But she most definitely was, because she was exhausted.
When he pulled out, her body was instantly drained of energy. She was still lying there in a state of well-ridden peace when he came back from disposing of the condom and climbed into bed beside her.
She knew she needed to leave. Staying at his place was a recipe for awkwardness when they both woke up in the morning. But lying in Zane’s bed, feeling his warm body next to hers—especially when he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her against his chest—felt too good. She would just rest for a few minutes, let her body recover a bit, and then she would leave.
Because she sure as hell didn’t want him to get the wrong idea about her, or them, or what this was.
Scratching an itch. Casual sex. That was all. Nothing more.
It couldn’t be.
No matter how warm and safe she felt in his arms…
Chapter Seven
“The bloody git wouldn’t know his own arsehole from a rat’s.”
“Uh-huh.” Zane had stopped listening after about the fifth word Mike Truman had uttered, but he just continued to ramble on and on. And on.
Mike was Peter’s cousin and was living in DC, doing his doctoral research in socioeconomics. Zane and Mike had known each other for years through Peter, so when Zane moved over here, he’d been glad for Mike’s company. Mike was great to grab a pint with and bitch about work troubles, which was exactly what they were doing now at one of their favorite pubs.
Mike huffed and took a long swig of his pint. “If the wanker actually had an original thought every once in a while, he might get some of his funding approved.”
Zane had been in the States about eleven months, but he had only recently started to truly enjoy it. No doubt because he had just discovered fried Twinkies.
Or perhaps because he had finally shagged Bea Paxton, and now he couldn’t get her out of his bloody head.
Mike was watching the football match on the tele, but Zane couldn’t find the will to care about sports. He couldn’t stop fidgeting with his phone on the table, wondering if he should call Bea or send her a text.
Two weeks had passed since their night together, and they had exchanged maybe three words during that time.
He had relived that night so many times in his head it was venturing into the land of obsession. Her sounds, her touch, her body, were all seared into his memory. And that damn southern accent of hers. Holy shit. Her voice had a direct line to his dick. One word out of her mouth and he was instantly hard.
Hell, it didn’t even have to be her voice. Just the sight of her had him pitching a tent. Or even the mere thought.
Like now. Lost again in the memories of that remarkable night. Recalling the way her silky hair fanned out across his pillows…
He hadn’t expected her to stay the whole night at his place, but he certainly hadn’t been complaining when he’d woken up the next morning to see her beautifully naked body still lying next to his. He had just lain there, enjoying the comforts of having a warm, soft woman in bed with him.
Until she’d woken up and bolted.
He’d politely pretended to be asleep when he felt her stir and jump out of bed. He’d known she wanted to avoid an uncomfortable conversation, so he’d remained silent as she scrambled around the room, gathering her things, and left without a word.
Now, he was wondering if that had been a huge mistake.
He didn’t want her to act as if nothing had happened between them. He was just giving her some space to let it marinate in her mind, hoping she’d realize how amazing it had been and want to do it again. Unfortunately, there hadn’t been a ton of work to do at the store for the past two weeks, waiting for their first big product shipment to arrive. So, aside from a few emails, they had barely spoken.
It was the longest he had gone without seeing her since they met.
He didn’t fucking like it.
The radio silence was made even worse when he couldn’t stop picturing her naked body writhing under his. She had been so willing to take direction from him, and he could tell his assertiveness had excited her. And fuck if that didn’t have a powerful effect on him. It was obvious she had never been with a real man before. A real man could read a woman’s responses. But every time he had, she’d faltered. She’d been surprised. In a good way, thankfully. And he’d been rewarded with her total submission.
The fact that he had been the first to pick up on her sexual cues satisfied a very primal part of him. He relished being the first man to open her eyes to all that she had been missing out on. That required trust, and he knew he had earned hers.
It had been the absolute best sex of his life, no question.
He just hoped it had been the same for her.
He intended to do it again—over and over—but the question was how to handle the situation? She didn’t want a relationship. She’d made that abundantly clear. Hell, he didn’t even know if he wanted a relationship. He was going back to England soon, so what would be the point? Aside from that, working together could present a problem, especially if they kept getting distracted…or if things went badly.
But not if it was just sex. Right?
What did Americans call that? A fling? He could really enjoy having a fling with Bea Paxton.
The odd thing, though? He actually liked the nonsexual part of their relationship, too. They argued more often than not when they were working together, but in a twisted way, he enjoyed that. It was almost frightening how often he thought about her when she wasn’t around. And how happy he felt when she was.
That didn’t mean they would work as an actual couple, though.
Did it?
Whatever he called it, he needed to make something happen with her soon or he was going to lose his shi—
“You falling in love with that thing or something?” Mike asked, breaking Zane out of his thoughts.
He looked up to find his friend grinning at him. Shit. He had totally forgotten where he was for a moment. At a pub, drinking away his sorrows.
“What are you on about?” he muttered, hoping his embarrassment didn’t show.
Mike nodded down at Zane’s phone. “You’ve been staring at that thing all night. And I know you wouldn’t be doing that if you were just expecting a call from a client or from Peter. So, who is she?”
“Who?” Jesus, was he that transparent?
Mike snorted into his mug. “Please. I’m not daft. If it’s not your job and it’s not your father in London ringing you, it’s clearly about a woman. So…who is she?”
Zane groaned, covering his face with his hands. “Fuck me. Not you, too.”
Why was everyone in his bloody life so concerned with whether or not he was having sex?
Mike laughed. “Ah, I take it my dear cousin has also inquired about her. Look, mate. I’m not going to tell you to sweep the woman off her feet and marry her like Peter would, so you can tell me.”
Probably true. Mike was a confirmed bachelor, far from a proponent for marriage.
Zane absently drew patterns on the table with his finger. “Her name is Bea, and we’ve been working together for over two months.”
“She works at Envision?”
He shook his head. “No. She and her sister own an interior design business, and we hired them to do the design work at the new store.”
Mike looked thoughtful. “Two months? Have you shagged her?”
“Not until two weeks ago.” He took a pull of his beer. “We kept things professional for two months. Then we ran into each other at a club one night, and things just sort of happened.”
Mike narrowed his eyes. “And now?”
Zane shrugged. “We’ve hardly spoken since. She hasn’t been at the store much in the past two weeks, and we definitely haven’t gone out. But Christ.” He groaned, shoving his hands through his hair. “She’s driving me mad. The woman is gorgeous and funny and smart. And she’s not fake or whiny, you know? I don’t look at her and think vapid like so many
women I meet these days. She has way more depth than that. She actually has…character. She’s interesting. You just don’t meet women like that every day.”
Mike chuckled, and Zane wanted to punch him for thinking his misery was funny.
“All right. Obviously, you fancy her. So, what’s the problem?”
Zane pushed out a breath. “She wanted it to be a one-time deal. Sex, just once, and nothing more. With any other woman that would be fine by me, but she’s…different. I don’t want just that one time, but I don’t know how to broach the subject with her. I also have to think about how anything…more…between us could affect our working relationship.”
Mike was silent for a few seconds. “You should just call her,” he said, his voice nonchalant.
He stared at his friend in bewilderment. “And say what? That I’m obsessing over her and picture her naked every time I polish my knob?”
Mike grinned, looking amused. Bearded bastard. “I probably wouldn’t lead with that. Just invite her for a pint. Hang out casually and see what happens. Right now, for instance. I’m here, so it won’t seem like a date. Maybe if it’s more like a ‘come meet my mate and have a drink’ thing, it won’t wig her out.” He tipped his head. “She might even be waiting for you to make a move. You never know. Women are fickle.”
He made some good points.
The worst thing she could do was say no, and he’d be no worse off than he was right now.
Before thinking about it, he was finding her name in his phone and pressing call. He almost hung up, but after the fifth ring her sweet-as-honey voice came over the line.
“Hello?” There was confusion and a bit of intrigue in her voice. Not hate or disgust.
That had to be a good sign, right?
“Hello?” she repeated.
He snapped out of it, clearing his throat. Don’t cock this up. “Hi. It’s Zane.”
“Yes, I can see that,” she replied. “You know, caller ID? When you call, your name pops up on my screen. For a COO of a tech company, you seem to be a bit behind the times.” He could actually hear her smiling.
He rolled his eyes, relaxing at her snark. This was what they did. The back and forth banter between them was comfortable. “I hope I haven’t caught you in the middle of something.”
“No, just at home catching up on some work.”
At least she wasn’t out with another bloke. Or he would probably have to hunt them down and kill the man.
“Okay. Well, if you’re not too busy, I was wondering if you’d like to come join me and my mate for a pint.” He glanced at Mike to see him giving him a thumbs-up.
Silence.
Fuck. Not good. She was probably panicking, unsure of how to tell him to bugger off without sounding bitchy.
“But I can hear you’re busy,” he rushed to say. “Sorry to bother you. Maybe another time.”
Just as he was about to pull the device away from his ear and hang up, he heard her blurt out, “Sure.”
More silence, but this time it was from him. Had she just agreed? “What?”
He heard her take a deep breath. “Sure, yeah. I’ll come have a drink.”
His thoughts were still going haywire, but he managed to get out, “Okay, great. Brilliant.” He rattled of the name and address of the pub.
“I should be there in about twenty,” she said, sounding…cheery? Happy that she was going to see him? Oh, he liked that.
“Smashing. I’ll see you then.” He hung up with a huge grin and drained the rest of his beer.
He was going to see her.
His mood did an immediate one-eighty.
“I take it that means she’s coming?” Mike said.
Zane just nodded. “Yep.”
“And would it have killed you to ask her to bring her sister along? Where’s the loyalty, mate?” He feigned a wounded expression.
“With her sweet, innocent sister.” Zane laughed. “I wouldn’t hook Felicity up with the likes of you.”
“Piss off,” Mike retorted with a laugh. “If you two go off tonight and have a bit of how’s your father, I’m taking full credit. You’ll owe me big.”
“Gladly.” Zane could only hope the evening would end that way.
Chapter Eight
Bea stared down at her phone, her mouth ajar.
Oh, no. No, no, no.
What just happened?
Had she just agreed to go out for drinks with Zane?
Oh God, she had.
“Who was it?” Felicity asked from her yoga position on the floor.
Bea’s brain wasn’t functioning well enough to come up with a lie. “Um…Zane.”
Felicity’s head snapped around. “What did he want?”
“He asked me to meet him.” Bea finally came to her senses when she saw her sister’s concerned expression. “Just to discuss some minor work stuff.” Lies! “That’s all.”
Felicity raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Should I come with you?”
“If you want.” Please don’t.
Her sister let out a heavy breath and jumped to her feet. “All right, that’s it.” She pointed an accusing finger at Bea. “Sit down and explain.”
It was hard for Bea not to laugh when Felicity got all bossy like that. Her head came to the top of Bea’s shoulders. And with her small hands perched on her hips as she attempted to stare Bea down, she looked like a little kid, upset that Bea had stolen her favorite toy.
“What are you talking about?” Bea asked, avoiding eye contact.
“Don’t act like you don’t know what I mean, Beatrice Elizabeth Paxton. Or that I don’t know exactly what happened that night at the club. You will tell me this minute what the hell you’re thinking.”
Oh shit. She knew?
Trying to hide her guilty expression, Bea walked into the kitchen and immediately dug into the cheese danish she hadn’t let herself touch all day. What the hell. If she was going to have to listen to a lecture from her little sister, she needed some calories to deal with it.
“So, I went home with a guy,” she said. “What’s the big deal?”
Felicity threw her hands up, aghast. “The big deal is who! How could you sleep with Zane Price, of all people?”
Yep, she knew.
“I, um—”
“The man is signing some pretty big paychecks for us right now, Bea. We’re about to pay back Daddy all of the money he loaned us, and if something goes wrong with the Envision project, there goes that plan.”
She and Felicity had taken out a loan from their wealthy father when they had been trying to get Paxton Designs on its feet several years ago. Next quarter marked the end of their payments to him, if everything went according to plan, which meant that Paxton Designs would officially be in the black. For Bea, that milestone signified years of hard work finally paying off, and gaining something she valued more than anything—independence. She hadn’t realized until recently how important that was, not only in her personal life, but in her professional one, as well.
Bea grimaced. “How did you know I went home with Zane and not some other guy?”
“Gwen and I saw you two dancing. The way you were touching…” Felicity shook her head. “The next morning when I was actually sober and had a chance to think about it, I put two and two together. I wasn’t going to say anything because I thought it was just a drunken hookup. Figured you guys would move on from it and that would be that. No harm, no foul. But now he’s calling you? And you’re going out together? What the hell?”
Busted.
“First,” Bea said calmly, holding up a hand, “there’s nothing to worry about. Nothing is going to get screwed up with his account, because we both agreed it was just a one-time deal. We were drunk and horny, and we just happened to be there at the same time.”
More lies.
They’d barely had a buzz going, and their attraction had been building for months. Not that she was about to confess that to Felicity. One hissy fit a day was plenty, thank you very much.
Listening to multiple hissy fits required an open bottle of…anything alcoholic.
“Anyway,” Bea continued. “We’ve agreed it won’t happen again and that we’d be totally professional at work. Don’t worry. You and I will still be able to pay Daddy back by the end of next quarter like we planned. So stop going all Freaky Felicity on me.”
Felicity didn’t look convinced. “You sure? You guys aren’t going to start dating for real, or something? Because if you start dating and then you break up, he could be the type of guy who blacklists us. He has a lot of influence out there. We can’t afford to piss him off.”
Which was exactly the reason Bea had insisted on the one-time thing.
She wanted to laugh at the idea of her and Zane dating dating, but…
She couldn’t. Because it didn’t sound as ridiculous to her now as it would have two months ago.
But she buried that thought under a layer of nonchalance. “Dating Zane? You’re kidding, right? Trust me, that was just some pent-up lust we needed to get out of our systems, nothing more. I mean, you can’t blame me. The man is seriously sexy.”
“Then what’s up with you two meeting tonight?” Felicity asked skeptically.
Bea shrugged. “Like I said. He wants to discuss some minor product placement stuff. You can come if you want.”
After a few seconds, Felicity’s shoulders fell, either in relief or defeat, Bea wasn’t sure which. “No, thanks. I’m going to pretend I believe you and not imagine the worst.”
“Hey, give me some credit,” Bea mumbled through a mouthful of cheese danish.
Felicity grabbed a fork and dug into the pastry, too. “Don’t act like your vagina hasn’t gotten us into trouble before.”
“Name one time.”
“The time we were pledging for the sorority in college, and the head sister kicked us out because you had slept with her boyfriend.”
“They were broken up at the time and she had cheated on him. Besides, those girls were all bitches, anyway. I did us a favor.”
Felicity went blithely on. “Then there was Courtney’s wedding—”
Casual Affair (Slow Seductions) Page 6
