He merely shifted closer, pushing the damp head of his erection against her leg. The hand on her bottom curved downward, fingers probing.
“Stop it,” she said irritably, shaking her ass to dislodge his hand. “I don’t feel like doing it again. You should be worried, too,” she added spitefully. “If Richard doesn’t back down on the money, you’ll be out of a job.”
“There are other jobs,” he said, so blissfully unworried she wanted to slap him. He slipped his hand back between her legs, this time sliding two fingers right in. Despite herself she couldn’t stop her indrawn breath or the automatic arch of her back.
“Not at what I’m paying you.”
“I’ll get by.” Slowly he began moving his fingers in and out, and Candra bit the pillow to hold back her moan. His ego was big enough as it was.
Because she was so irritated with him, she wriggled once more, dislodging him again. “You were staring at Sweeney yesterday, too. I thought she wasn’t your type.”
A slow smile curved his lush mouth. “I’m not her type. Sweeney’s cool, and all that hair gives a man ideas. Besides, the way that red sweater hugged her tits was something else.”
“I didn’t notice,” Candra said frigidly.
“That relieves me, darling.” Kai leaned over and began kissing her spine again, this time down close to the twin dimples set high on her buttocks. He liked the idea of Candra being jealous, and that was what he was hearing in her voice. “But take it from me, her tits are fine.” Candra went rigid with rage, and he chose that moment to push his fingers into her again, knowing her stiffness would make her less receptive, make the penetration rougher. Sometimes Candra liked being handled a little roughly. She stifled a moan, and he knew he had her.
The bedroom was silent for several minutes, except for her heavier breathing and the rustle of the sheets from their movements. Kai continued to work her with his fingers, until her thighs loosened and spread. “Do it,” she ordered angrily, and immediately he moved behind her. She raised up a little on her knees, lifting her buttocks and giving him better access. His fingers were replaced by the hard, smooth thrust of his dick. She sighed and pushed her worries away to better concentrate on the physical pleasure. Kai wouldn’t stay around if she went out of business, damn his shallow hide, but for now he was here, so she might as well use him while she had him.
As soon as they had finished and she got her breath back, however, all her worries returned with a rush. She had so hoped she hadn’t misread Richard yesterday afternoon. If he were involved with Sweeney, he might be more amenable to meeting her terms, just to get the divorce out of the way so he could concentrate on his new relationship.
She sighed. It had been a long shot, but at this point she was desperate enough to grasp at straws. Unfortunately, Sweeney was so oblivious to everything but her work, she probably wouldn’t notice that a man was attracted to her until he took off his clothes, and even then she might think he wanted her to sketch him. Richard wasn’t a man who would play second fiddle in a woman’s life, not even to talent, and Sweeney was undeniably talented.
Worry gnawed at her insides. If only Richard would back down—no, there was no sense in fretting about if onlys. That was like planning your future if you won the lottery: useless.
She knew she hadn’t managed her money well; she had never had to. There had always been plenty of it, first her father’s money, and by the time that was gone, there had been Richard’s. But she wasn’t stupid, she had learned from her mistakes. With the profit from the gallery and the lump-sum alimony Richard had agreed to pay, she would be able to manage—not as well as she would like, but she could manage—if she could pay off the mountain of debt hanging over her.
That was the real problem. When she thought of what she owed, she broke out in a sweat. The amount was staggering to her now that she was on her own. After the split she had gone on a spending binge, furnishing her apartment with top-of-the-line everything, and she had taken several very expensive trips and bought new clothes. Somehow she hadn’t thought Richard was serious about the divorce, and she’d spent all that money as a means of punishing him for scaring her so. But he was deadly serious about the divorce and had no intention of covering her new debts, even though he could probably pay them out of petty cash and never know the difference, if he just would.
Candra squashed a tinge of regret. There was no point in rehashing the past, and Richard was irretrievably in the past. All her attempts to smooth things over with him had been rebuffed. She imagined a tiny part of her would always miss him. It wasn’t just the sex, though God knows that had been hot, at least for the first five years. None of her other lovers had ever matched Richard in bed.
What she missed most, though, was the security. Richard was a very secure man, a rock on which she could always depend. His attributes sounded like an ad in a singles column: reliable, intelligent, good sense of humor, great lover, honorable. By all means, don’t forget “honorable.” His damn standards were so high you’d think he’d been born in Buckingham Palace instead of on some little dirt farm in western Virginia.
It was her fault, though. She’d always known how he would react if he found out about the abortion. She had been so careful, paying for it in cash so there was no chance of him finding a canceled check or a credit card slip. She hadn’t liked having an abortion, but she hadn’t seen another option. She didn’t want a child; she had never wanted children, not even when she was young and just married and wildly in love with him. Nor was having the child and giving it up for adoption a possibility, because Richard would have died before he let that happen. And it wasn’t so much raising a child that she found so distasteful as actually being pregnant, having it wriggling around inside her like some larva, distorting her body and wrecking her life.