Page 84 of Fierce

First Class

Another couple weeks had passed, and I’d had as much as I could take of one night a week holding Hope’s hand on the couch, a family-friendly outing with Karen, and one additional evening during which Hope and I did our best to slake a week’s worth of sexual frustration in a few hours.

No matter how persuasive my arguments, though, she refused to come to my office during the workday, or even to meet me on the roof. It wasn’t nearly enough, and I knew I should find somebody else. I’d break it off with her first, because I wasn’t that much of a bastard, but the last thing I needed was an unavailable woman. If her attitude didn’t change soon, I decided again on every night that I wanted her with me and she wasn’t there, I’d end it. And then, every time I was with her, I found myself giving her one more chance.

After our third movie night, though, when I was helping her with the washing-up, she said, “So. This weekend.”

“Yeh,” I said. “I meant to talk to you about that as well. I’d like to take you out tomorrow night, as I can’t do Saturday. Even if that means we get Debra over here again to be with Karen.”

This time, I told myself, I meant it. If she said no to this, she was just playing games.

She glanced toward the bedroom door. Closed. Karen had seemed tired tonight, had fallen asleep during the movie and gone to bed straight away afterwards, and the apartment was quiet.

“Oh,” Hope said. “You can’t? Never mind, then.”

“Wait. What?” I’d missed something. “What were you going to say?”

“It doesn’t matter.” She kept her head bent, her gaze on the plate she was scrubbing. “Just that Karen’s made a friend at school, and there’s a dance Friday night, so they were planning to spend the weekend together. At the friend’s, I mean. So I’d thought I could spend the night. If you wanted. But I’m sorry.” She looked at me at last, unsmiling, her gaze steady, and I had the unwelcome feeling that she’d known exactly what had been on my mind. “I can’t do tomorrow night. This weekend—It’s kind of a big deal for Karen. Her first good friend at school, her first dance, and the night before...she’ll be picking out clothes and things. She’ll be nervous, because the friend has money, you know, and we—well. Karen says she doesn’t care, but I know she does. So I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

“Hope. Wait.” The relief was there, out of all proportion to the importance of my sex life. “Then that’ll work.”

“Whatwill work?”

“I’ve got an unexpected meeting on Friday afternoon in San Francisco. Things heating up on a deal. With those two women you...ah...didn’t meet the other week.”

“During our respective non-dates.” She was washing up again, but her shoulders had relaxed a little.

“Those would be the ones. And probably a bit more wrap-up on Saturday, I’m thinking, so I wouldn’t have been back in time to take you out. But if Karen’s sorted, you can come with me, and we’ll get our night. Because yeh, I do want it. In fact, you can fly out Friday morning with me, and we can have two nights.”

It didn’t work out quite like that, of course, because she refused to allow me to tell Martine she was required on the journey, or to fly out on the jet with the rest of the team.

“This is my job,” she said. “If you tell Martine that, she’ll know, and everybody else will know, too. And then, later...she’ll fire me. I know she will.”

She didn’t have to tell me what later meant, and I didn’t tell her that Martine wouldn’t be sacking her, because I wouldn’t be allowing it.

“Right, then,” I said instead. “Martine will be getting a request for your help on Friday afternoon from...from somebody, and you can come out then. We’ll fly back together on Sunday. Commercial,” I added when her mouth opened again. “I’ll send the others back on the jet on Friday night. They’ll be rapt about that. Happy?”

She finally took her hands out of the sink, dried them on a kitchen towel, and turned to me. “Yes. Of course I am.” She laughed, sounding as relieved as I felt, and as always, I got that feeling her laugh always aroused in me, of the sun coming out after a storm. “You’re going to take me to San Francisco, and we get to spend the weekend together? Of course I’m happy.”

“Got a funny way of showing it, don’t you,” I muttered, but she didn’t pay that any attention. She’d stepped straight into my arms, arms that went around her as if they had a mind of their own, and I was lifting her to be kissed. One of her soft little hands was around my head, pulling me into her, the other was stroking over my nape, and I was so relieved, and pretty bloody happy myself. And, in not too much time at all, more than that.

I’d sat there all evening with her, pretending to watch that movie with Karen sitting on her other side, but I hadn’t seen a thing. I’d only felt the fire burning a little hotter with every brush of my hand over the delicate skin of her forearm, there on the underside where she was so sensitive. I’d only felt the shivers she was trying to hide, the breath she was trying to regulate, as if they’d been coming from my own body. I’d been fifteen again, trying to get somewhere on some girl’s parents’ couch, except that it was even worse, because I knew exactly what Hope and I should have been doing.

And now, she was letting me know what I had to look forward to. Making those urgent little noises into my mouth that set me on fire every time. Letting me hold her the way I’d wanted to all night, her sweet body pressed tight against mine, one of my hands around her head, holding it still for me, the other reaching around to lift her off her toes.

I wanted to carry her back to that couch, strip those Wonder Woman PJs off her, plunge straight into her, and show her she was mine. I knew how she’d gasp when I did it, how tight and hot she’d be around me, how I’d have to put my hand over her mouth again to keep her quiet, and how much she’d love it. I knew exactly how it should be, and I needed to do it, and I knew I couldn’t.

She pulled back first. Of course she did.

“Whoa,” she breathed, leaning back in my arms. “I just wanted to say...yes.”

“I think you did,” I said. “Think you said just exactly that. And as it was exactly what I wanted to hear, I’m happy. Though I’d be happier to be inside you right now. So you know.”

I knew her little smile would be peeping out, even though I couldn’t see it, not with her pressed up close to me again. “So does this mean we get to be tourists? I don’t have to pretend to be sophisticated? Will you take me across the Golden Gate Bridge?”

I had to smile myself at that. “Yeh. I’ll come up with a plan for your next big adventure. How’s that?”

“Mm.” She had her face against my shoulder now, was rubbing her cheek into my T-shirt like a kitten, and my hand was still tangled up in her soft hair. “You do that. I like your plans.”

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