My Sexiest Mistake

by Kristin Hardy

  Ryan felt the giddy rush of pleasure as he broke off from the group to grab a bottle of water from a barrel of ice near the court. She watched his tanned throat move as he swallowed the spring water, and remembered how tight and smooth his skin felt there, how thick his hair was as it curled through her fingers when they were in bed. He finished drinking and wiped his mouth, then he glanced up and their eyes locked. It threw her back like a physical contact. He picked a towel off the grass and walked over.

  “Hi,” he said, wiping his forehead and pleasing himself by letting his eyes roam over her.

  Ryan tried unsuccessfully to wipe the smile off her face. It was absurd how good it felt to see him. “Congratulations.”

  He grinned. “Thanks. We’re on a roll today.”

  “I can see that.”

  “It’s good to see you.”

  Dark stubble shadowed his jaw, making him look rough and just a bit dangerous. The desire to kiss him was nearly overwhelming. Belatedly, she remembered her manners. “This is Becka Landon, a very dear friend of mine who volunteered to round out our 5K team. Becka, Cade Douglas.”

  “Nice to meet you.” Becka eyed him speculatively. “Where’d you get that serve?”

  “I played in college.” He took another swig of water. “I’m hoping to get the rust off in time for the quarterfinals in about half an hour.”

  “You guys keep playing like that I’d say you’ve got it sewn up.”

  “Thanks.” Cade looked back at Ryan. He’d awakened with her wrapped around him just that morning but it felt like weeks had gone by. Having her near now felt right. “So how’d you folks do?”

  “Faster than I expected,” Ryan said. “We might actually place.”

  He glanced at the sleek lines of her legs, remembering when she stood in front of the window in the Copley Hotel, wearing only gossamer hose and a garter belt. “With legs like that, I’m not surprised.”

  She blushed. Becka looked at her and grinned, then glanced at her sports watch. “Cade, it was nice to meet you. I’m sorry, but I’ve got to dash. I’m supposed to be working the rubdown table. Ryan, where do you want to meet for lunch?”

  Ryan looked at Cade in question. “Where do you want us?”

  Anywhere I can get you. The thought was immediate. For now, though, he’d have to damp his urges until he could have her to himself. “Our tables are over near the booth. Just bring the whole team.” The rest of the team didn’t matter. She did.

  “It’s really nice of you to invite us.”

  “No trouble, really. You’re our partners.” His gaze went through her skin and into her bones.

  “I’ll see you guys later,” Becka said, but they barely heard her, intent on each other.

  He stepped just a bit closer. She couldn’t help but imagine him closer still. “You left too early this morning,” he said softly.

  “I had to get here to meet the team.”

  “You should have stopped by when you got here. We had bagels and muffins.” And he would have seen her that much sooner, he thought, taking another drink from his water bottle, eyes on hers.

  “Are you sure you’re going to have room for us at lunch?”

  “Not a problem.” The rest of the eTrain team was filing back, preparing for the quarterfinal. Someone called Cade’s name.

  “I should let you go.” She wanted him with an intensity that stunned her. “Good luck with your game. I’ll bring the rest of the team over later.”

  “Good idea. You know where to find us.”

  They stood staring at each other, unwilling to part without touching, unable to do anything but. It was ridiculous to feel bereft when she knew she’d be with him that night, Ryan thought, but that didn’t change the way she felt. She gave a little wave, then forced herself to go.

  Cade watched her walk away. Stupendous legs, just stupendous. And as for the rest of the package, well, that was as fine as it came too, he thought, as the team began bumping balls around to warm up. When he’d turned around and seen her he’d felt like he’d conjured her up by thinking about her. She’d been on his mind nearly nonstop since he’d seen her off that morning. The burst of pure, uncomplicated pleasure that had hit him then gave him pause for thought, though. Desire was only part of the feeling; most of it was knowing that he was going to be in her company again. When had that happened, he wondered.

  She stayed on his mind even through the quarterfinal, which didn’t keep him from leading the team to a win. She’d become such a part of him in such a short time, he thought, walking back to the eTrain booth with the rest of the team. They were together nearly every minute they weren’t at work. He kept waiting for burnout to set in, but it hadn’t happened yet. Still, given his family history and track record, it was just a matter of time. And that, he thought, would be a very great shame.

  “Congratulations,” Patrick called when Cade reached the booth. “I hear you guys made the semifinals.”

  “With this kind of talent, did you ever doubt it?” They went through the high-five ritual, slapping palms and bumping fists.

  Patrick rolled his eyes. “Sorry, guess I forgot about your twenty Olympic gold medals and lifetime career achievement award.”

  “I don’t hold it against you,” Cade said genially, taking a swig from the bottle of Gatorade he held. “I figured I had to spread a little magic for the company.”

  Patrick’s smile faded. “Speaking of the company, Ryan Donnelly from Beckman Markham stopped by. Did she find you?” He reached under the table to pull out some more brochures.

  The attempt at casualness was completely unconvincing, Cade thought. “Yep. I invited her to bring the rest of the Beckman Markham team over to our area for lunch.”

  Patrick slapped the brochures on the table. “Is that really a good idea?”

  “Patrick, we’re working a deal with them. Why wouldn’t we want to hook up with them if they’re here?”

  Patrick shrugged. “No reason, I guess.”

  “Good.” Cade took a deep breath. “The other part that you should know about is that we’ve gotten involved.”

  Patrick spun around to face him, genuine anger on his face. “Goddammit, Cade, you said…”

  “I said it would be okay, and it is.” His voice held an emphatic edge. He looked steadily at Patrick until the irritation in his friend’s eyes began to ease. “Look, this isn’t a one-night stand, okay? I like this woman, a lot. The job’s getting done. What we do on our own time is our own business.”

  “Not when it impacts the company you’re running.” Patrick folded his arms in front of him like a high school teacher reasoning with a difficult student.

  “It’s not impacting the company. The work is going fine.”

  “That’s great for now, but what about—”

  “Patrick, I like being with her.” Cade’s voice was shaded with intensity. “You know how long it’s been for me since I’ve wanted to be around anyone? Cut me some slack here.” He paused. “I need to do this.”

  Patrick stared at him a moment, then nodded reluctantly. “Okay. Just be careful. I don’t want the business screwed up and I don’t want you to get messed around over this. I don’t want to hear that—”

  “Uncle Cade!” A pair of dark-haired moppets hit Cade simultaneously from opposite sides. Patrick sighed as his kids hugged Cade. “Uncle Cade, take us for a rocket ride,” piped the older one, a boy perhaps of four or five years.

  “Wottet wide,” echoed the toddler with him, pushing her face into Cade’s leg.

  “Let’s go away from the table, Cameron.” Grinning, Cade gave Patrick a helpless shrug and obediently picked up the boy, carrying him safely away from the table before whirling him up into the air.

  “More,” cried the boy, screaming with laughter. “More.”

  “Me,” the little girl cried, holding her arms up. Patrick picked up his young daughter and hoisted her onto his shoulders. “There you go, Sydney, you can watch Cameron and Uncle Cade from the penthou
se suite.”

  “Wottet wide!” she cried, clapping her hands together. And watching his best friend with his child, Patrick couldn’t help smiling, despite his doubts.

  RYAN BROUGHT THE OTHERS to the eTrain tables, introducing them to the handful of people she knew from meetings. Trying to ignore the flutters in her stomach, she walked toward the booth, looking for Cade. Then she saw him, whirling a squealing little girl around with abandon. Her jaw dropped at the scene. Cade swung the tiny girl again then set her down. A dark-haired little boy dancing at his side tugged on his T-shirt for a turn. Somehow, she’d never thought of Cade as the family sort, but he looked carefree and delighted. His face was absent its usual intensity, relaxed in a way she’d never seen before. She found herself charmed, utterly and completely. “What cute kids,” she murmured.

  “Thanks. We like them.” Ryan jerked around to find Patrick giving her an assessing look. He looked beyond her to where his children were swinging on Cade’s arms, using him as a human jungle gym. “They’re mine. They’ve known him all their lives, so they pretty much act like they own him.”Cade glanced up and saw Ryan and Patrick standing together. Letting Cameron down, he straightened up and walked over to them. The children danced along beside him, swinging on his hands. He locked eyes with Ryan. “Hi.”

  “Hello.” A moment slid by while they simply looked at each other and grinned. Patrick watched them, and his mouth softened into a reluctant smile.

  Cade snapped out of it first. “Did you bring the others?”

  Ryan nodded. “They’re over at the tables. How did the quarterfinals go?”

  “We won. Onto the se—wait,” he stopped, looking at her intently. “Hold still a minute. You’ve got a bug in your hair.”

  “What kind?” Ryan’s voice rose in alarm as she cringed. She’d always had a horror of wasps and hornets.

  Cade spoke soothingly, catching her shoulder. “Nothing that stings. Just hold still.” He reached over to untangle an early Japanese beetle from her hair and held it out. “Just a beetle, see?”

  “Oh.” Ryan flushed. “Sorry. I have a thing about bites and stings.”

  “Let me see,” Cameron cried.

  Cade knelt down and held his palm out so that Cameron and Sydney could crowd around. They stared at the beetle in fascination. As the insect crawled over his hand, Cade tipped it so that they could continue to watch. “Put your finger out, Cam,” he said.

  “It tickles,” Cameron squealed when the scratchy legs touched him, and dropped the beetle back in Cade’s open hand.

  Staring at the scene, Ryan felt something constrict in her chest, like there wasn’t enough room for her heart. She glanced away to see Patrick looking at her as though she were a science experiment he was studying.

  “Patrick?” a redhaired woman called as she walked across the grass toward them. “Time to get the kids over to lunch, hon.” She came up and gave Patrick a quick kiss, then knelt down to stare at Cade’s hand with the children. “Whatcha looking at?”

  “It’s a beetle,” Cameron answered importantly. “Isn’t he cool? He’s all shiny and coloredy.”

  “Neat stuff,” she agreed. As though tired of being the center of attention, the beetle raised its wings and took off into the air. There was a chorus of protests from the children.

  “It’s okay,” Cade said. “He was late for lunch.”

  “Like us,” said the woman, straightening up and pushing a strand of hair out of her eyes. “You going to introduce me to your girl, Cade?”

  Patrick stiffened and Cade shifted.

  She looked from one to the other. “What, did I say something wrong?”

  “I’m just a colleague,” Ryan said quickly. “Ryan Donnelly.” She extended her hand.

  The woman blushed. “I’m so sorry. When I looked over and saw you two together I thought…oh, I jump to conclusions sometimes. I’m Amy Wallace, mother of those two crazy kids there.”

  Patrick stepped up behind her to put his arms around her neck. “You forgot the most important part,” he said, dropping a kiss on her hair. “She’s also my adoring wife.”

  Amy turned to look at him, eyes sparkling. “You bet I am, buster,” she said and kissed him. “You just bet I am. Now let’s get this crew to lunch.”

  “Cade, can you do something about the leaflets so they don’t blow away?” Patrick asked as he walked away.

  “Sure.”

  The foursome headed off across the grass, the children skipping ahead.

  “They seem really nice,” Ryan said. She turned to Cade, and saw him watching Patrick and his family with a kind of wistful longing in his eyes.

  “Huh?” He responded a beat too late. “Oh, yeah. The kids are fun. Patrick and Amy have it golden.” He glanced at them one more time, then turned to her and smiled, his eyes clear again. “Come on, let’s go find your friends and eat.”

  She didn’t see the look return at lunch, when they laughed and joked through the meal, or in the afternoon, when he led the eTrain team to victory. And as she lay in bed next to him that night, she wondered if it had all been in her imagination, but she knew it hadn’t. Somewhere deep inside him was a longing for what he thought he couldn’t have. Somewhere inside him was a longing for family.

  15

  “SO WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT determining your employees’ personality types?” Ryan was up in front of the class, loose and enjoying herself. It was a particularly good group, one that she’d connected with right off the bat. Or perhaps she’d just connected with Cade, who watched her avidly from the last row. Every time she glanced his way, she felt bathed in a special glow. The lens of the camera that winked at her from the back of the room didn’t bother her. She hardly noticed it.

  “The answer is that the more you understand them, the more effectively you can work with them. It’s all about give and take.” She glanced at the faces in the class, and once again found herself unable to keep from looking at Cade. The smile on his face made her mouth curve in return. “In case you haven’t figured it out, as a manager you have a relationship with your reports, just as you do with someone you’re involved with. And like any relationship, the key issues are communication, understanding and willingness to be flexible. As boss, you may be calling the shots, but if you want to get the most out of the relationship, you’ll find a way to accomplish your goals by helping the employees under your supervision accomplish their goals.“You have to define the relationship.” Like she and Cade had defined their relationship. Only now, she found herself wanting more. The feeling wasn’t burning out. It was only getting deeper and stronger. “There’s got to be trust. They have to know they can depend on you to be honest with them, to be fair, to look out for their interests.”

  Cade rubbed his jaw and she felt a quick surge of butterflies in her stomach. Suddenly all she could think was how much she wanted him, just a few moments alone with him. “All right, everybody, it’s ten-thirty. Let’s take a break. I’ll see you back here in fifteen minutes.” Ryan watched the students file out of the hotel meeting room and breathed a sigh of relief.

  Pete turned off the camera and flashed her a smile. “You’re doing great. It’s like night and day compared to last week. This is going to be amazing when I get it edited.”

  “You were right,” Cade said, “the audience makes all the difference.”

  She flushed with pleasure. “I’m lucky. This is a particularly good bunch.”

  Pete yawned. “Hit traffic and got here too late to have coffee. I’m gonna go grab some before I fall asleep.” He wandered out the door followed by the sound man, leaving the room empty but for Cade and Ryan.

  Cade approached her as she walked toward him and pulled her back into a niche hidden from the doorway. “Why is it I feel like it’s been weeks since I saw you rather than just a couple of hours?” he whispered, fastening his mouth over hers.

  It continued to amaze her, the heat his kisses stirred up. One minute she was in front of the room, calm and collected,
aware of him at a level of quiet happiness. The next, she was thrumming with desire. Emotion burst through her with an intensity she’d never expected. She’d never realized that a love affair could satisfy on so many levels.

  Love affair? Love? Ryan stiffened. They had agreed on a purely physical affair. Love didn’t enter into it. It couldn’t.

  She was very afraid it already had.

  “What’s wrong?” Cade murmured, his lips against her neck.

  “Nothing,” she said unsteadily, trying to pull away. “I just remembered…I need…”

  “What’s going on?” He started to protest, but just then his cell phone jangled for attention and they broke apart. “Douglas,” he answered in clipped tones, brushing his hand over his mouth absentmindedly to wipe away Ryan’s lipstick.

  If she could just get her bearings, she’d be okay, Ryan thought, grabbing her purse and fleeing to the ladies room. How had it crept up on her? The physical attraction she was comfortable with. It was the way she’d felt watching Cade with Patrick’s kids at the Corporate Games that had ambushed her. It was the quiet pleasures and the passions of the week gone by that had caught her unawares. Now, there was nothing to do but keep the sudden surge of feeling to herself and let it fade away. Hand shaking, she repaired her lipstick as best she could.

  CADE WALKED AWAY from the classroom, searching for better reception. “Okay, that’s better, you’re not breaking up so much. Calm down, Patrick, and tell me what happened.”

  Patrick’s words came out in a rush, his voice strained. “It was the VCs. They called up for a progress report and I talked to them since you weren’t in. They wanted to know what was new. I told them about the streaming video.”Cade closed his eyes. “Tell me you didn’t try to do a demo with them, Patrick. That feature’s not ready to show, you told me that yourself.”

  “I told them it was a new feature, just in test mode.”

  Cade took a breath and searched for patience. “Patrick, we talked about this. These guys are flinchy. The last thing we want to do is spook them by showing them something that doesn’t work. Call them back and tell them you can’t do it.”