Touch of Love (3 page)

‘I
’m not so sure.’ She shook her head, toying with her fork. ‘You saw me moping like an abandoned puppy, and you took pity on me. Don’t try telling me it was any different. You were always the most chivalrous of all the guys in the drama club. I remember that much…’

He
laughed; the sound was warm and rich. Suddenly breathless, she watched him. It should be illegal to look so good, she decided, desperate to remember Brad’s face. Only instead of him, her brain decided to bring forward another face, with jet-black eyes, a straight nose, and a sensuous mouth that still lingered in her memory, two weeks later.
Damn you, Adam,
she thought angrily, embarrassed with her internal faux pas.

‘
You were not a puppy, Elly.’ Jake grinned, then speared one of his chicken pieces and chewed it slowly, almost erotically. ‘You were absolutely beautiful and, what’s even more important, fun to be with.’ He reached for his glass, then sipped his wine, the golden liquid wetting his well-cut lips. ‘Just a bit shy, that’s all.’

It wasn’t the truth
, and she knew it. But if he wanted to be nice, she wasn’t really eager to prove him wrong.

‘Well, good old times
.’ She smiled, ready to move on. With his interesting career, talking about their high school experiences didn’t have to be on the agenda. ‘Are you here to stay for a bit, or are you heading back to California?’

He
rolled his eyes, making her laugh at the dramatic gesture. He was still one of the funniest guys she knew; that much hadn’t changed over the last eight years.

When she stopped snorting into her glass, he said,
‘I’m officially invited to my stepfather’s sixtieth birthday party. My mom remarried four years ago, and I’ve gained a lot of family, Elly. Not only a stepdad, but also a stepbrother and a whole bunch of cousins. I’m still learning to remember their names.’

‘That’s lovely
.’ She hoped that his mom’s marriage was a happy one. She remembered her vaguely—the tall, serious woman who rarely smiled and had raised her son all alone. Elly had heard gossip about Jake’s father leaving her before he was even born.

‘They
’re pretty happy together,’ Jake nodded, his eyes content. ‘I think that they had both already given up on finding someone to marry, and the whole romance thing caught them by surprise. I guess that’s how it goes sometimes, right?’ For a second, there was a veiled expression in his eyes as he looked off into the distance, watching things visible to him and him alone. She had the oddest impression that he wanted to say more but didn’t quite dare to.

‘So
you must be looking forward to it.’

H
e glanced at her over the rim of his wine glass, his eyes warm and yet very careful. She wondered if she had something in her teeth.

‘Look, I know it will sound crazy
, but since I’ve got nothing to lose, I’ll risk it anyway.’ The desperation lacing his voice was more persuasive than a hundred words.

‘Shoot,’ she invited him.
Is he about to ask me to pay for his meal? Did
he
lose his wallet, as well?
Maybe it was her luck to be the savior of all the handsome men who happened to cross her path.

‘I wanted to ask you to come with me to the party
.’ He watched her reaction, his face half hopeful and half resigned.

Where did this one come from
, anyway?
She stared at him for a second, trying to come up with a polite yet definite rebuke.

‘Why?’
As usual, her honest thoughts spilled from her mouth before she had the time to come up with a more civil response. ‘I mean, you barely know me, Jake. There must be a hundred girls that would jump on the chance to go with you.’

‘
And that’s exactly the problem, Elly.’ He was pleading. ‘There are girls who are interested in me, for sure. But I’m not looking for anything like that, believe me. I’m tired of this constant game of publicity. Damn, it even says in my contract that I’m supposed to remain unattainable till the end of the season we’re shooting right now. Can you imagine the bullshit? Basically, I have a signed copy that promises the studio I won’t be involved with anyone until the filming is wrapped up for the year. Supposedly, the female audience responds better to guys who are alone than they do to those in a serious relationship.’ He sighed, his handsome face looking so forlorn that she wanted to reach out and stroke his cheek.

‘I guess they like being able to imagine they could be the one to make you change your mind?’ she ventured, feeling rather silly.

‘Something like that.’ He nodded, visibly pleased with her observant comment. ‘You wouldn’t believe how much lying is involved when the studios try to shape their actors into the perfect prepackaged form that will lift the ratings. For God’s sake, they do research to decide what kind of girlfriend would make most of them happy, if I was to pick one.’

‘Totally sick,’ she agreed, trying to imagine a bunch of people discussing the most private matters of
his love life.
Maybe being famous isn’t so great?

‘My show is about tough, rugged guys surviving in the wilderness.’ He sighed, his eyes pensive. ‘My character has this love of his life that slipped away
, and he basically hopes to reconnect with her one day. In the meantime, he isn’t really into dating anyone in particular. Apparently, my female fans have some problems separating the fiction from reality, and the studio wants me to play this image in real life a bit. Just until the show gets reapproved for another two years. Afterward, they couldn’t care less who I date.’

‘But
what does it have to do with us going to this party? If they want you to stay alone, you just do that. Everyone will be happy.’

‘
Not exactly.’ He smiled at her briefly, with sad eyes. ‘If I show up alone, I look weak, according to my agent, at least. Unfortunately, this party will be a big affair, with my stepdad being a head of a TV station and all. Not that he really works full time anymore. His son took over two years ago, and his position is mostly honorary. Kind of like the queen being the head of the state, if you like.’ He grinned at her, the sadness slipping ever so slightly. ‘So there will be photographers to document the big day, probably trying to get me into one or two of the pictures. Especially after the scandal a few weeks ago…’

‘A scandal?’ she asked weakly, wondering if
sticking around had been such a good idea after all. People did change over time, and Jake wasn’t necessarily the same person she’d known before.
Too late for second thoughts now.
‘What did you do, Jake?’

‘Me? Nothing.’ He shook his head, hurrying to soothe her. ‘
It’s my stepbrother, AJ.’

‘All right, what did he do?’
She pictured the young TV magnate snorting cocaine and paying prostitutes for outrageous acts she could only imagine. ‘Is he some kind of daddy’s spoiled little brat?’

‘God, no.’ Jake laughed
with surprise. ‘He is actually pretty nice. You’d like him. It’s just that he was about to get married, and it was supposed to be a big deal. The wedding had been planned for a whole year. To make a long story short, his bride left him days before the wedding. Not only did she break his heart, but she also embarrassed the whole clan. It was in pretty much every gossip magazine from here to the other side of the ocean.’

‘I never read those
.’ She shrugged defensively. ‘Not my cup of tea.’

‘
And that’s exactly what I have always liked about you.’ Jake smiled, undeterred. ‘You have always been an honest person with not one bad bone in your body. You care about people for what they are, not their money, fame, or other dubious things that can go away in a puff of air.’

I
t wasn’t the most flattering description if she was to hope he was attracted to her as a woman, but it made her very happy. She wasn’t looking for anything romantic from him, was she? He was so damn good-looking and nice that it seemed insane not to. ‘Thanks.’

‘So AJ has to show up, of course. He’s been lying low for the last two weeks, staying out of the public
eye. My stepdad took it pretty hard as they smeared him in the press, especially since they managed to dig up all the dirt on AJ’s mom. She left him and his dad when he was only ten and ran off with some hunk all the way to Rio. His father almost had a heart attack.’

He really liked his stepdad; i
t was apparent in the way his voice softened each time he mentioned him.

‘Since the birthday bash is for two hundred people, the press will be looking for some juicy tidbits. My mom called an emergency meeting for the family just yesterday to talk about that
.’ His voice was filled with admiration for his mother. ‘She can be really feisty when needed, you know? She asked me to take away some of the spotlight that would otherwise go to AJ. I mean, I am not famous, but I am known enough to be a good lure. I figured that if I showed up with a beautiful, mysterious girl on my arm, the sharks would be so busy trying to pick us apart, they’d give him a break. Plus, my fans would love the allure of the unknown, if you were to believe my agent.’

‘I can’t, Jake.’ She shook her head regretfully, her face apologetic. ‘I wish I could, but I don’t think that Brad would approve. I mean
, he is my fiancé and all. I know I wouldn’t approve if it was the other way around.’

‘No problem
.’ He didn’t seem upset with her refusal. Disappointed, for sure, but he wasn’t angry. ‘I just thought that with you, I’d actually enjoy the party, Elly. We do make a great team.’

She had to agree that they did.
Maybe they hadn’t seen each other for eight years, but the connection was definitely there. Just like in those long gone days of the drama club, they could talk about pretty much anything and actually enjoy each other’s company. They had been sitting at the restaurant for less than an hour, and she’d already told him more than she’d told Brad in a week. She didn’t dare to think about it. Instead, she smiled and took his number, more so to finish it off on a pleasant note than anything else. He told her jokingly that if she changed her mind during the week, he would be happy to have her.

She was very certain she wouldn’t
be taking him up on his offer. As tempting as it was, she had a fiancé and a wedding to plan. Fancy parties and handsome men didn’t really fit into her schedule, even if she couldn’t entirely quell her sense of regret. Some things couldn’t be changed.

She
couldn’t know that she was about to find out how wrong she really was. Her carefully built house of cards was ready to collapse and bury her in its rubble.

Things unraveled pretty quickly. Elly had to wonder if fate had suddenly decided to make up for all those uneventful years by swamping her with one disaster after another.

The chaos
started with the fire alarm in the office building. It blared loudly enough to wake up a dead person, then all the floors were evacuated as a precaution. Apparently, someone on the second floor had managed to start the fire in the office’s kitchenette, and it had spread, creating thick billowing smoke that set off the alarm and the sprinkler system.

She stood on the sidewalk,
along with the rest of her colleagues, her wet hair plastered against her forehead as rivulets of water ran down her back. Her wet blouse clung to her body like a second skin, prompting her arms to wrap around her chest. The last thing she needed was for her male colleagues to notice that her bra was very flimsy.

‘I guess we should take off the rest of the day,’
her manager suggested. Elly was surprised that the project manager would propose to leave early but she didn’t complain. She glanced at her watch, elated to see that it was only four in the afternoon. If she hurried home, she would have enough time to change her clothes and go to talk to the florist. She had given up on the idea of sharing the trip with Brad; his visible reluctance to be involved with that particular detail of the wedding was impossible to ignore. Flowers were flowers, he reasoned, exasperated with the options and possibilities. So she would go and decide what she liked best, and he would be happy with it.

She should have gott
en suspicious the moment she opened the door. Soft, sexy jazz was weaving its way to every corner of the small, one-bedroom apartment she and Brad had shared for just over a year. Amazingly, she didn’t think anything of it, at first. Just that it meant Brad was home, that’s all.

She
kicked off her new pumps. Her toes were killing her after being squashed into the beautiful yet totally uncomfortable shoes. She flexed her feet and listened, wondering why he was home so early. His office hours were usually even worse than hers.

T
he shower was running, drumming on the paper-thin bathroom wall. For a second, she hesitated, wondering if she should join him. They hadn’t done anything spontaneous like that in ages. She walked over to their bedroom, eager to slip out of her soggy clothes. Maybe she would pass the opportunity, opting instead to get changed and eat something. As she started to unzip her charcoal pencil skirt, she considered trying to persuade him to come with her to the florist.

She
would prepare something nice to eat and maybe score some brownie points with Brad. She smiled, pleased with her sneakiness. He would be more receptive to her idea about the florist, for sure. She decided to grab an outfit from her closet before making a quick snack. Walking toward the bedroom, she was still fumbling with her zipper, her absentminded gaze barely registering where she stepped. Only when she got closer to the door did she notice something unusual in her path—something colorful and dramatic. She blinked, surprised.

Then h
er eyes focused on the crumpled red dress on the floor. The crimson scrap of silk grew and spread before her dazed eyes until it flooded her whole vision. She was overwhelmed by the peculiar sense of being in a vacuum, where the bedroom with its striped wallpaper and brass bed had vanished, as if it had been blown apart by an explosion.

She walked over to pick it up, the pain in her toes forgotten. She bent gingerly and lifted the soft scrap, the sweet fragrance of Chanel Mademoiselle
wafting over her. She knew whom it belonged to. Like an injured animal that instinctively finds its hole without a second of hesitation, she put two and two together, the pain making breathing impossible. Just before her last birthday, Lucy kept saying how much she liked this fragrance. Elly and two other coworkers had bought Lucy the set. She had been such a great addition to the team, always pleasant and eager to help.

Suddenly
, the bathroom door opened, and she took a step back, bracing herself against what was to follow. She let the dress slip out of her numb fingers, the silk caressing her skin before it floated to the floor and pooled at her feet.

‘My hair is all wet…’ Lucy’s voice
, playful and teasing, vibrated in the air even before she actually emerged through the door.

‘I bet I
know a good way to dry it…’ Brad wasn’t far behind, his words trailing off as he stepped out and saw Elly. He grimaced with surprise and what Elly hoped was shame. But she knew she was wrong. He collected himself instantly, unlike Lucy. The moment she saw Elly, she shrieked in panic, retreating into the bathroom and slamming the door.

‘Why are you here?’
Brad asked.

She stared in disbelief as he walked over to the bed and picked up his jeans.
His naked body was still wet, with tiny glistening droplets clinging to his sun-kissed skin.

‘What are you doing?’
She finally found her voice in her raw throat, which hurt as she tried to speak again, louder this time. ‘What the hell is going on in here? Talk to me, damn it!’

‘Do I really have to explain?’
Brad’s shrug, followed by an eye roll, made her see red.

S
he wanted to sink her nails into his face, scraping and digging deeper until she reached some human level that showed any signs of emotion other than sarcastic indifference.

‘I think you do
.’ She curbed her desire to hurt him only because he was so much bigger and stronger. She would never get far if he tried to stop her. And he would. So instead, she walked over to the window to lean against the wall, her shaking shoulder blades grateful for the support.

‘
Look, I didn’t mean for you to see that.’ His hand made a vague gesture in the air, pointing somewhere toward the closed bathroom door as if he were talking about some small inconvenience, not cheating on his fiancée. ‘It doesn’t mean anything, Elly. I just got curious, that’s all. I told you I was…’

He
sure did.
But they talked about it, and she’d told him what she thought about his ideas. He had apologized and promised not to mention it again.
Well, he didn’t really lie. He hasn’t brought it up again.

‘Are you for real?’
She stared at him as if she were seeing him for the first time—which, in a way, was the case. The man she thought she knew and was about to marry had vanished and been replaced by this monster with no remorse whatsoever.
Not that it would do him any good
.

‘What di
d you expect?’ He must have sensed some of the fury raging inside her, because for the first time, his voice hesitated, a pleading note making it sound less cocky. ‘She made it easy for me, Elly. Practically begged me to have sex with her. I wasn’t the one to take the first step. I just got curious, nothing more. It won’t happen again.’

He might have been telling the truth about Lucy.
Beautiful, charming, and oh-so sexy, she was the biggest flirt in the office. Still, Elly couldn’t believe Brad would hide behind this excuse, blaming the other woman for what had transpired. Was he really so spineless?
And how come I haven’t noticed it before?

Elly
was saved from telling him what she thought about his pathetic attempts to shift the blame by Lucy herself as the door to the bathroom opened with a loud pop that startled both Elly and Brad. Lucy stood there, a white towel wrapped around her perfect hourglass figure, her eyes blazing with anger.

‘How dare you, Brad
,’ she hissed, her face pale under her suntan. ‘I could hear everything, you know. You pathetic liar. I begged you? I don’t think so, darling. You were pestering me for weeks, for God’s sake. Or did you really forget? I’ve got your e-mails, if you need a reminder.’ She found her bag on one of the chairs and rummaged inside. With a triumphant expletive, she brought out her phone and held it out to him. ‘Why don’t we read some of those now that Elly is here?’

That took the wind out of his sails.
He looked defeated; his handsome face folded in a regretful grimace that would have been convincing if it hadn’t come so late. Elly was sure he didn’t feel sorry for what he’d done—just worried that he’d been caught with no one to blame it on.

‘I screwed up,
Elly.’ He chose to ignore Lucy completely. ‘Goddamn it, I know I did. I am so sorry…’

D
oes he really think it’s enough to apologize and look like a lost puppy searching for a home? Probably.
Her meek attitude in their relationship obviously gave him enough hope that he might just get away with it again.
Not this time.
A wave of coldness spread through Elly, killing off any remnants of hope. She could just as well be a statue. The only sane thought still clamoring inside her head urged her to go on and finish it off before this numbness wore off and she came undone.
Not in front of this bastard and his whore
.

‘Get out
.’ She turned to Lucy, her voice icy enough to send the world into the throes of another permafrost. ‘Pick up your crap and get lost, before I throw it all out the window. Or maybe you’d like to go pick it up from our lawn?’

She surmised
neither of them had ever seen her like that. To think of it, she had never even imagined she could be like that, either. She wasn’t weak or shaky; every cell of her body pumped with enough adrenaline to help her get through it with strength she hadn’t even known she possessed. But it wouldn’t last.

‘You too, Brad.’ She eyed him coldly, her gaze
traveling down his perfectly sculpted body. She expected to feel something, anything at all. But she might as well have been looking at a stranger, and a very unpleasant one at that. ‘I want you to move out, so start packing.’

His eyes widened in surprise
, and he appeared about to object, so she kept talking. She wasn’t giving him a chance to interrupt until she was through with him. ‘Yes, I can do that. Remember? The place is mine. So legally, you are nothing but a tenant. A tenant that just crossed the line.’

After her grandmother
had passed away a few years ago, her parents sold her house and split the money among the family. Elly’s parents invested hers into the apartment. At the time, she couldn’t really see the purpose of tanking all the money into a place they’d rented out for the next few years. But her dad had insisted, explaining that one day, she would get a good return with the booming housing market. She and Brad were planning to sell it in the coming months and get something bigger, preferably with a second bedroom. Brad’s savings put together with the price they could fetch for the apartment should have been enough to make the move.

It wasn’t going to happen
, though. Not after she’d seen enough of his cheating and lying.

‘You can’t just kick me out
.’ His voice had grown hoarse and panicked, which satisfied her. The truth was finally starting to sink in, and it wasn’t pretty. ‘I mean, I live here, too. We are engaged, and I’ve put a good chunk of my money into the reno, remember?’

She blinked, stunned
at his arrogance. The ‘chunk of money’ he was referring to was a few buckets of paint and a few quarter rounds he’d added around the floors to make it look fancier. And she’d done most of the painting while he was away on business.

‘
Send me a bill.’ She shrugged, signaling the end of the conversation. ‘Just remember to attach all the receipts to it. I would hate to rip you off.’

Sarcasm wasn’t her thing, but at
that moment, she enjoyed it. Because he was speechless, his mouth opening and closing without speaking, he looked like a fish, just not the fairy-tale golden fish that granted wishes. This one took them away and ripped them apart, one by one.

‘
Elly, listen…’ He stepped closer, his eyes pleading. ‘You can’t be like that. Not because of this…’ He was still bare chested, and she would have bet her bottom dollar he was hoping it would help his case. She’d always said she loved the way he looked.

The door slammed
, and she was momentarily distracted until she realized it was Lucy sneaking away.
Good. One down, and one to go.

‘I can
, and I am.’ She noticed his shirt, half hidden under the bed. She’d given it to him last Christmas.
This is getting better and better.
She kicked it from under the bedskirt, her toes careful as if she were touching something repulsive.

‘Put it on
, and start packing.’ She walked over to the kitchenette for a glass of water. The sight of two wine glasses and something that looked like chocolate cake crumbs helped her rally some of her quickly vanishing energy.
Exactly how long had they spent in bed? Probably a lot, if they needed reinforcement.

‘
You can’t get away with that, Elly. I’ve got my rights, too.’ The charming phase was over, apparently.

Time for some emotional bullying.

‘You can’t just kick me out like that. Not without a notice of some kind. If you only listened and we talked it out, you’d see you’re overreacting.’

‘I think I’ve said enough, Brad.’ She was getting tired of
this conversation. He had to leave—immediately. She worried if he stayed much longer, he might actually win her over.
Wasn’t this his usual technique?
Each time they disagreed, he managed to twist it until she felt guilty. Granted, this one would be more difficult to pull off, but not impossible. She would never forgive herself if she let him manipulate her like that.