by Sarah Morgan
Desire rushed through her and her heartbeat was so loud she wondered why they couldn’t all hear it.
What was he doing?
Matt put his coffee down. “So, tonight is movie night. I have a few friends coming over. You’re welcome to join us.”
Frankie looked interested. “What’s the movie? Kisses and romance or shoot ’em up?”
“There’s a body count.” Matt drained his coffee. “Blood and guts might be involved.”
Frankie didn’t hesitate. “I’m there. Front row seat.”
Eva shuddered. “I’m not there. One day I’m going to tie you all up and torture you with romance night. Can’t we have a chick flick marathon?”
“Not on my watch.” Matt smiled. “You coming, Jake?”
There was a long pause, and then Jake stirred.
“Not tonight. I have plans.”
Matt reached for more bread. “I’m guessing those plans are female.”
“They are.”
Paige felt a sudden stab of misery. It was one thing to know that last night had been a one-off and that he was going to date other people. Another thing entirely to hear the details. If he was seeing a woman, she didn’t want to hear about it.
Matt looked interested. “Same woman as last night?”
“That’s right.” Jake’s voice was steady. “Same woman.”
Same woman?
Paige gripped her spoon. Her gaze flickered to his but he was eating, completely relaxed, as if he hadn’t just dropped a bombshell into the middle of the kitchen table.
She stared into her bowl of granola, reexamining the words, checking she hadn’t made a mistake.
He wanted to see her again.
Happiness rushed through her, and with it a thousand questions.
Why? When had he decided it wasn’t going to be just one night?
Matt finished his breakfast and stood up. “I have to go. I have a meeting on the other side of town.” He paused at the doorway, his eyes on Paige. “Take it easy today,” he said quietly. “You had a very late night.”
“I can cope with a late night, Matt.”
“I know. But I still think you should take it easy.” He studied her for a moment. “And I agree with Ev, that scarf looks great.”
Jake drained his coffee and stood up, too. “I’ll walk with you. I need to be in early today. Thanks for the food, Ev.” He stooped to kiss Eva casually on the cheek and then strolled out of the room after Matt.
Eva slumped in her chair. “Now I’m going to have to give you my new scarf. And I might need a whole new nervous system while we’re at it. I’m not built for drama.”
“Are you kidding me?” Frankie stood up and started to clear the plates. “You invented drama. You could marry drama, have its babies—which, by the way, would be called Crisis and Panic—and live happily ever after.”
“She had a hickey on her neck! Someone had to save the day. I thought I was impressive.”
Frankie shook her head. “You hid the hickey on her neck, but you didn’t do anything about the fact her face was the color of a tomato.”
Paige stood up and loosened the scarf from her neck. “Thank you for this.”
“Keep it. It’s yours. The color really did look good on you until your face turned puce. And anyway, I can’t have it back now. I’ll always associate that scarf with stress and anxiety.” Eva pushed her back into the chair. “You’re not moving until you’ve told us all about sex with Jake.”
Paige froze. “What makes you think it was Jake?”
“Your face when Matt walked into the room and then your face again when Jake walked into the room. Then there was all that delicious innuendo from bad, bad Jake—and I need to probably tell him that if he’s going to have under-the-table foot sex, he needs to not sit next to me while he does it. Also, I heard the motorbike,” Eva confessed. “So being inquisitive by nature—”
Frankie stacked plates on the counter. “By which she means incurably nosy.”
“Inquisitive,” Eva said firmly. “I rushed into the living room and peered out of the window through a crack in the blinds. I saw him kiss you. Great kiss by the way. Loved the way he hauled your mouth to his. Masterful and romantic at the same time. Very, very hot.”
“You saw that?”
“It was my lucky night. If I can’t watch romantic movies or have sex in my own life, I have to live through you vicariously. It’s your duty to allow me to peek. What are friends for? It was your lucky night, too, from the look of it. Jake is obviously as good at kissing as he is at other things.”
Paige slid down in her chair. “Is it weird?”
“You and Jake? You tell us, but from where I was standing it looked hot, not weird.”
“I meant, weird because he’s part of our group. Friends and sex don’t mix, do they?”
“They can.” Eva shrugged. “There are loads of instances where friends become lovers. When Harry Met Sally is one of my favorite movies.”
“Life isn’t a movie, Eva. But that isn’t why it’s weird.” Frankie reached for Matt’s empty mug. “It’s weird because the two of you have been swiping at each other for most of your lives. And after that kiss in the elevator you thought he wasn’t interested.”
Paige put her spoon down. “Turned out he was interested, but he was protecting me.”
“From what?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Eva popped a berry into her mouth. “He was protecting her from himself. He doesn’t want to hurt Paige. That’s so romantic.”
Paige wondered why Eva had been so quick to spot something she hadn’t. “It’s not romantic. It’s super irritating. I thought he was the one person who didn’t protect me, and it turns out he’s been protecting me all along. I would rather have known.”
“No you wouldn’t. Because then you would have been angry. You’re stubborn about people helping you. Not that I don’t understand,” Eva said quickly, “but it’s true.”
“I’m not stubborn.” Paige looked at Frankie. “Am I stubborn?”
Frankie put the yogurt back into the fridge. “Yeah, you are. You’d fall on your face rather than take help. Makes you difficult to help sometimes.”
“I don’t want help!”
“Everyone needs help, Paige! That’s what life is all about. Reaching out and supporting the people around you. You can’t do it on your own. There is a difference between being overprotected and being helped. If we hadn’t forced you to go to Jake, last night wouldn’t have happened.”
“Maybe it would have been better if it hadn’t.”
“I was talking about the event,” Frankie said slowly, and Paige felt her face heat.
“Oh. Well, we still don’t know if that has worked. The phone hasn’t rung yet.”
“It will. And networking is part of business.”
“Great. I’ll network as part of business.”
“And what about the rest of it? What happens now?” Frankie pushed the fridge door shut. “How does this play out?”
Paige glanced at her. “Are we still talking about Urban Genie?”
“No. We’re talking about your sex life.” Eva leaned forward. “This wasn’t a one-night thing. You heard him—he wants to see you again.”
“I know.” Thinking about it sent excitement rushing through her. She tried to contain it. “That part I don’t understand. He didn’t suggest seeing each other again when we were together.”
“Well, he’s obviously had a change of heart.” Frankie picked up a cloth and wiped the table. “Everyone can see the chemistry between you. The only reason Matt didn’t shock himself on the electrical impulses traveling around this room was because the last thing he expects is for the two of you to get together. But, Paige, he is going to find out, and when he does he’ll be hurt that you didn’t tell him. And you’ll feel terrible that you hurt him. I don’t want either of you to feel terrible.”
“What would I say? There’s nothing to tell. I can’t tell him what’s going on
because I don’t know what’s going on!”
Eva glanced between the two of them. “Paige has a point. If she says it’s just sex then Matt would beat Jake to a pulp, except that Jake can handle himself, which means it will get very messy. I don’t like fighting, and I agree—the situation is complicated.”
“This is why I prefer dealing with flowers and plants. They’re not complicated.” Frankie thumped the cloth back onto the counter. “If the two of you have finished spinning fairy tales, we should go to the office. Whether Jake is there or not, we have work to do. We run our own business now, remember?”
“In a minute.” Eva stayed glued to her chair, her eyes on Paige. “We need details.”
Frankie rolled her eyes. “I don’t want details.”
“I do.” Eva was emphatic. “I want to know every single detail working backward from the moment he dragged your mouth to his and tried to eat you alive in the street outside. Come on, Paige. The least you can do is earn the scarf you’re wearing and make up for the fact I ruptured my larynx singing loudly in the bath so I didn’t have to answer the door to Matt and explain why you weren’t there.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
To make your dream a reality, first you need to wake up.
—Paige
THE PHONE DIDN’T stop ringing.
Within an hour of reaching the office they had six new clients, all of whom wanted events and additional concierge services.
“Goodbye sleep,” Eva crowed. “Goodbye sanity.”
“Goodbye money worries.” Frankie was ever practical. “We’re going to need help. There are only three of us and this is a lot of business.”
Paige felt giddy. Any concern that she wouldn’t be able to focus on work melted away in the excitement of the moment. “Our business. It’s our business. How cool is that? We decide what we say yes to.”
“We say yes to everything,” Eva said firmly. “Your wish is not only our command, it’s our income.”
It gave Paige a massive buzz to see business finally taking off, and being busy stopped her thinking about Jake.
He’d implied that they’d be seeing each other tonight, but how was that going to work?
Was he going to call her?
Or was she expected to call him?
Why did things have to be so complicated?
“We’ll outsource. We don’t want to increase our overheads at the moment. I do not want to lay people off if things don’t work out.” She’d learned that from Jake. Watch the numbers. Staff appropriately. “Let’s sit down and see what we have.”
The phone rang again.
Paige made a grab for it. “This is insane.”
“But in a good way. Pretty soon we’ll be able to buy out Star Events and fire Cynthia,” Frankie said.
Paige answered the phone. The woman who had booked the baby shower last night also wanted regular dog walking and a gift basket for the colleague who was going on maternity leave.
“Tell me a little about her. What does she enjoy?” While she was talking, Paige created a new file, made notes and exchanged a few ideas. “We’ll come back to you with a list of suggestions. You can tick the ones you like and we’ll do the rest.”
She ended the call and forwarded the list to Eva. “This one is for you. Go shop.”
“You’re paying me to go to Bloomingdale’s? I’ve died and gone to heaven. Have I told you how much I love being in business with you guys?” Eva checked the list. “I might change the brand of scented candle. And the scent. You have to be careful with scent when you’re pregnant.”
“That’s why you’re doing this job. Do whatever it takes to make sure this woman recommends us to her friends. Next we need to talk about—” Paige paused as her phone rang at the same time as Frankie’s. “Or maybe we won’t talk.”
She took the call and Frankie did the same, walking out of the office as she discussed colors, petals and blooms with the person on the end of the phone.
“Yes, concierge services are available to our clients,” Paige explained to her caller. “Waiting list?” Her eyes met Eva’s and she smiled. “You’re in luck. We have capacity at the moment. Why don’t I come to your offices and we can talk about your needs? I’m sure Urban Genie can help.”
By the time she ended the call she had a brief for a corporate training session and the promise of a major product launch in the fall.
“Can you believe this?” Eva’s eyes were shining. “We really are in business. All we have to do is not mess it up.”
“We’re not going to mess it up—” Paige updated her spreadsheet “—but I’m starting to wish I’d had more than four hours of sleep last night.” Her phone beeped and she checked her texts.
It was Jake.
My office. Now. Debrief.
Her stomach flipped and she stood up. “We can finish this later. Jake wants a debrief, and then I have a meeting over on Fifth. I need to run.” She scooped up her bag just as Frankie walked back into the room. “Well?”
“That was a bride-to-be who was at the event last night and loved the floral designs. She wants something similar for her wedding.”
Eva blinked. “She wants scaffolding at her wedding? What’s the theme? Prison Break? How is that romantic?”
“She wants a gazebo, you baboon.” Frankie was busy making notes. “And she wants to walk on rose petals.”
“Did you just call me a baboon? Because if so, I’m reporting you to Human Resources for bullying and abuse. And someone needs to warn the bride that rose petals are slippery. Either that or call the hospital and have an orthopedic surgeon on alert.”
The phone rang again and Paige looked at her friends with a mixture of excitement and disbelief. “We need to find a way of consolidating these calls so that we all know what’s going on.”
“You always know what’s going on. You’re the detail woman. I’ll take this one.” Eva reached for the phone, a smile in her voice. “Urban Genie, your wish is our command—” Her smile faded as she listened. “No, not that sort of wish. That isn’t what we do.” She ended the call, her cheeks pink. “Well!”
Frankie looked at her expectantly. “Are you going to tell us?”
“No, I’m not! I’m not repeating it.” Eva sniffed. “Never tell Jake. We’d get a big, fat ‘I told you so.’ He warned us ‘your wish is our command’ would get us into trouble.”
Paige loaded her laptop into her bag.
She had a feeling she was already in bigger trouble than any of them could possibly have predicted. Had she really thought sex with Jake would be simple?
Wondering what happened next, she walked toward Jake’s office and spied him through the glass.
He was prowling around as he talked, looking insanely gorgeous in snug jeans and a button-down shirt. It wasn’t hard to see why Jake Romano had his pick of women.
He turned and caught her looking.
“I’ll call you back.” Without waiting for a response he ended the call and beckoned Paige into the room. “So we have a choice—” His tone was businesslike and she forced herself to sublimate the indecent thoughts she was having and respond in the same way.
“A choice?”
“I can have sex with you right here—” he rested his hip on the corner of his desk “—or I can take you home and do it there but that will mean a delay. I’m pretty impatient by nature. When I want something, I go after it. I’m not good at delayed gratification.”
“I—I thought you wanted a debrief.” It took her brain a moment to catch up. “You’re giving me a choice about whether we have sex again?”
“No. We’re having sex again. I’m giving you a choice of venue.”
The sound she made was half gasp, half laugh. “You have a glass-fronted office.”
“I know.” There was an edge to his tone. “A design decision I’m now regretting. So it will have to be my place. Fifteen minutes?”
A zing of excitement shot through her body. “I have a meeting across town.”
“Rearrange it.”
“Jake, I can’t! This is my business, and thanks to you the phone is finally ringing off the hook.”
“I never should have let you organize that event.” He dragged his hand over the back of his neck. “Fine, take your meeting. But come to my place straight afterward. Don’t go home first.”
She couldn’t breathe. “But if I’m seeing you, then I want to change, and—”
“Whatever clothes you put on, I’m going to strip them off and whatever makeup you wear I’m going to kiss off so don’t waste time.”
Her heart was pounding. This was Jake, Jake, talking to her as if she were a woman. He wasn’t holding back and he certainly wasn’t protecting her.
“I thought—we weren’t—” She was torn between elation and confusion. “It was an amazing night, Jake, but I thought we agreed that it was just one night.”
“You said that. I didn’t.”
“I assumed it was what you wanted.”
“It isn’t what I want. I’ve driven myself crazy protecting you and keeping my distance. You don’t want that, and I don’t want that, either.”
Her heart was pounding. “So—”
“So that’s settled. I’ll see you later. As soon as you can make it. Oh, and Paige—” his voice stopped her in the doorway “—there won’t be other people.”
“Excuse me?”
“You said that we were both free to see other people, but when I’m with a woman, I’m with a woman. She is my starter, my main course and my dessert. There are no side dishes.”
The breath left her lungs in a rush. “I didn’t know you had a possessive side.”
He dug his hands into his pockets and gave a wry shrug. “I guess we don’t know everything there is to know about each other. In some things, I don’t share well. This is one of them.”
“Neither do I.” She could have told him that he didn’t need to worry about sharing her. Not only would she never dream of being in a relationship that wasn’t exclusive, but her love life was more of a calorie-controlled diet than a feast.
“I’ll take my meeting,” she said huskily, “and then I’ll see you at your place.”
* * *
