The Work Wife

by Allison B Hanson

  Chapter 18

  Wes assumed Jamie was onboard with his plan. Not that he’d actually come up with a plan, but they were both moving toward the door. He took that to mean whatever she wanted to do next, it would require privacy.

  “Jamie,” he moaned against her lips as he struggled to get the key in the lock without having to look away from her. When he gave up and had to look, she took the opportunity to nip the skin on his neck, causing him to fumble with the doorknob.

  It felt like an eternity before the door moved and he pulled her in behind him. The door slammed shut with more force than he intended when he pushed her back against it and reached for the bottom of her dress.

  “Tell me this is what you want.” He paused, wanting to make sure. A miscommunication at this point could ruin them. It was too important to risk it.

  She nodded and gave a raspy, “Yes.”

  He pulled her dress up over her head in one smooth motion. Then stepped back to take in the sight before him. He never would have expected Jamie to be a matching-bra-and-panties kind of girl. She always seemed too sensible for such things, but she stood before him in a lacy blue thong and bra.

  “Wow.”

  “Cindy gave it to me for a bachelorette gift.” She shrugged.

  “Remind me to thank her when we get back.” He moved to pull her against him, but she resisted, holding him back with her hand. She wanted to stop? He couldn’t stop now. He’d beg if he had to.

  But she was only holding him off so she could undo his pants. He took the opportunity to unbutton his shirt and shake it off. When he was down to his boxers they stared at each other.

  “Is it weird?” he asked as he watched her chest heaving for air in that bright blue bra.

  “It feels like it should be weird, but it’s not.” Her gaze moved up and down his body.

  His lips pulled up on the side as he reached for her. She came eagerly into his arms, her skin pressing against his. She squealed in surprise when his cock lurched against her.

  Smiling, she looked up at him.

  “Do you have a condom?”

  The smile fell from his face, taking hers along with it.

  “No. I didn’t think I’d need one. I was with you, and there was no way I was going to pick up someone else during a couples’ retreat. It’s just rude. Even if we were only pretending.”

  “I appreciate it.” She nodded and bit her bottom lip. He knew that look. She was coming up with a plan. “I’m on the pill.”

  “I know.” He saw her take it every morning at eight thirty when her phone buzzed to remind her. “I’m clean. I haven’t been with anyone since Yasmine.”

  “I’ve been checked since Parker.”

  “Parker.” He sniffed his usual disapproval and she smacked him lightly in the arm. Had he disapproved of all her past boyfriends out of jealousy? He gave the thought the moment it deserved and decided that wasn’t the issue. She just had a habit of picking some real losers.

  If there were ever two people who knew they could trust each other, it was Jamie and him. He remembered her telling him her results when the nurse called. He also knew she was a stickler for using condoms, despite the oral contraceptives. At least she had been. Now she was moving closer, with intent clear in her sultry brown eyes.

  He had never been with anyone without a condom. His stomach fluttered with excitement. The fact that it would be with Jamie made it even better somehow. They trusted one another completely. Maybe even more than people who were actually married.

  And now they were about to move into the next level of their relationship.

  * * * *

  Jamie smiled as a fog of lust encircled her, making the moment seem like a dream. Except she’d never dreamed of having sex with Weston. Her subconscious had known he was off limits.

  She’d thought him handsome, and yes, he was sexy, but she didn’t have sexual fantasies about him. It seemed futile.

  Later she might find the time to be disappointed with her subconscious for being so limited. But right now, she was caught up in reality.

  She was kissing Wes. Without her noticing, he’d unclasped her bra in the back and it fell down her arms. She quickly tossed it away, and while she was bent over she slipped off her panties too. There was no reason to be self-conscious in front of Wes. He knew pretty much everything there was to know about her.

  They’d talked about sex before. How she hated when guys looked up at her expectantly from between her thighs, as if she were supposed to pat them on the head and tell them they were doing a good job.

  Even if she was nervous about her body, the way he’d looked at her would have fixed that. He studied her like she was some kind of goddess.

  She knew she was curvier than the women on television, but she remembered Wes once telling her how women worried for no reason. Once a woman was naked in front of a man, he was blind to any imperfections she thought she had.

  He’d insisted that any body was perfect when it was a naked body.

  Knowing he had no reason to lie to her, she felt completely free to press her breasts up against his bare chest. Slowly she moved her hands from his neck to his shoulders. Down his arms to his hips, where she could slip her hand under the waistband of his boxers. She changed direction and took his hot length in her hand. It pulsed against her palm, but she gripped it tighter, earning a moan from Wes.

  “I want you so much,” he said, his voice rough. “But we have to make sure—”

  “It doesn’t have to change anything between us.”

  She had finished his sentence. “I want to take my time for the other stuff, but—”

  “We can do the other stuff the next time. Let’s just get to the good stuff.” Once again she finished out his thought so he didn’t have to take the time. She couldn’t wait any longer.

  She pulled back the bedspread and tossed it on the floor, knowing his intense disgust for hotel bedspreads. He took that time to go to the air conditioner and turn it off.

  They looked at one another and smiled. Before she had the chance to spoil the moment with some funny comment to hide her nervousness, Wes came across the room to stand in front of her, his erection like the arrow on a compass, pointing at her. North.

  He bent to kiss her at the same time he placed both hands on her ass and hoisted her up against him. She clung to his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her the few feet to lay her on the bed, following her down.

  His warmth surrounded her. The only light in the room came from the small lamp by the door, but she could see enough of his face to see how serious he looked.

  “Do you think this is wrong?” she asked after noting his features.

  “No. I don’t.”

  She smiled at his answer, so sure. “I don’t think so either.”

  When he shifted, she felt the tip of him at her entrance and she moved impatiently, trying to get him closer. He aided in this endeavor by pushing just enough to enter her, but not more than that.

  She let out a little whimper without realizing it.

  Wes smiled. Not a smug grin, but a smile that said I know what you need and I will do whatever I can to help. And then he pushed into her fully and the little whimper was consumed by a louder moan of pleasure.

  She’d felt his erection in the mornings, and had known it was impressive. But it was one thing to feel a man against her back or her hip and another entirely to have him fully seated in that place made only for him.

  From that moment on, she lost focus in the moment. Everything became hazy flashes of perfection. Every sound, movement, touch, and word propelled her toward a release that was more than just sexual tension and attraction, but some other thing she and Wes had always been. Only now it was heightened and almost painful in its pleasure.

  She held on, hardly aware he had also finished until he was gasping
for breath against her neck. It seemed almost normal for them to have found their pleasure at the same time. They were a perfect team. Always working in harmony toward a common goal. Why would she have thought it would be any different in bed with another kind of goal?

  “Jamie?” he whispered.

  “I know. Me too,” she answered before he’d had a chance to actually say anything.

  He rolled off her and smiled. “You know, a few centuries ago you would have been burned at the stake for that, witch,” he joked. It was the same Wes who teased her about her hatred of snow and lumpy pancakes. Only they were naked and had just satisfied each other with a skill like longtime lovers.

  “Be careful. I might cast a spell on you.”

  He rolled toward her and propped his head in his hand as his other hand trailed between her breasts, down her stomach, and back up.

  “You already have me under your spell.” With that he kissed her again. It was only a matter of minutes before the kissing led to more.

  More than she’d ever thought possible.

  * * * *

  The shower was running when Wes woke. It was still very early, but rather than roll over and go back to sleep, he got up to go find his wife.

  He knocked twice and then opened the door as she said, “Come in.”

  Without speaking, he stepped in the shower behind her, pulling her against him while he kissed that spot under her ear. His erection nestled against her hip.

  “Wow. Someone is up early.”

  Yes, he was up. He couldn’t get enough of her. The scent of her shampoo filled the steamy air and pulled him in. She turned to face him and he took advantage of her movement to press her up against the wall of the shower and sink into her.

  Her skin squeaked on the shower wall as he thrust into her the whole way. He hoisted her leg up to his hip so he could go deeper and her moan echoed in the tiled room. He never gave a thought to the sounds Jamie might make when she had sex. Now he was glad, because his mind wouldn’t have been able to do them justice.

  “Jamie.” He said her name in warning that he wasn’t going to be able to go much longer. It was too much. She must have heard something else in the word, because she gasped and gripped his hair as he felt her warmth constrict around him in a rhythm that ended him.

  They slid down to sit in the tub; she was in his lap with her head tucked under his chin.

  “We have to get up,” she said a few minutes later. “We can’t show up for breakfast looking like prunes. Everyone will know.”

  “Fuck everyone. I want to stay here like this for the rest of my life.”

  “Let’s compromise and give it five more minutes.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Five minutes later they were having sex on the bathroom counter.

  “We have to get ready. We’re going to be late for breakfast,” Jamie said when they’d finished.

  “I don’t care if we’re late for breakfast. The whole purpose of this trip was for us to build a stronger relationship. I’d say we’re doing a damn fine job of it.”

  “Oh, shit.” Jamie stopped and he froze.

  “What is it?”

  “We’re married.”

  “Yes. I remember. Both times.”

  “We’re married and now we’re having sex like real married people.”

  “You think it’s boring?” He disagreed wholeheartedly. He’d used some of his best stuff. He surely wasn’t bored.

  “No. I mean, this was supposed to be pretend. But now we’re doing everything that real married people do. So it’s like we’re married for real.”

  “Okay. You keep saying the word real like there’s some distinction. But I’m not getting it.”

  “We’re not really married.”

  “Yes, we are.”

  “Not in our hearts.”

  He took a step back. He understood then what she was saying. They didn’t love each other. Not like real married people.

  The divorce rate convinced him that these so-called real married people didn’t love each other any more than he and Jamie did, but he didn’t say that.

  Instead he kissed her until she conceded to being later for breakfast.

  * * * *

  Jamie could feel the blush spread across her face when she and Wes showed up late for breakfast. Not just late, but after everyone else had finished.

  Wes kissed her panic away this morning, and then they’d had sex. Again. Actually it wasn’t having sex as much as it was making love.

  She’d had sex with other men before and it hadn’t felt like this. What she had with Wes was completely different. It was like they did everything else: compatibly and comfortably. She didn’t once worry that she wasn’t perfect, because Wes made her feel as if she were.

  She kept having to remind herself that this wasn’t a real marriage, despite the fact they had now consummated it, making it very, very real.

  When the humiliating breakfast was over, the group was dismissed for free time. There was dancing this evening and they would be leaving in the morning.

  After breakfast they changed for the beach, not needing to discuss what they wanted to do for the day. After all the sex, they needed time to recoup.

  She took off her cover-up and walked into the water alone. Wes sat on the lounge chair, watching her swim, but made no move to join her. That was for the best. She needed some time to think about what had happened, and more importantly what would happen next.

  What had happened was that she had had the best sex of her life. But surely they couldn’t keep having sex, because it might cause problems later. Their friendship was on the line here.

  Once she’d come up with an answer, she walked back to their seats and flopped down next to him

  “Okay. I think I know what happened.”

  “You think you know? Wow. Did no one ever have the birds-and-bees talk with you?”

  Ignoring his joke, she moved on. “We were curious about one another. It’s only natural. We work together. We’re in the same room day in and day out. We see one another for hours on end. It makes sense that we would wonder what it might be like to become intimate. You’re an attractive man. I . . .” She motioned to herself. She was doable. Especially for someone like Wes, who didn’t like to spend a lot of time dating.

  “You . . . ?” He raised his brow in challenge.

  “I’m not bad.”

  “You’re beautiful and sexy.”

  Her blush was back. “Still, it was simple curiosity.”

  He rolled his eyes while shaking his head. “Why would we have waited five years to give in? Wouldn’t we have been curious before now?”

  “It’s the romantic setting. We’ve been content to be friends and not let it get out of hand, but after spending so much time together in a tropical paradise, it wasn’t a surprise that we gave in.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that now that we’ve had sex, there’s nothing to be curious about any longer. We can go back to being just friends.” She was hoping he was on-board with this plan, because seeing him lying there in just his trunks was making her itchy again.

  “Just friends?” His voice was flat. “We’re married, Jamie.”

  Yes. He did have a point, though she wasn’t willing to give up on her own point. “But we both know it was just a means to an end. Our friendship is more important than giving in to our sexual urges because we’re in a romantic situation.” She had to believe this. The only other option was that she had fallen in love with Weston Archer, and that couldn’t happen. That would only lead to heartbreak and her losing the best friend she’d ever had.

  “Wait, no more sex?” Wes asked.

  Good, he was thinking like a guy. She could handle this. “That itch has been scratched.” Although she already felt as if she could use s
ome more scratching.

  “Fine.”

  She’d said the word fine enough times in that same tone to know it didn’t mean Weston was really fine. But rather than continue trying to convince him, she decided to let it go. In time, he would realize this was the best thing.

  Wes left a little while later to go snorkeling. He hadn’t invited her to go, and she thought it was a good idea for them to get some distance. They would go out for dinner and dancing tonight, and then the next day they would be on a plane back to their normal lives.

  Wes didn’t come back, and he wasn’t in the cottage when she went to shower and change for dinner. He still hadn’t returned when it was time to go meet everyone.

  With a sigh, she smoothed the skirt of her sundress and pasted a smile on her face before going into the meeting room.

  “Hey, Jamie. Looks like you forgot something,” Curt joked.

  Yes. She had shown up without her husband. She’d hoped Wes had gotten ready earlier and would already be here waiting for her. No luck.

  Had he had a snorkeling incident? Surely someone from the resort would have tracked her down to tell her had there been an emergency.

  “I’m sure he’ll turn up.” She laughed it off.

  Drinks were ordered and the specials were read. Still no Wes.

  She was about ready to go looking for him when she felt the chair next to her move and her husband sat down. His hair was damp and he smelled of soap and Wes. She leaned in as he gave her a peck on the lips. It was just like the night before. Except everything had changed.

  It wasn’t enough. She wanted him to kiss her. Really kiss her.

  Through the dinner he didn’t even glance her way. He didn’t rest his arm on the back of her chair or take her hand. To everyone else seated at the table it might have looked normal, but Jamie knew it wasn’t. Wes was tense and unhappy.

  There were no silly games at dinner. The group chatted during the meal, and then one by one everyone got up to leave. Jamie wanted to leave so she could be alone with Wes and talk about what was happening, but her hints went ignored.