Naked (11 page)

I grabbed the bag from him before he could look.  “Hey!  Don’t you know better than to dig through ladies bags?  You might find something to embarrass us both in there.”

He pursed his lips together and sighed.  “I suppose you could be right,” he said far too easily.  Then he grinned like a demon and snatched the bag completely out of my hands.  “But I want to look anyway!”  He held it out of my reach and started pulling out items.  He got quiet when he extracted the purple toothbrush and then a tube of toothpaste.  He set them on his desk and put his hand back into the bag.  Out came a new hairbrush, some moisturizer and the lip gloss that I use.  He kept bringing out all the stuff I’d bought at Boots.  My brand of shampoo, shaving gel, and even a small bottle of Tommy Hilfiger’s
Dreaming
finished off the toiletries.  He lined everything up neatly and looked at me very still and very serious.  “But I thought you couldn’t, Brynne.”

“Me too.”  I took out the one thing he had left in the bag.  My prescription.  “But Dr. Roswell gave me this, and some hope that I can do it.”  I touched his hair and smoothed it.  “They’re pills to help me sleep so I won’t wake up like I did last time.  I mean, if I’m your girlfriend then I want to…try to stay over with you sometim—”

He cut me off with a kiss before I could say anymore. “Oh, baby, you’ve made me so happy,” he told me between more kisses.  “Tonight?  You’ll stay tonight?  Please say yes.”  His expression told me all I really needed to know.  He wanted me to stay, fucked-up sleeping habits and all.

I looked down at his tie clip again and spoke to that.  “If you’re willing to try it and so am I, then how can I say no?”

“Look at me, Brynne.”

I did and saw the hard set of his jaw behind the goatee.  I could see lots of emotion in him too.  Ethan did not really hide it from me ever.  He might be reserved in public, but in private with me, he wore his heart on his sleeve.  What you saw was what you got.  He told me what he wanted from me with no apology for how blunt the words were.

“I want you to see it in my eyes when I say that I am so willing to try, and so happy that you are too.”  He kissed my hair.  “And I want you to pick a word.  Something you can say to me if you need to leave because you’re scared or if I do something you don’t want to happen.”  He held my face to his.  “You just say the word and I’ll stop, or I’ll take you home.  Just please don’t ever walk out like that again.”

“Like a safe word?” I asked.

He nodded.  “Yes.  Exactly like that.  I need you to trust me.  I need that, Brynne.  But I need to trust you too.  I can’t—I don’t want to feel like that again.  When you left me that night—”  He swallowed hard.  I saw the movement of his throat pulsing and knew this was something important to him.  “—I don’t want to feel how I felt when you were gone.”

“I’m sorry I left you like I did.  I was overwhelmed by you.  You overwhelm me, Ethan.  You need to know that because it is the truth.”

He pressed his lips to my forehead and spoke.  “Okay, but just tell me when.  Say your word, whatever and I’ll back off.  Just don’t leave me like that again.”

“Waterloo.”

He looked at me and smiled.  “Waterloo is your safe word?”

I nodded.  “That’s it.”  I looked over at the food set out on the table for our lunch and inhaled.  Chinese from what Elaina had said, my nose agreeing.  “Are you going to feed me or what?  I thought I was getting lunch out of this deal.”  I poked him in the chest.  “A girl needs more than just an orgasm you know.”

Ethan threw his head back and laughed and delivered a firm smack to my ass.  “Off you go then.  Let’s get you fed, my beautiful American girl.  We have to keep you in top form.  I have big plans for you tonight.”

He flashed me a wicked wink.  I knew I was lost.

10

My
phone rang as I packed my overnight bag.  I saw who was calling and looked at the clock.  Ethan had said he would be here by seven to pick me up.  It was quarter to right now.  “Are you having second thoughts and crying off for our sleepover tonight, Ethan?”

He laughed.  “No chance of that, and I hope you have your bag ready, baby.”

“So why aren’t you here to whisk me away?”

“Yes, well I had to send a car to collect you.  Some business related emergency pain in my ass.  I’m so sorry.  The driver’s name is Neil and he works for me.  He’ll get you into my apartment and I want you to just make yourself at home until I get there.  Will you do that for me, my darling?”

“I guess so.”  My mind was spinning with the implications of me on my own in his house.  I wasn’t really scared, but the idea did not thrill me either.  “Are you sure, Ethan?  I mean—we can do this another night if you’re busy—”

“—I’m sleeping with you tonight, Brynne.  In my bed.  End of discussion.”

“Oh boy.”  I smiled into the phone.  “Can I start dinner for you then?  Is there food in the house or should I have your driver stop at the supermarket?”

“No need to stop.  There’s food and even some things in the freezer.  My housekeeper cooks meals and freezes them.  You choose whatever you like—excuse me.”  I heard muffled voices and Ethan speaking to someone.  “I have to go, baby.  I’ll see you as soon as I can get there.”

I said goodbye, but he was already off.  I stared at my phone for a moment before setting it down, lost in the surreal, and feeling like Alice in Wonderland again.  My life seemed to be careening in fast-forward with me unable to switch modes.  I’d gone from single girl to girlfriend in just over a week with no sign of a slow-down.  At all.

My phone lit up again with no screen ID on display.  “Hello?” I answered.

“Ma’am, my name is Neil McManus.  Mr. Blackstone instructed me to pick you up.  There’s a black Rover waiting down at the curb for you now.”  The smooth English accent formed the words efficiently.

Neil.  I remembered what Ethan had said about the driver.  “Sure.  Be right down.”  I slung my bag over my shoulder and made it out to the street at a quick clip.  The car that waited looked exactly like Ethan’s Range Rover, but I skidded to a halt when I got a load of Neil-the-driver; huge, muscular, bleached blonde, spiked-haired with very dark eyes.

“You!” I said, completely shocked.  It was the guy with the Jimi Hendrix tat from today.

“Yes, ma’am.”  He held open the passenger door for me, his expression giving away nothing.

“You were following me around today!”  It was no question as I am sure Neil realized.  I dropped my bag to the ground, folded my arms beneath my breasts and went for a Mexican stand-off instead.  “Give me one good reason why I should get in that car with you,
Neil
.”

Neil smiled briefly and looked down to my bag on the sidewalk.  “I work for Mr. Blackstone?”

I gave Neil my best stone face.

He tried again.  “He will fire my ass if I don’t get you delivered to his apartment per his instructions?”  He looked back up at me, his black eyes sincere.  “I very much like my job, ma’am.”

My head started spinning with more wild thoughts of what I was doing, what Ethan was up to, how many people were involved in my business, and my list could have gone on and on.  Man, oh man, did we need to have a discussion or what!  Still, it wasn’t fair to take out my frustrations on Neil, who for all appearances was just doing his job.

“Fair enough, Neil.”  I picked up my bag and got in the back seat.  “But the deal’s off if you keep calling me ma’am, got it?  My name is Brynne.  And if Mr. Blackstone doesn’t like it you can tell him that he can kiss my informal Yankee ass.  He should know that American girls despise being called ma’am!”

Neil tilted his head at me and cracked a grin as he shut my door.

He started driving as I seethed in the back seat.  The silence just irritated me so I figured I might as well get it all out in the open.  “So Ethan hired you to stalk me around London, huh?”

“Protection, ma’am…ahhh…Brynne.  Not stalking you,” Neil answered.

“Protection from what?” I demanded.  “Are you watching when I go for my runs in the mornings too?”

Neil looked up at me through the rearview mirror.  “The city can be a dangerous place.”  His eyes went back to the road.  It had started to rain and the buzz of the windshield wipers dragged rhythmically back and forth.  “He’s just very watchful is all,” Neil said quietly.

“Yeah, I know.”  Ethan is watchful and controlling and more than a little high on the arrogant scale for my tastes much of the time.  He was so in trouble with me.  “So how long have you worked for him, Neil?  Ethan tells me absolutely nothing, so I figure you can enlighten me.”  I smirked into the rearview for his benefit.

“Six years now.  We met in the SF.”

“That’s Special Forces right?  So are you guys some kind of James Bond for the British government?”

Neil actually laughed and shook his head.  “I can see why Mr. Blackstone keeps a watchful eye over you, Brynne.  You have quite the imagination.”

“Yeah, Ethan’s told me that one too,” I said dryly.

As annoyed as I was with Ethan’s presumptions—which were well beyond out of line—I couldn’t really take it out on Neil.  He seemed like a decent guy, and he had great taste in music.  I liked him.  Neil was simply doing his job.  Whatever that was in regards to me.

Neil got the car parked and us into the elevator through the garage entrance.  Before I knew, I was inside Ethan’s gorgeous home again, just this time, without Ethan.

Neil had me put his number into my cell and said he would be close if I needed anything.  “How close is close?  Am I private here?  You can’t watch me in his house can you?”  I checked his eyes for telltale signs of subterfuge.  “Do not even think about lying to me, Neil.  I will be out that door so fast Ethan will feel the wind ruffle his hair all the way from here to wherever the hell he is at the moment.”

Neil actually winced.  “In here you are totally private.  There are no cameras in the apartment, but out in the hall there are.  So if you were to leave, I will see you.  I’m in another flat across the way.  Not far.  Mr. Blackstone really just wants you to make yourself at home.”  He put his phone up to his ear and jogged it.  “Call me if you need anything, Brynne.”

The door latch clicked and my protector was gone.

Well this was weird.  Alone in Ethan’s home with my overnight bag and a scrambled head.  I wondered if I would ever feel normal again.

First things first, I went to the fridge, took out a chilled water bottle and drained half of it.  The inside of Ethan’s refrigerator was well stocked with plenty of fresh things to work with so no problem on the dinner.  I explored his coffee maker next and started drooling. 
Very nice indeed.
  I set a pot to brewing and checked out his sub zero freezer.  Ethan’s housekeeper appeared organized to the point of labeled and dated frozen meals in nice plastic containers for easy identification.  I passed on those.  I wasn’t really hungry anyway after the massive Chinese lunch he’d fed me at his office.

I moved on to the bedroom and was instantly hit with remembrances of the last time I was in this room.  I closed my eyes and breathed in the scent of Ethan.  He was everywhere even when he wasn’t.  I stepped into his bathroom.  The grotto shower of travertine marble was gorgeous, but that magnificent tub was a fantasy for a girl who did not have a proper bathtub in her flat.  I knew what I was going to do first.

An hour later my skin was pink from the heat and soft from the bubbles.  I’d dressed in my Jimi Hendrix t-shirt and a pair of Ethan’s silk boxers that were very swishy on me.  I’d organized my purchases from Boots in a bathroom drawer, shaved my legs and slathered myself in primrose scented lotion.

I wandered back to the coffee maker and fixed myself a mug before drifting into the other rooms of Ethan’s apartment.  The home gym had a state of the art treadmill facing the floor-to-ceiling windows.  The view took my breath away.  I love a city lights view, but imagined it was just as spectacular in the daytime.

I found what I believed to be his office and turned the handle.  The room behind the door was indeed an office.  Flanked by a massive oak desk, the opposite wall held a panel of TV monitors and other high-tech equipment.  But it was the wall behind the desk that really caught my attention—a salt water aquarium glowed with light and colors and bubbles over the rippling water.  I came closer and took in the rainbow of fish darting around elegant coral formations.  The Lion Fish did not dart.  He came up to the glass and fluttered an array of multi-colored fins at me as if in greeting.

“Hey, handsome.  What does he call you I wonder?” I spoke to my fishy companion and sipped my coffee.

I ate a cherry yogurt at the kitchen bar and fixed a second cup of coffee.  One whole wall of the main room held shelves of books.  I perused his collection which was eclectic to say the least.  Classics, mysteries, mainstream stuff and tons of historical fiction filled out most of it.  There was some military history and books on photography.  A large amount on statistics and gambling too.  He had popular fiction and even a few books of poetry which made me smile.  I liked that Ethan valued books.

I snagged a book of letters Keats had written to Fanny Brawne and took it into the living room to sit on the sofa and enjoy.  I had my coffee, angsty love letters from a poet to his girl, and the twinkling night lights of London displayed before me.

I spent a nice hour before I set the book aside.  I looked out at the city.  This was the spot where Ethan had undressed me, right in front of his balcony window.  He’d stepped back and told me that nothing compared to the sight of me standing in his house. 
Oh, Ethan. 
I decided to text him.

Brynne Bennett: <---is pissed at u about the Neil thing.  R u crazy?!!!

Ethan Blackstone: <---crazy for u & we need to talk about things. Miss u very much.

Brynne Bennett: <---is wearing ur boxers right now and u better believe it, buster!

Ethan Blackstone: <---just got a hard-on picturing u in my shorts. Pls leave on pillow cuz I’m never laundering.