Private Pleasures (16 page)

And finally, there were his hands. Nicely shaped, but slender. And when he shook her hand, she noticed his palm was totally smooth.

Nothing like Drew's big palm and long fingers that practically swallowed hers up when he took it. Lightly callused, making her shiver at the slight roughness as they skimmed over her skin.

So when perfectly nice, perfectly good looking Kyle asked for her number before he and Greg left to go to a friend's birthday party, she found herself saying, "I'm seeing someone," into his disappointed face.

Courtney, who was in the process of calling Greg's phone so he'd have her number, whipped her head around. "Wait, when did this happen?"

Wendy waited until the guys had left before answering. "It's nothing," she said, waving her hand and sipping at her wine. "I just said it so I wouldn't hurt his feelings telling him I'm not interested."

Courtney's friends, clearly on the prowl, moved across the bar to chat up a couple of guys and left Wendy and Courtney to catch up.

"First," Courtney said, holding up one perfectly manicured finger, "the Wendy I know has no qualms about a simple, to the point, 'no thanks' when a guy asks if he can call her. Two," she said, holding up another finger, "you just turned down a guy who could have walked off the pages of a J. Crew catalog. Now I know you sometimes go for the ones who are a little rougher around the edges, but in a city where the odds of a guy who looks like that being straight area a hundred to one? You're too smart to not at least give it a whirl even if he doesn't make your toes curl on the first meet. Three, your eye is doing that weird thing it does when you lie."

Wendy's hand automatically went up to her right eye, and sure enough she could feel the lashes at the corner twitching. Dammit, Courtney was the only other person besides Julie - and now Drew -  who had ever picked up on her stupid tell. "Right, I was lying to Kyle." Her eye twitched harder.

Courtney took a long sip of her martini, her gaze narrowing in on Wendy's face. "Look me in the eye and tell me you haven't gotten laid in the past week."

"I haven't gotten laid in the past week." Even as she said it, her eye started twitching so hard she could barely see. The table they'd been circling finally cleared, and their group eagerly swooped in. "Fine," Wendy said as she settled onto her stool. "I've been seeing someone for a couple weeks, but it's not a big deal."

"Of course it's a big deal!" Courtney said. "This is your seal breaker, the first guy you've slept with since Alan." Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Isn't it?"

Wendy nodded. "But really, there's nothing to tell." Twitch. Twitch.

"Who is he?"

"No one you know." At least, as far as she knew.

"Is he hot?"

"Very." Wendy said, hiding a grin behind another sip of her wine.

"Is he good?"

"God yes," Wendy couldn't stop herself from saying.

Courtney's eyebrows shot for her hairline. "He must be to get that kind of enthusiasm from you."

"It's been a long time since Alan," Wendy pointed out. Twitch.

Courtney gave her a dubious look. "Even the longest dry spell in history has never stopped you from doing a complete breakdown of a guy's technique."

Wendy grimaced, knowing her friend was right. In the past, she'd always had an ongoing pros and cons list in her head for every aspect of her relationship with a guy. But she hadn't made one with Drew.

That's because you two don't have a relationship, she reminded herself.

Or maybe it's because you're hard pressed to find anything to complain about. Other than the fact that he's been gone for two days and will soon be gone forever.

Wendy drained her wine glass and signaled a server for a refill as she acknowledged the truth of it. Her hackles may have been raised when Drew barged back into her life and started bossing her around, but she couldn't deny that she'd enjoyed every second they'd spent together in the past week and a half. In  and out of bed.

"I don't have much to complain about, but really, it's not serious."

"Maybe you should let it be," Courtney said.

Wendy shook her head as the waitress came by with another glass of wine. "I can't do serious right now. You know that."

Courtney rolled her eyes. "You know, there's this thing in life called work life balance. You really should look into it."

Wendy let out a little laugh. "I'll try it in about a year, once I've made partner and my place at the firm is secure."

Courtney rolled her eyes and drained her own drink. "By then it might be too late. What if this guy's the one."

"He's not," Wendy said, too sharply. "I mean, he can't be," she said more softly. She took a sip of her wine and studied the red depths for a moment. "Even if I wanted him to be," she said slowly, and even acknowledging the possibility gave her a strange, almost vertigo like sensation, "it can't happen. He's moving to Boston before the end of the month to start a new job."

"That sucks," Courtney said, reaching out to give her hand a sympathetic squeeze. "Maybe you two can rack up frequent flyer miles."

Wendy shook her head again, shocked to feel the burn of tears which she quickly blinked away. She was so not going to cry over Drew, not now, not ever! "Yeah, but it's just a fling. That's all either of us wants right now anyway."

Courtney gave her a long, measured stare. "I don't believe you. And neither does your twitchy eye."

Wendy forced a laugh. "They eye has been known to be wrong." But even as she spent the next few hours laughing, chatting and sipping wine in the company of her close friend, she couldn't get rid of the tight, achy feeling in her chest that got stronger when it was time to call it a night.

And go home to her empty bed.

Later as she sat alone on her couch, she was forced to face the truth. She missed Drew. Even though she'd tried so hard to keep him on the periphery, even though she'd done everything she could to establish boundaries—only seeing him after a long day at work, never letting him spend the night, limiting the time they spent together out of bed—he'd somehow managed to work his way into her life. Into her thoughts.

Into her heart.

She sprang to her feet an forced the sappy thought from her head. She was a grown woman with a high-powered career, not some moony teenager with nothing better to do than  spend hours obsessing over some guy. Sure, she'd gotten used to him being around, and was surprised to discover that he was actually great company, but once he was gone, her life would go back to it's normal, sexless, state, and it would be out of sight, out of mind.

It had to.

Chapter 12

Drew checked the clock on his computer, grimacing when he saw only two minutes had elapsed since the last time he'd looked. Six-o three-on Tuesday night. Nearly three hours to kill before he could go to Wendy's place. Where he'd been dying to go since he'd woken up nearly twelve hours earlier. Well, to put finer point on it, he would have preferred to not leave last night in the first place, but as always she'd given him about a fifteen minute recovery period after his orgasm and then kicked him the hell out.

This whole no sleepover thing was getting really fucking old.

You won't have to put up with it for much longer, he reminded himself. The thought did nothing to improve his already foul temper.

The phone on his desk buzzed. "What?" he snapped.

"I see you're still wearing your grumpy pants," said a sharp feminine voice.

Drew grimaced as he recognized the voice of Kathy Brown, the executive admin for Jim Porter, Paradigm's founder and managing partner. She ran Porter's life with military like precision, and normally Drew enjoyed dealing with her, but grumpy pants? Please. "Sorry Kathy. I've had a lot on my mind lately."

She made a little tsking sound. "You've got a lot on your plate, taking over the CEO position at Silverlight, moving cross country. I can understand why you'd be a little moody."

Moody didn't even begin to cover it. Ever since he'd gotten back from Boston, oh hell, from the second he'd gotten on the plane in San Francisco, he'd been pissed off.

And though he was loath to admit it, it was because of a certain attorney with mile long legs and a mouth that drove him to the edge of insanity every time it curved in that secretive little smile.

Or to put a finer point on it, because he only had a limited time to spend with Wendy, and the trip to Boston had meant four nights away from her. He felt their time running out with the speed of a bullet train, and the trip had cost him four more nights.

Nights which, he was forced to admit in the long dark hours spent alone in his hotel room, were becoming more precious than he ever could have imagined. Idiot that he was, he'd convinced himself that by the time he left for good, he would have worked her out of his system.

Instead, he'd realized, too late, that it was exactly the opposite. Instead of sating him, every second he spent with Wendy made him crave more. Like an addict who needs more and more of a drug to get a high, he found that the more time he spent with Wendy, the more he wanted her.

And four days without a fix had resulted in some serious withdrawals. So severe he'd experienced something for the first time ever: doubt.

For the first time in his life, he wasn't sure he was making the right move. In the past, whenever he'd moved, he'd felt only anticipation. Looked forward to the next adventure. Never felt the tug of something—or someone—he was leaving behind.

He didn't like it.

He'd forced the doubt aside. There was no point in indulging. The decision was made. and he'd made a commitment to the company. While he and Wendy had been very clear about making no commitment to each other.

But that didn't keep his mood from degrading by the minute. Though he did his best to keep his temper under control he knew by the time he left the office after his last meeting with his new executive team that they were all walking on eggshells, wondering what kind of monster the chairman had saddled them with.

Feeling like he was about to burst out of his skin, he'd gone straight from the airport to Wendy's place, not giving a shit that it was almost midnight. Not caring that he woke up half the neighborhood practically beating her door down.

All he cared about was the way her delighted smile had swallowed up the lower half of her face and the way she'd pulled him in the door and fucked him right there on the floor of her entryway, as if she'd also been going crazy for days with the need to touch and taste and feel him burying himself in her body.

He'd spent the past two nights taking as much of her as he could get and it barely took the edge off.

What was it going to be like when he had to leave her for good?

"So you should probably plan on driving up Wednesday night or early Thursday," Kathy was saying.

Drew's thoughts snapped back to the present. "Wait? What? Drive where?"

"To Tahoe, for the offsite."

Drew bit back a curse. Preoccupied with Wendy and the prospect of moving across the country, he'd forgotten the firm was having its annual retreat in Lake Tahoe. Two days spent reviewing their current portfolio companies, with a lot of leisure time built in. Though Drew got impatient with the bullshit teambuilding exercises that were always worked into the schedule, he'd found it valuable to get an overview of how the different parts of the business were doing in more depth than could be offered during their weekly sync meetings. And he'd take any opportunity to run and mountain bike around Lake Tahoe, one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

But right now he was having a hard time keeping himself from dragging Wendy out of her office at all hours of the day. Forget about taking even one more night away from her in their limited time.

"I was thinking I'd skip it this year since next Tuesday is my last day anyway.

"You're giving three presentations," Kathy said. "Haven't you looked at the agenda?"

Drew felt a pinch of embarrassment as he admitted that he hadn't. How the hell had he lost track of this?

An image of Wendy, all long limbs and pale, silky skin stretched out under him flashed in his brain. Right. He wondered if she had any clue the kind of havoc she was wreaking on his life.

"I'm going to need your presentation by tomorrow afternoon so I can get everything compiled," Kathy said. "You may have one foot out the door but that doesn't mean we're not counting on you."

Feeling like a child being chastised by his teacher, Drew hung up and pulled up the meeting agenda to see what he was tasked with. He looked at the clock and gave a frustrated sigh. Six-thirty.

At least now he something to kill the time until Wendy would grant him entrance into her fortress.

###

"You have to go out of town again?"  Drew couldn't help but feel some satisfaction that Wendy was obviously upset at the news that he was leaving for Tahoe in two days. She was half lying on him, her elbows braced against his chest. Under the sheets her legs shifted against his, making his cock stir even though his heart was still pounding in the aftermath of his first orgasm of the night.

"Annual offsite."

Wendy snorted. "Annual boondoggle, you mean. Alan told me how those things go. Can't you get out of it?"

"Really, you of all people are trying to get me to flake on a work thing?"

She had the grace to look guilty as her lips pulled into a delicious pout. "Fair enough, but you're leaving soon and...." she trailed off, and he got a tight feeling in his stomach.

"Don't tell me you're going to miss me," he said, trying to inject his voice with a teasing note. Instead he was afraid it sounded more like pleasing.

Dark, liquid eyes met his and for a split second he was sure he saw her lips tremble. The tightness in his stomach moved to his chest, squeezing his breath as he saw the truth in her eyes.

He cupped the back of her head and kissed her, slow and hungry. "Come with me," he whispered against her lips.

She jerked her head back. "To Boston?"