Romance: Gibson's Legacy ( New Adult Contemporary Erotic Romance) (Last Score Book 1) (11 page)

Smiling at his funny self-deprecating comment, I could feel myself physically relaxing. “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. After all, I have no clue who you are.” There was hesitancy, and wrong number guy came back again.

“This is true. I kinda like that idea. It means that you couldn’t pick me out in a line- up of stupid guys.” I smirked because he was amusing.

“Unless, you spoke and said something equally as dense, then I’d have a fighting chance of that,” I quipped and giggled back. There was a silence and I thought I had offended him, but what the hell, he didn’t know me. “Anyway, stupid-gene- wrong-number guy, I’m afraid you’ll have to dial again. I sure hope Toby’s coming after all this.”

He chuckled, “Yeah, well hot- sounding-good-sense-of-humor girl, I’d better chase him down. Sorry to disturb you.” I meant to say no problem but I said “Anytime,” then screwed my face up at the phone thinking,
WTF?
Again there was a small silence.

Expecting him to hang up, I was surprised when he answered back again, “Huh? Hmm…well, maybe I’ll just have to test that comment out sometime.” Beginning to chuckle, he had a smile in his voice, “Nice call forward, darlin’, have a good day.” I don’t know why but just calling me darlin’ lifted my spirit.

Still smiling, I walked back to the couch and sat down slowly, still staring at the cell. He was the only number logged in my received calls list, my first call of my new life, and it wasn’t a bad start at all.

After dinner, I dug into my bags of purchases and began to give my new home some character. Some duck egg blue scatter cushions I’d bought were thrown onto the large sectional, and the effect warmed the room immediately.

While running a bath, I made up my bed, standing back with my arms folded to admire the cream and gold bedding. It looked rich and inviting, and I couldn’t wait to be snuggled down in it, even if I hadn’t washed the linen first. I was exhausted, both mentally and physically.

Intending on soaking in the bath, I lay back but soon felt my eyes drooping, so got out and dried. No use in escaping the clutches of Kace, only to drown in a bath fourteen hundred miles away on the same day.

I pulled on a blue figure hugging tank top and pajama shorts, making a mental note to get some warmer clothing, then snuggled down with the duvet pulled up to my chin. As soon as I was in the silent darkness of the room, tears fell softly down my face.

I owed it to myself to grieve properly for the life I had lost, before I could begin to build a new one. After this though, I promised I wouldn’t shed any more tears for Kace.

When I woke, it was with a start and I could hear my cell ringing all the way down the hall in the sitting room. I wasn’t in a hurry to answer it though, because I hadn’t given it out to anyone, so it would probably be the cell phone company this time with something to do with the contract. I swept the duvet back and slid out of my bed when it became obvious whoever it was wasn’t giving up.

Picking up my cell, I swiped to answer. “Toby?” I huffed. “Nope.” I was tired and didn’t expand my conversation. “Shit, I’ve done it again, huh? I’m sorry darlin’ did I wake you?”

Feeling in a sarcastic mood I answered. “Hell no, I always wander around my apartment in the middle of the night, answering random phone calls.”

“Ouch. And there was I thinking I had this hot babe that I could call at any time and tell her all about my day.” As soon as he said it, I thought, actually that might be fun, talking to a guy without him knowing where I was.

Controlling my interaction with a man on the phone without any commitment, maybe I could cope with this. More alert now, I asked, “Is that what you want to do? Talk to some random female about your life, and kind of hear what I have to say about it, but don’t judge me kind of relationship?”

Snickering, I could hear the humor in his voice, “That’d be a first, someone not judging me. I didn’t really know what I was saying but that sounds like an excellent plan, are you game?”

Not hesitating I found myself saying, “Sure, I’m up for that, as long as I can do the same.” Suddenly, I was feeling kind of excited about talking to a mysterious anonymous guy on the line.

“Do I get a name?” At that point I hesitated and almost gave him a false one.

“Chloe.” I swallowed hard because the way I was feeling even someone knowing my first name sounded like too much.

After I said it, I was met by a moment of silence, which I broke by asking if I could have his. “Oh, yeah, sorry. Paul…my name is Paul.” His voice was flat as if he was distracted by something then he came back more focused. “Hey, Chloe. Pleased to meet you… on the phone,” he said playfully with the smile back in his voice.

Chatting about nothing in particular for another couple of minutes I hung up and padded barefoot, back to bed and fell asleep thinking about my mystery caller.

Later, a low vibrating noise broke into my sleep. My cell on the nightstand was slowly moving towards me across the glass nightstand, making a soft clinking sound which added to the annoyance of the ringing. In my sleepy state, I forgot where I was and fear gripped me. I’d been waking with those feelings for about a year.

Once I remembered where I was, my racing heartbeat began to slow until I had the thought and wondered if my parents were okay. Squinting over at the cell, I swiped to answer anyway.

“Toby! That was ace!” Paul’s wired voice shouted down the line at me and it was weird how I recognized it.

“Paul if we’re going to do this, it needs to be when I’m awake.” I mumbled into the phone, before pulling it down from my ear to glance at the screen, still trying to focus on the time display.

When I put it back to my ear again I heard some shuffling in the background before he said, “Jeez, did I do it again? I stretched again, and then yawned and exhaled heavily into the phone.

“I don’t know who you intended on calling, Paul, but you got me instead.” I croaked.

“Oh geez, sorry, darlin’. I didn’t realize I hadn’t dialed the correct number. I’m going to have to store this under Chloe so that I don’t wake you again.”

Smiled sleepily, I commented, “You’ve made my day…or night. I’d really appreciate if you did, I just changed my number and I’d hate to do it again.”

Paul snickered into the phone, “Gotcha, don’t piss Chloe off when she’s just woken up.” Saying our goodbyes again, I swiped the cell phone on silent and went back to sleep.

For the next couple of days I heard nothing from Paul, and I figured that I’d probably never hear from him again. I spent my time fixing the apartment up and working on my portfolio. There was no way I could have that career at that point with Kace’s connections and skills at finding things.

Once I had gone for coffee with a new guy, Derek from work to discuss some aspects of the project we were working on. It never occurred for me to mention it, but somehow Kace found out and confronted me.

The black eye he gave me from that meant a week off work and I didn’t even know the guy’s last name. As for poor Derek, Kace went to his wife and told her he had designs on me and to tell him to stay away from his girl.

Being left a hefty sum of money I was able to think about indulging in my other passion –creative writing. The idea of writing a book excited me, and I could afford to stay home for a year. Thinking maybe the isolation would do me good after the ordeal I had been through, I switched on my mellow music playlist I had made on Spotify and began to research what I could find to write about.

CHAPTER 11 - PLAYFUL BANTER

Chloe

Engrossed in what I was doing, I almost missed the call. My phone was vibrating on the end table. I became vaguely conscious of it while I was listening to “Somebody That I Used To Know” by Goyte. My one caller’s number flashed on the screen.

Answering the call, I heard, “Hey, Chloe.”

The familiarity in Paul’s voice seemed to nag at me. Smiling at the use of my name, I asked, “You meant to call me and not Toby?” Something in his voice made me tingle, he had a great voice and reminded me of another voice that brought back feelings of a something and nothing encounter I once had when I was at college.

“Sure, I did. Your voice is way sexier than Toby’s and I can’t flirt with him.” Between his low, velvety-rich Southern accent and his comment, I was rendered silent for a moment before trying to continue the conversation because he sounded so like Gibson Barclay.

“So…?” I asked, leaving the question unasked as to why he was calling.

“So,” he mimicked back playfully and began chuckling. I froze for a second because I wasn’t used to anyone flirting with me. Then I thought the poor guy had no idea what I’d been through.

“Where are you?” It had only just occurred to me that he may not be in New York, and could be anywhere.

“I’m in Arizona right now, you?” I wasn’t sure about telling him where I was, but he was just some guy on the end of the phone, he couldn’t find me. “New York.”

“I’m a few hours behind you. Sorry I woke you up at that ungodly hour, babe. Toby is in LA and in the same time zone as me.”

Thinking he’d rung to apologize for waking me, I started to say that it was an easy mistake to make when he said, “So who’s going first?”

“Going first for what?”

I could hear the playful tone in his voice he replied, “Well, we could have phone sex, but I think I’d kinda like to get to know you first, if that’s okay with you…I’m messing with you of course, I meant going first to talk about our day.”

God knows what got into me but I pretended to sound disappointed. “Oh, so you’re kidding about the phone sex, hmm, pity. Right, talking about our day it is then.”

Paul didn’t miss a beat, coming back at me saying, “Maybe once we’re a little more familiar we’ll get to that. I NEVER put out on the first phone date.” He started to chuckle again and it was quite infectious but I kept my cool.

Wanting to put him in his place, I flirted back, even though my cheeks were heated and my vagina was pulsing from what he’d just said. “Hmm, you think you’re capable of that…phone sex huh?”

He was really laughing down the line by then and cooed, “Oh darlin’, you have no idea what I’m capable of. I’ve been known to make girls come with my voice.”

A female voice came and murmured something to him and he briefly covered the phone saying, “Two seconds,” before he turned his attention back to me. “Well, Chloe it looks like you are going to have to hold the thought on the day’s events. I had a great time talking to you, but I have to be somewhere in a few minutes, so I need to go and make my call with Toby.”

Honestly? I was glad that the call ended there, because I doubted whether I could have continued to keep that flirting up with him and I had nothing to say to his comment about his voice.

Calling Ruby, I left her a message because it was still early and she must have still been asleep and then went to take a shower. When I came back there were three new text messages, two from Ruby and one from Paul so I opened it.

Paul:-Sorry Chloe, that was so wrong of me. It won’t happen again.

I was weirdly disappointed by the whole thing and got back into bed. Tossing and turning, I got to thinking about Paul. His voice had put me in mind of Gibson Barclay’s. Their accents were the same. When I got to thinking about him my fantasy about spending a night with Gibson flooded back and I fell asleep with memories of my college days and that one brief up close and personal moment I had with him.

When I woke it was daylight, and glancing at the clock it was 10am. I sat bolt upright in bed, I hadn’t slept that long since I was in college. Lifting my cell from the night stand, I turned it on. There were four missed calls and two texts.

Ruby had tried to call me, and then texted.
Can’t wait to see you, Friday, Andaz Restaurant, 5th Ave, 7pm. Squeeeee!!!

Excited at the prospect of seeing Ruby again, I only hoped I wouldn’t become emotional about everything that had happened with Kace when I did.

I decided to be proactive about trying to write and visited the library that morning. Doing some research for writing a love story, I came out with an assortment of books to sharpen my mind, before I got started. Grabbing a sandwich, I made my way to Central Park with my lunch. Being in the apartment all the time, I was beginning to miss the outdoors.

Sitting down on the grass, I began stuffing my face with the delicious ham on rye bread and I popped my earphones in to listen to music. The phone was synchronized to my Spotify playlists, “Waiting for Superman” by Daughtry was playing, and I loved the idea of having my favorite music while eating alfresco.

Less than five minutes into my playlist, my cell rang. Seeing it was Paul, I held my breath and my heartbeat fluttered at the fact he was continuing to call me. Unsure of what to say after the earlier call, I almost let it ring out. Feeling nervous and embarrassed about the interaction we’d had, and not sure whether I could talk normally after his comment, about making girls come by talking to them.

Not trusting my own judgment because of how Kace had messed with my head, I tried to dig deep to find the old Chloe. The old me had a quiet confidence, but I was principled and hadn’t a lot of sexual experience. None outside of Kace really, apart from a couple of boys I had kissed as a young teen.

However, I wouldn’t have shied away from someone who had said something which made me feel uncomfortable. And really, there was only one person who had managed to make me feel the need to turn and run, and he became a world famous rock star. So my reputation on that score was still intact, as far as I was concerned.

Smirking, and confident the guy calling me would never know me outside of a phone call, I pinched my nose and decided to answer. “This is Toby’s wrong number messaging service, how may I help you.”

Rich spontaneous laughter boomed down the line at me. “Ha! Very funny.” Something about the way was his voice came across sounding relaxed and familiar made my heart skip a beat.