Pierce
The bombshell was crying again, but whatever conversation she’d had on the phone seemed to make her feel a little better. Her heart still seemed to be breaking, and that made Pierce wanted to break whoever did this to her in half. He wasn’t sure what it was about this woman that made him so protective of her, but he winced away from analyzing that too hard.
“Perhaps it’s because she is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.” Pierce frowned at that thought. “It doesn’t matter how hot she is, though. I need to get out of here. I need that cash so I can get the hell out of this country.”
San Diego was his only way out. My buddy Benny will help me out. I can’t trust anyone else. There was no way that Gunner could have gotten to Benny; Pierce was pretty sure his backstabbing second-in-command didn’t even know Benny existed.
“I’m pretty sure Benny still runs people without papers back and forth over the Mexican border. All I got to do is find a little something to pay him with.”
The money from his new benefactor would certainly help, and a few choice items swiped from her house would fill in the rest. All Pierce had to do was steal them and get out of here.
“What is your name?” the woman asked as she poured a couple of shots of whiskey over clear ice balls. Sliding one across the counter to him, she lifted her own glass to her lips, taking a deep inhale.
There was a slowness to her drinking that suggested the spirit was expensive and meant to be sipped, so Pierce copied her movements. He nearly groaned at the pleasure of the first sip; he’d never tasted anything like it in his life. “Pierce,” he answered without thinking. “It would have been better to think up a fake name, you fool. Think up a fake last name, at least, you idiot.
“Pierce - Smith.”
“Well, Mr. Smith. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” the beautiful lady gently knocked her glass against his and took another slow sip. Despite the mascara still running down her face and legs covered up to her knees in desert dust, she looked at home here in the pretty, rich place. She casually knocked dirt onto the floor, suggesting she’d never cleaned her own floor in her life. “I’ve never met anyone this rich before; I’ve always wondered what it would be like to live like this.” But someone like Pierce didn’t belong in this lady’s world, even for a single evening.
“And your name?” Pierce asked, frowning. “Don’t I get to know yours?”
The dark lines of her eyebrows flew up into her hairline. “You don’t know me?”
“Should I?” he growled, tired of this game already.
After a long moment of silence, the woman’s face changed. All of the incredulity faded from her features and a kind of calm spread relaxed all of the muscles in her face. “My name is Felice,” she whispered, without any kind of explanation. After a long moment, her features took on a new expression. “I want you to sleep here.”
Pierce nearly spit his whiskey out onto the counter. “You what?”
Eyes as hard as diamonds, Felice looked down at her hands on the counter. “In the guest room. You can sleep here. You don’t look like you’ve slept in a while. And you were- I mean, you helped me out.” Silent for a long time, Felice seemed to shrink as he watched, like the pressure of the situation she found herself in was crumbling her bones. “If you want to stay, I am offering you a room.”
“Thank you,” he said, noncommittally.
“I’m going to go bathe, okay? Just don’t go anywhere until I get back. Think it over.”
And she disappeared, vanishing into the depths of this massive house like she’d never existed. A quiet descended on the place so thick, Pierce was convinced he was now alone. Curiosity drove him up out of his seat and across the floor.
The living room was a combination of old-fashioned, oversized furniture and expensive electronics, all laying around haphazardly. “To a woman with this much money, I bet she won’t even miss whatever I take.”
But something else drove him up the plush white carpet of the stairs to the second floor. At the top of the stairs was a bathroom, but the lights were off and the room empty. She must have another up here, then. He prowled around each of the rooms, shocked at the sheer amount of beautiful, expensive things that filled this place. He itched to take something, claim it for his own, before leaving this massive house. But more than that, he wanted a peek of the only thing in this house that he couldn’t touch.
He wanted a peek at her.
# # #
Felice
Felice sunk into her bubble bath, feeling all of the tenseness from her very long day start to dissolve into the warm embrace of the water. The bubbles popped and swirled around her, filling the room with the calming scent of lavender. There is not a day so bad that it can’t be improved with a bubble bath. Felice frowned down at the bubbles. “Even if that improvement involves drowning yourself.”
But Clay wasn’t worth drowning herself over. Clay wasn’t worth even a second of remorse. “I don’t need him. Even if the reality show was looking forward to him being part of next season, I can create drama without him.
She let those thoughts seep away into the water, closing her eyes to the soft light of the bathroom. The important part is getting that half a million dollars from Matt. Steeling herself against the unwelcome flood of emotion that thought brought on, she refused to cry. Clay didn’t deserve any more tears.
“I’ll feel better as soon as that piece of crap comes crawling back to me like a dog.” That wicked little thought made her smile even if her heart was starting to crumble like feta cheese. “No, I have to stay strong. Remember the money. I just need a few ideas for how to make him jealous.”
She sighed, her heart feeling like it didn’t quite fit in her chest. “Like inviting strangers to stay at my house. Very sexy strangers at that. Perhaps he could be used to create the drama I need.”
She laughed at herself, pushing those thoughts away. There was something off about her today; she always played by the rules. And asking Pierce to lie for her to make her ex jealous wasn’t much like playing by the rules. What was it about Pierce that made her stray from her good girl, rule-loving self?
Probably that amazing ass of his. She blushed at her own thoughts, trying to push thoughts of Pierce’s body parts from her mind. She tried to force her tense body to relax into the bath.
Maybe it’s not such a bad idea. I have everything I need to make Clay jealous right here in my house. Images of Pierce’s beautiful deep-set eyes flashed into her mind, along with his other assets. Excitement poured through her veins as she began to build a plan in her mind. Being a good girl got me here, unhappy and alone. Maybe it’s time to bend a few rules. Had her pride and $500,000 not been on the line, Felice wouldn’t have even considered using Pierce for her own gains. But they are, and I have to do this. For myself.
Now all she needed was to get Pierce to agree. And she was pretty sure she knew exactly what his weakness was.