AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His look of interest turned to shock when he realized that the girl in the fur coat and lavender hair wasme.
It had been three years since I’d laid eyes on Gavin King. Memory did not do him justice. His suit was black as night and tailored to his powerful build. He was somewhere in the six-and-a-half-feet range with burnished red-brown hair, styled with gel to stay out of those emerald-green eyes. He held himself like the wealthy Upper East Sider he was. Old oil money, mixed with a Harvard education, made him practically drip with arrogance.
But when our eyes met, I saw, underneath the charismatic playboy, he was haunted at the sight of me. I’d cracked the veneer of his mask, and he wasn’t fast enough to get it together.
I wanted to scurry away. To pack up my shit and leave, like I had three years ago when things got too complicated. But I was back. I wasback, which meant I was going to have to face Gavin one way or another. I’d just wanted to do it on my terms.
Oh well.
When life gave you lemons, add a little vodka and soda.
I wasn’t ready for this confrontation. Not by a long shot. If he hadn’t seen me, I would have found a way to avoid this, but he had seen me. We had an audience, and it wasn’t like we could get into it in front of all of his friends. I didn’t want to get into it at all. Three years hadn’t been long enough for me to be ready for this conversation. Maybe I’d never be ready to talk about it. And certainly not in this moment.
Which meant that I needed to let the outrageous, wild Whitley Bowen that he was all too familiar with off her leash.
My hips swayed seductively as I made for the group of businessmen. My eyes were only for Gavin King. One of his friends nudged him and laughed. Gavin didn’t look back at him as I approached. He couldn’t look away from me, as if I’d put a spell on him in my too-short skirt and too-high heels and too-purple hair.
I ripped my sunglasses off when I reached him, standing way too close for total strangers. Which his colleagues clearly thought we were—and we were very muchnot.
“Hey, you,” I said with a grin.
“Hey,” he said on a breath.
I took his tie in my hand and threaded it between my fingers. His eyes were impossibly green this close. They stared at me with three years of distrust and confusion. I needed to end this or my knees were going to go weak, and we just couldn’t have that.
“You know this isn’t your color,” I said, flipping the blue tie over his shoulder.
A knowing smirk crossed his sullen little mouth. “That so?”
“Green,” I said with a wink. “To match your eyes.”
“I’ll take that into consideration.”
One of his friends elbowed him. “You going to introduce us to your friend, King?”
Gavin and I snapped back to reality at the same moment. And reality was not a plane that I enjoyed existing on.
Gavin looked flummoxed for a whole second as if he had no earthly idea how to introduce us.
“Love to, gentlemen,” I said, stepping back with a flourish. “But I have business to attend to. You understand.”
Gavin’s mouth turned into an O of confusion. I could see every single thing he wanted to ask on those perfect, pouty lips. Thewhat was I doing hereandwhat business could occupy my timeandhow had he not known that I was in New York. A million things that I didn’t want to discuss and couldn’t bring down my mask enough to acknowledge.
So, I didn’t let him get the questions out.
I wagged my fingers in farewell and shot him a wink. “See you later, King.”
I swallowed back my apprehension and sauntered away from the group. A whistle followed my exit. I kept the smirk on my lips the whole way, tossing the sunglasses back into position before exiting Percy Tower onto the Manhattan streets.
It wasn’t until I cleared the front doors that my shoulders slumped and a frown replaced the ridiculous smirk. My hand dropped to the stone exterior of the building, and I took a steadying breath. Gavin King knew I was back in New York City. I’d survived that interaction. Barely.
It’d get easier the next time and the time after that. Like exposure therapy. The more I saw his beautiful face and that muscular physique and the skilled fingers, the more I’d replace the memory of him using all of that for my pleasure. The more I’d replace the look of betrayal on his face when I’d gotten back together with his best friend. The more I’d replace the horror he must have felt when I’d left New York without so much as a good-bye.
I’d agreed to come back.
I knew what that meant.
I just hadn’t wanted to face the fact that I still had feelings for him on my first day.
