When I finish, she pushes a long lock of dark hair behind my ear, “So, he was mad? He did this to get back at you for wasting his time? Anna, that doesn’t make any sense. It seems too cruel.” I shoot a look at her, shocked that she doesn’t believe me. She smiles at me, knowing what I’m thinking, “Of course I believe you, but it just seems a bit drastic. You didn’t do something else to him, did you? Something that he’d want payback for?”
“Em, think about it,” I lean my head back against the wall, wiping away the tears that soak my cheeks. “I’m going to have to see him every day for three months. There were better ways to screw with me, right? I don’t understand what happened. One moment everything seemed fine—he was acting like he thought it was funny. Then he had the dean on the phone, and the whole thing fell apart.” I get up, grab the kitchen towel, and run cold water over it, before pressing it to my face.
Emma leans back against the counter, her dark hair falling over her shoulder when she looks at me. “He ruined your shot at Sottero?”
Clutching the damp towel, I nod. “What do I do? I have to do the internship to graduate. I need the experience to get a job. And without that internship referral from a prestigious studio, I’m screwed. There’s no way I’ll make it.” My lip starts to quiver again.
Emma takes me by the shoulders, and shakes me once. “Snap out of it, Anna. You have to suck this up. Here’s what you do: Hate his guts, do your internship, and then get the hell out of there. You probably won’t even see him. Interns are like Labradors—they fetch crap—and if you’re really good they’ll throw you a bone that’ll look good on your resume. Piss on his pants when he’s not looking, and chew up his shoes. Okay? You can do this. You’ve dealt with worse than this pampered ass. You can do this.”
Her pep talk floods through me and suddenly I feel really tired. I nod at her, mute. There is nothing left to say. I have to go through with the internship at the slut factory, but I’ll do more than be a nuisance, like Em suggested. I’ll find dirt on Cole Stevens that will destroy him.
CHAPTER 6
“I thought you wanted to intern with Sottero? How’d you do a one-eighty and end up at Le Femme?” Edward holds up his hands and grins, “Not that I blame you. Having a girlfriend who shoots at Le Femme is sexy as hell.” He looks me over like he’s never seen me before and waggles his dark eyebrows.
I elbow him in the ribs, and he laughs, nearly dropping his popcorn on the movie theatre floor. “Yeah, that’s why I did it. So you can fantasize about me shooting half-naked chicks all day.” I reached into my purse, fish out a tissue, and hand it to him. “Wipe the drool off your face,” I say holding the tissue out between my fingers. It dangles there between us for a second. I can’t keep my tone serious and I snort by mistake.
Edward pushes his hair out of his eyes and slouches back in his seat. His long lean legs are extended in front of him. There’s a soda between us in the cup-holder that’s built into the armrest. I reach over and grab some popcorn. Edward throws a few kernels at me and they get stuck in my hair. I stick my tongue out at him, and he lunges in for a kiss.
“Awh, gross,” Emma says and looks away. She’s sitting on the other side of me. Although she knows the whole story, she says nothing to Edward. I didn’t want to deal with his temper and if Edward knew what Cole did, well—I just didn’t want to deal with it—so I said I chose to work with Cole.
Emma says, “It’s bad enough you have to date my brother, but do you have to suck his face off in front of me too?” Em’s elbow bumps into my ribs and I choke. She effectively removed her brother’s lips from mine.
He grins at me, and throws popcorn at his twin sister. It sticks to her hair and she shoots him a look.
“Real mature, Edward.” She picks out the kernels and throws them on the floor.
We got to the theatre too early. Edward is like that. He wants to be in his seat fifteen minutes before the movie begins. Em and I would have walked in five minutes before, and as long as it wasn’t opening weekend, that works fine. There are only three of us, but Edward is a little bit of a control freak.
It’s funny, although I have known him for years, we didn’t get together until a few months ago. I took my one and only business class. It was about marketing. I thought that would come in handy one day when I had my own studio. The class had all business people in it, people who spent their entire undergrad time sitting in classes and absorbing the vernacular. Meanwhile, I was learning about shadows and shading in the art department. From the first class, I felt like I was drowning in a sea of words and concepts that I didn’t understand. Edward sat next to me and helped me figure it out. During midterms, we were studying and it was late. One thing led to another and his lips met mine. Since then, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about what I want him to do to me with those sexy lips.
We lean our foreheads together and I smile at him for a second, thinking naughty thoughts. “I’m glad you’re here,” I whisper so Emma can’t hear. He wraps his arms around my shoulder and I lean my head against him.
Emma slumps down in her seat and rests her feet on the empty chair in front of her. It’s after ten and the theatre isn’t full. The lights fade and the coming attractions begin. A Le Femme ad is lumped in with some others. Edward and Emma are staring at the screen, no doubt seeing perfection that doesn’t exist. Rage floods through me when I see the ad. Cole’s perception of beauty doesn’t exist. It’s an ad produced for men, with a product aimed at women. It makes no sense and pisses me off.
Edward seems to sense the tension building in my shoulders. He mistakes it for something else, “Nervous?” he whispers in my ear.
I shake my head as the ad ends. Monday morning I start an internship that I don’t want, with a man that threatened to destroy my career. Nervous is the wrong word. Enraged is more like it. My mind swims with ideas, ways to get back at Cole for doing this to me. Come the end of summer, he’s going to wish he never met me.
CHAPTER 7
My legs are draped over the side of the bed. Edward has his hands on my shoulders, applying gentle pressure, massaging my tension away. The movie was good, but my mind was elsewhere. We came back to the apartment, and quickly ducked behind my bedroom door before Emma could comment on her brother being in my room so late.
Edward leans closer, his warm breath tickling in my ear, “I had fun tonight.” I smile absently, the hairs on the back of my neck prickle as his breath lingers.
We haven’t been together yet. The time never seemed right. Or maybe I just keep putting it off because I’m not sure that I want to have sex with my best-friend’s brother. That is a lifetime of awkward moments if things don’t work out. He’ll be picturing me naked in his mind, doing all the naughty things I like to do—things no one knows about—with that adorable grin on his face every time he sees me. I don’t know if I’m up for that.
Edward’s hands slide along my shoulders, his fingers slipping under my collar, tracing my neck with his fingertips. I close my eyes and shudder at his touch. He’s beautiful and funny, witty and smart. He’s everything that makes my heart race, but I still feel nervous about being with him. He doesn’t pressure me, not really, but he doesn’t stop trying to seduce me either. Eventually, I’ll give in. He knows it and so do I. It’s only a matter of time until I can’t resist him any longer.
“So did I,” my voice is weak, like I’ve been sleeping. I clear my throat, trying to bat away the butterflies forming in my stomach.
As I turn toward him, Edward reaches for my face and pulls us together. His lips are soft and hot. Gently, he kisses me, over and over. The kisses are so soft and sweet that I gasp. My heart is pounding. It feels like my head is spinning and I want nothing more than to feel my body sliding against his. I want to forget this day, escape it—with him.
I slip my fingers beneath his shirt and trail my hands up his hard stomach. Our kiss deepens as I do so, and he moans softly. I pull him tighter for a moment. His bare skin is scorching under my palms. I want to lose myself in him. I want to stop thinking, stop freaking out over what happened earlier. I was so upset and scared—terrified—that my future had been ripped out of my hands. I never saw it coming.
Edward’s hand cups my breast, his lips kissing me, making me hotter and hotter. He squeezes me hard and I gasp, wishing he’d do it again. As he lowers me onto my bed, his blue eyes lock on mine. Edward’s hands slide under my shirt and he pulls it over my head before my back hits the comforter. I lay in front of him with my hair splayed around me in long dark curls. I’m wearing a lacy black bra and jeans that sit just below my waist.
He sits above me, his eyes taking me in like he could never get enough. “You’re so sexy, Anna,” he says, and lowers himself on top of me. Edward kisses my cheek, then my ear, and starts moving down my neck. The heat of his mouth leaves a hot trail in his wake.
My body is strung tight—my back arches into his touch—into his kiss. My pulse pounds faster and faster. I’m so hot. The pit of my stomach has no floor. It’s fallen away with his kisses, and the heat between my thighs is completely unbearable. He feels my body shift beneath him, notices my legs opening for him. Edward’s fingers reach for the button my jeans and he slips it through the hole, then lowers the zipper. His hand slides into my pants, slowly pressing into my panties until I feel him hesitate.
