“You want me to talk?” I laughed bitterly. “About what it feels like to watch a girl you’ve just been screwing kiss another guy? Or the girl you care about lie to you? How about this?” I held one finger at a time as I made my own list. “It sucks. I want to kill David. I want her to hurt just as bad as I hurt. I want the pain in the middle of my chest to alleviate enough so I can freaking breathe. I want to slam the door in her face, then apologize and pull her into my arms and beg her to choose me.” I stared at my hand, all fingers extended, then shook it as though doing so would cross the items off my list. “I want so many damn things and I’m so confused that I think my only option is to drown myself in the whiskey we apparently don’t have enough of. That’s the truth.”
Lex was silent.
The kitchen clock ticked in the distance, grating on my already-frayed nerves.
“Well.” Lex cleared his throat. “You have two choices. Tell her you saw her and confront her face-to-face, or just . . . let her go without explanation. One’s easier on you, and the other is hard on you both. Think about it, and don’t make the douche mistake of being dramatic about it. Remember, we have dicks.”
“Could have fooled me, since it seems like she just kicked mine clean off and laughed while doing it.”
“That was your heart, not your dick. You know the difference, so stop being an ass and drink the rest of that whiskey.”
“Two drops left. Think if I close my eyes and click my heels together, it will turn into two bottles?”
“Do it and I’m calling you a chick again.”
With a frustrated sigh, I tilted back the bottle and tossed it in the trash, then pulled my phone out of my pocket.
Seven missed calls.
All from Blake.
“What’s it gonna be?”
“I’m a fixer,” I said, still staring at my phone. “So I’m going to fix it. We’re still under contract, but as per our agreement stated in the last section, at least for Blake, if he takes her out on a date and kisses her, the contract is complete.” I glanced over at his laptop. “Terminate it.”
“Uh.” Lex shoved to his feet. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“What?” I sneered. “That’s what she wanted at the beginning, and regardless of how she got it, it happened. Terminate the damn contract, ask for payment, and delete her information from my schedule while you’re at it. I have to meet with Vivian in the morning, and then I have a new client next week.”
“Ian, think about this.” Lex started toward me. “By ignoring her, you take the chance that—”
“That what?” I yelled. “That she’ll be gone forever? She already is. She made her choice. She’s been in my bed every freaking night for the past damn near two weeks, and still she kissed him back. She kissed him, Lex. I’d almost rather she slept with him.” He knew as well as I did how personal a kiss could be. Sex could be mindless, but kissing? It never was. Thousands of thoughts led up to the kiss, millions of sensations took place during, and it was the only act of foreplay that replayed in women’s minds, most of the time more than sex, for years to come.
You remembered every moment of your first kiss with someone.
Your first time having sex? In a lot of instances, it’s cringeworthy, not notable, embarrassing, not good enough.
Kissing, though, was always remembered.
And there was always a reason for it.
“Ian, I’m going to ask you one more time—are you sure?”
“Delete the file, Lex. I’m still your boss, technically, right?” It was a low blow. Even though we were partners, I had a slightly larger stake in the company—60 percent. I knew my bringing his attention to it stung.
He looked pissed, ready to punch me in the jaw. “Yes.”
“Then do it.”
I left him in the dark living room and stomped my way up the stairs. When I was halfway up, the doorbell rang.
Lex answered it, like I knew he would.
“Is Ian here?” Blake asked.
I paused on the stairway, lingering in the shadows, eavesdropping.
“No,” Lex lied. “Blake, you should go.”
“No!” she yelled. “I can’t. He doesn’t understand what he thinks he saw. I just—I need to explain.”
“Fine.” Lex crossed his arms, bracing himself in the middle of the doorway. “Explain to me. Why the hell was some other guy kissing you?”
She was silent for a few breaths. Then she said, “I’d rather talk to Ian about that.”
“Tough shit. You’ve got me. Talk or leave, I don’t give a damn.”
“He kissed me!”
“Tale as old as time.” Lex sneered. “And you kissed him back. Am I missing any important details, where you pushed him away, kneed him in the balls, screamed at the top of your lungs?”
“I did . . . push him away . . . after a bit.”
“And you hesitated. That doesn’t speak well for you, or for the way you think about my best friend. The same best friend that I’m pretty sure is going to want to quit the most lucrative business concept I’ve seen in decades, all because some girl who doesn’t even know how to dress without his help thought she would aim a bit higher and cheat.” I clenched the wood stairwell so tight my hands hurt. I was torn between wanting to defend her and wanting to yell at her like he was.