"I already said no."
"You also said you'd help us."
She looks conflicted, and I know I'm close to winning-at least where my daughter's concerned. Audrey wants to help Jeanne, but she also wants to roast me oven an open fire. I know I deserve that, and more. I also know that the small part of me that really was interested in her all those years ago is still alive and kicking. I want a chance with Audrey. It won't be a second chance, because I never really gave her a first one, and that may have been the stupidest thing I've ever done in my life.
"If I pretended to be your girlfriend, we'd have to go out."
"Yes. I'd buy you whatever you need."
"I don't need your money." Or you. She didn't say it out loud, but it's clear as day that that's what she meant.
"So, Ares?"
"I'm one of her best friends, and I should be going."
"Going? You're my date for the cocktail party tonight."
"No, darling, I'm pretty sure Blake here has just claimed that date."
"He doesn't speak for me, and I'm not going with him."
She looks like she might have a panic attack, and it takes me a minute to understand why. "I'll be there," I say quietly. "I promise to pick you up, and be an attentive date all night."
"Your promise means nothing to me."
"I'm not the boy who hurt you, Audrey. Give me a chance to prove that to you. Be my date tonight, and move into the house with us."
"Yes, please Audrey. It would be so much fun to have someone smart around."
"Hey now."
"Sorry, Dad."
"It's okay. I know I'm not in your league."
"Plus, if you're there, Audrey, my mom will totally freak out. She thinks she still owns my dad, even though they've been divorced for years."
From the mouths of babes. Those words just hooked Audrey. I watch as her mouth curves up into a genuine smile, and why wouldn't it? I may have been a player in the game of humiliating her, but my ex-wife was the coach, head cheerleader, and quarterback all rolled into one. Even a saint would want to get her back a little for what she said and did, and from what I can tell, Audrey is no saint.
"Pick me up at seven, Blake, and don't be late. We can discuss my moving in after the party," she says, turning to Reina. "You guys have Jeanne, right?"
"We do. She'll be safe."
"Thank you, Audrey. I mean it."
"Oh, the pleasure's going to be all mine, Blake."
Not if I can help it. I never in a million years thought that a threat to my daughter's safety would bring Audrey back into my life. I'm not glad it happened this way-my daughter is more important to me than anything else-but I can't say I'm sorry about it. I'm going to prove to both of us that I've changed, and tonight is the perfect place to start. Having her in my bed will hopefully come later.
Chapter 1
Blake
I check my reflection in the elevator mirror at least fifteen times on my way up to Audrey's apartment. I'm acting like a teenage boy on his first date. Scratch that, I was never nervous on dates when I was a teenager, which is part of the problem. I never had to work for anything-or anyone-when I was younger. Or now. I was the BMOC back then, and I'm currently one of the biggest movie stars on the planet. Panties drop when I enter a room. I know it, and I've definitely taken advantage of it.
I don't regret most of what I've done. I'm a red-blooded American male, and I wasn't going to turn down sex of any kind with the girls or women who offered it. Does that make me an ass, or a douche? Probably, but like I said, it's never really bothered me.
Audrey, though, she's bothered me. If I have just one regret, it's that I didn't take her to prom. I honestly wanted to-or, at least, a part of me wanted it. Not a big enough part to make me risk my popularity, or Misha. And I can't regret that I was with Misha, because I got Jeanne. No one, and nothing, comes before my daughter. Especially not her mother, who is more concerned about the slowing down of her career than the pain Jeanne feels for basically being abandoned by her.
Fuck Misha, though. Or in my case, don't. She's tried to win me back, going so far as to sneak into my bedroom, but it's no use. I'm not attracted to her anymore. I honestly hadn't been for years before I ended things for good. It was just easier to go to bed with her than to find someone who wasn't trying to use me for my fame. She was only using me for my fame, but I was too stupid to see that until it was almost too late. My daughter paid the price for my stupidity, and I'll never let that happen again. The locks on every property I own have been changed, and I only see Misha in public. She disgusts me, and if she hasn't gotten the hint by now, I doubt that she ever will.
All thoughts of Misha, and any other woman I've ever met my entire life, go out of my brain when Audrey opens her door. I have no brain cells left. None. She's got on some kind of silk top that looks like a scarf that covers about as little as an actual scarf would. It's blue with some black and grey mixed in. As she walks out into the hall in front of me, I see that there's no back, save for a thin string that matches the one in front. So basically, this little piece of string below her braless tits is all that's between me and those luscious globes she's got on full display.
Speaking of globes, her perfect ass is encased in a tight black pencil skirt. I can't move. No joke. Every bit of blood in my body has pooled into my rock hard dick, and I'm stuck to the floor. Audrey and her "fuck me" heels have no problem walking, while I just want to beg her to go ahead and do it. Fuck me any way she wants it.
"Is there a problem, Blake?" she asks with that slight accent that has always made my heart race.
"You look good enough to eat, and I'm feeling pretty ravenous right about now."
She looks down at my crotch, which is somewhat hidden by my suit jacket, and smirks. "You'll be taking care of that all by yourself. Or with one of your groupies," she says with a shrug.
"Groupies? This is our reunion , not a movie premiere."
"You had groupies in high school, and I doubt they've grown out of it," she says, looking me over from head to toe.
"You like what you see, Audrey?"
"No," she tells me, walking over to remove my tie and unbutton my shirt a little. "Better. You looked too formal."
"I always wear a tie."
"I'm not formal tonight, so you wearing one makes it look like we didn't plan to go together to the party."
She has a point. We need to look like a couple. Misha loved dressing up as much as I did, so that was never a problem. Audrey's going to dress up, too. Just in a different way. A sexy, and hot different way that will probably keep me hard 24/7, and also keep me on my toes as how to best complement her clothes with mine. Or rather, how my stylist can best complement them.
"Got it. We'll just have to remember to send pics of what you'll be wearing to my stylist so she can coordinate."
"You can't pick something out yourself?"
Um, no. "I could try, I guess."
"Does someone wipe your ass for you, too?"
"That's not fair, Audrey," I say, grabbing her arm. "I have to take care of my daughter, worry about remembering my lines, get wherever I'm needed all day, every day, and smile every time I walk out the door. I also do my own stunts. So excuse me if I don't really care what I'm wearing and would rather let someone else pick the color of my tie."
"I'm sorry, Blake. I shouldn't have been so bitchy. You've just been the poster boy for my anger for so long now. I don't know how to be nice to you."
"Did you throw darts at my poster?" I ask, joking.
"Yes. And I used pictures of you and your friends for target practice during my training."
Whoa. I wasn't expecting that; although, I guess I should have been. "I truly am sorry."
"I want to believe that you are, it's just twenty years too late."
"I know. Can we maybe start over?" I ask her as we climb into the backseat of the car I hired for tonight.
"No. I think your daughter is great, and I take my job very seriously, but you and me? Never going to happen."
"Haven't you heard that you should never say never?"
"Why me? Why now? If it's because you can see my curves, and I don't have braces or thick glasses, then you should just move along. Because inside-where it counts-I'm still that same teenage girl you never gave a second thought to, the science nerd you and your friends thought nothing of hurting. I may have gained some confidence, but I haven't changed. I won't change who I am."
"I thought of you."
"Of how to torment and humiliate me, maybe, but not me. Because if you had, you wouldn't have done it. Any of it."
We've arrived at the restaurant on the beach where the party is, and she reaches for the door. I stop her. "We have to get out together."