Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
HAS THE B-LISTER GONE INTO HIDING?
GREER
That bastard.
He’s avoiding me.
First, he tried to kiss me last night.
Or we tried to kiss each other.
Or it was in my head, and I almost made an ass of myself.
Either way, first that happened, and now he’s avoiding me.
I didn’t even blame Tripp. He’d been amazingly understanding at my little… outburst.
Okay, he’d also added some fuel to the flame of said outburst, but still. He hadn’t told me to relax. He hadn’t told me I was being neurotic and high-strung—though both were true. He hadn’t pouted about the lack of time I had for him.
All of those had been common occurrences with Josh. And unlike my ex, Tripp had a right to my time and attention. He was my boss. He was paying for it.
Paying way too much.
When I’d checked my bank account earlier that afternoon, I’d thought there was a mistake. My deposit that week was even higher than the already high pay.
Like, hemp poncho, hacky sack, Cheech and Chong high.
I’d contacted the payroll company so they could fix it, but according to the email I’d received a bit ago, it was a raise to cover my new social media responsibilities.
Responsibilities that included the hard task of pressing repost and like.
I’d agreed to take over Tripp’s socials to try to bridge the gap between what I earned and the exorbitant amount he paid, not for him to pay me more and make it wider.
And now he was ignoring my calls and texts because he knew I was mad.
Or he was ignoring them because I’d made it awkward by unloading my crazy in one breathless rant before trying to kiss him.
Either way, it wasn’t good.
I still couldn’t believe I’d done that. Tripp was the hottest man I’d ever seen in my life, but it was more than that.
The way he’d been so supportive. So understanding.
I must’ve been more starved for attention than I realized because it’d been too easy to forget that he probably made everyone he talked to feel like they were his sole focus. I needed to be smarter than that.
Otherwise, I would buy into the smiles and intense appeal that’d made him famous. My body had already shown that it wanted to twist every glance, touch, and innocuous phrasing into something more. I didn’t need my emotions to follow suit.
I didn’t want to get involved with anyone, but catching feelings for a man like Tripp?
I would have to be a masochist.
Pacing my living room, I ignored my schoolwork that was still spread on the table where I’d left it the night before. I knew I wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else until I talked to Tripp.
First, to confirm I still had a job.
Then, to demand he pay me less for that job.
If only he would answer his damn phone. Going to his place was an option, but it was a long drive to take if he wasn’t home.
I gnawed my lip as I stared at my phone.
This is kind of an emergency…
Giving in, I opened the tracking app.
Good thing I checked.
He wasn’t home.
And he also wasn’t alone.
Tripp
Entering Gilded didn’t have the same effect it usually did.
It didn’t ease the tension that was knotted between my shoulders.
It didn’t heat the blood in my veins. It didn’t make me feel slightly less alone being surrounded by people who wouldn’t try to photograph me.
Who wouldn’t hound me for an autograph, an audition, or a script read.
People who’d let their inhibitions down, knowing they were safe to be themselves.
Instead, my gut remained clenched as I scanned the crowded bar.
Unsurprisingly, I came up empty.
I wouldn’t be able to see who I was looking for until I got closer. The tables and chairs would undoubtedly block her current position.
Sure enough, when I reached the side of the room, Maddie was kneeling on a cushion that was positioned near an empty chair. A small table was next to that with a waiting Dirty Shirley and a glass of champagne.
Since I wanted to keep my dick attached—and it would be removed if Easton saw me sitting too close—I flopped down in the plush chair on the opposite side of the table.
Actually, I pulled it a little farther away and then sat.
Better safe than sorry where my dick was concerned.
She looked up from her phone, and her brows rose when she saw it was me. Pressing her lips together, her blue eyes darted from me to the guarded hallway that led to the offices.
“It’s okay,” I assured her. “I got the okay from Easton to talk to you when I texted to find out where you were.”
A blush hit her cheeks at the same time a content smile curved her mouth. I knew it was because I’d had to get permission from her man.
She really does like belonging to Easton.
I wonder if Greer could ever feel that way about me.
“Oh, thank God,” she rushed out on an exhale. “I was getting bored. Easton should be back soon. He’s meeting with Atlas.”
As club co-owner and a bounty hunter, Atlas brought Wells Law a variety of business—all of it sensitive for very different reasons. If Easton left Maddie alone long enough for her to get bored, it must’ve been something from the bounty hunter side.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Cohen was back there, slowing down the meeting to extend Maddie’s torture out front, though.
The sadist.
Not that I had room to judge that label.
“I’m actually here to talk to you,” I said.
I expected her to brace, but she leaned forward in anticipation—well, as forward as she could get with the gold handcuffs around her wrists. Ones that were connected to the empty seat next to her.
Yup, smart choice taking this chair because Easton would’ve torn my dick off and fed it to me.
She studied my face and watched for a reaction as she launched into her interrogation. “Is everything okay with Greer? Is she driving you crazy?”
Yes, but not in the way you think.
“Because she means well,” she continued. “More than that, she’s almost always right. The smart thing to do is just go with it.”
“No, she’s good. Better than good. But I need your help.” Hell, I was nervous. I felt like a pimply kid admitting a crush. “How can I get her?”
“Get her… to do what?”
“Get her. Get her to agree to go out with me. Have her want me back.”
“You want her?”
I’m fucking obsessed with her.
I lifted my chin instead.
“Oh. I… You… Uh… She… Hmm.” She scrunched her face and shook her head. “Sorry, let me actually finish a sentence here. I know Greer is gorgeous—”
“An understatement,” I cut in.
“True. But there are a lot of gorgeous women in LA. Ones who aren’t working for you. Ones who don’t have shitty exes and a heap of other stress they’re dealing with.”
The shitty ex worked to my benefit since I wouldn’t be compared to some great guy, but the rest didn’t.
I slouched back. “You’re saying I should give her some time.”
It would suck. No, it would be fucking torture, but I would do it.
Maddie’s brows lowered as she shook her head.
“No, I’m saying you should think this through.
I’m not her keeper. She’s an adult who can make her own decisions.
But mixing business with pleasure rarely works out, and you don’t want to lose Greer as an assistant because you want to scratch an itch.
” Her expression morphed, landing somewhere between gentle pity and harsh protectiveness.
“Especially if this is because she’s just, uh, forbidden fruit.
I’m not breaking bestie code by giving you details that aren’t mine to share, but she doesn’t trust easily, and for good reason.
She’s had enough of being chased and then discarded to last her a lifetime.
So, if you only want what you can’t have, move on to a different challenge. ”
“That’s not what this is.” Sitting forward, I hoped like fuck she used those journalistic skills to see the honesty on my face.
“I’m a selfish dick, but I wouldn’t knowingly toy with someone.
And because I’m a selfish dick, I also wouldn’t risk sabotaging the only good assistant I’ve ever had over a quick lay.
I’m not promising forever, but I know there’s something there.
Something that I would regret not going for. I like her, Maddie.”
“Do you even know her enough to like her?” she countered. “Other than her aforementioned beauty.”
I thought about Greer. Beyond how sexy she was. Beyond how badly I wanted to take her and taste her and claim her.
“She’s smart. Surprisingly snarky. Persistent as hell.
Sweet, even when whoever doesn’t deserve it.
A perfectionist, but she doesn’t hold anyone else to the same unattainable standard she holds herself.
She writes down everything, usually with a color-coded system.
She chews on the top of her pen when she’s thinking and tucks her hair behind her ears when she’s overthinking. And she cares too—”
“Okay, okay, I believe you.” The smile that’d been growing with each word I said split her face as Maddie gave a firm nod. “I’ll help you as much as I can, but I’m also not making any promises. Let’s start at the beginning. What did she say when you asked her out?”
“She always shoots down my dinner invites.”
“The text ones?” At my chin lift, she amended, “What did she say when you asked her out in person? Not as her boss.”
“I didn’t.”
“Okay, when you told her you liked her?”
“I didn’t,” I repeated. “But every time I compliment her, she just rolls her eyes at me.”
Her focus dropped to my own smile, and she shook her head. “Of course you like that. You’re warped. You’re also stupid.”
“Hey.” I didn’t have more of a comeback to that since she was right.
“I calls ‘em like I sees ‘em. You’re a charming guy. Greer has undoubtedly done enough job research to have seen that in every interview and public appearance. She won’t take it seriously.” Her expression turned somber with a lethal edge.
“Not leaving clubs at three in the morning with wannabee influencers would probably help your credibility, too.”
I put my hands up. “I swear, I didn’t know that woman was there. I spent the night out alone and thought I was leaving that way, too.”
Some of the tension left her face, but the warning remained. “I believe you, but it doesn’t mean Greer will.”
Her phone must’ve gone off because she glanced down at it. All the tension that’d left came back in an instant.
Tenfold.
“Shit. Shit, shit, shit.” She lifted it and turned the screen so I could see the text messages. “She must’ve sensed us talking about her.”
Greer: Hey, I’m at Golden. Where are you?
Greer: I’ve now walked through the whole bar and the women’s room, and you’re nowhere to be found.
Greer: Madeline still technically Baker (at least until Easton puts a ring on it), answer me.
Greer: Either the app is glitching, or you’re hiding.
Greer: With Tripp.
Greer: Who is also not answering his phone.
Greer: I’m starting to get worried. What’s going on?
I pulled out my own cell to see that I had multiple missed calls and messages. All of them were about the pay raise I’d pushed through. There was no mention of where I was.
“How does she know we’re here?” I asked, mostly to myself.
Maddie touched her screen a few times before turning it my way again. A GPS map was loaded with one symbol showing at our location and another outside of the city. “Bestie safety precaution.”
“Okay, how does she know I’m here?”
Maddie’s brows shot up before she did her best to smooth out her expression.
Unfortunately for her, she was a shit actress.
It got worse when her strained voice warbled, “Hmm. No idea. Probably saw your car.”
“I’m in the back lot,” I said.
A lot that was heavily guarded by security and not accessible by anyone other than Gilded members.
“Maybe someone out front mentioned seeing you,” she tried.
“Bullshit.”
I flipped through my phone to the folder that Greer had created for the apps she used to do her job. Hidden in there was the same one that Maddie had shown me on her phone.
That sneaky little stalker.
Why does that turn me on so much?
I dragged my focus from the screen to take in Maddie’s panic. Gesturing to her on the cushion, I surmised, “I take it Greer doesn’t know about this part of your life.”
She rolled her lips in and shook her head.
I asked the question I’d been dying to know. “Has she ever mentioned being a submissive, too?”
Maddie shook her head again, but it was followed by a shrug.
“She’s never said anything, but neither have I.
I don’t think she is, though. I say this with all the love in the world because I think it’s a character strength not a flaw.
But she might be too much of a control freak to ever hand any of it over.
And that’s without her very understandable trust issues. ”
On the surface, she wasn’t wrong. But I’d caught enough little things that it made me wonder if there was something more that Maddie didn’t know.
Hell, that Greer didn’t even know. Or maybe she was just playing the role of obedient employee, and it was my own wishful projections twisting it into more.
There was only one way to find out, but I wouldn’t do it without Maddie’s approval. Not yet, at least.
“How do you want to play this, Mads?” I asked. “We can ignore the messages for now. Or unlatch you and try to sneak out there without her seeing.”
It was unwarranted, but her panic increased.
“You know Easton would understand,” I reassured.
Taking a few seconds, she mulled it over. Her words came out slow. Guarded. Like she wasn’t sure she wanted to be speaking them. “Or you can rip the Band-Aid off and bring her back here.”
“Would you be okay with that?”
“Would you be okay if she wasn’t interested in any of this?” she shot back. “Because I know she won’t judge what I’m into. But if that’s a dealbreaker for you, you might want to test the waters and ease her in.”
“It’s not like I have a personal room in the back because I’m here so frequently. I can’t remember the last time I used one. Hell, I really can’t remember the last time I enjoyed using it.”
“So if this place makes her dryer than a week-old biscuit…?”
It was a heavy conversation, but fuck, that was funny. I laughed even as I said, “I’ll survive.”
It wasn’t a lie. The more famous I became, the more vanilla my relationships—a loose term—became. It was hard enough for me to trust that whoever wouldn’t jump on live or sell their experience with me to the gossip sites. If I let my guard down and showed them what really got me off?
It’d be viral within the hour.
Maddie sat with that for a few beats before giving a regal wave—like that hand wasn’t shackled. “Go get her then.”