Page 53 of Tricky Business

Then a model puts her hand on Emery’s back, and I see him tense for a half second before turning to the girl with a smile on his face. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but she gets closer to him, her body only inches from his, and I cringe, but I can’t look away.

He gives her one more smile and nods his head before turning back to the director and continuing their conversation. The girl is full of smiles, but she doesn’t continue talking to him.

One after another, I watch a half dozen of the girls try the same thing, and he turns each of them away just like the first. All distinct body types. All distinct faces. All distinct personalities. Each one of them is treated professionally, and they leave with a smile on their face, but they leave, nonetheless.

Is this what it’s always like for Emery? Is this how he’d act with normal models, too? I have my doubts that any man would just send Ariana Russo packing if she started flirting.

I keep watching, masochistically hoping that I’m wrong, that no matter who talks to him, he’ll stay professional the whole time. Then the girl that looks most like a typical model approaches him, but instead of touching his arm or back, she just grabs his ass.

Everything inside me tenses as he stands still while she rises on her toes and whispers in his ear. He hasn’t even turned around. I want to run across the room and hit that woman in the face repeatedly. Every other girl was at least subtle, but this one…

Just like all the rest, Emery turns around slowly, but this time, there’s no smile on his face. He doesn’t touch her, but he doesn’t say anything either. He just pulls his phone out of his pocket and quickly sends a text. Two large men in security uniforms step out of a doorway I’d barely noticed before.

They go straight to the girl. She tries to talk to Emery, but he’s already turned around and is talking to the director again. The security guards drag the girl to the elevator and take her downstairs.

“Fuck,” Brandon says. “I don’t know how Emery does that. I’d have pulled that chick into a hallway and given her a wham, bam, thank you, ma’am. Not Emery Brooks, though. When he’s on a shoot, he’s all business every time.”

Shonda chimes in. “He’s the perfect gentleman. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was as gay as they come. But he acts like that to the guys that have tried to hit on him, too. Perfectly professional.”

“Why would he need to mix business and pleasure with the girls he’s fucking?” Stephanie’s been quiet. Maybe she had a little too much fun last night. “That man has fucked his way through the hottest hundred women in the world twice over. I mean, he went out with Ariana Russo two nights ago.”

Shonda shakes her head, and I just want to crawl away into a corner. I feel like they know what we’ve done, like we’re wearing neon signs on our chests, and they’re pointing it all out just to make things hurt worse.

“I don’t think he does. At least one of them would have been upset with him and made a stink. No one talks badly about Emery. I think he takes them out, shows them a good time, and takes them home. Sure, he’s probably slept with some of them, but definitely not all of them, and I’d bet money that he didn’t sleep with Ariana Russo. Look at this video.”

She pulls her phone out of her purse and hands me a video of Emery and Ariana laughing at a painting. They’re acting like best friends, and she definitely puts her hands on him, but it’s in an almost familial way. When I look at his eyes, I don’t see the same fire in them he has with me. Maybe she’s right. Maybe he does just go out with women because it’s part of his job. Maybe it really is all fake.

Then Ariana points toward a camera and grins as she poses for the picture that haunted me. The one where she kisses Emery on the cheek as they both grin. And then they burst out laughing.

It’s nothing like when he kissed me. It’s not even like the wet towel kiss he gave me.

I look up at Emery as he walks toward us. The cameras are rolling and models all over the room are saying their lines, their movements critiqued and changed to better fit the roles we’ve given them. The assistant directors in charge of each of the videos have them all redo them repeatedly.

Emery doesn’t sit down when he gets to us. He just turns around and watches as the production crew does their thing. When he stands next to me, I can’t help but wonder if I should have believed him. He’s still the biggest liar I’ve ever met. Hell, if he’s been telling me the truth, that means that he’s been lying to the entire world since he started Aspire.

That fills me with both hope and despair. A liar of that magnitude can’t be trusted. Then again, he didn’t lie to me. It would be so much easier if he’d just lied to me and fucked Ariana Russo. Then I could be angry with him, and we could go back to being boss and intern.

He leans down next to me, not daring to touch me, and he whispers in my ear. “Will you please let me take you somewhere after the shoot? I think I need to explain some things, and I don’t know how to do it any other way.”

I know I should say no, but I can’t come up with a good reason. He’s done nothing wrong. But he’s dangerous, and trust matters so much in a relationship. Even one like ours. I don’t know if I could ever trust him.

What could going with him tonight hurt? Maybe I’m missing something.

“I’ll go,” I whisper back without looking at him.

“Thank you, Madison. I’m sorry for making you feel the way you do.” When I turn to face him, he’s already walking away, back to the business side of things.

I watch him go, watch him move like everything he does is as natural as breathing. When he talks to an assistant director or a cameraman, it’s like he’s known them for years. They laugh and smile, and he slaps their backs. And when he walks away, the smiles stay behind. He’s like a virus, except that the only thing he spreads is happiness.

For everyone but me.

For me, he leaves pain and lust. Desperation and hunger. He is everything that I can’t stand, but I’m drawn to him in a way that I can’t explain. Larger than life, and more twisted than anyone I’ve ever met, I feel like he’s the only person I’ve ever met that makes me question everything.

Maybe tonight he’ll explain it all. Maybe he’ll show me the secrets that he’s kept hidden for so long.

Chapter 32

Emery

---