Queen In Play (The Manhattan Tales Book 2) Read online

  My thoughts were interrupted by the beep of the intercom. I exhaled deeply and took a second to compose myself before I picked up the phone to answer the page.

  “Yes, Dr. Rochester?” I asked. Even after a month of working as the new part-time receptionist in Piper’s thriving practice, it felt strange calling her Dr. Rochester.

  “Jillian, Mr. Collins is on his way to the front desk to book a session for next week. Make sure you leave Fridays open. Thank you.”

  “Of course,” I replied and then placed the phone back on the receiver.

  “Hello again, Jillian,” Mr. Collins approached the desk with a warm smile. He wore an expensive charcoal suit, and his dark blond hair was slicked back. He was thirty-nine, very successful, very handsome and very troubled. His appointments have already been lined up for the next month, and I knew the real reason why he was stopping by the front desk.

  “Good evening, Mr. Collins,” I gave him a very friendly and professional smile. I looked at the computer screen as I double-checked his appointment schedule. “I have you down for Thursday at three o’clock next week.”

  “Wonderful, thank you, Jillian.” He gave another smile.

  “Are the email reminders working for you? If not, I will call you the day before to remind you. I know your schedule is very demanding.”

  “The emails only get lost in the abyss of other emails I have.” He fished into his leather wallet and pulled out a business card and scrawled a number down on the crisp, rectangular cream color. “Call that number to confirm.”

  “Alright, thank you.”

  “That’s my personal number. Feel free to call anytime.” There was something very dark behind those eyes. Why do I seem to attract men who are deeply troubled?

  “Um. Okay. I will be sure to call the number and confirm your appointments.” I wasn’t sure how I should respond to this obvious flirting.

  I turned toward the computer screen and entered the number he wrote down on his business card. I turned back to him and I could see a flicker of disappointment in his dark blue eyes while I remained as professional as possible.

  “You’re all set, Mr. Collins. Thank you for updating your contact number. We’ll see you on Thursday at three o’clock.”

  He nodded with a tight smile and then left the office. He was the second client of Piper’s who has tried to blatantly flirt with me, just within a month of my employment there. He’d only just started his therapy sessions about a month ago, and he stopped by the desk every week religiously to say hi, if nothing else. I neither wanted nor needed to get involved with any of Piper’s patients. It was also completely unethical, and I had enough trouble trying to keep Mason out of my mind.

  Speaking of the devil… I turned back to the screen on the desk and maximized the online Financial News column I’d been reading on Mason Woodward before I got caught up in schedule reminders, emails and faxes. The column spoke of his hotel company’s expansion to Las Vegas. Mason is not an A-List celebrity, and it’s only been very recent that he started making headlines in gossip blogs and papers. He is hot as sin and his family’s legacy has maintained its mark in the corporate world internationally. A combination like this will always leave room for gossip in the tabloid sections.

  The office was now empty. It was a Friday, nearing five o’clock, we were now closed, and it was also my birthday. I could afford a quick peak of the webpage before Piper spotted me.

  Why do I torment myself with this? Because I loved him, and against my better judgement, my body still craves him. It’s pathetic.

  My memories of his touch came crashing down when the headline screamed at me. It had been posted within the last hour. Under the headline was a picture of Mason walking with a tall, beautiful woman. She was looking away from the camera with her chin held high in the air. Even in the photograph, I could see that she possessed an air of grace and etiquette that I will never have. She wore a mint green, quarter sleeve dress and her copper hair was pulled into a twist beneath her large, fancy hat. Mason’s hands were shoved into the pockets of his dark gray business suit. His gaze was fixed directly on the photographer, and was as tempestuous as the Spring storm looming just outside. There was such fury in his eyes, as though he might murder the photographers.

  Heir to J.A. Woodward & Company Might Be The Perfect Match for Meadows Heiress.

  Despite the fact that both individuals seemed to be completely disconnected and lacked any kind of chemistry, I could not help but feel a sharp pang of jealousy and resentment. Pain. This is how it felt to be gutted. If this had been the only gossip spread on the pair, I’d just brush it off as speculation. But now, there were photographs. In the last few weeks, they’d popped up in articles in the financial sections as well as arts and culture sections as they attended fancy horse shows and galas. Shit like that. It really hurt. I shouldn’t be feeling this way, though. I’m the one who told him to leave me alone. No, I shouldn’t want this. I can’t want him.

  I brushed those thoughts from my mind as I followed Piper out of the office. We were going out to celebrate my birthday and support Jackson’s newest club opening, which also happened to fall on my birthday. I had never been to a club before, and I was dragging Elyse with us.

  ****

  At around seven p.m., Elyse met us at Piper’s apartment, which had been my home for the last six weeks. The tunes of Skylar Grey played in the background, floating from the stereo in the living room of Piper’s apartment. I was sitting at the polished glass dining table with Elyse, who spontaneously decided I needed a makeover for the evening’s festivities.

  “Stop laughing!” Elyse scolded me as she tickled my face with the blusher brush.

  I tried to calm my giggling and took a deep breath of air. “Sorry.” I scrunched my nose as one last giggle escaped and then cleared my throat.

  “All finished. Take a look.” Elyse held up her compact mirror.

  I gazed at my reflection and saw a flushed face, glossy red lips and smoky eye shadow.

  “Elyse, No. I don’t even recognize myself!”

  “Babe, you look hot! Trust me.” Elyse assured me. She left me at the table and walked a few steps into the living room, where she turned up the volume on the speakers and began dancing to the music.

  I grinned as I watched Elyse sway to music that played from the surround sound speakers. She wore a form fitting dress in a shade she liked to refer to as slut red. It was a joke, because Elyse was anything but a slut. She’d already had a couple of glasses of wine and had kicked off her heels. It was awesome to see her so relaxed, for once.

  I watched her look at me over her shoulder with a playful grin as she moved her hips, and I gave a laugh.

  “Are you trying to seduce me?” I joked.

  “Maybe,” she grinned with a tease as she continued to shake her ass in a way that almost made me blush.

  “Please tell me you’re not going to dance like that tonight. You’ll have the men drooling all over you.” I arched a brow in her direction.

  “They can look, but they’ll never touch. I don’t need a man.” She stopped her dancing and strutted across the living room and dug through her denim bag. “Who needs a man when I have a rabbit?”

  I laughed. “You and your sex toys…”

  “It’s no joke, babe.” She held out an unopened, bright pink vibrator in glossy plastic packaging. “The only time this thing will let you down is if you need another set of double A’s. These babies will never lie to you, reject you, betray you or use you in some pathetic college bet.” She gritted her teeth as she added that last part bitterly, and then tossed the package to me.

  “Happy birthday!”

  I caught the package with a giggle. I could use this tonight if Mason comes to mind- No! No!

  I banished any traitorous thoughts coming from that direction.

  “Thanks!” I grinned.

  We were waiting for Piper to finish getting ready, and then we were going to our favorite Mexican restaurant for ta
cos and mojitos before heading over to Jackson’s new club in Midtown.

  “So…” Elyse got that curious tone in her voice. Oh no, I can feel it coming.

  “Have you heard from Mason lately? Is he planning on showing up at his cousin’s club tonight?”

  My heart fluttered sorely in my chest. “No, Piper said he’s still in London.” I was both disappointed and relieved that he would not be showing up tonight.

  Elyse looked at me silently. I knew what she was thinking. I never told her what happened between me and Mason. She had no idea that he had planned to use me for revenge, or that he printed surveillance photos of us having sex to mail to my brother. She was confused about the whole situation, and why I couldn’t talk about it. I suppose I never mentioned it because I didn’t want to draw extra attention to that horrible subject…

  “Do you have any gum?” Elyse asked, attempting to change the subject and lighten the moment.

  “Yeah, it’s in my bag,” I pointed to the faux leather bag I bought on a street corner to replace the designer bag Mason had purchased for me.

  “Great, thanks.” Elyse wasted no time opening my bag as she looked for the mint gum I always carried with me. “I don’t see it.”

  “It’s in the side pocket,” I said as I crossed the room to locate it for her. My bag was an endless abyss of necessities. She looked through my bag, and then suddenly froze.

  “Jill…” Her voice trailed as she pulled out one-half of the ripped check I had hidden in there.

  Oh, shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. It had been buried in the bottom and I had forgotten about it…

  “Jill, what is this?” Elyse asked me. There were deep etches of concern in her blue eyes. Her brow was furrowed.

  I went to swipe it out of her hand, but she dodged away from me and looked at the paper. She studied the half of the check that had the amount for two million dollars scribbled, along with the signature from Mason’s father, James Woodward.

  She looked at me, her blue eyes searching for answers. “I keep quiet about a lot of things, but this…? What is this?”

  I swallowed hard and looked toward Piper’s bedroom door. The door was still closed while she was getting ready.

  I sat down on the black leather sofa and let out a deep breath. “Mason’s father tried to bribe me to stay away from him. This was a few months ago. It doesn’t make any sense and nothing came of it. Mason doesn’t know about it, and I keep the check to remind myself why I can’t think of him.” This is only one of the many reasons why I can’t think of him.

  Elyse gave me a direct stare. Her blue eyes were fiery. “You mean to tell me that you let his prick of a father push you away?” She can be so feisty and confrontational sometimes. She looked at me with hands on both hips.

  I could see her defiance and rebellion simmer, and I took the ripped check from her hands. I shoved it back into my bag, and then handed her two pieces of gum.

  “What, like they think you’re not good enough for him? That’s why you broke up?” She was getting wound up. I was talking to someone who has spent more than half her life dealing with rejection. This struck a bad chord with Elyse.

  “No,” I responded crisply. “I don’t want to talk about it. Not tonight, okay?” My tone wasn’t sharp; I was asking for understanding. I couldn’t talk about this without breaking down and tonight wasn’t about wallowing. Tonight was about going out and having a good time with my friends.

  She nodded, visibly relaxing, and then gave me a smile just as Skylar Grey’s album began to play over the surround sound in the living room.

  “This is our song,” Elyse grinned as she took my hand and forced me to dance with her. She twirled me around, which was difficult to do since I was wearing strappy black heels and they almost got caught on the rug a few times. Elyse swayed her hips. She had such good rhythm and moved her body with such fluidity. I felt like a stiff robot next to her, and we both giggled at my lack of dance skills.

  Our song ended and Skylar Grey’s cover, Love the Way You Lie, quickly began.

  I grimaced as I skipped over this song. It used to be one of my favorites, but it just reminds me too much of Mason.

  Elyse rolled her eyes. “Seriously?”

  I gave a shrug, and then slipped into the bathroom to check my makeup. I could still hear the music from the living room as I examined my reflection in the mirror. My dark auburn waves were perfectly tousled this evening and I was wearing an electric blue silk dress I found on sale in a department store. I wore strappy black heels to match. I didn’t feel stunning, but I had to remind myself that tonight was about having fun and nothing else.

  I left the bathroom and found Piper and Elyse sitting on the white sofa in the living room, talking while they waited. Piper wore a fitting black, v-neck dress with matching heels. Her chestnut hair was pulled back into a high ponytail and she opted to wear her frames this evening. The club scene wasn’t exactly her style or mine, but we were going to support her brother’s grand opening.

  ****

  Dinner with the girls was so much fun, and the mojitos were excellent. It was great to have a social life, where I could meet with friends and have a job. I rolled my eyes as I thought of Mason’s contract. Not tonight, I reminded myself as I banished all thoughts and memories of that man.

  “To Jillian on her birthday, and one month away from graduation!” Elyse announced as she clinked her mojito with Piper’s and mine.

  I giggled as I kept my drink in the air while we sat in the booth. “And Jax isn’t here, but here’s to him on the success of his club opening!”

  “And letting us in free,” Elyse added as Piper smirked slightly.

  Jackson’s new nightclub is called Lush. He loves investing in real estate, but he owns a piano bar in SoHo, which has become very popular. I’ve never been to the piano bar, but I’ve heard him refer to it as his baby. There has been so much hype surrounding the grand opening of Lush in recent weeks. The outside of the club was buzzing with hungry gossip columnists and other media when we arrived in the cab. Vultures. I’d lost all respect for them after they circulated those pictures of me on the stretcher two months ago, unconscious.

  The media lurked by the entrance, hoping to snag someone important for an interview. Lights flashed everywhere as I followed Piper inside, and I felt my retinas burn. I was seeing spots by the time I found myself inside, on the main floor. Half-blind, Elyse and I followed Piper over to a table in the far corner that had been reserved for us.

  Once my vision was cleared of the daze, I looked around in awe. Soft magenta light illuminated the black and white checkered marble that was laid out in an open floor plan. The large, round bar station was a dark cherry wood. I could see that the most expensive liquors rested on glass shelves, which were illuminated by a gentle white light.

  The scene was packed, but it wasn’t so bad that we couldn’t walk. The club boasted of four different levels, each with its own theme which gave patrons plenty of room to enjoy and explore as it pleased them.

  A waitress dressed in a clingy white dress approached us. Her copper hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She flashed us a perky smile.

  “Good evening, Mrs. Rochester, Ms. Mendez, and Ms. Pryor. What will you ladies be drinking tonight?

  Piper looked up at the waitress and scrunched her nose. The mistake did not go unnoticed. “No missus, it’s just Piper. Mr. Jackson Rochester is my brother.”

  The waitress looked mortified by her mistake. “Oh, I’m so sorry. They have you down as a Mrs. Rochester. I’m so sorry. I’ll have that fixed.”

  “It’s alright… It’s just that there is no Mrs. Rochester,” Piper murmured. “But I’ll have a cosmo, please.”

  “I’ll have a …” I took a quick glance at the drink menu. “Make that two cosmos,” I shrugged.

  “I’ll take a sex on the beach,” Elyse gave a snarky grin, emphasizing the word sex. Her face was flushed from the mojitos she already had at the restaurant.

  “Of
course, and again, I’m so sorry about that error.” The waitress looked at Piper apologetically, then darted away to get our drink orders. Piper looked at us with a pained look on her face.

  “So gross.” She frowned.

  I snorted a giggle at her facial expression. Once I got to know Piper, I found her to have a very dry wit.

  I looked around at the club. The music provided a pulsating energy and I could see people on the dance floor moving to the rhythm. Lights danced fluidly over the checkered marble. Within five minutes, the floor had become more packed, and the round bar station was now brimming with business.

  “Well there’s the birthday girl,” a sultry male voice crept up behind me and I felt a firm clasp on my shoulder. The unexpected greeting was enough to make me jolt. I gasped, startled.

  “Oh my God, Jax.” Piper admonished. “Why do you always have to sneak up on people like that?”

  Jackson only grinned. He stood as tall as Mason, but looked nothing like his cousin. He wore a crisp light gray suit with a matching dark and light gray pin stripe tie. His wavy chestnut hair was combed away from his face and he was all business in appearance. I always found there to be a very commanding presence about Jackson. There was something very strong, yet dark, about the way he carried himself. He exuded an air of confidence and power, but it was very different than the way Mason commanded such attention. Jackson was always smiling and could be very outgoing and sociable when he wanted to be. Then, there were times when he prefered to remain in the shadows and watch people from afar. Like his cousin, he was an enigma. Still, I found it easy to feel comfortable around him. Elyse was another story.