Final Call

Chapter Five

“Um, hi?”
I stop my absent dipping of my finger in the sugar pot and look at Liv. “Hi.”
“Not that I don’t love you being here, but why the f*ck are you here?” She drops her bags and kicks the door shut.
“I’m hiding.”
“Right.”
“Angus has been keeping me company. He’s not one for conversation, is he?” I cast a glance at the cat. He hops off the stool, his tail in the air, and stalks off. “Kind of moody, too.”
“He’s a cat,” she replies flatly. “Why are you hiding?”
“Don’t ask.” I lick my finger free of sugar.
“I wish you wouldn’t do that.” Liv wrinkles her face. “It’s disgusting. I’m going to have to replace my sugar now.”
I shrug and dip my finger back in. “I’ll carry on then.”
“It’s Aaron, isn’t it?”
I roll my eyes. “It’s always Aaron. He’s a pain in my f*cking ass. A relentless pain—like that annoying muscle ache you get after working out too hard.”
“Why don’t you just tell him to f*ck off?”
“I did.”
“And?”
“He told me I belonged to him. Do I look like I have a collar with a nametag on to you?”
Liv’s eyebrows arch. “Okay, Dayton. I think you’ve had enough sugar.” She takes the pot from me, slams the lid on, and puts it on top of a cupboard I can’t reach. “And enough alone time with my cat. How long have you been here?”
“Two days. I told the guy who lives opposite you that he didn’t have to feed Angus. He seemed kinda happy about it.” I would be, too, if I’m honest. This cat is a menace. “Anyway, I thought you were coming back yesterday?”
“I was, but I decided to stop by and see my parents. I wasn’t expecting your mopey ass to be here, was I?”
I shrug. “Whatever. I thought Monique might have called me with a job, but she hasn’t.”
Three days with nothing is unusual—even without the sex side of the job. In a city like Seattle, there’s always someone who needs a lunch or dinner date or even someone to accompany them to an art gallery opening or some shit.
Three days of complete silence is unheard of.
“Really? Nothing?”
I shake my head and take the cup of coffee she offers. “I’ve checked my cell about a thousand times. No calls or messages. I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Have you tried calling her?”
“No. I spoke to Aunt Leigh this morning and she said it was probably just a quiet week with everyone preparing for the new art gallery opening this weekend.”
“Aren’t you going?”
“Yeah. I’m supposed to be escorting someone. I haven’t heard anything about it though, which is odd since it’s in a few days.”
Liv waves my phone in front of my face. “Again with the calling.”
“All right, all right. I’ll call her when I get home. I think Angus hates me now anyway.”
My best friend glances over my shoulder at the cat, who’s eying me evilly. “Angus hates everyone if he has to spend longer than two hours with them. He’s a temperamental little bastard.”
“Like his momma,” I mutter and finish my coffee.
She smacks my leg. “Get out of my apartment.”
I grin and grab my stuff. “I’ll call you later when I’ve spoken to Monique.”
“You better.”
I leave her apartment and climb into my car. It’s fairly early in the morning still, so there isn’t much traffic, and it doesn’t take long to get across the city to my house.
I ignore the message alert on my phone and head straight for the shower. Once I’m dressed and looking and feeling somewhat human, I lie back on my bed and call my agent.
“No,” she answers. “Nothing today.”
“Jesus. Mon, that’s three days now. There has to be something.”
“You have no jobs booked, Dayton.”
“Why? Clients don’t just drop off the edge of the Earth—even with my reduced list. What’s going on?”
A long silence follows. I wet my lips with my tongue, my stomach clenching into a ball of fear. Like I know what she’s going to say.
“You’re booked,” she says softly. “Permanently. I can’t book you any jobs.”
I sit up and look at myself in the mirror. Eyes wide, lips parted, cheeks flushed. “If you say his name, I’m going to go ten shades of batshit crazy.”
“I’m sorry. He’s paying for you indefinitely.”
I close my eyes and rest my hand across my forehead. “Aaron’s booked me? Permanently?” I clarify although my gut knows it.
“Yes.”
“Jesus f*cking Christ!” He really wasn’t kidding when he said that I’d never f*ck another guy. “He has more money than sense. Shit! What’s he playing at?”
“You know what. This is up to you now, Day. I can’t do anything. I had no choice but to accept his offer. It was that or he could close this business now.”
“He threatened you?”
“He’s that desperate. I can’t be mad at him. If it were Ross, I’d do everything I could to get him back.”
“I can’t f*cking believe him. Unreal. I gotta go.” I hang up and throw the phone down.
I stand in the middle of my room, my breathing coming hard and fast, and look around aimlessly. Who the f*ck does he think he is? To buy me and threaten my agent?
Without another thought, I pull some boots on. Standing here in my room isn’t going to get this straightened out, so I’m going to give him what he wants. I’m going to go to him, but I’m not going to roll over submissively.
I’m going to kick his sharply suited ass until his balls turn blue.
My car beeps as I unlock it from the key fob, and I tear out of my driveway angrily. I hope Aaron isn’t busy, because he has an unscheduled meeting with me.

***

My heels click against the floor as I cross to reception. A gorgeous blond woman smiles up at me.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes, you can. What floor is Mr. Stone’s office on?”
“Floor forty-seven, madam, but I’m afraid you’re not allowed there unless you have an appointment. He’s in a meeting.”
“It’s okay. I’m his girlfriend. He’s expecting me.” I smile convincingly and head toward the elevator. Yeah, his girlfriend who doesn’t know where his office is. Super convincing, Dayton.
Still. Meeting or no meeting, this shit gets sorted today.
I take deep breaths as the elevator takes me to the top floor. It’s all glass doors and walls up here, and it takes me seconds to find the boardroom Aaron’s having a meeting in.
I push the main doors open and walk right past his receptionist, who does her best to stop me. I ignore her calls of “Miss, miss! You can’t go in there!” and shove the door open.
Six men in tailored suits sit around the table. Aaron is at the head of it, and he slowly comes to a stand when he sees me. Silence descends on the room as everyone turns to look at me, eyebrows rising and lips pursing as eyes settle disapprovingly on me.
“Dayton?”
“Who the f*cking hell do you think you are, Aaron Stone?” I point my finger at him. “How dare you!”
He smiles apologetically at the shocked faces between us. “Excuse us, gentleman. It appears I’ve done something to anger my girlfriend.”
“Anger? This is beyond damn anger! You’ll be lucky to be breathing when I’m done with you, you presumptuous bastard!”
Aaron takes my shoulders and pushes me from the room. He leads me across the floor, past his bewildered receptionist, and unlocks the door to what is presumably his office. I don’t pay any attention to the room around me as we step inside and he releases me.
“I’ll be back in five minutes.”
The door shuts behind me, and my mouth drops open when I hear the click of a lock. I grab the handle and shake it. That a*shole! Where the hell does he get off locking me in his office—again?
I pace angrily, my fists clenched at my sides. Thankfully his office doesn’t have glass walls. I’d probably bear a great resemblance to a caged animal to anyone walking by. A rabid bear or hungry tiger are my guesses.
I stop and perch on his desk, leaning my head back with a deep sigh. Pacing is doing nothing but hurting my feet. Stupid f*cking boots. I pull the evil heeled boots off and look around his office.
The windows to my side are floor to ceiling, giving an uninterrupted view of Elliott Bay and the fat, green-and-white ferries running back and forth between the city and Bainbridge Island on the opposite shore. It’s a soothing sight, and a little of my anger trickles out of my body.
The desk I’m perching on is thick glass, perfectly cleaned, and covered in neat stacks of paper and files. I lift some of the files, drag my fingertip across the glass, leaving a long smear across it, and smile. Immature, yes, but now I feel slightly better.
Aside from a leather corner sofa at the far end of the room and two leather chairs in front of me, the rest of the office is empty. Nothing on the walls, nothing telling where the two doors behind me lead to…
The lock clicks once again, and Aaron strolls in surrounded by an aura of calmness. Like I didn’t just storm into a meeting and scream at him.
I fold my arms across my chest and watch him as he shrugs off his jacket and hangs it on a hook behind the door. He brings a strong hand to his neck and loosens his tie, his nimble fingers deftly undoing the top button of his shirt.
A flutter hits my lower stomach. I may be vibrating with anger at him, but he really does look hot as hell right now. He’s tall and commanding, and when he finally turns to me, I can see his own annoyance in his eyes along with a glare of pure power.
His gaze flicks to my feet before roaming leisurely up my body and finding mine once more. “Making yourself at home, Dayton?”
“Why not? For all I know, I could have been here for a while. You should really get a coffee machine in here if you’re going to lock women in your office.”
“Not women. Just you.”
“I’m flattered. Really.”
He tilts his head slightly to one side, and his lips curve into that smirk that’s so dangerously alluring. “Care to explain why you interrupted my meeting?”
I mirror his movements. “Care to explain why you called my agent and threatened her with closing her business if she didn’t let you buy me indefinitely?”
“I told you, Dayton. No one but me gets to touch you.”
“And I told you, Aaron. You lost that right when you f*cked me over and broke my heart.” I stand. “Threatening Monique was absolutely unnecessary and marks you as a downright bastard in my books. How dare you do that to her when she kept your secret from me?”
“I wouldn’t have shut her down. I was calling her bluff.” He walks around his desk, and I stand, following him with my eyes. “I may not understand her chosen…profession…but I respect her.”
“At least you respect someone.”
His eyes flash at my words. “I have never disrespected you.”
“No, of course not.” I laugh bitterly. “You only lied to me about your wife. Remember that? Oh, yeah.” I tick that off on my fingers, and a bit of the righteous attitude leaves his eyes. “And you continue to push me, and then you freaking buy me, yet again, when I’ve made it quite clear I have no desire to have anything to do with you now. You continue to force me into situations I’m not comfortable with. Where’s the f*cking respect in that, huh, Aaron? Because it’s lost on me.”
He fiddles with the cuff link at his wrist, his eyes steadily holding mine as he does so. The intensity in his stare makes me tremble a little, and the silence lingering heavily between us is uncomfortable. Turn-around-and-run-like-hell uncomfortable.
He places his hands flat on his desk, leaning toward me. “You’re right. Lying about Naomi to you wasn’t respecting you at all.”
“Thank you.”
“But I refuse to agree with the second part of your statement. If you were uncomfortable around me, sweetheart, you wouldn’t be here right now.”
“I’m here to kick your ass, not f*ck you.”
“You’re here because, regardless of my paying for you, there’s nowhere else in this world you’re supposed to be.”
I know he’s right, but the tug in my heart that wants me to move closer is still clouded by my anger.
“You might own my heart, Aaron Stone, but that doesn’t give you the right to abuse it. It doesn’t mean you get to decide what I do, who I see, who I sleep with, where I work. I’m not your employee or someone who even gives a crap if you get your own damn way or not. It doesn’t mean you get to throw your money around until I see things your way and give in to you the way everybody else does!”
“Then please enlighten me as to what it does mean.”
“It means if you’re sorry, you man the hell up and stop hiding behind your money. It means you show me you’re sorry, because right now, all I see is a man unwilling to admit his mistakes.” I put my own hands on the table and lean into him. Our breaths mingle as his eyes flick to my lips, and mine to his, before our gazes crash into each other’s. “And for a man so confident and powerful, it’s not a good look for you.”
“Insults now?”
“No, the truth. Isn’t it a bitch?”
He runs his thumb along my jaw, sending an electric current across my skin, and cups it softly. “Do you want to know what is a bitch? It’s seeing you here, touching you, and knowing there’s a part of you that doesn’t want it. It’s looking into your eyes and seeing contempt mixed with a slither of hatred because of what I did to you. It’s knowing you only belong to me by default. That’s the real f*cking bitch here—that I lost you.” He leans forward so his nose brushes mine. “Is that the kind of showing you want, Dayton? Do you want me to strip myself naked emotionally for you?”
“Yes.” The word escapes my lips. “I want you to throw words and honesty at me, not underhanded contracts with my agent. I want realness, not sneaky payments in an attempt to get me to bend to your will. But you can’t do that unless I kick and scream, can you?”
I step back and his hand drops limply. Aaron closes his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose, and straightens. He turns his back to me to face the Bay.
“Why did you do it?” I lift my chin although he can’t see me, like standing taller will give me the strength I need to continue this conversation. “Why did you really keep her a secret from me?”
“You know why. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Bullshit. Bull-f*cking-shit!”
“I didn’t want you to think any less of me for marrying a woman I didn’t care for!” His words are sharp, and he turns just as suddenly as he shouted. “Happy?”
I step backward and shake my head. “Why would I have thought less of you?”
“Because I wasn’t man enough to find you although I’ve been in this city a hundred times since we first met, but I could promise my life to a woman I didn’t care about or love. What does that say about me, Dayton?”
The same thing it says about my not having another relationship since you.
“It says you were afraid of being hurt again, so you took the only option you had that meant that wouldn’t happen.”
He runs his fingers through his hair, and when I look into his eyes, I see the same pain I know is in mine reflected in them. “What am I supposed to do? I talk so easily about you belonging to me, but we both ignore the fact I belong to you. You own me. You always have and you always will. That’s the very bottom of it, the defining line. You own me so f*cking completely that I have to buy you because, dammit, Day, if I can’t have you, no one else is going to either.”
Aaron crosses the room, his long stride swallowing it up in a second, and frames my face with his hands. His thumbs run under my eyes and rub away the tears I didn’t realize were falling, and he takes a deep, ragged breath.
“Jesus, woman. I can’t let you go again. Do you understand that? I have to know, one way or another, that you belong to me.”
“Buying me isn’t the way to do that,” I whisper. “I’m not a f*cking toy, Aaron. If you want me, you have to prove that to me. You have to fight for me until you’re blue in the face and struggling to breathe, because that’s the only way I’m ever going to believe you. Your money, your power, your status—they all mean nothing to me. Nothing.”
“I will spend every day of the rest of my life proving to you I want you if only you’ll let me.”
“It shouldn’t matter if I let you. If you want me that badly, you’ll do it anyway.”
He rests his forehead against mine. “I want to show you something.”