Any Way You Want Me (7 page)

But then she remembered she was lying naked next to a guy she’d known less than a month, and the evening took on a whole different sense of possibility.

After an afternoon of wandering the shops and sites around the Wharf and Pier 39, they’d returned to Yasmine’s apartment and set about decorating the tree, a task that had resulted in each of them getting more undressed for every item of clothing that the tree put on.

“I don’t want to hear a word about my ornaments,” she said when she caught him looking at the tree, a smile playing on his lips.

“I didn’t say anything.” He looked at the cat, perched on the back of the table next to them. “Did you hear me say anything?”

Milo blinked at him.

“You were about to critique, I could tell.”

“I’m just awed by your creativity, that’s all.”

She’d seen a decorating show that used household objects as nontraditional tree decorations and had insisted
on trying it herself instead of hauling out her collection of ugly rejected ornaments. So now the tree was bedecked in scarves and belts, earrings and pendants, ribbons and tassels. It looked a little odd, but kind of fun, too.

“Yeah, well. At least you’re a man who knows when to stick with the safe response.”

“Especially when I have a beautiful woman lying naked next to me.” He pulled the blanket from the back of the couch over them and wrapped his arms around her.

Kyle may have been a guy she barely knew, but this was turning out to be the most fun Christmas Eve she’d had since the days of believing in Santa Claus. Then the phone rang, interrupting their perfect moment for the second time that day.

Yasmine reached over him to the cordless phone on the end table and answered, barely able to concentrate on “Hello” when she had Kyle’s chest to ponder up close and personal.

“Yasmine? It’s Cass. Where the hell are you?”

“I’m home, obviously, and your timing today is incredibly bad.”

“You forgot my party.”

“Your party…Oh, right. I told you weeks ago I didn’t want to go,” Yasmine said as she glanced at Kyle.

“And I told you to get your ass over here, anyway.”

“I thought you were joking.”

“I never joke about yuletide events.”

“I guess this means Drew fixed your computer and you were able to let loose in the kitchen.” Which was a scary thought, given Cass’s level of culinary skill.

“Yes, and thanks for sending him. But seriously, I’ll be the only single here if you don’t show.”

Yasmine winced. Cass had been dating her last boyfriend when she’d planned the party, and he’d broken up with her soon after.

“Listen, I’m actually kind of tied up right now.” Tied up—now there was something she and Kyle hadn’t tried yet…. Where were those furry handcuffs, anyway?

“Watching the MTV Christmas special does not qualify as holiday plans.”

“No, I mean, I have company right now.”

Silence. And then, “Oh! You have male company. Who is it?”

“No one you know.”

“You’re being uncharacteristically coy—Wait a minute, it’s not that guy from your office that you bought handcuffs and candy for, is it?”

“It is,” Yasmine said, trying not to reveal too much to Kyle. He didn’t need to know she’d had conversations with friends about him.

“And let me guess. He’s lying right there naked beside you.”

“Um…”

“Yasmine! You slut, I was joking.”

“So you can understand why I won’t be attending your party.”

“No, what I understand is why you’ll be getting your ass over here within the hour. I made a Yule log for you. With decorative leaves and chocolate filling. You
will
be here to partake. Do you understand?”

“Oh God, Cass, you shouldn’t have. I was joking about the log.”

She’d told her friend the thing she’d missed most
about her childhood Christmas vacations in Paris was the
bûche de Noël
. Her parents had always bought one at a
pâtisserie
near the flat where they stayed, and they’d always let her have the biggest piece of the chocolate log-shaped cake. When Cass had issued the invitation to her all-couples-except-Yasmine Christmas Eve party, Yasmine had jokingly said she would only show if there was a big chocolate Yule log in her honor.

“You’re lucky I forgot to start cooking the turkey on time—dinner’s in an hour. You and the office hottie had better be here. Got it?”

“Really, Cass. I don’t think that’s a good idea. And besides—”

“No excuses. You have no idea what a pain in the ass this Yule log was.”

“But…” Yasmine scrambled to think of a new excuse, unwilling as she was to get out of bed at the moment. “He doesn’t believe in celebrating Christmas. He’s a…Moonie.”

“So he can pretend there’s not a tree and enjoy the merriment anyway. Really, babe, this is a multicultural, multifaith affair.”

Yasmine gave Kyle a look pregnant with warning as she said goodbye to Cass and then reached across him again to hang up the phone.

“That was my best friend,” she said. “She’s insisting we show up at her Christmas Eve party, which is already in session and which she apparently was expecting me to attend even after I said I wouldn’t be there.”

Kyle glanced down at his still-present erection. “Do you think we have time—”

“If we’re fast,” she said as she straddled his hips and connected their bodies.

“I can do fast,” he said.

And he could. Remarkably well.

Fifteen minutes later they were both breathless and satisfied, tugging on their clothes and getting themselves looking presentable.

They set off on the eight-block walk to Cass’s apartment in the cool darkness, hand in hand. While Yasmine was happy to have a date, she was a little weirded out by their fast physical comfort. And that holding hands freaked her out more than having sex with him told Yasmine once again that she had definitely gotten her perspective knocked askew.

Instead of examining her problem closer, she opted to prepare Kyle for his impending immersion into her social group.

“Be warned,” she said as they waited for a light to change so they could cross the street. “My friends have mostly settled into happy coupledom. They tend to view singles like us as potential converts, and they see it as their personal directive to spread the gospel of commitment and marriage.”

“And you’re opposed to the whole concept?” he said with a half-smile.

“Well, no. I just think we’re all a bit young to be getting too serious.”

“I guess that’s my problem. I’m already over the hill, eh?”

She laughed. “You’ve been holding your own in the bedroom for being such a geriatric patient.”

“Smart-ass.”

“So what we’re doing isn’t too serious for you?”

“Definitely not. But if I find out you’re sleeping with me just to research some new sex software—”

“Oh no, you’ve found me out! Whatever you do, don’t ever try the upcoming game entitled Old Guy Sex.”

He gave her a swat on the backside. “How did you end up working at Virtual Active? You don’t exactly fit the profile of the typical employee.”

“Yeah, well. Being a notorious former hacker doesn’t endear me to potential employers.”

“A
what?
”

“A hacker, cracker, system intruder—whatever you want to call it. You probably saw me on the news and don’t remember. I was the first teen hacker given more than a slap on the wrist for accessing government computers.”

“You? I don’t believe it.”

She shrugged. “It’s true. I was stupid. I had no idea how much trouble I was getting myself into. I just thought of it as an interesting puzzle to solve.”

“So you were just breaking into these computers to see if you could do it?”

“Yeah, it’s not like I was stealing information or anything.”

“And they sent you to prison? That’s harsh,” he said, sounding outraged by the whole idea.

“It’s behind me. I don’t think about it much anymore. If I start thinking, I get pissed off.”

“What was being in juvenile prison like?”

“It sucked. I mean, think about it—there aren’t a lot of opportunities for white-collar teen crime. The kids I was in with were there for violent crimes, drug-related
stuff, gang banging…It was a far cry from my old private girls’ school crowd.”

“So what did you do?”

“I suffered through, avoided eye contact, got my ass beat now and then.”

“That must have been awful…. Now that you mention it, I think I do remember seeing your story on the news. What did your parents think?”

“They were horrified that I’d broken the law, and they thought I deserved whatever punishment the court gave me.”

“That’s harsh.”

“That’s my good old ma and pa. Always on my side through thick and thin.”

“You get along better with them now?”

“Not exactly. We have our arguments, but mainly I’ve never totally forgiven them for not being a little more supportive back then.”

They walked in silence for a short while, and Yasmine began to wonder if she’d freaked him out to the point of silence.

Finally he spoke up again, and she breathed a sigh of relief. “Did you ever think about not becoming a programmer—maybe doing something outside the technical industry?”

Yasmine shrugged. “No. I applied to what felt like a hundred companies, and Virtual Active is the one that hired me.”

“No surprise there. For an office full of guys who sit around creating virtual sex games all day, you provide some pretty hot inspiration.”

“Ew.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve never realized that.”

“I did—I mean, I do, but I try not to think about it.”

“What about the heroine in Jungle Honey? Don’t you think she looks eerily similar to you?”

Yasmine laughed, her cheeks burning at the sudden realization that he was right. “Oh…my…God. We came out with that game about six months after I was hired.”

“You see? It was just a matter of months before they put you in a furry leopard-print bikini and had you tying unsuspecting tourists up with vines in the jungle.”

“And acting out kinky sex acts with them.”

“And with bananas.”

“Crap.” She covered her face with her hands and tried not to remember who exactly had been on that software development team.

“You don’t plan to spend the rest of your life creating virtual sex software, do you?”

“What’s wrong with that? Maybe it’s my calling.”

But it wasn’t. She had no idea what her calling was. She could only say what it wasn’t.

“You’d be wasting your talent.”

“Hey,” she said, forcing her face into a serious expression. “We create products that touch people’s lives.”

“Especially horny, dateless people.”

“It’s meaningful work.”

“You’re absolutely right,” Kyle said. “It’s only a matter of time before the Nobel Prize people figure that out and create a new award for work in simulated sex experiences.”

“Ha-ha.”

“Sorry, I had no idea you took your work so seriously.”

“You’re new to the business. You don’t have a clue
how much time and effort I’ve put into creating realistic-looking male members.”

“Mmm-hmm. You’re right, I have no idea. That must be something you’ve had to study extensively firsthand.”

“Truth be told, I haven’t had nearly enough up-close, hands-on experience with real-life models lately.”

“Maybe you’ve been spending too much time working, not enough time researching.”

“Mmm. Want to be my research buddy?”

“Only if I get to do my own research, too,” he said, waggling his eyebrows. “So you’ve been at Virtual Active since college? About four years?”

“Five years. I made it through college in three years instead of four.”

“Oh, yeah? So you’re a genius or something?”

“I’m just impatient, that’s all.”

“And modest. I’ve heard through the grapevine that you can write circles around all the other programmers in the office.”

“Who’s been telling lies about me?”

“You’re like an urban legend. Yasmine Talbot, code-slinging superbabe.”

A bubble of laughter burst out of her. “Stop. That is
not
how my co-workers see me.”

But she knew he was right. It wasn’t hard to become legendary among a bunch of guys whose lives—and in some cases sex lives—existed mostly within a computer.

“So what do we tell everyone at this party about us? That we’re shacked up for the weekend?”

“How about that we’re co-workers, and this is our second date—on Christmas Eve because we’ve both been orphaned by our selfish vacation-crazed families.”

“Is that what we call this—dating?”

“We could say we’re just screwing, but…I don’t think there’s an actual word for what we’re doing—or if there is one, it’s not something we should be saying in polite circles.”

“So this Cass? She’s your best friend?”

“Yes, and she’s also on my shit list for making me leave my apartment tonight.”

“I promise we can make up for lost time later.”

She smiled. “I guess there’s really no hurry, right?”

“Right. If we don’t slow down a little, I’m going to be useless by tomorrow,” Kyle said.

They reached Cass’s building, and Yasmine led the way up the steps. They were ushered inside Cass’s apartment by a woman Yasmine didn’t recognize, and the place was filled with merry-looking couples.

Cass immediately spotted them hanging up their coats and headed over. “Hi! Nice to meet you,” she said to Kyle, her smile plastered on and her tone relentlessly cheery.

This was a sure sign that she intended to corner him before the night was through and grill him about his intentions and his pedigree and pretty much anything else she could find out. Later, she’d spill it all to Yasmine like a cat bringing home a prize rodent for its master. Cass did this to all of Yasmine’s dates.

Kyle smiled and shook her hand. “Thanks for having me over,” he said, and it was clear Cass would have no trouble getting him to confess his entire history.

For now, though, she excused herself and hurried off to the sound of crashing pans in the kitchen.

“That better not be my
bûche de Noël,
” Yasmine called after her.