Falling Star (22 page)

She really didn't want to go to work.

With Dean and Marco in a San Francisco hotel, probably oblivious to the world, there wasn't any way to spend the day in Adam's bed like she wanted to.

Adam drove her home in the white Escalade early in the morning after a quick text to Tyrell explaining where he was, and even the route he was taking.

"Sometimes I feel like a little kid," Adam had told her once when she asked about his constant text messages. "But it's part of his job to know where I am at all times. He even has my cell phone on some GPS thing. He can track everywhere I go."

He followed her into her house, and even into her bedroom, despite her feeble attempts to kick him out. "If you brought some of your things over to my house, we wouldn't have to go through this." He peeled last night's dress off her. Again.

"You wouldn't mind a woman's things in your bachelor bathroom?"

"Hell no. And when you aren't with me, I can go in there and sniff them."

"You're depraved."

"No, Depraved is what I would do after I sniffed them."

"I think I'd like to see that."

"I think I can arrange a private showing." He pulled her into the shower, and lathered the loofa while she shampooed her hair.

"You, sir, are a distraction, and I can't be late for work."

"I'm just helping so you'll be ready faster."

"Then keep your tongue in your mouth."

Not hardly. She did make it to work on time, but only because Adam drove like Mario Andretti. "And now I'll have to pick you up tonight." He kissed her cheek. "I love you, Jade."

Two days after their dinner at Pianissimo, Jade's picture made the front page of four tabloids. She knew only because Ella and Dean informed her. She still refused to read the articles, so she relied on Dean to filter the information for her.

"They're making you out to be some kind of Cinderella. A poor little working girl who struck oil. They didn't even spell Earth Scents right, they spelled it with a C." Dean shook his head.

Jade floated through the weeks that followed. When she wasn't with Adam, she was thinking about him. Earth Scents was busier than ever, but Jade knew it was her recent notoriety drawing the curious crowds to her shop. As long as they kept buying things, she wasn't going to complain. There were days when Dean and Ella had to run the front while she arranged in the back, just to keep the crowds calm. They were able to bump Ella to full-time, and had even interviewed a few applicants for a part-time position. Adam teased her that with the extra help she could take another weekend off soon.

Jade spent a lot of time at Adam's house, much to the pleasure of Elaine. The only thing Jade had to watch for was Elaine's tendency to push for an engagement party in the fall.

Thinking about the night they both swapped doctor's notes, now weeks later, Jade still blushed. She loved the power she felt when she pleased him with her mouth, and for the first time in her life she'd given him a blow job that made him writhe on the bed, and she ignored his warnings to stop. She didn't let up until he came in her mouth. As she drank down Adam's seed, her own sex throbbed with desire. He flipped her onto her back and immediately fastened his mouth on her pulsating core. Two splintering orgasms later, Adam slid his hard cock deep inside her for a third. When they kissed, her taste mingled with his in their mouths. Jade didn't think she'd ever experienced anything anywhere near as sexy.

When Adam went to New York for ten days, Jade moped around the house. Even Marco made fun of her melancholy mood. She gave Dean another weekend off, partly to keep herself busy, but also in the hopes that when Adam returned, she could give him a very lengthy welcome home. She told him her plans over the phone when he returned to his hotel room after dinner with "an old friend's father" one night, and he immediately booked a suite at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

"I'll call Carley and tell her to charter the jet. Pack light."

"Skip the pajamas?"

"Definitely."

* * * *

Days later, Jade hurried through a shower. She, Dean and Marco had rented a movie, and she could already smell the popcorn. She towel-dried her hair and threw on a pair of boxer shorts and a tank top since it was such a warm evening. She shook out her curls, and took her pillow with her to the living room. The boys better not have started the movie without her.

"Jesus, she can't see this."

"You can't hide it from her." Marco leaned over Dean's shoulder to read whatever was on the computer screen.

She walked into the room and stood behind Dean.

"I can't hide it, but I'm not going to be the one—"

Jade had heard enough. "What are you doing?"

Dean shot to his feet and faced her. "Jade! Nothing. Just some…nothing you want to see." Dean reached back and snapped his laptop closed.

That scared her. "What is it? Nothing's happened to Adam, has it?" She mentally went over his travel itinerary. He wouldn't be in an airplane until Friday morning, but it could always be a car accident…or a crazed fan.

"He's not hurt."

"Then what is it?"

Dean's lips tightened, and he looked to Marco for help. "It's something you need to hear from Adam. Not on the news."

"Dean…you are going to show me what the hell you're talking about, and you'll do it right now."

"Huh uh. You'll freak out."

"I'm freaking out right now!" She hugged her pillow against her chest, and looked from Dean to Marco, who had backed away, and kept his mouth shut. "Tell me Dean."

"No. Adam will be home in three days. You can freak out on him."

Jade recognized the stubborn tilt to Dean's jaw. He wasn't going to give in. With one more glance at Marco, she spun on her heel and locked herself in her room, ignoring Dean when he yelled out her name. The first thing she did was power up her laptop. Whatever Dean looked at involved Adam, and therefore involved her.

For the first time since she started seeing Adam, she typed his name into her search engine.

The first result was his website. She'd look at that later. Music videos after that, and then…oh God.

Adam Nash Dumps Florist for Nicole…Love Blossoms Without Florist…Playboy Nash at It Again…Nash Sobers Up for a Second Chance with Reece.

She clicked on one. Pictures of Adam and Nicole Reece in an embrace outside of a downtown New York restaurant.

Adam Nash has apparently grown tired of his florist girlfriend after only one month, though still a Nash record. While in New York last night, the country music star was seen having a private meal with actress Nicole Reece at Georgio's, a five-star restaurant in The Village. It wasn't long after the meal when they left together, and showed the world that the two were again the hottest couple in entertainment. According to one Georgio's customer, Nash and Reece rarely looked away from each another, and Nash couldn't keep his hands off the British actress. The only surprise here, folks, is that it took him so long to prune his dying foliage to return to the rose.

Jade ignored the slight, and stared at the picture, looking for something to prove it a fake. She could only see his left side, his right hand wrapped around Nicole's waist, his left buried in the blond curls falling down her neck. It was him, and it was a recent picture.

"No," she groaned.

The next article was similar. This one sported a close-up of Adam's smiling face whispering into Nicole's ear. Her eyes were closed, and her face beamed.

Jade wiped tears away before they could fall on the keyboard and short out her laptop.

Article after article. Even blog posts from people calling themselves "Industry Insiders". All saying the same thing. Adam spent the evening in Nicole Reece's company, and they left the restaurant in her limousine, presumably to spend the rest of the night in her hotel suite. Like some deranged fan, Jade clicked on every article and memorized each picture until her stomach rolled. One article she read bothered her the most. Not due to the article itself, but the picture attached to this one was an extreme close-up of Adam kissing Nicole passionately. Their faces filled the frame, so close Jade could see the calluses on Adam's thumb where it lay against Nicole Reece's diamond-studded ear. The camera even caught how her perfect pink tongue was tangled with his inside her perfectly made-up mouth.

Her skin crawled. Her worst fears were coming to fruition; Adam had grown tired of her. He went back to his playboy lifestyle. Back to the beautiful celebrity women he was comfortable with.

More articles detailed his earlier drunken antics, pictures of him with bloodshot eyes and intoxicated expressions. She didn't even have the stomach for that kind of research. She closed her laptop, and concentrated on the piercing pain of heartbreak until she felt each tearing muscle. When she was sufficiently numb, she shivered, and although the house felt too hot earlier that evening, Jade found her most comfortable pair of flannel pants and her pink fleece bathrobe. Before another bout of tears could erupt, Jade left her bedroom in search of her best friend.

She found him in the kitchen. Dean sat at the table staring into a mug of coffee, while Marco stood behind him, rubbing his lover's shoulders. As soon as Dean saw her, he stood and enfolded her in his arms.

"You looked, didn't you."

She nodded into his shoulder, and clung to him as if her life depended on it. Her tears began anew, and this time she couldn't hold back.

"Damn it Jade."

"I love…I loved him."

He sighed. "I know."

"I can't believe it. God Dean, it hurts so bad. I knew it would hurt, but…" She sniffed.

Dean bent down and scooped her into his arms. He carried her to the couch and held her like she was a lost child. She vaguely heard Marco bid them goodnight after a gentle hand on her shoulder, and a kiss for Dean.

Her phone rang from the other room, and she could tell from the personalized ring tone that it was Adam.

"You should talk to him," Dean said against her hair.

"No. I can't. I don't want him to know I'm crying over him."

"There might be an explanation."

Leave it to Dean to play devil's advocate. "The pictures I saw were pretty self-explanatory. His tongue was in her mouth."

"Shit." He groaned, and held her even tighter when her phone rang again. "I knew this would happen. Knowing the way he was with women…I never should have let you get on that boat."

After three ignored calls, Dean's phone rang. Before she could stop him, he pulled it from his pocket and answered it.

"Hello?"

Even though this man hurt her, Jade still found herself straining to hear his voice, and wishing she had the nerve to talk to him.

"Oh, yeah I can see how you'd worry, but she's fine. She's here…no, she…can't talk right now. She's lying down." Another pause. "She's not really sick, she's…uh…I'll tell her you called, but why don't you send her a text or something. She'll see it when she gets up I'm sure."

Would Adam recognize the tightness in Dean's voice, or was it only obvious to her? By the time Dean snapped his phone shut, Jade was crying again.

She couldn't focus on anything but her own pain, and the strong arms where she spent the night withering away.

* * * *

No amount of makeup could hide her red-rimmed eyes on Friday morning when she and Dean pushed their way through the photographers crowded around the door of Earth Scents. She ignored them like she had since the story broke, but today she couldn't even seem to fake a smile. She hid behind her dark glasses until she was deep in the recesses of the back room while Dean called the police to have the entrance to their business cleared of the paparazzi.

They were worse today, it was as if they knew Adam Nash was flying home today. At eleven fifteen. Flight eleven-twenty from JFK, not that she cared. Maybe they did know. Nothing was sacred to these people.

She'd stopped carrying her phone, tired of the text messages asking what was wrong--as if he didn't know--and tired of the calls she refused to take. Even the incoming calls at Earth Scents she'd delegated to either Ella or the new girl, Cassie. Since business had picked up, Jade never had to work alone, but now that she was no longer dating Adam Nash, her customers might disappear just as quickly as Adam had.

In the wee hours of this morning, as she again lay sleepless, she'd decided that it was good while it lasted. She'd fallen in love with a man who satisfied her every desire, both in her bed and in her mind. It was an experience she'd never forget, and although she regretted giving her heart to him, she was a better and wiser person for it.

That strength didn't last long, because this morning she again found herself staring blankly at the orders for the day.

Soon she wasn't allowed the luxury of self-pity; Earth Scents was too busy. Any time a customer asked her about Adam, she hid in the back room like a coward.

"I ordered lunch," Dean announced, breaking her out of another daydream. She looked at the clock, surprised to find it was almost noon.

"Thanks. I lost track of time." Adam would be home by now. Maybe he brought Nicole with him. Maybe they were in his bed right now. Or maybe he didn't even come back. He could have decided to spend some more time in New York with her. Or London. Not that she cared.