Chasing Beautiful (Chasing Series #1) (24 page)

“
I promise, poppet.” I could hear him smiling. I could picture him with that beautiful smile as he spoke on his cell.

He ended up talking about the galas and other parties he ha
d attended for work. He asked me about the photo shoot with Chad. I gave him a cut-out subtle version and convinced him that he had to wait for the exhibition. After an hour of talking, we decided to call it a night.

I twisted and turned on my bed, sleep elude
d me. Thoughts of Blake, his voice, his smell lingered through my mind.

My body ached for him.

My hand slowly went south as I relieved myself, thinking about the man who hounded my thoughts endlessly from the moment he kissed me.

Since I don’t have classes
on Friday, I slept in longer today. Somewhere in my foggy mind I thought I heard Lucy buzz someone in.
I guess she’s having friends over.

My mind started to drift back to slumberland when someone knocked.

“Yeah?” I croakily called out, still not moving from my position.

“Morning, love! Sorry to be a bugger, but you have a delivery—a few of them, actually.”

A delivery?
I haven’t ordered anything online lately.

I dragged myself out of bed to check where
they had come from. There were three enormous lime-colored crystal vases with two dozen of my favorite oriental lilies in each one. I took the card that was attached to the first and opened it:
I want you
. My face glowed and beamed. I took the second card:
I miss you
. The third one said:
I worship you
.

I’m definitely charmed. 

There was another knock on the door and Lucy opened it straight away. The delivery men stood there with a gigantic box of pastries that had the world-renowned Pierre Hermé label. Two of the men went past us and went directly to the living room with the box in their hands. I didn’t see the man standing in the back of the other men, so I jumped out of my skin when he greeted us.

“I apologize. I didn’t mean to frighten you. But I’m looking for Ms. Sienna Richards?” a tall
, lithe blonde with clear blue eyes asked Lucy and I.

Um, who is this man, again?
He never said.

“Um, that would be me. Who are you? Sorry, you didn’t introduce yourself.” Giving him a confused looked.

“I’m Luke Scott. I work for Knightly Industries as Blake Knightly IV’s assistant. I was ordered by Mr. Knightly to come here.”

Interesting.

The delivery men started to dissipate and exited one by one, but Luke Scott stayed. He was smiling with a twinkle in his eye. Hmm…

“I think the room is ready. Let’s all go and see
.”

Luce and I
shared a “what-the-fuck-is-going-on” look as we followed Blake’s assistant to the living room.

The coffee table was transformed into a French pastry wonderland. Different flavors of
authentic macaron were neatly organized in a towering pastry stand. Another tower was made of cream puffs, éclairs, napoleon, small Parisian cakes, fruit gateau, and pan au chocolat to name a few. There were three silver platters of assorted chocolates, a bucket of champagne chilling in a silver bucket next to the coffee table and a coffee pot.

My eyes greedily roamed the contents as my stomach growled.

Right on cue Blake.

“Enjoy, ladies. Also, Ms. Richards, I was ordered to give you this
,” he took a small soft-leather box out of his breast pocket.

“Uh, thanks. Um
, why don’t you join us, Luke?”

“The company jet is waiting for me in Gatwick actually. I have to get back to Marbella as soon as possible. There was a lot of traffic in Paris, so I’m running late. There’s an important meeting set for three this afternoon and it
’s already quarter to twelve. But thank you, Ms. Richards. I’ll let my boss know how delighted you are. I didn’t realize how romantic he could be,” he said with a wink.

“Wait—did you just say you flew to Paris?
To buy pastries, that’s it?
”

Goodness
gracious. 

“Yes, that was what Mr. Knightly ordered. But I really must get going. Have a good day ladies.” He
promptly left without much ado, leaving Luce and I staring at each other.

A shrieking laugh came from Lucy,
obviously as excited as I was. “Sienna—what the hell have you done to poor Blake? He’s obviously smitten. I knew it! It took longer than expected but Toby predicted that Blake had his eyes set on you. I’m happy that he’s making you happy.”

“
You could say that, I guess. It’s just in the early days but I do like him a lot.” Okay, I was a bit embarrassed that I didn’t tell her myself first.

“No wonder women clamor for him. Look at this! He had his assistant jetting off to Paris to fetch
a few boxes of freshly baked pastries for his beloved. Oh, Sienna! It shows how much you mean to him when he goes to such lengths. Isn’t that romantic?” she said dreamily.

It’s more than romantic.
It’s downright disarming me. If this is his intent—then he’s doing a stupendous job!

Luce and I sat as we poured each other drink
s, champagne for her and coffee for me. We savored each pastry and compared which one was the best. It was an orgasmic dessert heaven.

“How I wish Toby would do something like this for me. I mean, not in the same scale of grandeur—the man doesn’t
own private jets—but just as sweet and romantic
.” Did I hear a tinge of sadness? I might just be imagining things.
They’re crazy for each other.

I took a sip o
f my coffee, eyeing her warily. “Toby loves you and he has his own way of showing it. Everything okay with you guys?”

She let out a sigh and limply sat back with angst written all over her face. “It’s rather been off for the last week. Something’s wrong, but he’s not
telling me. I’ll give him a few more days to tell—if not, then I’ll have to find another way.”
Uh, oh.

“Whatever it is—I’m sure he has a good reason. He could be swamped with work, you know.
” Trying to ease her worries.

She shrugged and got up.
“We’ll see. Anyhow, I have to go meet a few of my schoolmates for a project. I’ll help you clean up when I get back okay? Tell Blake I enjoyed his impromptu.” She went over to kiss my cheek, but I hugged her instead and gave her a little squeeze. “It’ll be okay,” I whispered in her ear as she nodded and headed out the door.

It was apparent that she was bothered about it. I hope
d she would be okay.

The soft-leather box
sat closed next to the tower of macaroons. I was dying to know what was inside.

I jerked it open.

It was a bracelet. A light-weight, gold chain designed with an oblong, gold medallion with a big, diamond studded heart and tiny, diamond studded B.K. initials on the bottom right.

Huh! Why would he put his initials there? Is this
his way of laying it on Kyle while I start work tonight?

I placed the bracelet back on the table
, scrambled to get my phone in the bedroom and dialed Blake. When he picked up, I didn’t even let him say hello. I was ready to chew him out.

“Knightly, you
’d better explain to me and you’d better explain well!
Tell me why you would give a present with
your initials blatantly standing out?
This present didn’t just land here on the
very same day
I start working with Kyle?” I was seething. If it were possible to have steam coming out of my ears, the room would have been muggy.

“Poppet, calm down. I wanted
you to wear something that’s from me. I commissioned it a day before you told me about your job. Is it possible that I wanted Kyle to stay back? Yes, I do. Do you ever plan on telling him?” his placid tone irked me somehow.

“I’ll tell him—but not yet. It’s too early for him. He barely just got here. I’m not going to risk the possibility of him spiraling out of control again.” Why
was he pushing the issue? I would tell Kyle in a month or so…
I think
.

“It’s too early for him or
for you, Sienna?
” I stopped breathing from his tone of voice; he was controlling his anger. There was some noise in the background. “Mi amor, we have to go soon or we’ll be late!” an accented voice of a woman spoke in the background. I felt like I had been punched in the gut.

“WHO THE FUCK IS THAT?” I yelled when I heard him speak to the woman, but I couldn’t make out what was being said.

My eyes started to water.
Was he cheating on me?

“Oh, so now you pay rapt attention
to me. I see how this is going, Sienna.”

“Blake, are you seeing someo
ne else? You have to tell me!” My voice cracked in pain.

“Why? So, you can go back to Matt
hews again? Do as you wish, Sienna. I have to be somewhere important. I’ll speak to you later.” He hung up without even saying goodbye.

Less than an hour ago, I was basking in Blake’s sweet sentiments. How the heck did it unfold like that? Okay, maybe I
had over-reacted a little bit there.

Shrugging
it off, there was no point dwelling and crying. I have to meet Kyle in three hours and start work. I’ll just have to busy myself and not think of Blake for now. I’ll deal with my emotions tonight.

In a little over an hour, I was ready to go and I still had an hour and half to kill. I went to my drawer and pull
ed the card and key Marie gave me out. I’d just surprise Kyle with my punctuality.

Since we were checking out rock bands tonight, I had to look the part—well sort of. I let my hair down, heavy eyeliner winged on both corners, lots of mascara,
rose pink lipstick. I chose a hot-pink Hervé Léger bandage top—my back was purely bare. Wearing black-fitted jeans that accentuated my butt nicely and hot-pink suede pumps. 

Making a last jaunt
to the full-length mirror to assess everything, and suffice to say, I looked pretty hot.

Suck it, Blake!

Placing all the essentials in my black clutch, I headed out the door.

I let out a slow whistle when the cab dropped me off at the address I gave him. When Marie said, “company apartment”, I thought of an actual apartment not a gated Victorian home.

I took out the card Marie gave me and punched in the code on the keypad attached to the wall. I heard a little metal screech and the gate opened slowly.
Was Kyle even home?
I acted out of impulse and totally forgot to call to see if he was there or not.

When I got a little closer to the door, I heard loud music streaming from the window upstairs.

Jeff Buckley, yep, he was home.

Fishing out the spare key, I opened the door. The home was decorated in b
lack, white and silver splendor and the effect was gorgeous—a little cold—but still chic and gorgeous. I found the stairs on the left side corner and went to go hunt down Kyle. The music came from the room at the end of the hall—I assumed the master bedroom.

I stopped outside the black door and knocked, but no one answered. Clearing my throat loudly, I
let myself in. The room was decorated in baroque contemporary with accents of sapphire-colored designs. My eyes landed on the table next to where Kyle slept. My breath caught when I picked up a nine by twelve picture of us. The picture was taken a year ago. We were at Zuma beach watching the sunset. I sat in between his legs and took a bunch of shots. I was looking straight into the camera as he kissed me smiling. What bothered me was the fact that I was glowing with such happiness—it was the look of love. I placed it back slowly as I jumped from my name being called out.

“Sienna?”

I turned around and was shocked. Kyle had beads of water dripping on his body with only a black towel draping his lower half.

Oh! Fuck. Me.

Shit! Why, oh why did I put myself in this position?

My heart thudded like mad as the memories of that night in Santa Monica flashed through my mind.
I stood there frozen and couldn’t utter a damn word.

“Can I just say that—that top—does your back
incredible justice? You look so hot! I have my work cut-out for me tonight if the musicians start clawing you, baby.” He strolled to where I stood. His freshly showered smell engulfed my senses.

“I had time to kill, so I decided to stop by and use the key your mom gave me. I hope that’s okay
.” I mumbled, distractedly.

“Baby, you’re not serious! Of, course it’s okay—we’re practically family.”
What did he mean by that? Was it because we grew up together or because we agreed to get married at the age of twenty-seven?