Текст книги "Night After Night"
Автор книги: Lauren Blakely
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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 10 страниц)
Chapter Fifteen
Julia brushed some sugar crystals along the rim of a martini glass, and handed her signature cocktail to a woman in a standard, boring, black business suit who’d wandered in a few minutes ago rolling a large black case on wheels – the kind that was usually full of pharmaceuticals. Julia guessed she was a sales rep for one of the big drug companies and had been pitching docs all day with little success. The woman, quite simply, looked worn down.
She sighed heavily, resting her chin in her palm. Julia felt for her, without even knowing her woes. Life could be a cruel mistress. Sometimes the days wrung you dry. The nights did too, those lonely nights when all she wanted was a note, a moment, a sweet reminder that she wasn’t woman against the world, tackling everything solo.
“Enjoy,” Julia said, sliding the purple snow globe in front of the woman. “I hope it makes the day a little better.”
The woman flashed a smile. “You have no idea how much I need this.”
“This one is my specialty, but if it doesn’t fit the bill, you let me know and I’ll mix up something else for you instead.”
The woman took her first sip, and her tired eyes lit up. Julia swore a switch had been flipped and they’d gone from muted to bright blue. “This is divine.”
She smiled. “I’m glad you like it,” she said, and for now, this was enough to make Julia’s shit week a bit better. She might not have won her game, she might have lost her man, but at least she could do one thing right – mix a drink, and lift the spirits temporarily of the weary.
She moved to the tap, filling a pale ale for a regular customer, a skinny guy who always stopped by after work. She liked him; he’d never once tried to hit on her. He was only here for the drinks. “The usual,” she said, handing him the glass. He doffed an imaginary hat, and took his first swallow. She gathered up tips from other patrons and returned to the register, tucking some bills in the drawer.
“Can I pretty please have your most special, awesomest diet coke?”
Julia grinned widely, and turned around to see her favorite person ever. Her sister McKenna, decked out in a vintage emerald green dress with a white petticoat peeking out from the skirt’s hem. On her shoulders she wore a faux white fur cape – 100% pure retro fashionista. Next to her was her fiancé Chris, wearing a plaid button-down and jeans, dress-up attire for the most casual California surfer guy that he was. They were the happiest couple she knew, and yet another reason why Julia was never going to burst their bubble of bliss with her troubles. Seeing her sister happy was a singular joy, and she’d go to the ends of the earth to protect her sister’s heart from any more hurt.
“Always for you,” Julia said and leaned across the bar to give her big sister a hug. “And hello handsome,” she said to Chris, giving him a peck on the cheek.
“Hey, Julia. How’s business tonight?”
“Always good at Cubic Z,” she said, beaming and glad for the chance to talk about the bar business. She was proud of her tiny little patch of land in SoMa; yet another reason why she desperately wanted to get out from under Charlie’s thumb. She didn’t want him to take over this place. The thought of him running his illegal operations from her bar, threatening other patsies with his knife that wasn’t dangerous in and of itself, but symbolized all he could do, made her stomach restless. He could turn it to rubble too, leaving her, Kim and Kim’s family high and dry. The thought curled her stomach. She poured McKenna a Diet Coke, then asked Chris for his poison.
“Whatever’s on tap,” he said, and she winced inside at the words. Granted, she heard that phrase a few times a night, but it reminded her of Clay, of what he’d said the first night they met here. After she handed Chris his glass, she looked from McKenna to her man and back. “What’s up with the fancy attire? You going to a ball or something?”
Chris smiled and shook his head. “Nope, but my network is having some shindig to celebrate our record-high ratings, so this is me dressing up,” he said, fingering the collar of his shirt.
“You clean up mighty fine,” she said, and once again her mind wandered back to Clay, to how delicious he looked in everything and nothing. She loved his sharp style, his power ties and crisp shirts, the cuffs and how he rolled them up revealing those forearms, so thick and strong.
A sharp pang of longing lodged in her chest. She wasn’t only yearning for his arms; she was longing for the whole man, inside and out, from the way he held her to how he talked to her. He always wanted to know more about her, and she felt one hundred percent the same about him. He fascinated her, with his mix of down and dirty, loving and tender. Though it seemed insane to miss someone she’d only spent a few nights with, she’d never met anyone like him who captivated her mind and her body.
She shook her head, as if she could shake off thoughts of him. She reached for the tap to pour a beer for another customer.
“Speaking of record ratings,” McKenna began in that voice that hinted at something up her sleeve, “Chris is about to renegotiate his contract, and is looking for a new lawyer, so I was thinking about your guy…”
Julia’s hand froze on the tap and the beer started to overflow the glass.
Your guy. Oh, how she wanted him to be her guy, and all that title allowed – the nights, the days, the moments, the tangling up in each other’s arms.
“Oh crap,” she said when she realized the liquid had frothed over. Grabbing a towel, she wiped down the side of the glass, cleaned it up and handed it to a customer.
“What do you think about that?” McKenna asked when she returned.
“He’s pretty kickass at his job, right?” Chris said, chiming in. “I was talking to my sister the other day and she said he’s worked out all kinds of perks for Davis.”
Julia straightened her spine. “I don’t have any business dealings with him, but from what I’ve heard his clients rave about him.”
“Can you do an intro or something? Or do you want us to ask Jill to ask Davis?” McKenna asked, then something flashed in her eyes. Realization, maybe. Julia had been home from her trip for more than ten days and hadn’t said much about it to McKenna, other than a few texts that it went well, and she was home and busy, busy, busy. She hadn’t told her sister that she’d bolted. Her sister leaned across the bar and narrowed her eyes. “Are you still into him?”
She was about to fashion an answer when she heard a customer call out. “Oh excuse me!” The woman in the suit waggled her fingers.
Julia walked over to her. “How was it?”
The woman tapped the glass. “Never had anything like it. It’s amazing.”
“I’m so glad you liked it.”
“Listen. I have a friend – his name is Glen Mills – whose magazine is running a search for the best cocktail ever,” the woman continued. “I’m going to tell him about this.”
“That’d be nice of you,” she said, though she knew patrons said stuff like this all the time, so she didn’t put any stock in it. No more, at least, than simple pride in a job well done.
“What’s your name?”
“Julia,” she told her, as the woman handed her a twenty.
“Keep the change, Julia.”
Then she left, rolling her bag on the way out, only this time her pace was upbeat and energetic. Julia returned to her sister, eager to avoid any more talk of Clay. She didn’t need to feel that empty ache for him all evening, especially since she was sure to feel it all night long alone in her bed. “Hey, it’s about to get crowded here.”
“So can you do an intro to Clay?” McKenna asked again, and clearly Julia wasn’t going to be able to ignore this request.
She mulled over the question. She’d been trying to steer clear of temptation, locking her phone in a kitchen drawer in the evenings when she felt the desire to text him or call, going for a run in the mornings to try to clear her mind. But neither tactic kept him from occupying the prime corner lot in her brain. She’d been dreaming of him every night. The very mention of his name brought a flush to her skin, and heat between her legs. It had been a while; she hadn’t even touched herself since she’d left. If she did, she’d only picture him and that wouldn’t help put him out of her mind.
Maybe, just maybe, a brief email for her sister would satiate this longing inside her, and quench her thirst for him. Sort of like a phased withdrawal. One tiny taste and then she’d be done.
“I’ll take care of it for you,” she said, and something inside of her dared to spark. At least she had a reason to reach out to him, and she tried not to get too excited about the prospect of sending him a note, but she couldn’t help it – she was excited. “Now, can we talk about something besides business please? Like your wedding. That’s what I most want to talk about. I can barely wait another month to see my big sister walking down the aisle.”
The two of them beamed, Chris and McKenna matching each other in sheer wattage of their smiles. He dropped a quick kiss on her cheek, and she threw her arms around his neck, and Julia was happy for the way her sister could be free with the man she cared for.
“So we’re going to have karaoke as you know,” McKenna said and began rattling off all the details, and though Julia knew most of them already since she was maid of honor, she didn’t mind hearing them again. Her sister’s happiness brought a smile to her face, so she listened as McKenna updated her on all their wedding plans, and she too was counting down the days til the two of them got hitched.
* * *
Later that night, as the crowds wound down she reached for her phone to call him when she saw Clay had texted her. Her eyes widened, lighting up with anticipation. With hopeful fingers, she slid open the message.
I can’t stop thinking about you.
Her heart thrummed hard against her chest as she savored the words, each one like decadent chocolate. She clutched the phone to her chest, as if that simple act would bring him closer. She walked into the back room, needing a moment alone with his text. She closed the door behind her, leaned against it and stared like a lovestruck idiot at the screen again, running her fingertip across his message.
She cycled through her options. She could pretend she never saw it. She could delete it. She could keep on ignoring him. But the very thought of that felt like thorns twisting in her gut. She’d been in a funk since she’d left New York. A real ball of piss. She’d slept badly, she’d been sullen when she went for her morning run, and she could barely focus on the book she’d been reading at bedtime. Her thoughts careened back to him. A reply might unwind some of the tension knitting its way through her body.
Though she knew the risks, she became convinced with each passing second that answering his message wasn’t dangerous. It was simply answering a message. Sometimes a cigar was just a cigar.
The very least she could do was write back.
Would love to know what you’re thinking about…
Only later did she remember she’d forgotten all about McKenna’s request for an introduction. So much the better. Another reason to be back in touch.
By the way, my sister’s fiancé wants to talk to you about working together. I’ll send you his info. Though I still want to know what you’re thinking about.
She paused, her thumbs hovering over her smartphone. Then, she added, just so there’d be no misunderstanding, about her intent – xoxo.
Chapter Sixteen
from: [email protected]
date: April 16, 10:48 AM
subject: What I’m thinking about…
Everything. Your hair. Your ass. Your beautiful breasts. Your lips. You curled up in my bed. Your attitude. Most of all, why the fuck you left like that.
from: [email protected]
date: April 16, 11:08 AM
subject: The other thoughts please
Something came up. Can we go back to those other items instead?
from: [email protected]
date: April 16, 5:48 PM
subject: Not sure…
I don’t know. Can we?
from: [email protected]
date: April 16, 11:48 PM
subject: Be sure…
You tell me.
from: [email protected]
date: April 17, 6:48 AM
subject: Ball. In. Your. Court.
You tell me what you’re wearing. You tell me if you can’t stop thinking about me. You tell me why you’re not here spread across my lap, that beautiful ass calling out for my palm.
from: [email protected]
date: April 17, 9:48 AM
subject: Served
So you’re saying you want to spank me?
from: [email protected]
date: April 17, 3:48 PM
subject: Hand is ready
You have no idea.
from: [email protected]
date: April 17, 3:49 PM
subject:Ass is too
Oh, I have an idea. I definitely have an idea. And I would like that very much. I also think you have a thing for my ass.
from: [email protected]
date: April 17, 11:48 PM
subject: More on that
It’s perfection. I want to bite it. Lick it. Smack it. Grip it hard while I fuck you.
from: [email protected]
date: April 18, 1:01 AM
subject: Which means….
So you still want me, I take it?
from: [email protected]
date: April 18, 7:01 AM
subject: Yes
You know I do. That didn’t change.
from: [email protected]
date: April 18, 11:34 AM
subject: Ditto…
I still want you…
Clay stared at the computer screen, his fingers hovering over the keys, considering a reply. But damn, those words were mocking him. I still want you. How could she say that with the way she’d left? It made no sense, and Michele had spelled it out for him in no uncertain terms that if Julia wanted to play ball, she’d be at the plate, not skipping and frolicking along the foul lines, darting in and out of sight. He pushed away from his keyboard, like an alcoholic trying to step away from the bar. Grabbing a pen and a contract from the pile of papers on his desk, he tossed his phone onto his desk, left his office and locked the door.
If he stayed within typing distance of either device, he’d surely keep up this volley with her. Because she was as irresistible to him as she’d been that very first night. With his head down the whole way, he headed to a bench outside Central Park and settled onto it, trying his best to dive into the fine print on a licensing deal that the actor Liam Connor needed wrapped up before he opened a new restaurant in New York in a few weeks. Clay didn’t usually do restaurant deals, but Liam was a long-time client and had asked him to look over the terms with the other co-owner. Clay shoved his hand through his hair as he studied the fine print, but soon the words were levitating on the page, terms like indemnify that he knew backwards and forwards, but now it was a slow, cruel tease because he couldn’t focus on a damn thing.
She weaved in front of him like a damn mirage. Tantalizing and teasing him. Whenever he opened or closed his eyes, she was there. Beautiful and beckoning, she lured him in. He could picture her, he could feel the trace of her, touch the outline of her. She’d left her mark on him and he wanted her day after day, night after night.
He swore loudly and looked up. No one noticed his cursing. No one cared. It was New York and the city spun on its own axis. So he sat and stared at the lunchtime crowds, at a harried doctor rushing by in her scrubs, at a guy in a suit, tugging at his tie while tapping out a message on his phone, at a pair of women in sharp jeans and sweaters, each balancing a cardboard tray of lattes in their hands. A bus trudged by on Fifth Avenue, pulling up to the stop and letting off several passengers, who looked equally hurried as they raced to their destinations. Somehow, the chaos of the city soothed the tangled knots in his chest for the moment, and calmed his mind. He took a deep fueling breath, and returned once more to the contract.
A half-hour later, he’d found the one clause that concerned him most, so when he met Liam for lunch he told him about the points he wanted to iron out.
“That’s why I keep you around, man,” the actor said, flashing his trademark smile that made women swoon and patrons pay top dollar to see his face in lights. “You’re going to come see in The Usual Suspects, right?”
“As if I’d miss it,” Clay said, and mentally marked the date on his calendar to see the stage adaptation of the hit film.
They spent the rest of the meal talking about Liam’s upcoming work, the movies they’d both loved and loathed, and sports, always sports.
When lunch ended, Clay simply hoped he could keep harnessing that focus and use it to stay on track in his business. He didn’t need a repeat of that year with Sabrina. When he returned to his office, refreshed – mostly – from the few hours away from electronic tethers, he clicked on his phone and found another message from the woman who was never far from his mind.
from: [email protected]
date: April 18, 2:23 PM
subject: On that subject…
So unbelievably much…In every single way.
And all his control unraveled in a second, as his skin heated up, and his heart beat faster, pounding against his chest with the aching want to have her in his arms again. Resistance was futile, so he banged out a reply, saved it in his drafts, and told himself he’d see if he still felt the same way that night. When the work day ended he went to the gym to pound the punching bag until his shoulders were as sore as they’d ever been.
On the way home, he pulled out his phone, opened his drafts and made a decision.
Chapter Seventeen
from: [email protected]
date:April 18, 5:23 PM
subject:Which brings us back to…
So why then? Why did you leave?
from: [email protected]
date: April 18, 8:48 PM
subject: Truth
I was afraid.
from: [email protected]
date: April 18, 11:24 PM
subject: Truth is good
Of what?
from:[email protected]
date: April 19, 2:03 AM
subject: It can be…
Of getting close.
from: [email protected]
date: April 19, 7:48 AM
subject: Re: It can be…
Don’t be afraid.
from:[email protected]
date: April 19, 11:19 AM
subject: Re: Re: It can be…
But I am…
from: [email protected]
date: April 19, 5:59 PM
subject: Promise
I won’t hurt you.
from: [email protected]
date: April 19, 10:03 PM
subject: Promises, Promises
That’s easy to promise. Hard to deliver.
from: [email protected]
date: April 19, 11:08 PM
subject: Question
Are you going to let the fear control you?
Good question.
Was she going to let Charlie control every aspect of her life? Right now, from his perch at the back table in Mr. Pong’s, he stared at her like she was a gnat on the bottom of his shoe after she gave him his money. The stack was flimsier than usual, but at least she’d won some.
“Get out of here,” Charlie said to her in a cold, calculating voice. “You tire me because you take too long.”
“I won for you tonight,” she pointed out, but then what was the point? Charlie was in a nasty mood, and maybe it had to do with her, or maybe it had to do with another one of his pawns underperforming.
“Hardly. This is hardly enough,” he said, fanning out the thin stack in her face, smacking her on the nose with the bills. She flinched, surprised that money could wound that much.
As she left the Chinese restaurant, nearly bumping into a man with a well-lined face and sad eyes who stared longingly at the sign for Mr. Pong’s, she pondered all the fear in her life. She was afraid of Charlie, of the veiled threats of hurting her, hurting Kim, and taking more and more of his business until he was satisfied. Though men like him never had their fill, did they? She was scared for her sister and wanted desperately to protect McKenna’s hard-won happiness with Chris. Most of all she was terrified of screwing up. What if she couldn’t win the rest of the money? Would be in Charlie’s clutches forever? Time was running out, and she pictured him snapping chains on her forever somehow, so she’d never ever escape from him.
She didn’t know what would happen.
All she knew for sure was this fear sucked. This emptiness stung. And the only thing that had felt remotely good and real in her life was opening up to Clay. She’d been living in a cocoon of her own necessary lies for so many months, that the sliver of truths she could share with him was freeing.
from: [email protected]
date: April 20, 2:02 AM
subject: Good question
I don’t know…I don’t want it to…but I can’t stop wanting you either.
from: [email protected]
date: April 20, 7:32 AM
subject: New side of you
Don’t stop wanting me. This is the most open I think you’ve been.
from: [email protected]
date: April 20, 9:52 AM
subject: Blame it on email
Do you like it?
from: [email protected]
date: April 20, 3:22 PM
subject: Love it…
I like nearly everything about you except when you run from me.
from: [email protected]
date: April 20, 11:08 PM
subject: Run the other way?
Would you rather I run to you?
from: [email protected]
date: April 21, 6:03 AM
subject: Yes I would
I would like you on your knees for that smart ass comment.
from: [email protected]
date: April 21, 9:32 AM
subject: Love that Position
I would get on my knees for you. You know that. I would get on my knees and take you in my mouth. Under your desk. While you were in a meeting. I love tasting you. So. Much.
from: [email protected]
date: April 21, 3:43 PM
subject: You’re killing me.
I would be stone-faced and not let on.
from: [email protected]
date: April 21, 4:04 PM
subject: Relentless
I would do everything I could to break you.
from: [email protected]
date: April 21, 4:14 PM
subject: I know, believe me, I know
I bet you would. I have excellent control.
from: [email protected]
date: April 21, 7:17 PM
subject: Shifting gears…
That’s why you’re such a good lawyer. By the way, I hear you’re Chris’ attorney now. Thank you for taking care of him.
from: [email protected]
date: April 21, 7:43 PM
subject: From blow jobs to business…
Thank you for the introduction. I’m gonna make him an even richer mofo.
from: [email protected]
date: April 21, 11:23 PM
subject: Cocky, and I like it
I bet you are. I wish I had a reason to be in entertainment and have you be my lawyer.
from: [email protected]
date: April 22, 5:55 AM
subject: If I were
I’d fight for you, Julia. I’d get you everything you wanted. I’d give you everything you wanted.
from: [email protected]
date: April 22, 10:09 AM
subject: You would…
What about you? What do you want?
from: [email protected]
date: April 22, 5:12 PM
subject: One word
You.
from: [email protected]
date: April 22, 8:29 PM
subject: Re: One Word
The same. I want the same.
from: [email protected]
date: April 23, 11:10 AM
subject: You ok?
Still there?
from: [email protected]
date: April 23, 3:53 PM
subject: Hi
Hey…you’ve been quiet…everything OK? Don’t make me call you :)
from: [email protected]
date: April 23, 9:01 PM
subject: Should I be worried?
Was it something I said?
from: [email protected]
date: April 23, 9:40 PM
subject:It was something you said…
What are you wearing?
from: [email protected]
date: April 23, 9:52 PM
subject: Not working tonight so the answer is…
Shirt. Stockings. Thong. Heels.
from: [email protected]
date: April 23, 10:04 PM
subject: Hard…
Truth?
from: [email protected]
date: April 23, 10:15 PM
subject: Full truth.
I swear.
from: [email protected]
date: April 23, 10:22 PM
subject: Better be
Are you sure?
from: [email protected]
date: April 23, 10:30 PM
subject: 100%
Yes.
from: [email protected]
date: April 23, 10:37 PM
subject: This is not a request
Take off the underwear.
from: [email protected]
date: April 23, 10:40 PM
subject: Your wish is my command
Done.
Julia startled when she heard a loud knock on her door. What the hell? It was eleven o’clock at night. Cold dread rushed through her veins. There could only be one person banging hard at this hour. Charlie, or his men. She took off her heels, padded quietly to the door, and peered through the keyhole.
