“Thank you.” He winked at her as he walked to the head of the table where she’d been standing, then he closed out the presentation by wrapping up the points Indina and Jason had already made.
“You mind hitting the lights?” Griffin asked Jason.
He waited until their architect turned the lights in the conference room back on before concluding the meeting with one final pitch about the benefits of a long-term relationship between Sykes-Wilcox and local government.
“This property is just the beginning,” Griffin said. “As advancements are made in clean energy and green technology, we can reduce Louisiana’s carbon footprint and be an example for the rest of the country. Sykes-Wilcox’s partnership with the city of New Orleans has the potential to turn this city into one others around the world will want to emulate.”
His anxiety slowly lessened as he surveyed the room. There were actual smiles on their faces as the city leaders enthusiastically discussed the presentation. Griffin shook the hands of each member of the city planning commission as they exited the room, then turned to his boss.
“How was that, Mark?” Griffin asked.
“Phenomenal,” Mark Sykes answered. “A simply phenomenal presentation. I felt pretty confident about landing this contract before, but after what you and your team just did, I have no doubts it’s ours.”
“I thought it was your job to manage expectations,” Griffin asked with a laugh.
“No need. This contract is in the bag. Now if only I can convince Ms. Holmes here to join Sykes-Wilcox full time, my day will be complete,” he said, motioning for Indina to join them.
“You can forget that,” Griffin said. “From what I’ve seen, she spends most of her day turning down offers from other architectural firms trying to lure her to join them.”
“Are you two talking about me?” Indina asked as she sidled up next to Mark.
“Yes, we are,” his boss said. “I was just telling Griffin that it’s time for you to stop toying with us and just get on the payroll at Sykes-Wilcox already. You, Griffin and Jason make a dynamic team.”
“I think today’s presentation proves that I don’t have to be on the payroll in order to be a part of this dynamic team,” Indina said.
Mark wagged his finger at her. “Be careful with this one, Griff. She’s sharp.”
“That she is,” Griffin said. “Which is why I’m content with having her any way I can get her.” He paused just long enough to catch Indina narrowing her eyes at him. “On our team,” Griffin finished.
“You’re right about that,” Mark said. “Sykes-Wilcox is happy to pay your steep hourly rate, Ms. Holmes. Anything to keep this team together.”
“I am very satisfied with our contractual relationship,” Indina said. “I have no intentions of going anywhere else.”
“Now that’s what I want to here,” Mark said. He tapped them both on the back. “Good job today. You too, Jason. You all need to take the rest of the day off and go out to celebrate.”
“Only if we get to use the company credit card,” Griffin replied.
“You always have to go that extra step, don’t you?” Mark said with a laugh. The moment his boss walked away, Griffin turned to Indina and hooked a thumb back toward Mark. He spoke before she did, not wanting to give her the chance to call him on his earlier comment about having her any way he could get her. He knew he’d toed the line with that one, just as he’d done with that wink he’d given her earlier. Public displays of affection were not welcomed.
“In the four years I’ve worked for him, I’ve never seen Mark so infatuated,” Griffin said. “Not that I can blame him. You were in rock star mode throughout the entire presentation. Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Normally, I’d say it’s too early for congratulations, but based on the commission members’ reactions, I think Mark is right. This one is in the bag.”
“Of course it’s in the bag. We kicked ass today.”
“We did, didn’t we?” She thrust her hand out to him. “Nice work.”
Griffin glanced at her hand, and then brought his eyes back to hers. “Do you remember how many hours we put into this? What we accomplished here today at least warrants a congratulatory hug, doesn’t it?”
“Griffin?” she hedged.
He lowered his voice. “C’mon, Indina. I know we have this no PDAs in the workplace rule, but what’s a simple hug after all the work we did on this project?”
She hesitated for just a moment before stepping into his embrace. The awkward, impersonal hug completely gutted him. He barely had the chance to feel her against him before she backed away and mumbled something about going over to help Jason pack up the 3-D model.
Griffin studied her as she walked over to the conference table. Even after all these months together, he had no idea what to make of her.
Just a few hours ago he’d been buried deep inside her. He’d licked his way around her body, from that piece of heaven between her thighs, up to her soft, slightly rounded belly, and her full, delectable breasts. She’d done the same to him. So why was it so damn hard for her to show him any kind of affection outside of the bedroom?
The better question was, why was he surprised? That’s the way things had always been between him and Indina.
Back when they’d first started this no-strings-attached thing, they’d both been in a place where a real relationship just didn’t fit in with their lifestyles. But things had changed for Griffin over the last few months. The emotionless hook-ups—while physically gratifying as hell—just weren’t enough for him anymore. He wanted more.
Indina, unfortunately, did not.
She’d told him so from the very beginning, and she hadn’t given any indication that her feelings had changed regarding their relationship—or whatever one called this arrangement between them.
Indina had her own name for it. They were fuck buddies. Plain and simple.
It was hard for Griffin to accept that this was all they would ever be to each other, but he also wasn’t stupid enough to jeopardize what they had going just because he wanted more than Indina was willing to give. That’s why whenever that text popped up on his phone, asking if he wanted to get together, he kept his mouth shut and just enjoyed it. Great sex was great sex, and if he could get that with a beautiful woman a couple times a week, he was ahead of most of the single guys he knew.
So what if that beautiful woman couldn’t bring herself to kiss him on the lips?
A familiar ache slammed into Griffin’s chest.
He hadn’t realized just how meaningful a simple kiss was to him until the moment it registered that he and Indina had never really kissed. For months they’d engaged in every carnal act known to man, but not when it came to that most basic form of intimacy. He craved it. To have her open her mouth and let him inside—it would mean everything to him.
But that wasn’t the way they operated.
They got each other off. Period. And once they were out of bed, there was no talk about what went on behind closed doors. As far as anyone else knew, they were coworkers and nothing more.
Griffin told himself he was okay with that, but lately, thoughts of Indina eventually finding a guy she was willing to kiss had been keeping him up at night. Even though, as far as he knew, she hadn’t so much as looked at another guy since they’d been together, there had never been a discussion about exclusivity. What if she suddenly decided she was ready to test the dating waters again? What would he do if one day that text message wasn’t about hooking up, but instead was news that she’d met someone else? Just the thought sent a rush of anguish spiraling through him.
Griffin knew he was on borrowed time. Indina would eventually want a relationship. And he couldn’t pretend he was okay with that being with anyone but him.
Timing was key. If he told her how he felt about her before she was ready to consider taking that next step, he could risk messing up what they had going here. But if he stuck with the status quo, he ran the
risk of some other guy coming in and sweeping her off her feet. He couldn’t just sit back and allow that to happen either.
He looked over at the conference table. Jason had just zipped up the case he’d used to transport the model. Indina stood off to the side. She was frowning at her phone.
Griffin was at her side in three strides. “Is everything okay?” he asked.
Her head popped up. “What?”
He motioned to her phone. “Everything okay?”
“Oh, yeah.” She waved off any concern. “Just my brother nagging me again.” She looked down at the phone, then back up at him. Her brow dipped.
“What is it?” Griffin asked.
“No.” She shook her head. “Never mind. You’re going to think I’m crazy.”
“Try me.”
She hesitated for a moment before releasing an exasperated breath. “I understand that this is an outrageous request and I don’t blame you if you say no.”
“Indina, would you come on with it?”
“Okay, fine. Here’s the deal. This coming weekend is the annual Holmes Family Reunion. This year they’ve decided to hold it on a three-day cruise to Mexico.” She bit her bottom lip as she looked up at him. “I need a plus one.”
Griffin’s head snapped back.
She held her hands up. “Like I said, I know this is outrageous. And I’ll pay for your cruise, of course. It’s just that the room is double occupancy, and the friend who I thought would be able to come with me won’t be able to make it. And the chances of me finding someone who can come along at the last minute are slim. And—”
“Indina!” Griffin stopped her. “Yes.”
Her eyes blinked several times in rapid succession. “Yes? You’ll do it?”
Three days on a cruise ship with her? Hell yeah he was down for that.
“When do we leave?” Griffin asked.
Her entire body seemed to wilt with relief. “Friday afternoon,” she answered with a grateful smile.
Griffin couldn’t stop his own smile from forming. She didn’t know it yet, but she’d just given him the opportunity he’d been hoping for. If he couldn’t convince Indina that they should be together while they spent three days sharing a cabin on a cruise ship, then maybe he didn’t deserve her after all. But Griffin knew he most definitely deserved her. They deserved each other. He couldn’t wait to show her.
“Thank you so much,” Indina said. “You just saved me from having to eat crow spoon fed from my brother. And remember, this is my treat. Consider it the celebration for getting through this presentation.”
“I’m all for celebrating, but you’re not paying for my cruise,” Griffin said. “If anything it should be the other way around. Using that image projector on the 3-D model was a huge hit. That was all you.”
A blush formed on her soft brown cheeks. She seemed to feed off the praise he heaped upon her body in the bedroom, but for some reason that didn’t extend to accepting compliments at work.
She gave him a casual shrug. “I guess you’re right.”
“I know I am.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to ask her out to dinner tonight to celebrate their big day. But he and Indina didn’t do dinner. The closest they’d come to an actual dinner date—outside of a few casual Friday get-togethers for drinks and half-priced appetizers with the rest of their work team—was eating leftover Chinese from his fridge one night when she’d had to wait out a rainstorm after sex.
It was that same night, when he couldn’t convince her to stay at his place, that Griffin first recognized just how much his feelings for her had changed. And how he couldn’t go on with the way things were.
He was no longer satisfied being Indina’s friend with benefits. He needed more. He needed to be the man in her life. He needed to be the one she shared more than just her body with. He needed her heart.
He had to let her know how he felt about her. And with the invitation to join her on this cruise, she’d just given him the perfect opportunity to tell her.
Now he just had to figure out how to go about doing that without scaring her away.
Indina paid for forty minutes on the parking meter before tucking the receipt on her dashboard and crossing Gravier Street. She’d been smart enough to call Mackenna Arnold before assuming her old college roommate was in her office at City Hall. It was a good thing she did. Today was Mack’s day to hold office hours at the Arts Council of New Orleans, where she volunteered as a pro bono attorney for struggling artists, musicians and writers in need of legal help.
Indina entered the lobby of The Exchange Centre, the downtown high-rise that housed the Arts Council, and took the elevator to the eighth floor. She greeted Elizabeth, the receptionist, as she entered the office suite and pointed toward the hallway.
“Is she free?” Indina asked.
The receptionist looked at her computer. “For the next hour. She has a late appointment coming in at six.”
“Thanks, Liz.” Indina made her way to the small office at the end of the hallway. The various attorneys who volunteered at the Arts Council all shared it, coming in on various days, one to two times a week.
Knocking softly, she pushed the door open to find Mack on the phone. Her friend held up a finger as she continued her conversation.
“A client just walked through the door. We’ll have to continue this at a later date,” Mack said to whoever was on the other end of the call. She jammed her finger at the touchscreen and set the cell phone on the desk.
“Thank God you came in,” Mack said, slouching forward until her forehead hit the stack of files that sat in front of her.
“Do I even want to know?” Indina asked.
“No, you don’t,” came her friend’s muffled voice. Mack raised her head and pushed back from the desk, walking over to Indina and enveloping her in a hug. “You’re looking fabulous as always. Let me just start by saying that I am so sorry I can’t go on this cruise with you. I swear if I didn’t have a dozen things to do this weekend I would be there. I need a vacation more than I need air.”
“I know you do,” Indina said. “That’s why you were the first person I asked. We’ll have to plan a girls’ weekend as soon as you can get some time off.”
Mack rolled her eyes. “As if that’s going to happen anytime soon.”
“You have to slow down, Mack. I don’t have to remind you how quickly burnout happens.”
“I know, I know,” her friend said. “Eventually. Oh, and I have to apologize for cancelling dinner the other night. Again. There was an emergency meeting in the 7th Ward over the school voucher program.”
Indina waved that off. “You don’t have to keep apologizing. You think I don’t know how busy your life is these days? Between practicing law, teaching and the city council, I don’t know where you find the time to eat or sleep.”
“I don’t get much of either, but I’m trying to do better. I promise not to cancel next time.”
“It’s all good,” Indina said. “I had some pho and spring rolls delivered from that new Vietnamese place down the street and ate it in my pajamas while watching TV. It’s my own version of Netflix and chill.”
Mack held up a hand. “Please don’t use that phrase. I thought it meant actually chilling out and watching TV, so I invited the group of law students we have working here over to my place to celebrate after finishing a big case.”
“You didn’t,” Indina said.
“Yes, I did. Sent a group text asking them all to come Netflix and chill. Next thing I know, it’s all over Snap Chat that there’s an orgy going down at Councilwoman Arnold’s house.”
Indina burst out laughing. “That’s what happens when you have no teenagers in your life to keep you posted on the latest slang.”
“Next time you have Liliana over, call me. I’ll pay her to give me lessons. I’d rather not have horny law students showing up at my place with pockets full of condoms.” Mack settled her backside against the desk. “Although, if I didn’t think
it would get blasted all over social media, I would have slept with one of them. It would be nice to finally have an orgasm that wasn’t self-induced.”
“Now that would be a reason to celebrate,” Indina said, taking a seat on one of the mismatched chairs in the cramped office.
“Speaking of celebrations, please tell me that one’s in order after today’s presentation?” Mack asked.
Being on the City Council, Indina and Mackenna had set boundaries once Indina began working on city contracts. Neither of them wanted people thinking that Mack had shown any kind of favoritism just because they were sorority sisters with a friendship that had lasted over twenty years. But Indina knew her friend was always in her corner.
“We won’t know for certain until all bids are in, but we kicked ass today. They were riveted.”
Mack held up a hand for a high-five. “Gimme some.”
Indina slapped her palm then settled back in the chair and folded her hands over her stomach.
“Now, why don’t you tell me what that call was all about,” she said, gesturing to the phone.
Mack rolled her eyes as she pushed away from the desk and went back around it, sitting in the worn leather desk chair. “My ex-husband being a pain in my ass yet again,” she answered.
“Seriously? The divorce has been final for nearly a year. Why is he still being difficult?”
“Because he lives to be difficult,” Mack said. “He’s still pissed that I got his precious boat in the divorce settlement and that it’s just sitting there unused. I told him that I’d sell it to him, but I’m not giving him shit.”
“If it was anyone but Carter I’d say just give him the boat to get him out of your hair, but he’d just find some other reason to hound you.”
“He’s not getting the boat. Other than the condo, which was rightfully mine anyway, that boat is the only other thing I got out of that marriage.”
Indina still couldn’t believe how badly her friend had been shafted in her divorce settlement, but it shouldn’t be a surprise, seeing as Carter Arnold was one of the most successful divorce lawyers in the south. If Indina wasn’t already sour on relationships, the hell Mack had been through over this past year would have been enough to make her run away screaming. Who the hell needed that kind of drama in their lives?
Chase Me Page 2
