Wrapped Around My Finger (22 page)

“Okay.” Kari stood up, surveying the room. Just because she couldn’t fix one mess didn’t mean she’d give up on the rest of it. She grabbed my phone. “Who am I sharing the good news with?”

“My agent. She can handle the rest of it.” I was so glad Kari offered to make the call. That’s what best friends were for. There was absolutely no way I could face Diane or anyone I used to work with. Not even on the phone. “You’ll watch it with me, right?”

“You want to do that?” she asked. I nodded. Kari’s mouth dropped. “I was already planning on having the wine flu tomorrow. Do you think they’ll still do the interview? Have him go on by himself?”

Jagger would hate that. I almost changed my mind. No, I would not contribute to this disaster.

I shrugged. “They have no time to come up with anything else. If they do have him on, I get to see him.”

And find out what he really had to say.

J
agger

“She’s not coming.” Diane charged into the room, frantic as her headset slipped down to her shoulders.

What the...?
They couldn’t be talking about Leah. If they were, something was wrong. Very wrong. She’d never flake out on something like this. They had to have railroaded her into this like they did to me.

Someone I’d never seen before stepped in front of Diane. “What do you mean she’s not coming? We’re live in two hours.”

“Ms. Godfrey did not make her flight. That’s all the agent said.” Diane opened her laptop and violently banged on the keys like she had a code to make Leah appear.

Red hot rage coursed through me, followed by an overwhelming finality that hit me in the gut. She wasn’t coming. I slammed my fist against the pillow. A fucking whirlwind of finger pointing and name calling swirled around me, and I sunk further into the black hole I opened when I left Leah’s house. As many times as I thought about blowing this off, I made the trip to New York to see
her.
No matter if we were together or not, we had a promise to each other. Or so I thought.

I’d always expected her to say it to my face.

We should’ve talked to each other before this, but the way the network sprung it on us, there hadn’t been time. If she’d planned to stage a coup all along, I could’ve been in on it. Changed my flight to DC. Watched them scramble for our replacements from her bed. It could’ve been the thing that brought us back together. But apparently that wasn’t what she wanted.

“Jagger,” someone called to me from the chaos. “Will you still go on? Do the interview by yourself?”

It was the easiest decision I’d ever made. “Yeah. I will.”

The producers talked at me, thanking me repeatedly for saving the night. Insisting I’d be great. Their words echoed inside me. I nodded, I wanted this to be over. To go back to Miami, and get on with my fucking life.

“Can you approve these new questions?” A familiar voice jolted me back into the room. I looked up to see Shannon smiling sadly at me. “I know it’s nothing to compared to what you’re feeling, but I’m really disappointed that she’s not here.”

“She liked you.” Didn’t mean much, since she’d liked me, too. “Always gushed about what a good job you did.”

Shannon’s face lit up. “Leah was honestly the best boss I ever had. I miss her, a lot. I wish I could call her and ask her advice on things because it’s not the same without her.”

That made two of us. Fuck, we were talking about her like she was dead. We were both in mourning.

I looked over the papers Shannon gave me and nodded.

“I’ll send them over to your agent for approval.”

“Fuck that. Don’t bother.” Playing by the rules got me absolutely nowhere.

Shannon’s eyes bugged out. “Are you sure?” I nodded, and she looked over her shoulder, checking if we were alone. “Jagger, they’ll do everything they can to get ratings. If you don’t have someone else sign off on these, they can—and will—ask whatever they want. It’s your word against theirs.”

Sounded familiar. And it hadn’t worked for me yet. “I have absolutely nothing to hide.”

One more eyebrow raise. “Okay. But don’t mind me if I just accidently send them over. You know, because I forgot.” Shannon laughed, but it died quickly when I didn’t join in. She took a deep breath before she closed the door behind her.

Shannon still had hope.

Finally, I had a minute to myself. To figure out what the fuck I was going to say. We’d spent so much time on the questions, but hardly any on the answers. Everything I’d approved was contingent on Leah being there. Without her...I could fuck it up royally or fix everything.

Although, after the no-show, I wasn’t sure if anything was at stake anymore.

Someone knocked on the door. “Ready in five?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

I picked up my phone out of habit. Her face was still on my screen. No matter what, she’d always be the most beautiful woman I’d ever met.

A text bar covered her eyes.

I’m sorry.

L
eah

Jagger took my breath away. It always happened when I hadn’t seen him for a while. In person was always different than Skype, which we did every night. Or we used to, anyway. But I’d never seen him like this, on the flat screen TV in my living room.

His brow was furrowed, his jaw set in a hard line. There was no hiding the emptiness that radiated from the screen. Totally shut down. It hurt me to see him that way because I knew whatever it was that ached inside him still hadn’t been fixed. I’d done it to him. A little piece of me thought he deserved it for walking out. For getting in the car that morning and driving away while I cried.

They only showed him for a moment, then he was gone. They cut to a package that they’d put together that featured me prominently, no doubt made with the expectation that I’d actually show up. I left the producers with no time to change that. Plus, whatever the network’s motive was putting together the interview, they didn’t have any real dirt to dig up on us. The worst was already on full display, unless Jagger dropped a bombshell. I braced myself for impact.

Kari squeezed my hand. Raven snuggled against me on the other side. I grasped both of them tightly to keep myself from reaching out for the screen, throwing myself at it, or throwing it out the window. I never should’ve abandoned Jagger. And he hadn’t answered my text. I tried to tell him why I didn’t come, but I erased everything that I wrote.
I’m sorry
said it all.

I couldn’t believe he was actually going through with this. He’d probably been coerced into going solo by Diane and whoever else she was working with now. It was so weird not to know. It was her team now, and they certainly didn’t answer to me anymore.

My agent sent me the questions Jagger approved. He could’ve changed everything, and I’d relinquished all control over the situation.

Raven picked her head up off my shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, Ma. He won’t say anything stupid.”

It wasn’t him I was worried about. It was the vulture seated across from him I didn’t trust for a second. Robyn Donnelly. I’d watched her take down more than one celebrity with the precision of a surgeon. And like a true professional, she’d laugh about it afterward over drinks while someone else cleaned up the carnage.

“He looks different.” Kari frowned. “Actually, that’s not true. This how he always looks when he’s not with you. Totally closed off. Look at his body language. Arms crossed, not making eye contact, and he sounds like he wants to be anywhere but there.”

“Can you blame him?” I managed a laugh and picked up the remote so I could rewind the little bit we missed while Kari was talking. If he’d meant to tear my heart out from the very beginning, I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss a second of it.

“Tonight we have Jagger Holiday with us, whose short television career has been a whirlwind of scandal and speculation. Thanks for joining us tonight.”

He shifted in his seat and gave one of those thousand-watt smiles that made him so good at his job. The one on TV, too. “My pleasure.”

“He’s good,” Kari muttered.

“It seems like the renovation show,
Second Chances
, would’ve also been a second chance for you. The day you made your debut on
Great Start Today
, we learned that you had also worked as a male escort. What can you tell us about that?”

He leaned forward in his chair. My heart fluttered. “What do you want to know?” he asked.

The interviewer gulped. Once she got a hold of herself, she licked her lips and softened her gaze.
Bitch.
“As much as you want to tell us. Did you get paid to have sex with the women who hired you?”

Straight for the jugular. The slight shake of Jagger’s head made it clear that she missed. “No. I was hired to provide companionship.”

She twisted her lips in frustration. Jagger wasn’t the easy target she’d pegged him to be. “And what did that companionship include?”

“Whatever the clients wanted. If they needed someone to take them to a function, show them a city they were unfamiliar with, or whatever they requested. There wasn’t a typical client.”

“Did that include having sex with them?”

Jagger pressed his lips together. “No. The agreement did not include sex.”

“Thank God,” Kari said under breath.

“Did you have sex with any of your clients, Jagger?”

Kari squeezed my hand and picked up the remote to pause it. “He better answer this right.”

I snatched the remote back from her. She had a lot at stake, but this wasn’t about her. I managed to keep that to myself.

“Yes,” Jagger said as soon as I pressed play. Kari sucked in a sharp breath. My heart had already been pounding, but the beat changed. “But it wasn’t part of the contract. It was a decision between two consenting adults.”

“Did you have sex with Beth Barnes? She seems to think you were in breach of contract.”

“Don’t you dare say anything.” Kari didn’t unclench her teeth as she coached Jagger from five hundred miles away. This interview was harder on her so far than it was on me, although that would take a drastic turn as soon as I was mentioned, which would be any second. This was probably news to Middle America, but he hadn’t dropped any true bombshells yet.

“I’m not able to talk about the lawsuit, but I will say—I didn’t sleep with her.”

Kari groaned, but I loved it. We didn’t get many opportunities to fire back at our attackers. Between the pending lawsuit and being a decent human being, we often walked away looking weak. Funny how being the better person did that.

“The lawsuit has been dismissed.” The interviewer gave one more not so subtle shove. “Maybe she wasn’t so clear about the contract terms.”

Jagger leaned back in his chair like he’d do anything to get away from her. “Explaining a contract was never part of my job description.”

“Stupid.” Kari buried her head in her hands. “That could come back and kick us in the ass later.”

“You said nothing else would come of the lawsuit.” Honestly, I didn’t care anymore. My ass had been kicked enough already. Plus, I knew what was coming next.

Kari paused the show again. “For you. The agency could still be under fire. It wasn’t a smart thing to say.”

Robyn’s lips curled into that no-good smile I’d seen too many times. If there were rainbows in Hell, that’s what they’d look like. “Speaking of job descriptions, how did you meet Leah Godfrey?”

He shifted in his seat. Raven squeezed my arm so hard I’d have finger-shaped bruises. If he didn’t answer fast, I’d pass out. There was only so long I could hold my breath. “She was a client.”

Robyn’s face lit up. Finally he’d thrown her a bit of meat that she could sink her fangs into. “How long was she one of your clients?”

“I’d rather not say.”

“Did the two of you have a relationship outside of the escort-client relationship?”

“Yeah,” he said softly.

“Is that common? For escorts to date their clients?”

Jagger shook his head. “Not for me.”

“What made you decide to take the leap into something more personal with Ms. Godfrey? Were you hoping to use her connections to get a job on
Second Chances
?”

He laughed. “No.”

She wrinkled her brow in confusion. “Then what was it?”

“Everything about her.” I missed that light in his eyes so much. He always had it when he talked about his photography, but I never realized the same thing happened when he talked about me. “You’ve seen her on TV. How she loves making things better. The way she doesn’t realize she’s doing it. She sees the beauty in everything and everyone.”

“Sounds like you’re quite smitten with her.”

“I am.” All the tension was gone. He’d totally relaxed, confident in his declaration. The first tear slipped down my cheek and the rest of them raced to follow.

I should’ve gone. I abandoned him, and he still loved me. I was a fool if I let that slip through my fingers.

“Are the two of you still a couple?”

I held my breath, waiting for his answer. “No.”

“Ms. Godfrey had been invited to participate in this interview.”

Jagger nodded.

“Any idea why she didn’t come?”

“She missed her flight.” That tone was back, I knew the Jagger shut down well.

But Robyn was new to all of it. “Is there anything you’d planned to say to her? She might be watching.”

Might be watching.
Like I was capable of anything else.

He took a deep breath, raking his hand through his hair. “So many things.” Jagger looked off-camera. “But not here. We’ll both know when the time is right.”

Robyn thanked Jagger, batting her eyelashes at him one more time. Any softness that had emerged when he talked about me faded. A commercial flashed on the screen and I fell back against the couch cushion.

“See?” Raven pushed my arm. “Told you everything would be okay.” Babysitting duty over, she dropped the blanket in my lap and put her headphones in before heading back upstairs.

I eyed Kari. “I don’t know about okay.” The show had moved to the next segment, and I knew Jagger was somewhere inside that building, living my old life, even if it was just for a night. As much as I wanted to see him, feel his muscles move under my touch, and brush my lips against his cheek, leaving a streak of lipstick behind, I didn’t envy him. After watching the interview, I thought maybe we did have a chance. I’d braced myself for bitterness, contempt, any sign that he’d moved on without me. Instead, I was left with an intensified craving for Jagger. “I think he handled it pretty well.”