Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
INTO THE OFFICE. Oh, boy. Next morning, waking with Cam led to a makeout session that ended with him silently leaving her to take a shower. That might have been flattering, if it wasn’t so frustrating.
Patience.
Patience.
It wasn’t a difficult concept, yet her brain couldn’t figure it out. Stupid brain.
The email from her boss came after she showered and dressed in the downstairs bathroom. So much for one thing at a time.
Allan wanted her in the office. Important. Urgent. That couldn’t signal anything good.
Just as she was about to exit the bathroom, her phone pinged a message. From Mason. Karma really had it in for her today.
Oh, God, another man she had no interest in seeing wanted her company.
Why would she have lunch with him? It would be rude to tell him where to get off.
Especially when it was possible he might know what Allan wanted.
No, it couldn’t be that. The only thing Allan was likely to do was fire her.
Mason was not the kind of guy to comfort or commiserate with her.
And she didn’t want him schadenfreuding either.
Everyone was scattered in the kitchen, though her thumb was still hovering above her phone’s keyboard. What should she say? Be polite but decisive. Why was she so hung up on not being rude to the man who’d humiliated her in front of everyone they knew.
Cam closed the fridge and her eyes met his as he turned. He’d given her good advice. Okay, maybe just advice.
“Mason wants to have lunch.”
“Cool. I’m happy to have lunch with him,” Cam said, flashing a ridiculous smile. “I’ve got plenty to say to that asshole.”
Not so helpful a response.
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “I think he meant lunch with me.”
“Who’s Mason?” Roxie asked.
“My ex.”
“Oh, ho, ho…” Roxie exclaimed, accompanying her words with a few short almost silent claps. “Watch him come crawling back. Like we’ll let him in the door. Uh, no, thanks.” Roxie gave a sailing finger wave. “Toodle-oo, Goodbye, Old News.”
The woman’s husband had something to say about that. “You talk to your Old News all the time.”
“Says the man who spent an afternoon shacked up in a hotel with his ex. And my ASA ex literally traded me to you for a material witness like I’m a baseball card or something.” Roxie leaned in. “Told Zairn he was passing the gauntlet. What is that? I’m not a gauntlet.”
“Mantle,” Zairn said. “Porter passed me the mantle.”
“Seems you’re juggling a lot of mantles these days, Casanova.”
Accepting coffee from Cam, Ariella couldn’t help but worry for the couple. “I know the argument thing is supposed to be a decoy, but please tell me I haven’t broken your relationship.”
Zairn’s smile quirked for a flicker.
“I’m going to tell you a secret not even Zairn knows,” Roxie said like they weren’t in a room full of people. “It’s not possible to break our relationship. Take it from me. I know.”
“She tried.”
“Several times,” Roxie said without acknowledging her husband, even as his hand slid to the small of her back. “I tried to break it over and over again. It’s not possible. It always just springs back into shape no matter how you tug or contort it. Weebles wobble…”
It was no surprise that neither party of their relationship was insecure, they were confident people. But, damn, she envied that. Wasn’t everyone looking for that? Complete security and contentment… and dynamite sex.
Her own troubles dimmed when Honey came downstairs.
“She’ll email the details,” the woman said, joining them.
Honey? When did she arrive and why was she upstairs? The obvious answer was…
“You stayed overnight?”
“Yeah,” Honey said, putting her phone on the island.
“We were a bed short,” she said, frustrated because if she’d known, she’d have been a better hostess.
“Oh, it’s fine,” Honey said with a dismissive gesture. “I slept with Tripp.”
And when her eyes slid across to him, he picked up his coffee. “With me, not with me.”
“How do you know when you can and can’t touch?
” Roxie asked, posing a surprisingly personal question in a completely nonchalant way.
Roxie could make even the most intimate question sound like asking the time.
“You wake up half-assed and sleep with so many women, platonically and not… How does your subconscious register what’s off-limits?
I’m not always sure Zairn’s completely awake for sleepy middle of the night sex.
Sometimes I’m not, not at first, but instinct takes over, you know? Don’t you ever… on instinct?”
“Experience,” Tripp said. “And initiating isn’t my thing.”
“Because you’re scared of your momma?”
“No, just never need to,” Tripp said. “She takes the lead.”
“And you just go with it?”
“Sure. A woman wants sex, why shouldn’t I deliver?”
Honey hopped onto a stool. “Percentage-wise, how many do you reject?”
“Women?” Tripp asked like they’d segued to something new. “Zero.”
That hit almost everyone with the same surprise. Almost everyone.
“You have sex with absolutely every single woman who wants to have sex with you?” Honey asked. “Every single one?”
Good, she wasn’t the only one suspended in disbelief.
“No,” Tripp said. “I’d never have time to eat or sleep if I did that.”
“You just said—”
“I don’t reject women.” Tripp was almost laughing at their ignorance. “Back me up here, OG.”
“He’s right,” Zairn said, the only one in the room who wasn’t floored. “It’s an art.”
His wife was unimpressed. “Uh, my handsome Casanova, forgetting you rejected me?”
“When did I—in Vegas? Doesn’t count. You weren’t asking.”
“You didn’t know that.”
“And how long did my resolve last the next morning?”
After a subdued laugh, Roxie sighed. “Ah, ‘fuck it.’ You’re right, we’d have done it anyway.”
Honey brought them back to the now. “I’m confused. You don’t reject women, but you don’t have sex with them all either? Make it make sense.”
“Sometimes it’s not about the sex,” Tripp explained. “They’re looking for something. And I won’t be the asshole to take advantage of them.”
“I don’t get it either,” Ariella said to Honey, offering solidarity.
“You mean if a woman is vulnerable,” Roxie said. “So if she’s coming onto you because she’s in a bad place…”
“Yeah, that kind of thing. And rejection is a harsh word,” Tripp said. “You change the subject, keep talking, utilize a little foreplay, make her feel good. Everyone is looking for something. If it’s forever…”
“You’re not the guy,” Roxie said. “If it’s spite or revenge…”
Tripp raised one loose shoulder. “I can work with that.”
“You are particularly good at that,” Roxie conceded.
“Helping women feel better after a heartbreak or humiliation at the hands of an ex. Oh!” Roxie landed on her.
“Tripp will come with you to lunch, Ariella! Bet your ex would love you to rock up with a billionaire. Tripp will sleaze on you just enough to make your idiot ex uncomfortable, without actually crossing the line.”
“Have you been online this morning, Ariella?” Zairn asked.
“No,” she was quick to reply. “I’m too scared to look.”
“Most of it is Roxie and Zairn,” Cam said, squeezing the back of her neck.
Honey winced. “Your presence was picked up by a few smaller blogs.”
“Which means it’ll be picked up by the bigger players throughout today,” Knox said. “Take security to your lunch.”
Her jaw swung loose. “Security?”
“We’ve got a squad ready for you.”
“Okay,” she said, raising her arms to push Cam’s away as she backed off a step. “I don’t need security.”
“That asshole’s not coming here for lunch and this is the only place you’ll be safe without security.”
“I have to go into the office,” she said. “Allan wants to talk.”
“Allan?”
Roxie liked to know what was what and who was who.
“Her boss,” Zairn answered, typing into his phone.
Huh, should she be impressed or terrified that the billionaire knew so much about her?
“What does he want?” Cam asked.
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll come with you,” Roxie said. “Then we can go meet Mason together.”
“No.”
“I won’t embarrass you,” Roxie stated. “I’ll be on my best behavior.”
“Your best behavior could embarrass her.”
“No one asked you, Skippy.”
“No, you won’t come to lunch with me,” Ariella said. “Because I’m not going to lunch with Mason.” Cam’s gaze levelled hers. “Why would I have lunch with him? What could he possibly say that I’d want to hear?”
“Maybe he wants you back,” Honey hazarded.
“Ha, now that is a joke,” Roxie said, then checked. “It’s a joke, right? You wouldn’t leave Cam for that asshole, would you?”
Tripp posed another possibility. “Could be he’s not an asshole.”
“Cam said he’s an asshole.”
Tripp tipped his head. “He’s also the guy’s competition, so not the most impartial.”
“No one is anyone’s competition,” Ariella said, holding her hands up, phone locked to her palm by her thumb. “How does the security thing work?”
“Let them do their jobs.”
That wasn’t too helpful, Knox.
“They’ll work around you,” Roxie explained. “You just go about your business without trying to shake them. Where else do you have to go today?”
“I don’t know. Work. Brooker then probably back here.”
“Oh, then that’s easy. There’s a car outside.”
“For me?”
“For anyone,” Roxie said. “We have access to a fleet. No one will be stranded. Except maybe my Casanova.”
“You told me to go,” Zairn said without lifting his concentration from his phone. “I wasn’t going anywhere and you—”
“Go back to New York,” Roxie said. “We’ve got this covered.”
“Separating bigs up the jeopardy of your relationship.”
“Yes,” Roxie agreed with Tripp. “We’ll call you back when we need you.”
“Or when Rox Out is horny.”
“Or that.” Roxie pointed at Tripp. “New York’s so close, booty calls are an option.”
“Takes less time to fly from New York to Boston than it does in LA traffic to get from CollCom to the Kintyres.”
“The house that belongs to everyone,” Roxie said. “Z and I have done that ride for sex.”
“For you, that ride is sex,” Tripp said. “You have a thing for car sex.”
“Maybe I do, but we’re not always traveling together.”
“Knox is a better gauge.”
Which got the subject under everyone’s inspection.
“Of what?” Knox asked.
“Can you keep the flame alight between CollCom and the Kintyres?”
“Him and Jane could have sex in the car too,” Honey offered.
“Knox likes to drive.”
Honey frowned. “Literally or figuratively?”
“Both,” Tripp said.
“It’s not prohibitive,” Roxie said. “Roux’s mounted Rourke plenty of times when he’s behind the wheel. But my beautiful Jane—”
“My beautiful Jane,” Knox said.
“Share and share alike,” Roxie sing-songed. “Is this track on repeat? Feels like I’ve sung this one before.”
“Our sex life is private,” Knox said.
The finality wasn’t quite final.
Roxie slipped Zairn’s phone out from between his hand and the kitchen island. “I’ll ask Jane.”
Tripp, Honey, and Cam laughed.
“Wow, you really are Mimi two point oh,” Cam said. “She’d be so proud.”
Roxie raised the phone to her ear and bounced off her stool. “Hey, honey! Quick question for you…”
As she wandered to the patio, Knox exhaled.
“Pissed?” Cam asked.
Knox took another deep breath. “It’s at times like this I…”
“Hate her?”
“Love her,” Knox said. “The trust they have… Reminds me RK would go to war for Jane.”
“Without blinking,” Zairn said. “She loves you too.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Knox said. “How many are going to Brooker?”
“Just me,” Ariella was quick to answer. “I have to talk to my boss.”
Cam’s hand slid around her waist. “I’m your boss.”
“And I talk to you plenty. This is the big boss. The scary boss. The boss who can fire me. The boss who decides if I make rent next month.”
And she wouldn’t be looking at Cam any time soon, in case he reiterated last night’s crazy request. It was made in the heat of the moment. Intimacy. The bond between them that pulsed so hard when they lay together. He hadn’t meant it.
Or he had.
She was too scared to ask.
That was a conversation she wasn’t ready for, agreed, but it wasn’t one she wanted to shut down for good. How was Cam supposed to support her when she had no idea what she wanted?
“I can come with you,” Cam said.
“Any of the rest of us can come with you, Ariella,” Knox said, glaring at his brother. “You want to be keeping your distance.”
“Why? Why should I keep my distance?”
“The point is not to invite headlines,” Honey explained. “People are whispering about Ariella, let her be a passing story. Don’t pour gasoline around her then feign surprise when she goes up in flames.”
Okay that was somewhat defensive and a little more vivid than she might have expected from the supposedly impartial writer.
“Thank you.” Knox appreciated the support. “You can’t go, Cam.”
“But you can?” Cam asked. “How are you different? You’re a Collier too. A better-known one with a hot wife and your A-List-saturated wedding.”
“Exactly. I’m married.”
“And married men never shtup women who aren’t their wife?”
“This one doesn’t,” Knox said. “And you’re not having sex with her either. I’m not telling you to stay away because of sex, you’re her boss, in a position of authority. This is about optics.”
Cam’s teeth clamped together as an ironic half laugh, half growl rumbled from his throat. “Never takes long to get there, does it?”
“Take your pick,” Knox said, unperturbed. “Dig your heels in about the job and walk away, like you always do, or stick around to help Ariella.”
“I can help her just fine.”
“If playing this right is going to dredge up the same old fights, I’ll take her to LA or New York.”
“Which will be a thousand times worse.”
“Where she’ll be a thousand times safer.” Knox looked around, maybe for Rox because his gaze lingered on the patio. He shrugged that off and chose Tripp for his focus. “Call Mieux.”
“Don’t call Mieux,” Cam said. “No one needs to call Mieux. This wonderous creature you all worship but I’m not allowed to meet.”
“You can probably meet her now,” Tripp said. “Ariella’s your pick, right? No more assistant hopping? Though if there’s anyone out there who can beat her…”
Okay, another thing she didn’t want to think about. Best to get out of there while she still had some sanity.
She peeked over her shoulder at Cam. “There’s a car outside.”
He nodded once. “Yep.”
“I’ll call you after?”
Another nod and he kissed her head before lowering his lips to her ear. “No lunch with Mason.”
She leaned back to meet his eye. “Definitely not.”
Was that a question or a statement? Was he assuming she wouldn’t do lunch or asking her not to? Well, huh, she wasn’t the only one sending mixed signals. Some of that uncertainty must’ve conveyed to him because he dipped to touch his lips to hers. Not something they’d ever done in front of people.
Okay, so it was a peck, hardly a clinch of passion, but, still, more than they usually showed.
His friends and family had little hope of figuring out what their relationship was when they couldn’t figure it out themselves.