“Has it occurred to you that she might not want to keep working for you?” His head dipped to the side. “I thought you were smarter than this, mate.”
“I am.” I sighed. “I just really let my dick do the thinking last night. That’s all.”
“It’s never a good idea, but what’s done is done,” he said, propping his elbows on his knees and looking at me with his expression more serious now. “If you want her to keep working with you, you’re going to have to keep her happy. At least until the party.”
“I didn’t think about it like that.”
He snorted and pointed to the general area of my crotch. “They never do. That’s why it’s not smart to let them make the decisions, but you’ve already done it now.”
“Fuck.” Just because I hadn’t thought about it like that didn’t mean he was wrong.
Hugo stood up and headed for the door. “There’s nothing more I can do here, unless there was something else you needed to talk about?”
“Nah, I’m all good.” I wasn’t, but that wasn’t Hugo’s fault.
The fact of the matter was that I was second-guessing myself, which wasn’t like me at all. This woman, though, was one I had to work with.
Situations like these were the very reason it was smarter not to get involved in a sexual relationship with someone you had to work with. It made it that much more fucking awkward if you let it, and after she’d dashed off, I was letting it.
After Hugo left, I pulled the flash drive I’d taken from my office at home out of my pocket. I still had to review the first draft of her plans and give her my feedback.
While I was at it, I checked my phone and email, but there was nothing from her. Maybe I shouldn’t even have been worried about this at all. Maybe no news really was good news.
A guy could hope, right? Right.
Chapter 16
Heidi
“I’ve got muffins and a fruit salad,” Bonnie announced when she walked into my office. She held up a brown paper bag and grinned. “Breakfast of champions.”
“Does that breakfast of champions come with coffee?” I asked wearily, then rubbed my burning eyes. I lifted the empty mug beside me. “I’m all out and I need the good stuff.”
Her grin faltered when she took a good look at me. “I’ll go get you some from the machine downstairs.”
“No, it’s okay. I can do it.” I got to my feet, feeling like I’d been hit by a ten-ton truck. Then again, I’d never operated well on little sleep.
No sleep meant that I looked and felt like a zombie. “I just wanted to wait for you before I went. Can I bring some back for you?”
“No, I’m okay. I have a bottle of water in my handbag.” She approached the desk and put the bag down, studying me as if I was made of glass. “What’s going on with you? You look terrible.”
“I didn’t sleep.” I carried my mug to the door in an effort to avoid the intensity of her gaze. It was giving me a headache. “I’ll be right back.”
Fleeing from my own office made me feel like a bit of a coward, but I needed a minute to collect my thoughts. After tossing and turning all night, replaying various scenarios in my head about how this whole thing with Archer could turn out, I still had no idea what to say or how to handle it.
I wasn’t the first person in the world to sleep with a client, I was sure. He’d said nothing had to change and that everything was fine, but it didn’t feel fine. It felt like I’d crossed a line I couldn’t uncross, and what was more, I’d liked it. More than liked it. Hell, I’d had not one, not two, but three of the most powerful orgasms of my whole damn life with him.
I placed my mug in the machine when I got downstairs, punched a button with my thumb, and watched as the steamy brown essence of life filled the porcelain. A sigh parted my lips.
There was no point in obsessing about it. What was done was done. I would just have to control the damage caused by my actions as well as I could and hope that it wasn’t too catastrophic.
If I lost this event, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. My boss would be disappointed about losing the money, sure, but we had so many events lined up that it wouldn’t hurt us too much in the greater scheme of things.
That wasn’t what was bothering me. It was the severe lapse in my professionalism and, of course, the whole having to look Archer in the eyes when I saw him again thing.
Bonnie was sitting at my desk when I got back to the office, stabbing a piece of fruit with a wooden fork. “Are you ready to fess up yet? Why didn’t you sleep?”
“I had dinner with Archer last night,” I said, placing the mug down next to my laptop. “He wanted to go over the plans.”
“Okay, so what? Why did that make you not sleep? Unless you slept with him, of course.” She said it as a joke, but then she must have caught my expression, and her mouth dropped open. “You slept with him?”
I groaned, folding my arms on my desk and resting my head on them. “I did.”
“Girl, that’s awesome,” she exclaimed. I lifted my head just a little and saw that she was bouncing lightly on her seat. “You have to tell me everything.”
“It’s not awesome,” I protested, even though the act itself had been. “He’s a client.”
“So?” She sat back and folded one knee over the other with her brow arched. “It might be frowned upon, but it’s not forbidden or anything. If you don’t let it affect the work you’re doing, it won’t even be a problem.”
“How is it not going to affect the work I’m doing?” I tried to mirror the way that she was sitting, if only because she looked so cool and confident that I was hoping it would make me feel the same way.
It didn’t.
My shoulders slumped. “I’m never going to be able to look at him and not think of him naked.”
“I really don’t see a problem with that,” she said airily, her hand waving. “Hell, I’ve never even seen the guy naked and I picture him naked all the time.”
“Yeah, but I have seen him naked. It puts a different spin on things, don’t you think?”
She shook her head, her green eyes wide and bright. “I have a pretty active imagination, but for purely research purposes, I’m going to need you to give me a detailed description of what he’s really working with. You know, just so I can assess how accurate my active imagination is.”
Some of the tension in my stomach unwound when I laughed. “I can’t give you a detailed description. That seems too personal. I will tell you that what he’s working with is impressive and that you wouldn’t be disappointed.”
“So it was good?” She sat forward, resting her arms in her lap as she leaned over. It kind of looked like she was conducting an interview or perhaps an interrogation. “Come on. You have to at least tell me that.”
I exhaled heavily. “It wasn’t good. It was amazing.”
She smiled triumphantly, her breakfast completely forgotten on the desk in front of her. I grabbed one of the muffins, just to give my hands something to do other than fidget.
“Okay, so you had amazing sex with one of the country’s most eligible bachelors. I really don’t see why that’s a problem.”
With the hand not holding the muffin, I lifted two fingers and let them drop as I gave her my reasons. “It’s a problem because I can’t stop thinking about it and because I think I might have ruined a great opportunity with his event.”
Bonnie raised her shoulders, shrugging like this was no big deal. “All you have to do is keep him happy until the party. Even if you don’t, Bryan has last-minute requests for year-end functions, Christmas parties, and New Year’s parties coming out of his ears. I doubt he’d even notice if Archer dropped us with all the balls he’s trying to keep in the air.”
“I’m pretty sure he would notice a paycheck of this size never arriving.” No matter how many other parties there were, Archer’s was still a big deal. “And what if it gets out that one of his event managers sleeps with her clients? Our reputation could take a serious hit.�
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“It won’t,” she said confidently. “Look, I know that things might look different from my side of the table, but it really isn’t such a big deal. From what I’ve seen, Archer’s pretty tight-lipped with the reporters when it comes to his personal life, and it really isn’t as if him sleeping with someone is going to be front-page news.”
“True.” A small smile began to lift the corners of my lips. “You’re right. I’m blowing this way out of proportion.”
She nodded and then wagged her eyebrows at me. “I think you might have, yeah. Is that why you were up all night? Or did he keep you up all night?”
A tingle ran through me when I thought back to his offer for a second round. “He might have if I’d stuck around, but I didn’t.”
Her eyes popped all the way open and a surprised giggle escaped her. “Are you trying to tell me you, of all people, pulled a hit and run? I’d have taken you for the cuddling type.”
I was the cuddling type, just not when I panicked apparently. “I thought I’d see what all the hype was about with hitting and running. Turns out, I don’t like it much.”
It left way too much time to overthink things in the dark of night once I had gotten back to my own bed.
Bonnie’s head tipped back as she laughed, the sound coming out as delighted more than anything else. “I’m so proud of you. My little American is finally growing up.”
I rolled my eyes and tore off a piece of the muffin, chucking it at her. It landed on her lap and Bonnie, completely unfazed, picked it up and popped it into her mouth. Once she had swallowed, she shrugged. “What? It’s true. It was about time you loosened up a bit, and with Archer Lee no less.”
Sitting back in my chair, I couldn’t help but smile. “I guess I am feeling pretty loosened up this morning. God, I’ve never had so many orgasms in my life.”
Her eyes lit up. “Finally, some decent details. So tell me, how exactly were these administered? Did he talk dirty, and when you say I would be impressed with what he’s working with, could you provide a rough estimate?”
At that, the last of the tension I’d been feeling melted away. Archer and Bonnie were both right. This didn’t have to be a big deal. I was the one making it awkward when it didn’t have to be.
“Shocked as I am that you can ask things like that so offhandedly, I’m not so shocked as to blurt out the answers.” I winked. “We really should get back to work, but I will give you one last detail for the sake of being left alone about it. You wouldn’t have been disappointed in his mouth either.”
“Wait, was that the answer to the dirty talk question or the one about how the orgasms were administered?”
I mimed zipping my lips. “Nope, that’s it. That’s all you get.”
“You suck.” She mock-pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.
Laughing as I pulled my laptop closer, I shot her a look and deliberately licked my lips. “Not right now I don’t, but I did last night.”
She released a squeal, again sounding much more delighted than I’d have expected, and clapped her hands slowly. “Okay, as your reward for that, I will get to work. You know, having to keep him happy until the party might not be the worst thing in the world. It sounds like you had fun. No harm, no foul, right?”
“Right,” I said, but I still couldn’t shake the nagging feeling in my gut. Her statement would only be true if there really had been no harm, and I wasn’t sure of that yet.
As we started pulling up schedules for the rest of the week, I discreetly checked my phone and then scrolled through all my new emails. There was nothing from Archer. I just didn’t know if that was a good thing or not.
Chapter 17
Archer
When I still hadn’t heard from Heidi by Thursday, I was starting to get concerned. I wasn’t sure what protocol in this situation dictated, but surely, it wasn’t three days of silence when we were less than a month away from the party.
Sliding her flash drive into the slot on the side of my laptop for what felt like the tenth time since she’d left it behind on Monday night, I opened the only folder there was and looked for something that I could use as an excuse to talk to her about.
Everything she’d planned thus far was exactly what we’d talked about, though. There were suggestions for the kids’ area that we probably had to discuss at some point and the menu options needed to be finalised. So there was that but not much else.
Picking up my phone, I pulled up her number and pressed the call button without a second thought. This had gone on long enough. We were planning a party together, for God’s sake, not a political coup.
“Hi, Archer,” she answered, her tone light and casual. “What’s up? Have you had a chance to look over those plans?”
“I have,” I said. “I wanted to talk to you about them. Can you come over here sometime so we can talk about a few things?”
“Sure, I can be there in an hour if that works for you.”
Since she still didn’t sound like there was anything wrong, I relaxed into my chair. Maybe this was all going to work out after all, and I wasn’t going to have to try to find another party planner for a New Year’s Eve party when it was already December.
“I’ll move some things around and see you then.” My calendar for the afternoon was full, but nothing on it was urgent.
“Great, I have a few more suggestions that I’ll bring along for you. Bye.” She hung up without waiting for me to say goodbye.
I stared at my phone for a beat after she was gone. Could it really be this easy?
More importantly, did I want it to be?
These past several days had proven to me that our one-night interlude hadn’t exactly cleansed her from my system. If anything, I wanted her more now than I had before.
More of her soft curves writhing underneath me, more of her breathy moans, and definitely more of her slick, snug heat. Just the thought of it threatened to make me hard.
I didn’t only want more. I needed it. Going after her was probably a shitty idea though, so yeah. There was that.
Deciding to play it by ear when she got there, I pressed the button for the intercom on my desk and asked my assistant to bump my appointments up an hour this afternoon. When that was done, I did my best to keep my mind out of the gutter and on work until Heidi arrived.
Exactly an hour after we’d made the arrangement, there was a short knock at my door. I grinned, already standing up before she’d even opened the door. “Come on in.”
My assistant appeared briefly to tell me that my next appointment was here, but I hardly noticed her. Heidi was standing beside her, and all my attention was squarely on her. I couldn’t look away.
She looked good enough to eat in another brightly patterned dress, and now that I knew how she tasted and what her moans sounded like in my ears, it was much more difficult to think of anything else.
“Hey,” she said, her voice sounding slightly more breathy than usual.
In that instant, I remembered what she’d said just before she’d started getting up and what I’d told her in return. The breathy quality of her voice told me loud and clear that she was having the exact same thoughts as me, and that made it doubly hard to shove them out of my mind.
“Hi,” I replied, crossing the office to join her at the door. “I thought we could go up to the roof to talk about everything? Makes more sense to do it there.”
Also that way, I wouldn’t be stuck in a private, enclosed space with her. There was no telling what would happen when that door closed and the rest of the world was safely shut out.
Despite my bitching about a lock to Hugo last month, he was the only person who ever walked into my office unannounced or unexpected. More often than not, my assistant warned me of his arrival anyway. She’d simply stepped away from her desk for a minute that last time.
So, yeah… Heidi and I would have as close to complete privacy as we could get in an office building in the middle of the day. Until we’d at least talked about it
, I didn’t think that was the best idea.
Heidi seemed to follow my train of thought, nodding her agreement enthusiastically. “Yes. Let’s go up to the roof.”
I motioned her out of the office ahead of me and, once more, couldn’t help sliding my eyes down to her shapely behind. God, the things I still want to do to this woman.
Shielding her eyes against the sun when I stepped out onto the roof, she turned to face me with a brilliant smile. “I’ve forgotten how big this space is. I was going to suggest that we cut some of the kids’ activities, but I don’t think it’ll be necessary now that I’m back here.”
Okay, then. Right to work. “There have to be enough activities to keep them busy and for them to have fun. I wouldn’t have wanted to cut any, anyway.”
“Isn’t it great that you don’t have to then?” she asked, practically skipping ahead again without waiting for a response from me.
I sighed. Maybe this wouldn’t be so easy after all. Stalking out onto the rooftop after her, I spotted Hugo busy hammering something into the wall. It was probably the fixtures for the makeshift shelves.
He looked up, spotting Heidi almost immediately. His face split into a wide grin before he started up a chant he’d taught her at the rugby game.
When he was done, she was smiling at him warmly. “How are you, Hugo?”
So he got a how are you, but I didn’t. Nice.
Stop it. You’re not jealous. There’s nothing to be jealous about.
“I’m great, you?” He carefully set down his hammer to walk up to her.
“Fine. I just came by to check on some details for the party.”
Lifting his eyebrows, I practically saw the inappropriate comment he was about to make. I was pretty damn sure it was going to be something along the lines of, “So you’re not here because you’re ready for that second round he offered you then, eh?”
Either way, I wasn’t going to wait to find out if I was right. Stepping up beside her, I gave him a meaningful look. “Do you mind giving us a minute?”
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