Undeniable Demands

by Andrea Laurence

  Tori held him to her, the sweat of their bare skin mingling together, until their rapid breaths finally slowed. It was only then, when the passionate fog had lifted, that she could find the strength to speak again.

  “Let’s go find a real bed,” she said.

  * * *

  Wade woke up to the delicious smell of coffee and bacon. He smiled, shifted and rolled over, expecting to see the other side of the bed empty. Instead he found himself looking at Tori’s bare back.

  Molly.

  Wade flopped back against his pillows in disgust. The movement was enough to wake Tori. She tugged the sheets modestly over her breasts and sat up, a touch disoriented. When she turned to look at Wade, he was struck by how beautiful she looked, tousled. Her red hair was wild, her lips swollen from a night of kisses. She looked like a woman who had been thoroughly and completely loved the night before.

  And he’d be inclined to pick up where they left off if he didn’t think his mother was downstairs.

  “Good morning,” he said.

  “Morning,” she said with a yawn and a long, feline stretch that accentuated the bare curve of her back. Then her delicate nose wrinkled and her brow furrowed. “Are you cooking something?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “But I—” Tori brought her hand up to her mouth. “Molly isn’t downstairs, is she? My panties are…” She lifted the sheet, then quickly brought it back down. “Oh, no. They’re still on the stairs.”

  Wade sat up and shook his head. “Don’t worry about all that. I’m not a teenager anymore. And if I know my mother, she’s probably pleased as punch to find our clothes strewn across the living room. She knew I was taking you out to dinner last night.”

  “Are you sure she won’t be upset?”

  “Extremely. The woman hung mistletoe. She knows exactly what she’s doing.”

  “And what’s that?”

  Wade swallowed hard and swung his legs out over the edge of the bed. “Working on grandchildren.”

  He pulled on a pair of his pajama pants from his luggage, turning his back to Tori to hide the laugh her wide, panicked eyes brought on.

  “I, uh, I—I mean…”

  “Relax. I’m sure the next generation of Edens has yet to be spawned. I’ll go run her off.”

  Wade opened the bedroom door and slipped down the stairs to the ground floor. His mother was nowhere to be found, but she’d certainly been in the bunkhouse. Their clothes from the living room floor—not the panties, thankfully—had been picked up and neatly laid over the arm of the couch. The coffeepot was on and dripping the last of a fresh pot. There was a pitcher of orange juice and a foil-wrapped casserole dish on the counter. In the center of the breakfast table was a vase filled with some of the greenhouse-grown roses left over from the pine centerpieces she sold in the shop.

  “Is it safe?”

  Wade turned to find Tori standing a few steps from the bottom of the staircase, a blanket wrapped around her like a toga.

  “Yes, she’s gone. She brought us breakfast.”

  Tori stooped down at the bottom of the stairs, snatching up her panties. She found her purse by the front door and stuffed the panties inside to hide the evidence in case someone came back. “Breakfast?”

  “Yes, are you hungry?”

  She smiled sheepishly. “After the meal last night I thought I might never eat again. But I did manage to work up quite an appetite.”

  That was for sure. After they made it upstairs, they’d taken a shower together, starting another round of lovemaking they finished in the bed.

  “Would you like coffee or orange juice?”

  “Juice,” she said, reaching for her red dress. “This seems like a little much for breakfast, but I didn’t plan for an overnight trip.”

  “Upstairs in the bedroom drawer are some shirts you’re welcome to try on. They’ll be big, but it’s better than a cocktail dress. And under the sink are some extra toiletries that Molly keeps here in case one of us forgets something. There should be a new toothbrush and anything else you might need.”

  Tori nodded and slunk back toward the stairs. “That’s great. I’ll be right back.”

  By the time she came back downstairs in an oversize Yale alumni sweatshirt, Wade had made them both a plate with breakfast casserole and diced fruit that Molly had left in the fridge. He handed her a glass of orange juice as she sat down at the table.

  “This looks wonderful. Molly really didn’t have to go to all this trouble.”

  Wade sat down with a mug of coffee and shook his head. “She lives for this. Don’t let her fool you.”

  Tori took a few bites, quietly eating and avoiding making eye contact with Wade. He wasn’t sure if the typical morning after had been made more awkward, or less, by his mother’s culinary interference.

  “How are you this morning?” he asked.

  Tori brushed her loose hair behind her ear and took a sip of juice before she answered. “Honestly, I’m a little weirded out that your mother knows we slept together, and I’m still trying to process that fact myself.”

  “Do you regret last night?”

  “No,” she said. “But sex always changes things. I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen from here.”

  “I believe we go out on another date.”

  Tori frowned. “I don’t know if I’m ready for that. Three dates in a week. With a man who wants my land and fired me from my first real job.”

  “That still bothers you, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes,” she admitted. “Despite what you believe, I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t so much as shake that guy’s hand, much less handle anything else. I was so naive. And when you fired me, it felt like I’d lost everything. My apartment, my confidence in my abilities. Even a little of my trust in men.”

  Now it was Wade’s turn to frown. “I damaged your ability to trust men?”

  Tori shrugged. “In a way. More me not being able to trust that I know what I’m doing in a relationship. I had been attracted to you. You were the boss, and I knew it was a bad idea, but I couldn’t help it. Sometimes I wondered if the feeling was mutual. Those couple of nights that we worked late together, I thought I’d felt a spark of something.”

  “You did. I wanted very badly to ask you out, but I wasn’t sure if it would be appropriate, since you worked for me.”

  Tori sighed and sat back in her chair. “I’m glad I didn’t imagine that. One afternoon I remember asking your assistant, Lauren, what she thought, since I figured she knew you best. She said I was way off. That I wasn’t your type at all. Then you fired me, and I figured I must’ve been imagining things.”

  Hearing the name of his former admin was like finding a missing piece to an old mental puzzle. “Lauren,” he said.

  “Yes. What about her?”

  “What else did she tell you about me and my tastes?”

  Tori paused for a second and turned to look at him. “You don’t think…?”

  “She made it all up,” he said with certainty. Something about Tori’s ethics violation had always troubled him, but he could never put his finger on what, aside from him not wanting to believe she could do it. There had been a real connection between them. That was probably why the idea of her with another man was more painful than it should’ve been. “Lauren is the one who told me she saw you having an intimate dinner with one of our suppliers. The next day you started making recommendations… The timing was too suspicious.”

  “He had a superior product. He didn’t have to seduce me for an endorsement. But why would she say that about me when it wasn’t true?”

  With that piece in place, the entire picture became painfully clear. “I am so sorry,” he said, shaking his head. “This was all my fault.”

  “How? If Lauren did it, why are you to blame?”

  Wade had ended up firing Lauren only a few months after Tori. She’d seemed sweet at first. After Tori left, she developed some extremely suggestive behaviors. She made it no sec
ret she wanted Wade, although he wasn’t interested at all. After catching her being rude on the phone to Julianne, thinking she was a girlfriend and not his sister, he had to let her go. She was an efficient employee, but she was letting a misplaced territoriality compromise her performance.

  “She must’ve been jealous of you. I don’t know why I didn’t connect this before. I asked her one afternoon if she could help me find out what kind of flowers you liked. I was going to send some to your home and ask if you’d like to have dinner.”

  “I never got any flowers,” Tori replied.

  “I never got to send them. Lauren showed up with her story about you the next day. It never occurred to me that she was jealous enough of you to sabotage your whole career like that, but that has to be it. Not long after you left, Lauren made it quite obvious that she was interested in me. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”

  Tori nodded and glanced down at the remains of her breakfast. “There was no way to prove it either way. You did what you had to do.”

  “I feel horrible. I want to make it up to you somehow.”

  “That’s not necessary,” she said. “I know I’ve given you a lot of grief over it, but look at where I am now. It might have been a rocky transition, but things turned out the way they were meant to. If I had continued to work for you, I’d probably still be there, making you money, but I never would’ve gone for my dream. When I lost my job, I took the chance to start my own company, and it was the best thing I could’ve done. When I think of it that way, I don’t know…maybe I should be thanking you.”

  “Yet you’ve been angry with me all this time?”

  “I was hurt because you didn’t believe me. It was easy to blame you for the upheaval in my life that came after it. The truth is probably that I wasn’t ready to settle down in one place yet. I was just rebelling from my parents. Who knows, if you hadn’t fired me, I might’ve quit a few weeks later and started wandering again.”

  “What made you ready to settle down now? Here?”

  “I started doing genealogy a few years back as a way to connect with my roots. My parents were so nomadic I never really met any extended family or knew where we came from. A little digging uncovered that my father’s family was from this area, a few generations back. Cornwall was where they settled after migrating to America from Ireland.”

  She took a sip of juice before continuing. “I came up here on a whim once, when I had a free weekend away from the project in Philadelphia. I just drove around, mostly. But then I spied this beautiful wooded area and I pulled over and started walking around. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was home. Like I’d spiritually dropped anchor. I wanted to stay here. So I started looking for land to buy. I couldn’t have found a more perfect piece of property than the one your parents were offering. I snatched it up and started hatching plans to build my dream house.”

  Seeing the excitement light up Tori’s face, Wade felt smacked in the gut with guilt. She longed for a connection to her family and a chance to build a real home. And he wanted her to. He felt crappy for keeping her from that dream. But he couldn’t risk the body being found, even for her dreams. “And once again, I’ve charged into your life and tried to ruin it all.”

  She chuckled softly but didn’t contradict him. “Life should never be boring.”

  Wade watched a touch of sadness creep into her eyes. Sadness that he knew he was partially responsible for. It made him want to sweep her into his arms and kiss her until she was too wrapped up in them to be distressed. He wanted to distract her with something so fantastic she wouldn’t think about the past for at least a few days.

  “I want to take you to New York.”

  She looked up, startled by the sudden change in topic. “New York? Why?”

  “I want to make amends for the past and take you someplace as exciting and beautiful as you are. I want to spend New Year’s Eve with you in Times Square.”

  “Are you kidding me?” She laughed. “I’d pretty much prefer to be anywhere over freezing to death in a mad crush of people in Times Square. I’ll be happy to watch the ball drop via my television, though thank you for asking me.”

  Wade smiled and reached across the table to take her hand. “We’re going to New York. Pack your bags because I’m picking you up Monday morning. We’re going to see a show. We’re going to eat some great food. And when that ball drops, you and I are going to be right there to watch it.”

  Tori squirmed but didn’t pull away. “I don’t know, Wade. As nice as that sounds, I don’t want to spend my night outside in the cold with a million other people. I’d rather spend it alone with you.”

  Wade smiled; a plan was forming in his head that would satisfy both their desires. “Who said anything about being outside?”

  Eight

  “Oh. My. Dear. Lord.”

  Wade tipped the bellhop and followed Tori’s voice into the penthouse suite’s master bedroom. He found her standing in front of the wall of windows that lined the room from floor to ceiling. The view overlooked Times Square and the hustle and bustle of the theater district. He’d had this exact view in mind when he renovated this building. His architect had designed this suite, and these windows, for the precise experience Wade had planned for tonight.

  “This is amazing. You can see everything from here. How did you get us a room like this on such short notice?”

  “Easy,” he said, sneaking up behind her to wrap his arms around her waist and tug her against him. “I just called and asked for it. Although it helps when you know the owner and renovated the hotel.”

  “Ah…” she said, curling into his warmth. “I should’ve known better than to think you’d be down there with the crowds tonight. Look how many people are already standing around and there’s hours to go.”

  “I’ve done that before,” he said, biting at her earlobe. “When I was younger and poorer. It was fun. But I’d much rather watch the ball drop tonight with your naked body pressed against this glass.”

  Tori responded by arching her back and pressing her hips into his throbbing desire. He growled against her neck. “And the best part is that these windows are one-way glass.”

  “Nobody can see in, even at night with the lights on?”

  “Correct.” Wade’s hand snaked across her stomach and up to caress one firm breast through the silky fabric of her blouse. Tori gasped softly when his thumb brushed over the hard peak of her nipple. “No one can see me do this, even if they were right on the other side of the window.”

  “That should prove interesting,” she whispered, near purring.

  “Indeed,” Wade said, undoing the top button of her shirt. “We have all night to test our theory.” He moved down for the second button. Then the doorbell rang.

  Blast. He’d ordered room service, hadn’t he? It seemed like a good idea at the time. He just hadn’t realized how much driving in the car with her would turn him on. Maybe it was the memories of their drive home from the restaurant that had made it hard to focus on the road.…

  Tori pulled away, smiling when she saw the pained expression on his face. “Sorry. Are we expecting someone?”

  “Dinner.”

  She arched an eyebrow and breezed past him to the front door of the suite. “You mean you aren’t taking me out somewhere?”

  “On New Year’s Eve? In the theater district? No, sorry. You said you didn’t like the crowds, and there’s no way to avoid them tonight unless we dine in.”

  Tori opened the door, and a man rolled in a cart covered in silver domes. He pushed the cart over to the dining room table and transferred the platters, unveiling them one by one. There was lobster, prime rib, herb-roasted potatoes, haricots verts and a platter of plump red strawberries with a bowl of chocolate fondue in the center. Last of all he placed on the table an ice bucket containing a bottle of champagne, and two glasses.

  Wade tipped the server. The man thanked him before disappearing just as quickly as he’d arrived.

 
“This is quite a spread you’ve ordered. You’ve done nothing but feed me indulgent food since we met.”

  “Nothing?” he asked with a mischievous grin.

  “Okay, well, it’s not all you’ve done, but we certainly haven’t worked off all these calories, either. I’m going to grow out of my clothes.”

  “Well…” Wade approached her and continued undoing the buttons of her blouse where he’d left off. “We’d better remedy that, right away.”

  * * *

  By the time they got around to dinner, it was nearly cold, but salvageable. The only warm food remaining was the ramekin of chocolate fondue, which was heated by a candle to keep it fluid for dipping. It didn’t matter. Tori had worked up a huge appetite and wasn’t feeling very particular.

  “The festivities will be starting soon, and the view in the dining room isn’t as grand. How do you feel about a picnic here in the bedroom?” Wade asked as Tori slipped into the bathroom.

  “Sounds great. Is it safe to say we’re staying in for the night?”

  “That was the plan.”

  “Okay,” she called, eyeing her wardrobe bag hanging beside her in the bathroom. Wade hadn’t really told her what they were going to be doing, so she’d packed a variety of clothing. Unzipping the bag a few inches, she spied the beaded neckline of the dress she’d been dying to wear.

  It was a fully beaded midnight-blue gown with a halter neckline and a slit up the side that went almost to her hip. It had been an impulse purchase. Tori rarely bought things like that because her storage space was at a premium in the Airstream. She’d simply had to own the dress and figured she’d worry later about what she would wear it to. She’d packed it for their trip thinking they might go someplace fancy. But why not wear it tonight?

  She was spending New Year’s Eve in a glamorous penthouse overlooking Times Square. She was about to dine on lobster and champagne with a handsome date. The dress would be perfectly suited for a night like this if they were in a chic restaurant or at a party in a grand ballroom. It should be just as suitable for a private dinner for two.