Tell Me Lies (2 page)
Authors: Locklyn Marx
Her hair brushed against his face, soft and silky. She was wearing some kind of bright-smel ing perfume. Her breasts flattened out against his chest, and even through her sweatshirt he could feel her curves.
“I knew I shouldn’t have come here,” Alexis sniffed. Her tears were making wet spots on his shirt. “Everyone said the city was going to eat me up and spit me out, but did I listen? No.”
“I’m sure that’s not true,” he said. “This is just a minor setback. You’re going to find something even – ”
“No, I won’t,” she wailed. “I can’t even if I wanted to. I don’t have any money.
I gave it al to your brother!”
“Jack took money from you?” Reid was shocked. This was a new low, even for Jack.
She nodded. “He took al of it! I paypaled him five hundred dol ars, half of the first month’s rent.” She sniffed again “He said he needed a show of goodwil .”
Reid shook his head. He was going to kil that asshole.
First, Jack shouldn’t have taken money from this poor girl, especial y not over the internet. And second, if Jack
had
taken money, he should have given it to Reid. It was Reid’s apartment!
Alexis was crying again. She pul ed back from him, reached for a paper towel from the holder and wiped her eyes.
“I’m so embarrassed,” she said shyly. Her blue eyes were big and shiny from her tears. Her cheeks were flushed, but she didn’t look like a big crying mess the way a lot of women did when they started crying. She just looked vulnerable.
An instinct to protect her kicked in out of nowhere. What kind of person would he be if he kicked her out onto the streets of New York? It wouldn’t be fair. She was obviously timid and afraid. Her attempt at trying to make him think she was going to sue him was almost laughable now.
Apparently she felt like she needed to put on a front, some kind of false bravado to make him think he should be afraid of her. But real y, she was just an innocent little lamb in need of rescuing.
He pul ed another paper towel off the rol and handed it to her. “Here,” he said.
She wiped her eyes and blew her nose. “I’l be okay,” she said, trying to sound brave. “Like you said, it’s just a setback.” Her smiled wavered.
Reid knew he was probably going to regret what he was about to say. But real y, what choice did he have? “Fine,” he said, “you can stay here.”
“Real y?’ Her face brightened.
“Yes.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She threw her arms around him. Her ample breasts flattened against his chest again, and he took in a deep breath. How was he going to keep his hands off her with her always being close by? It would be a test of his self-control for sure.
“Come on,” he said. “I’l show you to your room.”
He led her down the hal to the room that used to be Jack’s, and opened the door.
“It’s smal ,” he said, “but you should be able to fit a bed.”
“Oh.” She bit her lip. “Jack said the bed came with it.”
Of course he did. “Wel , then, I guess you can have his bed.
But I’d at least flip the mattress and make sure you use double sheets.”
She grinned.
He glanced at his watch. If he didn’t hurry, he wasn’t going to have time for his run before work. “I need to get going.”
He wasn’t sure if he should leave her in the apartment by herself, but what choice did he have? He couldn’t take his offer back now. The poor girl was obviously completely fragile. Who knows what she’d do or where she’d end up?
Probably in one of those God forsaken hostels where people were always getting beaten and robbed.
“Okay,” Alexis said. “I’l just start unpacking my stuff.”
He nodded, and then turned to go.
“And Reid,” she cal ed after him.
He turned.
“Thanks. You saved my life.”
As soon as Reid left the room and shut the door behind him, Alexis rol ed her eyes. God, what a poser that guy was.
The way he answered the door al dressed in his workout clothes? Who was up and ready to work out at seven in the morning? Posers, that was who. And metrosexuals.
Of course, he didn’t look like a metrosexual, with his dark hair and strong jaw line. He’d had a bit of stubble on his chin, and his hair had been slightly rumpled, like he’d just rol ed out of bed.
But stil .
She’d felt how hard his chest was when she’d been close to him. It had probably gotten that way from al the time he spent at the gym “taking care of himself.” She didn’t know for a fact that he used that phrase, but she’d bet anything that he did.
Guys like Reid were always “taking care of themselves.” It was real y just a fancy way of saying they were self-absorbed assholes. They al wanted women who took care of themselves, too. And of course al that meant was that they wanted an anorexic.
Any sane person would stil be sleeping at this time of morning. She would have been to, if it weren’t for… wel , for what had happened.
She looked over her shoulder at the bed, wishing she could just curl up and go to sleep. The bus ride from Pennsylvania had been bumpy and tiring. She’d tried to sleep, taking her pil ow and folding it in two, then scrunching it up against the window and pressing her head against it. But the woman sitting behind her had been having a loud cel phone conversation about her nephew being sent to jail or something, and it had kept Alexis awake. It was just as wel .
She probably wouldn’t have been able to sleep anyway.
She crossed the room to the heavy oak dresser and opened the top drawer. Inside was a copy of the Bible, with a yel ow post-it note and a key labeled “front door” stuck to the cover.
“Dear New Roommate,”
the post-it said.
“This is my
favorite book. Welcome to
the apartment. Love, Jack.”
This Jack person was obviously some sort of creeper, she thought, as she pul ed the key off and then dropped the book into the garbage can. Not because he was into God. It was more of the vibe he was giving off.
She wondered if the Bible thing was meant to be a joke.
When she’d talked to Jack on the phone last night, he’s seemed like the type to joke around. He kept asking her al these crazy questions, like what she thought of bologna sandwiches with ketchup or guys who rode motorcycles.
He’d assured her that his brother would be fine with her showing up at seven am. And then she’d paypaled him five hundred dol ars and hoped for the best. Not her smartest decision, obviously, but she’d been in dire straits. Hel , she stil was.
Alexis opened her suitcase and pul ed out a tangle of clothes. Her t-shirts were al rumpled from being grabbed and tossed in hastily. She’d apparently forgotten to pack pants completely, because there were none. Which meant al she had was the pair of black yoga pants she was wearing. She closed her eyes and sighed.
When the few clothes she’d brought with her had been completely unpacked, she decided it was time to explore her new digs. She’d already been in the kitchen, and although it didn’t match the pictures online, it was stil quite impressive. Light granite countertops with beveled edges, gleaming maple cabinets, and a subzero refrigerator that was so big Alexis wondered how you could possibly use al that space.
The living room was nondescript. It was neat enough, with an expensive-looking brown leather sofa and the obligatory huge flat screen television guys thought they needed in order to watch sports and impress women.
There was a tal oak bookshelf in one corner, fil ed with autobiographies and non-fiction books on advertising.
Boring.
A big coffee table sat in the middle of the room.
She peeked into the bathroom.
Countertops that matched the granite in the kitchen. A chocolate brown shower curtain and matching rug. She expected the bathroom to be a mess, but it seemed as if everything was neatly organized. The room smel ed like hair gel, which was standard for someone who liked to
“take care of themselves.”
She headed back down the hal , stopping when she got to what she assumed was Reid’s room. The door was closed.
She knew it would be wrong to go in. It would be a horrible breach of trust. If he caught her, he’d kick her out for sure.
And then where would she go?
But she’d been good al her life, and look where that had gotten her. Running away from home, ending up in New York City where she knew no one. She had no money. No car. No family. Nothing.
She pushed open the door.
A big oak framed bed sat in the middle of the room, covered with a navy comforter and flanked by two nightstands. A smal television was mounted on the wal across from the bed.
She felt like a thief, and her conscience screamed at her to stop. But she had to know what she was dealing with. If she was going to be staying here, she needed to know if Reid was some kind of crazy psycho. Not that crazy psychos would leave anything crazy hanging around. At least, she didn’t think they would.
But what did
she know? Her track record when it came to figuring out who was psycho wasn’t exactly stel ar.
She took a deep breath and slid the nightstand drawer open. There was nothing of note in it, unless you counted condoms as being of note. Which she didn’t. In fact, it was so predictable Alexis was almost disappointed.
She poked her head into the closet. A line of suits hung on the rod, along with a tie rack. Shoes were arranged neatly on the floor. A quick peek into Reid’s dresser revealed a row of careful y folded sweatshirts. Probably for when he was out “taking care of himself.”
There was a desk against the wal , and on it sat a picture of a smiling Reid with an older couple. Probably his parents.
She was disappointed that Jack wasn’t in the picture.
She would kind of curious to see what he looked like. A framed diploma from Harvard was propped up against the wal , like Reid hadn’t gotten around to hanging it up yet.
So that was it. Alexis was disappointed. Reid was exactly what she thought he’d be. The kind of guy who was raised somewhere like Connecticut or Westchester in a normal, wealthy family and who grew up to wear suits and go running and watch sports and go out to bars and pick up girls so he could come home and have sex.
Whatever. As long as Reid wasn’t crazy, it didn’t matter what he was like. She was only going to be staying here until she could figure out what to do next. And then she would be gone.
She returned to her own room, unpacked her laptop, and plugged it in.
The battery was dead -- she’d been using it on the bus to watch a movie in an effort to drown out the woman on the phone behind her.
She decided to take a shower while her laptop charged.
She wandered back into the hal way and opened the smal door across from the bathroom, hoping it was the linen closet. It was. She pul ed a towel down and sniffed it experimental y. It smel ed clean. Reid probably had a cleaning woman. And sent his laundry out. He obviously had the money. And there was no way any man kept their place this spotless.
Alexis grabbed another towel, then took them both into the bathroom. She would take a nice long, hot shower. And then she was going to come up with a plan.
***
IT DONE – had inexplicably disappeared from his iPod.
Actual y, it wasn’t that inexplicable, when you took into account the fact that Jack had borrowed the iPod a few days ago. He’d probably deleted it by accident.
It was this girl, Alexis, showing up at his apartment that was throwing him off, Reid decided. He hated when anything came along that messed with his routines.
Especial y on a day when he was supposed to be working on a huge pitch.
Reid was the creative director at The Lawson Agency, an advertising firm his father had founded twenty years ago.
Today Reid was supposed to be spending the day trying to come up with campaign ideas for Vista Col ection, a new women’s clothing company. It was a huge account, and getting in on the ground floor with a sophisticated brand like Vista could mean mil ions of dol ars of business for years to come. But first Reid had to come up with something amazing. And he couldn’t do that if he couldn’t concentrate.
He just needed to focus, he told himself. He’d feel better once he had a shower and got to work.
But when he got back to the apartment, the bathroom door was closed, and the shower was already on. The door to the linen closet was open, and two towels were missing.
Great. Now there was going to be no hot water.
He went to his room and picked out the suit he was going to wear for the day.
Then he came back to the hal way and paced around. How long was she going to be in there? He waited five minutes, and was just about to knock, when the bathroom door opened and Alexis emerged.
She was wearing nothing but a towel. Her long blonde hair clung to her cheeks in wet tendrils, and her face was scrubbed clean. Her skin was glowing. His gaze dropped down to the towel. It barely covered anything. The slight curve of her breasts peeked out from the material, and the bottom of the towel hit just above her knees.
She was drying her hair with another towel, and she flipped her head over, giving him a peek down the top of her towel.
Her breasts looked luscious and firm, and he felt himself harden. She flipped back over, twisting the second towel around her hair.
around her hair.
“Hey,” she said. “Um, sorry. I didn’t know when you’d be back. You probably want to shower.”
“Yeah. We’l have to work out some kind of schedule in the future.”
And you’re
going to have to stop walking around
half naked.
He pushed past her and into the bathroom.
Or
else I’m not going to be responsible for what’s going to
happen.
***