Winter Hopes (Seasons of Love) (6 page)

“God, no!” Sam said. “That’s not why I asked. Don’t think that.
I’m just trying to figure out how long you've lived apart, all the
logistics, that’s all.”

“Oh. Well, now you know. I've been in this apartment for almost a year.”

“Okay…” Sam drew out the word and his breathing increased
again. She wished she could see what he was doing. She thought
about
asking, but it was more fun to imagine. “Hey. Lydia. I haven’t
changed my mind. I told you I’d like us to try to start something, and I meant
it. So is this the point where I remind you that since we left each
other at
that hotel, I’ve been texting you every day because I can't stop
thinking about you? And calling you every night, because I want to hear that rich, sexy voice of yours?”

She couldn't help but smile. “Yes, you have been.”

“I don’t play games. Life’s too short. Learned that a long time ago. I'm open. I say what’s on my mind, for better or worse.” Sam exhaled a deep breath and started again. “So here it is. We both seem to feel the pull. I think that this… could be something great. If you lived here, I'd be going after you with everything I have, so I'm not
going to let something like the long distance get in our way. You and me, this could be really good. If we’re open with each other, and take it slow, and give it time. And I want to try. Is that straightforward
enough?”

Lydia crushed her lips together, but the smile broke through.
“Yes. Delightfully so.”

***

Only ten o’clock on Wednesday morning, and Sam was already completely distracted, lost in daydreams. He turned to his computer,
clicked on a thumbnail on his desktop, and a picture of Lydia
appeared.
A half smile curved up the corner of his mouth. He’d asked her to send
him a picture or two, and her photos, along with a short note requesting photos of him in return, had been waiting in his email inbox in the morning. He’d looked at them several times already.
She was beautiful, appealing. The long, dark red hair; the glorious golden brown eyes, piercing with intelligence; the sweet smile; the lush, sensuous curves that had driven him wild.

She’d sent two pictures. In the first one, she wore a dark purple T-shirt and jeans, sitting on an ornate iron bench in a yard filled with
flowers, smiling her low key smile. The tag under it read, “In Jane’s backyard, September.” In the second photo, she sat on a plush
brown couch. She had on a loose black tank top and khakis and held a cute
bronze-haired boy in her lap. Her broad, bright smile relayed great
affection and pride. “Andy and me, August.” She'd obviously
wanted
him to see her son, to remind him that she came with strings
attached. Andy was adorable, and with the exception of his blue eyes looked a lot like his mother.

Sam liked both pictures. He gazed at them at length,
memorizing the details of her face.

He swiveled his chair around and stared out the window of his
office, unseeing. His mind went back, remembering the wedding
weekend yet again, thinking about the time he’d spent there with Lydia.

He smiled as he recalled the first time he’d seen her, laughing at herself in the lobby of the hotel. How she looked in the garden when they sat and read together; how the sun shone off her hair, bringing out remarkable highlights of red and gold. Discreetly watching her throughout the out-of-towner’s dinner, trading smiles from opposite ends of the long, crowded table. Standing next to her at the jukebox in the bar, joking with her as she pondered which songs to pick. The first time he’d reached for her hand as they sat and talked quietly on
a cushioned bench in the hallway. How utterly gorgeous she’d
looked at the wedding, draped in an elegant burgundy silk dress. How she
felt against him as they danced. The spark in her eyes when she
pulled
him into the shadows outside for their first kiss. How she felt
beneath him as they moved together in bed. When he closed his eyes, Sam could almost recall how soft her skin felt, almost hear her sighs…

Remembering her instantly aroused him, and he shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He grunted aloud, mildly embarrassed
with himself. He felt like a teenager in the throes of puberty, pathetically at the mercy of his hormones. He’d had bouts of lust knocking him around like this since Lydia had driven away from him at the hotel
on Sunday afternoon. Talking to her each night since, getting to
know each other more, had been great. But getting through the next ten days like this? His hormones were in overdrive, to the point of major distraction. Sometimes, the rushes of pent up desire were so strong, he could barely concentrate. It was ridiculous.

With new resolve, he picked up the phone and dialed.

“Hey, Sam.” Hailey’s sleek voice was almost a purr. “How are you?”

“Fine, thanks,” he replied. “Are you busy tonight?”

“Actually, I am,” Hailey said, slightly apologetic. “Late dinner
with some girlfriends. But, for you? How about a lunch date? It’s been a few weeks since we’ve seen each other… truth is, I was thinking of you just yesterday.”

“That’d be great,” Sam said.

“How’s twelve o’clock sound?”

“Perfect. Um… meet me at the Omni?”

“Oooh, sure,” she cooed. “Been a while since we’ve gone there. I’ll meet you in the lobby at noon.”

“Great,” Sam said, before he could change his mind. “See you then.”

SAM SAT ON
one of the couches in the spacious, grand lobby of the Omni Chicago Hotel, tapping his fingers impatiently against his leg.

At precisely twelve o’clock, from behind him, a familiar female voice purred in his ear. “Hey, sailor.”

Sam glanced up over his shoulder and smiled. “Ms. Monaghan. Pleasure to see you, as always.” He rose from the couch and kissed Hailey on the cheek, then stood back to look at her. Hailey was five-foot-ten, thin and long legged, with straight blonde hair cut bluntly
at her jawline and blue eyes so pale they were almost gray. A
strikingly
attractive woman at forty-one, she was divorced and childless by
choice.
She was married to her career. Being a successful, high-powered
corporate attorney was all the fulfillment she sought. Intelligence and a slight hardness emanated from her, even as she smiled at him.

Hailey was gorgeous, savvy, and whip smart. But she was determined to remain single, and so aloof, sometimes she bordered
on cold. For him, those two factors ensured that he’d never have deep feelings for her.

It did, however, make her a perfect… regular encounter. Once or twice a month, they met up to have some good old no-strings-
attached sex. And they liked each other enough that they could actually hang
out and talk afterwards, if they felt like it. It worked for them. They had no illusions about one another, and had genuinely become
friends, in
an at-arm's-length kind of way. The short, sporadic meetings
fulfilled a
basic human need for both of them, and had since they’d met at a Christmas party almost two years before. They’d realized, after
many drinks and an extraordinarily bold conversation, that they could be mutually beneficial to one another. Their arrangement worked well.

“Did you already get a room?” Hailey asked, low enough that no one would hear.

Sam nodded and grinned serenely. “Of course.”

“Good. I have to be in court in two hours. Shall we?”

They walked together to the elevator in electric silence.

The second their hotel room door closed, Sam pushed her back
against the wall and kissed her fiercely. Hailey immediately sensed his need, that he was slightly frantic, and let him take the lead. He
kissed
her hungrily, without restraint, devouring her mouth, her neck, her throat. His hands were everywhere. He handled her more intensely
than usual, and although she loved it, it surprised her. She’d never seen
him this possessed by lust in all the time she’d known him. Yes, it
had been about a month since their last “date”, but still. He was feverish with need.

And his raging fire had her right there with him. Her body
responded instantly, matching his fervor. She felt the urgency in his caresses, how ready he was. There was no mistaking the feel of his erection pressing against her thigh. She unknotted his tie, pulled it out of the collar, and threw it aside. Smiling, he opened the top two buttons of his shirt, then simply pulled it up over his head and tossed it away
before undressing her quickly. Sparked by his greed, she undid his
belt
buckle and yanked his pants down. They kissed, grabbed, bit,
stroked—no holding back.

Still up against the wall, he hooked his arm under her knee to hitch her leg up, groaning as he drove into her with one smooth
thrust. She gripped his shoulders with a low moan and held on for the ride. Her
body filled with sensation and her mind went blank. It was
powerful, intense, and quick, leaving them both gasping and shuddering after their explosive release. They leaned up against the wall for support, still locked in their embrace for a minute, clinging onto one another as they tried to catch their breath.

Still panting, Sam gently lowered her leg and stepped back. He kissed her with a sweet, almost sheepish grin, and discreetly
removed the condom as he made his way to the bathroom.

Hailey blinked at him and, between gasps, let out a short laugh of disbelief. "I never even saw you get that on," she said to his
retreating
back. "You had my head spinning, I wasn't thinking… I'm sure as
hell glad you thought of it. Thank you for that."

"No problem," he called from the bathroom, a smile in his tone.

She felt her thighs quivering as she made her way to the bed in a daze, collapsing onto it. She was still steadying herself when Sam
emerged from the bathroom and lay down next to her. He dropped a kiss on her lips, her shoulder, then stretched out and closed his eyes.

“Well.” She laughed dryly. “That was new. What the hell was that?”

Sam couldn’t help but snort and grin.

“You were a beast,” she quipped. “In a good way, of course.”

Eyes still closed, his grin widened into a sated smile.

“You’ve never been like that,” Hailey said. "You were…
consumed.
You went caveman on me. It was freakin’
hot
.” She rolled onto her side to lean up on one elbow and scrutinize him. Her eyes trailed
along his naked body. For a man in his mid-thirties, Sam was incredibly fit. Hailey found that most men started to let themselves go by then, but Sam hadn’t. He had a lean build, not overly muscular or bulky. But his long legs boasted powerful thighs and calves, the result of almost twenty years of daily running. She also knew he went to a gym sometimes, which explained the slightly defined muscles in his arms and broad shoulders. Hailey stared at his face as he rested—the arch of his dark brows, the sharp angles and planes of his cheeks and jaw, his full lips. She had always found him extremely attractive, but never more so than at that moment, after the lustful, demanding way he'd taken her.

Her eyes narrowed. What had changed for him?

It came to her easily. With a wicked smile, she said in a teasing and sultry voice, “So? Who is she? What’s her name?”

Sam’s eyes snapped open and his smile froze. “Who?”

She smirked. “Whoever you met that you wanted and didn’t
have. You just took your frustrations out on me, that’s what this was. You couldn’t contain yourself. You must have wanted her pretty bad.
Really
bad.”

Sam chuckled and closed his eyes again, taking then exhaling a slow, deep breath.

“Come on, Sam,” Hailey pressed, still smirking. She trailed her
fingertip along his arm, playing with the sparse dark hair on his
chest. “Tell me about her. You know you can. Our secrets stay here.”

“You’re a frighteningly smart woman, you know that?” Sam
finally said, grinning again.

“That’s why I’m one of the highest paid attorneys in Chicago.” She grinned back. “So? What’s her name?”

“Lydia,” Sam said, relenting.

“Aha!” Hailey crowed triumphantly. “I knew it! I love it when I’m right.”

Sam laughed. He reached up and tucked a stray lock of her hair behind her ear, then tweaked her chin.

“Go on,” she coaxed. “Where did you meet her?”

“I went to a wedding in Connecticut last weekend. I was a friend of the groom; she was a friend of the bride.”

“Sounds charming. Did you get your hands on her at all?”

“Yes.”

“But you didn’t sleep with her.”

Sam smiled ruefully. “No.”

“That was easy enough to figure out.”

“For you, I’m sure it was,” Sam said. “I feel like I just got
through the first round of a cross examination. I pity the people you skewer on the stand.”

“Oh, please,” Hailey scoffed with a salacious grin. “This was
nothing.” She stretched back, making herself comfortable, and asked jokingly, “So, is she prettier than me?”

Sam chuckled. “You’re both beautiful. But actually, you look
nothing alike.” He rose from the bed. He retrieved two bottles of water from the desk, handing one to her as he sat beside her.

“Always such a gentleman.” She smiled and sat up. They drank in silence before she added, “Of course, that’s probably why you didn’t sleep with her—she was a bit of a prude, and you were a
gentleman
about it. You didn’t get laid, so you came home frustrated, and
called me so you could get it out of your system.”