Sure, she was probably the first girl he’d ever loved and she’d probably taken his virginity and she was here now, stirring up all those memories, and she was gorgeous AND she had the red hair so she was one of his own kind . . .
No, I wasn’t going to let myself go there. Lucah loved me. If I wasn’t sure of ANYTHING else, I knew that. I could hold onto that. And I loved him. So much.
I could almost hear his voice in my head, telling me I was crazy, I had nothing to worry about, he loved me, my ass, etc. And then he would probably try to convince me again to head to the supply closet.
That made me smile. He always made me smile. There was a knock at the door, and I opened it. Mrs. Andrews.
“Oh, hello, dear. I just thought I would, ah, check on you. That was quite a shock, wasn’t it?” I let her in my office and shut the door behind her again.
“I’m fine,” I said, my voice going up several octaves.
“Of course you are, because that boy loves you, and if he still loved her, then he would be with her. But he’s with you, because he’s meant to be with you.” She made it sound so simple. I liked it.
I nodded and she patted me on the shoulder.
“Besides, she’s definitely too thin. I want to take her out for lunch and feed her.” She giggled and gave me a wink before leaving.
I would deal with that later. Now, I had work to do. Glorious work that didn’t make me think of Lucah and his ex and her red hair and long legs at all.
My phone rang at eleven thirty, and it was Lucah. I took a breath before I answered.
“Hey,” I said. He breathed for a second before he responded with, “Hey.”
“You recovered? Everything okay?” I tried to keep my voice level and calm.
“I think so. I’ve, uh, I’ve been hiding in my office.” His office was a lot smaller than mine, and the walls were a lot thinner.
“From Violet?”
“I don’t know. From everything. You wonder why I don’t talk about my past and part of it is because of my parents and part of it is that, I don’t know, I’m not ashamed of the way I grew up, but I’m afraid it’s going to taint what I have now.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“I know.”
“I’m just glad to know that you’re as ridiculous as I am about some things. I was beginning to wonder.” I almost started laughing. I got a sick thrill out of knowing that Lucah could get worked up about things.
“Can we have lunch? And by lunch I mean coffee? I need you.” His voice changed from a regular whisper to a sexy whisper and I immediately felt my own needs in some key areas. Lunchtime sex? Yes, please.
“Where?”
“My desk?” He wasn’t serious. I waited. “Okay, okay, how about, ah, the hotel around the corner. I hear they have excellent . . . coffee cups. That didn’t come out the way I wanted it to.” Now that made me laugh.
“A hotel? How illicit. I’m game. Meet you out in front at twelve?”
“Absolutely.” He hung up and I decided that this day had gone from potentially awful to pretty damn good.
I counted down the minutes until noon and I was praying that no one asked me for anything so I could get out of the office without incident. Fate was in my favor as I grabbed my coat and my purse and nearly skipped to the elevator.
And then my glee was brought to a screeching halt as I nearly crashed right into Violet. Buzz, gone.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” I said as we tried to get around each other and did a little dance.
“No, no, my fault.” We both sort of laughed and I finally made my way to the elevator. I’d gone from thinking she could be my new best work friend to trying not to imagine her getting hit by a taxi. I shoved her aside in my head and tried to think just about Lucah. Mmmm, coffee with Lucah at a hotel. Yum.
He beat me to the front of the building and was standing there, waiting for me when I came out, a huge grin on his face. That pushed every thought about the redhead upstairs (what was her name again?) aside as I walked slowly toward him.
“Are you ready for coffee?” I said, stopping with a few feet of space between us.
“Yes, Miss Clarke, I believe I am.” He held his hand out and I took it. We were both eager, so instead of strolling, we picked up the pace. I almost suggested taking a cab, but it was literally only two blocks, so it would have been crazy to do that.
I made Lucah get the room, because I knew what they were going to think. He came back, waving the key card in the air.
“I got it for two days so they wouldn’t think you were a call girl.”
“Well, I think our lack of luggage is going to send up a red flag.”
“Or, maybe, we could come back tonight. Have dinner and coffee afterward.” Ooohhh, I hadn’t thought of that. Plus, we could order breakfast in the morning and someone else would wash the dishes. Why hadn’t we thought of this before?
“What a brilliant idea, Mr. Blythe.”
“I have my moments, Miss Clarke. Shall we?” He held his arm out and I took it as we walked to the elevator and rode it all the way up.
“The penthouse?” I’d never stayed in a penthouse before. When I went on business trips I always picked the cheapest room because the company was paying for it, and I didn’t think they should have to foot the bill for something I didn’t really need.
“I’ve never stayed in one, and now hopefully they’ll think you’re a classy call girl. You know, like Julia Roberts.” Yes, I had forced him to watch Pretty Woman during one of our movie marathons. I kind of felt like her at the moment. Without the hooker part, obviously.
The room was gorgeous. Even better than I thought it would be. I had the sudden urge to run and throw myself on the bed and jump up and down on it like a little kid. But then Lucah came up behind me and pressed my ass against the hardness in his pants and I forgot all about jumping on the bed.
He swayed my hips back and forth, rubbing against me.
“We could always pretend you were a call girl and I was a rich businessman who hired you purely for his own pleasure. Or I could be your call boy and you could be the rich businesswoman,” he said in my ear.
“Are there call boys? That just sounds wrong.”
“I’ll be whatever you want me to be.”
I turned around to face him, putting my arms around his neck.
“You. I just want you to be you.”
“I could be me. As long as you get to be you.” He rolled his hips again, and my hands moved down to undo his tie. I made quick work of it, getting it loosened and over his head.