Pretty Wicked (2 page)

‘
Because we need to know
who the winner will be.’

‘
The winner?’

‘
Yeah, Queen
Freak.’

The blood drained from Sky’s face.

The girl was watching her avidly. The way a
snake would watch the rat it has sunk its fangs into to die of its
poison. ‘You do want your escort to win, don’t you?’

Sky focused her eyes on the beautiful face
in front of her. Don’t let her get the better of you, Sky. Don’t
let them win. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth.
‘Johnson. My name is Sky Johnson,’ she said slowly. Her voice
sounded far away or as if she was hearing it from underwater.

‘
Cool. Good luck,’ the
blonde said and flounced away.

Sky pushed herself away from the corner.
There was a door close to her. She opened it. It gave out to a
conservatory full of beautiful flowering plants. She stumbled
toward the glass door at the end of it. Out in the garden she began
to run with the blood pounding in her ears and the tears running
down her face and falling onto her beautiful blue dress.

She ran and she ran.

~~~~~

Seven years
later…

~~~~~

I
turned away from the cashier’s counter and slammed into a
hard wall—well, it felt like it, but in fact, it was a man’s solid
chest. Large, powerful hands came around and gripped my upper arms
to steady me.

For a second it was all right. I had the
apologetic, slightly flirtatious smile and appropriate words that
passed for polite regret in England ready—I’m ever so sorry. But
when my eyes flew past the broad shoulders up to his face my whole
world tilted crazily. I felt the blood drain away from my head. A
part of my brain screamed, No. No. No. No fucking way. Not halfway
across the world. Not after all this time.

I opened my mouth and… Closed it like some
dumb goldfish in a bowl. Stupidly, I stared at the savagely
beautiful face, the firmly etched mouth, the jet-black eyes, the
straight eyebrows and the hard, hard jaw line—my God, the boy had
become a man: a devastatingly sexy man.

A still functioning, rational part of my
brain hissed urgently, say I’m ever so sorry, like now, but I
couldn’t. I couldn’t do a fucking thing.

I was like a deer in headlights. I just
stared and gaped and stared some more while his eyes remained
strangely impassive. My palms pressed against his chest and
encountered the stone-like slabs of the muscles of his pecs. His
nearness was like some sort of drug that dazed me. I scrambled to
pull myself together.

Often with time a childhood crush becomes
endearing in a silly sort of way, but obviously I had never let him
go. I tore my gaze away from his magnetic eyes and roved, dazed and
shocked over the snowy white shirt, down the perfectly tailored
charcoal suit. Expensive. Impressive. Sexy. I had never seen him in
anything but a black leather jacket and jeans. Hazily, my mind made
a note of his scent. Cologne probably. Sinfully dry and spicy in a
way that citrus was not.

‘
Are you all right?’ he
asked.

God! His voice. It was far more impressive
than I remembered. Then it had been full of bravado and the
arrogance of youth and privilege. He had exchanged that in favor of
tone and timbre and depth. It flowed with charm. Magnetic.
Truly.

I nodded vigorously.

His hands were still gripping my upper arms
to steady me. And to be perfectly honest I was glad, because my
knees were pure jelly. My eyes darted back to his face. The rest of
that outrageously handsome face remained unfathomably impassive,
but the shrewd black eyes narrowed. ‘Do I know you?’

Shit.

It was now or never. I took a deep breath,
and thank God, my brain kicked in. I shook my head quickly. ‘I
don’t think so,’ I croaked.

Something shifted in the air between us. And
it was all to do with the odd way I was behaving. His gaze bored
steadily into mine. Purely on instinct I took a step back and he
let go of my arms. Big mistake. My knees were still pure jelly. I
was sliding downwards. He caught me, a strange expression on his
face. My pulse leapt about like a frightened fish.

‘
Are you sure you’re all
right?’ he asked again, his eyes registering concern.

I nodded and aware that my behavior was
extremely bizarre to say the least I blurted out the first
explanation that came into my head for my strange behavior. ‘It’s
OK. I’m just…pregnant.’

A veil came over his eyes.

I inhaled shakily, my face heating up with
the lie.

Strong arms guided me over to a tall stool
by the shop window. I sat down and spread my right palm on the cold
glass. I bowed my head and like a fool looked at his shoes. Black
leather polished to a high shine. What the hell was he doing here
in my local? I lifted my head and stretched out my mouth. ‘I’m fine
now. Thank you for your help.’

He frowned. ‘No, I will wait until you have
recovered fully.’ This time his voice had an edge to it.

I swallowed the rock in my throat. ‘No,
really. You can go. Thank you. I’m fine. Honestly.’

He hesitated. ‘Would you like me to call
someone? Your…husband, perhaps?’

I shook my head so vigorously I felt a
little dizzy. Saved by the bell. My mobile phone rang. I could have
kissed it. I tore open my bag with shaking fingers and rooted
around desperately for it. I located it and accepted the call
without looking at the screen. It was my sister calling from New
York.

‘
Hey you,’ she
said.

‘
Yeah, I’m on my way
back,’ I said, and terminated the call. I looked at him with a
smile. He was still frowning and looming over me like some
impossibly handsome Greek thunder god. ‘It’s the office. The girls
are wanting their coffee. I guess I better get going. Thanks for
all your help.’

I jumped off the stool, balanced for a
moment on my own two feet. Yup, all good. With a bright, false
smile I waved and, skirting him, quickly walked to the end of the
counter. My order was already in a cardboard holder and ready to
go. I grabbed it and without turning to look at him left the coffee
shop. Outside, I walked quickly and purposefully.

At the end of the block I turned into the
little side street and leaned against the wall. Carefully, I put
the coffees on the ground. My hands were shaking so badly I had to
clasp them hard to stop them. Against the red brick side of the
adjacent building there was an old sign—‘Barrick & Sons,
Certified Chartered Accountants’. Black on cream with a black
border: so old-fashioned, so dependable.

They say childhood memories are never fully
lost. I could still remember the smell of bread baking, beeswax
floor polish on the old wooden floors, drinking warm milk straight
from the cow. And Miko.

I felt the tears that were longing to burst
forth burning at the backs of my eyes and as I stood there watching
the sign they began to well into my eyes and run down my face.

‘
Fuck it,’ I cursed, and
opening my purse found a Kleenex to blow my nose. Leaning my head
back against the wall I closed my eyes. Emotionally, I felt totally
spent.

‘
What now?’

~~~~~

I
returned to the office fractionally calmer, but filled with a
restless unease. I couldn’t figure out what he was doing miles away
from home at my local coffee shop.

I put Natasha our receptionist’s coffee on
her table.

‘
Have you been…crying?’
she asked tactlessly.

‘
Got some dust in my
contact lenses,’ I explained, and walked toward the lift. Stopping
by Jen’s desk I put her cappuccino down and she gazed intently at
me.

‘
What’s with you? You look
like you’ve seen a ghost.’

That stopped me cold. She was right. I had.
I had just seen a ghost from my past. One I thought never to see
again.

I smiled weakly. ‘Didn’t sleep very well
last night.’ I turned away and began to walk toward my office.

‘
Hey, you know all those
mysterious negotiations to buy out our firm?’

I turned back. ‘Yeah?’

‘
It’s done. I just got the
email. We’ve been acquired. Some American firm. The big head cheese
is in town, and we’re all going to get a chance to meet him at two
p.m. in the green room.’

My blood ran cold. What were the
chances?

‘
Who is he?’

‘
Miko Barokas.’

‘
Right,’ I said slowly and
walked toward my office. It seemed the most incredible thing that
after all this time he was entering my life with all the subtlety
of a sledgehammer. I went into my office, sat down, put my coffee
and purse on my table, and tried to think.

To dissect the situation.

Could it be a coincidence? One of those
bizarre synchronicities that sometimes happen—someone wants to buy
a plum Toyota 2.2 and the next day a man they once met calls them
up telling them he is selling his plum Toyota 2.2. Just stupid
luck, coincidence and random events colliding like logs in a
river.

It had to be.

One thing for sure, he had definitely not
recognized me. No one from my past could. Not after all the plastic
surgeries I had been through. I could barely recognize myself. The
big nose was gone and in its place a narrow, straight as a blade
little cutie. So: if I had no fear of being recognized as the date
he took to a freak party—the memory was surprisingly fresh and
bitter—all I had to do was play it cool.

He would only be at that one meeting to
introduce himself anyway. After that, a jet setting, highflyer like
him would be gone for good. Miko Barokas had better and more
important things to do than hang around one of the firms he had
acquired.

I picked up the phone and dialed my
sister.

‘
What the hell was that
all about?’ she demanded.

‘
I was standing in front
of Miko Barokas when you called.’

‘
What?’ she shouted so
loudly into the phone I had to hold the receiver away from my
ear.

‘
I bumped into him at my
local coffee shop.’

‘
No way!’

‘
Hmm…’

‘
Are you all
right?’

‘
I’m still in
shock.’

‘
Did the bastard recognize
you?’

‘
Of course not. I’d shoot
myself if he did. The girl he remembers is overweight, with dark
hair, a big nose, and metal braces in her teeth.’

‘
But what in heaven’s name
was he doing in your local?’

‘
Apparently he seems to
have acquired our firm.’

‘
Wow! Talk about bad
fucking luck.’

I sighed.

‘
Are you going to be
working for him?’

‘
I don’t think so. But he
is holding a meet and greet this afternoon.’

‘
Are you
going?’

‘
My absence will be far
more conspicuous. I’ll just quietly sneak in and find a seat at the
back of the room.’

‘
You’ve changed your first
name, but will he recognize your last name.’

‘
First off, Willow, I
don’t think I made any kind of impression beyond being the perfect
date to a freak party. So I’m willing to bet my entire month’s
wages that he has totally forgotten the entire episode. And if for
some reason he possesses outstanding memory skills that allow him
to remember every name he has ever heard, Johnson is actually the
second most common last name in America. So I’m pretty safe with
that one too.’

‘
Lexi?’

‘
Yeah?’

‘
You don’t…er…care about
him anymore, do you?’

‘
Are you kidding? I
hate
the
guy!’

‘
Right. Good. Just
checking.’

There was a pause and then she awkwardly
asked, ‘How’s Nigel?’

‘
Fine,’ I answered
quickly. ‘Ah, I better get back to work. I’ll call you tomorrow and
fill you in.’

‘
Good luck,
babe.’

I killed the connection and sat staring at
the phone as if it was a scorpion.

Fuck it! I was not over him. Not by a long
shot. That was as obvious as hell. The way I had reacted to him was
more than just shock. The truth was I had swooned like a lovesick
teenager. Oh God, if he ever found out! I covered my face with my
hands. I would have to die with embarrassment. I looked at the
time. It was eleven a.m. I had three hours to get my act together.
I picked up the phone and dialed.

‘
Hello, darling,’ Nigel
said.

‘
Hey,’ I said
softly.

‘
Is everything all
right?’

‘
Mmnn… Just wanted to hear
your voice.’

His voice deepened. ‘Oh, darling. How long
I’ve waited to hear you say that.’

Immediately I felt a pang of guilt. I didn’t
love him and what I was doing was cruel. I had the sensation that
my life was spiraling out of control. I clutched the phone harder
and closed my eyes.

‘
I’m taking you out to
dinner tonight,’ he said cheerfully.

‘
That will be
nice.’

‘
Where would you like to
go? I’ll make reservations.’

‘
Could I decide in a bit
and call you back, Nigel?’

‘
Of course.’