Little Black Book (21 page)

I turned away from the keyboard and waited until I heard him typing away. Only the sound never came.

Instead,
I felt his fingers along the side of my neck and he pushed away my hair and his lips moved over my skin.

“
Harris,” he whispered against my skin.

“What?” I asked, stunned.
I didn’t understand why he was whispering my last name in my ear.

“My password is Harris.”

I calmed myself as I realized what he was talking about. “Harris.”

“Yep.
”

“That’s
odd.”

“Wh
at’s odd?”

“
Your password’s my last name.”

I felt Sebastian freeze the second the words le
ft my mouth. Holding my breath, I realized what I’d done. Turning to look at him, I saw his expression had turned into horror.

H
e stepped away from me slowly, as if I were a snake ready to strike him. Neither of us said anything. Neither of us moved.

“Sebastian, I’m so sorry…”

A shield of ice fell over his face and he suddenly changed direction. Pulling me up from the chair, he dragged me across the room. “Do
not
say another word,” he said venomously.

We
were out of his office and going through the door of his apartment in seconds. I ripped my arm away from him and rubbed at the tender spot where his fingers had been.

His eyes followed my moment and settled on my reddening arm.

“You hurt me,” I said in shock.

“I’m sorry,” he said, before reaching up and tugging at his hair in aggravation. “I mean, I’m not sorry. I don’t know what I am anymore. All I know is you need to get your things and get out.”

My heart dropped. He couldn’t be serious. Not after the way things had been going between us.

“Sebastian, just listen…”

“No. I need to be alone. Please, Roz. Just leave.”

And just like that, the sound of my
name from those lips, no longer brought me pleasure. I nodded, gathered my things, and left without so much as even a glance in his direction.

Twenty-Three

Sebastian

The
simple sound of her gently closing my apartment door, slammed into my chest and knocked the air from my lungs.

Roz Harris
. Rosslyn Harris. She hadn’t said her first name, but I knew. I don’t know how I knew, I just knew. Leaning against the wall, I swallowed hard and tried to take control of my brain before all the bad came rushing in.

Memories of a night many years before came crashing
down, sending me into an instant hell. Every nightmare I’d had for the last twelve years featured her—her and her haunted young eyes. It couldn’t be the same girl. There was no way this could be happening to me.

I went to the door, ready to pull it open and stop her, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. There wasn’t enough strength in my body to even open a fucking door.

Walking away, I moved through my apartment like a madman. Bursting into my bedroom, I stopped when I was in front of my safe. Entering in the combination, I pulled it open.

T
he little box I kept small personal items in, was sitting there waiting for me. Flipping open the lid, I reached in and pulled out the locket. The broken chain was still attached.

P
opping it open, my eyes moved over the baby’s picture first, trying to see if he marked a resemblance at all to Kyle, but once my eyes landed on the girl’s picture… I knew. Actually, as many times as I’d looked at her picture over the years, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed sooner.

The red hair, the green eyes
, and the smile on her sweet face—they were all an exact match. I sat back on the bed, clutching the locket in my hand and closed my eyes.

While Vick had moved on with her life, I
’d searched and found out their names. It was sick, but I needed to know. Sitting here now, I wished I’d never done it.

W
hat kind of sick fuck had I become? The type who fell in love with the daughter of the people I’d helped murder.

I could deny it all I wanted. I could push the feelings away until I couldn’t push anymore, but I
had to come to terms. I’d fallen in love with Roz. She was everything to me, had been from the moment I’d first laid eyes on her.

“You can call me Roz
.”

Her words swam through my mind
, over and over again.

”T
hat’s my last name.”

Harris.
A name I knew well. A name which haunted me for the last twelve years of my life. And would continue to haunt me until the day I died.

Wh
at kind of cruel joke was this? Karma was ripping my ass a new one. The exact moment I knew I was in love for the first time in my life, was the exact moment I found out she could never be mine. Ever. 

A week. That’s how long it had b
een since I realized I was in love. I hadn’t seen her face—heard her voice… nothing.

It was the right thing to do. So
I blocked the world out and let the club run itself while I got drunk and dwelled in my self-loathing. I didn’t answer the door. I didn’t answer any calls, and I didn’t even think about looking at my text messages.

Vick called and beat on my door constantly, but I wasn’t ready to see her face. I wasn’t ready to find out whether or not she knew I
’d been fucking and dominating a girl I owed the world to.

I was the reason her parents were gone. I didn’t pull the trigger, but I might as well have.

Finally, after a week of seclusion, I went to my office. Within minutes Vick was bursting through the doors, claws out, and frothing at the mouth.

“What the fuck, Sebastian?” Fire shot from her eyes. “You just lock yourself in your apartment for a week? Fuck the club? Fuck me? I’ll have you know I busted my ass this week picking up the slack for you.”

Her words penetrated me and I flew off the handle. Slamming my hands into the desk, I stood.

“I’ve picked up the slack for you for
years,
” I yelled. “I covered your ass a million times, including the time you blew two people away. Don’t you dare come in my office with your shit or I swear to God…”

She stood there staring back at me, her face soften
ing. “I’m sorry. You’re right.”

I wanted to keep yelling at her. I wanted to scream
and throw things, but I couldn’t.  The truth was, I didn’t trust Vick since the night I watched her murder two innocent people.

I’d sat in my apartment for week thinking about all the shit I wanted to say to her when I saw her again, but now none of it felt good enough. Instead I stared at her, willing her to tell me everything she knew.

“Did you know?” I asked, my voice steady and hard as steel.

“D
o I know what?” she asked.

“Don’t
fucking play games with me, Victoria.” My voice echoed off the walls of my office. “Did. You.
Know
?”

It took a moment, as she gleaned my meaning, and then her
face cleared of all confusion. Stunned surprise took its place, and I knew. I fucking knew my answer.

“And you let me fuck her? You knew who she was and you let me proposition her anyway?”

“How did you find out her name? She told you?”

“What the hell does it matter
how
I know her name? I fucking know her name.”

She fell back a step and it was her turn to read
the answer on my face.

“You asked her?” She couldn’t control her shock and somewhere underneath was a little bit of anger. “You’ve never asked for a name.”

“She’s different,” I growled and sighed, running my fingers through my hair. “Well, she
was
fucking different. You should have told me, Vick. You know very fucking well you should have told me.”

“
You’re
the one who went and got a conscious on me. You’re the one who went digging for their names. I never asked you to tell me their names… never. This is your fault. You should’ve left well enough alone. You should’ve—”

I cut her off. “How long have you known? Since the police station? When did you find out who she was? Was it before or after I fucked her?”

Her face went hard, nostrils flaring, making her pretty face look unappealing.

“I knew who she was the minute she walked in the club
, before I even hired her. I figured it wouldn’t hurt if you spent some money on her—showed her a good time. We owed her that much.”

Her words were like a punch to the gut. I couldn’t believe the woman standing in front of me was someone I associated with—someone
I’d taken under my wing. She was a figment of the girl I met in foster care. That little girl was gone, and in her stead was a monster. Someone I wasn’t sure I could be around anymore.

“Did you tell her the truth, Sebastian? Does she know?”

She was only worried about herself.

“No.”

Relief flooded her face, and she had the audacity to smile. “Good. You’ve always got my back.”

“Get out,” my words were
quiet, but lethal.

“Sebastian, this is nothing. We’ll get past it
, like we’ve always done before.”

“I said
, get out.”

She walked backward to the door
, as if she was waiting for me to tell her to stay, and then turned and left.

Twenty-Four

Rosslyn

“What the hell is wrong with you, Roz? You’re like
Night of the Living Dead
over there.” Trish said, licking banana frozen yogurt from her spoon.

I stared down at my cup and dug my spoon into it over and over again, turning my yogurt into mush, but never taking a bite. “I’m just tired.”

Tired was an understatement. Since the moment Sebastian asked me to leave his apartment, I’d been a nervous wreck. There was no telling when I’d be kicked to the curb, but more than anything, I missed him. If I could go back and change the moment when things shifted between us, I would have never left his bed.

I could have stayed Jessica forever. I was willing to do that for him. I didn’t care what that said about me
. From the second I left the club, I knew I was in love with him.

After trying to have a semi
-normal day at the mall with Trish, I called Mr. Martin and had him pick me up and take me back to my condo. Seeing as though he still answered my calls, things couldn’t have been that bad, right? If Sebastian was really done with me, would his driver still be driving me around?

I moped around the condo
for the past week, eating way too much junk food, and waiting for the sound of my phone to buzz or the elevator doors to beep. And still, there was nothing.

I talked on the phone with Kyle a few times, and he made me feel better. I was glad to know he was having a blast and making friends at the program. At least he was happy. I just wasn’t sure his happiness would remain once Sebastian dropped me like a bad habit.

I was approved for financial aid and got signed up for some online classes, which was a good step in the right direction, but I needed to start job searching again.

I continued to put in applications
to places within walking distance, as I waited to hear back from one them. If I had a job, maybe this whole situation wouldn’t be so bad.

No matter how many times I told myself this
, I knew that was a lie. Job or no job, I would still miss Sebastian. It was going to hurt badly when things were officially done between the two of us.

I was coming out of
a jewelry store around the corner from my condo, when I spotted Mr. Martin sitting in the car across the street, waiting. Looking both ways, I ran across the street and was a few feet away from the car, when I saw Sebastian coming from a large unmarked building.

He was wearing a black suit
, fit to perfection, and a pair of dark aviator glasses. He looked so sexy I almost fell to my knees and begged him not to leave me. I closed my eyes and thought about the way he’d touched me—the things he did to my body.

When I opened my eyes again, he was standing
frozen next to the car, with his shades off and his hand holding onto the handle. He was staring at me, an angry expression on his face.

I held up my hand and sent him an awkward smile. It was a stupid thing to do, but I was so happy to see him
, I didn’t want to hide it. I was done hiding the way I felt.

He continued to stare for a while longer, until
he slipped his shades back into place, and disappeared into the car.

I stood there in total shock as the car pulled away from the curb and disappeared into the traffic.

My heart ached. It was just too much. I barely held back the tears on the walk back to the condo, breaking down as soon as I stepped off the elevator.

S
pending the night alone, I ate ice cream and watched old movies. There was a brief debate on whether or not to call Trish, but I didn’t feel like explaining the condo or anything else. It was better if she stayed in the dark about my life, especially because it involved her boss.

I stared down at my cell phone
, willing him to text or call, but there was nothing. I fell asleep on the couch with my phone in my hand, an empty ice cream carton on the table, puffy eyes, and the TV on.

The sound of gunshots woke me and I sat straight up in bed. It was a horrible sound. It hurt my ears and made a strange ache twist in my stomach. I gripped my sheets with sweaty palms and that’s when I heard the firm footfalls on the hardwood outside my bedroom. Whoever it was, they were running. The sounds of them running down the stairs and out the back door, echoed in my room.

Kyle’s loud crying sounded from his nursery and filled the deadly silence of the night. I was too afraid to get up, but once his cries got louder, I tiptoed to my bedroom door.  Pulling the door open slowly so it didn’t squeak, I tried to listen for any strange sounds.

The area outside my room was pitch-black. On silent feet, I ran across the hall to Kyle’s nursery, but my eyes glanced into my parent’s room and I froze. Terror was a punch to my chest, when lying there on the floor, in the light shining from their bathroom, was my father. He was in a puddle of blood, and his eyes were wide open, staring back at me. He wasn’t moving, he wasn’t breathing.

In shock, I turned away from Kyle’s room and started toward my dad. It was then I saw my mother’s body. I gasped when I saw her killer still standing above her.

My eyes dropped to my mother’s lifeless body and I made an involuntary move toward her, but her killer jumped to his feet and I froze, not taking another step.

The intruder’s breathing
became louder, and mine seemed to stop completely. The stranger’s eyes connected with mine. Time stopped as we stared at each other. Fear laced his expression and it confused me.

The harsh sound of his panting filled the room. It looked like he was debating his next move. His eyes moved to the door behind me
. Shifting on his feet, the light caught something in his hand. It was my mother’s locket, which had pictures of me and Kyle inside. It wasn’t worth much, which made it strange that the guy was taking it, but then I looked around the room and saw their TV was missing.

The killer left my mother, necklace in hand, and ran toward me. I stopped breathing and dropped to my knees. Just when he got close to me and I was sure he was going to kill me too, he ran past me and down the stairs. The back door slammed.  And then, even though I could hear Kyle crying, it was eerily silent
.

I
woke up in bed, with my pajamas on and a blanket draped over me. The sun from the windows blinded me when I opened my eyes.

A sound from inside the condo startled me and I reached over to my bedside table.
Still in a sleep-induced haze, I pulled open the drawer, and grabbed the gun Sebastian bought me.

W
alking toward the noise on quiet feet, I raised the gun, ready to shoot. Making it to the corner of the kitchen, I took a deep breath and tried to steel my nerves.

When I stepped around the corner, I came face to
chest with a large man. Without thought, I pulled the trigger.

N
othing happened. 

I looked up and
Sebastian was standing before me, looking down with wild eyes. He reached out and took the gun from me.

“Holy shit.
You could have killed me, Roz.” He set the gun on the counter beside us. “Thank God you had the safety on. Speaking of which, you have to make sure the safety is off before you use it.”

He turned and walked away from me
, and back to the stove where he was cooking. I’m not sure how I missed the smell of bacon wafting all around.

“You’re here
,” I stated the obvious.

“Yes I am,” he grinned at me
, as if I hadn’t just tried to kill him. “A ‘good morning’ would be nice.”

I was still in
shock by the fact that I’d almost blown a hole in his chest.

“Good morning,” I said slowly.

“Come sit down and eat some breakfast,” he said, setting a plate on the counter full of bacon and eggs.

“You made me breakfast?”

“It was the least I could do.”

I had a million questions I wanted to ask, but I didn’t want to jinx the moment. Instead, I sat on the stool in front of my plate and started to pick at the bacon.

“Eat. We have a lot to talk about,” he said, taking a big bite of bacon and chewing with a smile on his face.

I couldn’t wait.

“I’m sorry, Sebastian. I didn’t think. It just came out,” I said.

“
I didn’t come here to talk about that.”

“
Oh.” Maybe I had jumped the gun, thinking he was actually back.

“I came here today hoping you’d tell me your whole name.”

“No,” I said sternly. “I don’t want you to push me away. I’ll stay your Jessica.”

There I’d said it. I
showed my desperation and while I should have been completely embarrassed by it, I wasn’t.

“So you’re
perfectly okay sleeping with a man who calls you by another woman’s name forever?”

“Well maybe not forever, but…” I stopped. “What do you mean
forever
?”

Sebastian never said the word
forever. I seriously doubted he even thought about the following week when it came to his girls.

“
I mean, I went a week without you, and I’m not sure I ever want to go that long again.”

He moved around the counter
and stood next to me.

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying, Mr. Black?” I asked playfully.

He looked down at me with a soft expression, before pressing his lips to mine. “Tell me your name,” he said against my lips.

Pulling back, I let my eyes devour his face. If it was possibly going to be the last time I saw him, I wanted to take it all in.

“Rosslyn. My name’s Rosslyn Harris.”

He closed his eyes and swallowed hard before pulling me closer. “A beautiful name for a beautiful girl.”

“You think I’m beautiful?” I asked as I batted my lashes at him.

“You know I do, smartass.
And what makes it even better, you’re all mine.”

“Again, are you saying what I think you’re saying, Mr. Black?”

“I don’t know, Miss Rosslyn Harris. What is it you think I’m saying?”

It felt good to hear him say my name. After being called Jessica for so long,
it was nice to finally be acknowledged as myself.

“It sounds to me like you’re saying you’re prepared to throw away you’re little black book.”

He threw his head back and laughed out loud before leaning down and kissing me softly. I lost my fingers in the soft hair that touched the back of his neck and he filled his hands with my hips. Pulling away, he smiled down at me before kissing the tip of my nose sweetly.

“What black book? I own no such thing
,” he grinned.