by Sara Daniel
“Yes, she certainly can. But you hold your own just fine.”
He’d been holding his own for far too long. He wanted to be part of a team again—her team.
“You may have noticed our internal marketing and publicity staff is lacking talent and experience,” Mr. Sunburst continued. “I’m not the kind of man who steals good employees from jobs where they’re happy, but if you’re looking for a change….”
“No disrespect, sir, but I’m not sure I’m the right person for the position.” He wouldn’t even consider the opportunity without Marcia’s blessing.
“Don’t give me an answer now. Think about it.” Mr. Sunburst rested his gaze on the slim gold band on Adrian’s ring finger. “Talk it over with your wife. The worst thing a man can do is make major life decisions without including her.”
Adrian slid his thumb across the metal band he should have stopped wearing years ago and muttered, “At this point, I can’t make things worse.”
Perversely, the thought cheered him. He had nothing to lose. His wife didn’t need him, but he had a guarantee to spend the night with her. In the hours between now and then, he’d do his damnedest to make sure she wanted him as much as he wanted her.
Ignoring the spread of bagels and donuts against the side wall, he settled at the conference room table. A few minutes later, the love of his life took the seat next to him, her knee bumping his.
“Sorry,” she murmured, destroying his hope the contact had been intentional.
“I’m not. You can bump and grind against me anytime.”
She shot him a warning glare as the others migrated from the carbohydrate smorgasbord toward them.
“I’m imagining your body rubbing against mine, your softness against my hardness, slowly, back and forth,” he whispered. He’d give the appearance of behaving, so only she would know how naughty he wanted to be.
Eyes wide, she shifted her hips on the chair. He attempted to conceal his smirk as she called the meeting to order. Under the table, he settled his hand on her thigh.
“We’ll use our new television commercials to demonstrate our customers trusting us to take care of their needs,” she said to the group.
“Not only their needs, but we want them to come away with the belief we’ll deliver complete satisfaction with no regrets,” he added, inching down her skirt to her knee and teasing up the fabric to caress her bare skin.
As the meeting continued, he tangled his leg with hers, spreading her knees and trailing his fingers along her thigh. When she shifted to give him access around the edges of her panties, triumph and desire coursed through him, but he glided back toward her knee, intent on building a slow burn in preparation for the night.
She tilted toward him, her breast sliding over his arm, and clicked on an image on the laptop screen. His libido went wild. He couldn’t wait to fill his palms with her softness, to suck her until she moaned and thrashed beneath him. His cock pulsed. The plan for a slow burn was going to send him up in flames.
***
Marcia stood side by side with Adrian, forearms and occasionally hips brushing as they watched the commercial shoot. The rush of excitement pounding through her veins would disappear for good when he left. The anticipation building in her had to be satisfied by a single night.
“We’re going to work through lunch to get these takes exactly right,” Mr. Sunburst proclaimed, plopping in the director’s chair.
“I better get some sandwiches delivered,” she said, breaking contact in order to rearrange her personal appointments. With Rob and Sabrina not arriving until later, she could reschedule during an afternoon lull.
After she returned to Adrian’s side, he arched an eyebrow. “Ordering sandwiches requires a lot of calls.”
“I might have a hot date tonight I need to get ready for.” She winked.
He slid his gaze down to her toes and then up to her face. “You look ready to me.”
“Shows what you know.” But her breath caught at the approval in his eyes. She wanted so badly to believe she could still please him.
“I’m going to show you everything I know. You can count on it.” Despite the harmless flirtation, something stronger lurked in the depths of his sparkling brown eyes.
Her phone rang, cutting off her analysis. “The tech team is meeting with the security consultants, and they’d like you to be part of the discussions on a few concerns,” her secretary reported.
“Of course.” She brushed her lips over Adrian’s cheek. “Keep things running smoothly here. I won’t be long.”
He squeezed her fingers, the promise in his touch filling her with warmth.
But six hours later, every bit of heat had deserted her. She’d blown off the manicure and pedicure, then her hair appointment, and finally the bikini wax, while the IT department scrambled to patch a malfunctioning server before it disrupted front desk operations and derailed the promises of trust Adrian and his PR team were delivering. If she didn’t get a chance to swing by the hotel gift shop to pick up her shapewear, they’d have to have sex in the pitch dark.
At some point during the afternoon, she’d spilled coffee on her white blouse but still managed to get enough inside her for over-caffeinated jitters to set in. On the plus side, Rob and Sabrina had been delayed yet again, so she hadn’t missed the filming of their arrival.
Instead of a maître d’ leading her and Adrian to their five-star dinner table overlooking the ocean, an administrative assistant brought in stale sandwiches for dinner. While the IT team talked amongst themselves in code lingo, Marcia searched the reservation system until she found the room reserved by Madame Eve. In theory, she could be inside it in under three minutes, but in reality, at least three hours of work loomed before she could consider ducking away from her responsibilities.
Five hours later, the computer server had been repaired to everyone’s satisfaction and she stumbled into the hallway. Adrian strode toward her. “Rob and Sabrina are arriving. If you come with me, we’ll be just in time to watch their filming in the hotel lobby.”
“Great. I’m going there now.” But she couldn’t force a smile to accompany her words. She’d had one last chance to salvage her marriage and had ruined it by working until she was cross-eyed with exhaustion and the night was half over.
He wrapped his arm around her waist and guided her into the elevator. “You’re holding up great. Remember, crisis mode doesn’t last forever.”
But he wouldn’t be by her side when it finally ended, so how could the future hold anything brighter? She leaned on his shoulder, soaking up his strength and comfort until the doors opened. They walked from the office to the hotel building, entering through the side door next to the closed gift shop, where her sexy lingerie and fancy dinner clothes lay hidden somewhere inside.
No wonder she’d failed at marriage when she’d put saving it so far down her priority list.
Chapter Nine
They’d entered the lobby from the side opposite where the camera crew waited. Instead of observing behind them as she’d planned, Marcia had put herself within lens view. Worse, she’d arrived at the same time as Sabrina and Rob.
While Rob chatted with the hotel staff, Sabrina made a beeline for her, her arms wide open. “Marcia!”
Summoning a happy smile, she stepped forward and hugged her friend. “Thank you for coming.”
“I’m sorry you got stuck with the company mess, but I’m so glad you handled it so Blake could be with Luciana and little Max.” Sabrina lowered her voice. “Don’t tell anyone yet, but Rob and I are expecting. I hope Blake’s example shows Rob no crisis is too big to leave in someone else’s hands when our time comes.”
“I’m so happy for you.” Despite the sincerity of her congratulations, she floundered under a sea of jealousy and welling tears. Was it too much to ask for some of the perfection everyone else experienced to come her way?
“So who’s your friend? Introduce me.”
“This is Adrian. He’s helping us wi
th PR and—”
Sabrina’s eyes widened. “Your Adrian?”
Oh hell. Marcia had forgotten how much she’d confided in her friend. “Yeah, but—” Her claim of a work-only relationship fell flat in the face of the one-night stand they’d both committed to.
“So nice to meet you.” Sabrina offered him her hand. When he shook it, she covered his hand with her other one. “Marcia has told me so much about you.”
He added a second hand to the affectionate shake. “I’d love to hear what she said.”
Sabrina eyed their piled appendages, specifically the ring finger on his left hand. “She wears her wedding ring, too. All the time. You should ask her to show it to you.”
“I swear, that’s the last time I share anything with you in confidence,” Marcia said, cheeks burning. At least her embarrassment pushed aside the self-pity that had threatened to overwhelm her.
Her friend laughed. “Adrian, I can’t wait to get to know you in person. Marcia, we are going to have a long talk very soon. But, tonight, I have an amazing husband who’d dead on his feet and needs to get to our room before he crashes.” She kissed each of them on the cheek and sashayed across the lobby, linking her arm around Rob’s. He smiled at her, settling his palm on her stomach.
“Their secret’s not going to stay a secret for long with a pose like that,” Adrian said.
“Rob knows what he’s doing. They can handle the media. We just need to get our footage edited and shared with the appropriate channels.” Maybe, after that, they’d still have a couple hours left to fall into bed together where she could at least sleep in Adrian’s arms, even if they were too tired for sex.
“Get a good night’s sleep everyone, and be ready to work first thing in the morning,” her husband called across the lobby. “We’re done working for tonight. I don’t want to share any more of the time I have left with you,” he added in a whisper to Marcia.
The camera crew and PR team cheered and quickly dispersed, leaving them alone with the nighttime hotel staff. After a stop at the front desk, Marcia had their room key but nothing else. She’d left her laptop, her purse, and even her phone in the room where she’d been holed up with the tech team. Not only did she lack the shapewear to mold her figure into some semblance of how Adrian remembered her, she didn’t even have a change of clothes for the morning.
“I requested this. You’d think I’d be prepared, but I don’t even have condoms,” she admitted, bracing against the far wall of the elevator.
He shrugged. “We could try to make a baby.”
“Wh—what?” She shoved away from the wall.
He raised his hands. “Just kidding. Mostly. I’m not opposed to babies, but we should make sure our relationship will last longer than a night before we complicate it further.”
Not sure if she was relieved or disappointed, she shook her head as the doors opened on their floor. “Someday, I’m going to laugh about everything that’s gone wrong today. You go on in the room. I’ll go back to the front desk and get condoms.”
He squeezed her hand, tugging her away from the elevator. “I have a bunch. Trust me. We’ll be covered every time.”
She snickered at the double entendre but then sobered as reality crashed down again. “I don’t know if I can stay awake for the first time, let alone a repeat.”
After unlocking the door, he held it open for her to enter ahead of him. “How about we each take a turn in the bathroom and then we’ll see where the night leads?”
If anywhere. She heard the unspoken words loud and clear. Who needed condoms if they didn’t bother to have sex?
Making use of the complimentary soaps and shampoos, she washed her body and then her undies and bra, hanging them over the tub to dry. One of her preparations from the morning paid off. A fluffy white robe hung on a hook behind the door. After wrapping herself in it, she emerged from the bathroom.
Adrian lay sprawled across the king-size bed, eyes closed. He’d taken off his suit coat and tie but left his shirt on, half-buttoned, and his pants open. He hadn’t been kidding about working out. The man didn’t have an ounce of fat on him. Where he’d once been flat and skinny, his body now rippled with muscled texture. The handsome boy she’d married had grown into a gorgeous, ogle-worthy man who deserved a woman every bit as beautiful and perfect.
Resisting the temptation to curl next to him, she continued past the bed to the curtain covering the sliding door to the balcony. She nudged the door open and wandered into the cool night air, the concrete cold under her bare feet.
Gripping the iron railing, she stared over the ocean beyond the city until the tears streaming down her cheeks left her unable to see farther than her hands. She and Adrian had had a long, slow end to their marriage. But they’d finally reached the very end.
***
Despite his best intentions, Adrian must have dozed off. The bathroom was empty, and the wind blew the curtain where the door to the balcony stood open. He pushed the drape aside, revealing Marcia slumped against the railing. Reaching her in two strides, he wrapped his arms around her from behind. “Why are you out here instead of in bed with me?”
Her shoulders lifted in a helpless shrug. “I had such high hopes if I made this evening special enough we might reconsider how we could save our relationship. But the day has been a disaster, and we’ve already lost half the night.”
“We’re together now, which means we’ve already improved on the past seven years.” He didn’t care about the trappings, just savoring every moment with her.
“I had dinner reservations at the swankiest restaurant in town.” Her voice quavered. “I was supposed to get a manicure and a pedicure and a sexy hairdo. I even planned a bikini wax and ordered new clothes and shapewear to make my curves a little more alluring. None of it happened.”
He turned her in his arms to face him, touched by all the trouble and thought she’d put into the evening, even though nothing could have been more enticing than her alone. “I didn’t agree to meet you for any of those things. I agreed to meet you because I wanted you. Just you.”
He tugged on the cloth belt, until the robe fell open, revealing her lush, naked body. All his blood rushed to his cock. “How the hell are clothes supposed to make you sexier than this?”
“This is not sexy.” She attempted to pull the lapels together, but he enjoyed the view too much to let her cover up. “Look at yourself in the mirror and compare what you have to me.”
Huh? “Hate to break it to you, but I’m not that narcissistic to get turned on by checking myself out.”
“Well, I’m not going to turn you on either,” she shot back. “I’m rounded where I’m supposed to be flat, and overblown and droopy where I’m supposed to be simply curvy.”
“Who says what you’re supposed to be?” he demanded, ready to take a swing at whoever had led her to believe she was less than perfect. “I say you’re beautiful. If you want to change your shape to maximize your health and self-confidence, I’ll go the gym with you every day and support your efforts. But if you’re ashamed because you think your body doesn’t meet some sort of beauty criteria, then stop right now. From the moment I met you, I wanted you because you’re you, Marcia, and you turn me on, regardless of the size of your hips or boobs or anything in between.”
“That’s the most beautiful thing anyone’s ever said to me.” Her gaze softened, and she released the edges of her robe, wrapping her arms around his neck.
He should have said more beautiful things to her. He should have crafted a speech that encapsulated his feelings and the passion flowing through him. But he hadn’t, and her naked flesh against his thin, open shirt left him incapable of coherent thought.
A slim gold chain hanging from her neck and disappearing into her cleavage caught the light. He tugged it, drawing out the end where her wedding band with its pathetically small diamond dangled. “No wonder you don’t want other people to see this tiny thing. It should have come with a complimentary magnifying glass.�
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Marcia shook her head. “The diamond is perfect, but wearing the ring on my finger came with a complication and a double standard I wasn’t prepared to deal with. People ask questions for idle conversation.” She sighed. “I didn’t have any answers about us. I still don’t have answers.”
“But even though you didn’t want to tell people about me, you still wore my ring.” Heat spread through his chest. He might not have answers either, but he couldn’t help hoping. “Why?”
“Tucked next to my heart, it helped me feel less alone.”
Adrian lifted the warm metal circle to his lips. “I like knowing you carried a piece of me with you.” But his ring against her skin wouldn’t sustain him for another seven years. He needed a real connection.
“But I was deluding myself,” she continued. “I didn’t have a part of you that really mattered.”
Yes, she had. Whether she knew it or not, wherever she went, she’d had his heart. “Well, for tonight, you have every part me, and I get every part of you.”
He cupped her breasts and bent to graze his mouth over one nipple. She arched against him, and he teased the band of the ring across the other nipple.
“Yes,” she whispered.
Straightening, he lifted her, chest to chest, taking her in his arms.
She stiffened, proof he hadn’t erased her insecurities. He pressed his palms to her naked ass, and her rigidity melted and her breath quickened. Better. Then she wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. Perfect.
“We’re going inside. I don’t want anyone peeking at our balcony and sharing in this reunion,” he said. With the heat of her core rubbing his bare navel, his cock strained. Damn, he should have gotten naked first, so he could lower her onto him and take her hard and fast all at once.
But hard and fast wasn’t the kind of reverence he wanted to show. He intended to love, cherish, and all the other things he’d vowed during their wedding ceremony. And he hoped with all his heart their first time in seven years wouldn’t be their last.