“Okay, Jane Doe. Soon.”
She hung up, her thrill forever tarnished. So much for her perfect fantasy. She should have left it alone—maybe she should have let him go that first night at the Pine Tree Inn. Maybe she should have obeyed her instincts in the hall outside their room at the Ritz and fled.
Her perfect fantasy had the possibility of being so much more to her.
She just wasn’t sure it could ever be more to him.
THE OPERATOR AT THE Ritz came on the line and greeted Seth pleasantly. He opened his mouth to make the reservation, hesitated…then shook his head. “Sorry, wrong number.”
He punched off his phone and got up from his desk, paced the spotless gray office carpet moodily, feeling caged and restless. He’d learned over the years to trust his instinct, and his instinct was telling him the Ritz-Carlton might be one of Boston’s finest hotels, but it wasn’t where he wanted to meet Krista tonight.
So where did he want to meet her? Or did he want to meet her at all? Was this hesitation his conscience knocking on his skull, asking how long he planned to mislead her? Or a simple been-there-done-that, time-to-move-on guy thing.
Not the latter. The idea of being with Krista still excited him. Hell, it consumed him. But seeing her…
No, it was not seeing her that didn’t appeal anymore. He loved the feel of her, the smell and the sound and the taste of her. But that remaining sense was begging to be in on the action.
What that meant, he didn’t care to examine. Easier to pretend it was some lust-driven ego-feeding need to be able to watch while he made her come. Easier to discount the rush of protective concern when he sensed her week had left her feeling down, maybe vulnerable, maybe confused. He hadn’t planned to see her tonight; he’d just been e-mailing to see how she was, and when she’d sent her phone number…
He stopped opposite the window and put his hands to his hips, pushing back his jacket, staring at the sun glinting off the building opposite. Right. Just calling to see how she was. No intention of seeing her. Who was he kidding?
Not even himself any longer.
The phone rang and he rolled his eyes. Could these pesky business matters please stop interfering with his obsession?
“It’s Mary. Did you happen to check Krista Marlow’s blog today?”
“No.” His apprehension rose. Just a feeling…but a bad one.
“There’s nothing there but posts from people wondering where she is. No Chapter Two.”
“Really.” He sank back into his seat, the bad feeling intensifying. “Any guesses?”
“None. She was on a roll with the parody. People loved it and were clamoring for more. I’ve never seen so many reactions posted. Maybe she’s ill? If she’s going to be on the road she lets people know.”
“You’ve been following her that closely?”
“Guilty.” Mary let out a low laugh. “Count me among her fairly huge cult following. She cracks me up. And at the risk of sounding disloyal, most of the time she’s right on.”
“Tell me about it.” He blew out a breath, feeling slightly sick. Something about this bothered him a lot, and he wasn’t even sure why exactly. Why would she suddenly stop her crusade? And why had she sounded upset on the phone?
Two possible reasons tapped him figuratively on the shoulder. On the right, a reason named Aimee, and on the left, dear old pater, Seth Wellington, III.
Aimee had turned Juice loose on Krista once before. Seth’s father had been talking lawsuits and interference, words Seth had ignored. He didn’t love what Krista’s column might do to Wellington, but she did have a right to her opinion.
Had Aimee gotten fed up and struck again? Had his father gone ahead with some other form of intimidation?
The slightly sick feeling in his stomach turned hot and strong and angry and he banged his hand on the desk and shoved his chair back to stand. Damn it. He should not be this involved emotionally with a woman who had every reason to distrust him.
But in the words of Krista, Get real, Seth. Too late for that.
“Thanks for letting me know, Mary. Let’s hope she lays off from now on.”
“I’ll miss it if she does. But yeah, the company comes first. I’ll let you know if there are any new developments.”
He thanked her and hung up. Strode to his office door, leaving a mountain of paperwork and unanswered mail on his desk. “Sheila, I’m leaving early today. Anyone needs to reach me, they’re out of luck.”
“Yes, sir.” Her arched eyebrows asked the question for her.
He couldn’t help a smile. “Personal time.”
“Delighted.” Her still-lovely face broke into an answering smile. She reached for a paper and held it out to him. “Before you go, I have a list of presents for your family. Did you want to check it or shall I go ahead?”
Seth took the list and scanned it quickly. Expensive. Tasteful. Impersonal.
Impulsively he handed the paper back. “Hold off, Sheila. I might want to take a closer look. Maybe see if I have any input.”
“I will.” Her smiled turned into an approving grin. “See you tomorrow.”
Seth nodded, feeling pleased and satisfied. Maybe his Grinch heart had grown one size bigger.
He exited his outer office and strode down the corridor to the elevator, greeting employees curtly to discourage conversation. CEO on an Important Mission. In the company garage, in his car, he pulled out his cell, dialed Krista without even being certain of what he wanted to say, how he’d put it or what her reaction would possibly be.
All he knew was that he wanted to be with her, hear her voice, find out what was bothering her and test out these strange new feelings he’d had the idiocy to develop. Which meant he sure as hell wouldn’t be meeting her at the Ritz.
And maybe not even in the dark.
“GOING SOMEWHERE? Maybe my way?”
Lucy jumped and nearly dropped her purse at the sound of Josh’s voice. Oh, great. Now she was feeling guilty for going out with her own fiancé.
“I have a date.” She tried not to speak primly, but she sort of did anyway and found it harder than usual to look him in the eye.
“You’re leaving early for a date?” His dark raised brows clearly said What, not with me?
“With…Link.” She was blushing madly—sheesh, how did women ever manage to juggle two men?
“Oh.” His face fell. He took a step toward her, which made her glance nervously back into the hall behind her office. “So I guess going out with me again tonight is not going to happen?”
“No.” She managed to look into his eyes then, and her insides didn’t do cartwheels this time, only a sad, tired jitterbug. She’d made the right choice. “Not any night, Josh. I’m sorry.”
He looked incredulous, took another step, which made her feel crowded and anxious. What was he going to do, try to kiss her right here at work?
“You’re going to throw away this?” He leaned forward; she put a hand up to block him.
“Stop, are you crazy?” she whispered.
“Crazy for you, Lucy Marlow.” He breathed the words out in a low, husky murmur. “You didn’t stop me the other night.”
“Actually…I did.” She felt a surprising jab of irritation. Why hadn’t she ever noticed all his lines sounded right out of a made-for-TV movie? “And I’m saying it now again. I’m sorry. I admit I was attracted to you—”
“Not was.” He winked an Orlando Bloom eye. “You’re still attracted to me. I can see it in your beautiful blues.”
Oh, brother. Why hadn’t she noticed sooner? The fantasy of the sexy stranger was Krista’s, not hers. She could barely restrain her impatience to be out of this office and on her way to meet Link. But she owed Josh more than that.
“I know I led you on. I didn’t mean to, I was genuinely confused. But you and I…” She shook her head, suddenly calm and sure, and looked him dead-on without flinching. “This is nothing I can pursue, Josh. I’m sorry. That’s final.”
He smile
d with a touch of smugness, touched her hair and didn’t even falter when she moved her head out of reach. “What’s between us won’t go away. I’ll wait for you, Lucy…”
She anticipated his next words, and listened to them fall out of his mouth with a combination of horror and amusement.
“…forever if I have to.”
Based on what? Good chemistry—okay, great chemistry but fading already—a couple of conversations, a nice kiss or two and a lot of meaningless googly-eye-making?
Her fault for being so mixed-up and vulnerable. She’d led him on more than she ever should have, but he had not the beginning of a clue about love. “Josh, in all fairness, I think you’d be better off finding someone—”
“Hey, Josh, there you are.” Alexis Webb walked out of her office, tall, red-haired and perfectly turned out as usual, and handed him a file. “Here are the foreclosure notices on the Glickman case you said you needed back ASAP.”
Lucy stiffened. Alexis flicked a glance at her and another one at Josh, who smiled as if they were all in on a big sexy joke together.
Lucy wanted to growl at him. Alexis better not think she was carrying on an affair with a colleague. Especially now, when she’d finally made it clear she’d never have one.
“Great, yeah, okay.” He took the file and backed toward the exit with puppy-love eyes trained on Lucy. “Catch you later, Luce.”
She cringed at his use of the nickname. He’d never catch her, later or ever. She was embarrassed even to have been tempted by his bait.
“So, Lucy, did I…interrupt anything?” Alexis was a total go-getter, one of the most direct and honest people Lucy had ever met. She probably ate men like Josh for practice.
“Nothing I didn’t want interrupted.”
Alexis smiled, obviously relieved. Did she want him? “I’ve known Josh a long time, Lucy. Good guy, great at his job. But his…tragic flaw, if you will, has always been falling for unavailable women.”
“Really.” She held herself still and calm, but there was no use trying to stop it. The blush was so fierce on her face Alexis would have to be an idiot not to notice. And Alexis was hardly that.
“I thought he might have been hitting on you?” She smiled and laid a friendly hand on Lucy’s shoulder. “A couple of women have ended relationships because of him. They date for a while and then—oops—something goes wrong for him and he breaks it off. Hard to watch because I like and respect him. It’s a pretty unhealthy pattern.”
Lucy’s blush cooled in a hurry. Unhealthy was right. And unhealthy was exactly what Lucy was feeling at that moment. “I’m not at risk. But thanks for telling me, Alexis.”
“Sure.” She gave Lucy a sly smile. “I’ve met your Link at various office parties and I’ll tell you, he is…well…”
Lucy grinned as Alexis started fanning herself. “Way hot?”
“Just take care of him, because if I ever hear he’s free…”
Lucy laughed, swelling with stupid territorial pride. He Tarzan. She Jane. “He’s permanently taken.”
“I figured. Have a good evening.”
“Thanks, Alexis.” Lucy smiled warmly, thinking Alexis had no idea how good of an evening she was going to have. “And thanks for the warning.”
“No problem.” She dumped a file in Lucy’s in-box and walked back toward her office. “Glad it was unnecessary.”
It damn well was. Lucy grabbed her jacket and her purse and hightailed it to the bathroom, where she changed into a tight black miniskirt, high black heels and a tight low-cut red top. She wrapped her sensible raincoat around her and shot out of the office to her car, giddy with relief when she managed to avoid bumping into Josh again. She’d been so stupid to—
Okay, she needed to stop beating herself up so much. Not stupid. She was starving for what Josh had promised—only thank God she’d realized in time that she was starving for it from Link.
She drove to the motel, heart thudding, nervous as if this was their first date instead of their sixth year together. Yesterday at home, after dinner, when she’d casually dropped that she’d be working late tonight and he’d casually dropped that he was planning to go out for drinks with the guys, she’d had to turn away to keep from laughing. Their conversation had been of the pleasant how-did-your-day-go variety, but underneath it crackled a current of excitement that hadn’t been there in way, way too long.
And under the sexual anticipation lay another layer—the warm thrill that Link was in this with her one hundred percent. That he wanted to fix their relationship, not coast by on indifference, as so many couples did, or let love fade into an ugly—or worse, disinterested—breakup.
She pulled into the parking lot, laughing out loud, hoping he’d already gotten the room, because even though they were a legitimate couple of the age of consent, she’d probably blush like mad and overexplain to the desk clerk.
Her laughter died when she saw Link, replaced by a jolt of chemical excitement.
Oh my God. If Josh had looked like a puppy before, he looked like a toy one now.
Link was leaning against his beloved Honda convertible, jeans covering long, strong legs crossed at the ankles, arms folded across a T-shirt-covered chest, the dark blue bomber-style jacket she’d bought him last Christmas and his black Ray-Ban sunglasses giving him a tough-guy look that was making it hard for her to breathe.
He was so sexy. They hadn’t made love in weeks, and she suddenly felt the deprivation of every single one retroactively. No, of every single day.
Rapidly approaching every single hour.
She parked across the lot, opened the door and let her long dancer legs emerge first, making sure her coat was open so he’d get the full view when she stood. She wasn’t the miniskirt-and-high-heels type. Or never had been before. She prayed the view would have the effect she wanted.
It did. He stared, then looked her slowly up and down from behind those hot Ray-Bans, a smile curving his firm masculine lips.
She slammed the car door and prowled toward him, walking like a model on a runway, letting the coat flap open.
Three steps away, he lifted one arm toward her, smile turned mischievous, a key dangling off the end of his finger. “Home, sweet home. Room 212. Nonsmoking.”
“Perfect.”
He flipped the key around, reached and spanned her waist with his large hands, pulled her forward so she had to straddle his legs and lean full against him.
She wasn’t complaining. He bent down so his lips were less than an inch from hers.
“I’ve been thinking about nothing but this all day.”
“Me, too.” Her words came out breathy and silly. Her mouth was on fire for him to kiss her, as if he were really her forbidden lover, as if this was really their first time. Under her coat, his hands explored the short skirt, moving over familiar territory as if it was a new landscape to him, too.
Her hormones went wild. “Link…”
“I know. Let’s go.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her, walking so fast she practically had to run to keep up.
Inside the tiny, meagerly furnished room, he locked the door, pulled off his sunglasses and threw them on the cheap wood table, then turned to look at her, his blue eyes crinkling into a come-hither smile. “Well, Ms. Marlow.”
“Well, Mr. Baxter.” She let her coat drop and stood, legs strongly apart, exposed nearly all the way by her tiny skirt, and lifted her chin, daring him to make the next move.
He did. He lunged for her, swung her up and around, tumbled her back onto the bed under him, thrust his leg between hers and kissed her as if he were never going to stop.
Lucy hooked her leg around his and pushed up against him, already so hot she could barely stand waiting for them to undress.
He fumbled with her panties, with his fly, and then he was inside her, fast and hard, saying her name, knowing what she wanted, what she felt, without words even being necessary, making her body crazy exactly the way he knew she liked best, making her heart crazy with how muc
h she loved him.
She started to build to an easy climax already, like in the early days, as if the best parts of both of them were freed from the recent decline, free to express themselves, to find each other again in this cheap little room where her moans were probably easily heard by anyone happening by.
They climaxed together, as if they couldn’t bear to be apart even for an orgasm. Lucy wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders, blissful, content, her body coming down to the same slow rhythm as his.
They were meant to be together until death.
Link lifted his head and gazed down at her, quirking his eyebrow. “You are every bit as hot as I imagined you would be.”
She giggled. “You’re twice.”
“Why haven’t we been doing this all along? It’s incredibly exciting like this.” He glanced around and chuckled as if he couldn’t believe they were there. “Don’t you think?”
“Mmm. Just too bad it was over so soon.” She spoke with exaggerated disappointment, knowing he was far from finished.
“You think this is over?” He kissed her and started moving, still hard inside her, then kissed her again, tenderly, sweetly, and pulled back to gaze at her, eyes intense and wide, the way he looked when he was feeling deeply about her. The way he hadn’t looked in far too long.
“Lucy, this is just the beginning.”
11
KRISTA STOOD AT THE corner of Park and Beacon, the Boston Common green in front of her, the gold-domed State House looming behind her. She shivered slightly in the early-evening breeze, more nervous than cold, totally unsure of what to expect. John Smith’s second call had been short and cryptic. No Ritz. No room. Stand at this corner and wait. A car would pull up and she was to get into it.
Gulp. Sounded vaguely Mafia. Would she get fitted for cement shoes in the backseat?
She’d had the presence of mind to ask what kind of car—not that guys drove up and invited her into their vehicles often, but she might as well know. Some faint attempt to feel more in control of the situation. He’d chuckled and said probably not what she expected.
All I Want… Page 15
