Excerpt
Chapter One ~ Lily
I was lying on the bed naked while ignoring the twinge of disappointment as I listen to David shuffling around the bathroom. No doubt he was in there getting cleaned up after our session of sex – at least, that’s what I’d call it. Sex with David over the past five months had involved a couple of open mouth kisses, a few licks and nibbles to my breasts, a finger inside me for a brief moment before he would push home – sweat and groans covering my neck. Within seconds of entering me, he would shudder and release into the condom. I would lie there, panting fake sighs into his ear as I ached to feel something, anything, besides dissatisfaction. Every time, I’d feel that way and all I really wanted to do was curl up on my side and cry.
David and I had been together since high school; some seven years. We were both seventeen when he moved to my town and within a week of him starting school, we were inseparable.
He was my first kiss, my first date, my first lover. Sighing, I turned over and stared at the photos of our life together on the nightstand. We lived together while we attended the same college and then moved to the same city after graduation. We even worked for the same company, up until two weeks ago, when I lost my job, along with two hundred other employees. David still worked there and for the past week, he’d been making comments about my unemployed status as though it was my fault I no longer had a job.
Secretly, I’d been looking for another job because I’d started to want something else. I’d actually felt relief when the company let me go. For the first time in a long time I was free, and there was nothing David could say about it. Or at least that’s what I thought.
David on the other hand, thought differently. My life had a constant soundtrack playing of how it was my fault. David told me on nearly a daily basis that if I hadn’t been ‘gathering wool’ during the department meetings, the boss wouldn’t have noticed and I wouldn’t have made the ‘let go’ list.
Ugh. I glared at the photograph of us at the company retreat five months ago. That was when I’d noticed a change in him. When our sex life had turned into a one-man-sprint. Up until then, we had what I’d call a ‘normal’ sex life. Not always full of passion, but there was always mutual enjoyment.
Well, I could honestly say I hadn’t had an orgasm since then, and I really didn’t think David gave a damn. Not only had that started to piss me off – I also found it upsetting. We were still together years after all our friends told us we wouldn’t last, but I was beginning to think that perhaps they were right.
David was my lifeline, the only family I had since my parents died in the car crash five years ago. I had no siblings to see me through it and I’d clung to David even more than I had before. He was my security blanket. I came to this conclusion after I’d talked with a shrink for three years after their death – without David’s knowledge.
The faucet in the bathroom turned off, which warned me David would be out soon. I glanced at the clock, and knew now would be the best time to tell him I was due to start a new job in the offices of McKenzie Holdings. I hadn’t told anyone about this job, simply because I wanted something that was mine and mine alone, at least for a while. With how David had been lately, he would probably have had a great deal to say about it, not to mention the fact that the company belonged to Michael, Sebastian, Ruben, Lucien and Ramon McKenzie. Sebastian McKenzie was always in the paper with one starlet or another. Michael, the second oldest, was only ever in the paper when the company was mentioned and there was never a photograph. Ruben and Lucien made the paper, but not as often as their brother Sebastian.
I’d never met the brothers, a Mr. Roberts had interviewed me for the position and I’d liked him instantly. I smiled as I thought about him; his grey hair, slight paunch and smiling eyes had reminded me of my grandfather who past away when I was about eleven years old. I’d signed the contract then and there and I was to be Mr. Robert’s assistant, which, I had to say, I really looked forward to.
I quickly glanced toward the clock and groaned. I really needed to get out of bed, shower and dress, but David was hogging the bathroom. I would just have to rush after he’d left for work. I certainly didn’t want to share.
The bathroom door started to open, so I quickly covered myself with the quilt and pretended to still be asleep. Having a conversation with him was the last thing I wanted to do.
Peeping through my eyelashes, I watched David fasten his watch onto his wrist, and put his wallet into the inside pocket of his suit jacket. He then collected his keys from the nightstand without even glancing my way before he walked out of the bedroom. I held my breath and watched the bedroom door as I listened to him shuffle down the hallway, detesting every noise that he made. A few minutes later, I heard the front door to the apartment open then close and the lock slip into place. No goodbye from the door, no quick kiss to the forehead. It was as though I’d stopped existing the moment he’d slid his body from mine.
I was slowly coming to the conclusion that our relationship was over. Tears stung my eyes at the thought. Part of me just wanted to lie in bed all day and cry, another part of me felt relief that I was ready to take the steps to end it. The only problem I had was, if – or should I say when – I left, I didn’t have anywhere to go or enough money to pay a deposit on another apartment. I was going to have to save every dollar I could from now on and bide my time.
With a sigh, I pushed the quilt from me and climbed out of bed. Stretching out my sore muscles, I walked into the bathroom, grimacing at the mess he’d made in the sink. I rinsed the sink out while staring at my pale complexion through the mirror above. Usually my skin tone was more olive because of my dark hair, but not today. I brushed my teeth before I slipped into the scorching shower and scrubbed David’s touch from my skin.
With a towel wrapped around me and my hair still wet, dripping down my back, I stood and looked into my closet, not sure what I should wear. Did I go for the professional look? Or the professional hot chick look? I decided to go for in between. The professional girl who could become a sultry vixen at night. I smiled to myself as I took my navy blue suit from the hanger, then placed it on the bed while I hunted around for the white blouse I liked to wear with it. Spotting it hiding in the back of the closet, I pulled it out and placed it on the bed with my other clothes. I quickly dressed in my white lace underwear – wearing sexy underwear under my suits always made me feel more confident.
I fastened the blouse and pulled up the skirt, which was fitted to my curvy shape and came to rest a couple of inches above my knees. Not too short to be indecent for the office and not too long to make me look older than my twenty-four years.
Another root around in my closet and I found the blue matching heels, which made my legs look longer than they were. I stood back appraising myself in the mirror – I looked hot, especially with my hair pinned up in disarray on my head. David used to think it made me look sexy. Not these days.
Taking a deep breath, I shook my head of unpleasant thoughts and walked out of the apartment and to my new job.
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