Laurie looks suspicious as she takes my hand, and I can see her inner lawyer assessing me. “Laurie,” she says.
“And Brett.” Brett takes my hand with a warm smile.
“We were just going.” Laurie looks from me to Rachel. “Do you want us to wait or…”
“Just wait for me,” Rachel says quickly. “I’ll be right out.”
Brett gives me an appraising glance. “Well, it was nice to meet you.” Then to Rachel. “We’re right outside, Rach.”
They both walk away, and Rachel turns to me. I don’t want her to leave, and I’m sensing she feels the same. I can tell that, if I asked her to come home with me, she would.
I’m tempted, but the next time I fuck her, it won’t be behind a lie.
She needs to tell me the truth.
“I’m leaving,” she tells me.
I take her hand, tracing patterns on her skin with my fingers. “I gathered.”
She hesitates. “It was nice to run into you.”
“It was nice to run into you Rachel,” I reply with a chuckle.
She doesn’t move, and I wonder what it feels like for her, knowing, or at least believing if she walks away now, she’d be leaving me with a lie.
Tell me the truth, Rachel.
I release her hand, watching her eyes cloud with something that looks like disappointment.
“Good night,” she says, before hurrying away. I take a deep breath. A car is waiting outside to take her home, but I’m not done with her yet. She had a chance to tell me the truth, but she chose not to. Now, I’ll have to confront her with it and give her a taste of what it feels like to be played for a fool.
Chapter 6
“This has been a great meeting, gentlemen.” I walk around the desk to shake hands with Verne Matthews and Alistair Cordwell, co-owners of an online booking service.
“It’s a pleasure doing business with you,” Verne says.
I smile as they leave then turn back to my desk, tapping my fingers on the polished surface. In less than an hour, I have the one meeting I’ve been looking forward to attending all day, and I’m oddly nervous.
Rachel.
She’s like a fire in my blood, hot and spreading, unquenchable. After that night at Insomnia, my desire for her has only grown and spread until I can’t go more than a few minutes without my thoughts going back to her.
Well, I will see her today, and I’ll watch her reaction when her lies explode in her face.
Anticipation makes me smile. Just then my assistant, Tony Gillies, opens the door and sticks his head inside my office.
“Joe is waiting,” he tells me. “You
have the Gilt Building in twenty.”
“I’ll be right down.”
He leaves me alone again, and I see Rachel’s face in my head. I imagine her expression when she walks into her boss’s office and sees me there. Almost too eagerly, I button up my jacket and head downstairs.
On the ground floor, a low hush descends once I walk out of the elevator into the cavernous marble and glass lobby. I know every marble tile, every stone, every pane of glass in this place almost as if I built it with my own hands. My building, a culmination of years of dreams. Without breaking my stride, I head out the main doors, where Joe is already opening the rear door of my car.
I settle into the back seat, checking my phone for pertinent emails.