“I doubt he would have cared,” I say with a frown, wondering what Jack could have wanted. “He’s engaged.”
“Jack?”
“Yeah,” I tell her, “to Claudia Sever.”
“That asshole,” Laurie mutters. “I’m sorry,” she adds gently.
I shrug.
“I thought he didn’t have it in him to commit to one woman,” she says drily.
“No, just me.” I trace a pattern on the covers on my bed, the sadness from last night coming back.
“Stop feeling sorry for yourself,” Laurie says. “You deserve so much better than a guy who keeps toying with you. Either he wants you or he doesn’t. Seriously Rach, he gives you enough attention to keep you in love with him while he fucks everyone else but you.”
“You’re right,” I say. “Now, do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?”
“Ohhhh There’s more…” She loses her serious expression. “I hope it doesn’t involve Jack Weyland.”
Shaking my head, I start to tell her the rest, watching her eyes grow wider and wider when I get to the part about Landon.
“Holy hell!” She whistles. “You had a one night stand!” She starts to giggle. “And he thought you were a hooker. Wow! You’re not the girl who left this apartment last night. Where’s Rachel?” She asks dramatically, “Where’s my cousin, what have you done with her?”
I smile. “I think I gave her something she really needed.”
“Ha!” She exclaims, then frowns. “Landon… The Swanson Court penthouse… Was it Landon Court?”
“Who? I don’t know, I didn’t ask for his last name, you know, one night stand and all that.”
“No, you were too busy trying to get a ride on his disco stick.” She snickers.
“Actually, two rides,” I correct.
“Whore!” she exclaims, giggling along with me. “But seriously, Swanson Court, penthouse apartment…She hands me her bowl of cereal and bounds up from the bed. My computer is on my desk by the window, and she lifts the lid and starts it up.
“What are you doing?” I ask, stealing a spoonful of her cereal.
“Hold on,” she replies, “and don’t eat my cereal. You haven’t even brushed your teeth.”
I shrug and take another spoon, watching as the laptop starts. Laurie opens a browser window and types a few words before hitting the ‘enter’ button. The search results appear almost immediately, with a few images down the page. I wait while she clicks on something and then the screen is filled with pictures.
Some of them are of a building, which I recognize as the Swanson Court hotel. The others are mostly of a man. I move towards the edge of the bed so I can see the screen better. There are pictures of him in suits, in tuxedos, a shot with his dark gold hair tousled, blue eyes vibrant. There’s a picture on a large boat, one at the airport as he walks across the tarmac with a beautiful blond woman who looks like a model, and lots more.
I get off the bed and move forward to check the search term Laurie used. It’s ‘Swanson Court Owner.’
“Is that him?” Laurie asks.
I nod slowly.
“He’s the fucking owner!” She whispers, uncharacteristically awed. “I’ve seen his name on the gossip blogs. He’s always on those lists, the ‘most eligible bachelors in the country’ lists. He’s a gazillionaire, and he’s fucking hot!”
He is. I’m transfixed by the sight of him on my screen. Lauren goes back to the search results and I read some of the information in the box beside the results. Landon Court, hotelier and real estate magnate, the billionaire owner of the Swanson Court hotels and residential apartments with branches all over the country.
He’s beautiful, rich, and sexy.
And I slept with him.
“Wow!” I release a breath. “I had no idea.”