Page 22 of Black Ties and White Lies

It feels more like a room at a luxurious hotel than a guest bedroom. I’m not complaining. The queen bed is larger than the full one I was used to sleeping on. I don’t know what the mattress is made of, but it felt like sleeping on a cloud.

I should’ve slept perfectly.

I didn’t.

Instead, I dreamed of the desire in Beck’s stupid gorgeous but cunning eyes. I dreamt about what his lips would feel like against mine. I even thought of all the dirty things that could happen on all the surfaces of his kitchen. As the sun peeks through the floor to ceiling windows of my bedroom, I turn into the mattress and groan. Where I should feel chipper and ready to experience New York again, all I feel is exhaustion and partially wound up.

My phone vibrates on the nightstand. Sighing, I push myself off the bed to grab it. The moment I swipe to answer, I can hear the familiar sound of my best friend’s arguing.

“Ask her if she boned Beckham.” I’d know Emma’s voice anywhere.

I also would recognize Winnie’s sigh of disapproval anywhere. Emma and I constantly get it from her. “Emma!” Winnie scolds. “He’s her boss. They can’t sleep together.”

“Shut up, they totally can and she totally should. Seeing that man in person, I’d honestly disown her as a friend if she didn’t let him give her the ride of her life.”

Smiling, I shake my head at both of them. It hasn’t even been a day since I’ve seen the two people I’m closest with in the world and I already miss them terribly. “Good morning,” I say.

It catches both of their attention, their arguing halting immediately. “Margie!” Winnie says excitedly, using a nickname she gave me the first time she ever smoked weed.

“Hi Win,” I respond. I sit up in bed, pulling my knees to my chest and putting the phone on speaker.

“Did you hear everything we just said?” Winnie asks cautiously.

“You know she did,” Emma pipes up. “I meant every word I said, Mar. You better be riding him like a pony the next time we see you. I want to hear all about how big his dick is.”

I snort, fixing my tangled hair into a bun on the top of my head. “I’m his assistant, Em. Not his sex toy. There will be no looking at his dick. Sorry to disappoint.”

I don’t have to be with Emma to know she’s dramatically jutting her lip out in a puppy dog face. She’s been using the face on us since we all met in college. It doesn’t work like it used to, especially since I can’t see her right now. “You’re no fun,” she draws. “I’m having a dry spell and wanted to live vicariously through you.”

There’s silence, and then a gasp is heard from the other line. “Winnie!” Emma shrieks.

“What’s going on?” I question.

“Winnie, you need to explain this text right now,” Emma demands. There’s rustling, a loud crack, and then the line goes dead.

I stare at my screen confused. “Hello?” No one answers. When I attempt to call Winnie again, it goes straight to voicemail. I try Emma’s number, but it only rings before a voice comes over the line telling me that Emma’s voicemail box is full.

“I’d like to think of myself as more of a stallion than pony.”

I yelp, almost jumping off the bed from learning I’m not alone.

“What the hell, Beck!” I shriek, throwing a pillow at him. He leans in the open doorway, completely unfazed by the feather pillow that hit him right in the abs.

Speaking of abs, I’m hit with the memory of seeing them on full display last night. I actually got to touch them, feel them tighten underneath my touch. It was hot as hell.

“I should be the one saying what the hell. Your friends referenced me as a pony.” He takes a few steps into the room, leaving the door to the hallway open behind him.

It’s only now that I’m struck with the realization that Beck is dressed casually. At least casual when it comes to Beck’s standards.

He wears a pair of dark navy blue chinos, a white-collared shirt with a sweater slipped over it. It’s not the most casual thing a man could wear, but for Beck, it’s basically like wearing a pair of baggy sweatpants and an old T-shirt.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, changing the subject. He stands in the entryway of my room dressed like he’s about to go to Sunday brunch. Which I guess he might be. It actually is Sunday.

His eyes look over the space, almost like it’s his first time seeing the room. Maybe it is. He made it seem like his room was downstairs. It’s possible he never comes up here if there isn’t any need to. When I’d taken a peek around upstairs last night, I found two other rooms, both smaller than the one I chose, and then an office space that had floor to ceiling bookshelves on two of the walls.

“You’d slept long enough. We have plans, and since you weren’t going to wake up on your own, I had to become the alarm clock.” He steps over my suitcase that I’d left on the ground, clothes spewing out in all directions as I’d angrily looked for a comfortable pair of pajamas last night. “Except, it turns out you didn’t need an alarm clock. Your friends woke you up enough with references to my cock. Or excuse me, youridingmy cock.”

I fall back into fluffy pillows with a mortifying groan. One day I might actually kill Emma for that big mouth of hers. Even from the side of the country her antics are getting me in trouble. Closing my eyes, I pull one of the pillows over my face. Maybe if I close my eyes hard enough and mutter some kind of prayer to the god of embarrassment or whatever, I’ll be able to disappear into the mattress and never look Beck in the eye again.

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