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“Baby.” He tries to reach for me. I brush past him before he can touch me. “Talk to me. What’s going on?”
I flip on the light, then toss the few toiletries I keep at his place in my bag. I’d thought Spencer didn’t like clutter—that’s why he insisted I not leave too many things over here. Now, I’mwondering if he simply didn’t want any other woman to realize he had a girlfriend.
“Baby?” He calls again. This time, he stands in the doorway, blocking my exit.
I square my shoulders and meet his gaze. Again, I ask, “Who’s Stacy?”
“Look, I don’t know what you think you heard, but Stacy is just?—”
“Get out of my way, Spencer. I’m not an idiot. We’re done. I’m not going to be with someone who’s cheating on me.”
No matter how mind-blowing the sex is.If I’m being honest, it’s pretty much the only thing we have going for us.
Our relationship wasn’t always this way. Once upon a time, just a couple of years out of college, Spencer and I clicked on an emotional level. We valued each other’s sense of humor and work ethic, and we dreamed of conquering New York City together. But as the years passed, our careers took over our lives. I convinced myself it was just a phase—that sex wasn’t all that linked us nowadays.
I was wrong.
“Avery.” Spencer runs a hand through his hair. He switches tactics, no longer opting for outright denial. “Stacy is just a fling. She doesn’t mean anything. I swear. It’s you and me, baby. Until the end.”
I scoff. “The end is now. Move.”
He doesn’t.
Spencer begins spewing another half-assed apology, but I wasn’t lying when I said I was done. I knock my shoulder into his chest. It only moves him back a step, but that’s all I need to squeeze out of the bathroom.
Tears begin to burn the back of my eyes as I walk to the front door, but I will them to stay back until I’m out of the apartment.I’m humiliated and hurt, but I’ll be damned if I let Spencer see that.
I’m sliding my feet into the strappy stilettos I wore on our fancy dinner date last night when Spencer makes one last attempt to convince me to stay. His fingers wrap around my elbow, holding me in place. “Avery, please. Just listen.”
I shrug off his grip. “You have five seconds, and then I’m out that door,” I say coldly.
My siblings always said I had the best bitch voice, and they weren’t lying. It’s a skill that’s served me well in the PR world, and it comes in handy now, too.
Spencer stares at me with puppy dog eyes. “I made a mistake, okay? Stacy is just someone to pass time with. You’ve been busy with Aaron Richards’ press tour. I was lonely. Can you blame me? But now that you’re back, we can go back to normal. Everything can be like it was.”
I want to vomit. “You’re pathetic,” I tell him in a cool, detached voice. “Only a child blames someone else for his choices. We’re done. Have a nice life.”
I turn my back on him and stride out of the apartment with my head held high. I pass four apartment doors before I reach the elevator. I press the button to summon it by the time Spencer comes up with a response.
“You’re a cold-hearted, bitch, Avery Lawson,” he yells down the carpeted hallway. “The only reason we lasted as long as we did is because you’re a good lay with a tight pussy.”
I glare at the man I foolishly believed was my one. “A pussy that could’ve been yours forever, Spencer, if you just would’ve shown some fucking loyalty.” The words spew from my lips like acidic venom, dripping with the evidence of my pent-up disdain. I turn back to the elevator as the doors slide open, and I step inside without a backward glance.
The moment the doors close, I fall against the wall and tears are unleashed. As much as I project the image of a tough, no-nonsense, badass businesswoman, I have emotions just like everyone else. And right now, betrayal and heartache are suffocating me. I don’t know how I’m ever going to trust anyone else ever again.
ADAM
“I’m serious, Natasha, I don’t need a date for the launch party. It’ll be fine.” I steer my Mercedes into the left lane and slow down as I hit a red light. I turn on my blinker and stare at the palm trees across the street. Their fronds sway in the breeze, setting the Los Angeles day in a classic frame.
“It will not be fine, Mr. Moreno,” my assistant objects. I hear the stress in her voice over the car’s hands-free speakers. “You know, as well as I do, that your grandfather’s company is afamilybusiness. And as a family business, we can’t have the papers reporting that you’re dating the pornstar who partied with you and your friends in Vegas. We need to get you a respectable date for tonight so the reporters focus on her as your new flame before any more of our board members have a coronary over your extracurricular activities.”
I groan. Natasha is right, but that doesn’t make the pill any easier to swallow.
It’s been six years since I inherited my grandfather’s role as CEO in his luxury goods company—six years of bearing the weight of the restrictions that come with the position. The company’s old-fashioned values have been smothering me since the day I took over on my twenty-fourth birthday. If I didn’tspend my entire life preparing for the job, I might’ve walked away. But being CEO of Moreno Masterpieces was what I was meant to do. Plus, the money is fucking great.
“Fine, Tasha. You win. Find me a respectable woman, and I’ll take her to Source Solution’s launch party.”
“Oh, thank god,” the middle-aged woman sighs over the phone. “Thank you, Adam.”
