This—their ‘relationship’—was a means to an end. And when the sex finally happened, the end is exactly what it would be.
To a ‘no-strings holiday affair’.
It was bizarre being on the other end of sex for sex’s sake. Adam gave a humourless little laugh at the irony of it all. He’d been taking it slow because he thought he’d found in Tori a woman he could develop something long term with. And with her being older and more mature than his usual dates, he’d assumed she would be receptive to the slower pacing and a possible commitment.
In the meantime, she’d been sizing him up for a summer fling.
Adam rolled his eyes heavenward.
What the hell kind of twisted karma was that?
He briefly considered just going with the flow and giving her exactly what she wanted—what just about any other twenty-something guy would happily go along with—a no-strings affair, NSA to use personal ad-speak. That, to him, felt about as impersonal and tawdry as a personal ad would. As that pettiness occurred to him, Adam was already shaking his head, trying to banish the foul thought. Yuck. No thanks. He couldn’t pull a wham, bam, thank you ma’am on his quirky, sweet Tori. Even if that’s what she had in her head that she wanted.
It just didn’t make sense to him. Why the hell would Tori be on the prowl for a one-off? She was such a sweetheart. Classy, funny, smart…
The wave of tenderness that hit him at the reminder of his original assessment of her had a clarifying effect. Something had been nagging him about his discovery ever since he’d read the journal, or whatever it was called. The seemingly heartless and clinical approach to the very personal objective.
He seized onto the word ‘clinical’. Maybe that was just how she broke things down. She was a scientist. Perhaps she thought she could plan best when the emotional and subjective qualifiers were removed. Adam thought about his own background in science. He never would have thought about applying the scientific method to something so far removed—in his mind—from the sterility of an experiment.
But now that he’d thought of it, Adam would bet Tori would.
He had to get a look at the other two notebooks. If they also read as matter-of-factly as an English translation of foreign assembly instructions, then he would know for sure.
In the meantime, he needed to decide how to handle Tori’s need to rush to the finish line.
Adam smiled a little as he rose to go find a sheet of paper and a pen to do a little planning of his own.
One thing he wouldn’t do was have sex with her before the end of summer. No matter how hard she tried.
Chapter Five
Tori looked around her condo with a sigh. It was cleaned to within an inch of its life and everything was in its place. She’d rearranged the furniture a couple of times and now had it the way she liked it. But the walls were starting to close in and the day loomed before her.
I’m so freaking bored.
She was not used to having that kind of problem. When she was working her usual long hours, she barely had the energy to cook dinner and keep up with her bills and paperwork on weeknights. The weekends, when she didn’t spend them working, were consumed with cleaning and shopping and the odd, very seldom social engagement.
Now, she had all the time in the world. And she was fast becoming reliant on Adam to fill the void. But he had to work with his other clients sometime, and today was one of those days—what he called a ‘rest day’ for her workout regime, which meant she had no real reason to see him at all today. It was also the day of the week where he had his latest appointments, so they hadn’t made any firm plans for the evening.
Finally, she just grabbed her purse and keys and walked out of the door, unsure of where she was going, but needing to get out. She shook her head ruefully. This was probably exactly why everyone who knew she had the time off had reacted with such surprise when she’d told them she wasn’t going anywhere.
It was a beautiful day—sunny and warm, but not hot. When she got to her car, she paused. What the hell did people who didn’t work do all day? Shopping came to mind, and she seized upon the idea gratefully. Maybe she’d go to that fairly new open-air shopping centre and walk around, do some window shopping.
A few minutes later, she was driving with the windows down towards Cambridge Crossing, a huge and popular shopping area near her work. She hadn’t spent a lot of time there before, but her co-workers spoke about going all the time, and she had been a handful of times when they’d had infrequent lunch or dinner functions around the holidays at some of the restaurants there.
As long as she was going to a place with nice stores, she should probably take a look at some new workout clothes. And casual stuff too. She was already starting to repeat herself, wearing the same things over and over, since she didn’t have much depth to those sections of her wardrobe. Maybe a couple more summer dresses, she mused, thinking of how appreciative Adam had been of the two she had. He seemed to be a ‘leg man’. Or maybe an ‘ass man’… She was always catching him lifting his gaze from her lower half.
She giggled to herself for a moment, then sobered. Well, whatever turned him on, her parts obviously weren’t exciting enough to make him lose control. Despite the admiring glances, he was so damn gentlemanly it was starting to give her a complex. They’d been seeing each other for weeks now and still hadn’t done more than kiss. At this rate, she wouldn’t be having sex before Christmas, much less before her sabbatical was up.
Yes, the shopping centre was the perfect place to spend today. It was time to turn up the heat. So he liked what he saw? Maybe it was time to show off a little bit more of it.
* * * *
Three exhausting hours later, she was several hundred dollars poorer and sitting on the outdoor patio of a café, sipping an iced tea while waiting for her lunch. Bags from a multitude of stores covered the other chairs around the table. She was going to have to make a trip to the car after this. She had actually been headed towards the parking structure when she’d passed the restaurant and realised just how hungry she was.
Adam had told her from the start that she’d definitely need to eat regular meals to fuel her revved up metabolism, and that was no joke. She was starving half the time now. Before, she would skip breakfast and fuel herself with coffee until lunch, pick at something light then, and eat most of her calories for the day after she was home in the evening. Now, the opposite was true. Breakfast was a necessity since she always woke up ravenous, as were snacks throughout the day, especially after workouts. So by the time dinner rolled around, she didn’t seem to eat as much as she used to.
Whatever Adam was doing to her, she was already seeing results and, to her delight, she’d had to try on clothes a size less than she’d been wearing. That had made all the time spent in the dressing rooms today much more fun.
In some instances, she’d gone down two sizes, because, frankly, she’d always worn things a bit loose-fitting. Now that she had seduction on her mind, she wanted to show off her assets—pun intended. The short skirts, form-fitting pants and shorts she’d ended up buying made her feel very sexy and confident and she couldn’t wait to show them off to Adam. She’d also splurged on some high-end workout clothing and found some good sports bras that didn’t so much flatten as accentuate her modest bust.
Just in case he wasn’t all about the lower half.
And her new swimsuits were ten times more flattering than her old one. A racer-style one-piece for workouts in the pool, and a halter-style bikini for trips to the beach.
She surveyed her bags with satisfaction, thinking she would look for shoes next.
“Victoria?”
The use of her full name in this setting caught her off guard. Turning sideways in her chair in the direction of the interior of the café, she nearly groaned at the sight of Terrence Michaels walking towards her. He was dressed as he usually did for work, so had probably just finished lunch and was heading back to the facility. Hopefully that meant he wouldn’t have time
to linger.
Even as she thought that, she knew it was a false hope. While a brilliant researcher, he was also a social butterfly and wasted a lot of time chit-chatting, at least that’s how it seemed from Tori’s perspective. That difference was only one of many reasons their brief relationship hadn’t worked out.
“Pardon me, sir.”
Terrence had stopped by Tori’s chair, and at that he spun around, almost knocking Tori’s lunch from the server’s tray. Her quick reflexes and probably experience with dodging clueless customers had her moving back in time to save the club sandwich from becoming bird food.
“Oh, excuse me.” Terrence stepped to the side to allow the server to place Tori’s plate in front of her. Without asking, he began clearing some of her bags from the chair adjacent to her then sat down.
“Can I get you something, sir?”
“No thanks, I just ate. Wait… I’ll have an iced tea. That looks good. No lemon.”
“Certainly. Anything else I can bring you, miss?”
A bit put out that Terrence had just crashed her nice solo lunch and appeared to be settling in for a long stay, she shook her head at the waitress. “No, thank you.”
As soon as she’d left, Tori met Terrence’s interested smirk. “Shouldn’t you be getting back to work?” she prompted.
“Probably,” he replied cheerfully. “But I couldn’t just leave you sitting here all by yourself.”
“Yes, you could’ve. I was just fine alone.” Tori turned her attention to her plate and began rearranging her sandwich, taking the extra slice of bread from the middle.
“Why don’t you just ask them to make it without from the start? I swear, that’s just like you. You never assert yourself.”
Seriously? She tried to ignore her intruder and took a big bite of the club.
“I couldn’t believe I saw you here. You should be off somewhere fun instead of hanging around wishing you were at work.” The way he watched her, waiting for her to take the bait, finally got to her.
She swallowed and took a sip of her tea, then glared at Terrence. “I am not wishing I was at work. I’m shopping and having lunch.”
“Yes you are. Right by work.” Terrence glanced up as the server placed his tea in front of him then topped off Tori’s from a pitcher. He began adding a couple of packets of sugar to his glass as he continued, “I mean, of all the places in the city to shop, you picked this one because…”
“Because I know where it is. I wanted to come to the stores here and it has nothing to do with work. And in case you’d forgotten, I live about fifteen minutes from here, so it’s also the closest one to my home.” She took another bite of her sandwich, figuring that the quicker she ate, the faster she could leave.
Part of her knew that Terrence was right, though she would rather shave her head than admit it to the smug man. A few weeks ago, she might have come here on the off-chance that she’d run into someone from her division and be able to catch up on what was happening at work. But now she had her goals and Adam…
Never assert myself, huh? If only you knew…
She ate another mouthful to keep herself from blurting out anything about her newfound outlook on life. Though she now counted him as a friend, Terrence could be a self-important blabbermouth and was a part of her past she wished she could undo.
“Okay, okay, don’t get all upset. So what have you been doing with your time off? Besides a lot of shopping.” He began to peek into the bags on the chair beside him.
“Do you mind?” She sighed. Whatever. What the hell had she ever seen in him? When he’d first joined her division, she had been given the task of orienting him to the facility and mentoring him while he learnt their procedures and standards. His outgoing personality had seemed charming at first, and he was attractive, with closely cut, curly blond hair and bright blue eyes behind his rimless glasses. He was tall and thin and dressed nicely, and he’d teased and prodded Tori until she’d agreed to go out with him.
They’d had a quasi-relationship away from work for a couple of months. Inevitably, she’d become disenchanted with his nosy, opinionated, loud persona, while he’d begun nagging her about how frigid and uptight she was. Things had been awkward in bed and even more awkward at work. She’d finally ended it, and their friendship and working relationship was much the better for it. Still, even though they got along decently, she could only take so much of him before she went into avoidance mode. To that end, she polished off the first half of the sandwich.
“So you never answered me. I’m seeing workout clothes but you’ve never really exercised before. Did you join a gym?” He looked her up and down with narrowed eyes. “I guess you are looking pretty decent.”
“Thanks,” she replied drily. “I have a personal trainer at Del Sol.”
“Ooh, fancy,” he teased. “Spending the big bucks, are you? Well, it’s about time. You aren’t getting any younger. I would go there, but I don’t really need to work out.” He patted his abdomen.
Tori repressed a snort. She knew what was under his shirt, and, while trim, it wasn’t exactly the fit musculature she was now used to seeing with Adam. Though she honestly didn’t care what Terrence did, she still felt compelled to say, “Everyone should work out, if only to improve their fitness and heart health. And you won’t stay thin forever if you don’t start doing something about it. You aren’t exactly getting any younger either.”
“Bitch,” he shot back without heat, though his brow puckered and he ran a hand over his belly.
“Jerk,” she returned. They laughed together.
“We’ve missed you at work. I’ll bet you can’t wait until September.” Terrence leant back in his chair then pulled out his phone when a ping was heard. “Sorry, just a sec,” he offered.
Tori thought about that for a few minutes while she took advantage of his distraction to finish her lunch, and found that while part of her would be glad to return to work, she was beginning to realise that she’d let her life revolve around it for far too long, that there were so many other things to enjoy.
She wondered if she hadn’t met Adam that day, if she would have had the same thought. If she was being honest with herself, she’d have to say no. And that was a bit scary, to think that she’d have taken the same approach to her enforced sabbatical as she did to her work and kept a narrow focus rather than open herself up to new, exciting possibilities.
Even the way she’d been approaching her sabbatical goals was way too rigid. She grimaced. Treating them like an experiment? She should just let go and enjoy, and let what would happen, happen.
Let go? It was a very foreign concept and a frightening one.
Take a chance. Adam will catch you.
More terrifying than letting go, though, was the idea that she could become so dependent on having someone in her life, with no guarantee that he’d be around for the long run. And why would he be? He was so much younger than her. Why would he want more than whatever sort of fling this was with her? They hadn’t made any promises to each other, of course. For all she knew, he just enjoyed her company, or maybe he saw her as a ‘project’ as far as getting her fit and being a sort of tour guide for her vacation.
Terrence put his phone back in his pocket and smiled at Tori. “Sorry, Victoria, have to run. It was great seeing you. Don’t be a stranger. Let’s have lunch for real sometime, okay?”
He stood and pulled out a five and tossed it on the table, then leaned over and pecked her on the cheek. With a last goodbye and admonition to call him, he walked out of the iron-fenced off area and joined the throngs moving along the sidewalk.
Tori watched him until he was out of sight. A bit symbolic that here she’d been confronted with a representation of both her all-consuming work life and her dysfunctional sex life, and had no desire to go back to either one as she had been. Being Victoria was a part of her past. The lack of a social life, the sensible clothes, the unhealthy workload and lifestyle—all of that was over. She knew the changes she wa
s making this summer would stick with her.
They just had to.
Tori smiled as she decided to sit for a while longer and linger over her tea.
Chapter Six
The doorbell pealed. Adam glanced around his apartment one last time to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything on his way to answer the door. They’d always spent their time together either at Tori’s or the club or met elsewhere. This was the first time Tori had been to his place and, though it wasn’t much, he wanted to make a decent impression.
He swung it open, a greeting for Tori still on his lips as he froze at the sight of her tight derrière pointed in his direction, shown off by a short skirt he hadn’t seen before that had risen almost to the point of indecency. In addition to her purse, she had a bag over one shoulder that he recognised from training and he was glad that she’d taken his advice and brought swimwear. Right now, though, she had her weight on one foot and was bent over, doing something to her sandal. She muttered a swear word and he smiled.
“Tori, you okay?”
“Oh!” She teetered and he caught her by the arm to help her balance. “Stupid new shoes. I got something in between the sole and my foot.”
“Ouch,” he commiserated then stooped to catch her behind the legs and shoulders and pick her up.
Tori gasped and instinctively clutched at him as he settled her in his arms and turned to carry her inside.
“Can you get the door?” he asked and moved so that she could catch the door handle and swing it shut. “Thanks.” He proceeded into the living room and set her down on the couch.
“Wow, um, thanks. It’s a bit early on to be carrying me across the threshold, isn’t it?”
Adam laughed and knelt at her feet. He began to undo the buckle of her sandal, noticing the new bright pink pedicure she was sporting. “Nice pedi,” he commented as he worked the shoe off. Sure enough, a sharp-looking piece of gravel fell to the floor.
Sex on Summer Sabbatical (Seasoned Women) Page 4
