After Hours

As she pulled on her damp panties and located her bra, she allowed herself to consider, for just a tiny second, having more of this kind of activity. No, it would be a mistake. He wouldn’t be a stranger any more, and they’d never have as much fun as they’d had tonight. Tonight could never be equaled, let alone improved upon.

She stepped into her skirt and pulled it up over her hips. No point in bothering with the garter belt and stockings. She was just zipping the skirt, her back to the door, when he cleared his throat behind her.

“Maybe I should wait for you in the reception area. One look at you half-naked, and I’m ready to beg.”

She turned, her heart pounding in spite of her efforts to stay calm and rational about this now that it was over. No man had ever begged her for sex. With Benjamin, she was the one more likely to do the begging.

He stared at her, hunger in his eyes. “God, you’re beautiful.”

This was what she’d needed from Benjamin—a little sexual desperation. Yet that wasn’t fair. She’d never given him a reason to be desperate.

She cleared her throat. “I’ll…I’ll meet you in the reception area.”

He nodded, raked her with one more hot glance, and walked out the door.

She continued to dress, all the while reminding herself that she’d achieved her goal. By cutting the contact now, she could guarantee that this would be an isolated incident. Any more liaisons, and things could get messy.

Yet his intensity made her feel wanted in a way Benjamin never had. She remembered trying to tease Benjamin, pretending that she wasn’t sure if she felt like handing out the sexual goods. She’d wanted to stir him up, wanted to see his need. He’d turned away, telling her he didn’t play those games.

But this man would play. She finished dressing and straightened her office, shoving the smeared notes in a bottom drawer of her desk. She’d come in early in the morning and finish her work. Right now she had to figure out what the hell to do. Maybe her preoccupation with sexual fantasy only showed that she was still immature. For someone past thirty, that was embarrassing.

Putting on her navy suit jacket and grabbing her briefcase, she shut off the lights and walked toward the reception area. Déjà vu. He was on his knees working with the wiring, exactly as if nothing had happened between them.

But the look in his eyes was about four hundred degrees hotter than it had been when he’d glanced up at her an hour ago. All she had to do was say the word, and he’d go along with another three nights of fantasy sex.

But life wasn’t about fantasy sex, and she knew it. Life meant sharing a mortgage with a good guy, giving her mother and dad some grandkids, having the neighbors over for a Superbowl party. Except for the little problem twenty years ago, that described her parents’ life, and they still had each other, still had someone to grow old with. She yearned for that kind of security.

She wouldn’t move a single step closer to adulthood by hanging out with this hottie for another three nights in a going-nowhere relationship centered totally on sex. “The answer is no,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

Expectation died in his eyes. “So am I. I think we’re good together.”

“We were.” She deliberately put it in the past tense to keep herself grounded in reality. “And that was the idea—a perfect sexual fantasy that began and ended tonight.”

He sat back on his heels and nodded. “Yeah, I knew that was your plan, but if your boyfriend isn’t due back for a few days, I’d love to spend that time with you.”

“You don’t have a girlfriend?” She shouldn’t be asking questions like that, which only prolonged the conversation. But she couldn’t help wondering.

“If I did, I wouldn’t have accepted your invitation in the first place.”

As that statement sank in, she flushed. The implication was obvious. He believed in fidelity, but she’d been willing to have a fling while the guy she was dating was out of the country.

She went on the defensive. “Look, I’ve never promised Benjamin that I wouldn’t see other—”

“Hey, I wasn’t judging you.” He rose to his feet. “Not by a long shot. I don’t know what kind of understanding you have with this guy.”

“There is no understanding…yet.” She’d been very careful about that, wanting to leave the door open for exactly what had happened tonight.

Yet she hadn’t dated anyone else recently. Benjamin might assume that they had an understanding, which meant she’d been guilty of misleading the witness.

After all, she and Benjamin had a sexual relationship, such as it was. Some people thought that constituted an agreement. It might have, if the sex had been more exciting. Maybe once they moved in together, Benjamin would relax and have fun in bed.

Her fantasy man searched her expression. “But you expect there will be an understanding once he comes back, right?”

She nodded.

“That leaves you all of three nights to be a wild and crazy single girl.” He smiled gently. “Why waste them?”

Tempted by that smile, she tried to hold on to her arguments for not doing it. “For one thing, we’d have to destroy the anonymous nature of our—”

“Shane Nichols.”

She blinked. “Wh-what?”

“My name is Shane Nichols. I want you to know that. And yes, my parents are huge Alan Ladd fans, especially my dad. I was named after the character in the movie. Everybody gets around to asking sooner or later, so I’ll answer that one up front. I don’t even wince when somebody starts calling Shaaane! Come back, Shaaane. Feel free to do that if it gives you a chuckle.”

Now her fantasy man had a name, one she wasn’t likely to forget. As she’d known it would, the atmosphere between them changed immediately. Instead of an anonymous sexual partner, he was a guy with parents who loved an old movie enough to name him after the main character. She’d probably like his parents.

“And you’re either Eileen or Mildred. I’m going with Eileen.”

She felt like the person who’d just been found in a game of hide and seek. “How did you come up with that?”

He glanced at the receptionist’s phone. “Psychic.”

Well, of course. She should have realized he’d check the names on the labels next to each office line. She and Mildred were the only two women listed, and not many women her age were named Mildred.

She took a deep breath. No point in continuing the anonymity any longer. He’d be able to find out her last name without a whole lot of difficulty. “Eileen Connelly,” she said.

He held out his hand, his gaze warm. “Pleased to meet you, Eileen.”

She looked down at his outstretched hand and remembered all the interesting things he’d been doing with it recently. Her body remembered, too, and was reminding her of how much she’d liked what he’d done. Refusing to shake hands because she was afraid it would turn her on seemed childish, so she put her hand in his.

His handshake was firm and brief. “There. Was that so hard to do?”

Yes. “I didn’t intend us to become—”

“I know that. I completely understand your original intent. I’m just asking you to expand your concept.”

Her hand still tingled, and she tucked it in the pocket of her suit jacket. “And if I say no?”

Soft regret gleamed in his eyes. “Then I’ll say goodbye, Eileen Connelly. And thank you for one of the most exciting…no, the most exciting night of my life. It’s been an honor.”

She looked into his eyes and felt her resolve slipping away. No one would have to know, especially Benjamin. She’d keep it to herself. Her mother had invited her for dinner this week, thinking she’d be lonesome without Benjamin, but she could get out of that. She wouldn’t even confide in Suz or Courtney. Total secrecy would be the only way to go on something as reckless as this.

“You really have nothing to lose but a little time,” he murmured. “You’ve already made the decision to experiment while your boyfriend’s gone. Three more nights of experimentation will give you more memories to get you through the years of matrimony.”

“You make it sound like I don’t want to get married. I do.”

“To this guy?”