Page 10 of Midnight & Mergers
“Club Quarters, World Trade Center, please.”
“Sure thing!”
As the taxi pulled out into the street, Teagan bit her lip and stared out the car window. The streets of New York became a blur, as did much of what happened during her memory lapse.
How could I have lost that much time? I know I was thinking about my father, but I couldn’t have thought about him for that long! 30 minutes is far too long, so I must have shifted! It’s the only explanation that makes sense. What am I going to do? My father was the only one that could keep my kelpie horse at bay!
Her thoughts suddenly turned to Brooks. Sure, she felt something for him. Her damned libido had been in overdrive since the minute she met him. But was he really going to be the answer she needed for her shifter side? He was a vampire—and most likely a pureblood. Father told her to hide from vampires like him. It was why she made sure her protection spell, the one that blocked purebloods from reading her, was in full force when she was in Brooks’s presence. She just hoped her mojo was strong enough to keep Brooks and the rest of his employees in the dark.
And what’s up with liking that guy, and why was I so stupid to call him hot? He’s my damned boss now, for fuck’s sake!
She buried her head in her hands.
God, how could I have been so stupid? It wasn’t even my first day, and I was already calling my boss a hottie. WTF?
Thoughts of Jeremy flooded her mind, and all the betrayal came rushing back.
I can’t do this. I will not make the same mistake twice. No more dating the boss, even if this one is a vampire that is most likely my mate!
The taxi came to an abrupt halt, jarring Teagan from her thoughts. Teagan paid for the cab and headed to the front desk, where a garment bag was waiting for her, along with a large bag containing a box that she assumed included a pair of shoes. She peered into the bag and found some unmentionables, to her surprise. She grabbed everything and headed to her room, where Morpheus greeted her with his usual mew. Annoyed that he was being disturbed from his nap, he began his other favorite pastime, the obsessive licking of his fur.
She walked straight towards the bed and carefully laid out the garment and shopping bag she retrieved from the front desk.
“Alright. Let’s see if Mr. Brooks Bradley has any taste in women’s clothing.” She said to Morpheus as she unzipped the bag, pulled out the dress, and gasped.
She knew the dress designer without even having to gaze at the tags. It was an Oscar de la Renta made of black guipure lace and had a soft silk lining. The dress was elegantly stunning, with some carefully hand-sewn beaded sequins, making the monetary value of the clothing that much more expensive.
The thing was, she didn’t have to guess the price of the gown. Teagan knew the dress was over three thousand dollars. One of her favorite past times was looking at the Saks Fifth Ave website and dreaming about all the gorgeous dresses she’d never be able to afford. This one happened to be one she’d been obsessing over for the past three months. She pulled the dress to her body and turned to the full-length mirror. The dress clung to her curves in all the right places and was the correct size, which should shock her. But the man had a hooded gaze over her during their entire interview, so she didn’t doubt for a second that he didn’t know every visible scar she had at this point.
“God, if this is the dress—what do the shoes look like?”
She opened the shopping bag and pulled out the shoebox that contained a pair of Manolo Blahnik black satin mules with crystal embellishments. And again, not so surprisingly, they were also the correct size. Vampires and their parlor mind-reading tricks, no doubt. But still? The man bore into her long enough that he probably saw her very soul. Just that thought alone left her feeling completely naked. The shoes themselves were over a grand, thanks to her obsessiveness with shoe searches on Saks. She had her eye on those very shoes, too. And all thanks to a suggestion to complete the look with the dress.
“Good Lord!”
She placed the shoes back on the bed and peered into the shopping bag again. She pulled out a Kiki de Montparnasse bralette with a matching thong. Those alone would add up to a grand in total. This man clearly didn’t care how much he spent. And now she was wondering if her obsession with Saks was his, too. Or? Did he read her mind like an open book? Because clearly, this was borderline crazy that he already knew her this well. There was also a pair of pantyhose and a black clutch—two things she vowed not to search on Saks for. The main reason was the fear of realizing exactly how much he had spent on her before she had become an official employee. Teagan didn’t want to know the actual price tag, especially once she found more in the bag.
Is this guy completely certifiable?
A large jewelry box appeared at the bottom of the shopping bag. Teagan opened the black velvet box, and it contained a diamond choker with some matching stud earrings. The necklace had too many diamonds on it to count. And the thing sparkled in the dim light so brightly that she could only assume she’d light up a room. The jewelry was far more expensive than the dress and the shoes combined.
“Oh, my God. I will have to get insured before I put this thing on!”
She dropped the box onto the bed and the dress and headed into the bathroom, turning on the shower.
“I’m going to have to chat with Mr. Braggy Brooks Bradley. He can’t buy me stuff like this! This isn’t a real-life Pretty Woman thing, and he’s certainly no Richard Gere! What the fuck have I gotten myself into?” She yelled this to herself in her full-length bathroom mirror before hopping in the shower. The water from the showerhead beaded on her cheeks as she shut her eyes. “And how could he know my sizes? The dress is small, which wasn’t too much of a stretch. I have a thin frame—but how’d he get the shoe size, right? It’s like he really was undressing me with his eyes yesterday and today.” Teagan shook her head to shake off the obsessing she was doing because if she weren’t careful, she’d go back to thinking he read her mind. There was no way in hell she wanted to go there—not now—not ever. Because fuck no, that’s just creepy! “Perhaps he had the maid rummage through my closet? But that’s also a tad creepy!” She sighed, turned off the shower, and dried off.
After she got dressed, she was thankful that the hotel had a blow dryer that didn’t frizz up her pin-straight hair. She then put on some BB cream, mascara, and burgundy-red lipstick and headed out the door. When she walked out of the hotel’s front entrance, there was a man dressed in a uniform holding a sign with the name Teagan Thompson written on it.
“Hi, I’m Teagan Thompson.”
“I’m here to take you to L’Appart, Ms. Thompson,” He said as he led her to a stretched limo parked on the street. He opened the door for her, and she slid in.
Once the door was shut, Teagan mumbled under her breath, “So much for having the car come and pick me up. Who the fuck calls a limo a car? I guess Mr. Bradley does.”
The driver’s side opened, and the man got in and started to close the partition.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that! I don’t need any privacy. A stiff drink before my business dinner with Mr. Bradley, maybe. But I don’t need any privacy.”
