Next to You (20 page)

T
he diner was tucked away
on a short side street in the Financial District, away from the crowds milling about the new World Trade Center. The middle-aged waitress took one look at Jared and led him to a vinyl-covered booth in the back, right next to the swinging door of the kitchen. He slid into the side of the booth facing the door. Not because he didn’t want anyone to see his face, but because he didn’t want anyone to see his choice of reading material.

He ordered a beer and the burger and fries platter, then opened his brand new copy of
People
magazine. Normally, he didn’t even look at that side of the newsstand. He stuck to the side where the business and sports titles were displayed. But
People
caught his eye today. The cover featured a photograph he thought he was one of the few people to have ever seen: a selfie of Phlox after one of her early surgeries, barely recognizable as human. Next to it was a smiling photo of her now, her skin flawless after many more surgeries and the judicious application of makeup.

It hurt a little to see that selfie on the cover. When she left that photo album outside the cottage, he had thought she was sharing something with him that she didn’t show to just anyone. But she had never said any such thing. He had just assumed that because he sure as hell wouldn’t show anyone pictures like those. Not that he had any post-surgery pictures to show. What little fix-ups he’d had as a kid no one had bothered to document.

In Connecticut, it had been easy to overlook the fact that only one of them was hiding out from the world. Phlox hadn’t been. She was there to face down some personal demons … then go back to work and her normal life, which included public appearances and media interviews.

The waitress shoved his platter onto the table and dropped the bottle of beer in front of him with a sharp clank. He took a long draw. It was three o’clock in the afternoon and he was at loose ends. He had packed up his things at the cottage two weeks ago. Now he was stuck in New York with nothing to do.

He couldn’t stay on as Phlox’s caretaker. It felt too weird now. That whole setup only worked if the homeowners didn’t know he was a billionaire. He felt bad about the hot tub, though. She would have to hire someone else to get that done. Plus, he had really wanted to spend some time in it with her. Not happening now, obviously.

He flipped the magazine open to the article, dreading it after the
Vanity Fair
piece online. Mina had emailed him a link to it; he wished she hadn’t. Phlox in not much more than a jacket and heels—he had not been happy about that. Was still not happy about it, in fact. Not that it stopped him from looking at the pictures every night and, well, having phone sex without the phone. But he imagined plenty of other men jerking off to the pictures, as well, and that thought was like a knife twisting in his gut.

Fuck, that guy she’d had dinner with was probably jerking off to them. Or not. Jared picked at his fries. He probably had access to the real thing, now that Jared had stepped out of the picture.

Fortunately, the
People
article was tamer than
Vanity Fair
had been, focusing more on her accident, recovery and return to work. The product recalls and customer injuries got surprisingly few column inches, and he wondered whether that was an intentional strategy on her part. Distract people with half-naked pictures. He closed his eyes and let the half-naked pictures fill his memory again. He would love to see Phlox in person dressed like that. He would slowly roll down those sheer silky stockings, slip her feet out of those fuck-me heels and then … well, fuck her.

He opened his eyes and read the rest of the article.
Phlox Beauty is using a recent investment from reclusive billionaire Jared Connor to launch a new burn care line … Miller and her partner, Zee Malisewski, are scheduled to attend the premiere of First Light, the new movie starring Malisewski’s mother, Ginger Moon.

Damn but she was fearless. She was really putting herself out there. The media was calling for him too, according to Jake’s daily—sometimes twice-daily—updates, but he continued to be “unavailable.” He was happy, too, that she had offered Mina a job. Meant he might hear the occasional news about her. He needed to stay away from Phlox, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to think about her.

He thought about her all the time, actually.

Even Emma and Aidan were busting his chops over breaking up with her. Uncle Ninny was his new nickname, apparently. Could be worse. Jake was constantly muttering “Uncle Jackass” under his breath around him.

He ordered another beer and stared at the cover of the magazine.
Fucking hell.
He missed her.

“
M
r. Connor
!” The doorman caught up to Jared before he reached the elevator. “This package came for you.” He held out a nine by twelve envelope.

Jared’s heart leapt when he saw the return address: Phlox Beauty. He quickly crashed back to reality when he opened it. It wasn’t from Phlox. What did he think she would be sending him anyway? No, the package was from her assistant, Miss Brisk Efficient. An employment termination package. He stepped onto the waiting elevator, inserted his card and pushed the button for the seventieth floor. As the elevator rose with gut-dropping speed, he perused the contents of the envelope.

“Thanks for being a valued Phlox Beauty employee” letter.

Instructions on extending his health insurance through COBRA. Jared hadn’t realized he even had health insurance through her company. Never looked into it. Didn’t need it in any case.

A code entitling him to discounts on all Phlox Beauty products. That would be useful. He rolled his eyes.

A boilerplate form gently reminding him to adhere to his non-compete clause. He couldn’t remember signing one of those. Probably didn’t apply to caretakers; he’d learned no trade secrets while in Phlox’s employ.

Well, maybe he’d learned a
few
trade secrets. Where she liked to be kissed. The breathy little moan she made right before she came. How long the scars on her breasts were.

An envelope with an invitation to … the premiere of Ginger Moon’s new movie, First Light? A post-it note with a hotel name and room number. A printout of flights from Newark to Los Angeles for tonight and tomorrow morning. A neatly typed note from Miss Brisk Efficient:
Mr. Connor, I will probably get fired for this. Given that I would walk over hot coals for Phlox Miller, I would sacrifice my job for her, too. She does not have a date for this event.
Jared’s eyes widened at the next words, and he had to read them twice to make sure he was seeing them right.
I doubt that you really deserve a woman like her, but she seems to be in love with you so fucking man up and be her date. Kind regards, C. Henderson.

There was something else in the envelope. He reached in and pulled out a silk tie. It was a deep pink shade, not a color Jared would normally wear, but he instantly grasped the significance. The tie probably matched Phlox’s dress. The pink would look gorgeous on her.

Suddenly he was desperate to see her.

The elevator eased to a stop and the doors opened onto his private foyer, empty and hushed. He shook his head as the elevator doors closed behind him.
Kind regards, my ass.
Phlox had a pit bull for an assistant. A passive-aggressive pit bull.

He tossed the papers onto a table and looked around at his enormous apartment. His enormous, empty apartment. Oh, it was impeccably furnished and the walls sported nice works of art, plus a few framed crayon drawings from Aidan and Emma. But the only people besides himself who’d ever been here were Jake, Mina and the kids. Once in a great while, Jake and Mina would come to the city to take in a show and Jared would watch Emma and Aidan. The three of them would sit on the floor, watch cartoons and eat Spaghettios.

Would they be the only kids to ever set foot in here?

He walked through the big empty rooms. He had a comfortable leather sectional and no one to curl up on it with and watch bad reality television. He had a professional grade kitchen but no one to cook for. With or without bowtie. Had he really done that? Cooked dinner for her in nothing but an apron and bowtie? He needed to buy her silence on that one. If Jake ever found out, he would never live it down.

He ran his hand along the glass-topped dining table. He smiled. Whenever Aidan and Emma came to visit, the glass ended up covered in their sticky, smudgy handprints. He peeked into the powder room, where a frog-shaped bottle of hand soap sat on the sink—because he had thought it would make Aidan smile. (It had.)

He strolled into the master suite, the room where he leaned back against his expensive down pillows every night and thought about making love to her. The master bath where there was a soaking tub and a steam shower easily big enough for two. He sat down on the tufted bench in the middle of the dressing room—which was more than half empty because he was a guy and didn’t have an entire roomful of clothes and shoes—and leaned his head into his hands. His apartment held memories of her and she hadn’t even been here yet.

Maybe his brother was right. Maybe he hadn’t given her enough credit when it came to deciding what was best for her business. She’d been all over town—not to mention the internet—showing off her scars and talking about some reclusive billionaire’s investment in her company and gracefully sidestepping questions about their fling-hookup-relationship.
Vanity Fair
had called it a fling. Family-friendly
People
termed it a relationship. The
New York Post
had demoted it to a hookup.

It had not been a hookup. Not for Jared anyway and not for her either. He was certain of that.

He stood and unzipped garment bags until he found the suit he was looking for. It hadn’t been worn in years, but he knew it still fit. That was one advantage of working as a caretaker; it kept him in shape. He dug his phone out of the pocket of his khaki shorts and booked a flight to Los Angeles. Then he began to pack.

She deserved a better man. Damn it, he was going to be that man.

T
he suite
at the Ritz-Carlton was decorated in soothing shades of cream and grey. Outside, the California sunshine was fading into a balmy Los Angeles evening. The lights of the city twinkled in the dusk.

Phlox was anything but calm as she unzipped the beautiful pink gown and dropped it over her head. This wasn’t the first of Ginger Moon’s movie premieres she had attended, but the nervousness they caused never seemed to go away. From the very start, Zee’s mother had been unflaggingly supportive of Phlox Beauty. She’d appeared in their earliest ad campaigns, wore the makeup religiously, talked it up all over Hollywood. Without her, Phlox doubted the company would have the cult status it did.

So tonight she and Zee would be among fans and friends of the company. Phlox Beauty was even a corporate sponsor of the premiere. Still, Phlox found it nerve-wracking to stand side by side with the “beautiful people,” even though she could see with her own eyes that many of them were heavier and plainer in person than they were in photographs. Post surgery, of course, she now fit in better—on the outside anyway. But the inside Phlox still hadn’t caught up with the outside Phlox. And beauty had turned out not to be the talisman against bad fortune and ill events she had always assumed it was.

Life had always looked easier for people who were more attractive. Even among her loved ones, it had seemed so. Zee and Cherise both dripped men, were good at everything they tried, could put on sweatpants and sneakers and still turn heads. Her brother had no trouble getting the phone numbers of models and dancers.

Now Phlox was pretty and look what had happened. Someone had maliciously tampered with one of the company’s products. She and Zee were digging themselves out of the worst business hole they had fallen into yet. People were publicly making fun of the man she loved. And said man had broken up with her, pretty face or not.

She sighed and dragged herself out of the pity party she had just invited herself to. She had a real party to go to, a party where she had to plaster on a happy face and pretend not to notice the aching void in her chest where her heart used to reside. She reached around to her back to zip up the dress …
damn it
. She couldn’t reach the zipper. She hadn’t thought of that back in the dressing room with Cherise. Naturally attractive women were born knowing not to buy a dress with a long zipper they couldn’t reach by themselves. She was certain of that. Not to mention, born with the ability to walk gracefully in heels.

Damn it all.
She couldn’t even call Zee. Zee was staying at her mother’s house in Malibu instead of at the hotel. Of course, Phlox had been invited to stay there too but had politely declined, on the theory that Zee and her mother might like some time alone together.

She went into the sleek, modern bathroom to look in the mirror. Maybe if she could see what she was doing, she could manage. When that didn’t work, she took off the dress, zipped it up partway and then dropped it over her head again. It got stuck halfway down her spine. She wriggled out of it again, unzipped it and put it back on.
Now what am I going to do?
Maybe she could call the front desk and ask if someone could come up to help? But who would they send?

Damn damn damn.
She hadn’t even started on her hair and makeup yet. The limo was due to pick her up downstairs in less than an hour.

YouTube, she thought. There had to be a video online showing how to solve this sort of problem. There was a YouTube video for everything.

She was booting up her laptop when a knock sounded at the door.
What the bloody hell?
She hadn’t ordered room service or put in a maintenance request. No time for either of those.
Please let this not be the cleaning staff.
On the other hand, they could zip up her dress. As a precaution, she slipped the security chain into place before opening the door a crack.

Jared.

He smiled warily and her heart stopped. Just flat out stopped. His eyes caught hers and she saw such hope and barely controlled eagerness in them, she feared she would break down and cry right there. She closed the door, unhooked the chain and opened it again.

He was here. With a garment bag slung over his shoulder.

She stepped aside to let him in. She was so surprised, she hardly knew what to say.

He pulled a folded sheet of paper from the back pocket of his jeans and held it out to her. She unfolded it and read it quickly. It was a note from Cherise to Jared.

“Fucking man up?” Phlox repeated her assistant’s words.

“You aren’t going to fire her, are you?” Jared asked. “I am pleading mercy on her behalf.”

Phlox smiled at his uncertain expression. “Of course not. My entire life would fall apart without her.” She drank in the sight of him. His hair had been cut into a short style that left his face completely exposed. “I missed you,” she said quietly. “Are you really here to be my date?”

“I am. If you need and want a date.”

“But you hate to be out in public.”

Jared’s eyes searched her face, then he shook his head as though he were helpless before her. “I hate being without you more.”

She reached up and touched his new short hair. “You don’t have to do this.” What if he got cold feet at the premiere and ran away … again? Her heart couldn’t handle that. “I go to these things all the time without a date.”

She turned and walked back into the living room of the suite.

“Um, Phlox? Do you need help with that?”

She heard the flat
whap
of his garment bag being dropped onto the sofa, then felt the cool whisper of air conditioning over her bare back where her dress gaped open. Her eyes closed when Jared ran his finger down her spine.

“There will be hundreds of people there tonight, Jared. And cameras and reporters.”

“I know.”

“And I’ll be near the star of the movie most of the night. So I’m going to be in some of those photos.”

“Duly noted.”

“Zee and I aren’t known for taking investors to events. If you come, we’ll be outing our relationship tonight.”

He spun her around and pulled her into his chest. His hands slipped inside the unzipped dress, warm and firm on her skin. “I’ve been a coward. I freely admit that. And your assistant is right. I don’t deserve you.” He bent his head to hers. “But I don’t want to lose you so I’ll do whatever it takes to be a man who does deserve you.”

It was a sweet kiss at first, then one that grew deeper and more fierce. She shivered as he ran his hands down her back. Her nipples tightened against his chest, just her dress and his thin linen shirt preventing them from being skin on skin. He groaned when his hands slid beneath the sequins and cupped her bottom.

“I don’t know how women dress, but men usually put their underwear on first,” he said, still kissing her.

“Um, with this kind of dress, you usually …”

He groaned again. “Go commando?” He pulled his lips away just in time to see her cheeks flush an embarrassed pink. “That knowledge is going to torment me all night.”

She tried to step out of his embrace, but he held her close and zipped up the dress.

“Most of the women there will be like this.”

He kissed her again. “But I won’t be thinking about the other women.”

“Are you sure about this, Jared?” Her bruised heart was fighting the happiness that was swelling within. Being photographed with Jared Connor wasn’t going to be a problem. But being photographed with Jared Connor running, terrified, down the street would.

He ran a thumb across her cheek. “Never been more sure of anything. I’m in awe of the bravery you’ve shown this past month. I figured it was my turn.”

“I think Mina did mention something about a new nickname the kids have for you.”

He grimaced. “Yeah well, I’m probably stuck with that until I earn one that’s worse.” He ran his fingers through her long blonde locks. “And you were busy giving my sister-in-law a job while I was acting like a total wuss.”

“My hiring Mina had nothing to do with you, Jared. She’ll be a tremendous asset to my company. That was just business.”

“I’ve been watching you, Phlox. Your interviews, your television appearances. You don’t separate business and personal that way.”

She shrugged. It was true, her life was inseparable from the company. Then again, nothing else had ever presented itself as any real competition. Until she'd met Jared Connor. Working 24-7 was a lot less appealing now.

“Although that
Vanity Fair
shoot was a little too personal,” he growled. “Every time I pass a bookstore or a newsstand, I buy up every copy they have.”

She swatted at his chest. “Jared! I need people to see the press coverage.”

He pulled her hips into his and she gasped at the hardness she felt there.

“I don’t want other men looking at those pictures and …” He searched her face. “Doing what I do every night.” His voice was so low, it was barely audible. “I nearly punched a guy in first class who was reading the article. And he knew I was there. He looked right at me.”

“They’re just pictures, Jared. Nothing you didn’t get to see first.” She pushed away from him. “If you’re going with me tonight, you need to change. The limo will be here in,” she glanced at the clock on the wall, “forty minutes. And I still need to do my hair and makeup.”

Jared walked into the bathroom ten minutes later and sat down on the edge of the tub behind her. In the mirror, Phlox checked out his outfit. The dark grey suit fit him perfectly but he still looked charmingly ill at ease in it. He pretended to adjust the pink tie that was nearly a perfect match to her dress.

“Did Cherise send that to you?”

“Yes. Along with information on how to continue my health benefits.”

“You know, I’m still a little pissed that you didn’t tender your resignation directly to me.”

“I’m not quitting you.”

He watched as she swiped a pale champagne eyeshadow over her lids, then picked up her charcoal eyeliner.

“You never did finish my hot tub,” she said accusingly as she drew a thin line along her lashes. “Don’t expect a good employment reference from me.”

“Not planning on applying for any more caretaker jobs.”

“No?” She lifted one perfectly groomed eyebrow. “There always was something about you that wasn’t quite caretaker-ish.” She let her eyes brazenly rake over his reflection in the mirror. “You’re the best-dressed caretaker I’ve ever met.”

“How many caretakers have you known?”

“Not many, granted.”

“So you have no idea how we dress, then.”

A giggle burst from her lips and the mascara wand in her hand slipped, leaving a black smudge across her cheekbone. “Shoot. Don’t make me laugh or I’ll never be ready in time.” She wiped away the smudge with a tissue and started over.

She brushed a pale pink blush on her cheeks, trying not to meet Jared’s intense gaze in the mirror. Her hand shook as she blended in the color. If she was nervous about the premiere before, now she was doubly nervous. Jared had dropped everything, hopped on a plane and come out to see her. To be her date at a
very
public event. This was no afternoon matinee in a small town in Connecticut. This was Hollywood with an Academy Award winning actress. She wanted to believe in Jared’s bravery, but the potential for the evening to be a complete disaster was pretty great.

She set down the fluffy makeup brush and picked up a dark rose lipstick. “Don’t you dare say I look better without makeup,” she warned as she swiped the lipstick over her lips. “I run a beauty company.”

“Actually, I was thinking how beautiful you look either way.” His eyes dropped briefly to her backside. “And, uh, I was thinking about the fact that you’re not wearing anything under that dress.”

“I’ll probably need some help unzipping it later.” She smiled at him in the mirror. In fact, she really would. If Jared hadn’t shown up, she’d still be watching how-to videos on YouTube. She set down the lipstick and turned away from the mirror. “Maybe the concierge can come up and help me.”

“Only if you know how to dispose of a body.” Jared stood and took her in his arms, nuzzling his face into the curve of her neck. “How long do we have to stay at this thing? Actually, what happens at a movie premiere? Do we get to see the movie?”

“Of course, we get to see the movie. We’ll walk the red carpet—” Phlox steeled herself for his reaction but he remained occupied with nuzzling her neck. “Then we watch the movie and afterward we go to the after party.”

“Then we come back here for the after-after party,” Jared said, kissing his way from her neck down to the dip at the base of her throat, leaving no question as to what the after-after party would involve. Phlox let her head fall back for a moment, enjoying the exquisite sensation of his lips on her skin and the strength of his hands as they gripped her hips.

“Right. If we have any energy left,” she sighed.

“You’d better have some energy left. I have some serious apologizing and groveling to do tonight.”