Diamonds Are Not Forever

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER TEN
Juliette

I woke up the next morning with a start. Bolting up-right in the foreign bed and blinking away the burn of my contacts that I'd forgotten to take out the night before. When my vision finally cleared, the bedroom came into full view.
Wow.
That was the only coherent thought I could put together.
When Elliot had brought me into his room a few hours previous, everything had been in a giddy, adrenaline filled, sex crazed blur. But in that current moment, cast in the early morning light that trickled through the sweeping navy-blue curtains draped from the huge wrap around windows, the luxe room looked like something fresh from a magazine. I knew Elliot had money, that was clear from the way he dressed. But that apartment, it was something else.
When I'd finished sizing up the black leather chesterfield sofa in the corner, and the ostentatious walk-in wardrobe next to it, I finally dragged my eyes to the sleeping body laid out next to me in the king-sized bed. Elliot was still dead to the world, cradling the quilt and softly snoring into his pillow. He looked so peaceful, the way his dark eyelashes fluttered, and his soft chocolate coloured hair brushed his forehead and curled waywardly, he was almost innocent looking.
But I knew better.
After a night of otherworldly sex with him in his shower, then again on his bed...He was no innocent. The memory of it all made my stomach clench with the most delicious ache. He'd done that before. I didn't even care that I was another notch on his bed post, his very expensive and lavish bed post, Elliot had set the bar sky high where one-night stands were concerned. Not bad for my first time sleeping with a stranger.
An alarm clock blinked ominously on the nightstand hidden behind his sleeping body, the flashing red digital clock indicating it was 6:47 AM – I had an hour and 13 minutes to find my clothes, find my phone, find something to dull the pounding ache that had crept up into my head from all the tequila I had consumed and get to the store in time for the staff meeting at 8AM. Ashley didn't make a habit of calling us all in on a Sunday, but there were so many huge projects on the horizon for Goulding Jewellery that we all didn't mind so much - we were all invested in Ashley's pursuits. Plus, I was kind of excited to give Carol and Ashley the low down on how my night had ended.
Carefully, I peeled back the quilt and stepped out of the low-rise bed as quietly as I could manage, trying my hardest to make sure I didn't wake up the Adonis next to me. Naturally, I hit what must have been every creak in the floorboards as I maneuvered my way through the muted light towards the bathroom on the far side of the room. Every time I heard him move or thought I had woken him by bashing into his furniture, I looked over my bare shoulder and found that Elliot was still fast asleep. Thank God he was a heavy sleeper.

The harsh light of the bathroom strained my eyes, and I just about managed to peel out and dispose of my useless contact lenses in his peddle bin under the two side-by-side egg shaped sinks pushed up against a perfectly clean mirror. The sight of myself, even if slightly blurred, was enough to give anyone a fright. My still slightly damp copper hair was sticking in every direction around my face, and my eye makeup had smudged so badly around my face I looked like a rabid racoon. Thank God he won't see me like this.
After smearing some of Elliot's expensive cleanser over my face, splashing some cold water on myself and sneakily using the toothbrush I assumed to be his to freshen up the desert that was my mouth, I already felt like a better version of myself. When I spotted the soggy heap of clothes piled up on the floor next to the shower, my brightening mood quickly started to dim again. That was my heap of soggy clothes. When my thighs had been wrapped around Elliot's head in the shower that night, I hadn't really thought much about having to keep my clothes clean and dry for the next day. I hadn't been thinking about anything coherent in that moment if I was honest with myself.
When I picked up my pink velvet dress and saw the excess water drip from it onto the tiles, I let it go with a disappointed thwack and went on a hunt for clean fresh clothes.