Penalty Clause

by Lori Ryan

  Andrew looked like he was completely serious.

  “I can’t do that!” Jill said. She shook her head. “I can’t eat two meals.”

  “Why not? Who says you’re only allowed to have one entrée? I don’t remember there being any rules. We’ll get appetizers and two entrées each, and we’ll get dessert,” Andrew said as he waved down their waiter.

  As Jill looked on laughing, Andrew proceeded to order an enormous amount of food and a bottle of Chianti.

  “You’re crazy.” Jill laughed at Andrew.

  Andrew raised a shoulder in an easy shrug. “So, we’ll have leftovers. I’ll bring a movie over tomorrow night and we’ll gorge on Italian again.”

  Jill’s mind immediately flashed to images of the two of them in her house drinking wine. A great deal of wine. At night. Alone. Her mouth was suddenly dry and her palms began to sweat. How on earth would she resist the pull of Andrew Weston if they were alone? Resisting him was harder and harder, even tonight, with people around them.

  At home, with no one to buffer?

  Impossible.

  ***

  Andrew watched Jill as the waiter delivered their appetizers. He loved that she didn’t object too much to his unorthodox dinner order. Most women would balk at eating such a large meal but Jill was being a really good sport about it. She didn’t obsess about her waistline or count calories. She laughed and played along and that appealed to Andrew. Everything about Jill appealed to Andrew.

  Andrew did notice the small flash of panic in Jill’s eyes when he mentioned coming to her house for dinner the following night. It made Andrew feel triumphant somehow. He’d bet she was as worried as he was about being alone with her. And that thought made him want to be alone with her all the more.

  They laughed and talked over a bottle of wine and the endless buffet of food he had ordered. As he enjoyed her company, Andrew realized resisting Jill might be futile. Her allure might just be more than he could handle. The thought shocked the hell out of him. He never struggled to compartmentalize the women in his life. When he met a woman, he put her in whatever category she belonged and then he left her there. If she was a friend, she stayed a friend. If she was a fuck-buddy, she stayed that way.

  Jill didn’t fit in a tidy way into any category. She was wiggling from friend into dangerous, unchartered territory and that was throwing Andrew off. Way off.

  The sound of her laughter, the way her hair fell down in waves over her shoulders and onto her breasts, the way she licked her lips when she took a sip of wine. All of the ordinary everyday things that Jill did were somehow sensual and erotic and sexy as hell.

  By the time Andrew walked Jill to her front door that night, he was hard as a rock and aching to reach for her. He once again had to fist his hands in his pockets just to keep from touching her. He wanted to bury his fingers in the long, soft tendrils of her hair, and lift her face. Capture her lips. Steal just one kiss. Then bury himself deep within her…

  Jill’s voice pulled Andrew out of his fantasy.

  “Thank you for dinner,” she said, lifting up the large bag of leftovers they hadn’t finished.

  “You’re welcome. I had fun,” Andrew said, unsure if he should raise the topic of dinner at her house again or just conveniently ‘forget.’ He knew how it would end if they were alone in a private place.

  “Come help me finish them tomorrow night?” Jill asked and Andrew was torn between relief and regret. Relief that he would be able to spend more time with Jill tomorrow. Regret because he knew he couldn’t hold out any longer. If they had dinner alone at her house tomorrow, Andrew would crack. He didn’t have any more control where Jill was concerned.

  Say no, asshole.

  “Sure.” Oh, fuck. What the hell was that? “How about seven?”

  Stupid, stupid, stupid.

  “Great, see you then,” Jill said with a smile and turned and opened her door. Andrew stayed frozen to the spot until she disappeared into the house and shut the door.

  Chapter Twelve

  The next morning in his office, Andrew was still trying to keep his fantasies about Jill in check. Things were quieter now. The visiting investors were gone and there was a lull in Andrew’s projects for the moment. He wished for more work. Something to keep his mind from drifting back to Jill at every moment because functioning with half a hard on every day, all damn day, was getting old.

  Debbie knocked and poked her head into the room.

  “Andrew? Got a minute?” Debbie asked Andrew.

  “What’s up?”

  Debbie came into the room and sat in front of Andrew’s desk with her notepad, indicating she had a list of things to go over. He came around his desk and sat next to her. Debbie was truly his right hand at Sutton, working seamlessly alongside him.

  Debbie began going through the items on her list, confirming dates for events, reports that needed to be finalized.

  “Oh, and the new assistant from legal transferred in today. I’ve got her started with Katelyn. Patty is going to show her some of the software she needs to learn, so I think she’s all set for now.”

  “Great, thank you. I’ll introduce myself in a bit.”

  ***

  Theresa pasted a smile on her face as she listened to her new boss, Katelyn.

  I can’t believe I have to put up with this idiot. They should have assigned me to work directly with Andrew, but at least I’m one step closer to him.

  Theresa had spent the morning figuring out who she needed to compete with to line herself up as Andrew’s assistant. From what she’d heard, everyone seemed pretty enamored with Andrew’s assistant, Debbie. Theresa couldn’t see what the big deal was. The woman wasn’t that great.

  I just need to get close to Andrew, show him that I’m better than Debbie. Just one shot and he’ll want me instead of her. And then, well, we all know what happens with men and their secretaries. Once we’re working closely together every day, pulling late nighters and working over lunch, we’ll fall in love. That’s how these things work.

  Theresa might not have been in love before but she was no idiot. She knew how these things worked. She had to align herself with Andrew and things would fall into place. She hoped things would move faster now that she was in his division. She had worked for six months in legal, hoping Andrew would notice her. The few times they’d interacted, he smiled at her and she just knew he felt that connection between them, too. But then he would go back to his division and she would be out of sight again. Out of sight, out of mind.

  Well Theresa was damn tired of being out of his sight. She was going to make sure he couldn’t forget about her now. Their connection was too strong.

  “This afternoon, Patty is going to show you how to use the data entry systems we use. Just let her know when you’re back from lunch and she’ll get you started on the training,” Katelyn said.

  God… Babble much, lady?

  “Sounds great, Katelyn,” Theresa said through her fake smile.

  “Hey, Katelyn. Hi, Theresa.” Andrew offered Theresa his hand. “I think we’ve met before. Welcome to the team.”

  There’s that zing. He feels the connection, too. I can see it in his eyes. It’s cute the way he’s so professional in front of everyone. He’s trying to pay as much attention to Katelyn as he does to me, but I can see the difference.

  “You getting Theresa all settled in?” Andrew asked Katelyn.

  “You bet. I’m about to send her to lunch and then she’ll be working with Patty for a few days. We probably won’t be able to show her everything before the quarterly finance meeting but we’ll get her started,” Katelyn said.

  Theresa turned and beamed at Andrew. “Quarterly meeting? I can help with that,” she said to Andrew. Perfect opening for me.

  “Oh, don’t worry. We’re all set for that. Debbie always has everything all set a week in advance and then we just plug in any changes at the last minute.” Andrew turned his smile to Katelyn. “These guys run like a well-oiled machine. Yo
u can watch things this time. By the time the next quarterly comes around, you’ll be able to pitch in.”

  I’m not waiting that long! There was no way she’d wait three months to show Andrew what she could do for him.

  “Sure, sounds good. I’ll just watch this time.” Theresa repeated back his instructions to keep up appearances while she began to run through scenarios. He probably didn’t know how to get her closer to him without it looking odd to everyone else. If he just pulled her right onto his team, issues of seniority would arise. They needed to be more subtle than that. She’d take care of it for him, though. She’d come up with some way to get herself in that meeting, to get them working more closely together.

  “Great. I’m meeting Chad for lunch. Katelyn, do you have everything you need for the conference call with Parker Industries?” Andrew asked as he stepped toward the door.

  When Katelyn nodded, he gave a final wave and left the office.

  Soon, Andrew. I’ll figure out a way for us to be together soon.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Andrew parked in front of Jill’s house and rang the bell. He opened the door and walked in when she called out to come in.

  Jill stood in the living room off the front hallway, bent over a tripod and camera that was aimed at the fireplace. The room was lit with several large, professional, photography lights complemented by large white umbrellas that seemed to angle the light toward the fireplace. Andrew supposed he should have been looking at the large photograph over the fireplace but all he could do was focus on Jill.

  She was immersed in her work. Jill focused only on the camera and whatever magic she saw through the lens. The lights in the room were soft and they bounced off her blond hair and framed her face in a soft glow. The outline of her slender arms, the breasts he wanted to feast on, was clear through the sheer fabric of her shirt. The image sent a blow right to Andrew’s gut. It was like he was a teenager again. There wasn’t any way to tear his eyes from Jill. Andrew watched as she made several adjustments to the settings on her camera and then snapped the shutter a half dozen times before looking up at him with a smile.

  “Sorry, I’m just trying to get these shots done so I don’t have to try to set the lights again tomorrow. When the sunlight comes through the windows in the morning, it will change the way these lights hit the wall and I’ll have to start all over again,” Jill explained, gesturing to the wall above the fireplace.

  Andrew finally tore his eyes from Jill and looked at the wall. Above the fireplace hung a gorgeous picture of a dense forest in the fall. The leaves on the trees were an incredible arrangement of golden yellows, burnt oranges, and fiery reds that cast a warm feeling over Andrew as he looked at it. The glow of the sun shone through the leaves of the trees, creating an effect against the leaves that took the picture from one that merely captured nature to one that was pure art.

  “Another one from your fall collection?” Andrew asked, gesturing to the print. The appreciation was clear in his voice.

  “Mmm hmm,” Jill said as she flipped through the pictures saved on the disk in the camera to be sure she had the shot she needed.

  “It’s amazing. All of your work I’ve seen is so much more artistic than I thought it would be. I thought it would just be pictures of nature, but it’s not. You’ve turned nature into art.”

  Jill laughed. “Thanks.”

  Then Andrew noticed Jill was taking a picture of one of her pictures. “Uh, why are you taking pictures of your pictures?”

  “Remember I said I was starting a website for my work? We’re choosing a handful of my pictures to sell as prints and reproductions and this is one of them. I thought I was finished with my side of the website but the site designer decided he wants pictures of the prints as they’ll look hanging in someone’s home. We’ll also sell things like thank you cards and notepads with the images on them so those all have to be photographed as well. This is the boring commercial side to what I do. Someday, maybe I’ll make enough off my pictures to turn this side of things over to an assistant so I can get back to just taking the pictures that I love,” Jill said with a wry smile.

  Andrew held up a DVD. “The latest Bourne movie. Seen it yet?”

  “Nope. Taking a chance I’d like action, huh? What makes you think I didn’t want a romantic comedy?” Jill teased as she turned off her camera and started shutting off the bright lights that surrounded it. She seemed to be trying to busy herself with her work and Andrew wondered if she was nervous.

  Andrew returned her laugh. “I was hoping it would be okay but I have a sappy romance in the car if we need it, just in case.”

  “Nice.” Jill smiled and waved him into the kitchen.

  Jill pulled out the leftovers from the previous night and began zapping containers in the microwave. Jill and Andrew opened the containers and piled plates high – with Andrew taking about three times as much food as Jill – before going back to the couch to eat in front of the fireplace. Jill hit a switch that turned on the gas flames and then curled her feet under her on the couch.

  “So,” Andrew said between bites of food, “you must travel around a lot to take pictures of different sites. I mean, being a nature photographer, you must have been to some amazing places.”

  Jill shook her head as she swallowed a bite of food. “You would think, but I’ve mostly stayed around here, so far. Jake saw my photography as a ‘little hobby’ so he never supported trips or anything that would have meant investing time or money in it. Luckily for me, living in Connecticut meant I could drive to the beach and the mountains and take advantage of all four seasons. I do want to start traveling now, though.”

  Andrew’s jaw hit the floor. He couldn’t believe anyone could look at Jill’s photographs and not see the incredible talent in them. Not want to support that talent, to help it grow. “You’re kidding, right?”

  Jill grimaced. “No. Sadly, I’m not. I didn’t really see his lack of support as an issue when we were married. I had blinders on to all these faults Jake had. After we separated, it was like coming out of a fog and realizing how one-sided our marriage was. He controlled everything and our whole world was about him.”

  “Wow. You married an ass,” Andrew said bluntly. “Sorry, I guess that’s rude, but you really married an ass.” He couldn’t stop himself from saying it again. Her ex-husband couldn’t be described as anything other than a first-class jackass.

  Jill smiled ruefully. “I know. I thought we had this perfect marriage and perfect life but when I look back on it I realize I was fooling myself the whole time. All that mattered to him was his career and how I looked on his arm as his wife. I was an accessory. You know what’s sad? He didn’t even know how I took my coffee. After seven years of marriage, he didn’t even know the most basic information about me like whether I take cream or sugar in my coffee.”

  Cream. Two sugars.

  Andrew couldn’t understand how the Jill Walsh he remembered let this happen. Maybe the fifteen-year-old Andrew had put her on a pedestal. Maybe she hadn’t been as strong and independent and smart and funny and confident as he thought. She’d let this guy treat her like shit.

  “You do realize you’re lucky he left you, right?” Andrew finally asked Jill.

  Jill winced but then gave him a small smile. “I know. I really do, but it doesn’t make me feel like less of a fool. Sometimes I just feel so stupid.” Jill blinked back tears. She looked so vulnerable.

  “Oh, Jill, it wasn’t your fault.” Andrew felt helpless watching her.

  “I know. Intellectually, I know it wasn’t my fault he cheated, but I can’t help feeling like maybe I…” Jill let the thought drop off, as if not able to voice her fears to Andrew.

  “Ah. That’s where the rebound guy comes in.” Andrew smiled, bringing them back around to her drunken confession of her rebound plans for Andrew.

  Andrew watched as Jill’s face flushed and he smiled at her embarrassment. Jill was really cute when she was bashful. Andrew set his plate down
on the coffee table in front of them. He took Jill’s empty plate out of her hands and set it down as well. Andrew turned to face Jill and placed his hands on her thighs, squeezing just enough to get her attention. He buried a smile when he saw Jill squirm under his gaze.

  Andrew leaned forward and brushed his lips against Jill’s cheek. He pulled back and locked eyes with Jill. Then, slowly, giving Jill a chance to stop him if she wanted to, Andrew let his mouth graze her delicate jaw line. Then he dipped his head to her neck and nuzzled her soft skin. He heard Jill’s gasp and felt a corresponding hitch in his own breathing. Andrew stopped and held his forehead against Jill’s, then spoke quietly.

  “Then we have a problem, Jill. Because I don’t think I can watch you do that with another guy, Jill.”

  Jill pulled back, her eyes rounded in surprise. The look only lasted a second before she blushed and tried to look away but Andrew placed his hand under her chin and tilted her eyes to his.

  “I’ve tried to resist this, Jill. God knows I’ve tried, but I just can’t. When I’m with you, it takes all I have to keep my hands off you. When I’m not with you, all I’m thinking about is how and when I can get back to you. I want to make you understand how wrong your husband was. I want to be the one to give that to you. To give you back your confidence.”

  Andrew watched a rush of emotions play across Jill’s face. Before she could answer, he dipped his head to hers and brushed his lips softly over her mouth.

  “Say yes, Jill. Please say yes. Yes to completely no-strings-attached sex for as long as we both want – and to not sleeping with anyone else while we’re together.” Andrew paused and looked at her as he laid out the terms and watched her turn an even deeper shade of red. “For safety’s sake.”

  Andrew kissed Jill again, more firmly this time. Gently exploring the softness of her lips, the sensual curve of her mouth, delving in to touch her tongue with just the very tip of his.