chapter ONE
Therapist: When did you finally realize you were addicted to cocaine?
Jay: I’m addicted to partying. Not any drug in particular.
Therapist: Okay. Tell me about the time when you figured that out.
Jay: Maybe I always knew. Being the life of the party comes with a cost. For me, it was a big one.
Jay
The metal scraped against the glass table as I shoved the powder into one last white line. I’d snorted only two. This last one wasn’t going to push me over the edge into addiction.
Tomorrow would be better.
Tomorrow, I’d stop the partying.
I sniffed it up off the table and tilted my head back to the ceiling as I brushed the excess from my nose.
“Feeling it now, Jay?” A redhead with lips that shined like a wet lollipop whispered in my ear as she dragged her hand over my jean zipper.
The rush kicked in and had I been standing, it would have knocked me on my ass. Stars burst behind my eyelids as I closed them, the woman’s hands suddenly felt like velvet, and the beat of the music swayed me like the waves of the ocean.
I wondered why I wasn’t hard as a rock under her hand. I grabbed her by the hips and moved her to straddle me. “I’m feeling you, sweet thing.”
She giggled and shoved her tits in my face. They were fake, but they were round, big enough to be a handful, and accessible.
Just as I was about to lick her cleavage, the voice of reason and everything I didn’t need in that moment blurted out, “Jaydon Stonewood. You were supposed to meet me an hour ago to go over your script.”
Mikka Chang. My miniscule, overly organized assistant stood in the middle of the club, arms crossed, tapping the front of one of her pink stilettos on the floor, staring me down. As always, those shoes had extra high heels and were like an extension of her. She walked with precision in them when most would have fumbled just like how she walked through life. Of course, she was wearing a pink sweater that matched her footwear perfectly. My eyes trailed over the rest of her. Her skintight jeans covered her curves like latex and I nearly growled when my dick decided that was the moment it should jump to attention.
The redhead continued grinding on me and started kissing my neck like she’d finally succeeded in her efforts to turn me on. She didn’t pay any attention to the little wrecking ball in front of us.
Mikka was a tiny little thing. And yet, when she stared us down, she didn’t avert her gaze, not even for an instant. I knew my night was taking a turn. When that woman doubled down on a mission, nothing could shake her from it.
She proceeded to remove her worn leather book bag, the one she always carried with her, from her shoulder and take out a copy of the movie script we’d been working on.
“Are you kidding, Mikka?” I groaned.
“No. I’m not.” The papers thwacked onto the table near our drinks. She dug in her bag for more files and threw them on the table too. “I could have stayed in tonight if you’d told me this was your plan. Instead, you scheduled me in for the evening a week ago.”
“Can’t we reschedule?” I motioned toward the woman on top of me who I had to give props to—she hadn’t come up for air.
Mikka glared at her for two seconds. Then, she snapped her fingers in the woman’s face. “Hey. Take a breath. Go get some fresh air. Think about if you really want to sleep with a man who just made you sign an NDA, which you did make her sign, right, Jay?”
I winced as my lollipop-lipped girl scoffed and climbed off me. “Find me later when your drama leaves.”
As she walked off, my security nodded to her. They’d been the ones to make her sign an NDA, not me. “Meek, what the hell?”
She cleared her throat. “Keep to your schedule, Jaydon, and quit taking advantage of me. I’m your only real friend in this town, not your doormat. This is the third time this month you’ve blown me off and honestly, I’m starting to worry.”
My mind skittered around trying to nail down what she was talking about. Days had blurred with the partying and my nights had gotten jumbled. I didn’t want to admit that to her.
She was about the only person I didn’t want to admit that to.
“That can’t be right,” I mumbled and reached for her hand. “I wouldn’t do that to you. You know…”
She stared at our hands entangled, her dark eyes starting to glisten. “Can you please take a breather from the partying? We have a lot on our plate. I’m hard on you now because I know you can do better.”