As if someone heard my silent plea, the intercom by the front door buzzed loudly, making me start, almost spilling my wine. The package. It had to be the package. I practically leaped from the couch. I set my wine glass on the table and walked swiftly toward the intercom.
“Yes?” I asked eagerly, pressing the button.
“I have a delivery for a Sadie Lane,” said a male’s voice through the speaker.
“That’s me. I’ll buzz you in.”
I pressed the button to let the delivery guy into the building through the downstairs lobby door and paced the wood floor, waiting for any signs of life beyond the door. After several minutes and no sounds of steps outside or athunkof a package, I looked through the peephole. There was no sign of anyone. I opened the door and looked down to the charcoal gray carpeted floor of the hallway to find nothing at my feet. I furrowed my brow and looked on either side of me, down both sides of the hall, but there was no sign of the delivery guy. It wouldn’t have taken him this long. I’m only on the third floor.
I stepped back inside my apartment and walked back to the couch where my phone sat nestled in the cushions. I pulled itout and opened the tracking link that Gabriella had texted me. It said the package was delivered. I scrolled down to the photo for proof of delivery, and saw the box sitting on the familiar dark gray carpet. I looked closer at the apartment number and realized it had been delivered to unit 001. Mine is 100. Not only was it delivered to the wrong apartment, but it was left at the penthouse suite.
“Shit.” I breathed out, as my stomach did a backflip.
I had seen the owner of the penthouse the day I had moved in when he had stepped into the elevator with me. I didn’t even have to see him press the button forPHto know he was someone powerful. It practically radiated off him. He was one of those people you automatically felt inferior next to. Like you shouldn’t even breathe the same air. He already towered over me, but I felt significantly small without the noticeable height difference.
Not only did he ooze wealth and power, but he was ridiculously good-looking. I barely brought myself to look at him as I practically cowered in the corner of the elevator, but I got enough sneaky glances in to see that he was older than me by a few years. He was one of those men who surely got better with age, with dark hair sprinkled with a few grays, and piercing blue eyes that never once looked in my direction. The suit he wore had to have been custom-tailored to his body because I could see the ripples of muscles through the material, like it were a structured second skin. The one thing that stuck out to me was the unhappy look he wore across his face. If that’s what he looked like with a scowl, I couldn’t imagine what he looked like with a smile.
To think that a box of various sex toys with my name on it sat at his doorstep was absolutely mortifying. I swallowed hard, thinking about how I was going to get my package without him knowing. I couldn’t just take the elevator up and retrieve it. I needed an access card for the elevator to even take me to the floor. With my heart beginning to beat frantically, I paced the living room and tried to come up with an idea.
I could go down to the front desk and explain the situation, but they would probably try calling him and I couldn’t let him see me, knowing my blushing face would somehow give away what was in the box, if the packaging didn’t already sell me out. I could try to find a door guy to give a couple bucks to, to go retrieve it for me, but no one here knew me. I technically wasn’t a resident. I doubted they would trust me.
I was starting to feel hopeless with each minute that passed, knowing he could be coming or going at any minute and finding the package at his doorstep. I had to at least try to spare my humiliation. I had to get up there. I looked around the apartment that was now changing from orange to purple hues, another reminder that I was losing time, to the large window that led out to the fire escape. I walked over and pressed my shoulder against it, pushing it up and open. I popped my head out, the city lights twinkling to life as my gaze followed out and up the metal stairs that seemed to go on forever.
With a slow gulp, I gave myself a reassuring nod before carefully climbing outside onto the fire escape. The cool evening breeze welcomed me as I began my ascent. Like most penthouses, his sat on the top floor of the building. I kept my shaky hands on the stair railings, forcing myself to look up and not down as Imade my way up. I crept quietly past windows of other tenants who were probably settling in for the evening after a workday, praying no one saw me as I slunk past. This was by far one of the most stupid things I had ever done, and I’d done my fair share of stupid things recently.
Finally, I reached the top of the fire escape. I had reached the penthouse. The breeze was cooler up here on the twenty-something floor. I lost count a while back. Not because I’m bad at math, but because I was fearing for my life the whole time and didn’t want to remind myself of just how many stories it would take to fall to my death.
I pressed my back against the brick wall, the breeze growing stronger as it pulled strands of my auburn hair loose, whipping them across my face. I took a deep breath as my fingers pressed into the rough, red stone. I stayed as far away from the outer railing of the stairs and wondered what to do next. Was I really about to break into this man’s apartment? It had seemed like a logical idea down in my apartment, but now that I was up here, I started to talk myself out of it. This was crazy. I took one quick peek down at the city below and shuddered. There was no way in hell I was going back down this rickety stairwell.
I inched along the wall until I came to a window. I turned and placed my hands on the black metal pane. I held my breath as I pushed up. To my surprise, it was unlocked. I could hardly believe my luck, or that someone wealthy enough to afford a penthouse suite would leave their window unlocked. Then again, not many people would climb a fire escape to reach it. I carefully slid the window open and held my breath, waiting for an alarm to sound.
Chapter 2
Jeremiah
The large glass door eased open and I stepped inside the expansive lobby, passing the usual doorman. He stood rigid, as if an Army general just arrived and he was in rank. I half expected him to salute me. I thought after all of my years living here, he would ease up, but no.
“Mr. Mason.” He nodded, his eye catching mine shortly before nervously falling to the glossy marble floors.
I gave him a nod as I continued past, the click-clack of my leather wingbacks sounding through the quiet lobby. It was as if any conversation before I arrived had died down to a murmur. Something I was used to when I walked into a room. I ignored the silence. I ignored the looks my way. I was used to those, too. Some were more inconspicuous than others, and some more blatantly obvious. Men and women alike.
I passed by two businessmen who murmured among themselves as they glanced at me over the glow of their laptops. Their brows furrowed as they talked in a quiet, serious conversation. Usually, the men discussed how I got where I am today. The women, well, their stares were the obvious ones. The ones that looked up through long lashes as their mouths construed into inviting smirks. Their internal dialogue wasn’t about how I got where I am, but how they could get withme,one of New York’s wealthiest billionaires.
The gold doors of the elevator opened just seconds after I pressed the button. I stepped inside, eager to be away from the lobby and everyone in it. Their spectacle for the evening had come and gone. I held my keycard to the panel and pressed the button for the top floor. But just as the doors began to slide closed, a hand interjected them, and the two men from the lobby stepped inside. Internally, I groaned.Yay. More gawking.Thankfully, one pressed the button for the fourth floor, so our time together would be short.
For as long as I’d lived in this building, I hadn’t made any acquaintances here, let alone friends. It was hard to trust people. When you were this wealthy, intentions were skewed. Aside from Kevin, my one good friend. He lived a few floors below me. We had both moved in the same week and he couldn’t have given a shit who I was, which was why I liked him. He was nothing like these two guys on the elevator, casting glances over their shoulder as if I was somehow unaware of them in the seven-by-seven box we found ourselves sharing.
The ride was silent until they exited onto their floor when the whisper of my name trickled through the sliding doors beforethey shut, leaving me staring at a reflection of myself. I smirked to myself, wondering what the latest thing they had heard about me, whether a new investment or a new flavor of the week from my pick of New York Fashion Week models. Most of the time, the hushed conversations I heard weren’t even true, but I didn’t give a shit to correct anyone. It would have meant I cared, and I didn’t.
Finally, the ding of the elevator sounded and I was met with the familiar front entrance of my penthouse apartment. I stepped out of the elevator, but stopped as my eyes fell to the brown cardboard box that sat at my door. I cocked my head curiously. I wasn’t expecting anything. I bent down to pick it up and found it surprisingly heavy, its contents noisily sliding around inside. The white label on top wasn’t addressed to me.
“Sadie Lane,” I read aloud before chuckling to myself.
It sounded like a stripper name. I imagined her for a second. With a name like that, she probably had a school girl aesthetic. I looked around, as if this were some sort of prank. Maybe it was Kevin. But no one was there to laugh and point fingers. It was just me on this floor, and in this small foyer outside my apartment.
Curious, I reached in my pocket, the metal of my keys jingling before I pulled them out. I pulled one from the keyring and dug it into the packing tape of the box, tearing through the long strip. I pulled the cardboard flaps and when my eyes met the contents inside, I now knew it had to be a prank. Staring up at me in bright-colored packaging were various plastic boxes holding an array of sex toys. It was like an explosion of glittery pinks andpurples, and various shapes like rabbits and roses. Many I had seen before. I pulled one curiously-shaped toy from its box and pressed the button. It began quivering in my hand. I shook my head in amusement.
I was just about to turn it off and call Kevin to let him know I was onto him, but before I could, the front door of my apartment swung open. There stood a young woman looking back with wide green eyes, her cheeks turning almost as red as her hair that was fighting to escape the bun atop her head. As if registering she was caught, her mouth sucked in a quiet gasp, her lips formed into a perfect O. My eyes lingered on them for a moment, my mind quickly wandering to the various things I could do with that mouth. But then I remembered there was a stranger in my apartment.
