Gayle squeezed Julia’s shoulder, and then continued snipping. “I’m so glad you met someone you like. It’s been so long since Dillon, and even then you weren’t terribly fond of the douche. With good reason, of course,” she quickly added, with a wry smile.
Julia narrowed her eyes. “He is such a douche. And I feel so stupid for ever trusting him, or even getting involved with him.”
“That’s the thing. Sometimes you just can’t know how someone is going to turn out,” Gayle said as she ran a comb through Julia’s wet hair, appraising her work so far.
“Right? So I guess it’s all for the best that things aren’t happening with this other guy. He might turn out to be just like Dillon. I was an idiot for getting involved with him, and an even worse idiot for the way he scammed me.”
“That’s not what I meant. I mean, you can’t beat yourself up for not knowing Dillon was going to con money out of his employer and pin the debt on you,” she said, because that’s the extent of what she knew. Not that Charlie was a gangster, but that Dillon had swindled money from him. “That man should have his balls chopped off.”
“If I ever see him again, can I borrow those scissors?”
“I’ll order a better pair. A ball-snipping pair. But let’s talk about happier fates for balls. What’s this other guy like?” Gayle said, stopping her cutting for a moment to bump her hip against Julia’s shoulder, giving her a salacious wink in the mirror. “I want to hear all about him.”
She couldn’t help but grin at the memories that came racing back—images that warmed her heart, and sent her body soaring. Clay’s strong hands holding her down. His tongue working her over. His mouth claiming hers. Okay, now she was doing more than grinning. She was tingling something fierce. A sharp bolt of lust shot straight to her core, and then a burst of warmth surrounded her heart as she flashed on all the sweet things he’d said to her. “He’s the sexiest, dirtiest, smartest, and kindest man I have ever met.”
Gayle’s eyes widened. “More, more. Tell me more.”
She told her about their weekend. Not every detail, but enough to make Gayle’s jaw drop, and the tension to loosen momentarily in Julia. Just talking about him felt good. It was as close as she was going to come to being near him, because once she left this salon she was going back on lockdown. She’d tie her hands behind her back if that was what she had to do to resist him.
Chapter Fourteen
His junior partner’s jaw dropped when he saw the gift. A new set of five-irons that Robert had been eyeing for a few weeks. Talking about. Showing him pictures of on the Internet. It had damn near gotten to the point of golf porn. But Robert had sealed the deal with the Pinkertons yesterday, and with the kind of dough the film producers were raking in, he was contributing quite nicely to the firm’s bottom line. That kind of dedication and drive needed to be rewarded.
“Holy crap,” he said as he reached for the set and removed one club, touching it as if it were some kind of rare treasure. He stroked it with his palm.
“Robert, man. You can’t start feeling up the golf clubs in my office. If you do I’m going to need to take them back,” Clay joked.
“I can’t help myself,” he said, his eyes wide as he gazed at the club in his hand. “This is a thing of beauty. Almost better than a woman.”
“You haven’t met the right woman then,” he said, and his mind latched onto Julia, and how she’d seemed like the perfect woman for him. Smart, sharp, witty, and with that vulnerable side underneath. His mind flooded with images of their weekend: her curled up on his bench on the balcony, him washing her legs in the tub, that kiss in the rain that she’d insisted on. Then, to all the things they’d shared, her stories of her sister, his tales about Thanksgiving, and the easy way they had together. Like two people who were meant to be matched. Until she walked out on a lie. His chest knotted up, and his shoulders tensed, both with anger and annoyance.
Damn.
This wouldn’t do. He didn’t have the real estate in his head or his heart to keep going back to her, and all the ways he’d wanted her. Good thing he was seeing Michele tonight. She had a way of keeping him focused on the present, not the past. “I’m out of here. Meeting a friend for drinks,” he said to Robert, then grabbed his suit jacket and took off, making some phone calls when he hit the streets of New York.
First, he rang his buddy, Cam, about their poker game this week, and to check in on some information he’d asked him to run down on another potential client—a TV producer who’d seemed a little shady when he came to him, claiming his studio had screwed him over.
“I looked into your guy, and I can see how he might seem like a crooked bastard with the way things ended with his last deal. But you know what? I checked him out six ways to Sunday and that fucker is squeaky clean as can be,” Cam told him.
“Good to know,” he said, relieved his gut had been wrong. It was rare when it happened, but that’s why he liked to do his homework and research clients in advance.
“That’s why you like me though. C’mon, admit it. You love me because you never know if someone is a slimeball, but I can always find out.”
“That you can. And I guess I love you, in some pathetic needy way that makes me sick,” he teased.
“Aww, you’re so sweet when you shower me with compliments. So you gonna take this deal?”
“I probably will.”
“Then cigars are on you this week. I want the finest Cubans you can get your grimy paws on, because I plan on winning all the money in your pocket,” Cam said, and Clay couldn’t help but laugh at his friend’s brashness.
“We’ll see about that,” he said, and hung up to call Davis.
As it rang drops of rain began to fall. With his phone pressed to his ear, he navigated the rush hour crowds on Lexington Avenue. Women in skirts and heels and men in suits began to pop open umbrellas.
The rain wasn’t hard enough or heavy enough for him to worry about getting wet though. “Are they taking care of you across the pond?” he said into the phone.
“Of course. You know the producers love me,” Davis said.
“Modest as always.”
“Just like you,” he fired back.
“No troubles then? Anything I need to take care of?”
“You already got me that one-day-off-a-week clause so I could fly home and see Jill, so I’m doing just fine.”
“Ah, I guess that’s why I didn’t see you when you were in New York last weekend,” Clay joked, as he stopped at a red light.
“Amazing, isn’t it, how I’d rather spend time with her than you?”
“Shocking,” he said in a dry voice.
“What’s the latest with you? What happened with the woman you were hung up on?”
Clay clenched his jaw at the mention, frustration eating away at him. He didn’t feel like talking about Julia or how she’d taken off. It had been more than a week now without a word from her. He hadn’t reached out to her, and he was doing his damnedest not to think about her, burying himself in work, in contracts, in doing whatever he could for his clients. That was his focus. Head down in business, and no place else. He could not tolerate a repeat of the Year of Sabrina, especially now that Robert had reeled in the Pinkertons. He still felt guilty for losing Robert’s big action-film director client that year when his focus had been tangled up in Sabrina’s troubles. Clay needed to train his associate right, and show him how to keep winning and closing deals. The Pinkertons were a prize, and he’d make sure they were treated right by his firm and given ample attention.
“She was a piece of work,” he said vaguely as the light changed and he crossed, nearing the restaurant where he was meeting Michele. “I’m about to have a drink with your sister, though.”
“Well, be sure to keep your damn hands off of her,” Davis said in a light-hearted tone.
Clay shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Fuck off to you, too. I’ll catch you later.”
After hanging up, he pushed open the door, b
rushed off the drops of water on his suit jacket, and weaved his way to Michele, who was perched on a stool at the bar. She waved when she saw him, and as he reached her she wrapped him in a hug, and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“You don’t have an umbrella,” she said, wagging her finger.
He loosened his dark-green tie, unknotting the damn thing. “I’m a man. Men don’t carry umbrellas.”
“I’m a woman. I carry a big umbrella,” she said, tipping her forehead to the umbrella holder by the door. “Mine’s the polka-dot one about four-feet high.”
“Is that supposed to be a substitute for something, Michele?”
“Oh yes. You’ve figured me out. I have penis envy, so I carry a large stick.” She patted the wooden stool next to her. “Sit. Have a drink.”
“I need one,” he said, taking off his jacket and tossing it on the back of the stool. “Whiskey. Straight up,” he told the bartender.
When the glass of amber liquid arrived, he downed it in one quick swallow then ordered another. That glass earned the same treatment. Michele arched an eyebrow. “Shit day?”
“Shit week,” he muttered, running a hand roughly through his hair. He was sure his hair was standing up, unkempt. He’d been pushing his hands through it all week, as if that motion would somehow ease the coiled frustration that had taken up residence in his bones and bloodstream, courtesy of one Julia Bell. It made no sense to him. He’d studied it from all angles, turned it inside and out and around. He didn’t understand how they could have had the time together they did—a weekend that was unforgettable—and then descended into radio silence.
“Talk to me,” Michele said, placing a gentle hand on his arm. He looked down at her hand. Everything about her was familiar and safe. He’d known her for years, and though he’d never put his hands on her again after that one drunken kiss in college, there was something comforting about her. Maybe because they were long-time friends; maybe because she was a shrink. She helped people for a living. Maybe she could help him make sense of that woman’s exodus.
“Fine,” he said, because the alcohol had already loosened him up. He wanted to jettison this tangle of anger and hurt from his chest. “You ready for this?”
“The doctor is in session,” she said, sitting up straight and proper. “Only for an after-hours session, I insist on another one of these.” She tapped his glass.
She ordered another round as he began talking.
“I met someone,” he started, then told her the story. Not every detail. He wasn’t about to confess that he’d had a raging hard-on for the last week and refused to do anything about it because he knew he’d think of Julia, and he wanted to stop thinking of his fiery redhead. He didn’t tell her either that making love to that woman had been the most intense sexual encounter of his life. She was his perfect partner in every way—in the bedroom, and outside the bedroom. He’d never enjoyed a woman’s company as much as hers, and he’d felt like they could do anything together. “We had a great time. A perfect weekend. And we were falling for each other. I was sure of it. Talked about seeing each other again, making a go of it,” he said and Michele’s features tightened; her lips pursed as he told her about the plans they made for a long-distance affair. “Everything seemed like it was clicking on all cylinders. Every single thing.”
She drew in a sharp breath. “Every thing?” Her voice sounded strained as if the question were hard for her.
“Yeah,” he said, trying to keep the desire out of his voice. His throat was parched just thinking of Julia. “We had a connection.”
“Oh. I thought you meant . . .” Michele said, then let her voice trail off as she blushed.
He had meant that, but he didn’t intend to share details of his sex life with Davis’s sister. What a man did behind closed doors, or in a town car, or in a bar in the West Village—he shifted uncomfortably, recalling Julia’s stoic orgasm at The Red Line as he worked her over under the bar—was between the man and the woman. Only the woman he wanted had run; she didn’t want his business. “But the next morning, she was out of here like a bat out of hell. So tell me, Michele. Tell me, my wise little shrink. What am I missing? Is she secretly craving me and can’t figure out how to tell me?” he asked, laying it on the line as he ached for an explanation. “’Cause I fucking miss her, and I want her in my life. Did I miss a cue from her? Fuck something up? Is there something I should be doing?”
Michele didn’t answer right away. She reached for her glass and took a long drink. After she set it down, she looked straight at him, her dark-brown eyes both intense and caring. “I’m going to be blunt. I’m going to be direct, and talk to you like I would talk to one of my patients. And here’s the thing, Clay,” she said, reaching out to place her hand on his thigh. “That’s not how a woman behaves when she likes a man.”
His shoulders sank and he sighed heavily. “Yeah?”
She nodded. “She’s history. I hate to say it, because clearly you have it bad for her, but she ran. Maybe there’s something in her life that’s tying her down. Maybe she has some deep, dark past. Maybe she’s secretly married and really only could manage one weekend with you. But if she truly had a great time and truly was open to dating long-distance like she claimed, then she’d have called you when her flight landed. She’d have texted you. She’d be, I don’t know,” Michele said, forcing out a laugh, “sending you naughty pictures.”
Clay winced, and his dick rose to attention at the thought of a naughty picture of Julia appearing on his home screen. Maybe a shot of her topless, of those full luscious breasts that he longed to lick and kiss and squeeze. Or that ass, so round and sexy, and calling out for a spanking. In his mind, he could hear the sound of his palm smacking her ass, the sharp slap, and the surprised oh that would fall from her lips, followed by a moan. She liked spankings. He was pissed that he hadn’t had the chance to smack her ass more than once.
He wanted to slam his fist against the bar. “So the lack of naughty shots on my phone is the surest sign that this woman is history,” he said through tight lips, barely wanting to acknowledge the cold hard truth Michele was laying out for him.
She flashed him a sympathetic smile. “Yes, Clay. She’s history. When a woman wants to be with a man, she makes the effort to see him, to call him, to spend time with him, just as he does with her. She aspires to be honest and upfront. To share her heart. Besides, that’s what you deserve,” she said, and squeezed his arm.
For a second there it felt as if she lingered on his bicep. But maybe it was the booze making his mind fuzzy. Which reminded him—he needed another drink.
By the time he left, he was pretty damn sure he was buzzed. Walking to the subway stop two blocks away, he changed that assessment as the cabs and cars and lights around him grew fuzzier. He wasn’t buzzed. He was drunk. So drunk, he saw no reason why he shouldn’t text her as he headed down the steps to the platform, reaching for his phone from his pocket, missing it the first time. He nearly stumbled onto the subway car as his fingers flew across the screen.
I can’t stop thinking about you.
He hit send, then cursed himself, wished he could take it back. He was going to get nothing in return from Julia, and that would only make her exit burn more.
When he emerged on Christopher Street, he hoped that maybe the gods of drunk-texting were looking out for him. That perhaps there’d been no signal underground, and he’d be saved from his own stupid desires for her.
But there it was, in his sent messages, mocking his traitorous heart.
Chapter Fifteen
Julia brushed some sugar crystals along the rim of a martini glass, and handed her signature cocktail to a woman in a standard, boring, black business suit who’d wandered in a few minutes ago rolling a large black case on wheels, the kind that was usually full of pharmaceuticals. Julia guessed she was a sales rep for one of the big drug companies and had been pitching docs all day with little success. Quite simply, the woman looked worn down.
S
he sighed heavily, resting her chin in her palm. Julia felt for her, without even knowing her woes. Life could be a cruel mistress. Sometimes the days wrung you dry. The nights did too, those lonely nights when all she wanted was a note, a moment, a sweet reminder that she wasn’t one woman against the world, tackling everything solo.
“Enjoy,” Julia said, sliding the Purple Snow Globe in front of the woman. “I hope it makes the day a little better.”
The woman flashed a smile. “You have no idea how much I need this.”
“This one is my specialty, but if it doesn’t fit the bill, you let me know and I’ll mix up something else for you instead.”
The woman took her first sip, and her tired eyes lit up. Julia swore a switch had been flipped and they’d gone from muted to bright blue. “This is divine.”
She smiled. “I’m glad you like it,” she said, and for now, this was enough to make Julia’s shit week a bit better. She might not have won her game, she might have lost her man, but at least she could do one thing right: mix a drink, and lift the spirits temporarily of the weary.
She moved to the tap, filling a Pale Ale for a regular customer, a skinny guy who always stopped by after work. She liked him; he’d never once tried to hit on her. He was only here for the drinks.
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