Tethered (26 page)

I didn’t smile for the pictures. I was trying to focus on breathing while in close proximity to Emmet.

He hadn’t said much since he arrived. He said hello and I said hello, and then my mom jumped in. It was a surprise because she knew I hadn’t seen Emmet since he left for college and isn’t it nice to see him again. Then she started in on the pictures.

My mother’s behavior was…perplexing. She was never the excitable type, but while taking the pictures she didn’t stop smiling. She took picture after picture and even dabbed at her eyes a few times. I didn’t understand it. I wanted her to simmer down and go back to being her quiet mildly pessimistic self.

When her excitement got the best of her and she started looking tired and drained, she finally let us go. Though I had just thought some unkind things about her, her seemingly constant state of tiredness was nagging me a little. As Emmet and I walked out of the door, I kept throwing glances at her. Before the door closed, I saw her sag with exhaustion.

“She must be on some really good drugs,” Emmet said, leading me by the elbow towards the bank of elevators.

My attention shifted from my mother and I looked at the man beside me. He was dressed in a dark Armani suit without a tie. His white shirt was unbuttoned several buttons and the jacket was open. He looked good,
really
good. I couldn’t drag my eyes away from him for several moments. Only because I had to step onto the elevator did I finally tear my eyes away.

“You look amazing,” Emmet said quietly.

“Thank you,” I managed in a soft voice.

We were quiet for the rest of the ride to the lobby. Emmet put his hand on the small of my back to guide me outside where a limo waited for us.

“Where did this come from?” I asked as the driver opened the door for us.

I carefully got in first and moved over as far as I could go. Emmet slid in after me and left very little space between us.

“I thought since we were going to a VIP party, we should at least ride in style,” Emmet said.

“You did this?” I asked, turning my head like a puppy.

He nodded as his eyes raked over me. I suppressed a shiver and folded my hands in my lap. I looked down when I felt Emmet’s fingers on my wrist. He was slowly turning the bracelet.

“How have you been?” he asked softly.

I looked up and met his green eyes.

“Surviving,” I whispered. I turned away from him and looked at the bustling city life outside of my window. My chest hurt. My skin burned where he was touching me. The invisible tether vibrated softly between us. I wanted to cry. I wanted to cry so badly. Emmet was finally right next to me, but I almost couldn’t handle it.

After he had left for college, it took me a few days to get myself together. The experience left me gutted and weak. I couldn’t erase the memory of Emmet’s face when I uttered those terrible words. I couldn’t forget the shake of his head when I turned to him in the car to apologize. I couldn’t forget how it felt to feel him leave me without a goodbye. It took me a couple of months to accept the fact that he wasn’t going to call and he wasn’t going to reappear in my life. By the time New Year’s had rolled around, I had to accept the fact that he was gone from my life entirely. These weren’t easy circumstances to accept. I had to let some coldness seep into me. I had to let it settle in and harden. Only when Emmy gave me the bracelet did the bitter cold wall began to crack a little. Now, sitting within inches of him, I felt like it was going to shatter altogether, and that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

Emmet must have sensed the tension and emotions within me. He pulled his hand back and put it on his knee with a sigh.

“So, you met Felix at a photo shoot for
RollingStone
?” he asked.

“Yes,” I nodded.

“That’s incredible. You must have impressed the right people to get that gig.”

The impression came during the shoot, but I didn’t tell him that. Instead, I said “Just got lucky I guess.”

“Donya,” Emmet said my name softly, but it sounded like he was pleading.

I turned my head and looked at him. His eyes were so damn sorrowful that it made my breath hitch.

“Do you want me to take you to the party and leave you there on your own? I can come back for you later.”

I was startled by his question.

“Why?”

He sighed. “You’re so stiff,” he said quietly. “I have the feeling that you really don’t want me here.”

I stared, because I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted, and I told him so.

“What will make it easier for you?” he asked with sincerity. “I’ll do whatever you need to feel comfortable.”

My eyes closed slowly and I took a long, deep breath. As I let the air out slowly between my lips, I opened my eyes and looked at Emmet again with a little more clarity.

“I want you here,” I said honestly.

Some of the tension eased on his face. “Can we just try to have a good night?” he asked. “Can we just for tonight put the past out of our minds?”

“I don’t know,” I said softly, but then continued bitterly. “What happens at the end of the night? If you’re just going to go back to hating me, I don’t think I want to continue. I’ll go back to the suite and go to bed.”

“I don’t hate you. I’ve never hated you. I promise you that,” he said quickly.

“Don’t promise me anything, Emmet,” I snapped. “You promised that I would always have your friendship but you broke that promise. You didn’t even give me that much before you ran away to Cambridge.”

“I didn’t run away, Donya,” he said patiently. “I went away to school.”

“You cut me off!” I yelled.

Emmet opened his mouth to argue, but quickly shut it. He sighed heavily and rubbed a few fingers across his forehead. After a moment, he was able to look at me again.

“Coffee,” he said.

I turned my head. “What?”

“Coffee,” he said the word slowly.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You asked what happens at the end of the night and I’m answering your question. Coffee. At the end of the night we will have coffee.”

I crossed my arms and faced the front of the car. It was eerily quiet inside the vehicle.

“I want a donut,” I said stubbornly.

“What?”

“I want a donut with my coffee,” I snapped, glaring at him.

His lips twitched as he tried not to smile. “You drive a hard bargain.”

“Shut up,” I said, as my anger began to slip through my fingers.

“I hope you don’t ask for a special donut, like one with sprinkles or something,” Emmet said, unable to hide his smile. “I’m not sure if that would be a deal I could close on.”

I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing. It wasn’t even that funny, but I couldn’t help the little bit of laughter that bubbled through my lips.

We fell into light conversation for the last few minutes of the trip. I was still off kilter being so close to Emmet again, and I was still shocked that he came at all, but I tried to push that to the back of my mind and just enjoy the conversation.

When Emmet got out of the car in front of Felix’s building, he held out his hand to help me out of the car. I looked at it blankly for a moment before placing my hand in his. His thumb glided gently over my knuckles, sending tiny shockwaves of electricity racing up my arm. I smiled shyly at him on the sidewalk before we were escorted by security through some paparazzi and bystanders. The Paps asked questions that I didn’t listen to. I heard my name, but I had heard it more than a few times since hanging around Felix. I didn’t pay them any mind.

“What are they talking about?” Emmet asked me after security cleared us to go up to the penthouse.

“Who?”

“I couldn’t hear everyone all at once,” he said, his brow creasing with concentration. “But I heard the word ‘nude’ more than once.”

My eyebrows arched. It was possible they were talking about the
RollingStone
cover, but that wasn’t supposed to be released for another few days, not to mention I wasn’t really
nude
. Just partially…

“Maybe they have me mixed up with someone else,” I said, waving my free hand dismissively as we stepped into the elevator.

“Hmm,” Emmet said. I thought he would harp on it, but he didn’t. He looked me over again and ran a knuckle up my bare arm, making me shiver. “Did I tell you how awesome you look?”

“No,” I said, biting back my smile. “You said that I looked amazing, but you may tell me how awesome I look.”

He chuckled and said “You look awesome, Donya.”

“Thank you, Emmet,” I said and gave him a full blown smile.

His smile not only touched his eyes, but filled them. If the elevator doors didn’t open just then, it was possible that I could have stared into his eyes all night in that small box.

“Hello, Miss Stewart,” Rocco, the big beefy man in the suit that followed Felix everywhere, greeted me with a smile outside the double doors that lead into Felix’s penthouse.

I smiled at him and introduced him to Emmet before stepping towards the doors. Already we could hear the loud music, laughter, shouts, and what was probably a jolly good time on the other side of the doors.

“You complimented Felix well,” Rocco said, pulling open the doors.

I looked at him curiously, but then the doors were open and the noise filtered out and I was distracted. Emmet and I stepped inside and took a good look around. There were no less than two hundred people inside. Though the penthouse was very spacious, it felt cramped having so many bodies in the space. Instantly I recognized half a dozen celebrities – from local celebs on up to the powerhouse couple whose faces were almost daily splashed on some tabloid.

“Are you okay?” Emmet asked in my ear.

“Sure,” I said absently. “Why?”

“You’re squeezing the hell out of my hand.”

I hadn’t even realized it. I apologized and tried to pull my hand from his, but he held me firmly.

“It’s okay,” he said soothingly.

I sighed and smiled a little. “I don’t know why I’m so nervous. I’ve been hanging around Felix for weeks and he’s never made me feel nervous.”

“Too much power in one room, maybe,” Emmet suggested.

“You have an incredible pair of eyes,” a woman I recognized from a soap opera said to me and then turned to the other woman at her side. “Doesn’t she have incredible eyes? You take one hell of a picture.”

Emmet and I looked at one another and then back to the women, but they had already moved on. An uneasy feeling began to grow in my gut and I unconsciously gripped Emmet’s hand in a vice hold again. I only realized it because my hand started to tingle.

We moved through the crowd. I knew a few people from working and through Felix. A very recognizable runway model I had met months ago rolled her eyes at me but couldn’t keep her hands off of Emmet. I felt some satisfaction when he blew her off and wrapped his arm around my waist, drawing me close. More and more people were saying things like “Good job” and “Nice photos” and passing me their information to get in touch after the party. I was growing increasingly nervous as we slowly moved towards the other side of the room. I felt like everyone was looking at me, though I couldn’t imagine why. I wasn’t a celebrity. I was just Donya and in the grand scheme of things, I ranked about where the servers were.

“Do you know what any of them are talking about?” Emmet asked in my ear.

“No,” I said, but that wasn’t quite true. I had a very strong feeling what it was about, and it was only a matter of moments before we would find out.

“Donya!” Felix shouted my name from a few feet ahead.

He pushed his way through people and ripped me from Emmet’s hold by lifting me off of my feet for an embrace. When he put me back on my feet I stumbled slightly in my heels, but Felix steadied me even though he was clearly unsteady himself. I couldn’t miss the heavy scent of alcohol on his breath just before he kissed the corner of my mouth. I glanced quickly at Emmet and nervously forced a smile as I tried to pull away from Felix, but he wasn’t finished with me yet. He went in for another kiss, except this time his lips crushed mine and he tried to slip his tongue into my mouth.

“Felix!” I forced a laugh and shoved him away. “Stop kidding around.”

I stepped back to Emmet, ignoring the murderous gaze in his eyes as he looked at my friend. I nudged his hand with mine. Stiffly, his hand closed over mine.

“Felix Hunter, this is my…this is Emmet Grayne,” I said and cleared my throat nervously.

Felix regarded Emmet coolly and nodded in his direction. He turned his attention back to me and openly ogled my body.

“Spicy,” he said and winked at me.

I smiled and said “Thank you for the dress. It’s perfect.”

“Anything for you,” he grinned. “I was expecting you to bring your girlfriend. I was going to push her off onto Dave and sweep you away somewhere private.”

Emmet’s hand gripped mine as if he expected Felix to actually pick me up and take me away.

Dave Cowell was a year older than Felix and just as successful an actor. The two became good friends while filming the movie that changed Felix’s career.

I peered behind Felix and saw Dave talking to a beautiful blonde.

“I think Dave will be okay,” I said teasingly.

“Come on,” he nodded back the way he had come. “You need to see something.”

He took a hold of my wrist and pulled. I held tight to Emmet’s hand as the three of us, linked, walked through the party goers. When Felix finally stopped and released my wrist, I moved around him to see what he wanted me to see.

I gasped and threw my clutch over my mouth. Emmet cursed beside me. We finally got to see what everyone had been talking about.

“Fucking awesome,” Felix said excitedly.

Displayed as a focal point of the room were three large photographs. The first one was the
RollingStone
cover. The shot was that first one I had posed for with my fingers on Felix’s hard stomach and his ear between my teeth. It was blatantly obvious that I was topless. Even as my face warmed with embarrassment, I couldn’t deny that the photograph was incredible. Felix and I looked like a great fit in the picture as his arms rested on my legs, and though the other girls’ faces couldn’t be seen, their many hands all over him somehow gave the photo an erotic feel.