Grounded (28 page)

I glanced back at him.
 

He gave me a sad smile.
 
“I can’t sleep without you anymore, Love.
 
And letting you stay here in this house, where that man attacked you, well, I just can’t do it again.”

“There’s an entire team guarding the place.”

He shrugged.
 
“I told myself that, and I even went a weekend letting you stay here without me, but I know my own limits, and I just can’t do it again, not after he killed that woman.”

“Maybe we should just stay at your place, at least until he’s caught.
 
I wonder if we could talk Stephan into staying there with us.
 
I would feel
—
“

He pushed me back against the wall of the closet, tangling us both in clothes.
 
He kissed me.
 
“Thank you.
 
I’ll handle Stephan.
 
We can nap here, and go to my place tonight, after you have a meeting with Danika.
 
She needs your approval for some things, and she’s in town for the day.”
 

We took a three-hour nap, waking up at our leisure.
 
Between the shower sex, and James going down on me in the closet as I tried to pick out clothes, it was well over an hour after we woke up before we were ready to go to the casino for business.
 

I wore a navy and black, color-block pencil skirt.
 
I paired it with a loose fitting royal blue silk blouse with three-quarter sleeves.
 
I didn’t know what Jackie would think of the outfit, but she hadn’t paired my clothes in this closet, and I liked the ensemble.
 

After I’d done a quick job on my hair and makeup, I stepped into white heels, and watched as James finished getting ready.
 
I was done first for once, and it was a show worth watching.
 

He was buttoning up his slacks as I perched on the bed, my eyes glued to his hands.
 
He arched a brow at me as he shrugged into a white dress shirt.
 

“Enjoying the show?” he asked as he buttoned the shirt.
 

I nodded.
 

He grinned.
 
“I feel like I should be dancing for you.
 
You have an unmistakable glint in your eyes, Bianca.
 
I’m not a piece of meat, you know.”

I just smiled back, watching his every move.
 

He tucked his shirt into his slacks, shrugging into a dark gray vest that matched his slacks.
 
He looped a yellow tie around his neck, his clever fingers making short work of it, before he buttoned the severely tailored vest.

“I love your hands,” I told him.
 

“We’re running late,” he murmured.
 

I let my eyes show him just how much I didn’t care.

It was another half an hour before we walked out the front door.

James walked me to the gallery before going to his office to do some paperwork.
 
He greeted Danika with a smile.
 

“Just come to my office when you finish,” James told me.
 
“Blake or Danika can show you where it is.”
 
He gave me an affectionate kiss on the forehead before taking his leave.
 

Danika watched him go.
 
She smiled at me.
 
“He’s so different with you.
 
It’s a lovely thing to see.”

I smiled back.
 

Danika wore a very modern take on a woman’s suit, with pleated, slate gray shorts, and a baggy white men’s shirt that was belted at the waist.
 
She looked delicate and lovely.
 
I thought she was the most elegant woman I’d ever met.
 
Her hair was parted down the middle, and as she bent down to show me some detail of her plans, it trailed into her face like a silky black curtain.
 
I wondered again what had happened between her and Tristan, but I shook myself out of the pointless musings.
 
We had lots of work to do, and I could hardly ask.

We worked well together.
 
Danika was never pushy, but she did finally get me to settle on a date for the showing.
 
We scheduled it for the first Friday after my furlough began.
 
James would be ecstatic.
 
I was nervous
—
so nervous that I felt a little nauseous just thinking about it.
 

“Do you have any other big plans for after you take your leave?”

I smiled, remembering our plans.
 
That was something I could get very excited about.
 
“James and I are going to Japan.”
 

She raised her elegant brows in surprise.
 
“Well, that’s exciting.
 
My mother was half-Japanese.
 
I didn’t know her well, but I’ve always had a fascination with Japanese culture.”

I smiled.
 
“I have no blood-ties there, but I’ve always been interested in the culture, as well.
 
We’re going there because James said pick a spot on a map of the world, and I knew just where I wanted to go.”

She smiled back, tilting her head.
 
“Well, have fun.
 
I bet the locals will get a kick out of you two.”

I laughed.
 
“Yeah, right?
 
I don’t suppose we’ll blend in.”

She pursed her lips.
 
“Do you ever?
 
I don’t see too many supermodel couples strolling around together.”
 

I wrinkled my nose at her.
 
“James is the supermodel.”

Her lovely brow wrinkled in consternation.
 
“So it’s like that, huh?
 
You’re going to need to work on your self-esteem, girl, to be with a man like that, otherwise it could be the end of you two.”

I blinked at her.
 
Her tone had been gentle but firm, so I didn’t take offense.
 
I just didn’t agree.
 
“I don’t have low self-esteem.
 
I just know that I’m not in that league.”

She shook her head stubbornly, her silky black hair moving across her shoulders with the movement, her rosebud mouth pursing.
 
“That’s ludicrous.
 
Answer one question for me.
 
Have you ever been approached by a modeling scout before?”

I flushed.
 
“Not by anyone serious.
 
A few people have said something, but I knew they were just trying to scam me.”

She gave me a sympathetic look.
 
“Seriously, as someone who has a real hetero-girl-crush on you, you need to work on your self-esteem.
 
You’re stunning, and you need to just acknowledge the fact and then get over it.”
 

The whole conversation made me uncomfortable.
 
“Um, thanks.
 
So did we have any other details to go over for the showing?”
 

She sighed and shook her head.
 
“No.
 
Let’s go grab Frankie and get something to eat.
 
I can’t come to town and not see her.
 
She’d kill me.”
 

We had an impromptu girls’ lunch.
 
I wasn’t sure if it was a late lunch or an early dinner.
 

Frankie greeted me with a hug, a kiss on the cheek, and a huge grin.
 
She wore her usual half-shirt with daisy dukes, showing off her myriad tattoos.

“I just spoke to James,” she told us.
 
“He needs to work for a few hours, and he told me to keep you entertained.
 
Sucker.”
 
She rubbed her hands together like an evil cartoon character.
 
“I have plans.”

Danika laughed richly.
 
“Oh boy.
 
He’s in trouble, huh?”

Frankie nodded.
 
I tried to follow the strange conversation.
 

“First we eat,” she told us.
 

We went to the casino’s Mexican restaurant.
 
We ordered and started snacking on chips and salsa.
 

“Do you mind if I bring Tristan to Bianca’s gallery showing?” Frankie asked Danika, studying her closely.

Danika didn’t hesitate.
 
“Why would I mind?
 
Bring whoever you want.”

“Well, I know you aren’t speaking to him…”

“That’s not true.
 
He and I have absolutely nothing to talk about, but I’m not avoiding him.”

Frankie nodded.
 
“Good.
 
Because I have a red carpet thing for my show coming up.
 
It’s in town next week, and I want you to come.
 
I was worried you wouldn’t come, since Tristan will be there, but now you can’t use that as an excuse.”
 

Danika just shrugged.
 
“If you want me there, I’ll be there.
 
Tristan and I will just stay out of each other’s way.”
 

Frankie sighed.
 
“You used to be best friends.
 
I wish you guys would at least start talking again.”

Danika gave her a hard look.
 
“Don’t meddle, Frankie.
 
Trust me when I say that you don’t want to press this issue.
 
I can be civil, but he and I will
never
be close again.
 
We are bad for each other, even as friends.
 
Bad things happen when we get together.”
   

“You’d feel better if you forgave him
—
“

“I did forgive him.
 
We went through all of that when he was doing the rehab thing.
 
I’m over it, but forgiving doesn’t mean that I’m willing to make all of the same stupid mistakes again.”

“You know he’s in love with you, right?”

Danika laughed, and it was a bitter sound.
 
“Please.
 
Don’t make me laugh.
 
That man isn’t capable of it.
 
Now drop it, Frankie, before I leave.”

Frankie threw up her hands in defeat, her mouth twisting.
 
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.
 
Consider it dropped.”

Food arrived, and the two women pretended like the whole awkward interaction had never happened.
 

I followed suit, though I was beyond curious about whatever had happened between Danika and Tristan.
   

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Mr. Incensed

We gorged ourselves on cheese enchiladas and chiles rellenos.
 
I was over-stuffed when I finished, but I’d found my new favorite restaurant for comfort food.
 

The meal went smoothly after their little confrontation, and the women laughed and joked like old friends.
 
We were finishing our meal when Frankie looked at me with a wicked smile, rubbing her hands together.
 

“How do you feel about branding James onto your body?
 
Just something little.
 
He
did it for
you
.
 
Don’t you want to return the favor?”

I should’ve known that was what she’d been plotting.
 
She was a tattoo artist, after all.
 
I considered her idea, not dismissing it out of hand.
 
I was finding new ways to surprise myself daily.
 
“What did you have in mind?” I asked her warily.

She waved Danika out of her seat.
 
“May I borrow your back for a moment, Danika?” she asked cheerfully.
 

Danika just stood up and turned around as though they did this every day.

Frankie circled a small spot on the other woman’s shoulder blade.
 
“James.
 
Right here.
 
Identical size, color and style as the Bianca on his chest.
 
What do you think?”
 

I was shocked to find myself warming to the idea.
 
I knew that James had done something so extreme to prove something to me, the same thing that he seemed to need me to prove to him.
 
I took a deep breath.
 
“The same size as his?” I asked.

Frankie whooped, sensing victory.
 
“Yes, but on your back.
 
I know James well enough to know that he wouldn’t like a boob tat.
 
Let’s do this!”

Frankie had to have a brief but firm conversation with the camera crew and producer that taped her reality show.
 
They were
not
going to tape this tattoo.
 

Blake insisted on searching the place, but I was surprised when she didn’t try to butt in when she saw what we were obviously doing.
 
She just stood outside of the curtained area and waited for me.
 

In a shockingly short time I found myself lying on my stomach on Frankie’s table, my silk blouse pulled up over my shoulder, my bra unclasped.
 
The position pushed hard on my newly pierced nipples, but I didn’t complain.
 
I imagined that I wouldn’t even feel that pain when she started in with the needle.
 

“James is going to
kill
me,” Frankie muttered as she traced the pattern onto my back.
 
“He’ll be mad at me for a while just for seeing and touching this much of your skin.”

Danika was giggling as she watched, a clear accessory to the crime.

“Really?” I asked Frankie, not sure if she was serious.

“Oh yeah.”

“Why?”

“He’s got you collared, Bianca.
 
That’s some real serious shit for him.
 
He’s possessive as all hell about every inch of you.”

“But it’s for a tattoo.
 
I know he’ll get testy about that at first, but to get possessive about you touching my shoulder blade just seems so unreasonable.”

She laughed.
 
“If you think that there’s anything reasonable about a Dom, you’ve been misinformed, my friend.
 
He’s going to be
incensed
about this, but he’ll get over it, and I know that eventually he’ll love having his name on you.”

I sighed, thinking that she was probably right.
 

The tattoo was a shorter process than I thought it would be, though it
was
a small tattoo.

It stung, but the pain wasn’t at all as bad as I’d heard.
 
After she’d worked on the area for just a few minutes, it all became one sort of throbbing sting, and by the end, I even liked the feeling.
 
I understood a bit why some of my friends thought that tattoos were addictive.

Frankie showed me when she’d finished, and I felt a little thrill when I saw his name on my skin.
 
I could get used to this
, I thought.
 
Which was good, because it was permanent.

She spread gel on the area and covered it with a small plastic film.

“Go shirtless as much as you can, at home.
 
Let it air out.
 
A consolation prize for James, I guess.
 
You do have a fabulous rack.”

I sent her a look.
 
She’d never seen my rack,
but oh well
, I’d take it as a compliment.

She grabbed her tiny purse, grinning at us.
 
“I’m getting the hell outta Dodge.
 
He won’t want to see me for a few days, so I’m going to make myself scarce.
 
I’ll see you at the red carpet event for my show.”

“Coward!” Danika yelled at her as she took off in a hurry.

Danika walked me through the casino and to the executive offices, Blake and Henry trailing us silently.
 
I had to stop and stare when we passed by one of the hotel’s auditoriums.
 
It had a giant poster displayed of what the theatre featured, which was a long line of showgirls, kicking their legs high in the air, showing off all of their assets, and right smack in the middle of the picture, his arm around two of the showgirls, was a grinning James.
 

Danika shook her head when she saw it.
 
“If it makes you feel any better, that was taken years ago.”

I shrugged, but I couldn’t help but wonder how many of the women in that chorus line he’d slept with.
 

“There seem to be a lot of things that he did years ago that just keep popping up,” I said, my tone neutral.
 
I didn’t feel neutral, though.

She grimaced.
 
“That sex tape…
 
I heard about that.
 
And just when he’s cleaned up his act.
 
Life is funny like that, making us pay for the same stupid mistakes even after we’ve learned from them thoroughly.”

Now that sounded like a heartfelt statement.
 
I studied her, still dying to know what had happened between her and the sexy as hell Tristan.
 
I wouldn’t pry, though.
 
Perhaps we’d get more chances to hang out, and someday she’d just tell me about it.

Danika walked me to the office reception before saying her goodbyes.
 
We set up another meeting for the following week.
 
She was coming all the way back to Vegas just to meet me again, but she didn’t seem to mind.
 

Reception led me immediately into James’s office, but I saw that he was busy on the phone as I walked in.
 
Blake only followed me to the door.
 
She didn’t seem to need to search the office, with James already there.
 

I sat in the chair directly in front of his desk, crossing my legs and watching him.
 
I was torn on when to tell him about the tattoo.
 
Should I just let him find it on his own?
 
Chances were, if I did it that way, we’d be on the verge of having sex, and he was bound to be in a better mood about it…

James looked up, a phone to his ear.
 
His eyes changed when he saw me, going from business-like and serious to smoldering between one blink and the next.
 
I adored that I could put that look in his eye just by being there.

He held up a finger to me to show that he would only be another minute.
 
I just nodded, watching him.
 
The view never got old.
 

He hung up the phone and smiled at me.
 
“We’ll go to my house from here.
 
Stephan is out but he says he’ll crash there with us tonight.
 
He doesn’t mind staying with us until the danger’s past.”

I was relieved, though I hadn’t really thought that Stephan would give him a hard time.
 

The tattoo just didn’t come up, or rather, I didn’t work up the nerve to bring it up, until he found it himself that night.
 

Frankie had predicted his reaction well.
 
He was completely incensed.

He was at my back, peeling off my shirt when he spotted it.
 

I knew what was coming, and so I stiffened just before he did.
 

His eyes bored into my back for long moments before he began to curse, succinctly and fluently.
 
He finished his tirade with an impassioned, “I’ll kill her.”

“She said you’d say that,” I told him.
 

That just made him curse even more.
 
“I can’t believe I didn’t see it coming, when she called me up saying that you were all doing a girls’ day, and that I should keep on working.
 
I
knew
she wanted to get her hands on you.”
 

I shot him an exasperated look.
 
“You really think that she did all of this just so that she could very briefly touch me?
 
She was completely professional, James.”
 

“I should have known she would try this, but I can’t believe that you agreed to it.
 
What were you
thinking
?”
 

“You did the same thing for me
—
to prove something to me.
 
You wanted me to see that you really were devoted to me, and that you wanted a long-term commitment.
 
I was trying to do the same thing for you.
 
I wanted you to see that I’m just as committed.
 
It’s not something that should make you jealous.
 
I
branded
your name on my shoulder, and all you can do is get jealous that someone else was holding the needle.
 
I didn’t do this because Frankie wanted me to.
 
I did it for you.
 
We belong to each other, James, and now we
both
have the ink to prove it.
 
I thought that you would love seeing your name on me.”
 

In terms of defusing his anger, it worked like a charm.
 
He pressed hard against my back, murmuring into my ear.
 
“I do love seeing that on you.
 
How could I ever stay mad, when you say such wonderful things to me?
 
So tell me, Bianca, just how committed are you?
 
Committed enough to take my name and wear my ring?
 
Devoted enough to like the sound of Bianca Cavendish?”

My heart tried to pound right out of my chest.
 
Because I knew he wasn’t really joking, even though his tone was light.
 
And because it didn’t only make me want to panic anymore to hear him say a thing like that.
 
Now a picture was beginning to form in my mind of something real and sustaining for us.
 
Perhaps what had happened to my mother hadn’t forever ruined any possibility of my own happily ever after.
 
The thought was both encouraging and terrifying.
 

James didn’t wait for me to answer.
 
He knew me too well.
 

He kissed my neck.
 
“Start growing accustomed to the idea, Love, and try not to tie yourself in knots second-guessing yourself.
 
And try to remember that I’m head over heels in love with you, and that I’ve never even come close to saying those words to another person.”

“I love you, too,” I whispered back, loving him more at that moment than I’d even thought possible.
 
How could I ever have imagined that Mr. Beautiful could be so incredibly sensitive to my needs?
 
It was as though he’d known me forever.

If I was surprised at how quickly he dropped the subject of the tattoo with me, I was equally
unsurprised
at how he didn’t drop the subject with Frankie.
 
Even a full week later, at her show’s Vegas Strip red carpet event, James was giving her the cold shoulder.

James wore a black tux with a black shirt and white bow tie.
 
It was very fitted, very fashion forward, very supermodel James.
 

I wore a little white dress with silver accents.
 
It was short enough to be Vegas appropriate, with a halter neck that I thought was flattering, though the back came up high enough to cover my new tattoo.
 
Unlike James, I wasn’t trying to show it off to the world right off the bat.
 

Shiny red heels took all of the innocence out of the color of the dress, and James seemed a little dumbstruck when I walked out of the closet in the sexy getup.
 
The look on his face told me I’d chosen just right.
 

The mood of this red carpet was actually a fun vibe, as opposed to the tenser one I’d attended before.
 
People dressed up, but it was more sexy Las Vegas dress-up than stuffy ballroom.
 
Even Frankie decided to forgo her usual half-shirt, cutoff shorts look and wore a tiny red dress that looked sinful.

It was Frankie’s night, and she’d been thoughtful enough to extend an invitation to Stephan and Javier.
 
James had bought them their own custom tailored tuxes, and the two men were grinning from ear to ear as we all walked the red carpet together.