“Hello?”
She sounded breathless, like she was walking.
“I wanted to let you know you forgot your tablet here. Give me your address and I’ll bring it to you.”
“I did?” I could hear her rustling around. “Well, shit. I live in Washington Heights but I’m not even home yet, so don’t worry about it tonight.”
“Where are you?”
“Just passed Forty-second.”
“You’re only halfway home, then. Do you want to wait for me somewhere and I’ll bring it to you?” I was worried she wasn’t going to have what she needed for other clients. I wasn’t worried about me. I’d been waiting ten years, I could wait another week.
“No, no, it’s fine. Thanks. Oh, can I ring you back? My roommate is calling.” Felicia sounded frazzled.
“Sure. Talk to you soon.”
I ended the call. “You can stay. She’s not even home, so she doesn’t want me to bring it.”
“Good, because I wasn’t leaving.” Sean put his feet on my coffee table.
“You are not the company I want tonight,” I said wryly. “Now take this tablet away from me before I read any more of her texts.”
Too late. One popped up on the screen.
I should have gone back to his flat and begged him to go down on me.
I groaned and tossed the tablet toward Sean. “Fuck.”
“Damn,” he said.
I couldn’t take it. I had to let her know I could see the texts.
So I sent her a text of my own.
You should have.
Should have what?
Come back to my apartment. No begging necessary. I would have gone down on you.
The bubble came up, then disappeared. Then she sent a head exploding emoji.
I smiled. My phone rang.
It was Felicia.
Three
Reading Michael’s text had made my heart jump into my throat and both my hands come off the pole I was clinging to on the subway. I needed to go back and reread my texts from the group message with my girlfriends. Oh my God. It was exactly what I had said.
And meant.
How the bloody hell could Michael know that?
I was mortified. I was embarrassed. I was very, very turned on.
So I rang him.
“Hi, Felicia.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I demanded, feeling both angry and flustered. “Why would you send me that text? It’s highly unprofessional.” As were every single one of my thoughts surrounding him.
“I can read your texts in the group text with your friends on your tablet.”
My heart fell back down into my gut. Of course he could. The damn tablet was synced with my phone. That had never even occurred to me when I was texting with my friends. He had seen everything. “A gentleman wouldn’t have read what I wrote.”
“I didn’t mean to. It just popped up when I was moving the tablet. Besides, whoever said I’m a gentleman?”
The train slowed and without a grip on the pole, I pitched forward and collided with a man’s back. I hooked an arm around the pole and tried to decipher what Michael was actually saying. “You seem like a gentleman. Or you did, until this. Savannah said you were very polite with her.”
“I was trying to put my best foot forward. But I can be a really dirty bastard if I want to be.”
He was killing me. I closed my eyes. Which only goes to show you how mad I was for the man and his cock because no one in their right mind ever closes their eyes on the train. I told myself not to say it. Just don’t. If I said it and this went in the toilet, I could potentially lose the commission if he no longer wanted me selling Becca’s clothes.
But we all know that I said it.
“I love a good dirty bastard,” I said. “Even a dirty bastard that reads a woman’s private texts.”
“You pretended to be another woman,” he pointed out. “For weeks.”
I could not argue with that. “I did.”
“So I guess we’re both a little naughty, aren’t we?” he said, his voice sounding low and gruff next to my ear. “Get off at the next stop and come back to my place. Did you eat dinner yet?”
I shook my head, then realized he couldn’t see me. “No.”
“I’ll order something and open another bottle of wine. Then I’ll go down on you.”
I mean… was there really any reason to say no?
“It sounds like an offer I just can’t refuse.”
“I agree. See you soon?”
I was already shoving my way toward the door so I could maneuver off the train the second it stopped. “Yes.”
As I ran down the platform to get back on in the opposite direction, I sent a text to my friends.
STOP TEXTING. I forgot my tablet at Michael’s and HE CAN SEE ALL OUR TEXTS WHEN THEY POP UP.
Oh shit, was Leah’s immediate response.
Dakota just sent me approximately seventeen laugh cry face emojis.
Savannah sent a gif that was a woman snapping her fingers and underneath was written “Oh, snap.”
That had me both rolling my eyes and laughing as I jumped on the train going back downtown.
Isla texted last.
Only you.
That’s all she wrote.
But she was right. I was the only one this would happen to. I was the Bridget Jones of our friend group. And not because I was British.
My giant handbag was pressed against my thigh. I’d made a stop at a favorite boutique in SoHo that had candles in brilliant scents and now my bag weighed about three hundred pounds. But I would lug the bastard around all night if it meant I got to have sex with Michael.
He better not be overpromising. I was fully prepared to demand the pleasure he had offered.
I imagined him between my thighs and my face got hot. My nipples got hard. My lady garden got wet. It had been ages since I’d had sex and ages since I had wanted a man like this.
Being a workaholic was something Michael and I had in common.
Clearly another thing we had in common was a burning desire for each other.
He’d adjusted to me being Savannah easily. Or Savannah being me, however you wanted to look at it. I should probably have been concerned about that but I was choosing to ignore it.
I could dissect all of that later, after I’d had at least two orgasms.
When I got to his building I texted him and he buzzed open the door.
Come on up.
In the lift, I yanked my beanie off and dug in my purse for a brush and gave it a good yanking through my long hair. I popped a mint in my mouth and chewed it quickly, then put on a nude lipstick. Fortunately with it being winter my skin was drier than usual and didn’t need a blot, but I wished I had known I would be having sex when I’d woken up that morning. I would have chosen my underwear with more care.
As I got off the lift, Michael’s door opened and a man came out.
I gave him a nervous smile, realizing if he had been in the flat with Michael, he knew precisely why I was showing up.
The grin he returned confirmed that. “Hi, Felicia, I’m Sean, Michael’s brother.”
“Oh, hi, nice to meet you. I see the resemblance.” He had the same strong jaw and rich brown eyes.
“I’m the younger and better-looking brother,” he said, winking.