Tess #3
I concentrated on reprimanding Tey instead.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were feeling POTSie?
” It was a term she used for when she was having a bad day, made up from the acronym that described her condition.
She rarely fainted out of nowhere. There were usually signs leading up to it, and she’d apparently ignored them.
Tey gave me her guilty look. “Because you would have made me go home.”
“I’m making you go home now.”
“I know.”
“And we’re splurging for a cab.” I hooked my hand under her shoulder to help her stand up. Instantly, Scott was on her other side, helping as well.
“Scott,” he said in introduction. “And you’re Tey?”
“Teyana, and I know who you are.”
I felt my cheeks burn. He did not need to know that I’d been talking about him. He was already too aware of his effect on me.
He was nice enough not to gloat. “Let me have my driver take you,” he offered when we were standing upright.
Instinct told me that the offer was too much, that I shouldn’t accept. We’d be fine in a cab.
But with Tey not feeling well, and no idea how long it would take to hail a taxi, refusing didn’t seem like an option. “Fine,” I grumbled. Then, more gratefully, “Thank you.”
While Scott texted for his car, I retrieved Teyana’s cane for her. I didn’t let her use it walking outside, though. I made her take both my arm and Scott’s. If he was going to help, he might as well really help.
By the time we made it from the theater to the road, the car was already pulling up. We’d never have been able to get a cab that fast.
Also, it appeared that Scott hadn’t been joking about his other car being a Maybach. In a lot of ways, it was more impressive than the limo.
“Holy fuck, this is a car,” Tey said as she slid across the backseat. I started to get in beside her when she stopped me. “You can’t just leave without a proper goodbye,” she whisper-hissed.
I paused, debating. The car had emergency lights blinking; no one had honked yet. We probably had a minute. “Fine,” I mouthed back.
“Take your time.” She winked.
I turned back to him, letting the door loosely shut behind me. Now that I was looking at him again, I didn’t know what I should say. Thank you, obviously. Maybe, you didn’t have to do this. Kiss me, were the words that seemed to be at the tip of my tongue.
Thankfully, he spoke before I did. “What address should I give the driver?”
Oh, yes. Practicalities.
And now I had to think about this answer. “Uh…”
He gave me that drop-dead sexy eyebrow raise. “Is this a hard question?”
I’d wanted to keep him from knowing who I was before, which meant keeping him from knowing where I lived or where I was staying. Now that he knew I worked for Conscience Connect and the fact that I was sure he’d find out my whole scheme eventually, it seemed less important.
“I’m staying at my boss’s,” I admitted. “Tey should probably stay the night with me.”
“At Kendra’s?”
“House-sitting. It’s part of the job.”
His eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Quite the loyal employee. How close are the two of you?”
I shot back with a suspicious look of my own. “How close are the two of you?”
His eye twinkled with the light of a passing car. A beat passed before he answered. “Has she ever mentioned me?”
“Very tangentially.” When she’d said the Sebastians were family friends.
“There you go,” he said, as if that told me everything.
And maybe it did as far as he was concerned. An employee loyal enough to both run the business pitches and house-sit would surely be an employee who knew the men in her boss’s life.
Of course, that wasn’t the real situation, but if he thought it was, it probably meant he really hadn’t been more than a blip on Kendra’s long list of lovers.
I wished that confirmation made me feel better than it did. I would have preferred to discover that he hadn’t been on that list at all.
“Well, then,” I said, having nothing else to say. Then our eyes locked, and all the earlier restlessness returned. I remembered his lips on me. I remembered the hard shape of his cock pressed against my stomach.
His expression said he was thinking dirty things too. He stepped in closer. “I could come with you.”
Could he? “You’re here with your mother,” I reminded him.
“I could come by later.”
The fantasy played out in my head. Tey wouldn’t mind if I snuck out. Or if he snuck in. She could have Kendra’s bedroom, and we could…
I couldn’t be stupid. “I can’t.” They were the hardest words I’d ever said. “We can’t.”
“But you want to.”
“But I won’t.”
He let another beat pass. It was hard to think he was wrestling with his desire. I couldn’t imagine that he was the kind of guy who ever resisted something that he really wanted.
As though to confirm it, he leaned in, and I was sure he was going to kiss me. Instead, he just opened the door again to help me in. “Just give Rodolpho the address. He’ll get you there okay.”
Not being kissed left a disappointing ache between my ribs. I wanted to linger. A car honked behind the Maybach.
“Good night, Scott Sebastian,” I said reluctantly.
“Good night, Tessa Turani.”
I climbed in the car and gave the address to Rodolpho. When the car pulled into traffic, I wondered if Scott watched us drive away. I didn’t turn around to look.