Taren’s hand ran down the front of Gi’s pantsuit slowly, coming to rest on the waistband of her pants. She was about to open the button when a loud knock at the door brought them crashing back to the present.
“Damn it,” Taren whispered, trying to redress quickly.
Gi straightened her clothing and pulled the door open.
“I was walking by and heard a weird noise, like a screeching animal or something. Are you okay?” Gi’s assistant asked.
Gi bit back a laugh when she heard Taren gasp. “I’m fine. I bumped my knee on the desk and it hurt like hell. That’s probably what you heard.”
“Okay.” She moved to walk away and turned back. “Have you seen Ms. Rauley? I swore she walked by me this morning.”
Gi shook her head. “What did you need her for?”
“Mr. Revisi faxed over the work order and it’s cash on delivery so I wanted to make sure she got it.”
“COD? What?” Gi grabbed the paper. “Damn it, Sergio!” she snapped. “I’ll take care of it,” she told her assistant.
Gi closed the door and immediately went for her cell phone, almost forgetting about the disheveled woman standing a few feet away.
“What did he do?” Taren asked.
“He paid the contractor for the sprinkler system COD, and it was four grand!”
“What?” Taren glanced at the invoice. “This doesn’t sound right.”
“I know.” Gi focused on her and smiled softly. “I need to go over there, but…”
“Look, Gi…I don’t even know…what this is,” Taren stammered, waving her hand back and forth between them. It had all happened so quickly. She needed time to digest it.
Gi nodded and headed towards the door.
“What the hell have you done?” Taren whispered to herself. She waited a few minutes, then walked to the bathroom.
Taren stared at herself in the mirror and shook her head. “It was a one-time thing,” she whispered, knowing she’d gone after what she wanted without even thinking about it. Gi had been on her mind so much lately that she hoped this was what she needed to get the enticing woman out of her head. She’d done it and it was over, so she no longer had to dream about it.
Chapter 15
Taren was happy to see Gi’s car wasn’t in the lot when she arrived at work. She’d spent most of the night trying to forget about what had transpired less than twenty-four hours ago. She barely ate and didn’t sleep. The haunting images of Gi’s face buried between her legs rolled like a projection screen behind her closed eyes.
“Damn it,” she whispered, chucking an ink pen across the room. She stood up and moved to pick it as her office door opened.
“I thought I heard you come in,” Gi said.
“You mean you saw me on the monitor,” Taren corrected, moving to put the pen on her desk, distancing herself from Gi. “I didn’t think you were here. Your car’s not outside.”
“My Audi’s getting serviced, so I’m in a rental.”
Taren nodded.
“And I didn’t see you on the monitor. I heard you talking in the hallway.”
Taren nodded again, then ran a hand through her hair, pushing it over her shoulder. “Look, Gi…I…” she sighed. “I made a huge mistake.”
Gi shrugged. She didn’t believe her, but it’s what she’d expected.
“It can’t happen again.” Taren crossed her arms. “It won’t happen again.”
“Great,” Gi said matter-of-factly. “I actually came in to tell you to go ahead and input that invoice from the sprinkler company.”
Taren raised an eyebrow.
“I paid the guy yesterday, so he could get started.”
“I need the check number,” Taren said.
“It was cash.”
“Okay, what account did it come out of?” Taren made a note on a piece of paper lying on her desk.
“My pocket,” Gi answered.
Taren locked eyes with her. “Who carries four-thousand dollars in their pocket, Gi?”
“I don’t normally do that, but I happened to have it on me at the time to put it in the downstairs safe for the tills, so I paid him. There’s no need to do anything with the transaction. Make a note that I paid him on the side or something. I just don’t want him getting paid twice. Sergio already let him fuck us over with his price to begin with,” Gi said.
“All right,” Taren replied, changing the wording on her desk note, before facing her again. “Are we good then?”
Gi looked into her eyes and grinned. “Yeah,” she murmured.
Taren watched her walk out of the room, wondering how in the hell she was ever going to forget what they’d done.
***
Taren saw Gi here and there during the rest of the week, but mostly tried to avoid her. She was happy to see the weekend arrive as she walked out of her closet, dressed in a plain cocktail dress and black heels. Ken turned around and smiled as he tied his tie.
“Thank you for going to this dinner with me,” he said.
“Sure.” She smiled.
“You’ll like my boss and his wife,” he added, slipping into his jacket. “You look pretty, by the way.”
“Thanks.” She smiled.
“Are we ready?”
Taren nodded. She actually had no desire whatsoever to go to dinner with Ken’s boss and his wife, but she couldn’t simply say no.
***
The food at the five-star restaurant was either seriously lacking flavor or Taren was so far away from herself that she couldn’t taste it. The company at the table hadn’t helped matters. Ken’s boss was stuck on himself and his wife was more like a puppet on a string. No matter how hard she tried, Taren couldn’t get Gi off her mind. The more alcohol she drank, the more she swore she could feel Gi’s presence.
Ken and his boss were oblivious as they talked business and nursed cocktails like a pair of nerdy old friends. The boss’s wife was in her own world with a steady flow of Cosmopolitans coming from the bar. Taren wondered if this was the life she was destined to live: the sidekick wife who kept the bar tab open while her husband stroked his nerd ego with his friends. She cared for him so much, but when he started talking about infrastructure and conglomeration, he was like a windup toy with an inflatable head. Most of the time, she let him get it all out while she nodded and sang her favorite tune in her head. What they had worked, or at least it had for the last year and a half.
***
Later that night, as Ken moved closer, kissing her softly, she imagined Gi’s mouth on hers; Gi’s hands caressing her skin; Gi moving against her as she urged the kiss deeper, inticing a heated connection. Minutes later, the prick of Ken’s penis brought her back to reality as he rolled on top of her.
“Is it okay?” Ken asked, noticing a difference in her.
“Yeah. The drinks gave me a headache,” she lied.
He moved off of her. “We don’t have to do anything tonight,” he replied.
She felt bad knowing she’d started it and left him hard and ready, so she reached down, giving him relief with her hand.
As she rolled over to go to sleep, Taren wondered why she was able to have sex with Ken the night before, yet tonight, thoughts of Gi had driven her to forget who she was with. She’d never once thought of someone else while being intimate with Ken, and it made her angry and nervous knowing Gi had that power.
“Are you alright?” Ken questioned, rubbing her back when he felt her sit up.
“Yeah. I’m going to take some Advil and get some air. Go back to sleep,” she replied, twisting and kissing him softly.
Taren walked through the living room and stepped onto the balcony. The city lights glowed in the darkened sky. A few stars and a quarter moon were visible in the distance. She sat in the lounge chair and kicked her feet up.
Get it together, she thought. As much as she’d wanted to leave Gi in the past, she couldn’t. As much as she’d wanted to forget about thei
r encounter, she couldn’t. Gianna Revisi was very much in the present. Taren wasn’t sure who she was angrier with: herself for completely losing control or Gi for responding so eagerly. Life with Ken was easy, safe, and predictable, but in a good way. On the other hand, life was Gi was always spontaneous, passionate, and somewhat dangerous.
Chapter 16
The following Monday, Taren walked into the break room and Gi appeared in front of her. Taren tried to avoid the questioning blue eyes and sly grin that had haunted her dreams all weekend.
“Are you ignoring me now?” Gi asked.
“Out of sight, out of mind,” Taren replied, reaching for the coffee pot.
Gi stepped closer.
“I’m not doing this, Gi,” Taren murmured.
“Not doing what?”
“Damn you.” Taren shook her head. “It should’ve never happened. Why did you let it?”
“I’m not the one who’s taken,” Gi shot back.
Taren clinched her fist as her pulse began to race. “Leave my personal life out of this.”
“Okay, nothing personal…got it. So, this thing between us…it’s purely physical then,” Gi nodded. “Fine with me.”
“That is more your style, isn’t it?” Taren spat, desire burning in her eyes.
“Don’t start something you can’t finish,” Gi whispered, moving a little closer.
“Damn you. I’m not doing this,” Taren growled. She wanted desperately to make her life with Ken go back to the way it was before Gi had appeared. Everything was controlled and in order. Gi had turned her world upside-down, causing her to question everything and crave that fiery passion she knew was just below Gi’s surface. “Damn you,” she said again, this time mostly directed at herself for getting so caught up in her own inner turmoil.
“You used to take what you wanted, when, where, and how didn’t matter. What happened to that girl?” Gi whispered. “You’re nothing but a shell of the person you used to be, hiding behind some fake persona because you’re scared to be yourself.”
“Fuck you, Gi,” Taren spat.
Gi moved again, leaving very little space between them. “Oh, you want to. I can see it in your eyes,” she whispered, inches from her lips.
Taren lost it as she reached up, forcefully pulling Gi into a kiss. Their bodies slammed together as their mouths fought for control. Taren ran her hands down, squeezing Gi’s breasts and moving further, around to her ass. Gi kissed her hard, biting her lip as her hand ran lower, cupping Taren’s sex and feeling the wetness through her dark slacks.
Taren moaned into her mouth and Gi pulled away, putting a few inches between them. Taren raised an eyebrow as Gi turned towards the door.
“I hate you,” Taren mumbled when she pulled the door open.
“No, you don’t,” Gi answered as she walked out.
Taren stomped all the way to her office. In all the years they were together, Gi had never once denied her. Whatever game she was playing, it was cold and completely unlike her. It made Taren want her even more.
“God damn it!” she cursed.
***
Taren spent the rest of the day snapping at anyone who spoke to her. She wasn’t in the mood to be at work, much less down the hall from the woman who was literally driving her crazy. Deciding she couldn’t take it anymore, Taren headed over to Gentleman’s Rook after lunch, to see the progress.
Bruno and Sergio were cordial to her as usual, but Mario was flirtatious as ever. Pissed at Gi, Taren allowed herself the luxury of flirting back a little more than usual. Mario’s eyes seemed to follow her every move.
Taren looked around at all of the old Chicago gangster and speakeasy pictures that hung on the walls. “The place is coming together nicely,” she said.
“Yeah. We still have a couple of weeks.” Mario stepped closer. “Hey, how is your grandmother?”
“She’s good,” Taren stated, wondering how he knew about her family emergency.
Mario smiled. “A few of the bills keep coming here instead of the main office,” he added. “I was trying to get the addresses changed, but Gi said you’d do it when you got back from visiting your grandmother.”
“Oh.” Taren smiled. “I’ll get it straightened out. Do you have any of them now?”
“Yes,” he said, leading her to the manager’s office, which was still in disarray. He handed her a small stack of envelopes.
Taren flipped through them.
“Who is this?” she asked, looking at one of the unfamiliar names.
“A new vendor. Since this is a cigar and whiskey bar, we’re importing whiskey from all over the world, the same with the cigars.”
Taren nodded.
“Would you like to have dinner with me tomorrow night? I can tell you all about our vendors.”
“Mario, you know I’m engaged.” She smiled and stepped back to put a little more space between them.
“Call it a business meeting.” He grinned.
Taren raised an eyebrow. “Thank you, but I can’t,” she said. “Maybe lunch,” she added.
“Great. I look forward to it.” He walked her outside. “Looks like it’s going to rain,” he commented, looking at the sky.
“I could use a cold shower,” she whispered to herself.
***
Taren was late getting home that night, after spending an extra hour at the gym, running off the pent-up frustration. All she wanted to do was take a long shower and try to get some much-needed sleep. However, Ken had other plans. He’d come home with takeout from one of their favorite places and a bottle of wine.
“Why don’t you get cleaned up and I’ll put this all together,” Ken said, wrinkling his nose at her sweatiness.
“Are you trying to say I stink?” she laughed.
“Of course not. You’re just…icky from the gym.”
“Icky?” she repeated with a chuckle and walked away.
The cool spray of the shower felt good on her heated skin and muscles. She laughed softly when she thought about Ken and his weird issue with sweat. If he was sweaty, he simply took a shower to wash it away, but if she was sweaty, he found it a huge turn off and stayed away from her. Looking back on their relationship, they’d really never been so deep in the throes of passion that they were dripping sweat. Their sex life was very clean, rather calm, and just enough to get you to the end and call it a night. Part of that was her fault. She never initiated sex with him and simply went along with it when it happened. She loved him and just figured sex was different with everyone, as it had been with the couple of partners she’d had.
Thinking about hot, sweaty sex, made her think about Gi, and that only made her mad. Taren turned the water off and stepped out of the shower, eager to get to that bottle of wine. Just because sex with Ken isn’t hot and sweaty, doesn’t men it isn’t pleasant, she thought to herself.
***
The next day, Taren was sporting a headache from the wine and the stress of avoiding Gi around the office. She’d gone most of the day without running into the vixen, when she stepped out of her office to use the restroom and ran into Mario in the hallway.
“Hey,” he said with a big smile.
Taren smiled thinly, until she saw Gi come up behind him and lean against the wall, arms crossed.
“Did you get the supply order I sent for Rapture?” he asked.
She nodded, raising her eyebrow at the eyes that gave her the once over. “Why were there two initial orders for GR?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Uncle Bruno did the second one.” He stepped a little closer. “I’m free for lunch tomorrow if you want to get together.” He winked and added, “We can go over there together and see what’s going on…afterwards, if you want.”
Gi cleared her throat, making him jump like a scared cat. “Why the fuck am I paying you to manage the inventory for each establishment?” she snapped. “Instead of standing here trying to get your dick wet, y
ou should be at GR finding out what was ordered and why! That’s what I pay you for!”
“I…”
“Don’t get me some piece of shit excuse, Mario. I don’t want to hear it. Do your fucking job or you’re gone! Capisci?”
Mario hung his head and walked away.
Gi raised an eyebrow and turned her eyes to Taren.
“What?” Gi asked.
There were a few other invoices that didn’t make sense, but the look in Gi’s eyes made Taren too keyed-up to discuss them at the moment. She stepped closer, fighting the urge to kiss her.
Gi’s assistant stepped into the hallway, breaking the connection between them and Gi walked away without looking back.
What the hell are you doing? Taren chastised herself as she headed to her own office.
Chapter 17
Taren hadn’t seen Gi for two days, so when she noticed her car in the parking lot on Friday, she felt a shiver of excitement, followed by the first signs of a stress headache. She walked inside, towards the elevator and pushed the button. The doors swung open immediately, startling her. Taren gasped when she saw Gi standing inside.
The doors started to close and Gi reached out, stopping them. “Are you going up, or are you just going to stand there?” she questioned.
Taren ran her eyes slowly over the woman in front of her. She sighed audibly as she stepped inside.
As soon as the doors closed, Gi pressed the emergency stop button and stepped in front of her. Taren backed up, bumping herself in the wall.
“I’m getting tired of this cat and mouse game, tesoro,” Gi murmured, looking into her eyes.
“You walked away from me, remember?” Taren retorted as her blood began to pulse through her veins.
“What do you want?” Gi asked, meeting her eyes again.
“You,” Taren whispered breathlessly.
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