Trust in Advertising (39 page)

Victoria Michaels

out of all sorts of things. It’s what she does. She spreads her legs to get what she wants. But that was years ago. Your life has nothing to do with her anymore, so don’t let her take something else away from you. Just think about it, please.”

There was deep sadness in Vincent’s eyes as he smiled at his friend. “I’ll think about it.”

“Good, because I like Lexi. She’s a kick in the pants and I think that’s exactly what you need, someone who isn’t all gaga over you because you’re this big shot and you have money. She sees you for you, Vincent. And she still likes you. That’s pretty amazing, man.”

They laughed and looked out over the full moon as it hung low in the sky.

“She is amazing.” Vincent grinned at Sean who nodded his head wholeheartedly in agreement.

“And she has a kickass car.” Sean elbowed Vincent in the side. “Stop over-thinking things, man.”

“Kinda hard not to. She’s my assistant.”

“Well, hell, there is that, but work around it.” He held open the door to the house and let Vincent step inside. “So what happened up there? Did you say something stupid again?”

“No, that’s your style.” Vincent shrugged his shoulders. “I kissed her.”

Anna and her parents walked into the room just in time to hear Vincent’s big confession, then all hell broke loose.

“You did what?”

“That’s great!”

“Oh, boy …”

“Shit.”

Their reactions bombarded him from every direction, and Vincent slowly nodded in agreement with all of it. “My thoughts exactly.”

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∙ 19 ∙

You kissed him?” Hope squawked as she nearly went off the road in shock.

“Stop saying it!” Lexi moaned from the passenger’s seat beside her friend.

“I’m so stupid. What’s wrong with me?”

“Honey,” Hope reached over and squeezed Lexi’s hand, “it was just a kiss.”

“I kissed my boss, Hope,” she sobbed, “and to
him
I’m sure it was just a kiss, but to me it was …”

“It’s okay. I swear it will be okay.”

For the rest of the ride home, Lexi remained silent, her head pressed against the glass of the window as she watched the scenery fly by. By the time they reached the apartment, Lexi had no more tears left to shed. She crawled from the car and retreated into the safety of her home. Hope followed her inside and helped get her friend settled.

“Let me make you some tea. It’ll help.” Hope rummaged around for the kettle and heated the water while Lexi changed into a pair of comfy pajamas.

By the time Lexi sat down on the couch, Hope was there with a cup of tea and a hug.

“This is a disaster, Hope. I have no idea what I am going to do. I kissed him. It was no peck on the cheek. It was a full on, make out kiss. Every time I close my eyes I can see him; I can feel him.” Lexi rubbed her fingertips across her lips with panic in her eyes. “I need to make these feelings go away. I won’t be that pathetic girl I was in high school again.”

Victoria Michaels

“You aren’t pathetic.”

Lexi snorted and rolled her eyes. “I smuggle a grown man cheeseburgers just to see the way his eyes light up when he spies the bag in my hand. I make him a cup of coffee every morning, even though he’s more than capable of doing it himself, just so he thanks me in his husky morning voice. Hell, if my desk wasn’t right outside his office I’d probably be coming up with lame reasons to walk by his door just to catch a glimpse of him. I’m pathetic with a capital P.”

She slowly sipped her tea and settled back on the couch.

“Well,” Hope said nonchalantly, “based on what I saw, you aren’t the only one sporting a little crush. He’s interested in you too.”

“Please.” Lexi put her mug down on the coffee table and tucked her legs under her as she rolled her eyes.

“Are you really that blind? The man sat there and blew feathers at you all night, which in case you misunderstood, was shameless flirting on his part. And don’t think I didn’t notice the two of you all huddled close together, whispering back and forth. Anna nearly fell out of her seat watching you guys. Even Sean said something about it.”

“Oh, God.” Lexi pressed her hand to her stomach in an effort to stop the rolling she felt inside. “What did he say? Do I even want to know? Did it involve condoms?”

Hope laughed. “You need to calm down. It wasn’t bad. He thinks you’re good for Vincent. You make him smile; everyone says so.”

“Everyone?” Lexi squeaked out in horror. “I have to quit. I can’t go back there knowing people are talking about me like that. I thought I was doing a good job hiding my ridiculous crush.” She covered her face with her hands.

Hope smoothed the hair out of her friend’s face and rested her hand on Lexi’s shoulder. “Is that what it is, just a crush?”

“Stop it. Don’t make me say it. I can’t.”

Hope let the question die and replaced it with a much juicier one. “Is he a good kisser?” she asked with a wicked smile. “He looks like he could curl a girl’s toes. That dark, brooding thing he has going on is pretty sexy.”

For the first time since they had left Anna’s house, Lexi laughed. “The man could teach a college level course on kissing.” She fanned her heated cheeeks as she remembered how the soft, gentle kiss turned into so much more.

“Was there tongue?”

“Hope!” Lexi scolded.

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“I just need to know exactly what kind of kiss your
boss
gave you.”

Twisting her fingers together, Lexi whispered, “He gave me the best kiss of my life. I felt it under my skin, Hope. And then I wrapped my arms around his neck and practically mauled him … in front of Madison.” Lexi smacked herself in the head. “Anna will never let me near her daughter again.”

“Who initiated the tongue?” Hope’s question stopped Lexi’s ranting.

“Excuse me?”

“Whose tongue went in whose mouth first? That’s a crucial bit of information.”

Lexi thought about it for a minute and blushed. “I guess it was his tongue in my mouth. I still don’t understand why that matters.”

“Because that means
he
kissed
you
. Think about it. He was okay with the whole idea from the beginning, right? He wanted to kiss you, and what could’ve been an innocent little peck, he turned into a Gene Simmons-like display of oral showmanship.” Hope grinned.

“I French kissed my boss!” Lexi wailed as she buried her face in the pillow.

“That’s just so wrong. How am I going to face him tomorrow when all I’ll be able to do is blush like an idiot or stare at his lips and remember the sexy chest rumble thing he did as he kissed me? Either way, it’s too late. I’m so screwed.”

Hope scooted closer to her friend and cradled her arm over Lexi’s shoulders.

“I know it all seems like a total disaster right now, but you’ll be fine. You’re an amazing and wonderful person, and if he can’t see that about you then he isn’t worth your time. I know that’s not what you want to hear, but it’s true. If it’s meant to be, it will all work out somehow, no matter how impossible it all seems right now. You can’t mess with fate.”

Rarely did the hard-nosed Hope get spiritual. If she wanted something, she went for it. She made her future happen and didn’t wait around for things like fate and destiny, so her show of that little bit of faith in the cosmos made Lexi smile. It reminded her of something Marie would have said, telling her to trust in fate and destiny to lead her down the right path because some things were out of her control. The universe had plans for everyone according to Marie. Lexi just wished she knew if hers included Vincent.

“Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?” Hope asked as she rubbed Lexi’s back.

After a few seconds, a mischievous smile swept across Lexi’s face. “As a matter of fact, yes, you can. Tell me about your drive with Sean.”

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Victoria Michaels

A strangled sound came out of Hope as her tea went down the wrong pipe.

“Someone’s obviously feeling better,” she choked out. When her coughing fit subsided, she said indignantly, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Lexi rolled her puffy eyes, desperate to get the focus off of her. “Don’t think for one second I missed that goofy look on your face when you came back in the house, young lady.”

“We aren’t talking about me. We were discussing your epic crush on Vincent.”

“Yeah, but this topic is so much more fun.” She pointed at Hope’s face.

“Aww, look, you’re blushing.”

“Stop it! I am not!” She whipped a mirror out of her purse and checked her reflection. “Crap, I am. That son of a bitch. I think he cast some sort of voodoo spell on me.”

There was no stopping the smug grin on Lexi’s face. “So, was it an
interesting
drive?”

“Damn it, stop the interrogation!” Hope slammed her head down on the table. “We made out. I’m weak. I’m a weak, weak woman. I think you should stage an intervention for me.”

A full belly laugh rolled out of Lexi, and with great pleasure, she turned Hope’s own words back onto her for maximum embarrassment. “So, was there tongue?”

Hope’s long black hair whipped over her shoulder as she raised her chin and answered Lexi’s embarrassing question head on, trying to save face. “Yes, there was tongue. Lots and lots of tongue. And the tongue action was
not
limited to my mouth.”

“What?” Lexi shrieked in shock.

Hope shrugged. “A lady doesn’t kiss and tell.”

“Bull,” Lexi laughed and then hugged Hope. “I’m not even going to ask where else his tongue was.”

The women shared a knowing look. “That’s probably for the best.” Hope winked at her friend.

“Thanks for cheering me up. I appreciate you listening to me and my whining.”

“I love you, Lexi. And I’m always here for you.”

“Unless you’re making out with Sean, that is.”

The two women stayed up late, with Hope trying unsuccessfully to keep Lexi’s mind off of Vincent Drake. Just after midnight, Lexi decided she was going 238

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to call off work tomorrow so she could clear her head. Vincent had meetings later that day, anyway, so she would just be sitting at her desk, wallowing in her humiliation, and she could do that just as well at home. She called Hunter and left a brief message for Leigh. In the morning, she would text Vincent and let him know she wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be back until the following day. That would give her one more day to clear her head before she faced him.

After a restless night’s sleep, Lexi focused her energies on cleaning her apartment, immersing herself in that rather than dwelling on her memories of the night before. She savagely tried to scour away her feelings for Vincent as she scrubbed her place. Her BlackBerry remained eerily silent all day, which was fine with her. She would rather not risk hearing the deep, sexy timbre of his voice on her mental health day. Within the safety of her apartment, she simply focused on anything and everything that was
not
Vincent Drake.

By the time she was done with her rampage, her bathroom floors gleamed, every scrap of clothing was washed, folded and put away, cups and glasses were arranged by height, and food was sorted by the time of day in which it was eaten. Her home could have been photographed for
Architectural Digest
it was that pristine.

Hours later, Lexi ventured out of the house and found herself at the one place that always made her feel better: her bench. It was nothing extravagant, a tiny haven in a bustling city, but it felt like it had been hers from the very first time she sat down on the gently splintering wood, with tears in her eyes, missing her father. She couldn’t explain what it was about being near the water that calmed her, but it made her feel content and hopeful. Being there reminded Lexi that life goes on, and in the end, somehow, everything would be okay. As the sun started to set, Lexi peered out over the water one last time, and then headed home.

Emotionally and physically exhausted, Lexi fell into bed that night, happy that for at least a few hours her brain had remained a Vincent-free zone. Her dreams, however, were a different story.

Her morning coffee was interrupted by Hope’s loud voice. “Jesus, Lexi. Next time you need to purge yourself of a man, I’m taking you to the garage and letting you clean the shit out of it. The place is an absolute hole. Oh my God, did you alphabetize your entire DVD collection? There have to be—”

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“Two hundred and fourteen movies,” Lexi said smugly as she took a sip from her mug. “And eighty-five CDs; don’t forget those.”

Hope shook her head as she surveyed the rest of the apartment. When she poked her head into the bathroom, she noticed that Lexi had even folded the end toilet paper into a little triangle just like they did at fancy hotels. Thoroughly amazed, she plopped onto the stool beside Lexi and shook her head. “Have you expelled your demons? Are you ready to go back to work?”

“Ready to get back to work? Yes. Am I ready to see Vincent? Absolutely not.” Lexi waved her BlackBerry at Hope. “I have ten missed calls from him.”

“What the hell did he want?” She snatched the phone, but Lexi immediately grabbed it back and slipped it into her purse.