by Sierra Rose
James was our closer, the man who pulled together everything we did and knocked it out of the park. It was as if no one could say no to him, even if some part of them wanted to and even it if made better practical sense. That spell he put on me the first night we got together was by no means a rare thing; it was universal, like flying too close to the sun. Sooner or later, that gravitational pull sucked everyone right in.
What was even stranger about the immense and important work we completed was that we accomplished none of it at the office. James and I took to avoiding the place like the plague, and when Madison and Caleb realized they had to work with us from the house, they called David, our supervisor, and made sure the telecommuting was cleared. Caleb stopped in at Cross Enterprises once a week to appraise and update everyone on our progress, but other than that, we were a work-from-home team, achieving greatness strictly within the confines of our house.
THREE WEEKS FLEW BY in a blur, yet they seemed to stretch on forever, each more surreal than the last. Every moment earned a permanent place in my memory, and part of me couldn’t believe it when it was finally over.
“Well, that’s it.” Madison packed the last file in her briefcase and looked around the empty kitchen table in disbelief. “I can’t believe it. Look what we’ve done.”
“Believe it.” Caleb stretched his arm around her shoulders and let out a wide yawn. The first night he stayed over, he slept on the couch, but he’d spent every night since in her bedroom, and I was sure neither of them got much sleep. “I have the carpel tunnel to prove it.”
“All for someone else’s team.” I flashed him a grin as I wandered into the kitchen in my office best. We hadn’t been to the office in almost a month, and I wanted to dress for the occasion, but I actually felt a bit unsteady on my heels after walking around in sneakers and slippers for so long. “All that work, just to help Madison and me win the competition. We’ll make sure to get you a t-shirt from the Alps.”
“It wasn’t just for the competition,” James interjected quietly from his chair in the far corner as he watched the three of us get ready with a thoughtful kind of reflection. “This will fix things, put the company back on track.” He bowed his head and ran a finger absentmindedly around the rim of his empty mug. “This will make things better.”
As the others headed out the door, I hung back with a curious smile. “Aren’t you coming?”
He glanced up suddenly, then stretched out his arms and shook his head. “No, go on. This is your moment to shine. You certainly earned it. You’re smart and brilliant. It’s what I love about you.”
“We earned it?” I stepped toward him in surprise, because it had never once occurred to me that he wouldn’t join us for the celebrations and accolades. “You earned it. It was all you, James. It wouldn’t have happened without you, and you deserve credit for that. You should really come.”
His face softened as he gazed up at me with a gentle smile.
Over the last few weeks, James had taken to sleeping in my bed too, but it wasn’t that we did much besides sleeping. Most nights, we fell onto the mattress around three in the morning, only to get up again at five. It was not exactly a situation conducive to lovemaking, but it was sweet and tender somehow. There was something wonderful about just falling asleep together and waking up in each other’s arms.
Still, that unanswered question hung over our heads.
“You go on,” he said again, pushing to his feet. “I have something to take care of, a visit that’s long overdue.”
My eyes flickered over him curiously, but I headed out the door with a smile. “Okay. Will you meet us afterward somewhere? Maybe at a bar, to celebrate.”
“Perfect. I’ll call you.” He kissed me swiftly on the lips before tossing a jacket over his shoulder and walking me to the door. “Enjoy all this, Della. You really deserve it.”
I flashed him a grin, then piled into the Town Car to join my waiting friends.
“See you soon.”
The door slammed shut, and a moment later, we were barreling down the streets of London, ready to find out if we won that illustrious competition after all.
Chapter 20
I READ ONCE THAT IT is ten times harder to be a gracious winner than it is to be a gracious loser, but apparently, Madison and I never learned that lesson. “Victory!” I screamed from the elevator the second the door opened in the lobby, throwing my arms in the air and strutting like a model on steroids across the tile floor.
A chorus of laughter sprang up from every corner of the room, followed by a spattering of applause. News in the building traveled fast, quickly trickling down from the sixtieth floor, and for the next few weeks, Madison and I would be hailed as warrior queens. The rest of them simply had to fall in line behind our greatness.
“That’s right, bitches,” Madison said with a smirk. “You should be scared.” Unlike me, she decided to express her celebratory spirit in a rather dark way, one that predictably suited her just fine.
Caleb followed behind us like an obedient puppy, smiling to himself whenever our antics got too dramatic and theatrical to ignore. It wasn’t until Madison leapt up on the receptionist’s counter and started challenging random people to arm wrestle that he threw her silently over his shoulder and walked us both out into the sun. “Perhaps you are forgetting the little people,” he murmured, setting Madison down on her feet with a grin. “Surely you two champions had some help on this endeavor, a little...wind beneath your wings.”
Madison shook her head, looking confused. “Hmm. I don’t think so,” she lied.
Meanwhile, I wrapped my arm around Caleb in a giant hug. “We couldn’t have done it without ya, buddy.”
Madison jumped up on his shoulders, unable to control her energy. “That’s right! Without you, we’d just be ordinary peasants, wandering nomads, worthless and weak. But now?”
I threw my arms in the air again as I perched atop a bench at a nearby bus stop. “Now we’re the kings of the world!”
A burst of sparkling laughter rang out behind me, and I whipped around to see James Cross standing in the middle of the sidewalk. He clapped slowly before offering his hand.
I ignored that gentlemanly gesture and leapt instead into his arms, grinning breathlessly as he pulled me in for a deep kiss.
“I take it you won,” he said, his eyes lighting up with that twinkling smile as he pressed his forehead lightly against mine. “You’ve beaten down a company of men, forced them to worship at your feet.”
I bit playfully at his lips. “Always...and I love nothing more.”
“Yeah, that includes us, mate.” Caleb shook his head, wearing the self-righteous look of a martyr. “The second David said, ‘First place,’ all memory of us went out the door.”
“Actually,” I said, swinging myself down from James to stand on the sidewalk beside him, flicking my eyes at my new best friends, “I was thinking that instead of going to the Alps with Madison for the week, maybe you could go with her instead.”
Caleb straightened up in surprise. “What?” he said.
Madison, just as shocked at my suggestion, yanked me closer, staring incredulously into my face. “Are you serious right now? You don’t want to go?”
“Are you kidding? A luxury resort in the Alps? If course I want to go, and it sounds incredible. It’s just...” My eyes darted over Caleb’s hopeful face before landing on James. “I think it would be great for you two to go, because I have...some things to tend to here.”
The two of us locked eyes for a moment before she pulled away with a mischievous grin on her perfectly made-up face. “You know, Jones, I think that’s a damn good idea.” Then, with a flip of her blonde hair, she spun around to Caleb. “What do you say, Hart? You up for a week of sexual servitude?”
“I suppose I could be persuaded.” He held his hand out, and she took it, and the two started walking away. “There are sure to be some gorgeous women at the resort. Certainly I can find a couple snow bunnies who will ha
ppily serve me for the week.”
Madison burst out laughing and rested her head against his shoulder.
They were almost out of sight when Caleb glanced back at me and mouthed, “Thank you.”
I flashed him a grin, and a second later, the two disappeared down the street.
“That was very sweet of you.” A pair of arms slipped around my waist, and without thinking, I leaned back into James’s chest. “I know you were looking forward to a week away, especially after all that hard work.” He spun me around to face him, staring down into my eyes. “Are you still be up for a vacation? We can go wherever you want. Would you like Paris, Bermuda, Milan? Just say the word, and we’re off.”
“Are you serious?”
“Always,” he said with a wink.
I took his hand as we started walking slowly toward the car. Now that our Spartan sprint to the corporate finish line was over, a whole new list of issues suddenly sprang to the forefront of my mind, the primary question still lingering: What the hell are we doing? We’d been too busy to focus on romance, too tired to focus on sex, and my best friend and her new boyfriend were always right down the hall. Amidst all the corporate chaos, we hadn’t bothered to talk about one intimate thing. Now, he was asking me to join him for some romantic holiday, and I had no idea how that figured into the equation. Does it mean something is...different? Does it mean anything at all to a guy who can take off to Paris anytime he wants?
He guided me effortlessly through the busy crowd, keeping a gentle hand on the small of my back. “I think it would be good to get away for a while, don’t you?” He leaned down with a smile as people jostled us from side to side, bracing himself as a passing man bumped into his chest. “Just you and me, with no work, no distractions. Nothing but a week to...” All of a sudden, he stopped where he stood. A strange look passed over his face as his hands came up to pat down his chest and fumble around in his jacket pockets. A second later, his face paled, and he spun around in a quick circle, scanning the crowd. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“What is it?” I asked, coming to a stop beside him and staring at him in concern.
“My wallet.” He cursed under his breath, shielding his eyes against the sun as he scanned the horde of pedestrians. “Someone just grabbed it.”
“Missing something?”
We both spun around and saw an insanely beautiful couple walking through the crowd. They were so gorgeous that we couldn’t look away, like a mythical prince and princess in real life. They also looked extremely familiar; unless I was mistaken, I had seen their faces haunting the magazines on every street corner of New York City. The best part, though, was that the man was waving a wallet in the air, donning a huge, movie star grin.
“Gettin’ sloppy, Cross,” he said before he tossed the leather billfold into James’s hands. “Even less than a year ago, I couldn’t have pickpocketed you so easily. I do believe you’re losing your edge.”
If James heard the insult, he didn’t seem to care, because the second the man’s voice rang through the air, he was in full bliss. His face lightened with a look of absolute delight, and he took a tentative step closer, looking at the man cautiously, as if he feared he was dreaming the whole encounter and might accidentally wake up. “Nick?” he said.
The next second, they were colliding in the middle of the sidewalk, completely oblivious to the throng of pedestrians careening hastily out of their way. They laughed aloud and embraced each other without restraint, in such a boisterous, loving way that I pursed my lips to hide a smile.
“Enough already, you two.” The girl pushed her way between them with a pleasant smile on her face. “We all know how you lovers feel about each other.”
The men separated, sharing a laugh, and James scooped her up and spun her around. I might have been insanely jealous over that if it was not clear that they were as enraptured with each other as I was with James.
“So good to see you, Wilder.” He kissed her on the forehead and clapped Nick again on the back before turning around suddenly to me. “Meet Della,” he said proudly, then pulled me eagerly forward, like a kid showing off his newest toy. “Della, Nick and Abby Hunter.”
“That still sounds so weird.” The woman stepped forward with an enchanting smile, offering me her hand. “It’s great to meet you.” She shot James a curious look as the two of us shook. “James doesn’t introduce us to many of his...friends.”
His friends? What a sweet way to put it, I thought, and that sweetness seemed to match the girl exactly. Everything about her was sweet, from her eyes to her face to her welcoming smile. Something about her just set me at ease.
After our warm handshake, I stepped shyly back to James’s side. “It’s great to meet you as well. James has told me all about you,” I said as a sudden memory clicked and I glanced between them with a grin. “You have great taste in shampoo,” I said.
Her eyes widened, and she clapped her hands in delight. “Has he been using it?” Then, before I could even answer, she whipped around and smacked James playfully on the arm. “I told you that you’d love it, didn’t I? Why do you even question me?”
“Old habits die hard, I guess,” he said with a grin, rubbing the place where she’d slapped him.
There was another introduction that had yet to be made, and for whatever reason, that one seemed to make James a bit nervous. His dark eyes locked on Nick’s, and the two shared a silent, communicative look, a look so intense I seriously wondered if they possessed some sort of telepathy.
“Nick Hunter,” the man said a second later, stepping forward with a sparkling smile on his face. He held out his hand as well, looking me up and down so intently that I felt like he could see all the way to my soul. His shake was polite, but firm, like he was measuring me up, seeing if I met some silent standard, testing whether or not I was good enough for his good friend.
I did my very best to impress him, considering that I had no idea what he was looking for and that I still felt nervous talking to James himself, let alone trying to engage his friends. “Delilah Jones,” I said, stiffening my fingers to match his grip. “Nice move there with the wallet.”
“Thanks.” His face brightened with a genuine smile, one that reminded me a hell of a lot of James’s. “He taught me everything I know, but it’s a sad day when the student becomes the master.”
“All right, all right. Enough already.” James shoved him back with a coy grin on his face. “I had...things on my mind. Now, tell me what the hell you two are doing here, would you?”
A sly sparkle lit Abby’s eyes, while Nick threw back his head like some longsuffering martyr, something else that reminded me very much of James.
“I could hear your bleeding heart all the way across the Atlantic. James, when you need me, you must only call. You mustn’t push our limits like this. It is not healthy.”
A cloud of sweet perfume swept over me, as Abby rolled her eyes and simultaneously slipped her arm through mine. It was a bold gesture, over-friendly to be sure, but for some reason, I didn’t mind in the slightest. In a way, I was comforted by the whole thing.
“Sometimes I don’t even know why we got married.” She rolled her eyes as the men muttered something between them, then burst out with identical laughter at the same stupid joke. “These two are clearly head over heels for each other.”
I giggled nervously, grasping her hand more tightly. “Yeah, their affair seems...pretty intense. On that note, I’m worried your husband will literally bite my head off if I say or do anything wrong.”
Abby waved her hand dismissively. “He’s a kitten really,” she said. “They’re just protective of each other. Ignore it, like I do. And on that note...” she said, then swung her bag out to nudge Nick in the back with it.
He shook back his golden-blond hair and glanced back at her with a breathtaking smile that froze me in my tracks.
“Honey,” she began innocently, “are you going to tell James why we’re really here?”
; For a second, his smile faltered. His sky-blue eyes narrowed infinitesimally before widening with that same childlike innocence I was coming to know so well. “I don’t know what you mean, babe,” he said, somehow turning a term of endearment into a warning with his inflection. “We were just in the neighborhood, so we decided to stop by, and—”
“In the neighborhood?” she quipped sarcastically, putting her hands on her hips. “By that, do you mean Manhattan?” Before he could answer, she turned around and cast her broad smile in the direction of James and me. “The truth is, Nick lost...a little wager. That’s precisely why we’re here.”
“A wager?” James’s eyes lit up with curiosity. “What was it?”
The couple shared a guilty smile before she shrugged a casual shoulder. “I gambled that he could not, uh...do something for five minutes, and I was right.”
We had no idea what that something was, but judging by the roguish blush creeping up Nick’s cheeks, I guessed it was something good.
“I could!” he insisted. “You should give me another try.”
James clapped Nick on the shoulder. “Hey, didn’t they call you ‘one pump jump’ in college?”
“Whatever,” he laughed. “I think that was your title.”
I shook my head. “Definitely not his title.”
Abby chuckled. “Well, it’s definitely not Nick’s.”
We all laughed.
“He passed out,” Abby whispered loudly, pointing at him with her thumb and rolling her eyes.
Oh? Wow. That something is suddenly a lot more interesting!
“Abby, that’s enough,” Nick warned.
She squeezed my arm and let out a lighthearted laugh. “The boy almost drowned.”
Whoa! Even more interesting still!
James glanced between them with an intrigued smile, but Nick looked scandalized.