Ulterior Motives (17 page)

“If the shop owner had seen that dress on you first, she’d be charging twice the price,” Ross told her. His eyes gleamed with an admiration that made Shelley flush.

“Even at this price it’s a bit steep for me.” She took one more look in the mirror. “But I have to have it.” She glanced at him hesitantly. “Have you... uh... seen anything else I might want to try on?”

He smiled knowingly and handed her three more items he’d noticed while waiting for her to change. She tried each one on and dutifully came out of the dressing room each time to get his opinion. He was aware that everyone in the shop had grown interested in their quest by now, but it didn’t bother him. He was enjoying himself, and he thought it was about time Shelley started realizing how beautiful she was.

“Why did you pick this one? I can’t wear something like this,” Shelley insisted as she stepped out of the dressing room wearing the last of the clothes he’d selected for her.

Ross caught his breath. Even he hadn’t realized what she would do for the simple little black silk dress. She had such a strong effect on him.

“You look beautiful.” He heard the husky rasp of his own voice. Shelley looked at him curiously. What was there about this woman that always melted his practiced
savoir faire?
Her plump breasts pushed upward against the low-cut dress, her smooth, firm flesh calling forth fantasies he couldn’t seem to control. He saw himself slipping the spaghetti straps off her gleaming white shoulders, saw himself pulling the short skirt up over her hips to touch and explore and—

“Are you listening to me?” she prodded.

“Sorry, what?” he asked, uncomfortably aware of the sudden snugness of his trousers. The tailor hadn’t taken Shelley Baird into account when he’d made them, Ross thought ruefully.
Slow down, you can’t throw her to the floor and ravish her here.
That would be a definite
faux pas
.

“I said it’s lovely, Ross, but I haven’t got any use for a dress like this.”

“We’ll find a use for it,” he assured her, his fantasies bursting back to life despite his best efforts to quell them.
Shelley, what have I been wary about? It’s going to be so damn good between us.

“Take it, honey,” said one of the other customers. “Your man knows what he’s talking about. I only wish I could look half as good as you do in that dress.”

“Oh. Thank you,” Shelley said weakly. Her man? To avoid looking at Ross, she looked in the mirror again. That clinched it. So what if she couldn’t afford it? So what if she’d probably never have a chance to wear it? It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever worn, and she was here to pamper herself. Feeling full of firm and decadent resolve, she said, “Yes, I’ll take it.”

“Thank you,” said Ross.

She glanced up at him. Her blood raced through her veins and she felt her face flush. She suddenly knew why he’d chosen this dress, knew what plans he had for her in it. It was written all over his face, overwhelming his usually controlled features. His look of raw desire burned through her, thrilling her. She felt a sudden contraction deep inside her most secret places. A moist throbbing started within her, a persistent ache that only he could reach. And he could reach it only by—

Shelley drew a quick, sharp breath. She saw in his eyes that he’d read her thoughts. He knew. He was thinking the same thing.

They were through playing games, Ross realized. She was ready. And he couldn’t wait for her any longer.

Their gazes held for a moment longer, and Ross saw the sudden acceptance, the calm decision in hers. They had both passed their last chance to make a clean escape; they were past even wanting to.

“I’ll hand this dress and the others out to you,” Shelley said softly. “Take them up to the counter and tell the girl to get them ready.” Ross nodded. “Oh, and tell her... tell her I’ll pay by credit card.” She didn’t add that she’d be paying off that bill for the rest of her natural life.

Shelley took her time putting on her own clothes in the dressing room. It was a he-knew-she-knew-he-knew situation. There was no point in pretending they didn’t both know what was going to happen between them, and soon. They’d pretended long enough. But she needed a little time to compose herself. Finally realizing she wasn’t going to get any more composed, she went back out into the dress shop.

Ross was holding a shiny bag full of her beautiful new clothes.

“I have to pay for them,” she said, still speaking softly, wondering what had happened to her usual tone of voice.

“I’ve already paid,” he said just as quietly.

Their eyes met. She could say she couldn’t accept such a gift from him. She could say she was an independent woman who could pay for her own wardrobe. She could even rage that he had no right to be so presumptuous.

She said, “Thank you.”

They’d already silently made and agreed upon their decision. It didn’t matter that nothing concrete had yet been said or done. Whatever the future held in store for them, they both knew that he had just become the man in her life who had the right to buy her costly gifts.

He held the door open for her and then followed her out into the darkening street. They were both being awfully quiet for two talkative people. Shelley didn’t feel like talking about trivial things and couldn’t yet find the words to discuss what mattered. Silence was best for a few minutes, and Ross seemed to sense this, too. She went along willingly with him, not bothering to ask where they were going. Several blocks later they reached his red Porsche, which was parked in one of the city’s small lots.

He put her package behind the driver’s seat and then looked at her over the roof of the car. He must be slightly unnerved, she thought fondly; he’d forgotten to open her door for her.

“Where do you want to eat?” he asked.

“Mount Adams.” There would be no chance of accidentally running into any of her staff or clients up there, as there would be downtown.

He nodded, and she realized he knew the reason behind her request. They’d have to talk about it. They’d have to talk about a lot of things.
Later,
she thought,
later.
For the moment they just needed to adjust to this. They were together now.

She slid into her seat. He turned on the engine. He looked over his shoulder, preparatory to putting the car into reverse.

“Wait,” she said suddenly. She needed something. Some affirmation, some comfort. Her eyes met his.

“Shelley,” he whispered. His voice held a tenderness she’d never heard before, and his eyes were openly vulnerable.

She leaned toward him, lowering her eyes, seeking his lips with her own. He returned her kiss with exquisite tenderness. Then they sat with their faces close together, savoring each other’s nearness.

“When the gods want to punish us, they answer our prayers,” he murmured wryly.

Shelley voiced the same sentiment in her more down-to-earth way: “Are we in
it.”

Chapter Seven

“Everything I’ve ever heard or read about you tells me you can’t be fired.
My
job isn’t so sacred,” Shelley said.

Ross looked out at the spectacular nighttime view of the Ohio River Valley. They were seated in one of Shelley’s favorite restaurants atop Mount Adams, not far from her apartment. They had ordered food and wine and were feeling more prepared to confront the issues between them.

“You don’t want anyone to know about us, in other words.”

“I think it could cost me my position, if I were known to be...” she trailed off.

“Sleeping with me?” he said, unwilling to let her even hint that their relationship might be anything less serious.

She nodded. “On the other hand, it seems sleazy to keep it a big secret.”

He shrugged. “Let’s just agree to keep it a secret one day at a time. You can wake up any morning and change your mind. I, on the other hand, don’t care who knows, as long as it doesn’t hurt you.”

She nodded again. “And I think we’d better agree not to talk about work.”

“Do you think that’s possible?”

“I think if we do, we’ll just go round and round the way we’ve been doing since you got here. I think it’s best if we just draw a clean line between our jobs and our relationship.”

“And what happens if we have more confrontations in our professional capacities?”

“I think we should... leave it at the office and not bring it home with us.” She saw the concern in his eyes and shrugged uncomfortably. “I don’t know if I can, but I’ll try.”

They were silent again. They both knew that most of the pressure she would be under in the coming weeks would be because of him. They both knew that he could ruin her career at Babel. He was frustrated that she wouldn’t consider a career with Elite as a reasonable alternative; she was frustrated that he couldn’t understand why.

And under all that they both knew that Ross would only be in the same city with her as long as it took to establish supremacy for Elite here. But despite everything, they couldn’t stay away from each other any longer.

Ross poured more wine. Shelley nibbled at the appetizer they’d ordered. She caught him staring at her. They both started smiling foolishly. She was so glad to be with him like this at last!

“Tell me honestly—”

“Honestly?” he repeated doubtfully.

“Why did you send for Tim to help me out?”

He tilted his head to one side and let his eyes caress her. She warmed to his perusal, finally enjoying rather than resisting the pleasure his admiring gaze gave her.

“For you, Shelley. Just to help you. No other reason. No ‘ulterior motives.’ I can’t... be inadequate at my job for your sake, but this was something I could do for you without compromising my integrity.”

She realized that she’d never heard him talk about his integrity before. She sensed such seriousness didn’t come easily to the surface with him. She was sorry she had assumed at times that he didn’t possess any integrity just because he didn’t parade it around. She let her eyes tell him so.

“What did you do for Tim? Oh, come on, Ross,” she urged, seeing he meant to refuse to answer. “You can tell me.”

He shrugged, taking another sip of wine. “I saved his neck once, that’s all.”

“How?”

He smiled. “There was an incident at college. I got expelled for it, actually—”

“Ah, yes. Your famous aphrodisiac.”

“You know about that?” he said in surprise. “Well, yes, I guess that’s something Babel could find out about pretty easily. It got a lot of publicity at the time.”

“How was Tim involved?”

“Well, I had developed an obscure major in Middle Eastern philosophy, designed purely for the purpose of showing my family that
nothing
was going to make me fall in line with their plans for me.”

Shelley smiled, remembering her own estimate of that.

“And in some obscure old text I read about this aphrodisiac. The author made some claims about it that a gentleman really can’t repeat to a lady.”
 

Shelley rolled her eyes.

“Anyhow,” he continued. “I showed the passage to Tim, just for a laugh. He was a biochemistry major at the time. He was convinced we could duplicate it and make a fortune selling it to fraternity boys. A few of the ingredients puzzled him, but he thought he could come up with reasonable substitutes.”

“Oh, my goodness,” Shelley said slowly.

“I just kind of tagged along. Not innocently, to be honest. I mean, I was always getting into trouble in those days. But I was frankly expecting a dull time watching Tim play with beakers and test tubes.” He grinned at her. “I take it you know what happened after that?”

“All hell broke loose.”

“Exactly. We both got caught red-handed. I felt so sorry for Tim. He’d never been in trouble before, whereas I was used to it. He was terrified. I think he was afraid that his family would make him return to Afghanistan if they heard about the incident. So I took all the blame. I told the Dean that Tim had just been doing some make-up work for a class, and that I’d been the only one to make unauthorized use of university property.”

“That was very nice of you.”

“Not really. Like I said, I was used to trouble. Of course, I didn’t realize I’d get expelled for it.”