I laugh, because that’s stupid. We had sex because clearly we needed it. Not just because we’re two younger people with hormones raging in our 20s, but because it’s something we’ve both thought about over the years. Now we know. Now we can move on.
I’ll probably be ready to play by this weekend, after the public presentation. I’ll go to The Dark Hour and find Mr. Handsome again. This time I’ll finish the job. All over his face.
Cackling, I drink my tea and look over my notes for the presentation.
My phone buzzes. Someone is texting me. I already know who.
“Get me out of here. This is the most boring party e v e r.” Poor Eva. Dragged to the Mathers’ party along with her brother. Eva only likes rich people parties if she’s half-drunk or it’s likely to end in an orgy for her to amuse herself with.
“You made your bed. Lie in it.” I think I’m going to follow my tea up with some wine at dinner. There’s this Thai place I love. I think they deliver?
“I overheard Lana Andrews and Ian Mathers. They were talking about you.”
My heart stops. I put my tea on the table and sit up, blankets falling away from me. “Oh, yeah?” What is Ian saying? Surely he’s not going around bragging about fucking me. Or is he? No. He’s not the type. I haven’t even told Eva about it. I’m not sure I will… unless I have to.
It takes way too long for her to get back to me. During that time, I start sweating. So much for my relaxing afternoon. “Lana’s mad about you screwing up your presentation last week and is convinced it’s going to happen again. She wants Ian to be your keeper. That’s what I got out of it, anyway.”
“Fuck her. Only not really. Don’t actually fuck her, Eva.”
“Yeah, right. I ain’t going near that. She’d try to eat me alive, and then get her husband to film it. You hear they might be starting an adult line of something or other? God help us all.”
No, I hadn’t heard that, but it doesn’t surprise me. They’d start an escort business if they could get away with it. “Has Ian been saying anything weird about me?”
“Huh? No. Why? You guys have a row?”
“You could say that.”
“Don’t worry about that jackass. He’s probably preoccupied looking for his next blond squeeze. Hey, maybe it could be you!”
I don’t say anything for a while. Not until I see her getting ready to type something else. “Don’t even joke about that.”
Eva disappears for a while. Probably talking to someone. Probably drinking. Probably answering for the umpteenth time that, no, she wasn’t there to watch her brother fuck his girlfriend in public. Why do people ask her that? I was there. No way Eva would have hanged around for more than five minutes after the festivities began. Speaking of, I have yet to get a wedding invitation from the Warrens. I’m slighted.
My evening is ruined. Not because something bad has happened, but because now I’m no longer able to enjoy the afterglow I’ve been simmering in since Friday night. I don’t want to have sex, but I’m thinking weird things about Ian. And my work. He’s going to ride me hard about my presentation all this week. What will happen when we see each other tomorrow? Will we acknowledge what happened? Or are we going to pretend it’s all in the past… like what happened a decade ago?
Against my better judgment, I text Ian.
“We need to talk. About Friday.”
I hit send before I lose my nerve.
Unsurprisingly, I don’t hear from him for a long time. He’s at his family’s party, and I’m here working to keep me distracted. I order in dinner and double up on that wine to settle my nerves. Soon enough I’m in the bath, relaxing in a plethora of bubbles and staring at my Ziploc-covered tablet trying to read a book.
My phone, which is perched safely on a shelf, buzzes.
At first I forget that I texted Ian. Which is good, because otherwise I may not have picked up my phone and looked at his message.
“What is there to talk about?”
Seriously?
I’m gonna I don’t even know.
“You know what. Unless it was so terrible that you’ve blocked it out of your mind.”
“Hardly.”
That’s it for a minute. He wants me to continue the conversation.
“Is it going to be weird tomorrow?”
“Only if you’re the one making it weird.”
“So we’re good?”
“We’re good.”
I watch my bubbles bob on the water, my teeth playing at a hangnail. “See you tomorrow.”
“Good night.”
For some reason, this exchange hasn’t made me feel better. If anything, I’m more anxious than ever. Because… well, you know. Ian and I had sex. Not just any sex. Really, really hot sex that nearly ate me alive and left him absolutely breathless afterward. I don’t care who you are. I don’t care if you’re the most hardened man in the universe – emotionally, that is. If you have that kind of sex with a woman, it’s going to affect you. You’re going to treat her differently.
And this is Ian Mathers we’re talking about here. A man who, even back when I first decided to sleep with him, is known for going through a lot of women quickly. That doesn’t mean he treats them with disrespect, of course. I have never heard about that, but it does mean that I’m no longer an interest to him. He’s conquered me. He knows what it’s like to fuck Kathryn. He knows what my nipples look like and what I sound like coming from his cock, and what it’s like to have my stupid horny cunt squeeze him half to death. Fuck me. I am so stupid.
Excuse me while I try to finish my bath in peace. It’s going to be a long week, and I need all the relaxing I can get right this second.
Chapter 14
IAN
Monday morning. Cloudy. Drizzly. Enough to make me carry an umbrella until I reach the building we’re still sequestered in this week.
Naturally, I run into Kathryn in the elevator.
The operator hits the button for our suite and then steps out again, the doors closing in front of us. Kathryn is fighting between looking relaxed and tensing up around me. I don’t blame her, but I wish she wouldn’t. It’s making me tense.
“Good morning,” I finally say, wrapping the plastic wrap around my umbrella as securely as possible. I text my assistant – who is in the building with me this week – to bring some coffee from my favorite café down the street. The coffee pot isn’t going to be enough today. “Have a nice weekend?”
She glances at me before looking at the mirror paneling. She’s very business. Heavy coat, minimal makeup, and that silky blond hair pulled into her French twist. When she wears her hair like that, it makes her neck look longer, especially when there’s no jewelry there.
I briefly remember kissing that throat three days ago. How warm she had been beneath her skin. Her heart beating furiously as I rubbed her slit and parted it for my cock.