Operation One Night Stand (23 page)

“You look, just wow, Caroline.”
His smile told me I definitely had his attention.

“Thank you.
So do you.”
I cocked my head to the side.
“What’s with the sunglasses?”

“Oh.”
A sheepish look was plastered across his face before he ducked his head and took them off.
When he looked at me again, I gasped.

“What happened?”
I rushed across the space and investigated the yellowish bruise encircling his left eye.

“Well, Ryan and I kind of got into a fight.
He punched me.”

“What?”
I was mortified.
What the hell could they possibly have fought over?
“Why?”

“Don’t worry about it.
It isn’t important.
You ready?”
He offered me his arm and slipped his sunglasses back on.

I looked back at Sarah, who had her teacher face on and mouthed, “What the fuck?”

She shook her head as we walked out the door.

B
rian opened the rear door of the black sedan and I slid in next to his sister, Siobhan.
Brian sat up front with the driver.

“Love your coat!”
Siobhan looked like a kid in a candy store with unlimited funds.
“So, Yolanda e-mailed me and said I could have ten minutes with Michael.
Do you think that will be enough time?”

“I think so.
Let me see your questions.”

Siobhan handed over her notebook.
“You can’t ask him this.”
I pointed to her question about the rumors of his playboy image.
I pulled a pen from her bag that sat between us and crossed the question out.

“That’s all anyone wants to know!
He’s one of the most eligible bachelors in the city.
My editor will be pissed if I don’t get some dirt.”

Pouting was not a good look for Siobhan.
It made her look even younger than her twenty-six years.
And really?
Michael was considered one of the city’s most eligible bachelors?
I didn’t see it.

“Look, ask him the other questions and I’ll see what I can do about getting you some dirt.
Just don’t go about it that way.
Yolanda will have both our heads.”

The rest of the drive was spent in silence as Siobhan reworded her approach, Brian made quiet small talk with the driver, and I alternated between reviewing my note cards and looking out the window.
Tiny snowflakes twinkled in the overhead lights.
I smoothed out my hair and sighed.
At least it would be straight for a little while.
I secretly thanked Sarah for the thigh highs.
She was right.
It was cold outside and even if the thin nylon material gave only minimal comfort against the chilly air, it was better than nothing.

The car slid in front of the restaurant.
Brian opened my door to help me out as the driver held Siobhan’s hand as she clumsily stepped out of the car.

“Shoot!”
I heard her say as she crouched down in the street.
The driver crouched next to her to gather the items that had fallen from her purse.
Brian stepped to her side of the car to help out.

“Caroline.
You look beautiful.”
Michael approached under the flash of a few cameras and grabbed my hands, kissing me on either cheek.
“Let’s go in, shall we?”

“My friends—” I trailed off as he steered me toward the entrance with his hand dangerously low on my back.

“They can meet us inside.”

I looked back as Brian helped his sister to the curb.
The height of her heels made my feet hurt and I wondered how on earth she’d stay upright for the remainder of the evening.

Shoving my gloves into the pockets of my coat, I allowed Michael to slip it off and hand it, and my scarf, to the girl at the coat check closet.

“Wow, Caroline.
You look amazing.”
Michael looked at me hungrily and slid his hands up and down my arms.

Clean-shaven and dressed impeccably in a suit that matched the color of my dress perfectly, his big brown eyes shone.
It wasn’t the cold air that rushed in through the open door that was giving me goose bumps.

I had to remind my libido to take the night off.
It wouldn’t do to give Michael the slightest hint of how his presence affected me.
Plus, it wouldn’t do to give him the satisfaction.
I’d become good at tamping it down and regarding him as a nonsexual being.
Brian, on the other hand, was an entirely different story.

Brian and Siobhan walked in.
Our eyes met briefly before I watched Brian’s gaze drop to my feet and slowly take me in.
For a moment, I felt like I was the only woman in the room.
I wasn’t sure if it was the body slimmer, but I suddenly felt as if I were going to burst out of my skin.
There wasn’t a wall in the world that would ever erase the tension I felt when Brian was in the room.
There was no way to look at him without imagining his hands all over my body.

“Shall we go in?”
Michael’s hand dropped to my lower back as he whispered in my ear.
I could feel my face flush and knew Brian could see it.
Not what I wanted.

I stepped away from Michael’s touch and said, “Sure.
I have someone here that you need to meet.
Yolanda cleared her to interview you.”

Michael sighed.
“You do know how I hate interviews.”

“I do know, but I think, and Yolanda agrees, that it would be good for your image.
Just a few minutes, a few questions, and you’ll be done.
It would be good press.”

“But how”—he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear—“am I supposed to maintain an air of mystery if I answer questions about myself?”

Ducking my head, I replied, “You’ll still be mysterious.”

“Fine.
You’re going to owe me.
Big-time.”

“Fine.
Whatever.
Here she is.”
Brian and Siobhan walked over.
Brian looked Michael up and down as Michael regarded Brian as nothing to be interested in.
“Siobhan, this is Michael Mortimer.
He’s agreed to the interview.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr.
Mortimer.”
Siobhan held out her dainty hand.
Michael suddenly became very interested in the interview.

“Please call me Michael.
Siobhan, was it?”
He took her hand and brought it to his lips.
Siobhan blushed and giggled.
I rolled my eyes.

“Okay, so you two talk.
Brian and I will go get a drink.
I’ll find you in ten minutes.”

I grabbed Brian’s coat and pulled him away.
I wasn’t sure if my eyeballs would fall out before his.
At least, surely, one of us would lose them with all the rolling.

At the bar, I ordered an amaretto and ginger for myself and a gin and tonic for Brian.

“Who the hell was that?”
Brian looked across the room at his sister and Michael.
Siobhan was laughing loudly with her hand on Michael’s chest.
Michael had his hand on top of hers and was caressing it with his thumb.

“That, my friend”—I hopped up on the bar seat and swiveled around to check out the crowd—“is Michael Mortimer, best-selling author of three novels with a fourth in the works.
The fourth, soon to be a major motion picture, is the novel Yolanda is working on.
She’s using this one to teach me.”

I looked down, following Brian’s gaze.
I swear to God, I’d never felt so sexy crossing my legs.

“He seems, uh, like—”

I smiled as I took a drink.
Brian couldn’t decide where to lay his eyes—on my legs or on his sister.

“Like a, uh—”

“Douche bag?”

“Yeah.”
Our eyes finally met once again.

“He is but he’s harmless.
He thinks he’s God’s gift.”

“I noticed he’s very hands-on.”

“Very touchy-feely.
I usually can keep my distance and he can usually read my signal.
Tonight, he’s liking the freedom.”

“I didn’t like it.”
Brian took a deep drink.

“I got that.”

“Just so we’re clear.”

“Crystal.
So, you wanna tell me why you have a black eye?”

“Nope.”
His smile was brilliant but the message it gave off was clear.
Leave it alone
.

I looked through the crowd and saw a few people who looked familiar.
Michael and Siobhan, however, were nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s my sister?”
Brian placed his glass on the bar top and stepped forward.

“They probably went to the back room for the interview.
It’s a little noisy in here and they were probably being interrupted.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Brian leaned into the bar, brushing up against me as he did, and flagged down the bartender.
“Do you need another?”

I could only nod in agreement because his hand was slowly sliding up and down my thigh.
Suddenly I felt as though my head would pop off.
I began to sweat.

“Are you all right?”
Brian grabbed my elbow as I began to slump off the chair.
“You’re white as a ghost.”

“Can’t.
Breathe.”
I fanned myself with a napkin and plucked an ice cube from my drink and began to rub it all over my neck.

“Let’s get you some air.”

The blast of cold air hit me like a ton of bricks as the droplets of sweat froze to my skin.
I shivered and Brian took off his coat and wrapped it around my shoulders.
“Come on, let’s walk.”

He and I walked halfway down the block but I still felt like I was being squeezed by a boa constrictor.
“Oh fuckety fuck.
I think it’s the body slimmer.”

“The fuckety what?”

“The thing that goes under my dress to make me look skinny.”

“But you
are
skinny.”

“I don’t have time to explain.
I need to get out of this thing now.”
I tugged at my dress and looked around.

“Let’s go back in and find you a restroom so you can take it off.”

“I can’t take it off by myself.
I need help.”

“What?”

“It’s too tight.”

“You want me to help you take off your underwear?”
The smirk that crossed his lips made my stomach flip.

“Not my underwear.
The thing that’s over my…Oh, never mind.
Fuck.
Just come help me.”

“You’re the boss.”
Brian chuckled as I trotted back to the restaurant.

Looking around to make sure the coast was clear, I pulled Brian into the single bathroom with me and handed him back his coat.
He hung it up on the door hook and clapped his hands together.
“So what do I need to do?”

“Unzip me.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“No, really, I need to get this fucking thing off me.”

“You really have a dirty mouth.”

“What?
Oh, right.
Sorry.”

“I wasn’t complaining.”
He unzipped my dress and slipped it off my shoulders.
It fell to the ground.

I stepped out of my dress and handed it to Brian and he hung it up over his coat.
I stood in front of him wearing a sausage casing, thigh highs, and heels.
I should have felt sexy but it was hard when it felt like my skin was about to peel off.

Caroline, meet humiliation.
I think you know each other.

I rolled the slimmer down to my hips and breathed a sigh of relief as Brian watched in obvious amusement.

“Oh, great mother of shit.
I can finally breathe.”
I took large, deep breaths.

Brian pointed at me.
“So that’s the thing that you were talking about.”

“Yes.”
I huffed as if I’d just run a mile.
“I need help getting it over my hips.”

“This thing is supposed to make you look skinnier?”

“Yeah.
Stupid, right?”

“Well yeah, especially when your waist is as big as my thigh.”

Brian stood in front of me as I brought my legs together.
He tried to roll the material over my hips as I wiggled from side to side.
Both of us tugged at the stretchy material.
It snapped back and pinched my skin.
“Fuck me!
Ouch!”

“I didn’t think we were there in our relationship yet.
I mean I barely know you.”
Brian smirked but I was confused.

“What?”

“You said ‘fuck me.’
I was just stating—”

“Seriously?
You make jokes
now
when I am obviously in terrible danger of being suffocated by an undergarment?”

“Turn around.”
He spun me so my back was to him.
My skin tingled as I felt his palms on my waist.

He hooked his thumbs under the fold of the slimmer, stretched it out, and slid it down, effectively coming cheek to cheek with my ass.
I watched in the mirror as my face turned cherry red.
I held on to the sink as I stepped out of the garment and turned back to face him.
He held up the material.