Page 139 of Positively Pricked
Chapter 46
Early the next morning, I was rushing around my hotel room when the telephone rang – not my cell phone, but rather the phone on the night stand.
I gave it a worried glance.
In five minutes, I was supposed to be meeting Zane in the lobby, where we'd be catching his limo to his next scheduled interview.
Still, vowing to make it quick, I answered the phone with a breathless, "Hello?"
It was Carla, the receptionist from the main office, who sounded a little breathless herself. "I'm terribly sorry to ask, but…" She hesitated. "Is Mister Bennington there?"
I felt my eyebrows furrow. "You don't mean in my hotel room?"
"I wouldn’t even ask, but it's an emergency." She lowered her voice to just a whisper. "Everyone knows, so there's really no need to hide it."
I froze. "Everyone knows what?"
"That you two are…you know."
"No," I said. "I don't."
She sighed. "Oh great. Am I in trouble now?"
"Why would you be in trouble?"
"I don't know," she said. "For not pretending?"
"Pretending what?"
"Not to know."
I made a sound of frustration. "Not to know what?"
After a long moment, she whispered, "That you're his…" Again, she hesitated.
"His what?"
And then, in a low whisper, she dropped the hammer. "Mistress."
I sank to a sitting position on the bed. The term, as old-fashioned as it was, felt like a slap to the face, especially because Zane and I were barely on speaking terms. I said, "Excuse me?"
"Oh come on," she whispered. "You're the only one who pretends."
Where on Earth hadthiscome from? "I hate to tell you this, but I have no idea what you're talking about."
She was still whispering. "Listen, you seem like a really nice person, and I'm just hoping I don't get in trouble for this, but you should probably know that he's already admitted it."
If I weren't already sitting, this would've knocked me on my ass for sure. "He has? When?"
"I dunno…Maybe a month after you were hired?"
That asshole.Trying not to lose it, I said, "And justwhodid he 'admit' this to?"
"To that bedding supplier from Cincinnati."
"Boris Feldman?"
"I think so."
