Good Morning Heartache (4 page)

“I wish I could say that.
Gyms aren’t really my thing.” That wasn’t obvious to him. There was not an
ounce of fat on her tight body, and he had examined the whole thing very
carefully. Eating like a bird didn’t hurt her cause.

Ryan ran a hand over his
beard, hoping there weren’t any rogue food particles. “What do you do for a
living, Alexis?”

She laughed. “I don't do
anything.”

He shook his head and said, “I
don't get it.” He not only didn’t get it, he was stunned.

She stabbed a piece of melon
and whirled it through the air as she spoke. “I'm a writer, but I haven't
written anything in a long time. I’m a professional heiress, so I don't have to
do anything if I don't want to. I get a check every month that’s more than
enough to get me what I need and pretty much everything I want.”

He looked at her in
disbelief. He couldn't believe someone could do nothing with her life. Work was
all he knew. “What do you do all day?”

“I don't know. It varies. It's
not like I have a set schedule.” She put the melon in her mouth and looked down
at the remainder of her food and grimaced. He couldn’t blame her; he thought it
looked unappealing too.

Ryan stared at her,
remembering the debauchery of the previous night. For a brief second, a twinge
of jealously gripped his stomach, wondering if she spent her days working on
the skill set she demonstrated last night, but he shrugged the feeling off
before he could identify it. It wasn't his business. His business with her was
over.

“Do you have a job?” she
asked, looking around the room with a blank stare.

He finished chewing the
piece of bacon he had just shoved in his mouth. “I'm an architect in Manhattan,
which is why I won't be stalking you. Too busy and too far away.”

Alexis smiled for the first
time that morning. “Really? That's fantastic.”

“That I'm an architect or
that I am too busy.”

“Both, I guess.” She gave
him a devilish smile and for the first time all morning she didn’t look
completely put out. She had managed to finish her breakfast without him
noticing, and she was looking around the restaurant again.

“Are you looking for
someone?” he asked.

“Just the waiter,” she said
slowly.

Suspicion rose in him again.
“Are you sure you don't have a man in your life who you are afraid will catch
you with me?”

Her eyes narrowed, sending
daggers flying at his face from across the table. So much for the moment of
cordiality. She lifted her bottom from the chair, grabbed the front of his
polo, and pulled him to her lips. It was a hard, deep kiss that begged of sex
and lust. A kiss not fit to be seen by his grandmother. Memories from the
previous night crashed over him like waves, and he became nostalgic for the
warmth of her naked body against his.

Alexis removed her lips from
his and gently pushed him back into his seat. “No, I don't have a man. I just
want my freaking coffee. And I never lie. “

“You know, if you need
something to perk you up, I have just the thing.” Smiling, he crossed his arms
over his chest. “Of course, I'd prefer to give it to you upstairs, but I'm not
picky.” He was hot for her again, and he was glad the tablecloth was long
enough that he wasn't proving it to the entire restaurant, though the shaming
stares of their neighbors told him they probably already knew.

She stood up, and he thought
she was going to take him up on his offer.

“I appreciate it, but I
should get going.”

The bronze skin of her
thighs that peeked out between the bottom of her dress and the top of the
tablecloth drew his gaze. He wanted so badly to bury himself between those
thighs one last time.

“What about your coffee?”
He'd use any tactic to stall her at this point. If he had a few more minutes
with her, he was sure he could talk her into one more for the road. Strange how
the tables had turned over a few short hours.

“I'll stop at Starbucks.”
She dug into her purse and pulled out a billfold. She opened it, pulled out a
one hundred dollar bill, and left it on the table. “That should cover my
breakfast. It was nice to know you, Ryan. Maybe this time we’ll actually part
for good.” And with that she walked out of the restaurant.

It was for the best, he told
himself. Alexis was intoxicating. Addicting. It was no wonder she had stalkers.
But that wasn’t who he was. He spent most of his free time trying to avoid his
conquests.

He stared at the bill on the
table and suddenly felt like a gigolo. At least now he was sure there wasn’t
going to be a charge on his room bill for last night.

Ryan scooped one last bite
into his mouth as he stood to leave, leaving the hundred sitting on the table,
untouched. It was the waiter's lucky day.

Chapter
4

Riley Conner looked at her
watch and then at the group of girls approaching her. They were whispering and
giggling about something as they walked, sneaking glances in her direction.
Riley wasn’t able to convince herself they weren’t talking about her and
laughing at her expense. She looked down at her loafers and shifted her weight
from one foot to the other, hoping they would pass by without incident, but she
was never that lucky.

Sara, a short ash blonde,
stopped in front of her, her entourage close behind. “Hey,
Pie
ley.”

Riley looked up at her and
glared. She hated her nickname. She wasn’t fat. She just wasn’t the bag of
bones these girls were, and she made the mistake three years ago to ask for a
second slice of pie at dinner. Since then most of the students on campus called
her Pieley behind her back but not secretly.

“All alone on campus again?”
Sara continued. “I guess you’re probably used to that sort of thing.”

“Screw off. My ride will be
here any second, and I’d prefer not to be seen with people like you.” Riley
turned away and looked down the street, willing Alexis’s car to come around the
curve. Of course it didn’t.

“So I guess we won’t be
seeing you in the Hamptons this summer.”

Riley turned back around to
Sara and puckered her lower lip. “No, I won’t be able to help you recover from
your nose job. Sorry.” She shrugged.

Sara walked past her and the
others followed her lead. “What a bitch.”

“Have a great summer you
bulimic hypocrites.”

There was nothing Riley
liked about The Franklin School, and when she finally got a ten week reprieve
from this hell-on-Earth, her sister was late to pick her up. Typical. Alexis
even made her stay for a graduation ceremony for no one she liked.

 Alexis was an even bigger
bitch than the girls at her school. Which, when Riley considered it, wasn’t all
that unbelievable. Alexis was a product of the school, and she’d had more time
to marinate in her bitchiness.

A car’s engine could be
heard coming around the circle, and Riley snapped her head around to see if it
was the car she was waiting for. She peered through the trees, trying to make
it out, but it wasn’t until the car was all the way around the corner that she
knew it wasn’t her sister. Her sister wouldn’t be caught dead in a
piece-of-crap Daewoo.

The car jerked and sputtered
as it approached and slowed to a stop in front of her. The window was already
down, and a guy looked out at her through a haze of smoke.

 “Hey,” he said. “Do you
need a ride?”

It would have been creepy,
really creepy, if it weren’t for the fact that he was gorgeous. He had soft
brown eyes, almost black hair, and a goatee none of the guys at her school
would dare to sport.

Riley felt a light tingle
spread from her chest up to her throat, catching her words.

“I don’t know you,” was all
she could say. It wasn’t at all what she wanted to say, but at least it was
true and wasn’t embarrassing.

“I think I know you, though.
Don’t you go downtown to Mikey’s sometimes? I play there on Friday nights with
my band.”

“Sometimes.” She looked
away, feigning disinterest. Bars in town were the only place she seemed to fit
in, and the price of a fake ID was a cheap way to escape the torture of other
teenage girls.

Jimmy Black was the
guitarist for Tragic Hero, and now he was smoking in the car in front of her.
She hadn’t recognized him at first. He looked so normal. A few weeks ago their eyes
met across the room, and she thought maybe he would talk to her after his set,
but he was caught up with some other girls. Now he was offering her a ride. It
was like a dream come true.

“Hop in,” he said as he
grabbed a fast food bag off the passenger seat and threw it into the back.

Riley looked toward the
trees that concealed the entrance to the school. Chances were pretty good her
sister wouldn’t show for another couple of hours. Then she looked behind her
and saw Miss Mackenzie, one of the dorm mothers, watching her carefully.

“Give me your phone,” she
said as she took a couple steps forward and reached her hand into the car. “I’m
putting my number in here so you don’t lose it. Riley. Text me.”

Jimmy gave her a wicked
grin. “I will.” He looked past Riley and put his car into gear. “You won’t have
to wait too long.”

His car jerked away with a
puff of black smoke from the exhaust pipe, and Riley turned as Miss Mackenzie approached
her. Riley rolled her eyes. Here we go. These women only perpetuated the
bitchiness on campus, and Riley didn’t want to hear whatever it was she had to
say.

“Can I call someone for you,
dear?” Miss Mackenzie asked. Riley knew she didn’t care. What she was really wondering
was “When are you leaving?” It was a pathetic attempt to pretend to care from
an equally pathetic woman.

“No. My sister is coming.”
At least she better be. Riley suddenly wished she had jumped into Jimmy’s car.

“Okay,” the woman said, “as
long as you’re sure.”

“I am.” She wasn’t, and once
Mackenzie left, she pulled up her sister’s information in her contacts.

§

Alexis walked out of the
hotel into the damp late-morning air. It was already too hot. She removed the
loose knit sweater and threw it over her arm. Despite the warmth, she still had
goose bumps and her whole body gave an involuntary shiver.

 That was close, she thought
as she approached her car. She was too close to breaking her “no mornings after”
rule, to which she had to make minor adjustments after he obstinately sat down
and ate breakfast with her. At least she didn’t have to make any
major
adjustments to her rules.

More sex was absolutely out
of the question, whether she wanted it or not, at least before seven o'clock
that evening. But he was likely heading back to New York that day, and he had
seemed a bit too eager anyway. Though, she had to admit it was probably her
fault. She shouldn't have kissed him.

Alexis licked her lips
remembering the maple flavor on his.

She threw her sweater onto
the leather passenger seat of her Porsche 911 GT2 RS then slid into the comfort
of the driver's seat. God, she loved this car. Driving it was a holy
experience, and as close to orgasm as she could get in a hotel parking lot in
broad daylight.

She always drove it like she
meant it, much to the dismay of any passenger blessed to sit in her baby. It
turned heads, and she loved to see the envy in a man's eye when he saw she was
the one driving. The slick black exterior was impossible not to notice, and she
adored the attention.

Alexis started the car and
the engine purred to life. She threw her head back onto the soft headrest in
relaxation. Just sitting in the car and feeling its power put her at ease.
Wagner’s
Das Rheingold
rang through the speakers. The rumble of the low
notes vibrated across the tops of her thighs, and she remembered the warm, wet
kisses Ryan had delicately placed there a few hours earlier.

Maybe she should go back. It
wouldn’t be the worst thing she’d ever done, and it’d be worth breaking rules
for.

Just as she was about to
open the door and head back in to find him, the music stopped and the car
informed her she was getting a phone call. It was her sister, and for a moment
she considered ignoring it. Riley was a big girl and could wait until Alexis
was in the mood to talk to her. Then again Alexis was also a big girl and could
handle a—hopefully—brief conversation with her seventeen-year-old sister.

Alexis took a deep breath
and pushed the button on the steering wheel, answering the call. She plastered
a smile on her face even though she knew her sister couldn’t see her and said, “Hey,
Riley.” She hoped the smile could be heard through the tone of her voice, but
it didn’t matter. The heavy breathing coming through the speakers let her know
Riley was already angry.

“You forgot, didn't you?”

Seventeen was not a good age
for her, but sixteen hadn’t been either. Or fifteen. Riley was a grade-A—not
that her report card had an A anywhere on it—pain in the ass, and she knew it.
At least she had a good reason, unlike the other girls at her school.

“I don't know what you're
talking about,” Alexis responded through gritted teeth. She was glad she only
saw her sister in the summers and major holidays when the school closed. The
Franklin School was worth every dime automatically debited from her bank
account every month—not that it was Alexis’s money. At the end of the summer
she always made a huge donation to show her gratitude for taking Riley back—
that
was her money. This summer—oh, no. “Never mind. I'll be there in an hour.”

“I've already been waiting
an hour. Everyone is gone. The dorm mothers are pissed!” Riley yelled. She was
really into yelling this year.

“I can only drive so fast.”
Top track speed was over 205 miles per hour, but Alexis knew she’d get pulled
over if she tried. Besides she wasn't willing to do it for someone who was
yelling at her. “I'll be there in an hour.”

She pushed the button on the
steering wheel again, ending the call before Riley started shrieking as was her
tendency when she didn’t get her way. She slid the gear shift into reverse and
smoothly pulled out of the parking spot.

As she pulled away, she saw
Ryan leaving the hotel, a duffle and a garment bag slung over his right
shoulder. She should have gone to bed with him again. The situation with her
sister would have been worse, a lot worse, but at least Alexis would have had a
real smile on her face again. She felt a twinge of regret in her stomach. Oh,
well. It was too late now.

Alexis glided onto the
highway and cursed her parents. Why did they have to have children twelve years
apart? More importantly, why did they have to die and leave her sister with
her? There were plenty of other relatives who would have taken a large sum of
money to watch over their youngest. They might have enjoyed it. They may have
even done a good job with her. Alexis considered dumping her on one of them at
one point, but boarding school seemed less like she was saying, “Here, I don’t
want this. You take her.” By then, Riley wasn’t welcome in most of their homes
anyway.

She shuddered. Alexis was
pretty sure she was the reason Riley had turned into such a whiny, selfish
teen. She had been all too glad to get rid of her when she finally reached high
school. The Franklin School was where Alexis had attended high school, so she
doubted her parents would disapprove. The problem was that once she dropped
Riley off, Alexis ignored her completely. She had a life, and she wanted to
live it. Shuttling a teenager to cheerleading practice and to the movies with
her friends was not the life Alexis wanted to live then or now. Who would in
their twenties?

She regained awareness of
her surroundings just in time, nearly missing the turn into the school's
entrance. She slowly drove the Porsche around the paved circle that surrounded
the school and came to a standstill in front of one of the few people on
campus. Before she could turn off the car the passenger side door opened, and
Riley's blonde head popped in.

“It's about time,” she
snarled. “Where the hell am I supposed to put my stuff?”

Alexis leaned toward the
passenger-side door to see two huge suitcases sitting on the curb. She laughed
under her breath. She paid the school a little extra money to keep Riley's
stuff in the dorms over the summer. They were more than happy to do it, but
Riley couldn't help but bring everything except the furniture.

“I have room for one of
those in the trunk. You'll have to put the rest back in your room.”

Pure shock washed over
Riley's face, and Alexis chuckled under her breath again. This was too easy.

“I can't put them back in my
room,” Riley choked out. “Everyone's gone. They've locked me out.” She was
acting like Alexis was making her abandon her puppy, and to be fair, if she had
a puppy she’d probably make her leave that behind as well. Two dogs this summer
was far too many.

Alexis looked around at the
very green, very empty campus then spotted a solution. “Put one of them in that
donations box. I'm sure someone will come around to pick up after all you guys
are gone. We'll get you new stuff.”

Riley whipped her head
around. Her face had gone from horror, to interest, to unabashed glee in a matter
of seconds. She extracted the handles of one of the Louis Vuitton Epopée bags
and ran it over to the box. As she walked back to the car, Alexis got out and
opened the front storage compartment. Riley looked at Alexis and then her remaining
bag.

“Go ahead. I’m not your
chauffeur.”

Riley looked in the trunk,
curious. “You can fit one more in there,” she pointed out, as she grabbed her
bag off of the curb and stuffed it inside.

“But I won't.” Alexis closed
the lid and moved back to the driver's seat.

“Can I drive? I passed
Driver's Ed, and I have my license,” Riley pleaded.

“While that inspires all
sorts of confidence, no. You can drive the Volvo.”

When the school sent the
materials for Riley's driver's education course, Alexis decided she needed to
have a very safe car for her sister to drive. The school didn't let her have a
car on campus, to Alexis's relief, so she bought something that had a few good
years left in it and no more. Alexis knew her sister well enough to know that
the second she graduated, she was going to buy a car. She might as well not
waste money on something that was only going to be driven for two summers. As
it turned out, Riley was only going to be driving this summer because she
failed Driver's Ed the previous year and couldn’t drive last summer.