Business as Usual (7 page)

“In his mind, maybe it is.”

“Don’t say that,” I cried. “I have more than my
share of problems to deal with.”

“Are you attracted to him?”

I paused, not because I needed time to think it
over. I was damned no matter how I answered because Claudia knew me well enough
to know when I was lying and I was in no condition mentally or emotionally to
admit the truth anyway.

“It doesn’t matter…” I answered, somewhat
politically. “The only man I want is Danny. I can’t wait until this nightmare
is over.”

“It will be
hun
,
don’t worry.”

She gave me a hug.

“Let’s get back to the party. We have a wedding
to celebrate!” Claudia teased.

“Don’t’ remind me,” I groaned, following her
into the club. “Ethan’s trouble, I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle him. I
just have to remind myself that it’s business as usual. Think of it this way,
it won’t be the first time I took work home with me.”

“I don’t care how cute he is, don’t give in. You
know this will set womankind back a few hundred years if you do.”

“Trust me, I won’t. But he’s sexy. Isn’t he?”

“And he can’t seem to get enough of you. He was
practically mauling you in there.”

“Hey, how about we play the drinking game?
Every time Ethan grabs my hand or kisses me on the cheek, we take a shot of
Patron?”

“Hell, sounds like fun to me. Let’s get drunk!”
Claudia said, returning to her true happy-go-lucky self. “I’m just glad you’re
okay.”

“As long as I have my friend, I’ll survive,” I
said, giving her a squeeze. “He’s not an ogre, he just happens to be the man
I’m married to, for better or worse for the next three years.”

“Three years! Ay! An eternity! You poor girl.
At least he’s cute. If I wasn’t in love with Wayne, I’d take him home myself.”

“Honey, you can have him!” I teased.

Just then, Ethan sidled up to me and slid an
arm around my waist. I blinked as a bulb from a camera flashed before my eyes.
The photographer thanked us and moved on. Claudia looked at me and giggled.
“One Patron, coming right up!” she said, buggering off to order a bottle for
our table.

“What’s so funny?” Ethan asked, staring after
her.

“Nothing. We’re
gonna
have a shot of Patron. Care to join us?”

“You’ve had enough to drink,” he answered,
taking the glass out of my hand. “Have you had anything to eat? I’ll get
something for you.”

“I’m not hungry,” I complained. “Have a drink
with us,
please
...”

Ethan sighed. “You’re drunk enough for the both
of us.”

“So what…you can learn a lot about a person
when he’s drunk,” I teased.

Ethan gave me a skeptical look. “You hated my
guts a few hours ago, and now you want to buy me a drink? Are you hitting on
me?”

“Don’t be silly! We’ll be tethered to each
other for the next three years so we might as well make the best of it.”

“Getting drunk?”

“Having some fun!” I corrected, smiling. “We’ll
live like roomies.” Ethan went to Yale and had the whole American college
experience before returning to China, so it wouldn’t be much of a stretch for him.
I grabbed his hand and pulled him away to our table where Claudia had already
sat the glasses next to a bottle of Patron.

“You owe me two shots,” Claudia exclaimed.

“This one doesn’t count,” I said.

We sat at the table with Ethan draping an arm
around the back of my chair. Claudia giggled and took another shot of liquor.

“This must be an American game. Am I supposed
to drink when the two of you laugh?” Ethan asked. “What kind of game
is this
?”

“That’s so cute,” she said. “Bottoms up!”

Ethan took a shot of Patron.

“How good are you at holding your liquor?” I
asked.

“I’m Chinese,” Ethan said, practically beating
his chest. “If I can handle
baijiu
I can
survive this stuff. You’re the one who will end up on your ass before the night
is out.”

“Good thing you have a driver.”

Claudia giggled again. Ethan grabbed the bottle
of Patron, poured another shot and drank it down.

“You’re better at this game than I thought. But
you’re going down faster than the both of us. I can see it in your eyes,” Claudia
said.

“Not faster than this pretty woman,” he
replied, planting a drunken kiss on my cheek.

Claudia and I laughed again, which in turn led
to the three of us taking another drink.

CHAPTER 5

The following morning brought nothing but pain
and misery. Blinding sunlight flooded in through the wall to wall landscape
windows of my hotel room, the warmth of its light a contradiction to the cool
blast from the air conditioner. My head ached, my body was sore, and I was not
only cold but naked from head to toe.

I started to get up, cringing as pain pierced
my temple, forced me back down. I felt heavy. An arm stretching across the bed
hung over my shoulders like an anchor. A sickening feeling washed over me as I
brought my eyes into focus and gazed at the face sleeping by my side. The last
thing I remembered about the night before was stumbling into the hotel room
with Ethan. I winced, unable to shake the images and memories that followed
next. He reached out, as intimately as a lover, sidling so close the end of his
nose touched mine.

“What happened last night?” I cringed, afraid
of hearing the answer.

Ethan caressed the side of my face with his
open hand, biting down on his lip in anticipation.

“You don’t remember?”

Then leaned in and kissed me softly on the
lips, his fingers trailing up and down my neck in gentle circular motions. I
had not realized before how utterly perfect his body looked and felt, hard and
masculine against my soft pillowy form. Ethan kissed the side of my neck, and
suckled the skin on my collarbone as he wedged his heavy body between my
thighs. I felt like a gazelle, trapped between the powerful jaws of a lion… a
trap from which I’d lost all power of extricating myself. It had been too long,
too many quiet nights without the physical intimacy of a boyfriend who lived on
the other side of the country. Why did Ethan have to be so…
irresistible
?
So strong, warm and
hard
? Push him away. Far away, quick, before it’s
too late!

“I don’t remember anything about last night,” I
lied.

But my body remembered. A chill raced up my
spine as I was assailed by memories of Ethan and I in bed. Suddenly, every
nerve in my body was on fire. We lay, our bodies coiled together covered under
a thin white sheet. The hot sticky residue on my thighs, evidence of lovemaking
hung thick and hot in the air, like a pheromone that only Ethan could sense. I
felt his aroused presence and wondered what kept him from acting on his
primitive male instincts as my center tingled with
desire.    

“Because you don’t want to remember,” he
replied, hoisting himself to his elbows. He gazed down at my face, “Why is
that?”

“I was intoxicated.”

“Ah-huh…”

I pushed against his chest. But the gesture was
so faint, so half-hearted he barely moved. He groaned, and rubbed his aroused
manhood against my opening, sending spasms of pleasure through my entire body.

“And now?”

I
closed my eyes, unable to meet his passionate gaze as I fished for a reply.
How
could I be so foolish?
Had Ethan known all along what I had been too
ashamed to admit? I folded like a lawn chair that night because I wanted him to
make love to me. An immutable inextinguishable passion had been ignited between
us the moment I entered that conference room and caught him staring at my legs.

He
groaned as he planted a possessive trail of kisses on my face as he wedged his
hand between our bodies, coaxing his fingers inside of me. I felt a ripple of
pleasure so intense I thought I was about to explode.

“
N
ǐ
shi
w
ǒ
-de…”
he
whispered in my ear.

I
understood the meaning perfectly.

“You
are mine…”
he’d stated, parting my lips just so with his tongue. In one powerful sweep my
legs were around his waist, my hips slowly rising to meet him. Then he dropped
a bombshell…

“If we do this, the deal is off,” he said, his
voice a gravelly whisper.

Eyes burning with fiery passion bore into
mine. 

“What do you mean?” I asked, unsure of which
deal he was referring to. I didn’t care anymore… I just wanted to feel him
inside of me. Feel our bodies together as one. I brushed dark strands of hair
from his face, and kissed his lips.

“I want a real marriage,” Ethan adamantly
declared.

Was he serious? Or was there some other motive
in mind? Sex was one thing but why would Ethan want to be married to me? He was
just as much a victim of our fathers’ plotting as I was…
or was he?

“Did we have sex last night?”

Ethan shrugged. “Kind
of…”          

He hoisted himself onto his elbows and stared
down at my face again. My eyes pleaded to finish what we’d started. I continued
to stroke him to keep him hard.

“There’s no such thing, Ethan. We either had
sex or we didn’t.”

“You want to know the story?”

“Would I ask if I didn’t?”

“You really don’t remember?”

He looked surprised.

“Only bits and pieces,” I admitted.

Ethan kissed the side of my neck and lips.

“We were drunk when we came back to the hotel.
You wanted me to help you out of your wedding dress and I complied.”

“Then what?”

“You took your underwear off.”

“I did not!” I cried, hot with anger.

He shook his head in disagreement.

“You did. Then you followed me to the living
room. I was lying on the couch when you came in and tried to have your way with
me,” he faked a look like he was hurt.
“I feel so used…”
he continued, a
devious look on his face. 

I laughed in disbelief. “Will you please be
serious?”

Ethan shook his head again.

“I’m telling the truth. You kissed me. I
carried you back to the bedroom. There was some very delicious foreplay
involved, we proceeded to make love but you blacked out.”

“
Proceeded
to make love, but didn’t have
sex?”

“I believe that’s what I said, ma’am.”

“You sure?” I gave him a hesitant look.

“Do I look like a drunken frat boy to you? You
passed out so I backed off and went to sleep. We were sloppy off our ass drunk
and completely stupid last night. You don’t really think I would take advantage
of you?”

I rubbed my open palm against Ethan’s chest in
a soothing motion until the irritated expression on his face disappeared. He gazed
down at me with delicious brown eyes. I wanted to kiss him all over. 

“I think that qualifies as sex even if we
stopped due to my blacking out,” I groaned.

“I don’t consider what happened last night
making love to you and I’m ready to prove it.”

He kissed me again, moist warm tongue
entangling mine.

“So…”

I trailed my index finger down his chest.

“Are we going to make love
now
?” I
whispered against his lips, a bit more eager than I wanted to sound.  

Ethan’s laughed. “Not until
you give me an answer...can we have a real marriage? Will you be my wife? For
real, this time. No games. No business. A real shot.
Just you
and me, kiddo?”

I took a deep breath.

“When I’m married for real, I want to be in
love, Ethan. And I want a man who is deeply, passionately, in love with me.”

“What makes you think I’m not already in love
with you?”

Ethan looked and sounded genuine.

I
sighed. I couldn’t believe what he was asking me. This was a business
arrangement and a one-time roll in the hay, nothing more. The look in his eyes
was so sincere I just wanted to bury my face into his chest and hide. I kissed
Ethan again, hoping to make him forget. If I were to have a one night stand,
who better to have it with than the man I was married to? But Ethan wanted more
than that, which was like a bucket of cold water on my libido. Sex was one
thing, a
real
marriage was another. A relationship built on a lie was
doomed to fall apart anyway. Whatever Ethan believed when it came to our
relationship didn’t matter. We were not in love, we were in lust!