by Lynne Silver
“Um, plain gray or black.” Why did she feel like she was being disloyal to Lance by sharing? Valerie was her longtime best friend, not him. She took a deep breath. “He likes dirty talk.”
A blush infused Valerie’s cheeks. “Dirty talk? What do you mean?”
“Garbage, toilet, mud, banana peels,” she said sarcastically. “What do you think I mean by dirty talk? ‘Squeeze my cock, tight pussy,’ stuff like that.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she resolved to shut the heck up about last night. It was none of Val’s business. Her mind left Valerie’s den for a few lovely moments as she relived last night’s highlight reel.
It was the one time the after was as spectacular as the during. They’d snuggled in bed, her back pressing against his front until they’d fallen asleep intertwined. Usually she invented any excuse to get her lovers dressed and out the door. Lance was the first man invited to spend the night.
She’d even enjoyed this morning, waking up in his arms and doing the whole morning ritual interrupted with little kisses and intimate caresses. Lance had made a Starbucks run while she got dressed. Perfect. Speaking of Mr. Perfect, where was he? It was nearly lunchtime and she had phone calls to make.
“But was it good?” Valerie asked, interrupting her reverie.
Ari thought a long moment about that. Good seemed too banal a word to describe the sex. Amazing, spectacular, terrific, even, but she needed to remember Val was married to Jason, Lance’s friend. Anything she shared could potentially get back to Lance. No need to puff up his already healthy ego or make him think she was gaga for him. “Yes, it was good,” she said and hopped off the couch. “I’m going to the kitchen to get a glass of wine. Do you want one?”
Valerie’s head jerked up, then down to look at her lap with a secret smile. “No thanks, but I would love a glass of OJ, if you don’t mind.”
“Uh, sure,” she said slowly. Holy moly, was she imagining things or had Valerie rubbed a protective hand across her lower belly? Was she pregnant? For some reason the thought of Valerie having a baby made her feel lonely. Her best friend’s marriage she could ignore most of the time, but a baby was the real deal. It meant she and Jason were a family. No fair—Valerie was her family, the only one she had had since her birth family fell short on the job requirements.
She knew she was being a selfish bitch, but it was allowed for a minute or two, especially since she’d probably never know the joys of being a wife or parent. A sudden image of Lance holding a redheaded toddler froze her in place, but she shook it off quickly.
Yeah, right, her and Lance married with kids. Hah. Even if she wanted it, Mr. Secret Service would never open himself to the kind of exposure having Arianna Rose as his wife would mean. She could picture the wedding: her in Vera Wang; ivory, of course. White was too harsh for her coloring. Lance in a single-breasted tux with traditional bow tie, or maybe his uniform. Did Secret Service agents have uniforms like those great military ones? She didn’t know. And her father in an orange jumpsuit and a metal ankle bracelet. If they ever found him.
For the first time in weeks, she allowed herself to consider her missing father. Ari carried two drinks back out to Valerie, lost in thought, concentrating hard on where he might be. She’d been repeating the story that she had no clue where he would’ve run, and that was the truth…mostly. Despite all the heartache and disappointment her father had heaped on her growing up, at the end of the day, he was still her father. She’d never aid him in escaping justice, but she didn’t want to be responsible for his capture, either.
Once again, Lance’s image reared its not-so-ugly head. Mr. Law-lover would probably turn in his nana for unpaid parking tickets. She could only imagine the lengths he’d go to in the name of justice for Stanley Rose. Guilt niggled at her. Maybe he had a point. Dad had hurt a lot of people, but…no. He was her father and she owed him some degree of loyalty. If he ever contacted her, she’d call the FBI, but until then she was living life as normal, running the gallery, and having hot sex with Lance. Okay, that last part wasn’t normal, but she’d take it while she could get it.
“Here’s your juice.” She handed the cup over to Valerie.
“Thanks. What time is Lance picking you up?”
Ari glanced down at her watch. “Not sure. Soon, I think. He had to meet with his boss. He wants to get back to work as soon as possible. He mentioned he’s getting stir-crazy, and do you think he’s worried about his salary? He probably gets disability payments or something, right?”
Valerie turned to her with a grin. “Lance worried about money? Hah.”
“Why is that funny?” Arianna floundered. It seemed like most people in the world worried about money. Losing a paycheck or two had to be scary, right? “He lives in a tiny apartment, and he doesn’t have a car, and—”
“Ari,” Val said, then paused, looking worried. “Has Lance mentioned his family?”
“I met his nana. She’s great.” She smiled, pleased that she could offer this proof of a strong relationship with him. Oy vey, she was in trouble when this little affair ended.
“Yeah, she is, but I meant his parents, or his sister?”
Had he mentioned a sister? She thought back. “Um, no. He hasn’t mentioned any other family.”
Valerie bit her lip. “Maybe I shouldn’t either, then. It’s not my place to tell.”
Ari set her wineglass down with a snap. “Oh, come on. You’re my friend. Spill it.”
“Okay, but you have to swear not to tell him you know and act surprised if he ever tells you.”
Oh, my goodness, this sounded juicy. What kind of secret was Lance harboring? “Wait, let me guess…He’s Warren Buffett’s secret grandchild, and is a millionaire.”
Valerie’s eyes widened. “Yes, except switch Warren Buffett for the Brown family, and you guessed correctly.”
Now her eyes widened. “I was joking. You’re telling me I actually guessed right and Lance’s family is wealthy?”
“Have you ever heard of MarketFresh?”
“The supermarket chain? Sure, who hasn’t?” She’d been in there once or twice. What did that have to do with Lance?
“It’s his—well, not his,” Valerie amended. “His family’s. His grandfather started it and his sister runs it now.”
Color her stunned. MarketFresh was a nationwide chain, and if his family owned it…well, whew. Talk about mega-money. His family probably made her family look like beggars. Ari slumped back in the couch processing this newsflash, and then she got angry. How dare Lance call her a spoiled brat? He’d probably grown up with a house in the Hamptons and live-in maids. But it did beg the question of why he lived in his tiny old apartment now if he had that much wealth.
“Unbelievable.” She shook her head slowly.
“Right? He’s down to earth; you’d never know his family is in Fortune’s top four hundred list. Lance is sensitive about it. Please don’t say anything.”
“I won’t,” she said, but inside she struggled. How could she not say something? She’d stuck her foot in her mouth a lot. He’d probably laughed his ass off internally at her ignorance.
She had loads of questions for Valerie, but before she could get a single one out, the buzzer sounded for the front door. Valerie rose to buzz Lance in and stared at her deeply to impress upon her the need to say nothing about what she’d learned.
She swallowed her annoyance. Fine, she’d keep quiet, but she wondered if she could gain Lance’s trust enough to get him to spill the beans.
“Hey, Valerie. Arianna.” Lance greeted Valerie first with a warm smile, but lost it as he turned to nod at Ari. Trying to keep their relationship a secret, huh? Did he never watch chick flicks? Because he should’ve known the first thing Ari did when she arrived here was to tell her best friend about her latest sexual escapade. Duh. They were girls and best friends. It didn’t take a mathematical genius to run the numbers on that one.
“Hi, sweetie.” Ari swayed up to Lance and wrapped her arms around his shoulde
rs as she went in for a lip lock.
Lance’s hands grasped her hips, keeping her in place, and he turned his head slightly to avoid touching lips, but then, like a jolt flowed through him, he tugged her closer, turned back, and deepened the kiss. She’d kissed him to prove a point, but as always when she got in Lance’s breathing space, she lost all sense of decorum and wanted to do the naked shimmy with him, no matter the audience.
Valerie’s shrill whistle brought them back to reality. “Heellloo, you two. Get a room, preferably not in my humble abode.” She grinned evilly at Ari. “See you. Stay safe.”
Ari clung to Lance’s biceps as she spun to say good-bye to Valerie. “Bye, hon. I’ll call you later.”
She let Lance drive since he seemed to prefer it, and she tended to get lost in the backwoods of Virginia, never mind that Valerie and Jason lived over the Potomac in McLean. To her, Virginia was one long confusing road with six different names.
Lance drove like he did most things, with quiet confidence and subtle dominance.
“This car actually has some zip.” He took his hand off the wheel to rub her thigh.
She tried to ignore the tingles that skated down her skin at his touch and stared at him, looking for any hint of his wealth. Aha. A gunmetal gray watch with a glossy navy face wrapped around his wrist.
“Nice watch. A Breitling, right?” Now maybe he would own up to his family name? It was hard to explain away a four-thousand-dollar watch without admitting you were rich.
He took his hand back to the wheel. “Um, yeah, it is.”
“Pretty fancy watch. The Secret Service must pay well.” Was it her imagination, or were his cheeks a little flushed?
He shrugged, looking uncomfortable. “We do okay.”
“You must, to be able to afford a watch like that.” Her subtle interrogation was getting to him if his driving was any indication. He’d shifted lanes and sped up without the fluidity of his earlier maneuvers.
“It was a gift.”
Ari hid her grin. She was getting to him, all right. He kept shifting in his seat like there was a burr under his ass. “A gift from…your parents?”
A long silence fell as she waited for him to answer.
“My sister,” he said tersely.
“Oh. What does she do?” Lance turned the car into the alley behind her gallery. She only had a few more minutes to annoy him before she had to go back to work.
His short answer came quickly. “She’s CEO of a big company.”
“Oh?” Now he would tell her. He had to.
“Yeah.” He slid the car with ease into her spot and switched off the ignition. “We’re here. Back to work.”
Damn him and his poker face. He clearly didn’t fully trust her yet despite their sexual intimacy. Did it matter, though? The Lance she was getting to know was smart, strong, and sexy whether he was a bazillionaire or operating paycheck to paycheck. She decided to leave the subject of Lance’s family wealth alone. He’d tell her, or he wouldn’t, and it didn’t affect her feelings toward him one way or another. Though it stung a little that he didn’t trust her fully.
Shit, he’d nearly confessed about his family in the car, but he’d managed to arrive home before Ari could ask him more. He knew he should’ve returned the birthday watch; it could’ve paid a few months’ rent.
But when his sister smiled at him, he couldn’t resist and didn’t want to risk hurting her feelings, so he’d buckled the damn thing on his wrist and left it. It was a pretty nice watch; even the president had commented on it. Unfortunately, now it meant dodging Ari’s probing questions.
He couldn’t exactly say why he didn’t want her to know about his family’s wealth, but his gut instinct said not to tell. Experience told him that women tended to change and act differently around him once they knew about his family, although Arianna’s family had money, too. Stolen money, but nevertheless, she’d grown up with great wealth like him, and he didn’t have any claim to the wealth anymore. He’d made his decision, and most days he felt free from the familial burdens heaped on him from childhood.
Every so often he cursed his pittance of a salary that didn’t allow for season box seats at the Wizards or a ski vacation, but most days he loved his life without the superficial trappings that came with millions of dollars.
“Did you have fun with Valerie?” he asked to fill the empty silence as they entered her gallery.
She looked up from her close examination of an abstract painting. “Hmm, oh yeah, it’s always nice to spend time with Val.” She moved on to the next painting, then headed to her office and returned with a notepad and scribbled something onto a sheet. “I think she’s pregnant.”
Lance looked up from his inspection of Ari’s rear, totally shocked. “Who’s pregnant? Valerie?”
Ari swung around to look at him. “No. Jason’s pregnant. Who do you think, dummy? Of course Valerie.”
Surprise coursed through him at the revelation. Jason wouldn’t be the first of his friends to be a father, but the news still stunned him. He thought Val and Jason had a few more years of couplehood and hanging out with him at bars before they resigned themselves to five o’clock dinnertimes and eight o’clock bedtimes.
“You look shocked.” Ari laughed.
He shook it off. “No…no. I was a little surprised, I feel like they just got married.”
“Right?” Ari interrupted with a note of excitable agreement. “They’re too young to be parents.”
He raised a brow at her. “Jason’s only a little younger than me. Thirty.”
“Exactly. Too young.”
He laughed. “Maybe by Beltway standards, but in the rest of the world they’d be planning for college tuition already. Are you sure it’s their age that has you concerned and not the fact that Val will have someone else to mother now?”
Ari stood up straight and stepped toward him. “What the hell does that mean? Val doesn’t mother me.”
“Oh, really?” He was digging a deep shithole now, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. “I noticed who showed up with wood, hammer, and a vacuum cleaner when you needed help.”
“Jason’s handy.” The ire in her voice could ignite a camp bonfire.
“Well, who supported me as your bodyguard despite your wishes, and you caved to her request?”
Ari slammed her notebook on the ground. “Valerie is not my mother.” She stalked off into her office, banging the door closed behind her.
Lance stared at the closed door. What the hell had got into him? Why had he picked a fight with her? To get back at her for inadvertently digging into your family past, a little voice in his head whispered. Or was it something else? Had he started the fight to distance himself from a woman he was into?
Visiting his office today had reminded him of his world and the rules that went with it. Even with his boss’s blessing to stick close to Arianna, he knew it couldn’t ever go further than a flirtation. Picture going to the agency holiday party with her on his arm. He squelched the image of her in a revealing cocktail dress, maybe with her hair piled high, revealing her pale, lickable neck, and focused on the reactions of his colleagues when he introduced them to Stanley Rose’s daughter. “Sure, the man’s living off his stolen wealth, but would you like to dance with his daughter?” Yeah, that’d go over well. Nevertheless, he had to apologize to Ari. His words had been mean.
He made it to the closed office door, but as he reached to turn the knob, it opened, revealing a teary-eyed Ari.
He winced at the guilt and shame that he’d made her cry, but didn’t have time to apologize before words spilled out of her.
“You’re right,” she sniffed.
He was?
“I’m a terrible friend. I am totally and completely jealous of that baby and of Valerie and Jason’s marriage.”
She was?
She stood sniveling, looking bereft. He had to scoop her up and hold her close. He found her desk chair and sat with her on his lap, wiping her tears away.
“But they were the truth. How did you see that after only a few days?” She pressed her face into his chest and let the tears roll.
He pulled her tighter against him, feeling like Captain Hook, who’d pulled the wings off Tinkerbell. “I didn’t know. I was in a foul mood and took it out on you. Stop crying, baby. I’m sorry.”
She sat up. “Why were you in a bad mood? Was it your boss? Is he going to let you go back to work soon?”
He nodded in silence, amazed at her capacity to care about his day when he’d totally stomped all over hers. “I can go back in three weeks.” He swallowed down any guilt he had about agreeing to spy on her and tried to tell himself he wasn’t spying on her, but rather looking for her criminal father.
She smiled a watery smile. “That’s great. Though, I’m surprised to admit this, but I’m going to miss you when you go back to work.”
He gripped her more tightly, wondering at her quickness to assume that his going back to work signaled the end of their relationship. Already she was propelling to the top of the list of people he cared about, even though he knew a long-term relationship with her was impossible, especially if she ever discovered he was here at his boss’s goodwill. He took a deep breath and an even deeper chance. “What if it didn’t have to be good-bye? What if we keep seeing each other, see where this thing goes?”
“You mean dating?”
He chuckled at the way she said “dating,” like it was some sort of contagious rash. “Yeah. I like you, Ari. A lot.” He held his breath and waited for her reaction.
“Good.” She smiled and snuggled back into his chest. “I like you, too.”
He relaxed slightly. “Ari, I’m sorry for saying you let Valerie mother you.”
“Don’t be. It’s the truth, and it’s only one of the reasons I’m crying.”
He pulled back to look at her face. “Only one reason? What are the others?”
She patted the damp spot on his pale blue dress shirt before answering. “I’ve always let Val mother me, because it was nice to know what that felt like. My own mother never had the time or inclination and neither did any of my stepmothers. From day one, Val and her family unofficially adopted me, and I loved it.”