Exposed to You (16 page)

I swallowed and
finally broke eye contact. There were butterflies in my belly from the
intensity in his look, but I wasn’t going to let him know that. I walked away
and into the kitchen, where I began going through his cupboards, purposefully
leaving some of them open when I moved to the next one.

He pivoted to face me,
crossing his arms and scowling. “What are you doing?’

“Oh, just
familiarizing myself with your—I mean,
our
—kitchen,” I said and smiled
prettily.

His frown deepened and
he strode to the breakfast bar, stood with his fists clenched against the
surface of the granite. “Are you hungry? I can heat up your dinner.”

“No, no—I’m just going
to make myself something,” I said, enjoying his discomfort. His reaction was
just as I’d expected; Dallon was a control freak, after all.

He came around the bar
and into the kitchen, where he pulled out a plate from the fridge. “I ordered
Chinese. I’m going to heat it up for you.”

I let him heat up the
food, but I continued to get in his way, opening a drawer directly above the
microwave to look for a tea bag. When he started closing the cupboards I’d left
open, I blocked his path, first putting water in the kettle and then placing it
on the stove. Finally, he couldn’t take it any longer.

“Are you purposefully
trying to get under my skin?”

I looked up at him
with wide eyes. “What do you mean?”

He smiled, but his
eyes didn’t. “I’ve seen that innocent act before, Miss Clair. I’ll return to my
program now. Enjoy your dinner.” He returned to the living room and put his
feet back up on the table.

When the kettle
finished boiling, I carried my tea and steak past the living room and toward
the staircase.

“Where are you going?”

“Back to my room to
eat, if that’s all right?” I asked, trying my best to raise my eyebrow the way
he did. “I’ll try not to get crumbs everywhere.”

“Go ahead.” He made a
motion with his arm, his jaw clenched.

I climbed the
staircase, a grin on my face.

***

When I entered the
kitchen the next morning, showered and ready to head to the café, Dallon’s
bedroom door was wide open. On my way to the kitchen, I peeked into his room to
find the bed made. Apparently he’d left the apartment. It was noon, after all.

I made a quick
breakfast of eggs and fruit and then went to the subway to head to work. I was
so used to traveling from Brooklyn that I got to work in record time: almost an
hour early.

“You know your shift
doesn’t start for an hour yet?” Jackson smiled when I came in. “Or were you
just hoping to see me?”

I made a face at him.
Jackson was on the morning shift that day, a rarity. He’d requested it because
some guy he had been talking about recently wanted to take him to a concert.

I said hi to Michelle
before responding to him. “I just didn’t have anything to do so I thought I’d
read the paper.”

I grabbed a newspaper
and sat down at an empty table. Jackson filled a mug with coffee and carried it
over to me.

“Thanks,” I said,
wrapping my hands around it.

He glanced quickly at
Michelle, who was wiping the counters, before sitting down across from me.
“How’d it go the other night?”

I flinched. “How much
of that did you hear?”

He grinned. “Oh, just
the argument about you working at Mix. Possessive, isn’t he?”

“You could say that,”
I muttered. “What was with you helping him by the way?”

Jackson shrugged, but
he had the grace to look a little embarrassed. “He just really wanted to talk
to you, and I thought I’d help a brother out.”

“Are you sure it
wasn’t the money?” I teased.

He laughed. “He’s hot,
Amy. And he really wants you. What’s going on between you two? It seems very
love-hate and… intense.”

“It is.” I took a deep
breath. Jackson didn’t travel in my circle, so he was someone safe I could talk
to, and I needed someone to talk to. I was in over my head.

“He had me move in
with him.”

“Already?”

“Yeah. I spent the
night there on Friday, and nothing really happened, he slept on the couch and
let me sleep in his bed.” Jackson made a disappointed noise and I punched him
playfully before continuing. “Then the next day he gave me an iPhone and was
super sweet and helped me apply for various office positions.”

“You didn’t go to Mix,
did you?” Jackson asked, sounding like he already knew the answer.

I bit my lip. “No.”
Then I rushed to add, “But I was feeling more hopeful after applying for all
those jobs.”

“Of course,” Jackson
winked.

“Anyway, we went back
to my place so I could get a change of clothes, and it was a disaster. The door
got stuck when we tried to go in, and he ended up breaking it. Then my
obnoxious drunk neighbor came by and called me a prude and I had to confess
that he’d hit on me, at which point Dallon freaked and said I should move in
with him.”

I finished the last
sentence quickly and then held my breath, waited for Jackson to state his
opinion.

Jackson made a low
whistling sound and sat back in his chair. “It sounds like he’s crazy about
you.”

I shook my head, still
fuming about the situation. “He let me call the landlord about the door and
then snatched the phone away, told him I was moving out.”

“Your white knight,”
Jackson said, trying not to smile.

“A manipulative white
knight! He also threatened to call my mother.”

At this, Jackson
tilted his head back and laughed loudly. “He’s paying me off and using your
mother’s fear of Brooklyn to get you all to himself.”

“Exactly,” I seethed.

“So is his place nice?
He’s the CEO of a securities firm, right? I bet it’s amazing.”

I sighed. To an
outsider like Jackson, the situation probably sounded like a dream come true.
“It is. I’m staying in the guestroom and it’s the nicest room I’ve ever had.
You should see the Master.”

“I wish,” Jackson
winked. “Is he making you pay rent?”

“No,” I said bitterly.

Jackson chuckled and
stood up to go back to work. “I don’t see the problem here, Amy. Relax. Enjoy
the ride. You don’t have to love the guy.”

As he walked back to
the counter, I opened the paper and pretended to read. It was true; I didn’t
have to love Dallon, but could I be like Jackson and live with someone and have
fun and not develop feelings?

When it was time for
my shift to start, Michelle found me looking at the schedule. The new week
started on Wednesday and my name wasn’t anywhere on the calendar. Shoot.

“I replaced you with
Beth going forward, so your last shift will be Tuesday. Does that work for
you?” Michelle asked, coming up behind me.

“Oh, yeah, totally,” I
said, quickly dropping my gaze and tying my apron. “And I can help out if you
need someone to cover a shift or something.”

She smiled. “That
would be great.”

Halfway through my
shift, my phone buzzed. I pulled it out to see a message from Dallon.

Working on a deal. Be back late. How are you?

How was I? Confused.
All I’d ever been since Dallon came into my life was confused. Instead of
writing him back, I put my phone in my purse in the back room so I wouldn’t be
tempted to respond.

At the end of my
shift, I pulled out my phone to see another message from Dallon:

Still angry? I hope you’re pouting. I like it
when you pout.

I gritted my teeth and
opened the next message. It was from Sam.

We got you a housewarming gift! Can we pick you
up after work and go for dinner? We’ll pick you up at work at 6. We can drive
you home too. xoxo

Shit. Of course Sam
knew the café closed at 6 on Sundays—she also knew my schedule. As I re-read
her message, wondering how I should respond, Michelle called from the front to
let me know my friends were there.

Double shit. I took a
deep, steadying breath and returned to the front to see Sam and Luke waiting
for me holding coffees. Sam rushed forward and hugged me.

“You didn’t get my
text?”

“My phone was in my
purse. I literally got it when Michelle called for me.”

Michelle smiled. “Take
off with your friends. I’ll lock up.”

When we got to Luke’s
car, Sam told me to wait while they pulled out my housewarming gift. It was a
beautiful wooden easel, exactly like the ones I’d always told Sam I wanted when
I was using the cheap ones at school.

My eyes filled with
tears and I covered my mouth.

“What’s up?” Sam
asked, her face a mask of worry.

I shook my head,
wiping my tears away. “I just feel like a bad friend. Here you’ve got me a gift
and I haven’t been honest with you.”

“What do you mean?” she
asked warily.

“I’ll wait in the
car,” Luke said, walking away quickly.

Sam waited until he
had slammed the door to ask, “What’s going on?”

“Okay, you have to
promise not to tell your mom because you know she’ll tell mine. Promise me?”

“You’re worrying me,
Amy.”

“It’s not that bad,
just promise me, okay?” When Sam nodded, I launched into the story. I told her
about how Dallon had first appeared at my work after Jeremy told him I was at
the Cat and Fiddle and we went for drinks. I told her he had appeared at my
work again when I hadn’t answered his messages, and that I had ended up going
to his place, where he made me dinner. I explained that he hadn’t wanted me to
work at Mix and had suggested I save money by moving in with him. I then told
her about what happened at my place and how he had negotiated my moving out
with my landlord.

“So you’re living with
him now?” Sam asked incredulously.

I nodded, an awkward
smile on my face. If Dallon could meet Sam, he’d see that she was even more
conservative than me. She was looking at me exactly the way I had expected she
would.

“I was afraid you’d
react like this,” I said softly. “It’s how my mom would react too.”

Sam’s face softened.
“I don’t mean to be a mom about it, but I’m worried. How much do you know about
this guy?”

I shrugged. “We’re
closer than you’d expect considering the amount of time we’ve known each
other.”

“Are you sleeping
together?”

“No.” I paused. “Other
things, yeah. But no sex.”

Sam nodded and then
sighed heavily. “It’s cool I guess that he didn’t want you living at that place
anymore. I didn’t want you living there either, so I can’t blame him.” She
worried her lip a bit before continuing. “It just seems… quick. Intense.”

“I know.”

“How’s it going?”

I shrugged. “I’m kind
of mad at him still so not that great. But it will get better, I’m sure,” I
rushed to assure her.

“The way he went about
it just seems so… controlling.”

I blanched. Trust Sam
to hit the nail on the head. “He’s very protective.”

Sam sighed again and
put her arm around me, led me toward the car again. “Don’t be afraid to tell me
things, okay? I’m your best friend.”

I smiled gratefully.
“Okay. And I’m sorry—I didn’t want you to think I was crazy.”

“I just want you to be
careful.” She hesitated for a moment before continuing. “Let me know if
anything weird happens with him.”

“For sure,” I said,
the guilty feeling returning because I knew I
still
wasn’t being
entirely honest; I’d already protected Dallon’s secrets, and probably always
would.

When we got into the
car, Sam turned to Luke. “We’re going for dinner to celebrate. Amy moved in
with Dallon King.”

Luke spun around in
his seat to face me. “Whoa, Ames. I didn’t know you two are officially
together.”

Sam raised an eyebrow
at me, a small smile on her lips.

I nodded, biting the
inside of my cheek. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, it just happened. As in
yesterday.”

Luke rubbed his face before putting the car in drive. “I
can see why he’s so successful. When Dallon King wants something, he moves
fast.”

When I got home,
Dallon’s door was still open and he was nowhere to be seen. It looked like he
hadn’t come home yet. Maybe he decided to go in to work, even though it was a
Sunday.

I made myself a snack,
making a mental note that I should at least buy some groceries tomorrow. I ate
it at the breakfast bar and then cleaned up after myself. It was after 11 p.m.,
and Dallon still wasn’t home. I went to my room at watch a movie and heard him
come in long after midnight. He went directly to the kitchen and began fixing
himself something to eat. Still sleepy, I tip-toed out of my room and into the
hallway, stepping far enough forward that I could just see into the kitchen
through the railing that lined the hallway of the upper floor. Through the
bars, I watched as he grabbed a beer from the fridge and leaned against the
counter, his back to me. He’d pulled his dress shirt free from his pants,
rolled up his sleeves and loosened his tie. He was drinking his beer and looking
out the window, apparently lost in his thoughts. When he stilled mid-sip as if
suspecting he was being watched, I quickly ducked back into my room.