by Noelle Adams
“She’s always trying to get my mom to let her help with important things like counting money and making purchases,” Vince said, sounding like he’d found Liz’s sister rather frustrating in the past. “Fortunately, my mom always refuses. If she really wanted to learn, it would be one thing, but it seems more like she wants the end result without the work it takes to actually learn.”
“That’s exactly what it is. She sees my job and wants it, just like she saw the trivia team’s trip to New York in high school and wanted it, without ever trying to study up or practice. Hopefully, next month, she’ll find someone else she wants to be like and leave me and your mom alone.”
With another shake of her head, she pulled away from Vince’s warm body—not as easy as it sounded—and stood up, stretching out her tension before she leaned down to grab her e-reader. “I guess I better go see what she wants.”
“I’m heading back too, so I’ll walk with you.”
She couldn’t have explained why, but she liked that he came with her. And she liked his easy company as they made their way down the trails through the gardens and lawns of the estate.
She waved at Ward Knightley, who was trimming some shrubs as they passed, and in a few minutes they’d reached the parking area and Liz saw Riot’s little red car.
She hated that her parents had bought that car for Riot when she started college since she’d done nothing to deserve it and they really couldn’t afford it.
“Liz, Liz, look what I have!” Riot called out now, jumping up and down with unnecessary enthusiasm. “Hi, Vince!”
Vince gave Riot a half-hearted wave and murmured, “That’s my cue to leave. I’ll see you soon.”
Liz said goodbye, relieved he was leaving because Riot might be silly but she wasn’t stupid, and she didn’t want her sister to even begin to suspect there was something going on between the two of them.
“You’re all wrinkled,” Riot said as Liz approached.
“Yeah, I was reading on a lounge chair. It wasn’t good for my dress.”
That excuse seemed to satisfy Riot, who was focused on her own business anyway. “Look what I’ve got! You’re going to be so impressed.” She popped open her trunk to show Liz what she had.
Liz had no idea what to expect—maybe she’d bought out the shoe department at Macy’s again. But what she saw in the trunk were antiques.
Four of them. Two lamps with stained-glass globes. A large ornate jewelry box. And a tiny footstool with a garishly upholstered top.
Liz blinked, trying to wrap her head around what she was looking at. “Where did these come from?”
“I found them! All on my own. Aren’t they great? I’m sure they’re worth a lot of money.”
“Well, not a lot,” Liz said, eyeing the pieces with a practiced eye. “But they’re not bad. This lamp is good. Once it’s cleaned up, someone would pay around a hundred dollars for it. The other lamp has been altered—it looks like a couple of times—so it would only fetch maybe twenty bucks if someone happened to like it. And the jewelry box.” She lifted the lid to examine the inside. “It’s a nice piece, but it’s been damaged. The price of fixing it would take most of the profit, but you could probably get something for it. And that footstool... nah. No one is going to want that thing. But they’re not bad overall. Did you grab these at a garage sale or something? If you paid a few dollars for them, then you did well.”
Liz had purposefully taken her inspection of the pieces seriously because she wanted to validate her sister’s efforts—no matter how ephemeral her interest in antiques was. She thought she’d been encouraging, so she was shocked by her sister’s reaction.
“That’s a lie!” Riot snapped, closing the trunk so hard that Liz’s hand almost got caught by it. “You’re just being mean because you don’t want any competition.”
“I am not,” Liz began. “I’m telling you the truth—”
“Oh shut up!” And with that, Riot flounced into the front seat of her car and slammed the door.
Liz stood for a minute, trying to control her annoyance. When she was younger, she used to lose her temper with Riot’s foolishness, and it had led to loud, passionate fights.
Since she didn’t want that to happen, she sucked in her frustration and let Riot drive away without further interaction.
It was too bad.
Her conversation with Riot had completely wiped away her leisurely satisfaction from her time with Vince.
EM AND JANE HAD BEEN watching her in the parking lot from the terrace. She learned this when she came in through the front door and Em called out, asking what Riot had wanted.
Liz told them she’d be there in a minute, and then she went to the bathroom and tried to pull herself together, splashing water on her face and brushing some of the wrinkles out of her dress.
When she walked out to the terrace where Jane and Em were sitting in their normal positions, she felt more like herself.
“So what was all that with Riot?” Em asked.
“Why didn’t she come up?”
“She was in a snit because she bought some stuff at a yard sale or somewhere and it wasn’t as valuable as she was hoping. She told me I was lying to her and flounced off.”
“Why would you have lied to her?” Jane asked in her quiet voice.
“I wouldn’t. But she decided I thought she was now the competition and I didn’t want her to win.” Liz shook her head. “The whole thing is ridiculous. I can’t wait until she moves off this antique kick and onto something new.”
“But the something new might be worse,” Jane said.
“It’s kind of cute,” Em put in. “She’s trying to be you. She looks up to you.”
“If she really looked up to me, she would listen to me. And if you find it so cute, you try taking her under your wing and see how you like it.” Liz made a face at her friend, which just made Em laugh. “So are y’all just hanging out here tonight?”
“Probably. Dad isn’t feeling good, so he wants me to stay close in case he needs me.”
As far as Liz could tell, Em’s father was never feeling good, but Em never complained about taking care of him.
Liz glanced over at Jane, but her sister had lowered her eyes demurely and didn’t add anything to the conversation.
“Charlie didn’t call or come over,” Em said, answering the unspoken question.
“What’s gotten into him?” Liz wondered out loud. “He was so obviously crazy about you, and lately he’s...”
“He’s backed off,” Jane said quietly. “He obviously wasn’t as interested as you thought.”
“Yes, he was.” Liz couldn’t understand it at all, but for the past two weeks, Charlie hadn’t stopped by or made excuses to see Jane the way he’d done all the time before. He was very friendly every time they saw him, but he’d only spent time with Jane one time this week.
The difference was marked.
And very upsetting to Liz since it was obviously so upsetting to Jane.
“It makes no sense. It was love at first sight for him. We weren’t wrong about him.”
“Some guys are like that. They get real excited for a while, but then they move on.” Jane’s voice didn’t break, and Liz could see she’d been telling this exact thing to herself over and over again.
“I remember this guy in college,” Em said. “We both showed up for the interest meeting at the college newspaper, and he decided he was in love with me then and there. You’ve never seen a guy so devoted. He barely left my side for weeks. I liked him okay, but it was all a bit too fast for me, so I kept slowing us down. But I was really considering a relationship with him. And then one morning I woke up and he’d fallen in love with someone else and was swooning all over her instead.”
“What?” Liz leaned forward, genuinely interested. “He never said anything to you about it?”
“Nope. Not a word to me. Ever again.” She shook her head, her shiny hair slipping out of the loose knot she’d clipped it up with. “His name
was Andrew. Andrew the Asshole. He had this annoying blond hair that he would swoop over his forehead. I’ll never forget him. Imagine treating a perfectly nice girl that way.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me about him?”
“I don’t know. I guess I kind of forgot about him by the time I came home for break. I never was into him that much. But I didn’t deserve to be treated that way. He just enjoyed falling in love and didn’t want an actual relationship. Some guys are like that.”
“See,” Jane said. “Maybe Charlie’s like that too.”
“But I don’t think he is,” Liz insisted. “He was with his old girlfriend for years, wasn’t he?”
“Yeah, but maybe he’s changed,” Jane said. “We don’t really know him.”
“Yes, we do. And something is wrong with the whole situation. I think you need to ask Charlie about it to find out what’s really going on.”
“I’m not going up to a man and demanding why he doesn’t like me anymore. Who on earth does that?”
“I would,” Em said. “If it were me. But I don’t care about romance, so it’s not likely to ever happen to me.”
“I might do it too,” Liz admitted. “If something didn’t make sense about the guy’s behavior.”
“Guys’ behavior never makes sense.” Jane shook her head and went on. “No. Don’t keep arguing. If I have a good opportunity, I might try to hint around, but I’m not going to just go over and demand he tell me why he changed his mind. He never made any promises to me. He never kissed me. We never had sex. He never even asked me out on a real date. He doesn’t owe me anything. If he doesn’t want me anymore, then he’s allowed.”
Liz still didn’t think they knew the whole story, but Jane was clearly about to cry, and she didn’t want to make her feel any worse so she let the topic drop.
“So what’s going on with you and Vince?” Em asked in a familiar teasing tone.
Liz stiffened. “What are you talking about?”
“We saw you and him walking together earlier.”
Relaxing at that explanation, Liz said casually, “He was running, and I was reading, and we happened to run into each other.”
“Is he still as obnoxious as ever?”
“I guess he’s not quite as bad as I thought at first, if you can get over the arrogance.”
Both Jane and Em laughed, and Liz felt a little stab of guilt at keeping her relationship with Vince from them. But if she talked about it, it would start to become important to her.
So far she’d managed to keep it in perspective.
She wasn’t going to mess it all up now.
THAT NIGHT, VINCE WAS lying in bed, trying to go to sleep.
The room felt hot, even though he’d opened two of the windows and turned on the fan. His bed didn’t feel comfortable. He kept tossing and turning.
And thinking about Liz.
The problem with a no-strings-attached affair was that you couldn’t spend as much time with the other person as you might want. Having sex with Liz was better than anything, but it wasn’t feeling like enough.
He wanted to see her more. Hang out with her more. Maybe even the spend the night with her.
She was just next door.
It was ridiculous that they had to act like virtual strangers while anyone else was around.
He lay and stewed about it for a long time until he finally couldn’t stand it anymore. He reached for his phone and tapped out a text message to her.
You awake?
It was a full minute before she replied. Now I am.
Can I come over?
Right now?
Yes. Now.
Another pause. Then her answer came through. Come on over. Just be quiet.
He was grinning as he got up, ran a hand through his hair to smooth it down, and then hurried through the condo and down the hall to Liz’s door.
He didn’t have to knock since she’d already opened the door.
After she locked up again, they went into her bedroom and closed the door. Since they’d had sex that afternoon, Vince had more control than usual, so he was able to make it last a long time, spending a long time on foreplay and sustaining intercourse until Liz came and then came again.
He felt a lot better afterward as he held Liz in his arms. Her bed was a lot more comfortable than his was, so he decided to doze for a while with her instead of going right back to his own place.
She didn’t object to this plan. Of course she was half-asleep, so maybe she didn’t think it through.
Either way, Vince got to go to sleep with Liz that night after all.
HE WOKE UP SEVERAL hours later, but it was still dark in the room. A glance at the clock proved it was just after four in the morning.
He’d gotten what he wanted. He’d gone to sleep with her. Now was the time to slip out of bed and sneak back to his own place before anyone saw him in her room and realized what they’d been doing.
But Liz was still sleeping, and he didn’t want to leave her without a word.
That would be rude.
He rolled over, stretching his slightly sore muscles. His eyes had adjusted to the room so he could see Liz on the pillow beside him. She was lying on her side, her arms bent up against her chest in a tight huddle. Her thick hair was falling all over her shoulders and back, as well as spilling all over the pillow.
She looked lovely but different than normal—since her expression was so peaceful and unrevealing, so unlike her normal vivid intelligence and strong spirit.
She almost looked vulnerable.
Like she wasn’t as untouchable as she always liked to convey.
Like she could be hurt.
The thought lodged in his chest and got in the way of his breathing. He wasn’t used to thinking about Liz that way, and he wasn’t sure what to do with the feeling.
He hadn’t felt protective about anyone since his sister, and Liz wasn’t anything like Georgie.
He shouldn’t be feeling the urge to take care of her.
Before he could work out the emotion to his satisfaction, Liz shifted in bed until her eyes fluttered open. It took her a minute to orient herself. He could see the succession of expressions on her face.
“Why are you still here?” she finally asked groggily.
“Why shouldn’t I be?”
“I thought you’d have left.”
“I meant to. I fell asleep.”
“Oh. I didn’t think you did things like that.”
“What things?”
“Falling asleep when you didn’t mean to.”
“Well, I do.”
She was smiling now—the sweetest, sleepy smile. “Oh. I do too. Sometimes.”
“I appreciate the qualification.” Unable to resist, he pulled her toward him so her soft curves were pressed up against him.
“For God’s sake, Vince, are you turned on again? Exactly how horny are you?”
“Horny? That’s even less dignified than eager.”
She giggled and pressed a kiss against the side of his jaw. “Sometimes the undignified word is the best one.”
He kissed her then. Slow. Leisurely. Then, far before he was ready, Liz rolled away, settling on her stomach beside him. “I’m going back to sleep now.”
He gave a huff of indignation even though he knew she was teasing him.
When she giggled again, he realized he’d let her score a win, so he thought quickly until he landed on a suitable response.
“Okay,” he murmured. “You go right to sleep. I’ll find some way to amuse myself.”
She made a little move of her head, like she was about to turn to see his expression, but she stopped herself and seemed to purposefully relax.
He knew a challenge when he saw one. He adjusted so he could easily reach her, and then he started to stroke her body under the covers. She was wearing nothing but a slinky little gown, so he could feel every inch of her. Firm flesh. Lush curves. Fit muscles. Deliciously soft dips and clefts.
He t
ook his time as his hand slid down her back to her ass and then lower to her thighs, playing with each tantalizing spot he could find.
Liz was responding. He could tell by the tightening of her muscles, the way she was shifting restlessly. And he knew it for sure when she let out a long, erotic moan.
Wanting to please her as much as he could, he nudged her hips. “Lift up for me.”
She did as he said, raising her hips up off the mattress so her round little butt was in the air. The covers had slipped down, so he could see her fully, and the sexy position made his already pulsing groin harden all the way.
In this position, he could reach her easily. She was warm and soft and slick with arousal, so his fingers slid in easily. He pumped them, occasionally rubbing her clit, until she came, smothering her cry of release in the pillow, her inner muscles fluttering hard around his fingers.
Then he couldn’t hold back any longer. He rose to his knees, fumbled with a condom until he’d managed to roll it on, and then entered her from behind, riding her hard and fast. Their labored breath was the only sound in the room, other than the shaking of the bed. He was filled with need and pleasure and a strange sort of dominance as he felt her coming again, just before he did.
Release took him hard. Stole his breath. Filled his head with a rush of something far more than physical pleasure.
Like he needed this—her—as much as he needed the air in his lungs.
He’d never felt anything like it, and it was clamped down into a familiar, heavy knot in his gut. The one that warned him things were getting too deep.
That he might drown in it.
Part of him wanted to drown if it meant he could stay in Liz’s body, in her arms, in her bed, in her life.
Maybe drowning wouldn’t be so bad.
AN HOUR LATER, A FAINT edge of dawn was coming in through the windows, so Vince knew it was time for him to leave and go back to his own place.
He still didn’t want to.