Chapter 17
Saffron
The ride back home wasn’t as mortifying as I thought.
Tyler was right that his assistant said nothing about what he saw that morning, or his employees were polite enough not to mention or look like they were aware.
Matt, however, was doing his best to avoid me or, when he couldn’t, he was overly cordial.
Was this how Matt was with Tyler’s other women?
Or was he simply not aware of them, and I was the first woman he encountered?
Knowing Tyler’s ‘I don’t shit where I eat’ policy—yes, I read his Architectural Digest profile—it was probably the latter.
Even so, knowing that someone had seen us was still a tad embarrassing.
Like a sex-starved woman, I had given it up the moment he challenged me.
Heck, I had given it up because I wanted him so bad.
He hated me. Made no qualms about hiding the fact, and yet I jumped into his bed at the first opportunity.
But the sex was so good. I don’t remember having sex that good since…
Well, since Tyler. He was right; he was the best I had ever had, sex-wise.
He was obsessive and relentless in bed. He made sure I was satisfied and, more than that, he made me feel like I was the only woman in the world.
The only woman who could drive him insane.
He was a god in bed. Everywhere else was another matter.
After I woke from his bed, I rushed to my room, my walk of shame amplified by my lack of dress.
I had to wear one of his robes so I could make the dash.
“Penny for your thoughts.”
I jumped. Yanked out of my thoughts of Tyler, who had come to occupy a seat opposite mine. He had been busy with his people on the other end of the plane, just like last time, and I had not seen him coming until he was sitting next to me.
“Shouldn’t you be doing an all-hands or whatever?”
He shook his head, a small smile playing on his lips.
“The all-hands is done.” The casual outfit of jeans and a white shirt did not calm my raging nerves.
The minute I laid my eyes on him after avoiding him all morning, my body went into overdrive remembering everything about him last night. What he did to me. What I did to him.
“Wipe that smirk, will you? And leave me be.”
“You wouldn’t be saying that if you knew why I am here.”
I made a dramatic effort of closing the book cover of my iPad and put it to the side. “What?”
He chuckled. “You know, for someone who screamed my name through multiple orgasms, you’re highly ungrateful.”
I glanced around to see if anyone had heard us, but everyone else had headphones on and was at the other end of the plane. “If you wanna rehash—”
“I’ll grant you your divorce.”
I perked up.
“Under one condition.”
“Oh.”
“You help me find who is blackmailing me.”
“So now you believe I don’t have it? If I had known sex was all it took, I would have fucked you a long time ago.”
He smirked again. “Your pussy isn’t that good. But I’ve had some time to think, and you’re right; we should end this thing.”
My eyes narrowed. “Why now? You weren’t so urgent about it before.”
“Trust me, I don’t want to be married to you, and now that I’ve fucked you out of my system, I don’t have to be attached to you anymore.”
“So, you remained married to me because you hadn’t ‘fucked’ me out of your system? What about last time? It didn’t work then, so what makes you so sure it will work now?”
He shrugged. “It did. I’m sitting in front of you right now, and I am not thinking of fucking you senseless. I consider that progress.”
It stung, but part of me could only hear that he hadn’t been able to concentrate in my presence. So I wasn’t the only one. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks.” He slid down in his seat and straightened his legs, widening them and boxing mine in his. “Now I can fully move on to actually finding someone worthy of being my wife.”
My heart clenched. I don’t know why I cared that he wanted to get married. “I feel sorry for the unlucky woman. She’s going to have to contend with a cheater.”
He frowned as though I had said something offensive. “What makes you say that?”
“You cheated on me, didn’t you?”
“Come on. That hardly counts. Don’t tell me you kept yourself for me all these years?”
I didn’t, but I didn’t sleep with as many men as he did women. “It still counts as adultery in a court of law.”
“Oh, my God.” He rubbed his chin with a smug grin I wanted to slap off his face. “You are jealous, aren’t you?”
“No! No, I am not. Just stating facts, that’s all.”
“Regardless, when I finally do it for real, believe me, I will be loyal to her.” He was telling the truth.
“Interesting. Do you have any candidates willing to be shackled to you?”
“Yes, actually.”
Another twist in the gut. “I feel sorry for her. Or them.”
“Why?”
I shrugged as casually as I could. “Someone only thinking of me as a candidate for marriage and not a person they’ve fallen in love with. That’s not a marriage I want to be in.”
“Isn’t that what you did with me?”
This again. “That was my father, not me. Don’t you want to be with a woman you love and who loves you back? Shouldn’t you be looking for love?”
He scoffed, folding his hands in his lap. “I didn’t take you for a romantic.”
“I just think you’d have a more successful marriage if you looked for that instead of someone who ticked your boxes.”
“Tell that to the fifty percent divorce rate.”
I never took Tyler to be that much of a cynic, but I guess it made sense.
He has never shown much emotion beyond the little quips and snarks he liked to throw around.
And then there was the odd no-kissing rule.
He had refused to kiss me during our most intimate moments.
It was odd the first time; now that he did it again, it was clear it was a rule.
Or maybe it was just me he didn’t want to kiss.
The evil woman who had forced him into a union and kept what did he call it? ‘Sword of Damocles’ over his head.
“So what are you looking for in a woman?”
“Why? Do you want to put yourself as a candidate?”
I scoffed. “I know I don’t qualify, but I have had enough experience with you never to want to apply.”
“Trust me, you know nothing about me.” He sounded a bit harsher than I expected him to.
“Never claimed to. But I do wonder what it is exactly you’re looking for if it’s not love.”
“A woman who’s smart, sophisticated, and can host a dinner with, I don’t know, the ambassador of France without freaking out.”
“Of course you would want a woman who went to finishing school.”
“Not really, but definitely one with a college education.”
I assume the college in question was not the Fashion Institute. “Then why did you date all those models and actresses if that’s what you really look for in a woman?”
“How obsessed are you with me, really? You know my dating history that much?”
“Everything I’ve known about you has been against my will.”
“Sure. Sure.”
“Fuck you, Tyler.”
“Been there, done that. Got the t-shirt.”
The gall to slam my words back at me. I got out of my seat and went to the opposite side of the plane before I punched his pretty face. He was insufferable. A jerk. And I would be more than happy to be rid of him finally.
◆◆◆
“You’re back!” Malaya screamed when she saw me at my desk the following morning. “Why didn’t you give yourself some time to rest?”
“I’ll rest when I am done with H Malaya is good.
But this meant we were now busier than ever.
After our initial hiring spree, Malaya and I were thinking of going on another one.
She had suggested it after she had called, telling me about the Rainsuite deal she had clinched.
There was just too much work now for the boutique office we were running.
“You’re right,” I said. “I feel like a lead weight dragging us down. You’re bringing in all the clients.”
Malaya bent her head to the side. “Come on. You were the one who kept us afloat with your previous contacts.”
“One-time clients. If we nail Rainsuite, we could have a consistent client on the books.”
“Rainsuite and H&H. How was Italy, by the way?”
“Uh, fine.” I spoke too fast and winced. If there was anyone who could easily catch if something was off, it was Malaya.
“Why does it sound like it wasn’t?” Her face fell in horror. “Please don’t tell me they refused to make the sofas.”
“Oh no, it’s not that. That went well.”
“Except for…”
“Except for nothing.” I turned back to my laptop as though I were doing real, important work.
“Ah, I see. You went to the romantic city of Florence via Gulfstream Airways with your sexy husband, and you two got to,” she mimicked her finger entering a hole.
“Nothing of the sort happened or could have happened. He had his employees with him,” I lied.
“It’s not as if they’re with him the entire time. I heard your room was next to his.”
“How did you even know about that!”
Malaya sat down in her chair with dramatic flair. “I have contacts. So how was it? I heard you got a really great suite. From the sound of it, I would have thought he was trying to get into your pants. But maybe I was mistaken.”
“What do you mean? It was Lindy who got that suite.” Tyler was probably smarting, but it was probably too late to do anything about it.
“Uh, no. Tyler was the one who bumped you up.” She raised her hands in the air. “At least that’s what I heard.”
“You should gossip less with the clients.”
She flashed a knowing grin. “How else am I to get business?”
“I can’t with you,” I chuckled.
Kayla buzzed my desk phone. “A call from H&H for you,” she said. What now? I didn’t have a meeting with them until the following week. “Put them through,” I said.
“He’s calling to see if you’re free tomorrow,” Malaya said, giggling.
I waved a middle finger at her as I picked up the phone. She only hollered.
“Saffron Channing speaking.”
“Did you do this?” Tyler barked on the other end. He sounded harsh.
“I could answer if I knew what you were talking about,” I said as casually as I could, so as not to raise Malaya’s heckles. She was staring at me, not making any pretense of listening to my call.
“Don’t play games with me. I told you I would grant you your divorce. Why are you leaking this shit to the press?”
“Tyler, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Do you know what you’ve done? Our deal with Massimo is on life support! Because of this! Because of you!”
“What are you talking about!”
“Is that why you weren’t answering your phone? You were hiding from me?”
I picked up my phone with shaking hands and saw four missed calls. All from him. I had turned my phone to silent so I could work without distractions. He had also sent a text.
TylertheAsshole: Did you do this?
Attached was a news article from the paper of record. I clicked on it with shaking hands.
Hawthorne & Hawthorne accused of code violations on first New York building. Bribed officials to gain permits.
“Tyler, I had nothing to do with this.”
“Yeah right. The same thing you happened to blackmail with is the same thing that leaked. You can call our business dealings over. I am suing you. Consider me your enemy.”
The line went dead.