I rested my forehead against hers. “Stay here with me, at least until my three days in Paris are done? Will ya do that?”
“Mick…”
She shook her head against mine.
And for perhaps the last time ever, I pleaded, “Don’t say no, Kayla.”
CHAPTER12
Mick
Done banging your American yet? In town. Wanna meet up for drinks at my new club?
My heart sankwhen I read the message from Max. When I opened the temporary locker Triomphe gave me to find my phone lit with a just-left message, I’d been hoping to find a text from Kayla.
I’d given her the digits to my personal line this morning after she said yes to staying on in the penthouse with me.
But no, it was just Max, who’d apparently had so little to do in his over-indulgent life he’d cut his Mykonos trip short to come to Paris to possibly hang with me.
Any other time, I’d take him up on this offer. Max was the last holdover from my hard-partying days. The kind of bloke who’d invite you to a barn rave on the outskirts of Berlin one night, then fly you to a whiskey library he’d been meaning to try in Japan the next night.
Truth was, he didn’t even need me to have a good time anywhere in the world. He’d told me point-blank at one of those whiskey bars he liked so much that he only hung on to me because I reminded him of his older brother. “Except you don’t hate my guts. Guess our relationship’s kind of like the therapy my nan keeps on insisting I need.”
Still, he’d been right about him being the only reason I ever took any kind of real vacation. And I didn’t love adding more guilt to the dumpster fire of it already burning in my stomach as I typed back.
Sorry,mate…
I hesitated.On one side, I felt like I owed him a good excuse for why I couldn’t make it out to his club. On the other hand, I didn’t like the idea of continuing to pass Kayla off as some bird I was just using for a cover story.
Obviously, she was more than that at this point.
My mind spirited back to earlier in the day, when I’d kissed her goodbye for so long that she gently pushed me away, reminding me, “You have to go!”
Yeah, I did. But even with an eight-figure deal on the line, I could barely tear meself away.
“I’ll be gone for at least five hours, so do whatever ya want today,” I’d told her. “But when I get back, I want you here with your other bag. You understand?”
She nodded in the sweet, shy way I couldn’t get enough of. “I understand. I think both of us are being a little crazy. But I understand. And I’ll come here with my little bag. I promise.”
“Good girl. C’mere…” I pulled her back into my arms to award her dutiful answer and kissed her again. And again. Then one more time before I made meself back away from her with my hands raised in the air.
“Enough of that, woman! If I let meself kiss ya one more time, you’ll be on your back, and I’ll be later than I already am.”
“I’m not one keeping you here!” Kayla answered with a giggle.
I threw her a censorious look. “Well, you know that’s a lie, don’t ya? You’re a veritable sinkhole of temptation!”
Then I asked her, “Why’re you laughin’again? I have yet to make a joke.”
Kayla’s sweet laughter echoed in my ears, filling me with even more guilt as I finished up my text to Max with some vague excuse about hanging out with the team tonight.
Max immediately replied.
Come through, my guy! VIP’s big enough for everyone, and you know the owner.
Should have guessed Max would respond with the rich bro equivalent of “the more the merrier.”
I grimaced, trying to figure out how to respond.
