by Lucy Lambert
“So, what do you think?” she said, finishing a PowerPoint slideshow about the proposed rollout schedule and distribution of the various ads. “I know it’s all a little rough, but, well, I wasn’t exactly expecting to be the one doing all this…”
“It’s great,” I said, “I love it all.”
My heart lurched in my chest when she smiled at me. It was an unreserved moment of joy. She knew she’d done a good job and she’d been afraid I wouldn’t like it.
When she realized what she was doing, she dropped the smile and turned back to the monitor. “Like I said, it’s preliminary. Rough. But it will be finished by the window you specified.”
I patted the top of the chair and turned away. I perused the spines of all the old books on the shelves, running my finger along them. I stopped at one and tapped it. Then I pulled it off and leafed idly through the pages.
It was Pride and Prejudice. A first edition, I knew. They were all firsts in here. “You know, you’re not my usual type,” I said, closing it up. I pushed it back into its spot.
“I hope I’m not your unusual type, either,” she said. She pushed the chair back and stood, pulling the jump drive from the computer as she went. The final PowerPoint slide disappeared from the screen.
“And I’m going to take this as approval to continue with what I’ve showed you. In the future, I think we should correspond through email. I can show you everything just as easily.”
In two steps I stood in front of her. She swallowed, but didn’t back down. “You know what? I think that you like me. I think that you want me and it scares you.”
“I could never…” she said, dropping her eyes, lowering her chin towards her chest.
I placed my hand against her cheek, my pinky finger pressed lightly against the bottom of her jaw, and lifted her face so that she looked at me again. “Just give in. I promise you’ll like it.”
Then I tried to kiss her. Her eyes started closing, her lips started parting. They trembled a little and I knew that somewhere she did want me. My heart sang in my chest, my blood suddenly boiling in my veins.
It felt right. It felt more intense than anything I’d felt for a woman in a long time. Since I first met Stacey, I thought, and all the ones before her that were like her.
It gave me pause. A pause long enough for Quinn to snap herself from her own spell. She grabbed my wrist and tore my hand from her cheek.
“I hate men like you. You think that because you’re so hot and so successful that no woman could possibly resist you. Don’t you remember what I said when we came in here? It’s not going to happen. Never.”
She turned to go, to storm out. I knew I couldn’t let her, not now. She got to the door.
“Quinn, wait. Please,” I said.
And by some miracle she stopped in the doorway. It was the professional in her, I knew. The part of her that insisted she do a good job at everything.
Although it didn’t surprise me too much. I wasn’t stupid. I knew this sort of job could make or break her whole career. I knew she had a lot riding on this. I just needed her to stay a little longer, and I needed to use the tools I had available.
“Yes?” she said, looking back at me but not leaving the doorway.
“Stay a bit longer.”
“I shouldn’t,” she said, “It wouldn’t be professional of me.”
“I won’t tell your boss if you don’t,” I shot back. “A few minutes is all I ask.”
She shrugged and shook her head, giving in. I brushed past her and led her upstairs to the third floor with its large living room and great view. I could see her admiring the place.
“This is really nice,” she said. She ran her hand along the breakfast bar and stopped to admire a piece of abstract art I had on the wall. Then she went over to the windows and looked out onto the street.
She nodded. “Yup. Nice. Mr. Ward, I’m happy you like my work so far, but I really think I should go now.”
I leaned against the banister, not blocking her way, but not inviting her to go, either.
“You should? Why? Are you afraid something might happen if you don’t?”
“No,” she said, getting that determined look on her face again. But now I knew that somewhere inside she did want me. She felt that draw other women felt around me. She was just better at resisting it.
Whoever thought that could be such a turn-on?
“So stay, then. Prove yourself right,” I said. I pushed away from the banister, moving so that I stood closer to her.
“No promotion is worth this,” she said, almost under her breath. I still made it out. “I’ll show myself out. Thanks for the coffee.”
She started for the stairs, but before she got there I spoke again. “Wait, just one more thing.”
Before she could ask what I reached out and plucked at the pins holding her bun in place. She let out a startled gasp as her hair tumbled in waves to her shoulders.
Having it in a bun all day like that made the ends curl up just so. It framed her face, making her look more feminine. The fair hair bringing those dark freckles out even more.
The throb inside of me turned into an ache.
“Hey!” she said.
“Just like I thought,” I said. “You’re beautiful, Quinn.” I offered her the bobby pins. I had to take a deep breath to steady myself. I found her intoxicating. I had to have her.
Chapter 8
QUINN
He held the bobby pins out to me. The ends of my hair brushed against my ears and tickled at my neck.
I didn’t know how to feel. Mortification kept trying to well up from the pit of my stomach. But the way he kept looking at me stirred heat within me instead. I couldn’t deny that I was attracted to Ward. That I wanted him.
But I knew that I shouldn’t. He was exactly not my type. He would be so bad for me, and I wouldn’t exactly be good for him, either.
The woman inside me still yearned for him, though.
And his words still echoed in my head. You’re beautiful. And that’s how I knew it was all some game, because I wasn’t.
“No,” I said, taking the bobby pins back and squeezing them in my palm. “I’m not.”
I had to admit that it was even nicer up on this floor then on the first two. The couches, the art, the window, it all encouraged me to stay awhile.
When I first came up, though, I caught the hint of something. Some expensive perfume that just dripped sex. He’d had another woman up here not so long ago. Other women, plural, probably. They threw themselves at him and he was always there catch them.
I wished he’d just let me slip on by.
Smelling that had made me want to go, made me remember who he really was. But why did he keep looking at me that way?
“I think that you’ve been around me enough to know that I don’t pull my punches,” Vaughn said. “And you, Quinn, are beautiful. I noticed that the first time I saw you.”
He closed the distance between us so that I saw almost nothing but his face looking down into mine. I couldn’t stop my body from responding to the proximity. My heart thumped, my mouth went dry. A warm tingle ran down through me.
“No, I’m not,” I repeated, shaking my head.
He didn’t say anything else. He put his hand to my cheek again, steadying my head so that I couldn’t contradict him by shaking it anymore.
This time when his face descended closer to mine I didn’t stop it. I parted my lips to deny him again, but before I could he fitted his mouth against mine.
The first thing I felt was the prickle of his stubble against my skin. Then electricity filled and suffused me, from my scalp to my toes.
I remembered thinking, He really is a good kisser. His mouth was warm on mine. His lips gentle yet insistent. My eyes drooped closed before I could stop them, and my calves tensed, trying to lift me higher so that he might kiss me more easily.
His other hand, the one that didn’t cup my cheek, slid down my waist, coming to rest on the swell of my hip. He squeezed, then
pulled me against him.
My insides turned to warm jelly. I could feel the power in him. He was like a magnet I couldn’t resist, drawing me inexorably towards him.
Then he stopped. And I didn’t want him to stop. He pulled back a bit, his face still filling my vision, his hands still on my cheek and my hip, his eyes fixed on mine. I could still feel the prickle of his stubble. I could feel my heartbeat in my lips.
I licked my lips. I wanted to look away from him, but I couldn’t. It was that magnetism.
“See?” he said, stroking the soft and delicate skin below my eye gently with the ball of his thumb.
My instinctual desires flared up again, and I could see. I could see myself letting go of my resistance, pushing him down onto that couch back there, the two of us tearing at each other’s clothes until there was nothing between our naked bodies.
I parted my lips to reply, but couldn’t find the words. I couldn’t decide what I wanted to say. Whether I wanted to tell him to kiss me again or to take his hands off me.
Ward’s eyes followed the movements of my lips, his jaw working. He swallowed heavily and I knew he wanted to kiss me again. His eyes moved to my hair, taking in the way it waved, the way the ends curled a little.
Then he pushed his fingers into my hair, threading them through my locks. He squeezed just enough to make me gasp, to make me throb inside.
“I’m going to kiss you again,” he said, his voice throaty and low. His fingers squeezed a little tighter in my hair, his other hand pulling me a little harder against his body.
He pursed his lips, wetting them. And then he came in for the kill. My heart palpitated again, leaving me hot and trembling all over.
My cell started chiming in my pocket. He tried ignoring it, but the sudden sound broke whatever charm or spell he had cast on me. I put my hands between our bodies and pushed.
His fingers slipped from my hair and he stumbled back a step before catching his balance.
I tugged my blouse straight, and then I turned away from him and pulled my cell out. I frowned at the phone then thumbed the answer button across the screen.
“Mary? What’s up?” I said.
“Oh, Quinn, I’m so happy I caught you. I wanted to catch you before you got home tonight but I haven’t seen you come in. Look, I’m really sorry, and this is such short notice, but can you watch the kids again tonight? I’m so sorry, but I really need to take this shift and it’s so last minute…”
I started cooling on the inside, the fog around my mind lifting. The fantasies of our two bodies pressed together on the couch receded. It felt good, like a return to normal. This was a problem I could solve, unlike the problem Vaughn Ward.
That problem twisted and changed every time I thought I had a handle on it.
“It’s okay, Mary. I’m over in Back Bay right now, but I’ll start home right away. I’ll be as fast as I can. And it’s not a problem. Not at all.”
Mary’s relief was palpable over the phone, the tension and worry leaving her voice. “You’re a lifesaver, really. And please, let me pay you this time.”
“How about you just send a few boxes of mac & cheese up with them and we’ll call it even? I have to replenish my stores.”
I should be paying you, I wanted to say. She had no idea what sort of trouble she had just gotten me out of. The least I could do was look after Alex and Charlie for the night.
I could feel Vaughn standing behind me, feel his eyes on me. His confusion, like Mary’s relief, was palpable. And like Mary’s relief, I enjoyed it. “Just send them on up right now if you like. Alex knows where I keep my spare key. I’m sure they’ll be fine until I get there.”
Mary continued thanking me until I told her she shouldn’t waste any more time talking to me. I ended the call and slipped the phone back into my pocket.
“Did you enjoy that?” I asked him.
“Yes. Didn’t you?”
I didn’t answer his question. “Good. Because it’s never happening again.”
“Is there a problem?” Vaughn said. The concern in his voice sounded real, surprisingly. I had to give it to him, he was good at what he did.
And he’s a damn good kisser, too! My lips still tingled. I wasn’t about to admit that, though.
“Nothing that can’t be solved with a box of mac & cheese,” I said. “And now I really am going. As far as I’m concerned, none of this ever happened.” I walked down the stairs, watching my hand slide along the banister.
Chapter 9
VAUGHN
I could still taste Quinn on my lips while I watched her walk down the stairs and disappear.
I thought about calling out to her, but knew that I shouldn’t. She liked doing the opposite of what I said, and asking her come to back now would just push her further away.
I rubbed my bottom lip with the tip of my finger, pulling my thoughts back to what it felt like to kiss her. I thought I’d gotten just a touch of that heat inside her, and it burned me.
My head was all sorts of messed up. A flurry of thoughts and desires blew through my mind, and all I could do was go sink into the wingback chair closest to the window.
I hadn’t really caught much of her phone conversation. I gathered someone had asked her for help and she jumped at the chance. Probably because she knew that I had her dead to rights. I had sensed that desire inside her, that need to move things up to the next level.
And now that she had denied me again, it made me want her even more.
I tried not to think about how it worried me that she made me feel the way she did. How every other time I’d felt that way about someone it never worked out. How I always managed to sabotage myself.
I smiled at the irony. I was rich and successful. A few magazines even thought I was handsome. And in spite of all that there was still something inside of me that was broken. Something that so many other people without my circumstances had.
And what was that about mac & cheese? I couldn’t figure Quinn out, not completely, and I knew that made up good portion of my attraction to her. One of the things that drew me to her.
And I thought that maybe she experienced something similar with me, but that it was also one of the big reasons that made her push me away even in the middle of a kiss.
Maybe someone hurt her in the past? Someone that I reminded her of? I wondered.
It was all too much to think about. Especially right now, what with my new app launch coming up. If anything, I should have all my efforts focused on that. I couldn’t, though.
Maybe I just need to get her out of my head, I figured. That hadn’t gone so well earlier with that lingerie model earlier, but I could give it another try. There was that movie junket tonight.
Starlets and alcohol. The perfect way to get your mind off anything.
I grabbed my phone to find the details.
Chapter 10
QUINN
I got back to my condo and found Alex and Charlie sitting on the floor between the couch and the TV, a SpongeBob episode playing on the screen.
“Hey, guys,” I said, feeling exhausted. It was like that kiss had burned me up on the inside, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it, or him.
Is he thinking the same thing? I wondered, followed by, It doesn’t matter what he’s thinking about.
“Quinn!” the kids said, getting up when they saw me.
They stopped short, looking at me funny.
“What is it? Did I grow a second head?” I said.
They giggled. Then Alex took the lead, “You look pretty, Quinn. Like a girl.”
I put my hands on my hips. “Well, I am a girl. And are you saying I don’t look pretty normally? Because if you are, then you’re in for the tickling of a lifetime.”
“No!” Charlie said, laughing, “It’s your hair. It’s long. And pretty. What did you do to it?” She tugged at her own hair, which her mom kept trimmed to just below her chin. I recognized that look. I’d given it to older girls myself. That mix of awe and jealousy.
“Was it for a boy?” Alex broke in. He wrinkled his face at the thought. At his age, girls were still just cootie factories I suppose.
I looked down and saw my hair resting on my shoulders, still wavy, still a little curly at the end.
“That’s none of your business,” I said, winking at them. I felt self-conscious, so I excused myself and went to the bathroom.
I leaned over the vanity and looked at myself in the mirror. I guess my hair looked okay. But what was Ward playing at? I still had that nose. And those freckles. Big, soft eyes with eyebrows that always seemed too thick no matter how often I plucked at them.
Then I shoved my hand into my pocket and felt the bobby pins. The ones he’d pulled out and then offered to me.
I didn’t put them back in, but I did grab a hair elastic from the drawer on the left and used it to pull my hair into a ponytail.
I grabbed the pins from the vanity and looked at them against the pink skin of my palm. What happened back there? What came over me?
Whatever it was, it had been a mistake. Something I couldn’t and wouldn’t let happen again. I tried to be an adult about it. I had to admit to myself that I found him physically attractive. There wasn’t anything wrong about that.
It was giving into that attraction that I shouldn’t let happen.
But I had experience with men who knew they were handsome and knew that women liked them. Experiences and pains I didn’t feel like reliving. I wanted to concentrate on my future, on my career, and on myself.
I’ll make sure we do everything over the phone or email. The easiest way to get rid of temptation was to get rid of the object of that temptation. Ward and I had had our face-to-face meeting and that should be enough to satisfy the higher-ups back at the C&M.
I hoped.
“Quinn! Can we have something to eat?” Charlie called. I squeezed the bobby pins. I still felt confused. Nothing was resolved yet.
“Yeah, I’ll make something in a minute!” I called back. I liked having the kids here. They were a distraction, of course. But they also made me feel good. But eventually their mother would want them back. I wondered if maybe I should buy a cat.