Page 24 of Games We Play
But Leah would recognize her. She would always recognize the woman who lit an ever-burning spark in her heart… and awoke the serpent slumbering within her stomach.
Leah looked down at her sister again. Karlie lightly snored. She and Leah had the same nostrils. Her mother often said they looked the same when they slept.
No one ever doubted that they were sisters. Maybe that’s why the truth hurt Leah enough to send her into the arms of people who had the power to fuck her up all over again.
***
Sloan had regained her bearings by the time she landed in Chicago and made it back to her three-level penthouse. The heads of housekeeping and security both greeted her, and the booming voice of personal assistant Ayla rang on the intercom system. She was in Sloan’s study, running facts and figures sent from Portland. Something about needing more information about how Julian Marcus handled the transaction Sloan signed Monday morning.
“That’s nice.” Sloan waited for the housekeeper to go by with the luggage. As soon as she had passed with two Louis Vuitton suitcases rolling behind her, Sloan approached the intercom and pushed the button. “Ayla? How much longer do you plan on being here?”
“Maggie! You’re finally home!”
Was there a ghost on her floor of the penthouse? That was the only explanation Sloan had for the shivers racking her body as she turned around and faced business partner Aaron Giles, currently stepping off the private elevator.
“Aaron.” Sloan turned off the intercom so Ayla would not hear the ill-timed reunion. “I see you’ve been hitting the tanning bed. Or is that the Lake Michigan burn happening this fine winter?”
Other women would have called the “glow” on Aaron’s skin healthy, but she knew the truth. The man was addicted to the spa life. Facials, massages, and god knew how many manicures and pedicures.He goes there more in a month than I have in my life.During the winter, he spent a little too much time in the tanning beds to make up for the lack of yachting and beaching he did during the summer. Not that Sloan blamed him. Aaron did not pull off pasty and pale as well as he did bronze.That’s why I’m sent to Portland, huh?Sloan wasn’t pale, per se, but she blended in with the crowds of Scandinavian-descent Oregonians more than Aaron did. “You should’ve seen the little flurry we had recently. Sidewalks were a pristine white for a whole hour. How was the weather in Portland? I see you went with the blond hair.”
She turned, removing the studs from her ears and slamming them against her palms. With any luck, Aaron wouldn’t follow herallthe way to the master bedroom. Sometimes he forgot what boundaries meant. “Rainy. Windy. Freezing. Why? Did you miss me that much?”
She reached the back of the hallway leading to her chambers. Aaron stayed a respectful distance behind her, but Sloan received the distinct impression that he cared more about chatting than getting the hell out of her hair. “I missed you enough to think about you every day.”
Her middle finger was the only response he received. Yet Sloan made the mistake of not shutting her bedroom door in his face.
“How were Bradley & Marcus?”
Aaron stood in the doorway while Sloan slumped down at her vanity and removed the blond wig from her head. She had a shelf in her closet full of nothing but wigs. Long. Short. Bobbed and razor-cut. Black, chestnut brown, platinum blond, and fiery red. She could have any look she wanted, but she tried to only take one along on her business trips.Men freak the fuck out if they see you with different hair every day.Sometimes that was to her benefit, like when socializing at parties or conferences. Other times, she wanted to keep their attention off her changing hairstyles – like during business proceedings.
The bald head was dedicated to Aaron.
“They didn’t want to budge on the numbers.” Since he was here, she might as well remove her makeup, too. “But they came around.”
“Can only imagine how you made that happen.” That dramatic sigh should have gotten Aaron kicked out of the room. “Especially with a man like Julian Marcus. Didn’t he get his girlfriend a collar?”
Sloan almost spilled her makeup remover. “I don’t dawdle in those kinds of rumors anymore, but I got what I wanted.”
“I bet you did, Maggie. That’s what’s so great about you.”
He might as well have been breathing down her neck. Sloan glared at his reflection in her vanity mirror and said, “So how many women have you knocked up this weekend?”
Aaron didn’t miss a beat. “At least two. Only one fewer than you, I’m sure.”
“I didn’t take my strap-on with me. Sorry to disappoint.”
“Not as disappointed as your most recent girlfriend, I’m sure.”
Sloan had thought of Leah multiple times that day.So what? I think about the women I fuck… sometimes… once in a while…Thus far, Leah was winning how many times she commanded Sloan’s imagination. The night before had been such a diversion from how Sloan usually conducted her private life that it was impossible to shake some details that refused to be forgotten. Like the giggles on Leah’s lips at the end of their encounter. Or how eager she had been to indulge Sloan in her lifestyle choices.No matter how much you pay a woman, it doesn’t mean she’s genuinely into it.Maybe that was another danger surrounding Leah. Good thing they would never see each other again.
Why does that make me sad to think?Sloan? Sad about not seeing a one-night stand again? God, she needed a real vacation. Bermuda should’ve been beautiful that time of year…
“What do you want, Aaron?”
He sighed. Nothing about it was genuine fatigue or concern. It was 100% Aaron Giles being an insufferable fuckwit. “I wanted to check in with you, Mags. We haven’t had a proper conversation in the flesh in, what, a month? We live so close together. We work together! This is ridiculous. Let me take you to dinner tonight. We can discuss the trip and…”
“What, Aaron?” Sloan turned in her chair. “That trip to Zurich you’re convinced will change our lives?”
“I was thinking of possibly introducing you to my new girlfriend, but perhaps you’re not in the right mood, after all. Too bad, because she’s a huge fan of yours. She was shocked to find out that we weren’t together.”
