I release a heavy breath. That part of me that knew I shouldn’t have been his first, smiles at me and tells me I was right. The feeling of this happening was nagging at me, but I was hoping to prove it wrong. It wasn’t even exactly what he said—okay I lie, it was—it was the way he said it. Like he finally realized he’s been doing it wrong, and now he can do it the right way.
With anyone.
That statement made my skin crawl.
Looking back when I’m in the car, I see no sign of him. Just an empty beach where I was only a few minutes ago extremely happy.“I can’t do it, I won’t do it,” I tell Chad, shaking my head and tipping the bottle of alcohol to my lips. “I had a moment of weakness. He jumped on it and I gave in to him, to the possibility that he could be different with me. Am I that stupid?”
He groans. “You’re becoming one of those book characters you read about. You know the ones, where they fight over stupid things.” My mouth drops open then shuts. “Don’t even deny it. You should have said something right then and there, not let it brew in your head, so you can make it a thousand times worse than he probably meant. Give him a chance, it’s new to him.”
“You’re defending him?” I ask, bottle in hand.
“I’m fighting for you since you don’t seem to want to do it.” He gets up from the bed, grabs my cell and passes it to me. “Ring him, don’t be silly. Tell him what you told me, how he hurt your feelings and you were lost in the moment. It’s not that hard, Ariel. I see the way you look at him. Even you claim to hate him, but no woman in their right mind looks at a man she hates the way you look at him.” He grabs the bottle and walks out of the room, only looking back once as he goes. I flick through my cell, and his number shows up. My eyes linger on the presents he gave me, the ones that somehow resemble us—from a necklace of a Raven to a glass statue of a Falcon. I put the cell back down staring at it. I can’t do this. Avoiding the call, I go to my emails. There’s one email I don’t recognize and it reads Urgent and confidential.
Opening it my heart drops.* * *Ariel,* * *Tom here. Please keep this email between us. Confidential. It has to be discreet. I’m emailing you from my personal account as I can’t seem to utter the words when you’re in front of me. I saw the way you looked at him that night—you know him. And I’m afraid to ask how much you know him. So, this is me taking the ball from my court and handing it to you. I figured if I had to tell anyone a secret, it’s best I told you.* * *You know who the guy is, and you seemed to dislike him quite a lot. So much so that you stormed off after our first meeting. I don’t know his name, he never gave it to me, but I’m sure you do.* * *I want to make something very clear, Ariel. Very clear. They are dangerous. If you publish who they are I’m afraid of what will happen to you. Fuck! I’m afraid of what will happen to me.* * *Please delete this email after you’ve read it, and don’t contact me again.* * *Tom* * *My heart drops, my head hurts.
And everything I ate comes up all over my bed.21FalconWomen, fucking women. I shake my head as I set foot in the club the next night. It’s busy and everyone has a place they need to be, except me. I should be out, looking for new clients. I have their names on lists, places they will be frequenting, but the last place I want to be is out there where Ariel could possibly be. At least in here, I know I’m safe and she will never be around.
“Do you not have somewhere you need to be?” Darby asks shaking his head. He’s taking the cash at the bar and watching over the place.
“How’s the wife?”
He pauses, then snarls at me. “Fuck off.” He walks out from behind the bar and goes to the door that leads up to our offices above, where we can watch over the place. I look around, the girls all have a client, one in each bed. Legs spread and fucking. This is one of my favorite places to be—the moans, the pleasure that’s in this place. If you didn’t have a stick up your ass it would be heaven because no two women ever make the same sound. Each scream, each rip of pleasure is different, it’s intoxicating. I make my way to the offices and straight into Darby’s room. Creed is off and only comes in once a week right now because El needs him with the baby. Echo’s usually on a computer or with Storm somewhere, so that leaves Darby and me. And let’s face it, I’m not here as much as he is. He lives and breathes Crimson Elite, it’s his heaven.