"You faked that?" Charm looks aghast then impressed. "Damn, you're good."
"Lots of practice." I glance at my phone one more time to make sure I haven't missed a text from Grip. "I'm serious, no talk of threesomes in front of Grip. His plane landed thirty minutes ago. I sent him the address and he should be here any minute."
"He doesn't know you did threes?"
"He doesn't like that I did. Believe me, I do not want to hear about his either. We're both pretty possessive, but I know he's had his share." I give her a flinty look. "Speaking of sharing, I don't anymore, not him, so don't even think about it."
"Okay, okay." Charm throws up her hands in defense. "I get it."
"What do you get?" Charm often thinks she "gets" things about which she's actually clueless, and I'm guessing my relationship with Grip qualifies as one of them.
"You're exploring your options." Charm's smile is as dirty as a smudge on pristine paper. "Trying something different."
"He's not some exotic experiment." I wince at the picture I think she's forming in her head.
"You're not . . ." Charm's eyes narrow, speculate, and then widen. "You don't think he's, like, the one, do you?"
Before I can assure her he most definitely is the one, she goes on.
"I assumed you'd land with someone like Parker." She pours scandal and conjecture into her glance and shakes vigorously. "I mean, before he went to prison, of course, but anyone with that much money can always be redeemed."
"Parker?" Revulsion is on spin cycle in my stomach. "Parker is a miscreant who cares only about himself. He's cruel and perverted."
I sit up straighter and tell her what used to be the unpardonable sin in her book.
"And he fucks like a boy. I practically had to hold his hand when we had sex." I look at her meaningfully. "I mean that quite literally. I got myself off more often than not."
"Through the years, my standards have lowered by necessity. I could live with DIY if I had all his millions." Charm laughs at the disgust I know is evident on my face. "I'm just saying, men like Parker, that's who we marry. We know what it is. We're UES, Bris."
"I may have grown up on the Upper East Side, but you know it's not all it's cracked up to be."
"Actually, it was every bit that it was cracked up to be for me." Charm laughs in that way that always made me want to join in. She is outrageous, and what Grip would call "siditty," but underneath all the posturing, she's a good friend.
"But that was never enough for me," I remind her quietly with a sad smile for the holiday breaks I spent at her house when my family was on the road. Our eyes exchange those memories before she goes on.
"And he's enough?" she asks. "Grip is enough?"
"Oh, he's more than enough." I chuckle, a rich, satisfied sound even to my own ears.
"Is that your subtle way of telling me he has a big dick?" Her eyes light up with humor and curiosity.
"Believe me, there's nothing subtle about it." We share the kind of secret grin I only have with Charm and Jimmi, my two wildest friends.
"Now that I understand." Charm's glance turns contrite. "I didn't mean to sound . . . like I sounded before, but you must admit, he's a bit of a departure from the guys we've dated, the guys you've dated in the past."
"I know that, but you have these labels for us. Everyone does. I'm Upper East Side, Hamptons, debutante, Ivy league. I'm Angela Gray's daughter." I lift my brows in expectation. "And he's a rapper from Compton, right?"
"Well, that's oversimplified, but from the outside looking in, yeah."
"But what you don't know is that he's an incredible son. Seeing him take care of his mother showed me how he'll take care of me."
I press my hand to my heart, touching the place where the truth about him glows like a filament.
"He's a loyal friend, and he has a conscience even when it's not convenient," I say. "You don't know that when we make love, he whispers poetry. He makes me feel treasured. He'd die for me, and without thinking twice, I would die for him, too."
My words dangle in the air, defying gravity, and Charm is looking at me like she's never seen me before, like I'm a stranger. Compared to the self-absorbed, vapid girl she knew years ago, I probably am. I'm a new creature, and Grip has undoubtedly had a hand in refashioning me. I'm a little embarrassed when I replay my words. Charm and I haven't really talked like this in a long time, and I just poured my heart down her throat like a vodka tonic.
"I get why you're tempted to define him with easy labels, but he . . . well, Grip defies defining." I shrug and offer a self-conscious laugh. "You'll get it when you meet him."
"Then I'm about to get it." Charm's eyes lock onto something over my shoulder and light up like a kid sniffing cotton candy. "Hello there. Grip, I presume?"
I glance over my shoulder to the apartment entrance. Grip stands there, a huge suitcase on wheels trailing him.
How long has he been there? Did he hear me gushing about him like a lovesick teenager?
Lines of fatigue bracket the decadent spread of his lips, like he hasn't had much sleep. A thin layer of stubble hugs the jut of his jaw, like he hasn't had a shave, and his dark eyes rove over my breasts, my legs, and my face, like he hasn't had me in thirteen days. From ten feet away, he's eating me alive, and the memory of our last morning together crowds out the present. The phantom strokes of his hands over me, how he licked greedily at my body's secrets-it all rushes back. If Charm weren't here, I'd already be wrapped around him like a koala in heat.
"Guess I'm in the right place." He spares Charm a quick glance and a polite smile before looking back to me, his eyes going gentler and hotter. "Hey babe."
The hell if I care what Charm thinks. I'm up and across the few feet separating us. My arms slink up behind his neck and I press into him, so solid, so here after two weeks of absence. He drops the handle of the suitcase to lock his hands low on my hips, barely a decent distance from my ass, and lowers his head to kiss me. It should be quick. I'm aware of Charm watching us and of her mother and the owner of this lovely apartment mere minutes away, but as soon as I taste him, there's no stopping. He persuades my lips open, his groan vibrating on my tongue and sliding into my chest. He creeps one hand up and into my hair, bunching it in his fist. My hands venture under the leather jacket he's wearing and I dig my fingers through the soft cotton of his shirt into the dense muscles of his back.
He slows the kiss when we're temporarily sated, but sexual energy still powers the connection between us. He pulls back, glancing over my shoulder at Charm, and quirks love-bitten lips into a rueful grin.
"Sorry, we haven't seen each other in a while." He pulls me into his side, one arm draped over my shoulder. "You must be Charm. Nice to meet you."
Charm's cheeks are positively pink, and I'd know that flush anywhere. In college, the girl didn't have a spank bank so much as a vibrator vault. I know how many batteries she used to go through.
"Charm, you don't get to think about this tonight when you're alone." My voice is light, but I narrow my eyes so she knows I'm dead serious. Grip will not feature in her fantasies-I forbid it.
"Ahem." Charm practically floats to her feet and glides over, hand extended. If she curtsies, I'm kneeing her in the vagina. "I've heard so much about you, and none of it did you justice."
Grip's mouth tightens against what I suspect is laughter.
"I've heard a lot about you, too."
"Have you heard that I really want to do a book deal with you?" Charm shifts from slut muffin to shrewd businesswoman-editor-person with whiplash swiftness. "I suspect come December your Grammy nom will be announced. May as well start on New York Times bestseller, too."
"Charm, we're here to look at the apartment," I remind her. "Not ink a deal."
Who can think about business at a time like this, when I'm snuggled into my boyfriend's hard body and surrounded by his addictive scent?
"Knock, knock." A living, breathing prediction of Charm in twenty years pokes her head into the apartment entrance. "Anybody home?"
"Mother." Charm teeters on her Manolos, making her way over to Bridget Simmons, offering air kisses that come close to actually landing on her cheeks. "You look amazing."
"Oh, thank you, dear," Bridget practically purrs. "I've been doing Pure Barre."
"It shows," Charm says admiringly. "Where's Mrs. O'Malley?"
"Not far behind me, I'm sure." She smiles over at Grip and me. "Hullo, darlings. You must be Grip. Nice to meet you. Bristol, come, come."