Billionaire Novelist 3 : The Wicked Redhead and the Billionaire Novelist(16)

The house lights dimmed, and everyone pinched the taps on their conversations, voices dribbling down to whispers.

I grabbed Smith's hand and tried to squeeze the truth out. "What tragic circumstances?"

He turned to me, his eyes sad, and whispered, "You probably won't like me anymore, but I'll tell you as soon as the novel's done."

"In three days?"

He nodded. "In three days."

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. "Tori?" 

I took a deep breath and prepared myself.

Slowly, I turned to my left, to face my past, in the form of Todd.

"This is so crazy," Todd said, his voice having more of an Australian accent than I remembered. "We were just talking about you, and now here you are."

Todd, always being Mr. Full Details, explained the entire spiel about winning the trip, while I nodded and smiled like an idiot. That accent! It was so outback-y. He sounded like a funny impression of an Australian, but he was cute.

Todd had dark, nearly-black hair, as thick as Smith's, and cut short enough I could see the scalp. He used to rub his freshly-buzzed hair on my bare stomach to get me to laugh. His amber-brown eyes were as captivating now as ever, bringing up feelings I thought were gone forever. I didn't feel pathetic when he looked at me with a smile on his face.

Oh, Todd, I did miss you. We'd had our good times, and he was the youngest guy I'd ever been with, basically my age.

The girl he was with, Rochelle, was talking to someone next to her, not yet aware I was there.

Todd grinned that miles-wide smile of his, his teeth perfectly straight thanks to both of his parents being dentists of some type or other. I'd never actually met them, and I always imagined it wasn't the distance, with them being in Australia, but that Todd was ashamed of me and my less-than-sophisticated upbringing.

Todd poked me playfully on the leg and said, "Did you win a trip, too?"

"No, I'm here with this guy." I pointed to Smith and got a funny idea. "He's my dad. Finally, after all these years, I tracked him down." I turned to Smith, a wicked grin on my face. "Right, Daddy?"

Smith opened his mouth to disagree, but the crowd around us erupted in applause as the opening act took the stage. He gave me a look that said I was going to get a very serious spanking later for my disobedience. His stern expression made me very aroused, as did-to my surprise-sitting next to Todd.

Being so close to my former lover, smelling his familiar scent, brought memories rushing back.

I thought of the two of us at that tacky p**n o movie theater, and me giving him a furtive hand job under a tented jacket.

Then there was the night we made love in his shared dorm room, even though we knew his horny roommate was awake and watching in the candle light. I hadn't been able to get off that evening, due to nerves, but I'd climbed on first thing in the morning, desperate and wet, and he'd risen to the occasion like a champion, more than once.

Up on stage, the opening band made their entrance with a great flashing of lights and smoke. I'd never been in the front row at a concert like this, and when the lead singer made eye contact with me, I was immediately starstruck, my insides fluttery. My excitement overwhelmed me, pushing tears into my eyes, even though the song wasn't familiar, let alone huge.

As I watched them, they kept looking down at the front row, down at me.

The guys on stage were all sexy, owning the stage, and owning me with their eyes. Sitting pretty in the VIP section, I felt desirable and overdressed in the exact right way, like a spoiled rich girl. I could get used to this, too.

A pretty hand with short, purple fingernails reached across Todd and patted my leg. I took Rochelle's hand and squeezed it in greeting, and we both leaned across Todd to say hello. I couldn't hear a word she said over the band, but I didn't need to. We'd been friends, and though we'd drifted apart shortly before graduation, we knew each other's hearts and minds. Seeing her with Todd made absolute sense. I knew them both, and they were a good fit, more natural than me with Todd.

My left breast was resting against Todd's arm, yet he didn't shy away. Emboldened by the drinks I'd quaffed moments earlier, I leaned in more, curious about what he would do. He didn't react at all, not even when I rested my hands on his muscular thigh, ostensibly to talk more easily to Rochelle.




 

 

She was telling me about some job she'd started in her hometown, but I couldn't hear anything over the band.

Suddenly, I remembered something in vivid detail. The shock washed over me in waves. I didn't just send messages from other people's phones as pranks. I also used to send filthy text messages to Todd during classes, telling him about dirty things Rochelle and I were going to do to him. Rochelle had been going through an experimental phase, dating a bisexual woman, and she and I thought it was the most hilarious thing ever to joke about "tag-teaming" people.