Filthy Rich, Wild with Lust

Chapter 20

“Are you?” He smiles. “Where do you work?”

“At Lady of Rosemary.”

“You’ve been busy lately; I hear they are at capacity.”

“All the time.”

Rebecca pulls me by the hand again over to an elderly man. He looks to be in his eighties. “This is Winston. He lives in the white house.”

“Hello.” I smile as I shake his hand.

“Hello, dear.” He smiles and has a southern drawl. “Lovely to meet you. I see you running around in the mornings with your dog.”

I giggle. Poor thing. What must I look like? “Nice to meet you too.”

“And this fine specimen is Antony Deluca. He’s your next-door neighbor.”

He smiles, and I feel it to my bones. He’s European and utterly gorgeous. “Hello, Juliet.” He kisses my cheek. “I’ve heard all about you. Nice to finally put a face to the name.”

“Henley, Blake, and Antony are childhood friends.”

“Oh, right.” I smile, surprised. “That’s great.”

“Where’s Henley?” Rebecca asks as she looks around.

“Here I am,” he calls out as he comes through the front door.

“Come and meet Juliet,” Rebecca replies.

“We’ve met.” Henley smiles casually, as if he isn’t the biggest prick in the world.

I’m onto you.

He kisses Rebecca on the cheek and then turns to me. I’ll play nice because we are in public.

“Hi.” I smile.

He smiles warmly and kisses my cheek. He’s wearing a cream linen jacket and blue jeans. Looks like he just stepped off a GQ modeling shoot or something. “Hello. Good to see you both.”

I flutter with nerves at the smell of his heavenly aftershave.

“Where have you been?” a man snaps. “We’ve been waiting for the bartender to arrive.”

Henley rolls his eyes and goes over behind the bar. “Who wants what?”

Everyone huddles around the bar and puts their drink order in with him. And I smile at their familiarity. I have to admit, it is a nice street to live on.

A little old lady walks in through the front door.

“Hello, Ethel,” everyone calls.

“Party’s here.” Ethel smiles as she puts her tray of cakes onto the table. “Sorry we’re late.”

“Va-va-voom!” one of the boys calls from the bar as he looks toward the door. “Who is this stunner?”

I turn to see a drop-dead gorgeous woman walking in—long dark hair and a figure to die for. A perfectly well-done face of makeup and perfectly pouty big lips. She’s wearing a black fitted dress and looks like she’s a famous Instagrammer or something.

“Great, Taryn’s here,” Rebecca whispers.

“Is that a bad thing?” I whisper.

Oh no, this is the Taryn that Carol told me about. Surely not.

Rebecca fakes a smile. “Depends on who you are,” she mutters under her breath.

“I’m back, darlings. Have you missed me?” She puts her hands in the air and tries to be cute. Actually, there’s no trying. She’s totally nailing it.

“Yes,” the boys all cry in unison. “Taryn.” They all line up to kiss her, and she hugs each one of them as if she’s their long-lost love while totally ignoring all the other females in the room.

“Everyone on the street is in love with Taryn,” she whispers. “Including Taryn.”

I giggle. “Not me.” I hold my glass up. She clinks hers with mine.

“Me neither.”

“Henley, darling,” Taryn says in a sexy voice. “Where have you been all my life?”

Henley chuckles and pulls her in for a hug. “Right here where you left me.”

My eyes meet Rebecca’s, and she raises a see-I-told-you-so eyebrow.

Yes, I see it now. Ugh, give me a break.

Rebecca grabs my hand. “Let’s go out front.”

“Good idea.”

The night has been fun, and I really, really like Rebecca. We’ve just clicked. It’s as if I’ve known her forever.

We are sitting on the park-bench seat in Carol’s front yard. Everyone is chatting, and the boys are well on their way to being tipsy.

“So are you in a relationship?” Rebecca asks.

“No. I broke up with my ex a year ago.”

“Were you with him for long?”

“About twelve months.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“Good. It was my doing.” I shrug. “I don’t know, I always seem to attract the wrong kind of guy.”

“You have a type?”

“Not really.” I smirk. “But maybe I turn them into that type.”

She laughs.

“We just weren’t on the same page. He wanted to party and go out all the time, and I’m past that. I mean, the occasional night out is fun, but clubbing every Friday and Saturday night is not my ideal place to be.”

“Yeah, I get that. How old are you?”

“I’m twenty-seven, and you?”

“I’m thirty-one. How amazing that you bought that house by yourself.” She smiles.

“It is.” I smile, proud of myself. “I’ve just got to pay for the renovations now. The quotes are coming in, and I’m floored how expensive things are.”

“Oh, I know. We just did our kitchen, and it was more than double what we thought it was going to be.”

A loud and husky laugh comes from the veranda, and Rebecca and I glance up to see Taryn draped all over Henley. My stomach twists with jealousy. She’s been all over him all night. “Are those two dating?” I ask.

“Henley and Taryn?” She screws up her face. “God no.”

My eyes linger on the two of them. “How do you know?”

“Because he’s super friendly with her.”

“Huh?”

She lowers her voice so that nobody can hear. “He and John are quite good friends. Don’t tell anyone this, but he has some major baggage.”

“Like what?” I whisper. At last, some intel.

“He will only sleep with women that he doesn’t like.”

I screw up my face. “What do you mean?”

“He is so antirelationship that if he meets someone he likes, he won’t date them again for fear of falling into a trap.”

I stare at her, shocked. “Since when?”

“Since his mother died when he was in his teens.”

“Has he been to therapy about this?”

“He saw someone in his early twenties, but it didn’t work.” She shrugs. “I think he’s just accepted that this is the way he is.”

“Oh.” My eyes rise to watch him. Taryn laughs out loud and puts her hand on his chest in a flirty way.

Fuck off, Taryn.

“And get this,” she whispers. “He even has a burner phone.”

“A what?”

“He has fake business cards with another phone number on it that his PA answers.”

“Why?”

“So that the women he dates don’t have his actual number if he wants to disappear.”

I sit back, shocked.

Adrenaline surges through my blood. That’s exactly what he did to me.

“Wow,” I whisper. “I’ve officially heard it all now.”

Taryn laughs out loud again, and I imagine myself pushing her head into the punch bowl until she chokes on the frozen strawberries.

“So I imagine he must ghost a lot of women, then,” I reply.

“No. That’s the thing—he hardly ghosts anyone.”

“What?”

“He just dates for s*x. It’s super rare that he actually likes someone and ghosts them.”

He ghosted me.

“But if he’s having s*x with all these women, he must like them?” I frown, confused.

“Attraction and feelings are two very different things to him. John says he just dates them until it runs its course, and then he moves on to the next without looking back.”

“Oh.” I watch him across the room. “So in other words, he just breaks hearts wherever he goes.”

“I guess he’s pretty f****d up.”

“I’ll say.” Henley glances up, and our eyes lock. We stare at each other for a beat longer than we should, and I tear my eyes away. “I have to work in the morning, so I should get going.”

“Yeah, me too.” She screws up her nose. “Taryn is probably about to start dancing for the boys.”

“She dances?” I wince.

“Like a stripper on crack.”

I giggle. “Don’t, I’m getting a bad visual.”

Rebecca laughs too. “Do you want to grab a coffee sometime?”

“Yeah.” I smile. “I’d like that.” I kiss her on the cheek. “It was so lovely meeting you.”

“You too.”

Somehow I feel like I made a friend tonight.

I kiss Carol. “Thank you so much for tonight.”

“So good to have you here, my dear.” Carol smiles.

“Bye, everyone.” I wave. “I have to work in the morning, so I’m heading out.”

“Goodbye,” everyone calls.

Henley’s eyes lock on mine, and we stare at each other across the room for a beat longer again. As if not remembering that we hate each other.

Stop it.

With another small wave, I walk back across the road to my house, and just as I step onto my veranda, I hear Taryn’s annoying voice echo through the street. “Let’s get some music going.”

Ugh, Rebecca is right.

I lie in bed, wide awake.

The beat from the music is drifting through the neighborhood.

The party has moved from Carol’s house to Antony’s backyard. They are now sitting around a campfire. I don’t know who’s over there, but I can still hear Taryn’s annoying voice over everyone else’s.

My mind keeps going over Rebecca’s words about Henley tonight. And I know I should be angry at him and resentful because he has a burner phone, but...

He’s damaged.

I feel sad for him. I can’t imagine what it must be like to hold no hope of meeting the one. Or not even wanting to.