Friends With Benefits (12 page)

She responded, though, after a moment of surprise. Her body softened and leaned into him and then she was kissing him back just as furiously as he was, their mouths feverish, grinding against one another in a fierce attempt to apparently devour each other.

Desire mounted in him, hardened him, ignited him. It was unstoppable, and she met him equally, both of them panting and moaning, wrapping themselves around each other.

When he finally left in the early hours of the morning, they were sated and exhausted.

And Mitch hated himself for what he’d done.

He’d never even told Kerri why he’d been in such a miserable mood to start with. And the main reason he’d wanted to see her was to talk to her, not to fuck her. She was such a good listener. Her contemplative nature, always trying to understand the deeper questions in life, often provided good insight and reassurance to him. Even though he was so cynical after all the crap he’d seen at work, she still had an optimism and powerful compassion that encouraged him and kept him going.

Instead, all he’d done was use her for sex.

Shame burned him and his gut churned with regret and remorse. Damn, he shouldn’t have done that.

He tried to justify it in his mind. That’s what she wanted, right? That’s what she’d said. She wasn’t looking for anything more, she expected their relationship to be friends with benefits.

Well, the benefits part was great, but they were still supposed to be friends. He hadn’t even talked to her, told her why he was so pissed off, apart from the fact she’d invited Liam, which he could
not
talk to her about. Not if they were supposed to go on the way they had.

He swore as he pulled into his dark driveway. Friends didn’t treat friends that way. How could he live with himself? Not only was he questioning his whole career, he was now guilty of abusing his best friend. He was such an asshole.

Mitch stood on her front door step Saturday afternoon. He looked adorably miserable, hair mussed, eyes shadowed.

She stood back and let him in, wiping her hands on a towel. What was he doing there?

“What are you doing?” he asked, sniffing.

She led the way into her kitchen, which looked like a chemistry lab with vials, jars, beakers and bottles spread everywhere. He looked around in amazement.

“Concocting.” She stirred a huge pot of mysterious liquid.

“I am
not
eating that,” he said with a frown.

She laughed, and it was such a relief to have a genuine moment of amusement.

“It’s not for eating,” she told him. “It’s aromatherapy oil.”

“Ah.” He sniffed again and peered into the vat. “You look like a mad scientist.”

Suddenly conscious that she was wearing a T-shirt with oily stains and old shorts, her hair scraped back with an ugly headband, she grimaced.

“Thanks.”

“Seriously, is that what you’re making? How do you do that?”

She started telling him about the essential oils and herbs she was using.

“What do you do with this stuff?”

She shrugged. “I use it when I get out of the shower. I give some to friends. Lately, one of the massage therapists at the spa has been using it on some of her clients. Apparently they love it.”

“Oh. That’s why you were asking Jack about it that night.”

She nodded. “But please don’t say anything to Sela. Amanda hasn’t told her, and she’s afraid Sela would freak out if she started using something she didn’t know about.”

“Secret’s safe with me,” he said, with a shrug.

“I’m trying some new things.” There was silence other than the blurp-blurp-blurp of thick liquid as she poured it into the bottles arranged on the counter.

“Let me help,” he said. “That looks heavy.”

She let him take the pot and she steadied the bottles as he filled them, one after the other.

“So, um…why are you here again?” she asked, when the pot was empty. He set it down carefully.

“Oh, yeah.” He picked up a towel and wiped his hands slowly, looking a little embarrassed. “I wanted to apologize. For last night.” She watched him swallow.

“You were pretty intense last night.” That was an understatement. He’d shown up at her door all moody and dark, then proceeded to fuck her brains out. Not that she’d minded, but she’d definitely had the feeling something was bothering him. When he’d left in the middle of the night, although he’d kissed her good-bye, she’d still felt something wasn’t right.

He nodded. “Yeah. I had a kind of shitty week.”

“How come?” She looked at him steadily. “Work stuff?”
Or “us stuff
”
?
But she kept that question to herself.

“Yeah.” He said it almost with relief. “Hell, yeah.”

“Want to talk about it?”

He nodded and sat down on a stool at her counter. The words came pouring out, and he told her about Bob Sinclair and the frustration he’d felt about that. Kerri looked at him sadly, knowing how that must have affected him, still listening as he went on to talk more about other cases and all the aggravation he’d been experiencing lately with delays in the court system, ridiculous, selfish clients and greedy counsel.

Something expanded inside Kerri, warm and soft. Mitch was her best friend and she’d never known this stuff had been bothering him so much. It said so much about him.

She capped bottles and cleaned up as she listened to him talk, and talk some more, occasionally interjecting questions.

“So what is this collaborative law you mentioned?” she asked, putting the big pot into her sink.

“It’s a new alternative to dispute resolution in California. It’s a third resource, after litigation and mediation. Like mediation, it uses non-adversarial techniques.” He paused. “After this one case a while back, I felt like shit. I was just doing what the client wanted but afterward I knew I couldn’t keep doing that kind of thing forever. So I started trying some mediation. I was hoping it might motivate me, give me the satisfaction I wasn’t getting from those long court battles.”

“And collaborative law?”

“It’s something new I’m trying.” He shrugged. “It’s great, but the lawyer on the other side has to be on board with that. With collaborative law, each spouse hires their own collaborative lawyer, and we conduct settlement negotiations with them in four-way meetings. The lawyers act as advisors to the clients instead of taking charge of the process. If they can’t reach agreement, the lawyers have to both withdraw, and neither of them or any other members of their firms can represent the couple in divorce litigation.”

“You’re kidding,” she said slowly, closing up packages of fragrant but strange-looking herbs. “So if you don’t agree, you don’t get the case, and neither does anybody else in your firm.”

He nodded. “It means all four participants have to be committed to reaching a reasonable settlement.”

“But that sounds risky. Isn’t litigation where the big bucks are? How did you get your firm to agree to that?”

“I have a decent track record. I suggested we try it and see how it goes. I have a pretty good idea which ones we can settle and which ones we can’t.”

She gazed at him for a long moment, then looked away. “You shouldn’t do work that is making you unhappy,” she told him. “It’s as simple as that, Mitch. You should do what makes you happy.”

He tipped his head to one side. “Huh. Yeah. I guess.”

“So this collaborative law…why don’t you pursue that more? It sounds like something that would be better for you…and for everybody.” She hesitated. “Is the money an issue? I would think it would be for your firm.”

He considered that. “Not for me. Money’s nice but it’s just money. But yeah, for the firm, money can be an issue.” He shrugged. “Like I said, they trust my judgment and they’re willing to take a chance on me.”

“Then what’s the problem? If it’s going to be less stressful and give you more satisfaction, that’s what you should do.”

“Yeah. You’re right.” He looked at her and there was something warm and appreciative in his dark eyes. “Thanks, Kerri.”

She leaned across the counter to plant a kiss on his surprised mouth.

“I take back every lawyer joke I’ve ever said,” she told him, and dammit, her voice choked up. He kissed her back, hard.

“You know, you should have told me about this sooner. Keeping stuff bottled up inside you isn’t healthy. It knocks your chakras out of alignment.”

He laughed. “You’ve been a little preoccupied lately.”

“I’m sorry, Mitch.” She nibbled her bottom lip. “You should know better than anyone, if I start acting a little princessy just give me a smack back to reality.”

“Sweetheart, your reality is just a little different than everyone else’s.” His smile held so much affection she didn’t take offence. “I’ve wanted to talk to you about it. Actually last night, I really wanted to talk to you about it. I guess that’s why I was so pissed about Liam being there.”

She nodded. “I kind of had the feeling you weren’t too happy about that.” She waited, but he said nothing more.

“Wanna order some pizza?” he asked.

“Sure.”

He picked up the phone and ordered pizza while she finished cleaning up her laboratory-slash-kitchen.

“Next weekend, Miguel and Hailey have booked rooms for the wedding party so we can stay at the hotel that night,” he told her as they ate.

She nodded and caught a piece of drippy, stringy cheese. “I know. Isn’t that great?”

“Want to stay with me?” he asked casually. “We can share a room.”

She met his gaze steadily and her stomach did a little flip. “Sure.” Ooh. Hotel sex. There was something about being in a room of their own that was almost like living together. Intimate.

Now she was looking forward to the wedding.

“Awesome!” Amanda said. “I can’t wait to try them!”

Kerri returned to her office. Her new classes were filling up and for the first time ever, she had waiting lists. Even her new executive class, targeted to businessmen, was attracting some interest. Thank God both of her new instructors were working out and seemed popular with her clients. She sighed with satisfaction. Take that, Sela. Well, that was petty, but… She grinned.

That night Melanie, Hailey’s matron of honor, was holding a stagette. Tomorrow night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, Saturday would be fully occupied with spa treatments for the wedding party at White Lotus and, of course, the long-awaited wedding.

“What exactly does she have planned for the stagette?” Sela asked Kerri curiously as she was on her way out.

“I have no idea,” Kerri said. “I hope she has some naked guys coming to dance for us.”

“You do not.” Sela laughed. “That would just be embarrassing.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Kerri grinned.

Melanie and her investment-banker husband lived in a gorgeous home in Hope Ranch. She had warned everyone not to drive so there would be no DUI infractions after the party, so Kerri took a taxi.

“Everyone’s dying to know what you have planned,” she said with a smile when she arrived.

“It’s not going to be that naughty,” Melanie laughed. “We’ll play a couple of games, open presents, eat, drink, and I got a movie for us to watch.”

“A movie?” Kerri raised her brows and Melanie smirked.

The others arrived and they all moved into Melanie’s great room, depositing gifts on a decorated table. Melanie invited them to serve themselves punch from the bowl on a table laden with nachos, chips, pretzels and more. As Kerri dipped the ladle into the bowl, she noticed the ice floating there was in the shape of a huge penis.

Kerri collapsed against Hailey with laughter. Then Hailey pointed out the decoration: a huge cucumber with a condom on it, two plums nestled at the top and tied with curly ribbons. There were also pink paper garlands of penises strung across the room.

“Oh, Lord,” Hailey said, putting her palms to her cheeks. “What have I gotten into here?”

“We’re also having Screaming Orgasms.” Melanie grinned and held up a glass full of a creamy liquid.

Once everyone had arrived, Melanie sat them down to play a game. “Okay, this game is ‘How well do you know your fiancé’,” she began. “Hailey, what is Miguel’s favorite band?”

Jackson Bang. That was Mitch’s favorite band.

“Oooh,” Hailey said, pondering that. “Right now, I would say it’s Liquid.”

“Right! Okay, this one is easy. Who was his best friend growing up?”

“Jason,” she replied immediately.

Danny Davidson. Kerri smiled. Mitch had told her about his nerdy best friend. They’d gone their separate ways when they started college and Danny lived in New York now, but they still kept in touch.

“What sports or activities did he enjoy growing up?” Melanie continued.

“How do
you
know this stuff?” Hailey demanded.

“I e-mailed the questions to Miguel earlier this week and he sent me the answers,” Melanie answered smugly.

“Oh. Okay, well I know he played a lot of basketball…”

“And…”

“Um…football?”

“Nope. Soccer.”

“Oh, yes, yes, I should have known that.” Hailey thumped a fist into the couch cushion with a laugh.

Kerri continued to answer the questions in her head as if they were about Mitch, pretty sure she was getting them all right. Then Melanie asked, “What’s his favorite sexual position?”

Everyone screamed with laughter and Hailey turned pink. “I can’t answer that!”

“Oh, come on!”

She sighed and grinned. “Okay, he likes it when I’m on top.” Then she frowned. “Did you really ask him that?”

Melanie laughed. “Oh, yeah. And you’re right!”

“Oooh, Hailey,” the girls teased. Kerri laughed too, but she didn’t know what Mitch’s favorite position was—they hadn’t even tried very many. He seemed to like her on top, her underneath… She became very warm and tried to focus her attention back on the party.

The gifts, in keeping with the theme of the evening, ranged from gorgeous silk lingerie, to a naughty black merry widow, to some flavored massage oils and chocolate body paint.

“You guys are going to have so much fun on your honeymoon,” Melanie said as everyone oohed and aahed over the gifts, throwing in the odd crude joke as well.

Finally Melanie started the DVD she had chosen.

“I’m not sure I’m up for any hard core porn,” Hailey warned as they all got comfortable.

“Not to worry,” Melanie assured her. “I specifically asked for something for women. They actually have a whole section of women’s porn at the store.”

“Oh, God, Mel, weren’t you embarrassed?”

She grinned. “Nah. I explained what it was for and the lady there was very helpful. The movie is apparently like those romance novels you like to read, Hailey.”

“Oh, no!” Laurel, the third bridesmaid, cried. “I want to see some skin!”

“Oh, there’ll be skin, all right.”

The movie started and to everyone’s relief, including Kerri, it wasn’t hard core. It actually had a story, and yes, it was a romance, and the sex, while explicit, was totally part of the story. In fact, it was hot, hot, hot, including a little threesome that was disturbingly sexy.

Kerri grew warm and wet watching the movie, and squeezed her thighs together discreetly. As the movie continued, she got more and more turned on. She was going to have to go see Mitch tonight. He probably wouldn’t mind. By the time the movie ended, it was clear all the other girls were feeling equally as aroused.

“No fair,” Laurel complained. “Melanie’s husband is upstairs. I’m betting he gets lucky tonight. Hailey has Miguel to go home to. Everyone has someone except me and Kerri. We’re going to be all lonely and frustrated tonight.”

Without thinking, Kerri blurted out, “Not me.”

They all looked at her with surprise and she smiled weakly.