the limo pulled up in front of the luxurious hotel Alex felt more at ease and was almost looking forward to the evening. There would be a lot of people there, including his own parents, that he hadn't seen in a while.
The driver opened the door and he stepped out. He turned to take Kelly's hand and help her out when another limo drove up behind them. He glanced over and saw Kelly's COO, Daniel stepping out. He smiled and nodded at him as Kelly took his hand. Alex focused his attention back on her, but out of the corner of his eye he saw something that caused his chest to seize up and he could hardly breathe.
Daniel helped a woman out of his limousine…but it wasn't just any woman, it was Isabelle, his Izzy. Alex forgot all about his date and he turned to look at Izzy. He realized at that moment at last, what was so alluring about her. She was completely unaware of how disarmingly beautiful she was. She might know that she's pretty, but what she didn't realize was that she had this glow about her that encompassed everything and everyone around her. She was wearing a dark blue gown that matched the color of her eyes. She had more makeup on her face than he'd ever seen her wear, but it was tasteful and gave those gorgeous eyes a smoky, sexy look that tore right through him. Her dark hair was braided on each side and twisted up into a bun in the back. The bun was adorned with a hair clip or comb that matched her gown and she had a thin silver choker around her neck. The only other jewelry she wore was a pair of diamond stud earrings. She was the most beautiful sight that he had ever seen, and he couldn't take his eyes off her. That was until she noticed him. The look on her face went from initial shock to outright fear. What was it about him that scared her? If it killed him, he was going to find out.
“Seriously?” Kelly's voice brought him back to reality and he turned to look at his “date.”
“I'm sorry,” he said, not admitting to what he was apologizing for. He held out his arm and for a second, as Kelly glared at Isabelle's back, he thought she wasn't going to take it. He would have been okay with that. He was looking at Isabelle's back as well, but not with the same fire in his eyes. The back of the gown she was wearing was nonexistent. The material started at the small of her back and hugged the curves of her hips and ass. He noticed right away that there were no lines and he pictured her bare underneath. He felt his cock twitch in his pants and he had to tear his eyes off her smooth, tanned skin to keep it from pitching a tent. He tried not to be aware of the way she was clutching Daniel's arm as they went through the door of the hotel lobby. He tried not to wonder if she'd slept with him. He tried…but it wasn't working and even when Kelly leaned in and whispered in his ear,
“Could you at least pretend to be interested in your own date?” He wasn't sure that he could. Izzy was like a magnet to him…he felt the pull all the way to his soul. Maybe this was what love felt like, and maybe you didn't have to know everything about a person before you felt it. He stepped through the doors with Kelly on his arm, but his thoughts were all about Izzy and he didn't believe he would be able to hide them all evening. He glanced over at Kelly. She was glaring at him now. “If you're going to stare at her like that all night, you might as well take me home now. I won't be humiliated…”
Suddenly embarrassed by his own behavior, Alex cleared his throat and said, “I'm sorry, Kelly…truly. Isabelle and I have met before…”
He felt the muscles in the arm she was holding his w
ith tighten, but her face didn't change at all as she said, “I know, and I know you fucked her. But, it was after us, so it's not my business. Tonight is. Focus on me, tonight Alex, or take me home.”
“I will,” he told her. “I promise.” His heart wasn't in it, but Kelly didn't deserve to be embarrassed in front of her business associates, colleagues and friends. “Let's go find our table.” And pray that it's far enough away from Isabelle's to keep me from acting like a fool.
19
Isabelle had lived in New York her entire life, but tonight would be her first time stepping into the one-hundred-and-ten-year-old Plaza Hotel. Despite not being overjoyed about being Daniel's “date” for the evening, she had worked up an almost childlike excitement about finally experiencing one of the most famous hotels in the US for the first time. That excitement and almost her lunch, was gone, the second that she lay eyes on Alex.
At first all she could focus on were those sexy brown eyes that even from six feet away seemed to be touching her as he took her in. Then her eyes moved to his lips and she remembered how good they had felt and tasted when she kissed him. She felt a flutter in her belly when she imagined sliding her tongue in between them and tangling it up with his. She was almost breathless before she noticed who was standing next to him. It was Kelly in all her shimmering glory. Isabelle looked at her and Kelly shot fire out of her eyes. She realized it was because of the way Alex was staring at her, but Kelly was the one that invited Isabelle, so what was her end game here? With everything inside of her shaking still, she returned her attention to Daniel, slid her arm through his and let him lead her toward the hotel lobby.
Isabelle did her best to concentrate on everything else around her instead of the fact that Alex was only a few feet behind them. She studied the beautiful architecture of the building that she'd walked past hundreds of times. She glanced down at the red carpet that felt plush and springy even underneath the heels she wore. It stretched out in front of them for at least fifty feet and it led up to a pair of ornate wood and glass doors, flanked on either side by a sharply dressed doorman.
As they stepped through the doors that were held open for them, she checked out the gorgeous crystal chandeliers and the beautiful, antique furnishings. When they made their way across the marble and obsidian floor she concentrated on the beautifully dressed people around them. And, when they made it to the door of the ball room, she focused on the smiling faces of the board members of the Museum of Natural Art, who stood in a line to greet the guests. She was less shaky by the time they found their table, but that only lasted seconds before she realized Alex and Kelly were being shown to the same table she and Daniel had just been taken to. Daniel pulled out her chair and she sat down quickly before her shaking legs gave out and she made a scene by collapsing into the table. She had no idea why Alex had this effect on her. He wasn't the first handsome man that she'd had a hopeless crush on…but there was something so different about how her body and even her mind reacted when he was around.
Daniel took the seat on the right of her. To her left were a middle aged couple that Daniel seemed to know well. He introduced them to her as Mr. and Mrs. King. Kelly and Alex were taking their seats on the other side of the couple and Isabelle was grateful that it wasn't directly across from them at least. She was grateful most of all that she wouldn't have to watch Kelly touch him, or whisper in his ear…or even exist for that matter. Isabelle didn't like her ugly thoughts, but right at that moment, her harsh reality was just that…she wished that Kelly Valentine didn't even exist.
She took a deep breath and looked at Daniel. He had been staring at her since he picked her up, like she was a juicy piece of prime rib. It was making her almost as uncomfortable as sitting at the table with Alex and Kelly.
“Champagne?” The waiter had no idea how badly she wanted to grab every flute off his tray and down them until she was so drunk that she had no idea what her own name was. She forced a smile and nodded. He set a glass down in front of her and gave one to Daniel before moving on around the table. Daniel lifted his glass and she lifted hers. He tapped them together and took a sip of his. She looked around the room at all of the rich men and women, and she downed hers.
She heard Daniel chuckle. “Thirsty?”
She felt her face heat up. “I was…I mean…yes,” she finally said, “I was thirsty. So, who are all of these people?” While Daniel dropped names that she didn't know and wouldn't remember, she tried to pull herself together. She concentrated on the problems that everyone else in the room had…or what she perceived them to have. There were at least two hundred people in the room, young and old alike. There were silicone goddesses on the arms of bald, paunchy trolls and she looked at them and told herself that things could be a lot worse. She could be so desperate that she spent her life with a man simply because he was rich. Or she could be an old fat man that didn't have enough self-respect to realize how ridiculous he looked with a woman young enough to be his granddaughter.
She saw a woman that she thought she recognized from the cover of one of the top fashion magazines. She was dressed in a gown made of chiffon. It was a gorgeous dress, but even from three feet away, Isabelle's trained eye could see that the seam running up the back was stretched across her enhanced buttocks and very likely wasn't going to hold up well with a lot of sitting and standing. Whoever made the dress should have used a thin piece of tissue paper to reinforce the thread and then the model wouldn't have to worry about showing her ass before the night was over.
She smiled at that entertaining thought before moving on to the next table. It was filled with ladies with varying shades of platinum hair. They were probably all in their sixties or older, but the skin on their faces was stretched as tight as a drum across their sculpted cheekbones. The diamond, platinum, silver and gold jewels they wore only served to draw attention however to the layers of wrinkles between their chin and the neckline of their dresses.
Daniel was still talking as her thoughts took her closer to hell with every step. She grabbed another glass of champagne as the waiter circulated by and tried to process at least some of what he was saying, in case there was something she was supposed to remember later. “And over there at the press table, the man with the dark skin and mustache, that is Martin Towers.” The editor's eyes were moving around the room, likely making note of what everyone was wearing so that he could critique it in his column later. The woman with him was beautiful. She had short blonde hair and wide blue eyes. She looked as uncomfortable as Isabelle felt and sadly it put Isabelle somewhat at ease to know that she wasn't the only one there that felt out of place. Daniel was talking again, now about Martin Tower and his history…who he had pissed off in the fashion industry and who he had helped take to the top…Isabelle kept her eyes on his face, feigning as much interest as she could, fighting the urge to turn and look over her shoulder at Alex. Instead, she grabbed another glass of champagne, this time earning a raised eyebrow from Daniel. She smiled at him sweetly, and sipped it this time, until something else caught his interest. As soon as his head was turned she downed that one, knowing that she needed to stop, at least until she had some food in her stomach. She already felt lightheaded.
The lights suddenly dimmed and a light came on above the stage that had been set up at the front of the room. A man named Jeffrey Broderick took the microphone and welcomed everyone. He was the president of the museum board and he began introducing the rest of the people who had greeted them at the door. The names he was saying meant nothing to Isabelle, but she clapped along with everyone else as each one stood up when their name was called. There were over a dozen of them and the names had started to run together in her head…until she heard one that stood out.
“Armando Romaletti and his wife Leticia Romaletti.” A couple in their sixties stood up. The man, although slightly shorter, looked a lot like Alex. He had the same light olive skin and wavy dark hair. The woman was blonde, but her skin was darker like her husband's and they both had deep brow
n eyes. Without thinking, she finally let herself glance over her shoulder in Alex's direction. He was clapping and looking at his parents. Kelly was on the far side of him and all Isabelle could see of her were her hands. She urged herself to turn back around before he saw her staring, but she was too late. The man on the stage announced that the Romaletti's son, Alexander, was one of the museums biggest benefactors. He asked him to come up front and when Alex stood up, his eyes found hers and for a few seconds it was as if the two of the were alone in the room.
She thought that she could see the questions swimming in his eyes, and she wondered if he could see what she was thinking in hers. She'd never craved a man's lips so badly, or his touch. She'd never known a man for such a short time and felt like she'd already known him her entire life. She had thought she was in love with Darryl for a while…but it never felt like this, even after they'd been together for three years. She both loved and hated the feeling and she was beginning to wonder if she was making the wrong choice…her career over this beautiful man. The spell was broken when Kelly stood up and put her hand on his arm. Isabelle wondered if they were back together and watched with a lump in her throat as they walked toward the front of the room. The audience applauded and as Alex stepped up on stage, his beautiful date stood dutifully by his side. Isabelle wasn't sure she could take much more. She signaled the waiter for another glass of champagne, not caring at that moment if she fell down drunk before the night was over or not.
“I might have to carry you to the limo,” Daniel said with a chuckle. She startled. For a few seconds she'd forgotten about Daniel. She smiled at last and said,
“That won't be necessary.” She emphasized the “won't” and then said, “I know how much alcohol I can handle and I won't drink anymore until after dinner is served.”
Daniel winked at her and raised his own glass. He took a sip of the champagne and then let his tongue run along his bottom lip before saying, “By all means, drink as much as you like.” Isabelle didn't respond to that. She didn't want to feed into his flirtatiousness. She sipped her champagne and then set it down and turned her attention back to the front where the announcer was now talking about the main event that would happen later, the unveiling of new statues. Alex was sitting next to his father with his arm on the back of his mother's chair. His posture was enough to tell anyone watching how much he cared about them. Kelly was still standing next to the table. She had her phone out and looked like she was texting.
