Chapter 5
Nick
“What time is it?”
“Too early for you to be up. Go back to sleep,” I tell her, kissing her forehead. “I’ll be back.”
“Where’re you going?”
“I need to go to the precinct to see a potential client. Go back to sleep. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I pull the covers up over her shoulders and walk out the door, regretting having to leave her alone in my bed.
“Let me get this straight: you stand accused of assault and battery by your now ex-girlfriend, and you don’t have any money to pay your legal fees. Is that right?” I say across the table to my brother’s friend.
“Yes.”
“I don’t own a Bugatti. Hell, I can afford to buy ten of them and still not put a dent in my bank account, but I don’t.”
Logan nods his head at me and remains silent, looking down at his hands on the table.
“But you bought a Bugatti. A Bugatti! You don’t have a pot to piss in, you don’t even have a bush to piss in. You get an advance for your album and you blow it all on a car.”
“No, I needed a place to live. I rented an apartment.”
“Where?” I say, becoming increasingly annoyed.
“Upper East Side,” he says, lifting his head up. “But I got a good deal because I know the guy.”
I shake my head at how ludicrous this is.
“After I got the apartment, I needed furniture. Then I needed clothes.”
“You have nothing to your name—no stream of income, and you live with your mother— and someone hands you a check for one million dollars, the first thing you do is get yourself a lawyer and an accountant. The lawyer to save your ass from all the false accusations coming your way, and the accountant and financial advisor to manage and diversify your money so you don’t find your ass in this predicament. ”
“That’s good advice. I’ll make sure I take it for next time.”
I sigh.“I sure as hell hope so. I’ll take your case pro bono.”
“Thank you. I’ll pay you back, I promise.” He looks down at his hands on the table.
“You don’t have to do that. I’m doing this because I know your family, you’ve been friends with my brother for years, and I know your parents raised you right.”
“They’re going to lose it when they find out. They never did like Shannon.”
“Question, is this the same girl I saw you with a couple months back? The aspiring swimsuit model?”
“That’s the one. Crazy bitch!”
“I told you she was trouble. If I remember correctly, you said, ‘I like trouble.’ See what trouble can get you?”
“Yeah, I see now, two to five.”
“Remember that next time.”
“Don’t worry, I will.”
“When you see Gage, tell him to call me. When I haven’t heard from him this long it means he’s up to something.”
I leave the precinct and decide to go back to the office to pick up the legal documents I left on Friday. I grin as I look at my desk, remembering how hot Cat was on it. I turn to , and there she is. What is she doing here? She’s not supposed to come back until tomorrow.
“Hello, Nick.”
She closes the door and walks to me. The first time I saw her, she walked into my office, tall, beautiful, long blonde hair, sophisticated, hips swaying, sexy as hell.
We were a match for each other in every way.
She worked as hard as I did, and we played even harder, especially in the bedroom.
At one point I thought maybe I could see myself marrying her.
Glad I dogged that bullet to the head. Too bad it grazed my heart, though.
I watch her slide her fingers down between the collars of my coat.
“Aren’t you going to say hello to me, Nick?”
“What are you doing here on a Sunday, Paige? You’re not due to come back till tomorrow.”
She sits in the chair in front of me, crossing her leg over the other, making her skirt ride up enough that I could see her underwear—if she wore any, which she doesn’t.
“I took an earlier flight. After I called you yesterday and they spoke to you, the deal was done. I saw no other reason to stay by myself. It’s not like when we were there together like last time.”
Whenever we would go away for business, we would stay in the same room. We believed in mixing business with pleasure—a lot of pleasure. Even after we broke up.
“Nick, we were good together.”
She gets up, not bothering to pull her skirt down, and brushes up against me like a feline.
I watch her and will my body not to react.
By now we would have been all over each other, with her legs and ass up in the air.
But I need to get back to Cat. The last thing I want to do is fuck up, and being here alone with Paige is the beginning of fucking up.
“The sex was good,” I say, stone-faced, with no intentions of having any type of contact with her.
“Yes, it was, but that’s not all that was good. Don’t act like you don’t care about me, Nick.”
She runs her fingernail along my jawline. I take her wrist and put her hand down to her side, looking at her without blinking an eye. “I have to go, Paige.” She pouts and looks back at me and doesn’t move out of my way.
“Nick, you can’t ignore me. Don’t act like we didn’t have something good!”
“We had something, I don’t know how good it was. We won’t find out because you fucked it up. That was the best thing you could have done for me.”
“Really, why’s that?”
“Right now I’m going home to the best thing that ever happened to me, and the sex is fan-fricking-tastic, out of this world.”
She sneers at me and rolls her eyes up and down my body. “Ha, that will be over before the month is up. So that’s why you didn’t answer your phone last night. When you’re done with your plaything of the month, call me.”
“Goodbye, Paige.” I walk past her and open my door so she can get the hell out. I lock it behind me and head home to the best thing to happen to me.
There was no way I was going to answer the phone last night with Cat next to me. Paige took up enough of my time in the bathroom yesterday—that’s what took me so long. She could have handled those minor issues with the Paxtons without calling me.
When I walk in to my apartment, I hear pots and pans clanging and music playing. Cat’s there, her back turned to me, in the big, white fluffy robe. I walk up behind her silently and press her to the counter with my body, making her jump and yelp.
“Nick! Don’t do that, you scared the crap out of me.”
I kiss her on the cheek and her lips. “I’m sorry, baby. I couldn’t help myself. You looked so cute standing here. What are you doing?”
“I was waiting for you. I couldn’t go back to sleep after you left.”
“I didn’t mean to wake you up so early.”
“It’s okay. Since I couldn’t sleep, I decided to make you breakfast. It’s not as good as yours, but it’s edible.”
“I hope it’s as edible as you.” I kiss her neck. “If it is, then I’m going to love it.” She bites the side of her lower lip and smiles. I follow her over to the table and take a seat. She whips the lid off a dish. Eggs, bacon, toast, and strawberries are on the plate.
“So what do you think, did I do well?”
I look at her and smile. “Yes, you did.” I taste a piece of the egg. It’s actually very good. I was a little skeptical, because I’ve never seen Cat cook anything since I’ve known her.
She beams at me when she sees the smile on my face. “Do you really like it?”
“Yes, it’s really good. When did you learn to cook? I’ve never seen you in the kitchen cooking.”
“I had to learn how to feed myself when I was away at college, there was no Sophie around. And she used to let me help her cook sometimes, I learned a few things.”
“It’s nice to know I’ll be getting a gourmet dinner tonight.”
“No, you won’t. I said I know how to feed myself. I’m letting you know right now my culinary expertise doesn’t expand past breakfast and frozen foods.”
“Then we’re a match because my culinary skills don’t expand past grilled chicken and steak on the Foreman grill.”
“You made me a gourmet breakfast yesterday.” She puts the lid down with her hand on her hip.
“I never said I made it; you assumed I did.”
“And you let me believe it.”
“You were impressed with my skills in the kitchen.”
“I was, you little liar. I should know better than to trust a lawyer. You’re all born liars.”
“Hey, hey, hey, don’t slander a noble profession.”
“Whatever,” she says, sitting down. “I guess between you and me we’ll never starve. You’ll make dinner, I’ll make breakfast, and for lunch we’ll meet in the middle and order out.”
“Sounds good to me.” I drink some of my orange juice and take another bite of eggs.
“Me, too.”
“That was good. Thank you.”
“Did everything go well with your client?”
“Yeah, it was one of my brother’s friends; he was arrested for assault and battery against his ex-girlfriend.”
She looks appalled. “Did he do it?”
“No, I don’t think so. I told him before that girl was trouble. Never trust a big butt and a smile.”
“Are you quoting from Bell Biv Devoe?”
“That girl is”—we take a beat and sing at the same time—“Poison! Poison pa pa pa pa pa poison.”
We laugh and high five over the table. We used to do things like that when we were little all the time. It was a game we played, if one of us said the words that were in a song. Good times.
“Is that all you did while you were gone?”
“Yes, why?” I’m not telling her about seeing Paige at the office. I’m not going into that. Things have been going good, and today is my last day with her. I don’t want her to think about something that’s over and done with. Nothing happened, no need for me to tell her.
“Just asking.”
“I did go to the office to pick up some papers I have to look over.” I get up and put the plate in the dishwasher.
“I’ll be back.” She gets up from the chair pushing it under the table.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to put some clothes on. I can’t walk around in a bathrobe all day.”
“Yes, you can. You can do anything you want to. Besides, I’d prefer you keep it on.”
“You’re not walking around in a bathrobe, and didn’t you tell me last night you wanted to take me out again?”
“I did,” I say slowly. “But I changed my mind. I would rather spend the entire day having beautiful you all to myself on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I don’t feel like sharing you with the rest of the world.”
“I don’t know…what will we do all day by ourselves? Do you have any ideas?”
I walk over to the table where she’s standing. “Are you kidding me?” She screams when I bend down and throw her over my shoulder and slap her on the ass.
“Nick, put me down, all the blood is going to rush to my head and give me a headache, what good will I be to you then!”
She has a good point, but I can fix that. “Don’t worry about it. I have some feel-good medicine to take that headache away.”
“I’m not sure it’s strong enough for this massive headache I’m about to get.”
“Trust me, it is! It’s so potent it’s downright illegal in some states.” I throw her down on the bed. She scrambles up to the top against my headboard. I unbutton my shirt and watch the robe part, exposing her body from the waist down. I love her playfulness.
“What I’m about to give you is a highly addictive stimulant.”
“I believe I’ve taken some of it recently.”
“I believe you have, it was a special mix only for you. In fact, it’s off the market now to anyone but you, of course.” I crawl up the bed after her, like a predator after its next meal.
“I remember now, it was very addictive. I couldn’t get enough of it.”
Her hands go over my bare chest, and I grab her thigh and pull her down under me, kissing her slow and long.
She squirms under me, her hands moving down my chest to the top of my pants to unbuckle my belt.
She pulls back and rubs her lips across mine, down to the column of my neck.
I groan and bite my lip hard to stop myself from ripping off her robe and slamming into her with all the intensity and pressure she’s building inside of me with her tongue and mouth and hands.
Her phone starts ringing. Damn it.
“Nick, my phone,” she says between breaths.
I run my hands up her rib cage. Between breaths I tell her, “Let it ring, please let it ring.” I know she’s going to answer it. The damn thing won’t stop ringing! I reach over to grab the phone before she does. She tries to take it out of my hand, but I move it out of her reach.
“Nick, what if it’s my mother or one of my brothers?”
“If it’s your family, I’ll let you answer it. What the fuck?” I look at the phone, still hard between her legs, and show it to her. It stops ringing. She looks at it then back at me.
“Nick.”
“What?”
She takes the phone, and it starts ringing again. She doesn’t say anything, and I know it’s him again.
“Why the hell is he calling you?”
“We’re friends. He probably just wants to say hi.”
The phone keeps ringing in her hand, and it’s bothering me. “Answer the damn phone, Cat, so he can stop calling.” I roll off her to the other side of the bed, stifling my urge to grab her phone and smash it to pieces.