Final Call (The Call #2) (31 page)

“And you wouldn’t be
here if it weren’t for me. Last chance.” He kisses me hard and
turns me in the direction of the front room.

Carly, his mom, is
sitting on the sofa, watching me. The compassion in her eyes undoes
me, and I let the fear spill over. I let the pressure and the
tension and the apprehension of the last few weeks release in the
form of my tears, and I collapse onto the sofa next to her. She
wraps her arms around me and rocks me gently, whispering in my ear.
Just the way a mother should.

I cry silently into her
shoulder, savoring every moment that her arms are around me, and
let it all out.

I’m helpless.

I caused this and
there’s nothing I can do to right it.

I’m powerless, out of
control, only able to sit by and watch as everyone else cleans up
my mess. Because that’s how I see it. If I’d just told Aaron right
away, if I’d just been honest and not so fucking stubbornly
independent, this could be fixed. It would be fixed.

My cell pings again,
and Dottie swipes the screen to open the message.

“Aaron!”

“What does it say?” I
look at her. She bites her lip. “Dottie. Tell me now!”

“She said that if you
don’t pay within the hour, she’ll have it distributed to a large
number of websites and presses ready to run a breaking news story
first thing tomorrow. They’re waiting for her story.”

“Will she fuck.”
There’s no wavering in his voice. Despite his lack of jacket and
tie, Aaron looks as serious as ever. “Dottie, get me her on the
phone ten minutes ago.” He turns. “Alexander, get something drawn
up that prevents her from contacting either Dayton or me for the
next fucking lifetime. This ends right now.”

“Aaron, you can’t pay
her!” I wrench myself from his mom’s grip. “Don’t be so fucking
stupid!”

He brings his eyes to
mine. “I told you before that there isn’t a price I wouldn’t pay
for you, Dayton. And now I’m telling you to sit the hell down and
let me deal with this.”

I breathe in deeply.
No. He can’t do this. He can’t pay her off. “You can’t. Your
divorce terms.”

“Stated she can’t
contact me. Not the other way around.”

“She’s on the line,”
Dottie interrupts, holding the phone out.

Everything in me wants
to reach forward and grab that phone. I want to tear it from his
hands and scream into the receiver. I want to yell and cry and
scream until I’m hoarse, until she understands what she’s
caused.

Carly reaches for my
hands, but I pull them away, shaking my head. Everyone in this
room, this packed room, is on high alert. There are phones and
tablets and laptops everywhere. There is no silence, not for the
constant ringing and keyboard-tapping and talking. Even Monique is
standing in the corner, her cell to her ear, speaking frantically
into her phone. It’s a crazy kind of organized carnage.

I follow Aaron into his
office and slip inside quietly.

“
No, Naomi. No. You’re
un-fucking-
believable…
No, I found out through necessity. She
kept it from me because she was willing to destroy herself to
protect me… No, you wouldn’t understand that, would you? You have
no concept of love… Regardless, your demands have been met. Visit
your bank in the morning and you will find the requested amount
deposited into your account, plus interest for the last four weeks.
You’ll also be receiving a call from your lawyer in New York
explaining about the lawsuit being brought against you should you
contact either of us again… Slander. Defamation of character.
Invasion of privacy. Blackmail.”

Silence.

“Fantastic. Then we’re
on the same page. One more word to Dayton or me and you’ll find
yourself in the middle of a legal battle you’ll never win. And
don’t doubt me for a second. I told you before you don’t fuck with
the woman I’m in love with. Goodnight.”

The phone hits his desk
with a clatter. I bite the inside of my lip and stare at his back.
At the way he leans forward, grasping the edge of his desk, and
takes a deep breath. At the way he stands, turning to me, his eyes
finding mine with a fierceness I’ve never seen before.

“You shouldn’t have
done that,” I whisper. “Paid her. She doesn’t deserve it.”

“But you do. You
deserve every fucking cent I have and more. Money is expendable,
gorgeous. There’ll always be more of it. I can always make more. I
can never have another you. She can have everything, but she can’t
have you.”

I lean against the
mirror and hug myself. God, to be loved this much. To be loved in a
way you don’t feel you deserve, in a way so utterly that you are
the center of their world. That you’re the fucking axis their world
hovers on, the gravity making it spin.

To be loved so much
that you really are the most valuable thing they have.

Aaron touches his lips
to mine gently yet firmly. A promise. A certainty. A forever.

I wrap my arms around
his waist because I need him to hold me. I need to feel the warmth
and security that comes from his arms, and I’m not afraid to admit
that, after years of being so strong, I feel weak.

Like my world is being
ripped from under me and torn into pieces. Like my fear could
overwhelm me until I can no longer breathe. Like the very man I’m
holding on to could be tugged away from my grip.

“Strength comes from
giving yourself to another. It comes from deep in your heart, the
very thing you share with that other person. It comes from knowing
that fear isn’t an option where a future is so certain.” He cups my
cheek and touches his forehead to mine. “It comes from every time
we look into each other’s eyes and see every ounce of love we feel
reflected back.”

I close my eyes and
turn my face into his palm. “But it’s not over, is it?”

“No, sweetheart. Not
yet. So you need to let me go again and let me finish this.
Okay?”

I nod. “Okay. I’m going
to bed. I need to be alone.”

Wordlessly, he takes me
into our room. He pulls off his shirt and hands it to me. “Never
alone, Dayton. Never.”

My dress falls from my
body and I wrap myself in the soft, warm cotton of his white shirt,
buttoning it before I bury myself beneath the covers. I feel almost
childlike, needing to escape the horror situation born from me.

Aaron crouches before
me, cupping my head, and takes my mouth in another promising kiss I
feel beating away at the fear in my veins.

“When this shit is all
said and done, I’m going to take you away to somewhere no one can
find us and we’re going to make up for every second we’ve lost to
another person,” he whispers in the dark. “I’m going to be the most
selfish bastard in the world and keep you all to myself for as long
as I can.”

“I’m totally okay with
that,” I whisper.

“It was happening
anyway.” He kisses me again, and a hint of amusement tugs at the
corners of my mouth. Even now, in the midst of a hellish disaster,
my man can make me smile.

True love, people.

Right fucking here is
true love.

When everything seems
dark, like it’s all going to shit, but the love you have still
lights up your body and sends your heart racing, you know you have
a love worth holding on to. Even if it destroys you.

The door clicks shut as
he leaves the room, and I pull the covers up farther. I tug them
over my head until I’m fully encased beneath the warmth of our
sheets and close my eyes, hoping that, tomorrow, everything will be
a little bit brighter.

***

I wake to darkness and
a welcome silence. The earlier hum of noise from endless
conversations is no more. I stretch my arm to the side, feeling for
Aaron, but instead, my hand lands on empty sheets.

I sit up, brushing hair
from my face, and listen for any indication of him being around.
There isn’t any, so I swing my legs over the edge of the bed and
make my way out of the room.

The city lights flood
the front room, and I glance at the clock. Four a.m. Where could he
possibly be at this time?

Something creaks in the
direction of his office, and I walk down the hall to it. His door
is cracked open slightly, and a gentle light from the television is
flickering through the tiny gap. I wrap my fingers around the edge
of the door and ease it open, my eyes landing on his exhausted,
shirtless figure.

He’s slumping over his
desk, his fingers buried in his hair. His laptop is open in front
of him, papers are scattered everywhere, some lying idly on the
floor, and a desk light is illuminating the mess.

“You should be in bed,
asleep,” he mutters without moving.

I hold in my snort and
cross the room. I lay my hand on his shoulder. “Have
you
been to sleep yet?”

He shakes his head in
response, and I close my eyes. His fingers close over mine on his
shoulder and he pulls my hand to his mouth, brushing his lips
across my knuckles.

I look at him as he
tilts his face up to me. His eyes are slightly glazed, dark shadows
forming beneath them, and I press my hand to his cheek.

He looks exhausted,
like there isn’t another ounce of energy left in him.

“Come to bed,” I
whisper.

“No. I need to finish
this.” Aaron turns back to his laptop.

I reach forward and
slam the top down. Slowly, he faces me again, his lips quirked to
one side.

“Come to bed,” I
repeat, firmer this time.

“Dayton, I have to
finish this. I have to make sure we’ve covered all our bases and
nothing has slipped between my fingers.” He knocks my hand from the
laptop and opens it.

Once again, I slam it.
This time, I climb onto the desk and sit on top of it, my eyebrows
raised. I rest my feet on his chair in the small gap between his
legs, and he runs his hands up my calves.

“Dayton,” he sighs.

“You’re coming to bed,
Aaron, and I don’t care if I have to sit here for another hour.
You’re not opening the damn laptop again tonight.”

He opens his mouth, but
I lean forward and press two fingers against his lips. Instead of
speaking, he kisses them.

“I know you don’t want
to. I know you want to sit here until you collapse on the keyboard,
but you’re not going to. I love that you’re trying so hard to fix
this, baby, I do, but you need to sleep now. You’re no good to me
or you if you’re stumbling around like something out of The Walking
Dead.”

He smiles. “The Walking
Dead?”

I shrug a shoulder. “So
I watch some TV. Please come to bed now. You can come back to this
in the morning. If you checked everything now, you’d probably miss
something because you’re so tired. Look at it with fresh eyes. I’ll
help you.”

Our gazes lock for a
long moment, and just when I think I’m going to really have to
argue my point, he drops his shoulders.

“Fine. I’ll come to
bed, but know that I’m going to hold you so tight you might
suffocate a little.”

I bend forward and
touch my lips to his. “I don’t expect anything less.”

“And when I’m not so
tired, this is happening again. You on this desk in my shirt, that
is. I am incredibly tempted to fuck you right now.”

I hop up and tug on his
hand. “Not happening, Aaron. Come on.”

He waits while I shut
off the light and TV and dutifully follows me into our room. I tug
his sweatpants from his hips and he steps out of them, grabbing me
before I can turn. Deftly, his fingers work the buttons on the
front of his shirt and he takes it from my body.

We climb into bed
together, and no sooner have I pulled the sheets up than he’s
cocooning me in his arms. I snuggle into him and turn my face so my
lips rest against the part of his chest where his heart is beating.
He squeezes me tight when I press a kiss there, feeling it speed up
beneath my lingering touch.

“I love you, woman,” he
whispers into my hair. “So very, very much.”

“I know,” I whisper
back, tangling our legs further. “I love you a lot, too.”

“Good.”

I close my eyes and
listen as his breathing deepens and evens out. He’s asleep within a
minute, but his hold on me never loosens or wavers. His arms are
locked around me in an ironclad grip, and I slip one of my hands
over his side and up his back.

Somehow, and I wish I
knew how it was possible, she hasn’t won.

Naomi might have what
she set out for originally—the money—but I have to wonder if that
was her real motive. If, like Carly said, she always hated me, the
Paris Girl, then it wouldn’t be crazy to think that blackmailing me
would have some other outcome.

Like walking away from
Aaron.

I truly believe that
she loves him. Maybe it’s in her own twisted, vicious way, but I
think she does. That could be me hoping that there’s a real reason
behind this whole thing. That could be me seeing good in someone
who doesn’t particularly deserve it, but I’ll never know.

Their relationship
isn’t my business. I don’t know anything of it bar the basic facts
Aarons told me, and I don’t want to know. Not because I don’t want
to hear about him with another woman, but because it doesn’t
matter.

We’re past the point of
it having any impact on us. We’re past the point of her being a
thorn in our sides. At least I hope so. The threat of a
five-million-dollar lawsuit if she contacts us again should be
enough to keep her away.

She may love him, but
she loves the money more. She won’t give that up for something as
trivial as trying and failing to come between us.

We’ve shown her how
strong we are. We’ve shown everyone, including ourselves, how hard
we’re willing to work for, fight for, and hold on to this
relationship. We’ve made it crystal clear that our love has the
strength of a thousand diamonds.

Yes, you can scratch
it. You can even chip it if you’re really lucky. But you’ll never
break it.