Prince Player(141)

I can’t get the girl out of my head.

I don’t know why. I’ve never been so hung up on someone before. I’ve been with plenty of women, some of them rich, all of them beautiful, but none of them holds a candle to Sadie.

I just keep seeing her coy little smile at dinner, the way she laughs, the way our conversation flowed with such ease. I can’t stop imagining what I’d do to her body.

Sending her the lingerie wasn’t hard. Her family’s address is easy enough to get, and I figured that if I sent it to her but didn’t include a return address, she might just get it.

But I have no clue if she did or not, because she didn’t call. I don’t know what I expected, sending her lingerie. I knew it would rile her up at the very least. I half thought she might call me angry and demand an explanation.

But I got something worse. I got silence.

I didn’t expect silence. Anger I can deal with. Excitement and desire, obviously I want those. But just nothing, well, that drives me even crazier. Makes me want her even more.

A couple days after the date and sending her the lingerie, I went to get a drink with my closest friend, Chuck Peck. He’s a friend from high school, one of the smartest guys I know. He turned his high school education into a job on Wall Street trading stocks.

Chuck sips his whisky and cocks his head at me. “So what are you going to do?” he asks. I just finished telling him the story of Sadie Tillman.

I shrug. “Not sure what I can do.”

“Not like you to just give up.”

“Never said I’d given up.” I grin at him. “Just need a new angle.”

“The lingerie thing was a bold move.”

“You know me. Can’t do anything halfway.”

“Maybe you scared the girl,” he muses.

I frown a little bit and sip my own whisky. It’s smoky and malty, a really gorgeous blend. “Maybe,” I admit. “I don’t think so, though.”

“The Tillmans are no joke,” Chuck says. “What if they found the box and she never got it?”

“I suspect I’d be meeting with their lawyers then,” I say, grinning.

Chuck sighs. “It’s not funny, man,” he says. “The Tillmans are like… buying out Congress rich. You know what I mean?”

“Not to mention connected as all hell,” I say, nodding. “I get it.”

“Why mess with them?”

“I’m not,” I say.

“You are. There are plenty of women in this city, and almost all of them won’t get you in fucking trouble with the Tillman family.”

“I’ve had all of those women,” I say, grinning. “There’s just something about this one. I don’t know, man. I can’t explain it.”

He looks at me then sighs, shaking his head. “You’re going to keep going after her, aren’t you? Nothing I can say?”

“You’ve known me long enough to know I’m not going to back off,” I say.

He shrugs. “Okay then. What’s your next move?”

“Another package,” I say. “But I need to think of what to put inside of it.”

“Can’t help you there,” he says, shaking his head. “I’ll listen and advise, but I’m not crossing that line.”

“You afraid of the Tillmans?”

He stares at me for a second then nods his head. “You’re damn right I am.”

We go back to drinking and change the subject, but I can’t really blame him. Chuck is a smart guy, and he’s been around long enough to know that you don’t mess with people like the Tillmans.

I’ve learned that same lesson, but apparently it didn’t stick. Because the next day, despite warnings from Chuck, I find myself putting together another package.

This one is smaller, much smaller. It’s a box about eight inches long, two inches wide, and inside is a gorgeous little black vibrator.

I can’t help but feel excited as hell as I put together this package. I write a little more on the card this time, heart racing.

You have the outfit and now you have the toy. Call me to discuss what to do with it. Gavin.

I grin to myself as I put it all together. If her family intercepts this thing, I’ll be totally fucked. They’ll come after me hard, and I can’t really blame them.

But she won’t be able to ignore this if she does get it somehow. The lingerie was pushing it, but this vibrator is stepping over the line and then running way past it. It’s going to piss her off, or maybe it’s going to excite her, but it’s going to get a reaction.

I mail it off and then I wait. I sent the package by courier, so I know that she’ll get it by the morning at the latest, I can barely sleep that night, thinking about how she’ll react when she wakes up to this little surprise on her doorstep, or however rich girls like her get their mail.