Strictly Business (2 page)

Jess smiled at the thought of a bed. She couldn’t wait to peel off her clothes and climb between the sheets. She’d tuck the covers against her chin … burrow her face in the soft pillows …

She became aware of laughter, all-out female laughter. A corner of her mind, disturbed by it, wished they would stop so she could sleep.

“Jess!
Jess!
”

She forced one eye open. All she could see was a white cloth stretching forever. “Wha …?”

“Wake up.” Somebody was shaking her shoulder. “Jess, wake up so you can go to bed.”

The last word penetrated her groggy brain, and she forced the other eye open. She was staring at a linen-covered table. She gratefully closed her eyes, puzzling over why she had dreamed she was the guest of honor at a Chinese funeral. Suddenly, naked men danced across her numb mind. She smiled. This dream was going to be a doozy.

“Jess!”

She bolted upright and stared uncomprehendingly at the crowd that appeared magically on the other side of the table.

“What?”

Sandy’s face swam to the forefront. Jess frowned as she unsuccessfully tried to bring her friend into focus.

“Jess, honey.” Sandy’s voice came from a great distance. “Think you can make it upstairs?” She was laughing, and Jess wondered why.

“No problem, Sandy,” she mumbled, and laid her head back down on the table.

“Let’s get her up.”

Hands helped her out of her chair. The entire room tilted violently and she groaned.

“Maybe we ought to get some coffee into her.”

“Anything but that!” she gasped, turning her head to glare at the person who would make such an appalling suggestion.

The room tilted again, and she immediately closed her eyes. She finally reopened them when her stomach settled, this time keeping her gaze straight ahead. The room only rocked gently that way.

“Ready?”

She nodded, and realized her mistake when a reminder to keep her head as still as possible crashed through her. She obeyed.

“Ready,” she muttered.

Despite the hands grasping her upper arms, she staggered around the table. Laughter boomed through her ears. She forced herself to continue putting one foot in front of the other, hoping to get away from the painful noise. But with each step, she was positive she’d fall flat on her face any second.

“She’s not going to make it!”

Jess took the remark for a command, and gratefully let her knees buckle under her.

“Grab her!”

She was unceremoniously hauled upright.

“Look at her! I think she had too much. This will never work, Sandy.”

“Yes, it will. I’ve planned it perfectly.”

“Sssh! You’ll give it away!”

“No, I won’t. Jess. Jess!”

Jess tried to focus on the voice calling her name.

“Do you know what I’m talking about?”

Jess hadn’t even attempted to follow the conversation. All she could think about was lying horizontally. Lord, but she was tired.

“Jess, the elevators are just a little bit farther.” It was Sandy’s voice again. “You can do it!”

“Wanna bet?” Jess muttered, concentrating on the seamed double doors in front of her. Odd that her house had suddenly acquired an elevator, she thought dimly, then wished the people behind her would shut up. Every sound was like a knife plunging into her. Her stomach lurched sideways now with each step, and her head weighed at least two tons. A voice in her brain, though, was chanting wildly, “One more step to the bed.” She hung on desperately to the thought.

The elevator ride was merciless. Fortunately, once off the thing, it was a short stagger down the hallway to a room. Someone opened the door, and Jess gazed in awe at the wide, inviting bed. The blessed promise was there before her in all its glory.

Unexpectedly, something inside her protested crossing the threshold. Jess ignored it, and lurched forward. She’d kill anyone or anything who stood between her and the bed. Flopping onto the soft enveloping mattress, she closed her eyes. At last, she thought hazily. Peace, comfort, and sleep.

She drifted off to the sounds of hysterical laughter.

“Dammit, Nick! How many times do I have to explain to you,” Tony snapped, clenching his glass of cola. “The whole purpose of this job is that
I’m
the one who pays for school. I do it. Not you. Not anybody else.”

Nick glared across the small table at his brother. “There are plenty of other jobs, much more respectable jobs, that pay well.”

“Not like this!”

“You’ll regret this one for the rest of your life. What if sometime in the future you want to be a judge? You won’t get appointed with … stripping in your background. And you don’t have to do it. I’ve told you I’ll pay the tuition for school. That’s final, Tony. End of discussion.”

Tony leaned back in his chair and eyed his brother sourly. “Stop being a prude, Nick, and look at this from a purely financial angle.”

Nick swallowed his drink in one gulp. “I am. And I’m not a prude!”

Tony laughed. “Nick, you’re so conservative that you used to call dates ‘business meetings.’ ”

Nick gaped at Tony. He hadn’t realized his brother had caught on to his ruse of years ago. Okay, so maybe he’d been a little extreme when he’d first divorced Janet. He clamped his jaw closed at the thought of his ex-wife. “You were only sixteen, Tony, and you didn’t need any more disruption to cope with. Besides, there weren’t that many dates.”

“I was seventeen by then, and not stupid.” Tony waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. “The point is
that I pay for law school, Nick. And I’ll only have to work three nights a week to do it. I’ll have plenty of time for studying.” He leaned forward and said earnestly, “I gave this a lot of thought, and I know exactly what I’m doing and what it means for my future. It’s going to be all the sweeter because I was the one who worked for it.”

“But—”

“No buts, Nick! Even if I were willing, you can’t pay for the tuition. You’ve got everything tied up in those custom homes you’re building. You’re strapped enough right now, and I’ll be damned before I strap you any further. It’s my turn to pay. The job is fine, and I have enough sense to stay away from the ladies, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Tony—”

“No. Face it, Nick. I’m twenty-three, and I’m all grown up. You have to stop being a parent.” Tony stood. “Now, this is the end of the discussion. It’s two in the morning, and I have to get back to the motel and get some sleep. Tomorrow afternoon, we’re leaving for a show in Baltimore.”

He walked away.

Rising, Nick cursed aloud and threw money down on the table. He quickly caught up with his brother.

“Tony …”

“Give it a break, Nick.” His brother smiled to soften the words. “Come on, I’ll walk you up to your room.”

Nick sighed in defeat. He knew if he pressed the issue he’d drive Tony away from him. It was the last thing he wanted. Maybe Tony felt the same, since their arguments always ended before irreparable damage was done.

“Come over and have breakfast with me before
you go,” he said as they crossed the lobby. “We can pick up where we left off.”

Tony grinned. “Anybody ever tell you you’re a wonderful, kindly brother?”

“Not lately.”

“Good, I wouldn’t want to spoil my record. By the way, thanks for letting me use your shower earlier. I’m drenched after a show.”

“I bet,” Nick grumbled, remembering his brief introduction to his brother’s work.

Tony wagged a finger. “Watch out, Nicolas Mikaris. You’re going to fall off that pedestal of yours very soon, and I’m going to be there to see it.”

Nick stared at him. There was smug amusement in his brother’s tone, and his eyes were alight with mischief.

“You look a little too pleased about that.”

Tony attempted to smother his amusement under a shrug. He wasn’t entirely successful. “At least you didn’t punch me in the jaw tonight. For a moment there, I thought you were going to.”

Nick cuffed him lightly. “Don’t tempt me, pal. Adonis! Lord help us!”

Tony laughed. “Hey, it’s my real name.”

Nick couldn’t deny that. The name on Tony’s birth certificate was Athoni, which, unfortunately, meant Adonis in Greek. If Nick had his way, Tony would be named Hector or Wilbur or something. The less said about Adonis, the better.

When they reached his hotel room, Nick unlocked the door and flipped on the light. He noticed Tony staring slack-jawed into the room. He turned around to see what had caught his brother’s attention. Except for one side of the bedspread being slightly
rumpled, the room was as it had been when he’d left it earlier.

“Did you sit on the bed when you came up for the shower?” he asked.

“Oh! Ah … yes.” Tony straightened. “I … ah … called Bill to tell him I’d be late. Hope you don’t mind.”

“No problem.”

His brother blinked, and to Nick’s surprise, peered around the room again. “Right. Well, I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Around ten?”

Tony gave the room a last searching glance, then nodded.

“Are you all right?” Nick asked, puzzled by Tony’s odd behavior.

“Fine. Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Nick closed the door behind him and shrugged. Maybe he’d been too tired tonight to argue effectively with Tony. There had been several problems at the job site today, and as the owner of Mikaris Builders, he had been the only one able to fix them. For a while, he’d almost thought he wouldn’t be able to get away to see Tony. Not that it had done any good, he thought with irritation. Things were still at their usual stalemate.

Yanking off his pullover, he flexed an aching shoulder and decided what he needed was a good night’s sleep. He pulled down the covers on the bed, shed the rest of his clothes, and climbed between the cool sheets.

The image of the woman he’d spotted in the banquet room flashed through his mind. She had been captivating, with her shining brown hair and large
innocent eyes. Her features had been almost angelic in their delicacy, and yet he’d sensed a waiting fire in her. It had teased him, tantalized his sanity.

She was probably married.

He blocked out her image and closed his eyes.

Lying across the bathroom floor, Jess hugged the cool porcelain of the toilet bowl to her flushed cheek in relief and gratitude. It was so smooth and cool. Her stomach was finally calming down. It ought to, she thought absently. Nothing was in it now.

She lay there for the longest time, almost dozing, until she finally realized that comforting as the bowl was, it wasn’t comfortable. Pulling the last of her energy together, she sat up. She became aware that she was still in her clothes and her purse was hanging on her arm. She dropped her purse on the floor and stripped off her dress. Amazing, she thought. She couldn’t care less that she’d fallen asleep in a Rudolpho, but the dress didn’t show a wrinkle. Finally, she staggered back into the bedroom, tossed the dress and purse over a chair, and slowly settled into the bed. As she closed her eyes, she vowed to never, never, never do one of these practical jokes again.

The aftermath was a killer.

Jess slowly surfaced from a dead sleep. Natural light, not too bright, filtered behind her closed eyelids, telling her the sun had been up for quite some time. She smiled, remembering her dream about a very sexy man. It had been so vivid that she could still feel his body curved spoonlike around hers. Of course, it was a perfect fit …

A certain part of her dream was pressed a little too realistically to her hips. She opened her eyes. Her first thought was that someone had completely redecorated her room during the night. Then she became all too aware that she wasn’t in her own bed.

And she wasn’t alone.

“This ain’t Kansas, Toto,” she whispered under her breath as she inched away from the sleeping man. Her heart pounded with fear, her stomach churned with panic, and her head felt like a marching band was going full blast inside it.

What, she wondered frantically, had she done last
night? And where were Sandy and the others? All she remembered was going to the show, being sick, and collapsing in a bed.
Alone.

So where had the man come from?

She decided not to wait around for a trip down memory lane. She just wanted to get out of there as quietly as possible, go home, and yell at herself for the rest of her life. Slowly, she slipped a leg over the bed—

“What the hell!” a deep voice exclaimed behind her.

Jess leaped off the bed and whipped around. She stared in astonishment.

“You!” she said at the same time as Nick Mikaris.

Jess blinked. She knew why she was saying it, but why was
he
saying it?

Glaring, Mikaris got out of the bed, pulling the bedspread around his hips as he did. She blushed hotly at the flash of a bare hip before the quilted material hid his essentials. His shoulders were broader than she’d first thought, and his chest was covered with dark curling hair that arrowed down his stomach before disappearing beyond.

Forcing her gaze away, she wished the building would collapse around her. If she’d thought last night might prove embarrassing, this was infinitely worse. She tried to think logically around a blinding headache, hoping to come up with a sensible explanation for why he was in her room.

She wracked her brain, but she had no recollection of meeting or talking with him. She couldn’t remember anything past collapsing into an empty bed. Of all the men in the world for this to happen with, why Nick Mikaris? How would he ever accept a
business relationship with her after being in her bed?

A thought occurred to her, and she glanced down at her slip and panty hose. She was still dressed! Two drinks shouldn’t turn a normal person into a lusting animal. And the man was gay, for goodness’ sake! She’d seen that preference with her own eyes. Maybe there was hope for her yet. Still, when she’d first awakened she was aware of a definite male response to their closeness.

She felt his gaze burn through her slip, and realized its flimsy satin material wasn’t exactly a formidable barrier. Flushing, she tugged at the blanket on the bed to cover herself more thoroughly. It wouldn’t pull out from where it was tucked under the mattress. She snatched up a pillow instead and pressed it against her middle. It was better than nothing.