Pierce
Mostly to keep up appearances, Felice had a state-of-the-art security system installed at her beautiful, white mansion in the desert. Once again, Pierce found himself absolutely stunned at the flagrant way Felice has of just tossed money around like it was nothing. It still shook him up that someone could have so much that they didn’t check the price of anything they bought. Cars, jewelry, clothing, security systems; no matter the cost, it didn’t seem to even put a dent in her bank account. Not to mention the exorbitant fees she was paying him to pretty much sit around and look “mean and sexy.”
“I guess this is how pretty trophy wives feel.” He thought darkly, sitting in front of the monitors. The new security system was absolutely the most high tech thing he’d ever seen, and he mostly fumbled around with the buttons for fun more than having an actual goal in mind.
There were three cameras focused on the front of the house; one showed the street immediately in front while the other two pointed at the driveway. After a second of fumbling, Pierce managed to get the street view to pop up on the TV screen attached to the system, watching to see how often cars actually drove by this little patch of desert. He was a little surprised at the sheer amount of traffic coming through this lightly populated part of town, but perhaps he shouldn’t have been. There were quite a number of other mini-mansions on this strip of land, and he doubted most of the owners made do with one or two household helpers like Felice did.
More than likely, most of these people have whole sets of staff devoted to them.
As he watched, a police vehicle drove by the house, not even slowing as it crossed in front of Felice’s house. Even so, his heart skipped a beat in his chest. “If the cops ever stop in here for me, what will I do?”
Sighing, Pierce turned away from the screens, his head spinning. Half of him is sure he’d just be able to leave, roll right out of here and down to San Diego without a glance backward. But the other half of him wasn’t sure.
“I’m getting too tangled up in a woman I’ll never have.” Visions of Felice slipped across his mind. Knowing when he left here, she would be wrapped in the asshole Clay’s arms made him want to put his fist through the TV screen. What was it about Felice that made him so crazy?
He walked away from the security system, trying not to think too hard about Felice and utterly failing.
# # #
Felice
Much to her delight, Felice found herself in Pierce’s arms again. Rippling muscles wrapped close, her heart thundering in her chest. Warm bodies, skin-on-skin contact. Beautiful chocolate eyes heated her whole body up from the tips of her toes to her scalp, sending delightful little shivers over every inch of her. A moan, a kiss, the press of tongues. A whisper, “I want to be inside of you, Felice.” The voice filled with lust. And then the sound of Felice begging, pleading for him to merge with her, just this once…
When she woke, Felice had to fight her way out of her tangle of blankets and sheets. She could feel her thighs throbbing in time with her heartbeat, her underwear soaked after her racy dreams.
And much to her delight, Pierce was pictured front and center in those dreams. “He’s so hot. If I was anyone else, I would have tackled him to the floor by now.” Sighing through her nose, Felice ran her fingers through her tangled hair. “But I’m not anyone. I’m Felice Domiano, and I play by the rules. No matter how much I hate them sometimes.”
Shaking herself, Felice realized what she had been thinking and cursed herself. “This isn’t helping, Felice,” she told herself in the huge mirror across the room from her bed. “Pierce isn’t the prize here. Clay and your pride are the prizes.” Felice forced herself to get out of bed, discarded her pajamas and hopped into the shower. A very cold shower. She hoped the icy water would wash away her dreams and ready her for a new day.
Standing up straight, she looked into her reflection’s eyes. “Alright, Felice. You got this. You’re going to get Clay to crawl to you like your mother wants, and you’re going to be happy.”
Repeating the word “happy” over and over to herself like a mantra, Felice skipped down the stairs, bounding into the kitchen to get herself a cup of coffee.
She stopped at the foot of the stairs, her eyes going wide and her heart turning to ice inside of her chest. On the counters, there were three, huge vases full of white roses, each one tied in a gold ribbon. The flowers blended seamlessly with the kitchen; even the vases were white with gold leaf. They were perfect.
And there was only one person in the world who would have sent them.
Felice picked up the card in shaking fingers, unsurprised to see Clay’s name.
Babe:
I’m sorry for what I said yesterday. I was jealous. Please forgive me.
Clay
Felice cringed, unable to feel anything but ill at the sight of the present. “Odd, before, something like this would have made me happy.” Tears pricked the edges of her eyes, and she had to swallow hard around the lump that formed in her throat. “So if you don’t want Clay, what do you want?” she asked herself, pretty sure she didn’t want to know the answer.
“No, you want Clay back. That’s what’s best for the show and your family.”
Sighing, Felice was pretty sure Pierce wouldn’t like the flowers one bit. He’d know who sent them immediately, too. Glancing down at the counter, she noticed another little gift for her; it was a little red box with a ribbon around it, containing a gold and diamond tennis bracelet. It was ugly, but then Clay’s taste in jewelry had always been a little too austere for her. The bracelet was a little simpler than what she would have picked for herself. “But it’s the thought that counts,” she thought, but even that seemed to fall flat. “You think after months together, he would have picked up on the type of jewelry I liked to wear.”
But perhaps that was asking too much of anyone who didn’t care much for jewelry; Clay never wore it himself and would hardly know the difference between a tennis bracelet and a bangle.
Glancing around at the flowers and the bracelet, Felice frowned, then tossed the card into the garbage and the bracelet into one of the kitchen drawers. “Perhaps I can play it off like I got them for myself. When Pierce learns they are from Clay, he might think his work done and just leave. I have to keep him from thinking I’ve won.”
“I really don’t want him to leave.” That thought filled her with a little more worry than she wanted to admit to anyone. Even herself.