The Boss (24 page)

But not enough trouble that I would miss out
on doing it again.

"Not even a little. What time do you want
me?" I'd meant, of course, "What time do you want me to come over,"
but he gave a bit of a dismayed laugh.

"When
don't
I want you?" He found his
boxers beside the bed and slipped them on. "I'll send a car for you
at six? Is that all right?"

Ooh, he was going to send a car. I guess
there were certain perks to fucking a rich guy. "Yup, that'll work.
But, uh... you might want to put on some pants and get that whole
erection situation under control. I do have a roommate."

I dashed to the bathroom and hurriedly
brushed my teeth while he got dressed in my room. I checked my
reflection in the mirror, examining my neck. No hickeys. I
appreciated that. My makeup, however, hadn't made it through the
night, and I was a little mortified that he'd seen me looking so
smeared and haggard this morning.

I stumbled out to the living room, giving a
sheepish smile to Neil as we passed each other. Holli was sitting
on the couch, her legs crossed kindergarten lotus position style.
She wore a huge sleep shirt with a chicken on it, and
bacon-and-eggs print pajama pants. They weren't a set, she just
liked to wear them together to be macabre.

"You're up early." I thought she’d be passed
out until noon at least.

"Haven’t been to sleep yet. I came home and
got sucked into this airbrush makeup system infomercial that was
oddly soothing, and then they started showing early morning reruns
of
ER
.” She raised an eyebrow at me. “Besides, who could
sleep with all the loud sex going on?”

My face got hot. "Oh my god, what happened to
the not listening policy?"

"It's not like I had a choice."

Neil emerged from the bathroom, wearing the
white button down he'd worn beneath his sweater last night. He
carried that and his coat over his arm, his iPhone in his hand. "I
called my driver while you were in the bathroom. I'll be out of
your hair soon enough." He looked kind of sheepish about that, like
he thought he was unwelcome.

I waved my hand. "Stay a minute. Do you want
breakfast? I don't think we have actual food here, but I could
probably scrounge up a reasonable facsimile."

"No food?" he looked at me in alarm.

"I ate it all," Holli admitted proudly. "And
she's been working too much to shop. I hear her boss is a real
asshole and won't give her a reasonable schedule."

"I fear her schedule is out of the asshole's
hands now." Neil paused as he regarded Holli. "I recognize you...
you've been in
Porteras
." He snapped his fingers. "Yes, we
were just looking at that rescheduled jacket shoot. You were one of
the models."

I had woken up in some surreal parody of my
own life. Neil had spent the night in my bed like a freaking
boyfriend, my apartment was still a catastrophe, and now I was
introducing him to my roommate? Was this college again? "Oh, um,
Neil, this is Holli, my roommate. Holli, this is Neil, my..." I
couldn't think of a word to accurately describe the situation, and
besides, she knew already. "Neil."

"I'm touched," he quipped. His phone chirped.
"That will be Tony."

"I'll clear out," Holli said, jumping up and
pausing the DVR. We try to be considerate of each other where dates
are concerned.

I kept myself firmly on task as Neil came
over and put one arm around my waist. I dumped coffee into the
filter and leaned my cheek toward him for a goodbye kiss. Super
casual. Nothing weird about spending an entire night with a guy.
Not weird at all.

His lips brushed over my ear and he said,
low, "I did get you a small gift in London. I can't wait to use it
on you."

If I'd had any doubt in my mind as to what he
meant by that, he removed it entirely by smacking my bottom as he
turned away.

I wondered if Neil's car could wait until
after I dragged him to my bedroom. Probably not, and besides, he
had a lunch meeting to attend.

"I'll see you tonight," he said from the
door. I just grinned in reply.

Holli emerged after he left, and resumed her
place holding down the couch.

Now that Neil was gone, I could ask the
question I had been dying to ask since the party last night. "So...
Deja is cool, huh?"

Holli shrugged. "Yeah, she's okay."

That was Holli denial speak for, "I want to
marry her and have a million babies and wear matching outfits for
our family photos." But I wasn't about to point that out, because
she might turn it around on me.

"Where did you guys go?" I flopped onto the
couch beside her.

"Oh, this really cool twenty-four hour Korean
place she knew of. They had the best spicy beef soup." Holli
sighed, her mood turning suddenly glum. "But then... she said
it
."

"Oh no." The dreaded thing that people were
always saying to Holli. Or, one of the dreaded things. There were
several. "'You're so lucky?'"

"Yup. 'Ooh, you're so lucky, I have to diet
all the time.' Why? Why, when she's so cool?" Holli shook her head.
"I don't know if I'll hang out with her again. I'm just getting to
the point in my life where I feel like I shouldn't have to train
people to not say stupid shit about my body."

I chewed my lower lip. Of course, she was
right. And I shouldn't meddle or anything. But they were so alike,
they seemed destined for each other.

I supposed I should clue Deja in. Or, I could
mind my own damn business. They were both grownups. If Holli didn't
like Deja, it wasn't as if there weren't millions of other people
in the city to hook up with. If it was going to happen, it would
happen on its own. And it wouldn't happen if I tried to mash them
together like two Barbie dolls.

"So, Neil seems pretty cool. And he spent the
night," Holli pointed out, slowly widening her huge eyes before
narrowing them to knowing slits. "There's more to the story
here."

My first instinct was to snap that she should
mind her own business because nothing else was going on. Holli was
my best friend, she would see through that in a heartbeat.

"Okay, I did notice he was... slightly more
affectionate than usual last night. But he's never not been
affectionate toward me. This was different though. He was on drugs
from flying and -”

"Oh, he did the 'I'm so high I'm honest'
thing?" She cringed. "He didn't say the L-word, right?"

"No, oh god. No, no, no." I shook my head.
"He just said he missed me a lot."

Holli scoffed. "Oh, that's not that bad. As
long as he didn't cry or anything."

“Yeah,” I agreed, but my heart suddenly
wasn’t in it. My fuzzy memory of the night started to slowly filter
through some really fucking disturbing daylight clarity. I’d made
some choices I never would have with another guy, because I was way
more comfortable with Neil than I had ever been with another guy.
The fact that I didn’t know why- or didn’t want to think about why-
didn’t give me a lot of faith in my decision-making skills where he
was involved.

In the past, I would have used that as proof
that things were moving too fast, that I should put some distance
between myself and the object of my confusion. I’d just had a whole
week’s worth of distance from Neil, and it hadn’t helped. It had
just muddled my brain up even more.

Was I doing what he’d admitted to doing,
mixing up the guy I’d fantasized about for years with the man I was
just getting to know? I supposed that could have been a part of it.
My daydreams had all been strictly confined to sex. I’d never given
any thought to what might happen if he really showed up in my life
again, or what my feelings might be.

Tempting as it was to spill out all of this
to Holli right that second, I wasn’t sure I could face such a
conversation with a hangover. I got my coffee and headed back to my
room, where I placed the mug on my nightstand and flopped onto my
bed. I could smell Neil’s cologne on my pillow. I am not proud of
the way I buried my face into the pillowcase and squealed like a
teenager, but it happened.

So, things were moving quickly, when I hadn’t
expected any change. Was that enough for me to slam on the
brakes?

Not even a little bit.

Chapter
Thirteen

I decided that
Neil’s confusing declaration about how much he missed me had more
to do with Klonopin than any amount of actual missing me. To put
myself at ease about just how physical and not emotional our
relationship was, I planned to show up at his place looking like a
sex bomb in mid-explosion.

Holli has this really awesome D&G black
tulle dress with a tiny waist and boned bodice. Normally, I would
never dream of borrowing her clothes. I wear a size four, and she
wears a size zero. Adding in her Amazonian height, our wardrobes
are just not compatible. However, the point was not to have
everything firmly strapped down tonight, or even to have the dress
on for very long. Even though we had to work super hard to get the
zipper up- and breathing was probably not going to be an option- it
was worth it.

Beneath the dress, I wore the lacy black
Agent Provocateur corset I had saved for months to buy, and black
silk thigh-highs with a dark seam up the backs. No panties. That's
just how I was gonna roll.

When I stepped out of the bathroom all
glammed up, with my hair long and loose around the perilously tight
straps of the dress, Holli whistled.

"Thank you." I did a stupid little curtsey in
my heels. The door buzzed, and I hurried to the intercom to answer,
"I'll be right down."

"Just make sure he doesn't rip it off of
you," she warned. "It's my favorite."

I grabbed my coat off the rack by the door
and shrugged it on, then picked up the overnight bag I'd packed.
Bending down felt like I was in a full-body cast, but my tits
looked amazing. "No ripping, I will tell him."

"And don't get cum on it," she called after
me as I stepped out the door.

I giggled and shushed her. I really hoped
none of our kindly old neighbors heard that remark echoing in the
stairwell.

The Maybach was waiting downstairs, the
driver standing beside it awkwardly. "Mr. Elwood specifically
requested that I not get your door for you... unless you wanted me
to."

I smiled and shook my head. "Would it make
you feel better to get the door?”

"A lot better, thanks," the guy said,
grinning as he took my bag. I scooted inside the car carefully,
mindful of the super short dress. My boobs wobbled precariously,
barely contained, and I was super glad I had a coat on.

The partition between the front and back was
down, so once we were underway, I asked the driver, "Hey, uh...
where does Neil live, exactly?"

"Nine-sixty Fifth Avenue." The driver's eyes
met mine in the rearview mirror. "You’ve never been to his place
before?"

"No, first time." It took a minute for the
address to really hit me. "Wait, did you say Fifth?"

"Fifth, park adjacent." The guy had a
cheerful, working class New York accent. "There's a doorman, he'll
get you pointed in the right direction."

Okay. So, I was kind of sleeping with a guy
who, yeah, I knew he had some money. It hadn’t seemed
this
intimidating before now. Which was totally stupid, because after
all, I'd been willing to sleep with him when I'd just thought he
was a writer heading to Tokyo.

Still, I couldn't help but feel some
trepidation when we pulled up in front of the dignified pre-war
building.

"This is Mr. Elwood's guest, make sure she
gets upstairs all right,” the driver instructed the doorman. I
clutched my overnight bag as we headed through the posh decorated
lobby, straight to the elevator.

"Mr. Elwood is the sixth floor. I'll let him
know you're on the way up."

Maybe in the future it would be more
comfortable at my place, where there wasn't a "get Neil Elwood
laid" committee working behind the scenes. Seriously, I was
expecting an elevator operator to greet me with, "Which floor? Oh,
Mr. Elwood? Have a nice fuck!" But thankfully, I was on my own for
the ride.

The doors opened onto a foyer that looked
exactly how I imagined the hall of doors Alice tumbled into after
falling down the rabbit hole. The golden wood paneling on the walls
seemed to glow, thanks to the light from the bronze and ivory glass
pendant fixture overhead. The floor was white and black check, all
in marble. The door subtly matched the paneling, and when it
opened, I expected a butler like Lurch or something to be standing
there. But it was just Neil, looking surprisingly casual in a
sweater and jeans.

"Look at you." He beamed at me in open
appreciation. "Come in, come in."

If he thought my hair and makeup were good,
he was going to die when he saw the dress. I dropped my bag at my
feet as he reached to help me with my coat. I slipped my arms from
the sleeves and turned to face him, so he got the full view of my
epic cleavage balanced on the whim of gravity in the top of the
dress.

"Jesus Christ." The blasphemy crossed his
lips in a reverent gasp, and he pulled me into his arms so fast I
stumbled in my too-tall heels.

The kiss I got was exactly the response I was
looking for. I melted against him, my coat crushed between us, my
mouth coming open under his. His arms wound around my waist,
holding me up, holding me captive. He let me go too soon, though,
and I tottered in my shoes, gripping his arms for support.

He raised his head, a mixture of confusion
and embarrassment in his uncertain expression. My lipstick was
smudged across his mouth, and there was a pause before he spoke,
like he wasn’t sure what to say. "Sorry about that. You surprised
me."

"That was the point." I gingerly ran my thumb
along my bottom lip line. "Oh, now this is embarrassing. We're
wearing the same shade."