ELEVEN
RIFT
This was the worst fucking place to meet.
Mitchell continued to prove just how much of an idiot he was as I waited for him at the busy restaurant beside his office. The office where Gwyn’s father or any one of Mitchell’s co-workers could spot us.
I hadn’t expected to meet with Mitchell today, but he’d insisted it was important, and so here I was.
I sat outside on the veranda, my dark designer glasses shading my eyes from the mid-afternoon sun and anyone who might walk past once Mitchell got here. I’d have preferred inside in a corner, but the crowded place forced me to sit outside.
When I finally spotted Mitchell through the parting crowd, he seemed high-strung and nervous. Small beads of sweat dotted his forehead, and his skin was pale. When he finally saw me, his feet moved faster than his body, and he nearly tripped over himself.
“Hey,” he said, sitting down as the waitress appeared, setting down my second drink.
“Can I get you anything, Mr. Summerton?” The waitress addressed him personally, and my brows pulled together.
“My usual, please.”
She nodded, before moving through the maze of the tables and disappearing inside the restaurant. I turned toward Mitchell, my question already spilling from my lips.
“You know the waitress?” I hitched my head toward the direction she left in.
He’d picked up the untouched water glass in front of him that the waitress had left after I told her someone would be joining me and took a long swallow. Half the glass was empty when he finally put it down.
“Everyone knows me here,” he answered, dabbing his lips with a napkin. “I come here a lot with Gwyneth’s father.”
My jaw tightened. “Don’t you think we should have picked a different spot to meet?”
His face scrunched. “Why?”
I mentally counted to five. “Never mind. So what’s the emergency?”
“How’s it going so far?”
He had to be fucking joking right now.
This was his fucking emergency?
“What do you mean?”
“Do you think it’s going to work?”
Holy fuck. I’m not sure what it was about Mitchell, but I disliked him. He was no different than any other client I had, but something about him rubbed me the wrong way.
“I have no reason to think it won’t. Everything with Gwyneth is lining up just right.”
“She hasn’t mentioned anything. She doesn’t seem any different.”
“Well, it would kind of defeat the purpose of an affair if she shared it with you, don’t you think?”
He stared back at me blankly for a second as he contemplated my words. Finally, as if a light bulb clicked on, a cheesy smirk broke across his mouth.
“Yeah, I guess.”
“You have nothing to worry about, Mitchell. Gwyn isn’t any different than any of my other marks.”
That was a bullshit lie, but he didn’t need to know that. He was already freaking out, and it had only been a week or so. If I told him that Gwyn was in fact not like any of my other marks, he might back out, and I was not about to have that on my resume. There wasn’t a mark I couldn’t get to fuck me, and Gwyn wasn’t going to be the first.
I was about to tell Mitchell to cool his shit and then get the hell out of there before anyone else he knew spotted us and tried to make conversation. Those always led to questions, which would require a story, and that was when things started to get messy. But before I could open my mouth, I spotted her.
Her eyes landed on me the second mine landed on her. Our eyes clashed, and hers went wide. Just like that, everything got messy.
“Fuck,” I hissed, and Mitchell frowned and turned before I could tell him to sit the fuck still.
“Oh, God,” he moaned.
Maybe, just maybe, if he hadn’t turned around, she might have walked away, seeing that I was with someone else. But not once she spotted Mitchell, and the suspicion and curiosity drew her to our table.
“What the hell are we going to say?” he managed to get out as he faced me to push his chair back.
I didn’t have time to answer his frantic question before Gwyn was approaching us.
“Gwyn, what are you doing here?” Mitchell asked, pulling her toward him and leaning in for an awkward half-ass kiss where he managed to mostly get the corner of her mouth.
Yeah, that didn’t sound suspicious as hell.
“I was coming by to see Father, but Linda said he’d gone to lunch and that you had said you were with him. Clearly, you’re not.” Her accusing gaze landed on me.
“You know Linda; she confuses things easily.”
What the fuck?
He definitely needed to work on his ability not to sound suspicious.
“You again,” she said, not being able to hold back her curiosity anymore.
“Me again,” I muttered, hating that Mitchell wasn’t smart enough to know she would be around.
This wasn’t going to work if he did stupid shit like getting caught with me.
Her eyes moved over to Mitchell, and a frown tugged at her lips “You know him?” she asked as if I wasn’t sitting here.
Mitchell swallowed, the wheels in his head turning as he grasped for something … anything to say. Before he could open his mouth and screw with my money, I spoke.
“Mitchell and I go way back,” I said, quickly throwing together a story that made sense in the time it took Mitchell to stutter on the same word.
“Way back?” Her brows lifted, and her gaze shifted back and forth between mine and Mitchell, possibly seeing who would break first. It was definitely going to be Mitchell if I didn’t continue to talk so he didn’t have to.
“We were frat brothers.” The lie burned my tongue. No way in hell would I have ever been caught dead in a fraternity, but I’d done my research, and I knew Mitchell was a douchebag frat boy.
“You were in a frat house?” Gwyn asked, her brows pulled in. I knew why she was upset. Mitchell being in a fraternity in college was just another thing she didn’t know about her fiancé.
“Yeah. I told you that, didn’t I?” Mitchell said, finally joining the conversation.
The look on Gwyn’s face said she wasn’t completely convinced that was how we knew each other. She was a smart woman.
“Why didn’t you say you knew Mitchell the other day?”
“The other day?” Mitchell asked, playing dumb. Finally, something he was good at.
“It seems I came to your fiancée’s rescue the other day and didn’t even realize it, Mitch.”
Gwyn scoffed. “I’d hardly put it that way.” As she said the words, a small blush crept up her neck. “Remember, I told you my car wouldn’t start.” She spoke quietly to Mitchell.
Mitchell looked genuinely confused as his face distorted into a weird shape. “I don’t remember you telling me anything about that.”
Of course, she probably did, and he wasn’t listening or paying attention to her.
Her face paled before her cheeks heated with embarrassment.
“I did. I told you all about it.”
He chuckled, his nervousness obvious in the shake of his voice. “Well, it’s a good thing Rift here came to your rescue,” Mitchell said, sitting back in his chair without even offering for her to sit with us.
Reaching out, I pushed the chair between Mitchell and me out. “Join us. I’d love to hear more about how you guys met.”
Honestly, I knew everything about how they had met, but I felt so fucking bad for her that I couldn’t resist inviting her to stay. Mitchell was either the biggest asshole on the planet or he was honestly clueless about how to treat a woman.
She smiled a little, the side of her mouth lifting just a bit before she sat in the chair I offered.
“To answer your question, I didn’t know you were Mitchell’s fiancée. Mitch and I haven’t seen each other in years.” The lies kept rolling off my tongue while I silently prayed Mitchell would go with the flow.
“And you two decided to reunite now?”
I opened my mouth to tell a few more lies about how we “ran” into each other and how we were “catching up,” but before I could, Mitchell yet again tossed out another big fucking mistake.
“Rift’s going to be my best man.”
I was lucky Gwyn’s head snapped in the direction of Mitchell; otherwise, she would have seen my jaw hit the floor of the restaurant.
He really was the biggest fucking idiot known to man.
“What?” Gwyn questioned. “What about Josh or Kevin?”
He shrugged, his lie coming easily now. “I couldn’t decide between them, so I asked Rift.”
“But …” Her mouth hung open as she searched for something to change his decision or, at the very least, something to say in general.
I wanted to reach across the table and strangle Mitchell. He had unknowingly made my job ten times harder than it needed to be. I was slowly starting to realize as I got to know her that it would be difficult to get Gwyneth to cheat, but her thinking that her fiancé and I were best buds would now make it next to impossible.
Part of me wanted to stand, toss a bill at his ass for my services rendered so far in our agreement, and tell him I quit, but I knew I couldn’t do that. I’d never given up on a client before, and I wasn’t about to start now. Sure, things were going to be a bit difficult, but my line of work tended to be difficult.
I watched as Gwyn continued to think of some way to change Mitchell’s mind about me, and I couldn’t help but smile. It was obvious by her stuttering and blushing that I made her nervous. Seeing such a well-put-together woman become flustered over me was a major confidence boost.
Maybe Mitchell’s lie wasn’t as stupid as I was originally thinking. I was finding it hard to get close to her since literally all she did was work at the hospital and visit the children there. Maybe using a fake friendship with Mitchell could give me more chances to get her alone.
It would be harder and a ton more work, but as my eyes dipped over her low-cut top and long, slender neck, I knew it would be worth it in the end.
“But …” She tried again to think of the right words.
“But what?” I challenged, and she turned to glare at me.
“Nothing,” she said with a snap of her teeth. She let out a long breath and then focused all her attention on Mitchell. “Well, I guess I’ll leave you two to it.”
Mitchell stood, reaching for her, and gave her an uncomfortable and awkward kiss on the cheek.
Gwyneth had luscious lips that begged to be kissed.
What kind of dumbass refused a mouth like that?
If it were me, I would have kissed her weak. Made her legs shake with desire and longing. If it were me, I would have taken advantage of the good thing I had instead of pushing her to the side for a sorry replacement.
She didn’t tell me goodbye before she left our table. My eyes lingered longer than usual on the sway of her hips as she walked away, leaving me alone with Mitchell.
“See what I mean?” He shook his head in disgust.
“What?” I asked, honestly unsure of what he was talking about.
“She’s stiff. There’s no passion there at all.”
I nodded, sipping at my coffee to keep myself from saying what I was really thinking, which was that he was the one with no passion.
The look on her face when she spoke about the kids at Savannah Hope … that was passion. If she could be that passionate about a group of children she cared deeply for, I could only imagine the kind of desire she would have for a man who brought it out of her.
“Shit, well, I guess that’s the end of that,” he said, tossing his napkin on the table between us.
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I’ll have to think of some other way to break our engagement. She’s never going to fuck you thinking you’re my friend.”
The way he talked about her being fucked enraged me. It didn’t make any sense. Essentially, I would be fucking her, but for some reason, him saying it that way angered me.
“You don’t know me, Mitchell. Getting your fiancée in bed won’t be a problem even with your little slip-up. This actually might make it easier.”
His face pinched, and his head jerked. “It will? How?”
“With me as your best man, it will give you a reason to force us together. There is still a lot of wedding planning ahead, and I will be there. I will be the shoulder to cry on; the one she comes to because you’re not.”
Again, it took him a second to catch on. “Well, shit, this is perfect.” He was beaming from ear to ear, and despite his ridiculous reaction, I had to agree with him.
This wasn’t a setback at all. If anything, this was the push we needed. Things were going to be just fine.
There was a bigger picture here, and I was seeing it in all its glory. I could use Mitchell to get close to her. If she thought we were friends, maybe I could find better ways to be around her now.
“So how should we go about this now?”
I grinned. “You let me worry about the details. You just be ready to walk in and catch us.”
Mitchell opened his mouth to say something, but I nudged him under the table with my shoe, and his face distorted in pain.
“Hey! What the—” He cut off when Gwyn’s hand grasped his shoulder. Looking up at her, he was surprised to see her again. “Gwyn?”
“I’m sorry to interrupt again, but I don’t know many of Mitchell’s friends, and since you’re now his best man, I figured it made sense that you come to our engagement dinner this weekend. It’s a little late, since we’ve been engaged for a few months already, but Mitchell’s mom won’t take no for an answer.”
“Of course, that’s a perfect idea,” Mitchell said, his face cracking with his large smile. “What do you say, Rift? Want to come to dinner with us?”
My focus remained entirely on Gwyn. The blush of her cheeks and her high cheekbones. The plumpness of her downturned lips. She was obviously displeased with Mitchell for not telling her more.
I felt bad for her. I hated the sadness tucked behind her expression, and I couldn’t wait to replace that sadness with pleasure. Even if I was working to destroy her relationship, something told me I was really doing her a favor.
“I’d love nothing more,” I said, letting my eyes lower to her delicious mouth.
She swallowed hard, licking her lips, aware that my eyes were following every movement of her tongue.
She nodded once and swallowed again. “Then it’s settled. Mitchell can give you the details. Do you live around here, Rift, or do we need to make accommodations for you?”
“I’m in the penthouse of the Plaza a few blocks over,” I answered.
Why had I told her that?
She didn’t need to know where I was staying.
“Fancy place,” she said.
I shrugged. “It’s nice.”
Her fiancé would be footing the bill for my fancy stay at one of the grandest hotels in town. So really, I had her to thank for my expensive digs.
She turned and walked away yet again without saying goodbye, and yet again, I watched the sway of her thick hips and the length of her slender calves. If Mitchell was aware that I was essentially eye fucking his fiancée, he said nothing.
Once she was no longer within hearing distance, I turned my attention toward Mitchell.
“She’s going to be a piece of cake.”
And I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into her sweetness.