Taking Care of Business (10 page)

Ruthlessly, Kate twisted her hair back and chose a darker lipstick. She had to play ball-buster in the meetings and she needed to look the part. So what if she wore her sexiest panties and bra? No one knew but her and it wasn't because she wanted to appeal to Dix.

But first she was having breakfast with Leah. Leah who'd see through any bullshit.

'Why am I doing this?' she asked the mirror. The woman had the audacity to shrug back at her. She cocked her head. She did have that glow. The look of a woman who'd had a man shove his cock deep into her wet, hot cunt and ride her like a pony. Twice in one day. She wanted to laugh out loud but instead the woman in the mirror raised a brow and smirked.

Great, now she was going crazy and talking to herself. She didn't use to talk to herself before Dix. Damned man, all delicious and smart and, gah, irresistible.

Shaking her head, she dabbed on a bit of perfume, checked herself out in the mirror and headed towards the door.

But then her cell phone rang and a quick peek at the display showed it was her mother. Sighing, she steeled herself and answered.

'Where are you? Your dad and I stopped by your new place yesterday and you didn't answer when we tried to buzz up. One of your neighbours let us in, Katherine. You know how dangerous that is? We could have been axe murderers or stalkers.' Her mother took a deep breath and Kate readied herself for another volley of mother guilt. 'Your father and I drove all the way out to your new place from Bala Cynwyd! You know how your father has to stop a lot and go to the bathroom and you weren't even there.'

Kate shuddered. Not axe murderers, but her mother was an emotional vampire. A tiny bully of a woman obsessed with appearances and tags on the inside of clothing. A woman who'd been on a diet since 1965 and who, Kate was convinced, had never had an orgasm. Shirley Edwards was entirely devoid of carnality on any level. She enjoyed nothing but tearing other people down to make herself feel better.

Her father loved to tell everyone how good he was. How kind. How very moral and upstanding while he checked out and left Kate and her siblings to the mercies of his wife. The kind of man who never came out and said anything specifically bigoted but it poured off him in the way he looked at other people, in his catchphrases and innuendos.

Kate had been glad to go to college and then after the fiasco, where she'd learned exactly how different men and women were expected to act in the workplace, she'd headed for the west coast. That had been the major plus to living in Seattle. But, as her sister Diandra told her, she was a big girl.

She was back and Kate refused to allow them to ruin it with their presence. Moving back to Pennsylvania was a good thing, damn it. She busted the asses of people in court all the time so why did she cry like a girl instead of kneecapping her parents like they needed?

Di and her girlfriend lived in Boston. Once at Christmas dinner, Di told their mother why she'd gotten her tongue pierced. Best. Holiday. Dinner. Ever.

Kate realised her mother had been talking and decided to interrupt. 'I said in my email that I'd be away at a conference for a few days. I'm in Harrisburg. I'm on my way to a meeting just now so I have to go. I'll speak to you when I get back home.'

'What are you doing in Harrisburg? Your neighbourhood is nice enough except for the junkie who let us in. Did I tell you about that? Well, your father says he hopes you got a raise coming out here. You know
they
can afford it. When are you due back? Why don't you live in a suburb instead of in town? You can afford a nice house for what you paid for that place.'

Kate hung her head. Her bones wanted to turn to rubber as the life was sapped from her. 'A conference, as I said. Lawyers go to those a lot. Glad you like my neighbourhood.' She wouldn't ask how they inferred that the person who let the upscale-looking older couple into the building was a junkie instead of a helpful citizen, and she really wasn't going to touch the salary comment. She had to go to breakfast and she couldn't eat if her head blew off. 'Anyway, I need to go. I'll speak to you later.' She snapped the phone shut with a satisfying flick of her wrist and made a mental note to call Di later on.

Hanging up on her mother made her feel much better, even if it was petty. Kate left the room with a smile on her face and her hunger renewed.

Leah was already seated in the restaurant when Kate arrived. She shot an amused look at her friend, who totally had something to tell her.

Kate turned to the server who'd appeared at the table. 'I think I need the spinach and feta omelette with some nine-grain toast, coffee and a tomato juice, please.'

Leah ordered plain oatmeal and dry toast and then studied her fork. Very carefully.

'How about the weather, huh? Whooo, hot today, I heard on the news. My new place has a great view, by the way. The building has a pool. You need to come up to visit and we can gape at boys way too young for us and make up stories about them. You can order them around and they'll stutter. It'll be a hoot.'

'Bitch.'

Kate snorted and sipped her coffee. 'Tell me something I don't know. Like, say, why you are so fascinated in the silverware and have a blush creeping up your neck. Spare me anything but the naked, sweaty details because I won't believe them.'

'You tell me something first,' Leah challenged.

'What, are we in third grade? OK, I just hung up on my mother. How's that?'

Leah jerked her head back, surprised. 'You hung up on Shirley? Wow. Did she ask if you were a lesbian again and start wailing about Diandra and how she'd perverted you to her ways?'

'No. I only heard veiled comments about the Jews and some junkie who let them into my building. I need to hang up on her more often. It was better than a nice run.'

'What isn't better than running? Freak.' Leah poked at her oatmeal and Kate wrinkled her nose.

'While you're working on your cholesterol over there, why don't you spit out the fucking details already. I'm going grey.'

'Oh God, oh God, oh God.' Leah buried her face in her hands so she wouldn't have to look at Kate.

'That good, huh?' Kate didn't sound very sympathetic.

In fact, Leah thought as she braved a glance at her friend, Kate shone with what they'd always fondly called the 'freshly fucked glow'.

'Nice F.F.G., Kate.'

'I could say the same for you.'

'I didn't fuck him. ' Leah's throat closed on the words and she looked around the hotel restaurant to make sure they couldn't possibly be overheard.

'Why not?'

'I . . . didn't want to.'

'What a lame excuse.' Kate stabbed her fork into her omelette and ate a few bites.

'I just didn't want to,' Leah repeated.

'So what did happen? Because I know something did.'

Leah told her everything, how he'd shown up at her door, how she'd told him to go down on her. How he had done it. What she'd told him to do when he got home.

'Do you think he did?'

'I don't know. Oh God, what the hell was I thinking?' Leah wished she'd ordered pancakes so she could drown herself in syrup. 'I have to work with this guy, Kate!'

'I know what you mean. I really do.' Kate sipped her coffee. 'But not forever, at least. And he's not your co-worker.'

'This is just absolutely not the right time for me to be getting involved with someone new,' Leah said.

'Relax. It's not like you have to marry him.' Kate slathered jelly on her toast and bit into it. 'And besides, it sounds like he got off on it. I mean, really got off on it.'

'Yeah, well.' Leah made a sour face. 'I got off on Mike tossing dollar bills on the floor and making me crawl around and pick them up too. The first time.'

'Mike saw
Nine and a Half Weeks
too many times, it sounds like.'

Leah laughed. 'Yeah. Well, I guess I did too. But it's not what I want.'

'Is that what you're afraid of, sweetie?' Kate put down her toast and gave Leah a sympathetic look.

'I won't be like Mike.' The fierceness of her reply startled Leah.

Kate frowned. 'You're not like Mike.'

'But it's like . . . when I told him to get on his knees for me and he did it . . . I felt . . . It felt like . . .'

Kate waited, just listening, not trying to fill the space Leah couldn't fill with the words she couldn't say.

'I felt powerful. But it was more than that.'

Kate smiled. 'There's nothing wrong with that.'

'I'm powerful all day long,' Leah pointed out. 'I don't need to be some uber-bitch in the bedroom, too.'

'Were you being a bitch?'

'I'm sure he thought so.'

'Do you really think he thought that? Did he seem angry?'

'No.' Leah sighed and studied her bowl of unappetising oatmeal. 'But how do I know? I made him go down on me, then I told him to leave. I didn't even give him a hand job.'

'Some guys, believe it or not, get off on that. You told him to go home and jerk off thinking of you, Leah. I bet he did it. And later he's going to tell you all about it. And you're going to love it.'

Leah groaned. They were right back where they'd started. 'Oh God!'

Kate laughed. 'This is good.'

Leah fixed her friend with a mock-glare. 'It's so not good. Dammit, I need pancakes.'

She waved at the server to take the order, then shoved the oatmeal aside. Then she fixed Kate with a steady look. 'And what about you? What's going on with you?'

Kate couldn't say she was shocked at what her friend had told her. Not really. Band Boy got his thing on and Leah finally grabbed hold of what flipped her switch.

Why shouldn't a woman be able to like what she liked without apologising for it? So Leah liked to top Band Boy and make him lick her pussy. Contrary to what Leah thought, or felt she should think, it didn't make a woman a bitch because she liked to take the damned reins in bed. It wasn't Kate's cup of tea but it was clearly Leah's and more power to her. If she'd just accept it and stop fighting it.

Ha! Look who was muttering to herself mentally like a loon. Leah had cornered her about Dix twice already and, from the look in her eye, Kate wasn't going to be able to dodge again.

'What do you want this thing with Dix to be? I mean, if you had your choice.' Leah ate the pancakes she'd exchanged for the oatmeal.

Kate took a deep breath. 'I like him. He's different. He's got the bad-boy thing working but he has a job. He has a life and he's not a loser. I can talk to him. He listens to me, makes me laugh. The sex is phenomenal. If he didn't have an ex-wife who was the biggest, fucking helpless twat ever, if he didn't have kids, if things were different I'd want to be with him. Or at least to explore that direction. But he does have an ex-wife who can't change her own light bulbs and he doesn't seem troubled by that. And I just don't want to talk about it or think about it right now. I can't.'

Leah sighed and nodded, letting it go.

When they dropped some money on the table and headed towards the elevators, Leah touched Kate's arm.

'You know I'm only giving you a temporary pass on this whole thing with Dix. I want to hear everything about the talk you two have.'

'Yeah, yeah. I know. I have another hour and some change before I need to get in and bust some corporate balls so I'll be on my way. Try to save time for me later.' She leaned in close to Leah. 'But if you get a chance to have Band Boy trim your hedges, we can catch up another time.'

The rooms were already set up with everything the group needed. Brandon had made sure of everything himself. He'd even called the bagel place to confirm the delivery. He'd never had a problem with their service, but he didn't want today to be the first time.

'You OK?' Melinda, the front-desk clerk, asked. 'You look a little flushed.'

'No, I'm fine.' His tie felt a little too snug around his neck though.

'You sure?' She leaned on the counter to stare at him. Melinda liked to joke that she was Brandon's surrogate mother, since his real mom lived so far away. She brought him hot soup in a Thermos on cold days and had invited him home for dinners more times than he could count. 'You don't look fine. You look like you're going to jump out of your skin if someone hollers boo.'

'Nan.' He took a deep breath but made sure not to be too obvious about it. There was no way he was going to tell his self-appointed surrogate mom that he was a horny bastard just waiting until he could be alone with a woman who probably was only going to tease him again ... or that he half-hoped she would.

'OK, if you say so.' Melinda didn't look convinced. 'I have some Prevent-A-Flu back in the office. Maybe you should take some.'

'I'll drink some orange juice, OK?' He smiled, hoping to ease her fears that he was about to topple over with some grave disease. With the imminent erection he knew was ready to spring up the moment he saw Leah, there was no chance of toppling.

'You do that. You want to come over for dinner Saturday night or do you have a big date?' Melinda laughed. She knew he hadn't been doing much dating. 'Or do you have to work?'

'I probably have to work.'

'They work you too hard,' she protested. She was more protective than his own mother.

'I need the money,' Brandon said simply.