The Affair: Week 4

by BETH KERY

  Emma made everything so easy. Certainly his desire had never been this sharp, ready to rear up and clutch at him with just a glance or a touch.

  “Why are you frowning?” she asked softly, touching his furrowed forehead and splintering his thoughts.

  “I took you very hard. I hadn’t intended to. Waiting all week for your answer . . . it made things very trying . . .” He faded off. “Are you all right?”

  She gave him a half-shy, half-mischievous glance. “Yes. It was incredible.”

  “It was,” he agreed. He smoothed her hair back from her forehead distractedly. “Come on, I’ll take you into the city for dinner.” She opened her mouth but he preempted her. “Don’t worry, we’ll stop by your apartment and pick up what you might need until tomorrow morning.”

  “Tomorrow morning?” she asked, clearly surprised

  He turned, rolling off the bed. “We’ll stay the night at my place in the city. I’m not flying to Nice until late tomorrow.

  “You have a place in the city?”

  He nodded. “My plant is in Deerfield, but I have a business office in the city. I need a place there for when I work late.”

  He felt her eyes on him as he walked around the bed toward the bathroom. He was starting to think he’d feel her eyes on him even in his sleep.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Her mind was preoccupied almost exclusively with one—admittedly stupid—thought all the way home. Should I ask him inside my apartment, or would he prefer just to wait in the car? Asking Vanni inside seemed intimate. Somehow it didn’t seem to match up with the purely sexual affair she’d agreed to with him for a circumscribed period of time. She suspected he felt that way, at any rate, and so she wanted to act accordingly.

  Earlier in his suite, he’d asked her politely if she’d like to shower there or at her home, to which she’d answered the latter. Then there’d been nothing left for her to do but sit in a chair in the sitting area and watch in mounting fascination the tail end of his grooming/dressing ritual.

  He’d quickly showered after they’d made love, and then changed into a suit. It was a dark gray, with which he wore a white shirt, a slim black tie with two white stripes, silver cuff links, and a crisp white pocket square.

  He’d donned his clothing in a methodical fashion, as efficient as a knight putting on his armor. He’d put on the pants, shirt, socks, and shoes in a large dressing closet, where she couldn’t see him. When he’d stepped out, she stared at him with a mixture of fascination and lust. He looked beautiful with the shirt unbuttoned, his ridged abdomen and powerful chest showing through the two-inch gap between the plackets. He hadn’t shaved, and an attractive dark scruff was on his jaw and upper lip. She watched, spellbound as he fastened his shirt and crisply tied his tie in the mirror over his dresser. His hair had still been a little damp around the collar by the time he snapped on his platinum watch and turned his gaze to her where she sat on a chair in the seating area, blinking at her expression of bemused fascination. She’d been a little undone viewing the Vanni Montand dressing ceremony, that ritual of blatant male sexuality and precision.

  Now he sat there in the driver’s seat, smelling delicious from his shower and looking impossibly gorgeous. The idea of him inside her apartment seemed . . . just odd. Unlikely. Surely he’d rather wait in the car.

  “I’ll just hop in the shower and change for dinner. It won’t take me more than ten minutes,” she said awkwardly when the car came to a stop in her apartment parking lot.

  He didn’t reply. She studied his profile in the soft summer evening light.

  “Um . . . do you want to come in?”

  Much to her surprise, he nodded once and twisted the keys out of the ignition. Her heart jumped when he reached for his car door.

  Oh my God, how is Amanda going to react? I haven’t even told her I was seeing anyone, let alone someone like Vanni Montand.

  “I’m on the third floor. It’s a walk-up,” she mumbled apologetically a few seconds later as they approached her building. Again, she experienced that dazed, dreamlike sensation watching Vanni rise up the starkly mundane wooden staircase that led to her third-floor apartment. They passed an overlook to the parking lot below on the second floor. Emma’s feet halted when she saw Colin’s car in the parking lot. She’d been so preoccupied sitting in the car with Vanni and inhaling his subtle, addictive scent that she’d hadn’t noticed it before.

  “Emma?” She blinked and looked at Vanni where he stood on the first step to the third floor, an expectant look on his face. Her brain whirred and then stalled. What excuse could she make? She couldn’t think of anything else to do but continue.

  “Sorry,” she breathed, following him up the steps.

  She led him to her door and fumbled the key in the lock. Suddenly, his hand was on hers. She looked up in surprise. His blue-green eyes seemed to glow in the shadows as he regarded her calmly. Soberly.

  “I don’t care if your house is a mess, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he said.

  Her house a mess? She almost laughed. It was a mess, but not in the way he meant it.

  His hand turned the key in the lock. The door swung open.

  Emma led him through the small foyer and into her modest but comfortable living room, a lump swelling in her throat. She paused abruptly on the threshold.

  In some ways, the situation echoed the other night when she’d caught Amanda and Colin together. The pair sat close together on the couch and looked startled by her appearance. At least they weren’t kissing, though, Emma thought numbly.

  In actuality, it was drastically different. Vanni came to a halt beside her, and Colin and Amanda might have been a mile away. His presence altered the dynamics of the situation almost beyond recognition. How could she worry too much over Colin and Amanda’s new relationship with him standing right next to her?

  “Hi,” Emma said in a high-pitched voice.

  “Hi,” Amanda replied. She gaped at Vanni. So did Colin. For a few seconds, no one spoke.

  “Hi. I’m Vanni Montand.”

  Emma blinked in rising horror when she saw Vanni crossing the room. He held out his hand to Amanda. He’d had to introduce himself, because he was the only one in the room not tongue-tied. Emma forced herself to move.

  “I’m sorry. Vanni, this is my sister, Amanda.” Amanda stood to shake hands, still staring at Vanni dazedly. Vanni nodded cordially at her and turned to Colin.

  “And this is Colin Atwater,” Emma introduced through a dry throat.

  The small, warm smile Vanni had given Amanda flickered and faded. His dark brows slanted dangerously. He glanced at Emma and she read the sharp questions in his eyes. The Colin? Your old boyfriend Colin?

  She gave him a wild look. Colin had stood in the meantime. He looked younger than usual, studying Vanni uncertainly. Colin started to put out his hand, but Vanni gave him a burning scowl and he let it drop. Vanni grabbed Emma’s hand instead.

  “Excuse us,” he said coolly, drawing her away. “We have a dinner reservation to make. Emma needs to dress.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded immediately after she’d pointed to her room and he’d followed her in, closing the door behind him. His voice was quiet, but his gaze shouted all kinds of things.

  Emma glanced around nervously. If it’d been strange to think of Vanni in her apartment, it was downright bizarre to see him in her bedroom. He shrunk the size of it just by standing in it. His abundant good looks and the careless way he wore the expensive suit seemed to make her carefully chosen bedroom set and accessories appear shabby by comparison.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t think it was important,” she hedged.

  He took a step closer, his gaze boring down into her. She had to force herself not to step back. “You walked in on your boyfriend fooling around with your sister? And you didn’t think that was an important
detail?”

  “All right,” she said, anger rising in her. Why was he acting like she had done something wrong? She turned and dropped her purse on her bed, then immediately wished she hadn’t. Now she had nothing to do with her hands. “I didn’t want to tell you because I knew you’d . . .”

  “What?” he prodded when she faded off.

  “Feel sorry for me,” she shot defiantly over her shoulder.

  He put his hands on her shoulders and spun her around. She glared up at him. “Don’t you think compassion would have been appropriate in that situation?” he breathed out ominously through a stiff jaw.

  “No, because even though no one believes me, I’m honestly not all that upset about what happened. Colin and I weren’t meant to be together.”

  “You and your sister are.”

  She inhaled sharply. Hurt tightened her face.

  Regret flickered across his stark features.

  “Dammit, Emma, you should have said something. And what the hell are they doing out there together? This is your home, for Christ’s sake. Don’t they have any decency, parading around in front of you?” he seethed.

  “I told Amanda she could bring him here. This is her home, too. I’m not upset by it. Why should it matter to you?” she mumbled, looking down at the floor. Tears had prickled in her eyes when he’d said that thing about her and Amanda being meant to be together, and she didn’t want him to notice them. She was distantly gratified by his anger on her behalf, but she was mostly embarrassed. No matter how you looked at it, it wasn’t an admirable position to be in, to have a man pass over you for your gorgeous sister, no matter that you didn’t want the man.

  Or to have your only family member sacrifice you for a man.

  She slumped as pain swept through her at the thought. His hands slid down her shoulders to her upper arms. He palmed the muscles.

  “So you’re not upset,” he said dryly.

  “No,” she replied furiously, stubbornly meeting his stare despite her tears.

  He just studied her soberly for a few seconds. “It was bad enough that I pounced on you in the garage after you’d told me you broke up with your boyfriend. I knew you were upset, I just didn’t guess the full extent of why.”

  “So you’re saying you wouldn’t have made out with me or proposed a strictly sexual affair if you’d known it was Amanda I caught Colin with?” she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. His eyes went frigid.

  “No. You’re right. I would have gotten there eventually, no matter what.”

  “Well then what are you worried about? You can’t be both selfish and outraged on behalf of my feelings at once, Vanni.”

  He dropped his hands abruptly. Even though she was irritated at him—at the world, at that moment—she missed his touch.

  “You do realize that makes me even more of a jerk than Colin, don’t you? I just told you I would have seduced you even if I’d known why you’re so vulnerable.”

  Anger swelled up in her, nearly choking her for a moment. “For the last time, I am not vulnerable. And I’ll decide who I think is a jerk or not.”

  He shook his head, his mouth twisting slightly. “You’re very naïve, Emma.”

  “Yeah? Well you’re very full of yourself. Not everything is about you and your supposedly horrible, selfish self. I’m not a victim, Vanni. Did you ever consider I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing? Maybe I’m the selfish one,” she snapped before she walked over to her closet, stiff-backed. She jerked open a sliding door and stared blindly at her wardrobe. “And I haven’t got anything to wear to whatever . . . stupid, uppity restaurant you picked,” she added angrily.

  He didn’t reply for several seconds. She just listened to her own escalated breathing in the billowing silence, her back to him. She was so sure the evening was ruined. Suddenly his hands were on her shoulders. Exhaling choppily, she felt his lips move on her nape. She closed her eyes and shuddered. Relief swept through her. So did liquid warmth, the strength of her arousal in this situation shocking her to the core. He turned her to face him.

  “You’re the opposite of selfish. But maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if you were a little more cynical sometimes.”

  “Really?”

  He studied her face and frowned. “No,” he sighed. “Do you really forgive them for what they did?”

  “You say forgive like it’s a dirty word,” she said. He just continued to pin her with his stare, waiting for an answer. “No, I haven’t forgiven Amanda yet. I’m working on it. It’s a process. For both of us. It’s not a black-and-white thing! How do you think forgiveness works, precisely?”

  “I wouldn’t know,” he said blandly. “Certainly not in a similar situation.”

  “She’s my only family. What do you expect me to do, throw her out on the streets? As for Colin, I don’t think he needs my forgiveness. He’s not going to be a major part of my life anymore.”

  He didn’t respond immediately, but he didn’t move. You’re very naïve, Emma.

  He didn’t say it, but his remembered words hung in the air at that moment. Suddenly he kissed her temple very tenderly, taking her by surprise and sending a cascade of shivers through her and raising goose bumps along her arms.

  “Go and shower. I’ll pick something out for you to wear.”

  “You will?” she asked, amazed. Then she looked at the clothes hanging haphazardly in her closet and thought of his expensive, immaculately organized wardrobe.

  “No, that’s all right.” She saw his small smile before he brushed his firm lips against her warm cheeks.

  “I wish you’d stop getting embarrassed,” he said.

  “Well it’s not something I can stop that easily,” she fired.

  “I just mean,” he said in a low, patient tone, despite the sardonic arch of his eyebrows, “that I wish you wouldn’t, because there’s absolutely no reason in the world for you to be embarrassed. Ever,” he repeated succinctly. One glance into his hard gaze, and she knew he didn’t mean her lame wardrobe, but the embarrassment she’d experienced facing Colin and Amanda with him standing at her side.

  She appreciated that.

  Eying him warily, she went on tiptoe and slid her mouth against his. He smiled that smile she rarely saw before he bent down to take what she offered in deep earnest. Then he was turning her in the direction of the bathroom, and Emma tried to remember what she was supposed to be doing, so befuddled was she by his kiss.

  “I won’t profess to being an expert at this, but I’ll figure something out. Go on,” he said. She glanced over her shoulder as she walked to the bathroom. He was scowling darkly at her closet like it was an unexpected but worthy challenge.

  * * *

  There was nothing he couldn’t do, she thought fifteen minutes later as he opened her bedroom door for her. He’d chosen a dark teal blue, sleeveless cotton dress and paired it with a thick, dark purple belt that went with another outfit. Emma wouldn’t have ever thought to put the two together but it worked fantastically. She took the two items from him, dubious at first, and went into the bathroom to finish getting ready.

  The dress, which she had long ago forgotten about, looked brand new with the belt to freshen it. The braided collar encircled her neck and left most of her shoulders and arms bare. She hadn’t spent a lot of time in the sun so far this year, but her skin still gleamed next to the teal of the dress. Then she added a gold, long necklace with a medallion at the end of it. It served to not only accessorize her outfit, but to accentuate the shape of her breasts in the draping fabric. Her hair was behaving tonight and waved softly around her face. She applied a little more eye makeup than was usual and a natural shade of lipstick.

  The male heat in Vanni’s eyes when she exited the bathroom, along with a slightly smug smile, told her she was beautiful to him. She felt like she was pretty.

  “I missed my calling,”
he said, his mouth tilting as he opened the door for her.

  “Something tells me you’re much more of an expert at undressing women than dressing them,” she told him under her breath as she passed.

  “I’ll happily do both for you.” It was shameless flirtation, but Emma couldn’t resist. She’d like to meet the straight woman who professed she could resist Vanni when his blue-green eyes went heavy-lidded and hot. She paused and brushed her fingers across his angular, whiskered jaw and went on her tiptoes.

  “Thank you,” she whispered before she kissed his mouth. He placed his hands on her shoulder and drew her closer, leaning his head down. Then he was kissing her deeply. Emma gave a muted moan, her body going soft and heated. He was like a Montand car, taking her from zero to a hundred in record-fast time.

  “Emma?”

  Emma started and broke the kiss, flustered. She turned, self-consciously wiping her lipstick-smeared mouth with the back of her hand.

  “We’re just stepping out for a bit,” Amanda said uncertainly from the other end of the dim hallway. “We’ll talk when you get back from dinner?”

  Emma opened her mouth to answer but Vanni took her hand led her down the hallway. “Don’t wait up for Emma. She’s staying with me in the city tonight,” he said as they approached Amanda.

  “I’ll call you tomorrow,” Emma told Amanda as they passed her.

  Instead of taking the route that Emma would have—through the kitchen—Vanni led her through the living room. Colin stood there in his jeans and old college T-shirt, looking sideswiped. She had no doubt he’d heard what Vanni had said.