Bad Boy Brit (A British Bad Boy Romance) (25 page)

Chapter 4

Riley

“So?” Eric asked, sounding far too happy as he strode into my office.

“Huh?” I glanced away from my computer screen and looked up at him. I still felt tired and out of it, as if I was suffering from a hangover. I found it disconcerting to be at work feeling this way, especially as I hadn’t come in till eleven, so I really should’ve been feeling fine.

“Got a taste for it?” Eric asked. My expression must’ve remained blank, because he felt the need to explain himself further. “The fight?”

Of course, the fight. That had only been last night, so how had it escaped my memory already?

I guess I didn’t really need to ask that question. I already knew exactly why. All I’d been thinking about was Kaiden, and the rest of the night hadn’t even crossed my mind.

“Um, yeah, it was cool. Quite interesting,” I finally managed to blurt out. I could feel my cheeks heating up with embarrassment, and I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.

“Not too brutal for delicate little Riley?” he teased, but it hit a little close to the mark. I had actually found it slightly hard to watch at times, with all that violence and blood. To me it had all just felt so…unnecessary. Plus the part where Kaiden had been getting badly hit had struck a nerve and opened a part of my heart that I thought I’d shut off forever. A small part of me had been tempted to crawl into that cage and drag Mac off him myself.

Well…that had been before I remembered who Kaiden Cross had become, anyway. He didn’t need my help anymore, and he could deal with his own problems nowadays. He was certainly strong enough.

Still, it didn’t stop the awful childhood memories from pouring back in. Not every moment of our friendship had been blissful and filled with childish innocence.

I was seven, and Kaiden’s arms and legs were covered in bruises. He didn’t tell me why.

Now I was eight, and Kaiden was standing in front of me, one eye bruised and his nose bleeding. This time he told me how it happened, and I did what I could to try and help.

Now I was ten, and this time his nose was totally broken. I’d wanted to kill the man who’d done it to him
—
his Dad
—
but I was just like Kaiden. Small and helpless. All I could do was hide him in my bedroom until his father had sobered up next door. That was all I could do to help, but it wasn’t enough…

I’d told my Mom what was happening at the time, and she’d called CPS to send someone around, but Kaiden’s father was a good liar. ‘
My son just fell off his bike,’
he’d say to explain the bruises.

I pushed the memories back down, guilt eating me up.

“Ha-freaking-ha!” I said sarcastically in response to Eric’s little wisecrack, trying to hide my true feelings. “It was just wonderful, thanks for asking.”

“So,” he said, tone turning more serious as he sat down in the chair on the other side of my desk. “Do you have any thoughts about what you’re going to do with Mr. Cross? We really do need to move quickly on this one.”

“I’m just compiling a report and making some calls now. I’ll set up a meeting with him tomorrow.”

“Hmm, okay. Today would be better,” he said, and I rolled my eyes. He always had the attitude that everything should have been done yesterday, even if that were physically impossible, and sometimes it drove me crazy.

“It’ll get done,” I replied firmly. “I’ll call him right now to book some time with him.”

This satisfied Eric for the time being, and he left the room in a hurry to allow me to do this. “Be sure that you do,” were his parting words.

I let out a deep sigh and grabbed my cell phone, figuring that I might as well get this over with, because Eric would likely be back in a minute to check that I was doing exactly what he thought I should do. Even though he trusted me more than most of his employees, he still micromanaged me half the time, just like he did to everyone else. He’d never been one to let things go, but I suppose that was why his business was so successful.

“Come on, Riley,” I whispered to myself as I tried to calm my racing heart. “Just do this. It’s just another client.”

As I dialed, my heart started to race even more frantically, completely negating the pep talk I’d just given myself. I just couldn’t believe that I was calling Kaiden Cross—not because he was famous, but because he used to be my friend. It was as if my life had turned full circle and I was an awkward preteen all over again.

A gruff, sleepy voice came from the other end of the line. “Yeah?”

Lord, why did he have to sound so sexy even when he was tired? And why did I care so much?

“I’m sorry, did I wake you?” I asked.

“Who’s this?” he asked, the confusion evident in his voice.

Oh…of course—my number wouldn’t have come up on his screen. He probably hadn’t saved it in his phone yet.

“It’s Riley.” I coughed uneasily before continuing. “Riley Solis. We had a meeting last night. I’m your new PR representative.”

I could have told him the truth; that we already knew each other from childhood, but as I’d decided last night, I didn’t want to make things awkward. Besides, if he’d really forgotten me, then maybe it was for the best. His childhood hadn’t exactly been amazing due to his father, so it was probably better for him to let the memories fade away and stay right where they belonged—in the past.

“Riley!” he said. He sounded warmer now, and much more awake. “Hi, how are you?”

“Um…” This was throwing me. I hadn’t expected him to be so friendly. “Yeah, I’m fine, thanks. I wanted to set up a meeting with you to go over our new strategy. Will tomorrow suit you?”

“I’m training all day tomorrow,” he replied. My heart sank at this news. Eric was going to be pissed. There was no way he could cope for another whole day. “But how about tonight?” he added.

“Tonight? Are you sure?” I said hesitantly, unsure if I wanted another
late night meeting with him.

“Yep. I’ll take you out for a meal. Why not meet me at that new Italian restaurant, Siderno? It’s in Brentwood. I hear it’s good.”

His suggestion sounded suspiciously like a date, but as I weighed up my options, I could see that I didn’t really have any choice. If I didn’t go, I might not get to see Kaiden again for a few days, and that meant Eric would wind me up with his constant nagging. And if I
did
go…

Well, I guess nothing bad could happen. We needed to meet at some point to get the job done, and I supposed tonight was as good a time as any.

“Okay, yeah. I guess that’s all right.”

“Great, see you at around eight-thirty,” he replied. He spoke rather fast, as if he were worried I’d change my mind if I stayed on the line with him for too much longer.

“Okay,” I said numbly. “See you then…”

But the line was already dead.

***

“Goddamn it.”

I muttered to myself as I tugged my dark curls back into a ponytail, narrowing my eyes at my open closet at the same time. I’d been trying to select the best thing to wear for over an hour now, and it was driving me insane. I was currently wearing a far-too-tight skirt and a blouse that I suspected was showing more cleavage than I wanted, and I slipped out of the skirt after finally spying a bigger one hanging out of a drawer at the back of the closet.

I pulled it on and looked in the mirror. Nope, too tight as well, and there really was far too much cleavage hanging out of my blouse. Sighing, I turned back to the closet to search for something else.

God, why couldn’t I get the look right? I’d been to tons of business dinner meetings before, and I knew how to dress professionally thanks to the help of my stylish best friend…so why could I not do it now? Was it because I was trying to look something other than professional? Knowing my awful sense of style, the only thing I’d end up looking like soon was a professional sex worker.

I finally found a dress that looked nice, and I stared into the mirror again, concentrating on my face and hair. I had my makeup applied sparingly, because I was lucky enough to have a fairly smooth complexion that didn’t need a lot, but I couldn’t for the life of me decide what to do with my hair. If I wore it down, it looked sexier but unprofessional, and if I had it tied up it looked a little boring.

I flopped down on the bed, throwing my hands up over my face. This was insane
.
I needed to pull myself together and get through this. Moreover, I needed to stop picturing Kaiden’s hands all over my body and start worrying about press conferences and damage control instead.

“Professional—that’s the key word here,” I said to myself, but my heart paid little attention. “He’s a client, nothing more. Hair up.”

I ended up leaving the house at five to eight with the simple black long-sleeved dress I’d picked combined with nude high heels. I thought I’d finally gotten the professional-attractive ratio right, but the closer I got to the restaurant, the more I realized that I’d made the one mistake I didn’t want to—I looked like I was heading out for a date, despite the conservative chignon my hair was in. My downfall had been the swipe of red lipstick that I’d put on just before I left the house.

As I was running late, I half-expected Kaiden to already be seated inside, unless he was later than me—celebrities could be an unreliable bunch, after all. Instead, he was waiting by the door and looking out for me like a gentleman. It was a different side of him to what I’d been forced to witness the night before, and I didn’t like the way it made my heart skip a beat.

He’d gone for the more smart-casual look, wearing a crisp Armani shirt with jeans. It could be considered an odd combination by some, but somehow he made it work. In fact, he looked infuriatingly sexy. He was also sporting dark glasses despite it being after dark, but that was pretty standard for someone at his level of fame who could get mobbed at any moment.

His body language changed as he spotted me. He stood up straighter, as if he was trying to project an image of someone who was a force to be reckoned with, and a smile quirked his lips up.

I awkwardly lifted one hand to wave at him while trying to hurry myself along. This was embarrassingly unprofessional of me; the PR people should
always
arrive at the meeting first. Not being late was the unofficial second rule, after not sleeping with clients.

“Sorry, I—” I started to apologize, but he interrupted.

“Looking gorgeous, Miley.”

“Riley,” I said, narrowing my eyes. For some reason, this made him laugh, and I was actually kinda glad that he was being a jerk after all. I much preferred disliking him to wanting him to screw me.

“Right, Riley. Shall we go in?”

I nodded and stepped past him, too annoyed to be able to get through this in the emotionless manner that I’d planned to. No matter what, he was never going to be just another client, and I was going to have to find a way to work around this if I wanted to get through it with my job intact.

“Table for two booked for Kaiden Cross.” Kaiden talked over my head to the tall, slinky hostess as if I was insignificant, which I supposed I was to him in the grand scheme of things. I seethed, but I did so quietly. I only had to suffer this for an hour or so. Surely I could do that much. After all, I’d dealt with asshole clients in the past, and I’d kept my cool just fine.

“Over here, Mr. Cross.” The hostess gave him an inviting smile, clearly recognizing him. “You have our best booth table in the back, to give you some…privacy.”

She flicked her eyes knowingly towards me, and I furrowed my eyebrows as a response. I wanted to yell out that we didn’t need any privacy, but I didn’t want Kaiden to know how affected I’d become by all of this.

“Faaantastic,” Kaiden drawled, clearly amused at this. It was as if he could read my emotions without even having to see my face. He’d always been able to do that as a kid.

I guess not everything about him had changed.

I kept my eyes fixed firmly on the ground as we walked to the table, sucking in some deep breaths to cool myself down. I could hear Kaiden talking and laughing with the hostess, but I focused solely on myself.

As I slid into my seat, I found myself already regretting my decision to come here. I should have known that it was going to end up like this. Why hadn’t I insisted that we have a daytime meeting in my office? There couldn’t have been any confusion about that.

A pretty waitress approached our table a moment later, batting her eyelashes at Kaiden. “Would you like to order some drinks?” she asked.

“Yes, please. I’ll have a glass of merlot,” I said with a smile. “Just the house one.”

Hey, don’t judge—it was the cheapest wine option the restaurant had, and it was still ridiculously expensive. I had a decent job, but in a city like L.A., decent didn’t always cut it.

The waitress ignored me completely, blushing as she watched Kaiden peruse the drinks menu, and I rolled my eyes, wondering if she’d even heard me at all.

“A glass of merlot for my date, please. But make it the best kind. I’m paying,” Kaiden said, giving me a meaningful glance. The waitress finally seemed to notice me, and she looked none too pleased to see that her muscle-bound crush had company—and one he’d referred to as a date, no less.