Page 40 of About Last Night

Fighting with the stiff cord, she broke a nail into the quick, then sucked on the end of her finger. "No."

"No? Or no, I shouldn't ask?"

Her heart galloped in her chest as she reconsidered her response. How much of her sudden uncertainty had to do with Steve's reaction to her final attempt to consummate their marriage, and how much of it had to do with her inexplicable attraction to Derek?

Misinterpreting her silence, Manny moved quietly toward the door.

"Manny."

He turned, his hand on the doorknob.

"Do you see something here that I don't?"

He pressed his lips together and his gaze floated around the perimeter of the room, then landed on her. "I see a woman who's willing to sanitize a room for a man who's being entertained across the hall." His smile softened his words. "You should at least consider retrieving the beast." Then he was gone.

Confounded by his words, she plugged in the vacuum and flipped the switch. She'd always enjoyed the monotonous, thought-blocking chore, but today as she decontaminated every surface within reach, her mind was far from blank. Images of Derek cavorting across the hall with Maureen kept rising to taunt her. So that was the sort of man he was—chasing down any female within range. Their kiss had meant nothing to him, she realized. Not that it should, considering their respective relationships with Steve. But admittedly it galled her to think that what had been such a momentous lapse of character for her had left him unfazed.

Her naïveté didn't embarrass her—she would never be able to take sexual intimacy as lightly as most of the people in her generation seemed to, but she did recognize how her virginal perspective could put her at a slight disadvantage. After all, if any part of her decision to marry Steve was based on unrealized sexual curiosity, wasn't that just as misguided as rushing into a relationship founded purely on good sex?

Janine sighed and extended the reach on the brush she was running over the curtains. Would she even be having this bewildering conversation with herself if Steve's Best Man had been a chuffy married fellow instead of the "handsome" Derek Stillman?

A tap on her shoulder would have sent her out of her shoes if she'd been wearing any. She whirled to see that Derek had returned, and he did not look happy. A flip of a switch reduced the noise of the vacuum to a fading whine.

"Gay?" he asked, arms crossed. "You told that woman I'mgay?"

"It seemed like the prudent thing to say at the time."

"The prudent thing to say?" His voice had risen a couple of octaves, and his face was the color of roasted tomatoes. "For whom?"

"Watch your blood pressure," she warned, bending to re-wrap the cord. "I told Maureen you were gay for the sake of both our reputations—and for Steve's."

"Really?" He pursed his mouth, his body rigid. "Well, it seems to me thatyour and Steve's reputations are safe, and nowI'm a gay man."

She laughed at his histrionics. "There's nothing wrong with being gay."

"No," he said crisply, "But I'mnot."

She rolled the cleaner over to the wall. "So if you wanted to get it on with Maureen, why didn't you just tell her you weren't gay?"

"Well, funny thing about denying you're gay after someone else has already told the person youaregay—" He threw his hands in the air. "They don't believe you!"

"The woman made it clear to me she doesn't care if you're gay."

"But I'mnotgay!"

"But it doesn't matter to her!"

"That's another funny thing. When a womanthinksyou're gay, it kind of changes the dynamics."

She was irritated at herself for trying to make the room more comfortable for him. "If I'd known you were so hot for her, I would've told her you were bisexual."

"Whoa," he said, holding up his hand. "I amnotbi. And I'm nothotfor that man eater. I just wanted to get away fromyoufor a few minutes!"

She frowned. "Well, it was a mini-vacation for me, too!"

* * *

DEREK STALKEDacross the room and dropped into the stiff chair in front of the desk, bewildered that this woman could so easily provoke him. He sighed, then pressed out his entwined fingers to the tune of ten cracking knuckles.

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