Final Call (The Call #2) (24 page)

“It’s a gorgeous photo
and you want it for Aaron.”

“Um, yes.” I laugh.
“Look at me, all shy. That man is ruining me.”

“That’s far too much
information.” Tyler snorts, shutting the laptop down. “It’ll take a
few days to edit these, but when they’re done, I’ll email you them
so you can pick the ones you want for your portfolio. Then I’ll put
it together and email it out. A different name, right?”

I nod. “I don’t want
anyone at the company recognizing my name. I’ve never met any of
the agents, so there’s no chance they’ll recognize me. Is that
crazy?”

Tyler shakes his head.
“Nope. Perfectly sane. Until you have to explain you’re not Maria
Espinoza Barielles.”

“Yeah, I’ll pass on
that one. I’ll think the name up myself, thank you very much.” I
grin and grab the ringing phone. “Hello?”

“Miss Black? There’s a
letter downstairs for you. It was just delivered,” Jasper, the guy
on security, says.

“Oh. That’s strange. Do
you know who delivered it?”

“No, ma’am. I’m sorry.
It was delivered by a courier.”

My heart pounds
dangerously loud in my chest, and I close my eyes. “Can you have it
brought up?”

“Of course.”

“Thank you,
Jasper.”

I set the phone on the
cradle and wrap my arms around my stomach. My hands are shaking,
and I barely hear Tyler asking me what’s wrong. I just shake my
head and open the door when there’s a knock before taking the
letter from Jasper.

I drop it on the bar in
the kitchen and stare at it. The handwriting is the same. No
postmark. No stamp. Just a scrawling mass of letters that makes up
my name and my address.

“Dayton?” Tyler rests a
hand on my shoulder.

“It’s another letter.
She knows I’m living here now.”

“Fuck.” His fingers
flex and he drops his hand. He rounds the bar and stands opposite
me, clenching the countertop. “Are you going to open it?”

“What choice do I
have?” I ask weakly, picking it up and flipping it over. I slide my
pinkie beneath the flap just like I did last time and pull out the
scrap of paper.

One week. Doesn’t time
fly when you’re having fun? It’s a shame you told Tyler… I’ll let
it pass. You’re getting desperate, after all. But if you tell
Aaron…the world will meet Mia Lopez.

I drop it like it’s
burning my fingers and squeeze my eyes shut. “Fuck. Fuck, fuck,
fuck, fuck, fuck!”

The volume of my voice
rises until the word echoes off the walls. Fear and anxiety run
rife through my body, constricting my throat and sending my heart
into a dangerously crazy rhythm. My eyes blur with unshed tears,
and as I gulp for air, I feel two hands rest on my upper arms.

“Dayton. Calm down.
Day, Jesus. You have to breathe, love. Come on.”

I shake my head,
rubbing my hands across my arms to stop the cold. The room is
spinning. I can’t breathe and I can’t think and all that’s real is
the frantic rushing of blood through my body. It’s coupled with
adrenaline and a fear so strong it consumes me.

Until his voice breaks
through and the touch of his hand on my cheek bats it away.

“Dayton. Breathe for
me, sweetheart,” Aaron says softly. “Come on now. Breathe.”

I take a deep breath
in.

“That’s it. And out.
And back in. That’s better.” He wraps his arms around me, and I
realize we’re on the floor.

How did we get
here?

How did
I
get
here?

Aaron kisses my
forehead as I continue breathing steadily, and I brush tears from
my cheeks. He holds me until I’ve calmed down and my heart is
beating somewhat more normally.

“I’m glad you were
here,” Aaron says over his shoulder to Tyler.

“Sorry I pulled you
from your meeting, cuz.”

Aaron shakes his head.
“Fuck the meeting. The contract will still be there tomorrow
morning.” He turns to me. “What’s wrong?”

There’s nothing but
compassion and worry in his eyes, and a stab of guilt hits me in
the stomach. Jesus. I should have told him. I should have been
honest. I never should have kept this to myself. I’ve been so
fucking stupid.

“I have to tell you
something,” I whisper.

“What is it? What’s
wrong?”

I glance up at Tyler,
holding my breath, and he nods. “Naomi came to see me just before
we went to London.”

Aaron’s whole body
tenses. “What?”

I rub my hands over my
face and stand, leaning on the bar. “She wasn’t happy with the
divorce settlement, and she came to ask me for money.”

Tyler snorts, and I see
Aaron’s eyes flit between us.

“You knew about this?”
he directs at his cousin.

Tyler nods, and I see
anger wash over Aaron’s features when he faces me.

“She asked you for
money? Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“She didn’t…ask…so much
as blackmail me,” I finish in a small voice.

“How much?”

“Two and a half
million.”

“What the fucking hell,
Dayton!”

“She gave me four weeks
to get it to her, and I have one week left.”

Aaron takes a few deep
breaths and waits for me to continue.

“When I went home after
London, there was a letter waiting, and today, there was one
delivered here.” I look accusingly at the paper in front of me.
“She’s keeping tabs on me. She knows Tyler knows and she said if I
told you all bets were off.”

“All bets for what?
What could she possibly know about you that she could hold over
your head?”

I hand him the paper.
“She knows I was a call girl. If I don’t pay, she’s threatening to
expose my past and destroy your business.”

Aaron’s eyes skim over
the words in front of them and close briefly. When they open again,
I see nothing but pure anger. It’s a rage so fierce that it scares
me a little—and even more so from knowing that some of that is
directed at me.

Because I did what I
condemned him for.

But I did it worse. I
put his whole life on the line because of my own fear.

He drops the paper and
walks out without a word. The apartment door slams behind him, the
sound ricocheting around the room with a finality that settles deep
inside me.

I look at Tyler. “Go,”
I whisper. “He needs you more than I do. I don’t deserve to need
you.”

He looks at me
uncertainly, but I merely nod my head. I don’t want him here. I can
feel the pressure building in my chest, and I don’t want him here
when it bursts. He crosses the room and kisses the side of my head
before following Aaron out the door.

The door closes again,
and I sink to the floor. I let the pressure run free, and a sob
escapes my lips.

Yet again, there’s a
part of me inside that’s broken. But this time, I have only myself
to blame.

***

The mattress dips next
to me, and I curl myself tighter into a ball. My hands fist the
sheets covering me, and I screw my eyes shut. Uncertainty is all I
feel, when all I want to feel is—

His arms wrapping
around me, pulling me into his hard body.

Aaron buries his face
in my neck as he holds me close to him. His chest rises and falls,
and I can feel the pounding of his heart against my back. He slips
his knee between my legs and kisses my shoulder.

“What are you doing?” I
whisper, my words thick with unshed tears.

“I’m holding you, baby.
What else do you think I’m doing?”

“You shouldn’t be. You
should hate me.”

He urges me onto my
back and leans over me. Even in the darkness, his eyes are bright
blue, shining like a beacon through the blackness surrounding us.
But they’re not angry, not at me. They’re soft and forgiving and
everything I don’t deserve.

“I could never hate
you, Dayton. Not ever.” He wipes away a tear that escapes. “So
don’t say such ridiculous things.”

I lift my hand and cup
his face, feeling the roughness of his stubble against my palm.
“Why aren’t you mad at me?”

“Because you didn’t
keep it a secret to spite me. You kept it to protect me, and yes,
it was a little misguided and unnecessary, but you did it because
you care.”

“But you did that, too,
and I left you.”

He drops his face to
mine and kisses me. Certainly. Strongly. “I’m not leaving you,
beautiful woman, so get that thought right out of your pretty
little head. I’m not going anywhere and neither are you.”

“But you did. Earlier.
When you found out.” My bottom lip quivers and I bite it gently.
“You left then.”

“Because I was a kind
of angry I never want you to see. But it wasn’t at you. Not
entirely, anyway. Most of it was at her, and if you hadn’t sent
Tyler after me, I just might have found her apartment and done
something incredibly stupid.”

“I’m sorry.” I wrap my
arms around his neck and squeeze him tightly.

His arms go around me
equally as firmly, and he rolls me onto my side and into his body.
He brushes my hair from my face and looks at me, tugging the sheet
up over us.

“I know. We’ll talk
some more in the morning, okay? Get some sleep now.”

“Never go to sleep on
an argument,” I murmur. “That’s what my mom always taught me. You
sort it out first.”

“Bambi, we’re not
arguing. Not even close.” He brushes his thumb across my eyelid,
forcing me to close my eyes, and sets one of my arms over his
waist. “Now we’re going to go to sleep together and wake up the
same way, today and every day. Understand?”

I nod and push my face
into his neck. “I don’t deserve you.”

“And I don’t deserve
you, so I guess we’re even. Goodnight, sweetheart.”

Chapter
Twenty-One

I wake to the feel of
fingertips trailing down my spine and look straight into startling
blue eyes. Shivers follow the trail of Aaron’s fingers, and I shift
in bed.

And remember the events
of yesterday. Guilt hits me full force in the stomach, and I part
my lips to speak.

“No. Don’t you look at
me with guilt in your eyes,” he says softly. “Cut that shit out,
Dayton. What’s done is done.”

I sit up, knocking his
arm from around me. “How aren’t you mad at me, Aaron? Why aren’t
you yelling and screaming at me?”

“Because that would
solve nothing. Am I angry at you? Yes, I am. I’m mad that you kept
it from me, but not for the reasons you think. Not because you
berated me for keeping her a secret in the first place. I’m mad
because this, us… We’re a couple, and we share this stuff. It means
we don’t have to deal with anything alone, but you have been.” He
sighs, sitting too. “And yes, Dayton, it hurts that you told Tyler
but not me. I understand why you’d prefer to tell someone other
than me, and I’m glad it was him, but I wish you could have been
honest with me.”

“I’m sorry.” The words
feel so inadequate, and I understand how he felt. Why he couldn’t
say the words in his office when I so desperately wanted him to.
They seem so small and unnecessary when the thing you’re
apologizing for is so potentially devastating.

“I know you are, and I
accept that. Now we’re not going to sit here and think about what
could be. We’re going to get up, go to my office, and do something
about it.”

I swallow when he gets
up. “But there’s nothing you can do. You read the note.”

Aaron stops before
walking into the closet and looks at me. “If you believe my
influences lie within the modeling and advertising world alone,
you’re incredibly wrong. Get up, get dressed, and make me coffee.
Without all the sugar.”

I can’t help the upturn
of my lips. His company could be destroyed at any second and he’s
worried about coffee. Only I could be in love with a man who has
that train of thought.

I pad my way to the
spare bedroom and change my underwear. When I’m back in the closet,
I pull out a pair of jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. Aaron grabs
them from me and chucks them on the shelf.

“No. You’re not hiding.
If she’s keeping tabs on you, which she likely is, then you’re not
hiding.” He cups my chin and looks at me square on. “She’s playing
a game, baby, and you’re not going to let her win. So ignore the
jeans, grab a dress, and pack that self-loathing away because we
don’t have space for that in our relationship, okay?”

I nod and pick a red
dress from a hanger. “You know, the easy solution to all this would
be to just—”

“Say it and I’m going
to slap your pretty little ass until it’s red and raw.”

I chew on my bottom
lip. “Okay. Not an option. I get it.”

He smirks and spins me
to do up my zipper. “Red. Good choice. I notice it matches your
panties.”

“Red is my color, and
it’s a red kind of day, I think.”

He drops a kiss to the
spot below my ear. “I think you’re right. Now, about that
coffee?”

I reach behind me and
smack his leg. “I need to do my makeup. Your coffee will have to
wait.”

I stroll into the
bathroom and grab my makeup bag from the corner of the sink. I’m
brushing foundation across my cheeks when Aaron joins me.

“Coffee,” is all he
says.

“Is that a demand?”

“I require coffee every
single morning.”

I finish with the
foundation and grab his arm, moving his shirt so it exposes the
watch on his wrist. I tap the face lightly. “Seven thirty. There’s
still four and a half hours of the morning left. Your requirement
can wait a little longer.”

He stands behind me as
I finish applying my makeup. He grabs my brush and runs it through
my hair, and I meet his eyes in the mirror.

“How do you do it?”

“How do I do what?” he
responds.

“Make it seem so
normal. There’s this huge cloud hanging over us ready to piss all
over us and you’re just…normal.”

He smiles. “Haven’t you
learned anything? Great love makes the bad stuff disappear, if only
for a second, and you and I? We have the greatest love I’ve ever
felt. Don’t think I’m not thinking about it, because I am. I’m
merely choosing to focus on the good things, and right now, that’s
you. It’s always you.”