Page 39 of Wonderlust

“Fake!?” a voice called from behind me. Turning around, I saw Alex standing there with Maddison. Shit! “Well at least I’m not some frigid, stuck up bitch!” Maddison yelled, making a lunge for me. Alex held her back by grabbing her waist.

“Maybe you should apologize, Natasha,” he suggested, cautioning me with his eyes. Like hell I would!

“For what? It’s the truth.”

Maddison pulled against his hold in rage. “You fucking bitch!”

“I think you should stay here until you cool down. I don’t know what’s bothering you, but I suggest you fucking sort it out!” Alex seethed, getting into the car after Maddison and slamming the door shut. Shit! He was really mad at me.

I couldn’t understand why my rage was directed toward Maddison and Alex. Why should it bother me who he fucked? It wasn’t like I was jealous. When had Ievercared who he took to his bed?

Not wanting to hang around the hotel all day, I decided to take the tube to Leicester Square. I found a quiet coffee shop and intended on spending the afternoon there with a good book. David called me constantly, though. I couldn’t turn my phone off in case Alex needed me, and I wasn’t strong enough to block David’s calls yet. Seeing his ID on my phone—as strange as it seemed—comforted me. He was thinking about me. It showed he cared in some form. Speaking to him after his hateful words, however, wasn’t something I was ready for.

I lost count of the hours I spent watching the hustle and bustle of London around me. Being back home should have been comforting, but the unsettling feeling wouldn’t leave me.

I tried to blame it all on David, but the truth had nothing to do with that. Maddison spending the night with Alex and marking him in that tacky manner—thathad pissed me off. Why did he let her do it? She was just like every other bimbo I’d seen him with. I couldn’t be anymore different from the women that he allowed into his bed.

The sound of my phone ringing snapped me from my thoughts. For once, it wasn’t David.

“Alex asked me to call and see how you’re doing,” Diego explained when I answered.

“I’m fine, really. I don’t know what came over me this morning.”

“Uh huh, sure you don’t,” he snorted. I glared into my coffee, glad he couldn’t see me. “It wasn’t a case of the green eyed monster, was it?”

“What could I possibly be jealous of?”

“Don’t play coy with me, Baby Cakes. You were fine this morning until you saw the love bites all over Alex’s neck.”

“This has nothing to do with Alex. For fucks sake, I’m not interested in him that way.”

“The denial will only fuel your want.” Ugh! What was it with Diego and quoting Steel Roses lyrics?

“If you’re going to start singing, I’m hanging up.”

“God no! My voice is awful. I leave all the singing to Alex.” It dawned on me that I hadn’t heard Alex sing since I’d been here. Of course, I knew what his voice sounded like; I'd been listening to him for years. He had to sound different when it was just acoustic, though. The strain in his voice from all the drugs and alcohol couldn’t be hidden without the background track.

“That’s a wise choice. Heisthe rock star, after all,” I chuckled, my eyes widening when I noticed David walking past the coffee shop window. I sunk down into my chair, not wanting him to notice me. Out of all the places he could be in London, why did he have to be here? As if he could sense my presence, David’s head turned and he froze for a split second, probably trying to work out if it was really me. “Diego, I’ve got to go. David just turned up at the coffee shop.”

“Shit! Did you invite him?”

“No!” I swallowed hard, ending the call as I watched the man I was trying to avoid make his way toward me.

“You’re here?” David gasped, flustered. It wasn’t like him at all. He looked good in his black designer suit and white shirt. His light brown hair was shorter than usual, too. Sarah probably made him cut it. He was under her thumb already; I’d witnessed that before I left.

“I…I…. Yes, we made an unscheduled stop.” I felt a familiar pull in my body as I gazed at him.

“And you didn’t think to call me?” Taking the seat next to me, he took my hands in his. “Nat, we need to talk.”

“No, we don’t,” I whispered, pulling away.

“Come back to me, please.” It would have been easy to close my eyes and imagine that those words meant something else, but I knew the truth. This was all about his job. He couldn’t organize his schedule on his own. He’d always been useless at that.

“David, I’m not coming back. I love working for Alex.”

“He’s a womanizing prick!” David’s eyes looked alive with rage, which was new to me. “You can’t seriously tell me you like working for him! Think about what we had, Nat.”

“You’re engaged. It wouldn’t be the same.”

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