Greyson
FOR AS LONG AS I COULD REMEMBER, women would pull out every card in their deck to try and achieve the impossible with me. The romance, the ring, the family—happiness.
Then Sage Slade appears in my life. A normal high school girl who is forced into an arranged marriage just to protect the only family she has. Clearly suffering everyday being around me but continuously fights through it for her father.
And ultimately falls in love with the opposite of what she wants.
Me
Weird part is, she won't fight for me, she won't use all her strength in hopes of getting me to change. Even if it hurts, she'd rather ignore her feelings and distract herself than try. Sage doesn't want to change who she is for a man who doesn't deserve it, because the one who will be lucky isn't her. It would be whoever she'd chose. And that guy was...
Me
No one I've ever met, the opposite sex at least, has ever placed their value above a Blackstone. My Mother endured my Father's infidelity for her remaining years because she loved him. Hanna deals with Hamilton everyday and he's complete scum to her. Dawn married some wealthy European to please my Father, luckily she does love him, but imagine if she hadn't. Marrying someone to please your Father, the very thing I'm doing, and at what cost.
The broken heart of an innocent girl?
"Wow, you were more aggressive than usual, you okay?" Brynn walks out of the Bathroom. "I mean I can barely walk, Greyson." She laughs lightly.
I rub my face and sigh. "I'm fine."
"Well clearly not, because you're still here and I've cleaned up." Brynn jokes. "I'm not complaining just this is the second time you've done this and I'm starting to worry whether or not you're developing feelings for me."
I scoff. "Impossible. I just don't want to go home and I'd rather not drive to some hotel and be bombarded with the fucking press."
"Ah, privacy is hard to acquire, but being in a super models house isn't really playing it smart." She giggles. "If someone saw you the press will definitely be here, sir. The Black Sheep of Blackstone and sexy super model. It'd be a pretty swanky cover, would it not?"
Brynn always jokes around, her easy-going personality is the reason I don't mind being around her so much, carefree as everything should with sex.
I closed my eyes and fell back.
"You've been stressed haven't you? I see a few grey hairs, but it's nothing bad, the salt and pepper look is very sexy." She falls back too. "The towers are difficult to manage, huh?"
"The only thing difficult about the towers is that it's my Father's favorite place on Earth, I do one fuck up and it's over for me." I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Then Hamilton will have the satisfaction of seeing my failure."
"Ah yes your brother, I've had the pleasure of meeting him when I did Fashion Week in Paris, he's quiet the...charmer." She says and I hear the sound of a lighter being flicked.
I open my eyes to see a cigarette in her mouth. "I partially blame you, you know."
"What?" She snaps her attention back to me. "My fault!?"
I chuckle. "If you weren't traveling everywhere all the time and staying in New York for short amounts of time I wouldn't have to deal with women who want serious relationships after sex."
"Yeah sucks for you, I never have a hard time when it comes to one night stands, I'm just a model with a nice rack." She grins, blowing out the smoke through her lips. "And you already know these short visits are to keep us from becoming a relationship. Which is what you want, unless, you want to finally ask me out and become something serious."
There was humor in her voice but a hint of seriousness.
"Only if you want to." I turn to her, grinning back.
Brynn's grin fades. "How long do you think we can keep this up, Greyson? Eventually by social standards you and I need to start settling. I can't be having one night stands with you when I'm forty-five."
"But you'll want to." I chuckle.
She scoffs. "If you look as you good now, fuck yeah I would."
"I'll probably look even better." I grin.
She nods. "I can't wait until you hit thirty, that's the prime for most men."
"That's a myth."
Brynn leans up. "Nope, it's factual evidence."
"From where?" I arch my eyebrow.
She scoffs. "Duh, from me, dumbass."
I roll my eyes. "Whatever you say."
→←
The next morning I go to work and as I walk down the hall I am greeted by a man.
"Mr. Blackstone." Lucas smiles.
Lucas is my new assistant. I've decided from the day that Sage left in red hot fury that this place should be strictly business. So I sent Brooke to another department so that I can focus on the one thing I come here to do, which is work.
"Today you have exactly five meetings from 10 to 4, and tomorrow night your father is throwing the annual Christmas party in the ballroom. He says make sure you bring Miss Slade since her Grandfather will also be there." Lucas informs me.
I cringe.
It's been a month since I've seen her, Todd gives me updates on her and nothing seems different. She goes to school, goes home, hangs out with friends and that's it. I've been thinking about what she's said almost every night and it's been hard. The constant thoughts of hurting her keep me up at night and I have to admit I'd rather not see her tomorrow nor be around her for a while.
"Is there a problem sir?" Lucas asks.
I shake my head and clear my throat. "No, nothing. But make sure you bring Lisa and enjoy yourselves."
"Of course sir, thank you for the invite." He nods then seats himself. "Anything else?"
"No, just continue working or whatever, if you'd like you can leave. I can handle the rest." I assure him.
"No, you're already giving me the week off for the holidays, the least I can do is stay until necessary." He protests.
I chuckle. "It's fine, your work has been superior, so you've helped more than I imagined. Take the rest of the day off to go Christmas shopping or whatever."
His face lights up. "Really?"
I nod. "Go ahead, I'll see you tomorrow night."
→←
After all of the meetings I sat down in my office and stared at the phone.
Father said it was necessary to invite Sage to events like this, to expose her. But it's just a Christmas party for drunks and what not, nothing important. So I'll just make up something or whatever. I refuse to invite the poor girl to be around me for an entire night on a holiday for family.
I do want to see her but we've got to much baggage to be around public.
But I do need company and it just so happens that a certain model is still in town. So I picked up the phone and dialed a number.
"To what do I owe the honor of a phone call from Blackstone Towers?" Brynn asks.
"Tomorrow, are you busy?"
"Of course not, it's only Christmas Eve." She says sarcastically.
"Well I need a date to a Christmas party at the Towers." I tell her.
"Are you on Meth?" She scoffs. "That's way to public, Greyson."
"And?" I lean back. "They'd expect someone of your looks to have her arm around mine in an event such as this."
"And your Father will be cool with that?"
"Who gives a fuck?" I sigh.
"Fair enough, it'll give me an excuse to not fly to Washington to be with my family. My new stepmom irks me." She says. "I'm totally game."
"Perfect." I smile. "Wear the sexiest red dress you've got, make sure it's easy to take off."
"The sexiest one requires no underwear, is that appropriate?" Her tone said she was smiling.
"Absolutely."
AUTHORS NOTE
YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING, I'VE HIT #22 IN GENERAL FICTION, THANK YOU!
And I know what you're thinking, NO SAGE IN THIS CHAPTER, yes I've decided to give the poor girl a break since I've been putting her through so much. Lol.
Questions to ponder and converse about while awaiting the next chapter:
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Should Sage just give up on Greyson?
Do you think Greyson will ever change?
Who here ships Greyson and Brynn? Come on, be honest.
Can you guess where Sage's brother, Gideon, is? And why he hasn't made an appearance yet?
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Just some stuff to converse about since this chapter was calmer than the recent's. Plus it's better to write down your opinions instead of saying UPDATEEEEEE, LOL. Or you can just bombard me with these "UPDATEEEEE"s, either way, I will read them. :)
CONVERSE AWAY DARLINGS~