RISK(37)

So did I. "So did I. How did you know I wanted to work for the NYPD?"

"Your senior class career day speech." He flicks on the left turn signal as soon as the driver of the Mercedes does. "Is that what this is? Are you on some kind of undercover mission right now?"

I'm on some kind of f*cked up, post orgasm, curiosity fueled mission right now. Nolan made it clear that his night was going to be swallowed up by whatever emergency kept his phone busy. No more than fifteen minutes after telling me that, his driver is at his place, whisking him off to who the hell knows where.

"You know that he's headed straight for your place right, Ellie?"

I know that he's headed in the direction of my apartment, but Manhattan is vast. We're also moving toward many bars and restaurants. For all I know, Nolan rescheduled his fancy dinner to include another woman and she's going to be his second course.

"He's not going to my place." I stare out the window. He didn't have the decency to maintain eye contact with me for more than ten seconds after we f*cked. I doubt like hell he's chasing me down. He has my number. If he wanted to finish our conversation, he would have called me by now.

"How long have you been working this job?" Rick takes a hard left and I skid across the vinyl seat. "I get it if you can't give me any details. I know there's a strict code of silence when you're tailing a suspect."

What's the code when you're following a really great f*ck? I shake off his assumption. "Not long."

"When we get close do you want me to hang back?" He flashes me a quick grin over his shoulder. "I can let you out down the block from him so you can follow on foot."

Rick is a man with a plan. I don't want to confront Nolan tonight. I can't. Adley has texted me twice since we pulled away from Nolan's apartment, asking where I am. It's friends first in my world, so this ends wherever the Mercedes stops. I just want to see where Nolan is going. I know it's not his office. We didn't turn right onto Fifth Avenue.

The taxi in front of us slows, so Rick goes around it to keep the Mercedes in our sight. "We're getting close to your place, Ellie. You're sure that's not where he's headed."

I watch as we pass Cremza, the doors shut, the lights dim. It closed hours ago, the large sign in the window a reminder that tomorrow is 'two scoops for the price of one' day.

I send another text to Adley telling her I'm only three blocks from the coffee shop now. "Adley wants me to say hi."

"Adley York?" He eyes me in the rear view mirror. "You two are still tight, hey?"

"Best friends forever." I smile at his reflection. "We live together now."

"I can't say I'm surprised." He turns on the right signal blinker. "He's pulling over. I'll hang back."

I want to tell him to pass the Mercedes and take me home. I thought I wanted to know where Nolan was rushing to after he sent me out the door, but now, my stomach is tied in thick knots and my palms are clammy. He didn't promise my anything. We had sex and the night ended. I shouldn't be doing this. I shouldn't let Tad's * ways turn me into something I'm not.

I don't stalk men. It's not who I am.

Still, I don't protest when Rick maneuvers his car to the curb and stops. I look out through the windshield as Nolan's driver opens the rear passenger door and Nolan steps out. The doorman from the building he's in front of approaches him. Nolan shakes his hand and pats him on the back and then they disappear together through the glass front doors.

His driver gets back in the Mercedes and merges seamlessly into the traffic. I sit in the backseat of Rick's car staring at the luxury residential high-rise, wondering what, or more likely who, inside that building is worth ditching me for.

***

"He's not in this morning," Nolan's assistant says briskly, her firm tone cutting, but patient. "As I told you when you called thirty minutes ago, Ms. Madden, I don't know when he will be in his office. He's unavailable at the moment."

That's probably a good thing. I'm running on spite and a couple of hours of sleep at this point. When Adley and I finally got back to the apartment last night after Rick dropped me off, I thought she'd be ready for bed, but the four cups of Italian roast coffee she had, while she waited for me, kept her bouncing off the walls.

I got in my bed after I showered, washing away the last of Nolan's touch from my skin. I bunched my dress into a ball and threw it in a basket destined for the washing machine at the laundromat. My intention was to rid myself of every physical reminder of the night, but the ache in my body wouldn't go away.

Adley came into my room as I was replaying my conversation with Nolan in my head. She didn't ask me how my date was and I was grateful. Instead, she launched into an animated speech about her thirty-year plan. I was all ears as she talked about the veterinary clinic she wants to open and I heard, in fine detail, what her future husband looks like.

It's Crew Benton. Adley described Crew Benton to a tee, even if she didn't realize it.

She finally ran out of steam shortly after four this morning, when she collapsed onto my queen size bed and fell asleep with her head on my shoulder. I slept too, but it was marred by the image of Nolan walking into that building just a few blocks from here.

"Miss Madden?"