Cruel Money (Cruel 1)

Luckily, it was easy not to think about seeing him again since I’d never been in a limo before. Nor had I ever been to a gala. And I couldn’t believe it when there was a real red carpet and photographers waiting for us. Katherine exited the limo like the socialite she was to a roar of approval and the flash of cameras. She reached back to get me to climb out of the backseat. To my surprise, the crowd cheered again.

I was a nobody. Why the hell were they cheering for me?

“Smile, Natalie. They think you’re beautiful. Own it.”

I laughed and pushed my shoulders back. If I was going to spend one night living my fairy tale, I might as well enjoy it.

We walked the red carpet like stars. Katherine, I supposed, legitimately was, but she included me so completely that no one guessed that I wasn’t. I was just another socialite out with my friend. Katherine assured me that, by the end of the evening, I’d have party invitations with everyone in the city who mattered. If we made it onto Page Six, then I’d have designers asking me to their fashion shows and offering for me to wear their clothes. It was the most bizarre night but totally addicting at the same time. No wonder Katherine did this full-time.

I smiled at the final camera and then took my last step into the main room where I stopped dead in my tracks.

Penn stood at the bottom of the stairs in a sharp-cut tuxedo. He looked up at me as if I were a dream. His mouth hung open slightly. His eyes swept up my body from the blue silk gown that revealed a sliver of leg in a thigh-high slit and hugged my curves to the diamonds at my throat and finally landed on my face. Our eyes met and locked. A current of desire shot through me. Mirrored and matched.

I walked the final steps down to his level.

“You look stunning,” he breathed like a prayer.

“Thank you,” I said. My cheeks flamed at his attention. I hadn’t been embarrassed by any of the photographers outside, but one look from Penn, and I was a goner.

He held his arm out like he was a prince. “Shall we?”

And lost in my own fairy tale, I nodded and let him whisk me inside.

Natalie

14

“Katherine did a pretty good job, huh?”

Penn’s gaze swept over me again. “Truthfully, you look equally as beautiful, lounging around in pajamas with your hair in a bun on the top of your head.”

I laughed and swatted at him. “Stop. You’re joking.”

“Am I?”

And suddenly, I wasn’t sure if he was.

“Well, a tux suits you. And I was just getting used to you in regular clothes.”

“Just getting used to me?” he asked as he walked me through the room. He grabbed champagne for us off of a passing waiter’s tray and then continued toward his friends.

“For so many years, you were this guy in a suit in my head.”

“Did you think about me often?” he asked with a smirk on his pretty lips and raised his glass to take a sip.

“Only when I wanted to murder the male population.”

He sputtered on his drink and burst into laughter. “How often was that?”

“Men do a lot of stupid shit. You’d be surprised how regularly I am prone to murder.”

“Duly noted.”

The truth was that I’d thought about Penn way too often in the last six years. He’d been my first. And the best. I might have been young, naive, and stupid, but I knew a good orgasm when it hit me. Nothing had really come close.

It was probably because he was more experienced than anyone else I’d ever been with since. A lot of sex had the ability to make him a better lover. Except…it could also have the ability to make him utterly selfish, and he hadn’t been. And many men after him certainly had been. I didn’t want to think that it was anything else though. I still couldn’t admit to our chemistry. Even as I felt it bubbling up between us now.

Penn directed us to a corner of the magnificently decorated ballroom to where Lark, Rowe, and Lewis stood.

Lark moved forward first and pulled me into a hug. “Natalie, it’s so good to see you!”

“You too.”

“This is my boyfriend, Thomas,” Lark said by way of introduction.

Thomas shook my hand and smiled as his eyes swept my dress.

“Nice to meet you,” I said, quickly pulling my hand back.

I hadn’t known that Lark had a boyfriend, and I was surprised she was into this guy. He was handsome, but I could read sleazeball all over him.

“You too. How do you know the crew?” he asked.

Penn swept in smoothly and said, “We’re old friends.”

Because saying I was the help probably wasn’t right for this company, which sent a twinge of discomfort through my body. Tonight, I was someone else, which was fun. But also, it meant that who I really was…wasn’t good enough for the occasion. And that put me on edge.