Chapter 24 Angel
Did I just tell him to buy condoms?
What the hell was that about? Did I want to have sex with him again? I did not like this man. At all. Yes, he was a great agent. Yes, he was hot and sexy and all the things. Yes, he knew what he was doing with that impressive piece of equipment God had blessed him with.
But . . .
He was Onyx.
My enemy. My rival.
Not my fuck buddy.
Not my panty-ripping, orgasm-inducing . . . lover? I shuddered. No. Definitely not.
Standing outside my office building, I had no idea where to dash to so I could grab underwear. Shit. I jerked when a cool hand touched my elbow, and Onyx looked down at me.
“You seem to forget you aren’t exactly safe,” he said snidely. “Where to?”
“You’re coming?”
Onyx’s lips twisted in a self-satisfied smirk.
“It seems that it’s the theme of the day,” he said lasciviously.
“This way,” he ordered, and we walked a few blocks together until we were both in a convenience store, which wasn’t exactly helpful.
With a sigh, I purchased wet wipes and already knew I wasn’t getting panties here.
I resigned myself to being bare. I couldn’t look at him as I put the wipes in the basket, and I prayed to the Lord that no one I knew would see me when he dropped the two packets of condoms on top of them.
“Two?” I questioned in disbelief. Onyx thought about it and picked up another two.
“I’ll get more when we need them,” he said with a confidence that I found truly amazing.
Wordlessly, I placed my purchases on the counter and was grateful when the employee simply rang them up without comment. We walked back to work.
“You don’t think this is weird?” I asked him.
“What?” He had been walking beside me with his hands in his pockets, completely relaxed, completely at ease.
“You and me,” I looked around quickly, “you know, doing it.”
“Doing it?” he asked me with a smirk. “Fucking, you mean?”
I heard a younger woman gasp as we passed her, and I squeezed my eyes shut in embarrassment. “Why? Why do you do that?”
“It’s funny.”
“You never, ever laugh,” I commented. “Not really.”
“Really?” He looked contemplative, but he didn’t speak again.
In the elevator, he was on his phone, and I knew he was already lost in his head and his work. I paused at the restrooms, and he turned to me, realizing why I stopped, and with a casual nod, he went back to his office.
In front of the mirror in the bathroom, I looked at myself. The cut from my neck was visible, and I self-consciously pulled at my blouse. My hair was a little messy, but if you weren’t me, you wouldn’t notice. Well, I was sure Onyx would notice.
Quickly, in case someone came in, I unbuttoned my shirt and pulled it aside to look at my shoulder. I saw the faint bruise, and my fingertips traced over it as I remembered how he felt as he came inside me. Opening the bag, I looked at the four innocent boxes of condoms.
He wanted to have sex again.
Did I?
Buttoning my blouse, I watched myself. Yes.
With his body, but maybe not with him. I chuckled at the silliness.
He made me feel good, but he was . . . him.
He felt nothing for me, and I knew that better than anyone.
I had been on the receiving end of his fuckery for months.
Years. And I didn’t even know if I felt anything for him.
If I had to ask myself, then surely not?
He didn’t need me to like him, and I didn’t. I was sure of it. Did we need to like each other to have sex? I was too old to have this conversation with myself, I decided.
But he told me about Amar today. He didn’t need to do that either, and the Onyx of a few weeks ago would have never been that honest. I appreciated the heads-up.
Did he feel guilty? Because he had sex with me, he felt that he needed to tell me?
In the stall, I cleaned up as best as I could and then sat and thought about how much more work I had to do today and my state of undress with my undergarments. I’d never been someone who could sleep naked, so to walk about in a skirt with no panties, I felt uncomfortable and wicked.
And not wicked in a good way.
Pulling my skirt down, I exited the stall, and with the bag in my hand from the store, I headed back into my office. He hadn’t taken the condoms from me. So . . . he intended for me to keep them. For him? For us? Here?
Fuck. This was going to give me a headache. Maybe I needed to ask him. I instantly shut that thought down, hell no. It was already awkward; there was no need to make it worse.
Opening up my contract proposal with Amar Jones, I fought down the irritation. I stood by what I said to Onyx. If he wanted to sneak behind my back for a better deal, go right ahead.
The other clients I lost to Onyx, I knew he had approached them, and I knew that he would have made it sound like, because we worked together, it was fine. He has a talented tongue after all. I smirked at my dirty mind.
I called Amar.
“Hi, Amar, it’s Angel Balan from Saints Sports Management,” I said when he answered.
“Oh, yeah, hi, Angel. You good?”
“Yes, actually, I am. Actually, you know what, Amar? I’m better than good, I’m a damn fine agent.”
“Sure, yeah, I know that,” he stammered.
“Well, obviously, you don’t, or else you wouldn’t have called my colleague, looking for an alternative,” I told him coldly. “However, you’re right — you’re not the right fit for the clients I represent. Thank you for making sure I knew that before we both made a mistake.”
I hung up.
Well, that wasn’t professional at all.
It felt damn good, though.
I was having a day of not feeling professional and feeling good about it. I got an email ten minutes later from Onyx to the group, which in itself was rare.
Amar Jones will not be signed by anyone in this agency. Should he call you, seeking an agent, the answer’s no.
I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face. Pushing my seat back, I walked out of my office and across to his. He looked up when I tapped on the door.
“Yes?”
“Saw your email,” I said as I went in further and shut the door behind me, leaning against it.
“Mm-hmm.”
“You didn’t need to do that,” I told him as I watched him.
“I don’t need to do a lot of things, Angel, but I do them.” Onyx leaned back in his chair as he looked me over. “How’s the alfresco situation?”
A loud laugh burst out of me as I clamped my hand over my mouth to stop it. “It’s not something I would recommend with a skirt.”
His smirk was wicked as he held my stare. “You should carry spares.”
“Should I?” I bit my bottom lip as I watched him. Holy fuck, were we flirting?
“I keep a spare shirt here,” he told me.
“Not really the same,” I teased him. “A shirt is easier to explain than ripped panties.”
“True.” He frowned. “Actually, I don’t think it is.”
“I should get back to my desk,” I told him, and he nodded while he watched me with those dark eyes that hid so much.
“I’ll be finished in a few hours,” he told me as he turned his attention back to his laptop. “We can leave then, that okay?”
“Um.” I was once again speechless. “Yes, of course.”
Leaving his office, reeling once again that he had just basically asked me if I was okay waiting for him. Waiting for him to take me home? I walked right into Neil without seeing him.
“Angel, I know. I’m going to talk to him, I know Amar was your client, and I’ll talk—”
“Oh, no, it’s fine,” I assured him. “Um, I told Amar earlier I wasn’t going to sign him.”
“You did?” Neil looked confused.
“Yeah, we didn’t fit,” I told him as he looked at me, and I saw his frown and his next question forming, and I cut him off again. “I have to run, got a call soon, talk later,” I said as I basically hid in my office.
The afternoon passed quickly, and soon I was looking up when Onyx knocked on my door to tell me it was time to leave.
“You ready?”
Looking around my desk, I nodded. “Five minutes?”
“Sounds good.” He stepped back out, and I shut down for the night. He was waiting at the elevator, his phone in his hand, and when he heard me approach, he hit the elevator call button.
“My housekeeper’s making salmon and rice, that okay?”
“You keep asking me things today,” I told him as I stepped into the elevator. “It’s weird.”
“Well, I don’t know you well enough to know if you have an aversion or an allergy to fish, so I thought it was easier to ask.”
“I like fish,” I told him as I hid my smile. “And I know you’ll know what my allergies are, Onyx.”
“I do.”
The car journey was silent, and when we got to his house, I marveled at it. I hadn’t seen it properly last night from outside, and this morning I was too focused on Onyx to look. As we approached, I looked at it in awe. “Your house is beautiful,” I said as he parked.
“You told me.”
“Well, I’m telling you again,” I sassed.
“Noted,” he quipped as he exited the car, and I followed him inside. Onyx strode to the kitchen, and I lingered before curiosity got the better of me when I heard voices.
He was in the kitchen talking to an older woman, who had on simple jeans and a T-shirt and was talking with him animatedly as she busied herself at the stove.
“This is Angel,” Onyx said as she turned to look at me. “She’s a guest. She’s in Sable and Dad’s room.”
“Hi,” she greeted me. “Jane.”
“Hi.”
“She eats fish. What do you not eat?” Onyx asked me, and I knew he was being smart, but I couldn’t call him out on his bullshit when the housekeeper was right there.
“I’m good with most things,” I told her honestly. “Although, you don’t need to cook for me.”
“Nonsense, making for two is more satisfying than cooking for just him,” she told me as she jabbed her thumb over her shoulder.
I saw Onyx’s eyebrows rise in surprise, but he said nothing. “How long?” Onyx asked her.
“Ten minutes,” she told him. “Want me to put it on the low heat?”
“Yes, I need to work out a few knots,” he told her as he passed her. “Set the alarm when you leave,” he instructed, and as he walked past me, he didn’t acknowledge me at all.