Let's Play A Dirty Ass Game, Mr. CEO

Chapter 7: FUCKING STARDOM

LAURA

I strutted backstage trying to catch my breath as I pulled off the mask.

You did well, I reminded myself.

But it did not change the fact that my legs had almost given way beneath me, when I set foot on that runway and saw him. It did not change the fact that my breath had quickened terribly and heat had exploded across my skin the moment our eyes met and held.

It did not change the fact that for the first time in five years, I almost lost composure on the runway where I ruled as queen.

"That was phenomenal as always, my bitch. Totally rando as fuck!"

I looked up to see Mara coming towards me with a big grin and arms thrown wide apart.

"I know, right?" I collapsed into her arms and she held me for a moment or two. Then she pulled back and studied my face with a small frown.

"What’s up?"

I could name a million reasons why Mara was my best friend. But the most solid of them all was the fact that she knew me like the back of her palms.

Mara was the kind of friend who could tell I had a bad day just from one look across the room. She could tell my pain, my joy, my grief—every good, bad and ugly— just by looking in my eyes.

"Don’t keep me guessing, Laura," her voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "Did something happen out there?"

I swallowed a lump and tried to crush the melancholic feeling that sat in my chest. "It’s nothing of importance."

But she was not having it. "You’re going to have to spill sooner or later."

I glanced around the beehive of models and artists doing the post-walk shenanigans, in a bid to make sure no one was eavesdropping or paying us any attention. Then I blurted. "Did you see the look on his face?"

Mara frowned. "Who?"

I swallowed another lump. "Tristan."

Her expression was blank for all of five seconds. Then it transitioned to an unspeakable disgust and irritation in the next five.

"What the hell? He was out there? Who invited the snake to your party?!"

I smirked as we moved through the throng and settled in the private booth which was set aside for the top model. "It’s not my party, but I guess we’ll have to ask Harlan."

"Bitch, are you trembling because of a snake?"

"What? No!" A nervous laugh tumbled past my lips. "I just haven’t seen him in so long, you know. Five years. I didn’t expect—"

"You didn’t think he’d still be as dashing and shimmery as a snake?"

I laughed hard. Mara had not stopped calling Tristan Pierce a snake ever since he betrayed me.

Betrayal. That’s what it was, right?

Five years had moved in relentless consistency and hard work. Five years spent convincing myself he was the enemy. Five years spent hating him.

And here I was, second guessing an obvious betrayal.

Mara snapped her fingers so loud, pulling me out of my thoughts. "I get it now! You did that because of him, right?"

"Did what, Mara?"

"You took off your mask! The face behind the Phoenix brand has remained a mystery all these years, and you let that go because of him? Because you wanted him to see your face?"

"Mara..."

"You can’t lie to me, Laura. I mean, now I get it. You want him to see how well you’re doing without him. Or is this because you still miss him? It better not be the latter because I will kill you myself."

I rolled my eyes as I began to take off the accessories that adorned my shimmery gold runway dress. "Of course I don’t miss him."

The words scraped my gut as they left. I ignored the feeling.

She snatched up my phone and shoved it in my face. "Come on, give Harlan a call. He should have some explanation for why that snake showed up here."

Harlan.

A friend the universe had sent to me at my lowest point in life. The perfect gentleman with the perfect smile.

I had left Pierce Holdings, humiliated and hopeless, when I met Harlan Voss. And in many ways that I was more than grateful for, he had been a part of my success story.

From my first sketch, to my first capital, to the first push. Harlan was there. Single-handedly, he took my hand and showed me how to wade into the fashion waters.

How could I be anything but grateful to him?

"What does Harlan have to do with anything?"

"Um?"

I watched Mara in the mirror as she folded her arms over her chest and glared at me. "He was at the forefront of this showcase, correct? He must have known Tristan would be here! Besides, they mingle in the same high-end circles!"

"What does it matter if he knew? You forget I owe everything to him, Mara. How could I possibly question my benefactor?"

Her features softened slightly and brought her hands down on my shoulders in a gentle massage. "Laura, I’m just worried seeing Tristan again must have shaken you up."

"I’m fine," I snapped.

"No, let’s face it. Remember how it used to be? Those nights you spent crying so much? The pain of carrying—"

"Of course I remember, Mara. I don’t need a reminder."

"You’re right." She leaned down and planted a wet kiss on my cheek. "I mean, you have the perfect reminder in the world."

Her eyes twinkled with mischief as she moved away, and it took everything in me to not pick up my hairbrush and fling at her.

My phone started to vibrate on the table. I smiled as I saw the name that lit up the screen.

"Hey hey."

"Hey, superstar," a gentle voice drifted into the speaker with a lilt that warmed my soul. "I know you killed it."

"You know me. Are you here yet?"

"Yeah, just arriving. I’m at the entrance with Eli. The black SUV."

Eli. The name filled me with an undeniable warmth that tugged at my heartstrings.

"Alright, I’ll join you soon."

The line clicked dead and I quickly tidied into casual pants and a crop top, pulling a black baseball hat over my mass of ginger curls.

"Was that him?" Mara asked, eyes twinkling.

"Mmhm. Let’s bounce."

Just as expected, there was a crowd waiting at the entrance of Belmont Art house as my bodyguard led us out. The press got in my face like crazy, as always. Only this time, they knew what I looked like, and my pictures would undoubtedly be across all media outlets globally, right at this moment.

"Ms. Phoenix, this way please!" "Give us a dazzling smile!" "Was your identity reveal planned or impulsive?!"

I ignored all the voices, my eyes fixed on the vehicle where my whole world waited.

And that’s when I heard his voice in the crowd. Tristan’s deep baritone that still had a way of lighting up every nerve ending in my body, after all these years.

"Laura!"

I turned to find him a few steps behind me on the red carpet.

"Get off me, man," he snapped at Jose who tried to steer him as far away from me.

"Ma’am, do you know this man?" Jose asked with a straight face.

I held Tristan’s gaze for all of ten seconds.

Then I shook my head. "No, I don’t."