“I’ll see you every day at work.”
“Sure you will. It’s not like we’re strangers.”
“Deepa, thanks.” Her partner, now her best friend, was right. It was time she moved on with her life. Even though she wouldn’t be living it with Finn, there was still a hunk of life left to live and she wouldn’t spend it repining for what she couldn’t have. Meeting Finn again had been good for her. She knew what she needed, and she wouldn’t look back. She knew what Finn needed, too. And it wasn’t her.
“Hey, does all your soap smell of roses?” At the sound of the definitely masculine voice, Beth blinked and looked up.
The tall, drop-dead gorgeous man stood in the doorway, his eyes wide at the sight of the woman at the table. All he wore was a towel slung around his lean hips. He hadn’t heard her come in, and she knew just why. They probably owned the noisiest water system this side of the Thames. Although she’d heard the water when she’d come in, she’d thought it was just the tank refilling from Deepa’s shower. It appeared not.
So Beth wasn’t the only person moving on. One glance at Deepa was all it took to set her off on the best laugh she’d had in years.
“There’s an important client coming to get some plans today,” Joy announced. After coming in, then sending Beth out to get coffees for them, Joy had finally allowed Beth to restart the filing she’d fouled up the day before. She’d used the misfiling as a way to pry under Joy’s nose. Finn wouldn’t know what to look for but in her perusal of the files Beth had noticed a few absences. File tabs were generally staggered so they could all be read without moving the one before, and in the meticulous arrangement she’d found a few gaps. Joy wasn’t using the computers at all. She was using the good old-fashioned paper backups. Finn still did most of his preliminary designs on the old drawing board that had belonged to his grandfather. It was set up in a corner of his office, behind his desk. She knew from the old days that ideas came better to him when he had a pen in his hand. Only when he’d got the general idea did he move to the computer, and even then he’d go back to his pen to refine the details. And they were all filed. Joy was simply appropriating the files and copying them.
But, sadly, today everything was in order. Joy might have got wind of his suspicions, or she might be waiting for the next big deal. Which was what they were waiting for.
The phone rang and Joy sat up straighter. Beth made a point of not looking at her, but she knew it meant Joy was expecting someone up here. That feeling increased when Joy straightened her keyboard and mouse while she spoke down the phone. “I see. I’ll come down and fetch her.”
She got to her feet and glanced around the room. “Don’t make a mess. Finn’s got a visitor, an important potential client. He only told me this morning.” And she hadn’t told Beth, which let her know where she stood in office priorities. And in Joy’s eyes, too. “Just smile and don’t say anything until you’re asked. If you’re asked.” She straightened her skirt, a black one only marginally less tight than the one she’d worn yesterday, and slid the matching jacket from the hanger she kept behind the door. Beth had never been asked to share it, or even bring one of her own.
In five minutes, Joy returned with a superior-looking Indian lady, also wearing something business-like and expensive, probably designer. Definitely designer. Beth recognised the Armani trouser suit Deepa dragged out for special occasions. The deep black suited her, emphasised the glittering eyes and the fall of shiny black hair, presently confined behind her head in some kind of elaborate knot. Deepa glanced around the room, and her gaze skated past Beth as if she were of no importance. Which she wasn’t at the moment. “This is Ms Laxmi Chaudhry. She has a meeting with Mr Scott that could take some time. Don’t put any calls through, take messages and bring us some refreshments.”
Beth felt like saluting, but instead put on a sweet smile and asked, “What would you prefer, Ms Chaudhry? Tea, coffee or something else?”
Deepa gave an airy wave. “Don’t bother on my account. I really can’t afford the time.” She used an Indian accent, noticeably absent from her usual manner of speaking. Probably because she’d visited India exactly twice in her life. Her parents had come to England from Uganda. But the accent was a good one. Beth wondered where she’d picked it up. Probably all those Bollywood films they both loved.
Joy’s smile broadened, and she rapped once on the door before ushering Deepa inside. If Deepa had really been Ms Chaudhry that alone would have alerted Beth to her significance. And the lack of a growl from inside the office.
Joy reappeared in minutes, her smile gone. “They don’t want me to take minutes,” she said. “And Finlay doesn’t want anyone disturbing them. I could do with a coffee, though.” Which put Beth in her place nicely.
Deepa and Finlay reappeared after half an hour, and Finlay held a large, black portfolio. He gave Joy a smile. “Could you have this couriered over to the Savoy, please? Ms Chaudhry has to go somewhere else first and I’m sure she doesn’t want to be burdened by this.”
Joy took the portfolio then checked her watch. It was eleven a.m., which Beth saw by glancing at her computer screen. Joy hadn’t needed the gesture to check the time. “I can take it over personally, if you like. I’ll take an early lunch.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to disturb your day,” Deepa said, and without waiting for Joy to reply, continued, “but I am anxious to study the plans. They really are very impressive.” She gave Finlay a doe-eyed look. “I’ll see you later, then?”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Finlay took her away and Joy stowed the portfolio by the side of her desk.
Finlay returned rubbing his hands together. “That could be a huge deal. Laxmi works for one of the biggest construction companies in India, and they’ve secured the rights to demolish an old apartment block in the centre of Mumbai. They want a new showpiece building, a mixture of shops and upmarket apartments. I’ve been working on this design for years. It’d be great to see it in reality.” Which explained why he could provide Deepa with an instant design, but didn’t explain why he’d used her assumed first name instead of the more formal ‘Ms Chaudhry’. “I’m taking her to dinner tonight. Could you book a table for two for us, please, Joy? Somewhere nice. Laxmi’s not Muslim, so you don’t have to find a halal-friendly place.”
Joy’s full mouth firmed. “Of course. What time?”
“Eight-thirty.”
So it was that later that day Beth found herself sitting opposite Finn in one of the best and newest restaurants in London. The food smelt wonderful and she felt a pang of guilt. “Deepa should be here, not me.”
“No, she shouldn’t.” Finn reached across the table and touched her hand. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ll book a table for Deepa and guest. But, nice though she is, I don’t want to be with her tonight.”
Beth caught her breath at the implied assumption that they’d stay together tonight, but she was too honest not to admit she wanted it, too. Finlay Scott could get addictive and she was afraid she was drawn in already. Too late to step back, too late for second thoughts. Looking at him, caressing him with her gaze, she caught him looking at her the same way. She wanted to break off with a laugh, but she couldn’t have done it if her life depended on it. “Finn, we shouldn’t.”
“Why not?”
She groped for a reason. She wanted time to think things over, time to distance herself from the inevitable hurt that would come when she had to say goodbye to him again but she didn’t want to tell him that, show him her vulnerability. “We need to concentrate on the job. Do you think she took the bait?”
Thankfully, Finn followed her lead. “Joy? Oh yes, she took the bait. I knew the minute she said she’d take the portfolio over herself. It gives her time to stop off somewhere and copy the drawings. Probably her flat, if your guess about where she keeps all the incriminating evidence is true. She lives a twenty-minute train ride away, but she did take a long lunch, didn’t she?”
Beth
nodded. “She said she had a hairdressers’ appointment, but I don’t think she had. She’d redone the style when she came back, but it didn’t look very different. She could have gone home, scanned your designs into her home computer and come back.” She paused. “So do you know where she’ll take them?”
“I think so.” Finn took a forkful of steak and ate it before he spoke again. “She knows who else is likely to tender for the Mumbai contract. Which, by the way, is real. I just didn’t give Deepa the right designs. If the company who buys them from Joy uses them, they could be in trouble. I did that design for my first undergraduate project. Spectacular but fatally flawed. There’s a construction problem that would mean the whole structure would collapse soon after completion.” He grinned. “I had a lot of ambition but little patience for the practicalities in those days. I soon learned. But the thing looks great on paper. I’ve already tendered my real designs to the company, so there’s no chance the others will be taken seriously. That took a little doing, keeping that project away from Joy, but I already suspected her when I got word of the commission.”
“Which is why you have the drawing board set up at home.” Beth gave in to temptation and tucked into the food on her plate, which turned out to be a delicious concoction of prawns, sauce and crisp vegetables.
“I’ve started using it a lot more since I realised someone was selling information.” He put his fork down and met her perceptive gaze. “I thought it might be the last temp. Joy’s assistant had to take longer off than she’d thought. She had complications with her pregnancy, so I assured her that her job was secure and asked for a long-term temp contract. I’ve been getting by ever since.”
“I don’t think Joy really needs an assistant,” Beth said. “I do most of the work. She preens and attends to the high profile stuff.”
He sighed. “I never knew that.”
“And I think I know the reason.” She’d had plenty of time to observe Joy, and since observing was part of her job she did it well and discreetly. “Joy wants you. I don’t think that’s put on, I think she really does. Maybe when the other assistant took time off she thought she’d get you to herself, or maybe she’s tired of waiting for you. Did you turn her down a lot?”
He grimaced. “Frequently. I thought she just wanted to get it on like a convenient arrangement. I didn’t realise she wanted it that much.”
Beth clicked her tongue. “I swear, you are the worst reader of body language I’ve ever known. She wears those tight clothes, leans over you every chance she gets, makes eye contact far too much and gives you the come-on in every way but screaming it out loud. She’s always looking at you.”
“Sure it’s not jealousy?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
He assuaged her irritation by reaching for her hand again and rubbing his thumb over her knuckles before he released it. “I’m sorry she thinks that way, and sorry I didn’t say no more firmly sooner.” He paused. “Even sorrier she’s taking this way of getting revenge. If that’s what it is.”
Privately, Beth suspected that greed had a lot to do with it, but she’d blackened Joy’s reputation enough. She almost had it in her to feel sorry for the woman. Almost.
Chapter Five
The next day Beth first became aware that Finn had arrived in the office when she heard his disembodied voice on Joy’s intercom. “Could you send Beth in, please?”
She started. “How did he get in?”
“He must have used his private entrance.” Joy’s air of triumph proved easy to bear. Trying her best to appear hangdog, Beth didn’t need Joy’s parting, “I knew he’d get rid of you.”
She paused at the door. “What makes you say that?”
“You think I don’t know you’re fucking him? He does it with every temp. Fucks her and sacks her. You’ll be out that door before the end of the day.”
Beth raised a brow, but didn’t answer. That wasn’t the Finn she knew, and she had no doubt Joy was lying to her in an effort to make her feel bad. She shrugged before she entered his office.
This time he was waiting for her behind the door. No rushing across the room to get to her before she got away, and they’d assuaged the desperation. At least, she’d thought they had, before he took her lips in a mind-melting kiss.
Every time, every fucking time he did that she turned to a puddle of need in his hands. He circled her waist, slid his hands up to her breasts and cupped them as he kissed her, as she opened her mouth to him and he took everything she offered. And more.
He pulled her away from the door and, still kissing her, strode across to his desk and laid her on the flat surface. He never kept much on his desk, only the keyboard, mouse and screen of his computer and a single inbox for paper, and he’d already pushed them aside. He released her, gazing down at her, the expression in his eyes telling her all she needed to know.
“So, my office temptress, my temp in shining armour, here we are.”
She lay back. Keeping his gaze, she set her hands on the buttons on her short-sleeved shirt. It had been crisply ironed, but he’d crease it even more if she didn’t get it off now. That wasn’t what drove her, though. She wanted to display herself for him, to him, watch the burning lust in his gaze increase to incandescent. She lifted her legs, twined them around his waist, holding his cock close to her crotch. Since she wore a skirt today that meant only his clothes and her knickers lay between them, her one layer already soaked with her arousal. “Here we are,” she murmured as she released the buttons one by one, taking her time in revealing her skin to him.
As she’d guessed, he couldn’t resist. He scooped her up from the hard surface, helping her to discard her top and unfastening her bra, tossing it in the same direction as the shirt. When his hands went to her skirt zip, she stopped him. “Now you.”
Nothing loath, he stripped out of his shirt and tie, and had his trousers and underwear down faster than she could help him. He returned to her and lifted her legs, rehooking them around his waist. He raised a brow. “You were saying?”
She burst into laughter and was still laughing when he kissed her. Then she wasn’t laughing any more, but moaning into his mouth as he took her on a journey, one she’d been on before but one that had different stops along the way, different experiences to discover. He stroked his thumb against the underside of her breast and she shivered, arching up to him, so he did the same with his tongue and she whimpered his name.
“Another G-spot,” he murmured, his breath hot on her skin. “I won’t forget that one.” He toyed and licked her breasts, sucking one of her nipples into his mouth for a hard, fast moment before he released it, and continued to lavish attention on her, licking, caressing, then ridding her of her skirt and underwear, easing them off and moving close, his cock rubbing against her open pussy, the friction teasing her clit.
He laughed when she squirmed against him but the laugh ended on a gasp when he partially entered her. He pulled away quickly. She pulled him back, her hands gripping his hips as if she’d never let him go. “It’s all right.”
He didn’t ask her any more, but gazed into her eyes as he eased into her body. When he was fully embedded, her pubic hair mingling with his, he stared down at where they joined. “I’ll never get tired of seeing that.”
She was too far gone to answer, but pressed her heels against his arse, pushing so he had to work her deep. He rotated his hips so his cock connected with every part of her inside and she wailed and arched as he withdrew, fighting against her urge to come in deeper, only to slam his rigid shaft into her again. He stared down at her, panting, his teeth bared. “You want more?”
“Yes, yes please, Finn.”
“Ah, fuck, Beth, I can’t stand it. I have to have you and every time it just makes me want you more.” With a groan, he worked her, driving so hard he pushed her further up the polished surface, following her until she used her heels as purchase against him and pulled herself back. Her breasts quivered with every hard stroke, until he took them betw
een his hands, pressing them together and bending to take them into his mouth one by one, kissing, suckling, nipping then easing the nip with strokes of his tongue. He kissed around the areolas, then sucked, hard, and with a cry, she came, her pussy clenching around him, milking him to a hard and frantic climax.
His essence jetted inside her. She felt it heat her as he slumped over her, supporting his big body on his hands, his chest working like a pair of bellows while he tried to get his breath back. “Not exactly what I planned,” he said eventually. “I wanted something slow and easy on the sofa.
She gazed up at him, her heart in her eyes. “I loved it,” she confessed.
He laughed and lifted her up against him. She kept her legs around his waist as he kissed her, pouring the passion and excitement they’d just shared into the kiss. He took her mouth on a long, leisurely tasting, his hands holding her safe with a tenderness that had been entirely absent a few moments before.
He took her to the sofa and laid her down. She wriggled and chuckled when she realised he’d already laid the blanket on it. “Who’s afraid of his cleaners?” She caressed his jaw and he turned his head to kiss her palm. He slipped out of her as he lay down next to her and she mourned the loss.
Even more when she felt his wetness against her thigh and remembered what it meant. How useless she was in that regard.
She had to tell him. She couldn’t walk away this time, and not let him know why. It would be worse than unfair—it would be cowardly of her. She saw that now, that she’d walked away rather than told him the truth before. She wouldn’t do that again, but she quailed at the thought of telling him. She could do nothing else.
They held each other in silence, enjoying the peace and togetherness before Beth turned her head and remembered something. “The window!”
He laughed softly and pulled her closer. “I wondered when you’d remember that. There are any number of high buildings around here. We front the river, so I’ve kept it relatively low. Seven storeys, to be precise. That means lots of people with lots of binoculars and telescopes could have seen us.”
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