by Odell, Roxie
“I’ll think about it,” she said hotly. “And Derrick?”
“Yes?”
“I want you to think about it, too, all day long,” she said in a raspy, daring voice. “Bye bye now.”
“See ya, beautiful.”
She sank into the driver’s seat as the valet held the door for her. She gazed longingly and suggestively at Derrick for as long as she could before she drove off.
Derrick went back to the coffee bar. He ordered another hot beverage, a strong espresso, along with a warm, delicious, sticky-sweet pastry. Then, on the way back to his room, his body let him know that the impromptu breakfast wasn’t such a bright idea after all the drinks the night before. A fine sheen of sweat broke out across his forehead, and for just a split second, he worried that too much of an amazing thing might actually take its toll.
In a way, he also worked from home. The wonderful thing about that was that he could crash in his room for a while and still make it to his meeting on time. He showered, napped, then showered again, but even that didn’t leave him feeling one hundred percent. Once again, Corrine’s crack about booze became a pesky reminder that he might have partied too hard.
Despite his hazy head, Derrick dressed in his best power suit and showed up to his meeting looking crisp and clean. As soon as the meeting was underway, his phone buzzed. Damn. He’d forgotten to silence it.
While trying to maintain the appearance of being attentive, he stole a peek at his device and saw that it was a message from Corrine. As his body hummed with anticipation, he casually tapped the screen with his thumb and downloaded the picture she sent.
He knew it was a risky, juvenile move, and he was sure that anyone who glanced his way would know exactly what he was up to. Even if they didn’t know he was sexting or being sexted, none of them would be fond of him being paid to be there when his mind was elsewhere. It was truly a game of Russian roulette because he knew there was a high possibility that the picture would be a racy one. Being the thrill-junkie he was, though, he purposely left some of the image uncovered, even knowing he could bring the entire deal to its knees with his boyish behavior.
Derrick’s eyes widened, and he decided he had to shield his phone quickly when he saw the heart-stopping shot of Corrine in the tub. It was tough for him to hide the fact that he had received something that affected him, as he could feel the heat spreading into his face. His throat was dry, forcing him to swallow hard.
They’ll break for coffee refills in a minute. I’ll get some water then. The blood rushed to his ears so violently that he only heard a fraction of what was said. He scolded himself for that, knowing he had to put her out of his mind and focus on his job. Corrine Smith, you’re in trouble for this. He stifled a wicked grin as he tried to decide just what kind of punishment he would administer.
Derrick forced himself to put his hot, sweet hookup buddy out of his mind. He reset his brain and thought about the meeting. From what he had read prior to attending and from what he did manage to hear, the deal sounded like one that Gil Frosh, the Tresor owner, might want to further explore.
As he thought about that, he remembered Corrine’s reaction to the idea that he might have to travel for business. Los Angeles wasn’t a huge leap from Las Vegas, and it wouldn’t be that big a deal, nor would it be forever. He was sure they could make it work, just as they had been for so long. They really had to because as much as he liked her, he could not possibly risk his job because of their affair. There was no confusion when it came to what had to be put first.
His phone buzzed again and revealed a tempting photograph of her very blessed backside. Derrick’s eyelids involuntarily pressed together, and he was paralyzed with the pleasure that surged through his head. He zoned out momentarily, as if he could have drifted to sleep right where he was. He thought about calling for a break since they were due for one anyway, just so he could tell Corrine to stop. Then again, it would undoubtedly thrill her to no end to hear how her exquisite pictures had halted a multimillion-dollar business deal, leaving him stupefied, fighting like hell to suppress his arousal so he could stay on track. Corrine wasn’t his day job, but she sure had him daydreaming.
In their erotic little war, Derrick decided the best strategic move was not to respond at all. The agony of waiting for him to tell her how magnificent she was would be a sweet torture she would never forget, and that would bring him pleasure as well. He almost burst out in diabolical laughter at his brilliant scheme when he turned the phone off for the remainder of the meeting. He knew it would drive her crazy if he did not remark on the pictures. It would have her practically screaming for his response and attention.
“Gentlemen,” he said, cutting the speaker off midsentence. “I like where this is going. If I could call a fifteen-minute break, I’d like to check in with my boss.”
They seemed to like the sound of that, and everyone stood up and stretched without hesitation.
While they laughed at corny office jokes and refilled their coffee cups, Derrick exited the room like he was on fire, hurried into the nearest empty office, and closed the door. He took some deep breaths to calm himself down. The pictures had left him feeling like he’d been drugged. He adored her, but she had to be taught a lesson for disrupting his meeting. He, too, had actual work to do. Unless he drew a line, he was sure he’d end up too easily sacrificing his work for the high she gave him. He felt like he was letting everyone down in his business, especially since the proposal just set before him sounded like a wise investment for his boss.
The privacy of that office gave him the perfect opportunity to call Corrine, but ultimately, he decided to continue with his vow of silence on the matter. It hurt him as much as it would sting her, and it was one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do, resisting the urge to lavish her with well-deserved praise.
It was plain to see that she was dying for a response because she sent a flurry of texts, desperate for an answer. “So… get anything interesting in your texts and emails today?” she wrote.
He revisited the image in his head, her body posed so carefully and thoughtfully. The mere memory worked its magic another time, but he said nothing. He would smother her with compliments when he finally broke down and connected with her again, but that was not going to be for a while.
In time, Derrick felt guilty for ignoring Corrine. Her messages became more and more frantic as the day progressed, and he feared he was being a little heartless. No matter how vicious her attacks were or how enticing the dirty messages got, though, he let all of them go to voicemail or remain unseen. He burst out laughing when he listened to some of the messages, her trying so hard to lure him with her sexiest voice. Dinnertime, baby, he thought. I’ll let you off the hook then. In the meantime, she hit him with her best shots.
Throughout the day, Derrick racked up quite a collection of incredibly sexy pictures of her. Not all of them featured lingerie and skin. It seemed the more vulnerable she felt, the sweeter the pictures were. After he returned to his room, he printed out a beautiful selfie she sent, perfect for a desktop ornament. He changed out of his work clothes and headed down to the nearest drugstore to buy a temporary frame. On the way, he texted Corrine, but he still didn’t let her off the hook completely.
“Hey,” he wrote, deliberately keeping the message short.
She replied. “Hey, long meeting?”
“Nah,” he answered casually, quite aware that he was being a bastard. If he had been in her shoes, he would have been climbing the walls. “Hey, I’m about to go into a drugstore. Don’t know if I’ll get reception. Can I call you in a minute?”
“Yeah,” she answered, a short response that betrayed her obvious disappointment.
Derrick was inspired by all the pictures she’d sent, so he bought several frames. While he would display a few of her photos in his office, the less decent ones would make great adornments for his hotel room.
Once he had all the frames he needed, he wandered down the candy aisle and chose s
ome high-end chocolate, in a decorative gold-foil package. He was a little spent still from the night before, so he passed on alcohol and just chose a nice bottle of sparkling water. On the way out, he imagined feeding Corrine the chocolates. He could almost feel the sensation of her lips against his fingertips as he headed back to the hotel in a hurry, the full shopping bag in hand.
Derrick framed the selfie he’d printed and set the chocolate and water in the refrigerator before he texted her again, pretending he was in the casino just to intensify the impression that he had mildly blown her off that day.
“On my way,” she wrote.
He hurried to the elevator and made his way to the closest one-armed bandit to wait for her. He dropped a twenty in the slot machine, knowing full well he was throwing his money away. He bet small, giving him a bunch of spins. There was something stress relieving about it anyway, definitely worth the twenty bucks he spent, especially when he eventually hit the jackpot.
It was a vintage machine, and a cocktail waitress was quick to hand him a bucket to catch the quarters as they spilled out. It really wasn’t a massive win, but it did give him his money back and then some. Not only that, but it earned a little applause from some of the bystanders.
The waitress hovered, certain that he’d at least tip her for her trouble. He was ready to do so, but as he stood up, he stumbled, scattering a few of his winnings all over the floor. He instinctively placed his hand on her hip to steady himself as he got down to pick up the money.
“What the…” Corrine stuttered, choosing that inconvenient moment to whoosh in the door.
Derrick looked up, forgetting instantly about the lost money, and the cocktail waitress did the honors while he just blinked at Corrine. “How did you get here so fast?” he asked in total shock.
“I told you I was coming,” she replied, her lower lip beginning to buckle as if she was wounded by his question.
“Fair enough,” he said.
“Derrick Quinn, what are you doing down here gambling, when you should have been heaping adoration upon me for all those smoking-hot texts and emails?” she demanded, a faux scolding, even tapping her foot for effect. Her eyebrows were arched, and she set her hand on her marvellously curved hip, which she cocked out with intoxicating boldness. There was a noticeable difference between her reaction and the one he would have gotten from his ex-wife Lindsay, who might have physically assaulted him for ignoring her all day, even if it was just for fun.
He caught himself comparing the two women again, taking note of how night-and-day they were. You gotta stop doing that, man. You gotta stop letting your past be the gauge of your present… or maybe your future. He set that thought on the back burner and shrugged. “Sorry, you caught me,” he said, playing along.
She tried to seem nonchalant and lighthearted, but there was a flicker of seriousness in her voice and her expression, one that had Derrick worrying he’d gone a bit too far.
“You good?” he asked, stooping over a little so they were face to face.
“You didn’t call me,” she reiterated. She was still smiling, but her message was clear: The whole thing had driven her crazy.
“Huh?” he asked, his eyes narrowing as he tried to keep up the ruse.
“More like, what the hell?” she continued to admonish.
She wouldn’t come out and say it, but she was most definitely calling him out on his game.
“Corrine, baby,” he protested with a smile. Even though she had him dead to rights, he wouldn’t come clean, not just yet.
“Okay,” she said sarcastically. “I guess I’m just reading too much into things, being too dramatic.”
Derrick handed the bucket of quarters to the cocktail waitress. “Here you go.”
“Hey, where’s mine?” Corrine asked with a little bite.
“Do you want some?” he challenged devilishly, somewhat flattered that she seemed jealous.
“No,” she said, pretending she wasn’t bothered. “I’ve got no claims to your cash. We’re just friends with benefits, right? It’s not like I’m your ex-wife or something. There’s a code to our kind of affair, you know.”
“Oh yeah?” he asked. “And what code would that be?”
“Well, the first rule is, do not be a drag,” she responded proudly.
“I see,” he said quietly.
“I’m not sure you do,” she retorted.
She wasn’t hostile, but Derrick sensed it could go either way at that point. The last thing in the world he wanted was to fight with her, so he decided enough was enough and quickly switched gears. “C’mon,” he said, feeling it was best to go outside for some fresh air.
He took Corrine firmly by the hand and led her out, tired of the games. As far as he was concerned, whether she was ready for it or not, it was time for them to have a real conversation out in the real world, beyond the make-believe, neon, beeping, flashing world of a Las Vegas casino, but she quickly dug in, stopping them.
“Where are we going?” she demanded.
“To a restaurant,” he said. “A real one. The Tresor’s not getting our business tonight.”
The Nevada sun blanketed them in warmth. It was bright and clean, and even though the day was quickly being swallowed up by twilight, the heat was still going strong, though it was quite lovely and not at all unbearable.
Not far from the excess of hotels and casinos, there was a family-style chain restaurant that made delectable, fresh, chopped salads. It was the kind of place with lots of lights and plenty of windows. Diners could look outside and not lose all sense of time, which was the case in most Vegas establishments. There was no pretense or lure about it. It was just normal, and that was an attractive quality to Derrick. He wanted to take Corrine someplace where they could enjoy a plain, ordinary existence for a while.
Unfortunately, instead of things smoothing out between them, Derrick sensed that her apprehension was growing. It seemed his upcoming change of plans, dictated by his career, was making her more anxious, and that was only complicated by him avoiding her, something he had hoped would turn her on. He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and turned to her, hoping to break through the tension.
“Relax,” he said firmly. “I just figured some healthier food and variety would do us good, not to mention a little daylight.”
“Promise?” she asked with a laugh.
“Yes, of course,” he said as if she were just being silly.
He didn’t want to have a conversation while they were in motion, not until they were sitting. He felt a bit guilty that he had made her nervous, but in a way, he also felt she deserved it. He appreciated the pics, and they were really quite amazing, but he felt she’d crossed a line in sending them while she knew he was working, something that might have landed him and his company in really hot water. He could have even lost his job entirely.
We’ve gotta have a code for real and decide on some rules and boundaries if we’re gonna carry on with this affair. Or whatever the hell it is.
He also had to let her know that it looked like Gil Frosh was most likely going to build in Los Angeles, which would obligate him to travel. He would invite her along to join him whenever she wanted to, but they would not be seeing each other in person every day for a while. He had to make that clear.
“Hey,” he began once they were settled.
She ignored him, mindlessly staring at the label of a ketchup bottle as if it held the secrets to the world.
He could tell she was still simmering, but he bravely kept going. “So I, uh, got these amazing pictures today while I was in my meeting, and—”
“Yeah, I’m sorry if that was too over the top,” Corrine interrupted with a rapid explanation. “I just had this idea, and I couldn’t help it.”
“Shh,” he said, pressing his index finger to her lips. “They were beautiful. So awesome that I’m framing every last one.”
Her eyes popped with a different kind of nervousness, and her face bloomed with a most adorable blush.
“I did have to turn the phone off at one point, though,” he said, leaning closer to her.
“Oh,” she said innocently. “You did?”
“I did,” he said with a bit of a scolding tone. “See, there’s a code in those conference rooms.”
“What kind of code?” she asked with a smile, noticing his play on her own words.
“Well, if a guy gets a hot pic from a scorching-hot babe, he has to pass it around, and I wasn’t sure how that would go over with you.”
“Sorry,” she said, sulking.
“No need to apologize.” He smiled. “We haven’t really talked about things like that, about the rules, so to speak. I guess we need to have that conversation.”
“So, you purposely refused to respond to me?”
“Yeah,” he admitted, ready to lay her on the table and take her right there in front of the whole world, even if it meant knocking that stupid ketchup bottle onto the checkered floor, but he knew it was neither the time nor the place. “I mean, no. I mean… yeah, I didn’t respond to you on purpose.”
She socked him on the shoulder with a little a bit of force, even though it was supposed to be in jest. “I knew it!” she accused. “You know, you’re kind of a bastard.”
“I am,” he admitted. “It’s hard being the disciplinarian.”
“Hey!” she said with a gasp. “It’s on, buddy. It is on!”
“What’s on?” he challenged mildly.
“Um… I’m not sure yet, but I’ll think of something,” she promised.
He took hold of her, lightly but firmly. He felt like he was tumbling into love with her. He wasn’t sure if it was the right time to say it out loud, but just talking about boundaries opened a floodgate, and he felt like he was spinning. It seemed as if everything had changed, and he had to get serious about it.
“For real now,” he said after kissing her hair. “I’ve got something else to put on the table.”
“What?” she asked.
“Well, as I told you earlier, that meeting was about a potential new hotel in L.A.”