my mouth and my vision blurred behind a wall of tears I couldn’t hold back.
On top of the envelope inside the drawer were two twenty-dollar bills and a note in Cricket’s handwriting:
Have a good time, baby.
Love,
Mom.
The pounding on the door stopped, and the air left Marty’s lungs in a gasp like he was hit in the gut. “Why would you say something like that?”
I grabbed the envelope and the money and shoved them into my bag. I zipped it closed and threw it over my shoulder. There was no way Marty would let me go if I tried to leave through the door, so I opened the window and took one more look around the only room that had ever been only mine.
A breath.
A pause.
And I jumped.
The fall didn’t stop until tonight.
I chase the salty breeze flowing through the apartment to find Talent leaning against the stone balcony outside. He’s shirtless, dressed in a pair of sweats and barefoot with one ankle crossed over the other. The half-moon bathes him in as much light as it can, mostly-shadowed, calling on the stars to help shine a spotlight on his loveliness.
Nature’s glow is draped over his shoulders like a blanket, sharpening the silhouette of his body against the bleak ocean background. Positioned with his back toward me, his head is down and the muscles in his back subtly move as he switches crossed ankles. Tightening the shirt I stole from his closet around my body, I linger in the living room when I realize he’s speaking on the phone.
“I’m not coming to the office.” His voice in both parts indifferent and firm. A woodsy skunk-like smell I recognize immediately blends with the ocean breeze, hugging my senses.
Grand Haven’s royal boy smokes pot.
The rebelliousness makes me smile.
A cloud of dense white smoke billows around him when he says, “What implications? I’m not coming for the crown, Wilder. I don’t need to be there. It’s fucking midnight, and I’m not doing this tonight.”
My eyes search the room for a clock, finding it on the microwave above the stove. Sure enough, it’s a few minutes after midnight. Who could possibly want to meet with him at this time of night is beyond me, but so are the inner workings of a lawyer with a clientele as great as Ridge & Sons. I don’t mean to eavesdrop, but I don’t waver either.
“She’s here,” Talent admits. His voice takes a softer tone. “Thanks for the heads-up, but I don’t see an issue. If Giovanni has a fucking—”
I take this opportunity to announce my presence and knock gently on the open door leading to the terrace. He’s talking to his brother, who’s made it evident that he doesn’t want me involved with Talent for the greater good of his younger brother and for the good of his family’s reputation.
It’s too early to predict a future for Talent and me. It’s easy to imagine one when our bodies do the talking. When he’s inside of me, I can’t imagine a life that doesn’t involve him. It’s like I’ve waited my entire life for him to rouse me out of the semi-existence I’ve suffered through this long. But it’s not clear where we’d be headed under the influence of the outside world.
Reality waits for us under the lust-fog that’s left us blissfully blind. We’re equals fourteen stories high, but we can’t hide away in the sky from our differences forever. On ground level, the truth is, I’m the highest paid whore in Grand Haven, and Talent Ridge is on his way to taking over the world.
The world can have him back once the sun comes up.
But I want him while we can still hide in the dark.
Talent looks over his shoulder at me and exhales another cloud of smoke. “I have to go.”
He ends the call and discards his phone on the chair beside him. I close the distance between us and hug him from behind, pressing my cheek against the back of his shoulder. His skin is warm, and he smells like sex and salt and contraband.
“I like your shirt,” he says, tapping ash from his joint against the railing.
“Took it from your closet,” I say. Unbuttoned, the shirt falls open and my bare stomach presses against the lowest part of his back. “I didn’t bring anything to change into, and the clothes I came in felt too tight.”
With the memory of his touch and his mouth on every inch of my body fresh in my mind, I’m