Flirting in Traffic (4 page)

When she blinked her eyes open a moment later he’d momentarily stilled. He watched her face with a tight, hard focus. He began to move again, at first slowly. But when she began to join him in their taut, fluid rhythm, he increased his pace until he surpassed even his previous one.

She scooted back on the smooth lining of her trench coat and yelped in helpless abandon as he struck their flesh together again and again. The friction built and swelled unbearably until Esa strained yet again for release.

He pushed her arms over her head. Her back arched, her breasts thrust upward. By fixing her wrists to the floor firmly he kept her immobile as he rode her hard to the finish line. She cried out when he lowered his head and sucked an aching nipple straight through her blouse and bra.

“Oh
God
,” Esa exclaimed as climax reared over her yet again.

He groaned and pressed deep.

The feeling of his penis throbbing inside her as he came triggered her own shattering release. She shuddered as wave after wave of orgasm crashed through her.

A heart-pounding, hard-breathing moment later Finn nuzzled her breast. Esa sighed with contentment but already her body quickened around his embedded flesh.

He lifted his head and regarded her with a heavy-lidded look of amusement when he felt the intimate caress.

“Uh uh. You’re not getting your way this time, Kitten. This time we go to the bedroom and do it right
.”

All the furniture possessed simple, clean lines in colors of gray, blue and tan with an occasional accent of stark white. Floor-to-ceiling windows in both the living room and bedroom faced east, granting what must be a breathtaking view of Lake Michigan during the daytime. She realized that the colors used to decorate the entire condominium reflected the changeable moods of the lake and sky. Esa wasn’t an expert on decorating but she didn’t need to be to appreciate the overall effect of harmony and peacefulness that pervaded the silent condominium.

Or at least Esa wished that the surroundings of Finn’s luxurious condo would calm her at present. Even the sounds of Finn washing up in the bathroom were muted by the thick pile carpeting. She shifted uneasily as she stared at an original contemporary painting mounted above the bed. Her gaze transferred to several oversized volumes on the coffee table in the seating area, with titles on architecture, art and design.

Nervousness flickered into her awareness for the first time that evening.

What did she really know about Finn Madigan? Since when did construction workers live in expensive, luxurious, tasteful Streeterville condominiums with prime lake views?

Since when did Dr. Esa Ormand have sex with a complete stranger on the floor of his foyer?

Suddenly the whole situation since she’d danced with Finn at One Life seemed surreal. She knew
nothing
about the man she’d just made shameless, passionate love to.

Panic flared in her chest, momentarily stealing her breath. God, at least he’d worn a condom. She’d have that thought to soothe her in her future sessions of self-mortification and mental cursing in regard to her promiscuous behavior tonight.

Esa tightened the belt of her trench coat with shaking hands. The water faucet shut off in the bathroom. Her eyes went wide in panic.

She bolted for the bedroom door like she thoroughly believed lightning was about to strike Finn Madigan’s bed.

Finn didn’t speak when Jess walked into the trailer at eleven-fifteen the following morning, but he guessed he didn’t have to by the sheepish look on his younger brother’s face.

“Sorry I’m late.”

Finn scowled and let the blueprints on his drafting table roll closed. He wasn’t in the mood for Jess’ excuses. Not this morning he wasn’t.

As the second-oldest Madigan, Jess would have been the obvious choice for shouldering at least part of the burden for the welfare of the Madigan family. Mary Kate was the next oldest but she worked hard as a foreman for Madigan Construction and had three rambunctious children under the age of nine to consider as well.

The previous owners of Madigan Construction, Uncle Joe and their father Ed, had died within three months of each other this past summer. It had been a brutal double blow for the Madigan clan, one that had indelibly changed the trajectory of Finn’s life. Finn’s mother knew woefully little about the details of running Madigan Construction, even less about its financial workings and building contracts.

Molly Madigan had always been a busy housewife. Her husband, extended family and seven children kept her more than busy at home. Any spare time she possessed was spent volunteering at her church and in the community.

The shocking, unexpected death of her husband of thirty-four years had hit her the hardest of all, of course. Finn had taken one look at his mother’s bewildered, shattered expression as he went through his father’s office the evening after the funeral, trying to make sense of Ed’s haphazard bookkeeping system, and known that his life was about to change forever.

That same night he’d made the decision to sell his shares in the architecture and engineering firm he’d established with his good friend and partner Jason Prevast. The firm had only been up and running for a few years and hard-won, lucrative contracts had just started to come pouring in. Jason had given him more than a fair price for his shares but Finn was no fool. He knew he’d walked away from not only an enormously fulfilling career but a financially rewarding one as well.

But if he didn’t do something to whip his father’s business into shape, Madigan Construction was not only going to end up floundering, but taking down the Madigan family with it into the murky depths of bankruptcy and monetary hardship.

He’d hated that he had to at least temporarily give up on his dreams. But life was a bitch sometimes, right? No reason to moan about it. He still had two younger sisters in high school, two brothers in college, his mother and his elderly grandmother to think about supporting.

He’d tried his best to plan for the painful, drastic alteration in his life. But fate wasn’t satisfied until it threw him another unexpected blow. His live-in fiancée Julia, the woman with whom he’d believed he would spend the rest of his life, had been dead set against his decision to sell his firm and run the family construction business.

When she’d packed her bags and left just one month ago, Finn knew that she’d made her final decision. He’d made his own by letting her go without a fight. Julia was breathtakingly gorgeous, clever and confident but she wasn’t the woman Finn had thought she was. Not by a mile.

Brains and beauty only went so far when it came to the nasty bumps on the road of life.

He figured it was best that he’d discovered before he’d married Julia, not after, that not only his financial status but his image as a successful, white-collar entrepreneur had been crucial aspects that Julia loved about him.

Finn had still been in the midst of a post-breakup funk when he’d seen Julia’s face in the society section of the
Chicago Tribune
last week. She’d been on the arm of Galen Graves Jr., scion of a wealthy family from Wilmette and Chief Operating Officer for corporate giant Glen-Cat. Julia had worn that small, mysterious smile as she looked into the camera’s eye, the one that used to drive Finn crazy with lust.

Why hadn’t he ever noticed before how contrived that expression was? It irked him to realize he’d
never
know what had been genuine about her and what had been a lie.

The caption below the photo indicated that Julia and Gavin were the hottest new item on the social circuit. Even though Finn figured he was better off without Julia in his life, his bitterness had only grown when he saw that photo. Not so much toward Julia, but at himself for being so stupid as to be hoodwinked by her.

And never mind how much his anger had escalated when she’d cornered him in the lobby of his condo just four nights ago, eager to resume where they’d left off—at least in the bedroom anyway. Apparently it would have suited Julia just fine to have her picture snapped at high-profile charity events on the arm of Galen Jr. while spending stolen hours with Finn smoking up the sheets. But her brawny, blue-collar, would-be secret lover wasn’t quite as biddable as Julia would have preferred, Finn thought grimly.

Yeah, a hell of a lot could change in a few months’ time.

His brother Jess, however, appeared not to have altered his life plans in the slightest. Despite the fact that he held a prestigious degree in the biological sciences from the University of Illinois and probably had a viable claim to the title of “Most Intelligent” in a family of extremely bright people, Jess continued to pick up his Madigan Construction paycheck like an hourly employee. He still drank and socialized at Dooley’s tavern almost every night as if there was no tomorrow and bedded any pretty woman who looked his way—which apparently was just about every damn one that he encountered, from the action Jess saw in a typical week.

His little brother still brimmed over with the mischief of a twelve-year-old at Catholic school, always looking for fresh opportunities for fun and excitement. Unfortunately he’d managed to drag Finn himself into his most recent misadventure involving that singles’ magazine and an online traffic flirtation loop. Or maybe that wasn’t fair.

Finn had been all too willing to plunge into trouble since he’d first laid eyes on the redhead driving the sports car. When Jess had suggested that he go to One Life with him earlier that evening and explained the circumstances, Finn had just shaken his head and rolled his eyes.

Then he’d seen Kitten and had an abrupt change of heart. She wasn’t his type, of course. Finn didn’t like the flashy look-at-me type who would drive a racy car with vanity plates. Kitten Ormond made him look, all right—he’d hardly been able to unglue his eyes from that bouncy, lustrous auburn hair or the disdainful expression in her brandy-colored eyes, glittering through her preppy glasses.

Maybe it had just been that his sex life seemed to have gone into dormancy ever since the traumatic death of his father and Julia leaving him. Perhaps it was just his body’s way of telling him that it was time to get back on the often treacherous obstacle course of dating once again.

All Finn knew for certain was the redhead in the Ferrari made him randy as a goat.

It felt so fantastic to have lust pounding through his veins once again that he’d allowed himself to get entangled in one of Jess’ stupid schemes. He had no one but himself to blame for the fact that he’d spent a sleepless night in an empty bed—a bed where he’d hoped to be making love to a curvy, responsive, fiery red-haired beauty.

But when he’d come out of his bathroom after washing up, raring to go another round…he saw that his cute, cuddly stray had bolted.

Finn had been stunned by her abandonment. Then he’d been pissed. His pride had been pricked by her abrupt departure. He wasn’t a ladies’ man on the par of his brother Jess but he’d had his fair share of women. And never once had one of them turned tail and run while he was in the midst of making love to her.

“I guess from that sour look on your face you didn’t get lucky last night like I did,” Jess said smugly, pulling Finn out of his reverie. “I’m surprised. That little redhead was smoking. Great body—plenty of flesh and all in the right places. And what a rack—” Jess paused abruptly in the action of holding his hands over his chest in a cradling gesture when Finn frowned at him forbiddingly.

“So what’d you do to turn her off? I hope you didn’t go on about Julia. Women are wary of guys on the rebound. My guess is that you sent her running by lecturing her about the necessity for haste because of the freezing temperatures of asphalt and concrete?”

“No, I save that lecture for you. Not that you ever listen.”

Jess glanced up in surprise from where he was dumping powdered creamer both into his mug and onto the metal table. “Hey, are you really that pissed about me being a few hours late? Nobody else has to work on Saturday. What good is there in being the boss if I can’t enjoy an armful of warm, sexy woman in my bed on a weekend morning?”

“If you don’t know by now I doubt you ever will.”

Jess touched his fingers to his eyelids in a characteristic gesture of martyrdom—the one that signaled he was about to be bullied by his sanctimonious big brother. “Christ, Finn. No other contractor on the Dan Ryan project is as riled up about making deadlines and keeping costs to a minimum as you are. I mean,
come on
. If we don’t finish it we’ll just make up for it in the spring. It’s only government money.”

“Yeah, Jess. State and federal money. Money from taxpayers like Mom and Grandma Glory and you and me.”

Jess gave him a droll expression and swigged his coffee. Finn should’ve known better than to use that argument. It never worked on his brother, who seemed to have extremely blurry vision when it came to focusing on matters of ethics and moral conscience.

“All right, look, if that doesn’t set a fire in your belly consider this. The state was always Dad’s and Uncle Jo’s best employer. They got contracts from them year after year because they worked their asses off to bring in almost all their projects on time.”

“Lot of good it did them,” Jess said glumly as he plopped down at a desk that was covered with foot-high stacks of paper. “Let’s face it, Madigan Construction is hardly Fortune 500 material.”

“Madigan Construction gave you the financial means for a secure, happy childhood, private schools, a college education. Thanks to its growth in the last year, it’ll do the same for the next generation—”

“I
know
, I know.” Jess put up his hands to stave off Finn’s familiar lecture. “Christ, sometimes I think Dad skipped rebirth and just reincarnated straight into you. You sound exactly like him sometimes.”

“Thanks.”

Jess started and met his brother’s gaze. He hadn’t meant it as a compliment, of course, but he saw Finn’s point. They’d all worshipped their bigger-than-life, quick to smile, charismatic father. There wasn’t one Madigan who wasn’t still sore from the wound of his abrupt death.

“You’re welcome,” Jess conceded under his breath as he stood and set down his mug. “So, what’s on the agenda, fearless leader?”

“I need you surveying at that new stretch we contracted two weeks ago. We need to make that a priority before—”

“Snow flies,” Jess finished the familiar litany with a roll of his eyes.

“It’s true. We’ll have an extra month or so with the viaduct, since we’re not as reliant on ground temperature.”

“Jess?” Finn asked abruptly when his brother reached for the trailer door, surveying equipment cradled in one arm. Jess paused, his head ducked beneath the threshold.

“Your date last night… Did she say much about Kitten?”

“Who’s Kitten?”

“The little redhead,” Finn elaborated irritably, using language Jess would comprehend. When his brother still looked perplexed, Finn cradled his hands over his chest, mimicking Jess’s former crude breast-cradling gesture. Comprehension dawned on Jess’ face.

“Oh…right, the vanity plates.
Kitten
, huh? She was a hot one. I always was partial to redheads. Funny, I thought Carla called her something else. Carla and I didn’t have much opportunity for talking about buddies, if you know what I mean.” He flashed his patented Don Juan smile. Molly Madigan’s gamine green eyes took on a whole new definition in her second-oldest son’s face. “Why? What do you want to know about her?”

What did Finn want to know? He wanted to know plenty. How many men Kitten Ormond had entertained between her thighs in the last month, for starters. Why it was that even though he wouldn’t like the probable answer to that question, he still couldn’t stop thinking about the vibrancy of her laughter, the excitement of discovering the depths of her sensuality…the look of vague surprise intermingled with intense pleasure on her lovely face when she came.

Or why the hell she’d made love to him like a sizzling firecracker on his foyer floor—exploding several times to amazing effect—only to leave him high and hard in a cold, empty bed?

What did Finn want to know about Kitten? Her goddamned phone number would be great for starters.

Despite his self-admonishments for doing it, he’d already tried to call her using directory assistance this morning. Kitten Ormond’s number was unlisted.

Maybe one of the most crucial things he’d like to know was why he cared about all those things one way or another. Kitten probably thought he was nothing but a blue-collar stiff without a working neural pathway in his brain, a slab of male flesh who conveniently didn’t require batteries.

Finn knew the type.

If he’d been forced to admit it, he also knew why he’d tried to contact her this morning. The sex had been phenomenal. Incredible. Electric. He’d had a take it or leave it attitude toward sex since Julia left him.