Secrets of a Perfect Night

by Stephanie Laurens

  He’d lost control. That was what had happened, and he didn’t want to think about what he would have done if it were summer and getting Brina out of her clothes was just a matter of flipping up her skirt and slipping off her panties. He was afraid he wouldn’t have stopped. He would have made love to her against that tree where they’d played as kids. He would have gladly lost control to Brina McConnell.

  What was that saying about being careful of what you wished for? The bet he’d made with her had been a joke. All day he’d pictured her wearing long johns beneath that ski suit, and it had never entered his head that she only wore her bra, and not much of a bra either. Everyone knew you were supposed to wear a base layer. Everyone but Brina, he supposed. When he’d unzipped her suit, he’d thought she would stop him. He’d meant to shock her, but when he’d lowered his gaze, he’d been the one shocked like a kid getting his first look at a centerfold.

  Now as he sat in his Jeep, he wondered why she hadn’t stopped him. Ten years ago she’d always stopped him with that lame “my body is a temple” bullshit excuse her mother had taught her. Now she not only didn’t stop him, she squeezed her thighs around him and held his face to her breast, and he couldn’t help but wonder why. The easy answer was that they were both adults and enjoyed sex, but Thomas never went for the easy answers. He never would have succeeded in business if he had.

  On the drive to the lodge, another thought had entered his head. One he tried to dismiss but failed. He didn’t like it, but it was there—a nagging voice in the back of his brain. He’d seen it a lot with the older guys and wimpy geeks he did business with. Beautiful women, women like Holly who were willing to be with anyone, just as long as they had money, and the men kidding themselves that the women wanted them for themselves.

  Thomas didn’t want to believe that Brina could be so shallow, but he hadn’t seen or talked to her in ten years. Maybe that was exactly what she wanted. Money she’d never had as a kid and the attention she’d always wanted. To be seen with the biggest fish in the pond. And even though he knew it probably wasn’t fair to judge her by her past, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t done it before. Only last time he’d been dirt-poor and she’d dumped him faster than yesterday’s garbage.

  Thomas opened his door and got out of the Jeep. His quick strides carried him into the lodge and past the registration desk. Without waiting for the elevator, he took the stairs to the third floor. He had to take his mind off her before she drove him completely insane. He had to fill his head with something other than the way she’d grabbed ahold of his insides and twisted him around.

  Without pause, he walked past her door and to his own room. He unzipped his coat as he sat on the sofa in front of the fireplace and changed into his ski boots. Even as kids, there’d always been something about Brina. Something that had pulled at him. Something that just crept inside and made him want to wrap his hands in her hair and bury his face in her neck. Last night he’d thought he felt nothing for her, but he’d been wrong. This morning he’d thought he could kiss her and touch her and, maybe, make love to her. Nothing complicated. Just two people who’d known each other as kids, getting together as adults and having a good time. Just a man and a woman wanting to give each other a little pleasure.

  He’d been wrong again. They weren’t just any man and woman. They were Thomas and Brina, and like some preprogrammed memory, his body responded as if he were seventeen again. Wanting her so much he thought he would die. Only now it was worse.

  When he’d held her against that tree and looked into her hazel eyes turning gray with passion, he’d shot past wanting her and had headed straight for need.

  Thomas grabbed his skis and walked back out into the hall. The last thing he wanted was to give her that much control. The last thing he wanted was to need Brina McConnell.

  Five

  BRINA SQUINTED THROUGH the darkness to the clock next to her bed. It was 10:30 P.M. She’d missed the banquet and the tour of her old school. No big deal, but she’d wanted to hook up with Karen Johnson and Jen Larkin before the awards ceremony. She’d wanted to make sure she had someone to sit with so she didn’t look like a complete loner.

  She pushed her hair out of her face and sat on the side of her bed. After Thomas had dumped her at the lodge, she’d changed and gone back down to the lobby. Karen and Jen had been just about to leave to hit all the boutiques in town. Brina had joined them and bought a Galliton sweatshirt to replace the old one she slept in. She’d had a good time talking about the past with girls she had something in common with. Band girls. Home Ec Club girls. The nerds-who-don’t-ski girls.

  She’d helped Karen pick out a little bunting suit for her unborn baby, and they’d stopped for lattes in the old renovated fire station. She’d kept herself occupied, diverted her attention with shopping, and hadn’t thought of Thomas very much. Well, not every minute anyway.

  When she’d returned to the lodge, she’d grabbed the ski equipment she’d rented that morning. There was no use in keeping it since she didn’t plan to ski anymore. As she’d stood in line, waiting her turn to return the awful blue suit, laughter had drawn her attention out of the rental shop and into the lounge. Sitting beside a big roaring fire, looking tan and cozy, yucking it up like best friends, were Holly, Mindy Burton, and Thomas.

  While Brina had stood in the rental shop, her stomach turning, holding the suit Thomas had unzipped and stuck his hands inside, he’d casually flirted with other women.

  She’d watched as Thomas leaned forward to hear something Holly had said, and she’d felt a little pinch in her heart and looked away. He’d dropped her off to hang out with Holly and her friends, and that hurt more than she’d thought possible.

  After returning the suit, she’d gone to her room and tried to tell herself she didn’t care. Her eyes watered anyway, and it was just too bad her heart wasn’t listening. She’d turned on the televison to watch a little local news before getting ready for the action-packed events planned for that evening. She’d stared up at the ceiling, listening to a report on some stupid city council meeting, and she’d fallen asleep. Unfortunately, she’d had a nightmare involving Thomas and Holly, happy, laughing, together. Now that she was awake, she thought about going back to bed. Seeing Thomas again with Holly just might kill her.

  The light from the televison flickered and flashed across the room as she tried to imagine what might be happening in the banquet room below. Yes, seeing Thomas with Holly might kill her, but staying in her room imagining the worst would definitely do her in.

  Drained of anything that could be misconstrued as enthusiasm, Brina dragged herself into the shower for the second time that day. When she got out, she dressed in a pair of jeans and a short-sleeved mock T-neck, made of celery-colored stretch satin. The words Calvin Klein were written in silver across her breasts. She wore a black leather belt and pulled on her black shearling boots she’d worn earlier. They weren’t a great fashion statement, but they would keep her feet warm when she stepped outside to watch the fireworks show the lodge set off every year at the stroke of midnight.

  Brina blew-dry her hair, then wove it into a loose braid. She put on cosmetics to make herself feel better, rather than to look good for any particular man. She hung big silver hoops in her ears, wrapped her big silver watch around her wrist, and sprinkled silvery glitter in her hair. She looked short, but she looked good.

  On the way out, she grabbed the peacoat she’d brought with her from home, and by the time she made it downstairs, it was eleven-thirty. She moved past the ballroom where the reunion had been held the night before. Tonight the lodge was hosting its annual New Year’s Eve party, and the reunion had been moved down the hall to a large banquet room.

  She walked through the doorway and decided to hang back just in case she wanted to make a quiet exit. Mindy Burton’s voice flooded the room from where she stood behind a podium handing out little trophies.

  “Our next award goes to the couple with the most children. It goes to Bob and
Tamra Henderson. They have seven,” Mindy said, in her most cheerful rah-rah voice, as if cranking out seven rug rats in ten years ranked right up there with the seven wonders of the world. Everyone applauded Bob and Tamra’s reproductive organs, and Brina began to think that maybe it was just her. Maybe it was her crappy mood, but she really didn’t think giving birth was so unusual that it deserved a trophy. More like the reunion committee was so lame, they had to think up stupid reasons to give their friends a trophy. Next they would probably give an award for the brownest hair.

  She let her gaze skim the crowd, searching for Karen and Jen, but of course, she spotted Thomas first. And of course, he sat at a round table surrounded by women. As if he felt her gaze on him, he looked up at her, then slowly he rose from his chair. As Mindy announced the next award winner, Brina watched Thomas walk toward her. His face was tanned from the sun, his lips a little chapped. He wore faded Levi’s, a white cotton sweater with a navy V-neck, and a plain white T-shirt beneath. With each casual stride of his long legs, her heart raced a bit faster. The faster her heart raced, the angrier she became, and the angrier she became, the more she didn’t care if her anger was irrational. He’d kissed her and touched her like she meant something to him, then he’d dumped her and made her feel like she didn’t. He made her question his motives and hers. Made her uncertain and unsure. Something she hadn’t felt since high school.

  He didn’t owe her anything, she reminded herself. She didn’t owe him anything either. He was a stranger. They were strangers. She didn’t know him anymore.

  Only he didn’t feel like a stranger. When she looked into his familiar blue eyes, she felt as if she were coming home. Her soul recognized his. Thomas was the only person alive with whom she shared certain memories that brought a smile to her lips, a catch to her throat, or a longing to her heart. He was the only one who knew all her childhood insecurities and that in the sixth grade she’d prayed for a Strawberry Shortcake doll.

  “Hey,” he said as he stopped in front of her. “You just getting in from somewhere?”

  “Yeah, my room.”

  Mindy announced the award for the person who’d changed the least, and Thomas waited for the applause to die before he spoke. “You’ve been in your room all night?”

  “Yes.”

  “Alone?”

  She knew it. After what had happened that afternoon, he thought she was promiscuous, and of course, she’d also admitted to freaky sex in the Rose Garden, which didn’t help her image. With her peacoat hanging on one arm, she shoved her free hand on her hip. “Where were you all afternoon?”

  “With you.”

  She ignored the flush creeping up her neck. “After you dumped me.”

  His gaze narrowed a bit. “After we got back to the lodge,” he said slowly, “I went skiing.”

  “Yeah, I saw you skiing.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing.”

  “You’re mad about something.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Yes you are. I could always tell when you were mad. You’d get two little wrinkles between your eyes. You still do.”

  She’d rather eat worms than tell him why she was mad. She looked past him and searched the crowd until she spotted Karen and Jen. “Excuse me,” she said. “I’m going to sit with my friends.” She wove her way through the tables, and just as she hung her coat on the back of an empty chair, Mindy announced her next award.

  “The award for the person who has changed the most goes to Brina McConnell.” Brina looked toward the podium and stilled. She was shocked they’d remembered her. She glanced at Karen and Jen, saw their trophies, and realized everyone got one. Gee, and for a whole split second she’d felt special. She moved to the front of the room and Mindy gave her a cheap trophy cup mounted on an equally cheap hunk of plastic.

  “You look great now, Brina,” Mindy told her.

  Brina gazed into Mindy’s blue eyes and decided not to take offense at that comment. She and Mindy had never been friends, but Mindy had never been purposely mean either. “Thanks,” she said. “So do you.” She made her way back to the table, and as she sat, she cast a glance toward the doorway. Thomas was no longer standing there, nor was he seated with Holly. She gazed around the room and spotted him talking to George Allen. Thomas had put on his ski coat, and he rested his weight on one leg as he flipped his keys around his index finger. He shook his head, then turned and walked out of the banquet room. Brina couldn’t help but wonder where he was going and whom he might be meeting.

  “What did you get your award for?” she asked Karen, in an effort to take her mind off Thomas.

  “Girl most likely to give birth at the reunion.”

  “I bet it took them hours to think up that one.” She looked at Jen. “What’s yours?”

  Karen busted up laughing, and Brina hoped it wasn’t for something mean, like the girl who’d gained the most weight.

  “Most freckles,” Jen answered through a frown. “I wanted best hair, but they gave Donny Donovan the award for best hair.”

  “Isn’t he gay?”

  “No, his boyfriend is, though.”

  “Who’s his boyfriend?” Brina asked.

  “Do you remember a guy who graduated a year ahead of us, Deke Rogers?”

  “No,” Brina gasped. “Get out! Deke Rogers? The guy who looked like Brad Pitt and raced those muscle cars? Everyone was madly in love with him.”

  “Yep, everyone including Donny.”

  She shook her head. “Jeez, why couldn’t someone like George Allen do us women all a favor and be gay? No one would care.”

  “True.”

  Jen nodded. “Yeah, like no one cares that Richard Simmons is gay, but that Rupert Everett…” She sighed and laid her face in her pudgy hand. “I’d like the chance to turn him straight.”

  Brina bit her lip to keep from laughing, but Karen had no such qualm. She laughed so loud she drowned out Mindy’s voice, and so hard Brina feared she would break her water.

  After Mindy handed out the last two awards, she made her final announcement. “Of course, everyone is invited to join the lodge in their celebration to ring in the New Year. Five minutes before midnight, a complimentary glass of champagne will be provided, and I know some of you will be first in line to take advantage of free alcohol.”

  “Damn right,” someone yelled from the back of the room.

  “In the morning,” Mindy continued, over the drunken laughter of a few classmates who were obviously well past three sheets, “we’ll all get together back in the ballroom for our farewell brunch. You won’t want to miss this, we have something special planned.”

  As Brina stood and reached for her coat, she wondered what could possibly outdo cheap trophies.

  “Are you two going outside to watch the fireworks?” she asked Karen and Jen.

  “Heck no!” they answered in unison.

  “Too cold.”

  “You’ll freeze your butt off.”

  Growing up in Galliton, Brina had always loved to watch the fireworks the lodge shot into the sky, but back then, because she hadn’t been a guest of the lodge and had to watch from the parking lot. She’d always wanted a front-row seat; she and Thomas had both wondered what the show was like from the other side. Now as she walked down the packed hall toward the ballroom, her gaze searched for him. When each dark-haired man she passed turned out to not be Thomas, her heart sunk a little. She didn’t know how she could be so angry at a person, yet at the same time, desperate to see his face.

  The ballroom was packed with guests and locals who’d paid to attend. The dress ranged from casual to formal, and the band played mostly moldy oldies. Frank Sinatra and Ed Ames were big favorites. Shafts of fractured light reflected off the mirrored ball and onto the partyers below.

  Since neither Jen nor Karen wanted to brave the cold, Brina made her way around the outside of the room by herself. A hand grabbed her arm from behind and she turned, half expecting to see Thom
as.

  “Hey, Brina,” George Allen said above the music.

  Disappointed, she didn’t bother with a smile. She didn’t want to encourage him. “George.”

  While the band sang something about a lady being a tramp, George made a big show of pulling up his sleeve and looking at his watch. “It’s eleven fifty-three,” he said. “Seven minutes to midnight.”

  George had always thought he was a babe magnet, but he’d always been so wrong. “Yeah, you better go get your free champagne.”

  “That’s right.” He rocked back on his heels and stared at her through glassy eyes. “I’ll be right back. Don’t go too far. I plan on giving you a New Year’s Eve kiss.”

  “Oh goody,” she told him, but her subtle sarcasm was completely lost on him. “I’ll wait right here, I promise.”

  “Okaaaay,” he said, nodding his head, then melting into the crowd.

  Brina immediately made a beeline for the deck. She shoved her arms though the sleeves of her coat and pulled her braid from inside. As she buttoned her wool peacoat, she dodged and wove her way through the throng, then she opened the doors and joined the crowd on the deck. The frigid air hit her cheeks and nearly robbed her of breath. She turned up her collar and pulled her thin stretch gloves from her pocket. They wouldn’t keep her hands warm, but if she shoved them in her pockets, she would be okay.

  “Two minutes,” the band singer announced over speakers mounted in the corners of the deck. “Grab your champagne and your sweetheart.”

  She made her way to the railing and looked over the side to the people below. Her thoughts once again turned to Thomas. It was really too bad he wasn’t around. He’d loved fireworks as much as she had. In fact, he used to make rockets using match heads. Or perhaps he was around, getting ready to watch the show with someone else.

  “Brina!”