Flirting in Traffic (14 page)

It irritated the heck out of Esa knowing how many of her colleagues refused to either recommend meditation to their patients or take into account the sometimes significant effect regular practice had on blood pressure and overall health. The results weren’t the same for everyone, of course, but regular meditation had a profound effect on some patients.

Esa refrained from spewing out her anger at incompetent doctors and focused on being productive, however.

“My advice is that you make an appointment first thing in the morning with your doctor,” Esa said as she set the Accu-Chek monitor down on the bedside table. “Your medication dosage needs to be looked at in light of your regular exercise and weight loss. What you’ve just experienced is the irritability, cold sweats and lethargy that comes from extremely low blood sugar. If you like, I can make a recommendation for an excellent physician in your area who specializes in treating older adults. In the meantime, Glory, five small meals per day—and
no
skipping meals to look good in an outfit.”

“Finn told us that you were in publishing,” Molly said bemusedly.

“Finn’s a fool then,” Glory mumbled groggily. “She’s obviously a nurse or a doctor. I’ll wager a doctor from that high-and-mighty tone. How Finn could have brains enough to earn a master’s degree both in engineering and architecture and not know what the woman he’s seeing does for a living is beyond me.”

Esa started in surprise.

“Oh, good,” Molly said when Finn walked into the room holding a paper plate. Mary Kate followed, an anxious look on her face. “Give that to Glory, Finn. Her blood sugar is low.”

“All four of you aren’t going to stand there and stare at me while I eat, are you? Go on and enjoy the party. I’m pooped, I’m going to bed after I finish this,” Glory said through a mouth full of bratwurst and bun a moment later.

Molly waved them out of the room. “Go on, you three. I’ll stay and help her get out of her costume. And thank you, Esa.”

“I’ll leave you a note with the name of that physician recommendation, if you’d like it,” Esa said softly.

“I would…very much. Thanks again,” Molly added, a warm, genuine look of gratitude shining from her green eyes before she closed the door after them.

Finn leaned against the counter in the kitchen and watched through narrowed eyelids as Esa conferred privately with Rachel in the corner, their communication too soft to be overheard but emphasized by hisses, frowns and sparking brown eyes. The only words he’d been able to make out so far had been uttered by Rachel and had completely confused him instead of throwing any light on the strangeness of the evening.

He’s
the one who called
me
. Why shouldn’t I be able to at least ask him about such a juicy tidbit? If neither of you will tell me, who will?

Esa had responded with so much passion that her hair bounced around her shoulders as she energetically shook her head and whispered heatedly. After a moment of bearing her sister’s wrath, Rachel appeared to tune her out using some trait universally acquired by younger siblings. Esa ranted while Rachel leaned back and studied Finn with frank curiosity. When he shifted uncomfortably under her gaze she suddenly gave him a bright, warm smile.

He’d immediately known that the stranger in the kitchen was Esa’s sister because of her mane of auburn hair. It fell midway down Rachel’s back in soft waves that framed a heart-shaped face but it was the precise color of Esa’s. Rachel was several inches shorter than her sister and more delicate in overall appearance.

The acid glance of pure distaste that Rachel threw his brother Jess when he walked through the kitchen door with Carla behind was hardly demure, however.

Jess leaned on the counter next to him. Carla rushed across the large room to the corner and joined the symphony of feminine hisses.

“Grandma Glory okay?” Jess murmured.

“She’s fine now. Her blood sugar was low. Esa thought to check it with the blood glucose monitor.”

Jess grunted distractedly as his gaze returned to the huddle of women. Esa glanced around furtively at Finn and then turned quickly to retort to something Rachel had just whispered.

“Maybe we should go out on the terrace. I feel like I’m watching some kind of secret female ritual.”

“No way,” Finn replied grimly. “I’d do just about anything to figure out Esa at this point, even if that means spying on a family squabble.”

Jess snorted in a mixture of amusement and pity. “You’re a goner.”

Rachel must have heard Jess speak because she glanced over, curled her lip in scorn and ran her velvety eyes over him scathingly.

“She’s a firecracker, isn’t she?” Jess mumbled, referring to Rachel.

Finn blinked when he heard the undisguised heat in his brother’s voice.

“Must run in the family,” Finn mused as he studied Jess speculatively.

Rachel backed out of the huddle and spoke audibly. “All right, fine. Just stop lecturing me about it. We’ll talk about it more tomorrow. I’ll meet you at Mom and Dad’s to trade them. I’m getting out of here. I hope I don’t get attacked again on the way back out to the car,” Rachel said sarcastically as she walked toward the door.

“I said I was sorry,” Jess called out. Rachel refused to even look at him as she stormed out the door.

“She’s a little high-strung, your sister,” Jess murmured as Carla and Esa approached. Carla looped her arm around Jess’ waist and leaned her head against his shoulder.

“Let’s go. I’m tired. Jess is going to take me home, aren’t you?” Carla asked as she glanced up at Jess seductively.

“Sure,” Jess agreed, prying his eyes from the door that still swung back and forth from Rachel’s dramatic exit.

Finn waited silently once they’d said their goodbyes to Jess and Carla. He saw the moment when Esa’s thoughtful, tense expression altered. She furtively looked around the kitchen and back at him.

“That’s right. We’re alone,” he challenged softly.

She laughed shakily. “The party really cleared out quickly.”

“It’s amazing how a woman screaming her head off that she’s been attacked and the subsequent illness of the hostess can do that to a party.”

Esa’s face fell. “Oh—I’m so sorry about Rachel. It must seem really strange to you that she came here but…she just… Well, to be honest, I’ve never seen her act like that. Rachel’s usually the cool one. I didn’t think she had a hysterical bone in her body.”

“And?” Finn prodded. From the pink stain that colored Esa’s cheeks he guessed that she was probably dodging the truth again. Anger rose in his chest at the clear evidence of her dishonesty. He tamped it down in self-irritation. Why did he keep expecting her to be something more than she was? He was seeing her in order to have a good time—get back on his feet after few harsh blows in his personal life.

He listened to her blather on.

“And…and…Rachel came because she wanted to switch cars with me,” Esa finally concluded.

Finn crossed his arms above his waist. “Switch cars?”

“Yes,” Esa assured him brightly. “So, do you want to—”

“And what about all that stuff with Grandma Glory?” he interrupted.

“Oh,
that
?” Esa asked as she pointed in the general vicinity of Glory’s bedroom and laughed too loud. She examined him nervously through lowered eyelids. “I can explain about that. See, I’ve known quite a few people who have had a condition similar to your grandmother’s. Funny it came up because I was going to tell you all about it tonight.”

“Really.”

She looked stung by his sarcasm. He ground his back teeth together when he saw anger flash into her brandy-colored eyes. “Yes, I was. What are you acting so pissy for?”

He uncrossed his arms and straightened. “You know what? I have no idea. You don’t owe me anything, Esa.”

“Nothing but a good time in bed for a few nights, is that it?” Esa flared.

He met her glare with equal irritation for about ten seconds before he finally exhaled slowly. Why
was
he so fired up? It wasn’t Esa’s fault that her sister was a hysterical party crasher. And even though he was mystified as hell by the appearance of that calm, authoritative, entirely confident persona that Esa had taken on during the whole incident with his grandmother, he had to admit that it only made her exponentially more appealing to him.

Maybe
that
was at the core of his anger. Esa was really getting to him, rebound fling or not. If he didn’t watch himself with her he was going to be the
goner
that Jess had already accused him of being.

He’d been stewing for the last twenty minutes over the fact that he hadn’t thought to question Esa’s knowledge or motives
once
during the entire incident with Grandma Glory. He might have thought the whole situation was unusual but his confidence in Esa had been complete.

Besides, that smooth, authoritative woman had disappeared and the prickly, insecure, hissing creature was back. He exhaled his irrational irritation and reached out to sooth the hackles he’d raised on Esa. She hesitated for a second when he pulled her toward him but then sank her head and pressed it into his chest.

“I’m really sorry,” she muttered against his shirt.

He placed his chin on the top of her head and inhaled the scent of her fragrant shampoo. “No.
I’m
sorry. I should be thanking you for helping out with Grandma Glory that way instead of provoking you. You handled that situation like a pro. Did you use to work as a nurse or something?”

“Er, something like that,” she said almost unintelligibly into his chest. He prodded her shoulder and she looked up at him. “It was really nothing though. You just have to be familiar with the signs—”

“It
was
something. Thanks.”

His gaze narrowed on her parted lips. She had the prettiest, most kissable mouth he’d ever seen in his life—full, pink lips that always were begging to be sampled…to be penetrated. Just thinking about the honeyed cavern inside made his cock thicken with a stab of undiluted lust. The potent memory of her kneeling between his thighs, using that mouth for the sweetest of sins, flashed graphically into his brain

The arousal that suddenly coursed through his veins felt shockingly strong and imperative. It amazed him to realize that he honestly didn’t know if he could wait for the length of time it took to get back into the city in order to have her. She
had
said something about a few nights in bed, hadn’t she? A few could technically be…what? Six? Seven? A dozen?

Maybe he could bargain for an extension at the end of his term?

“Let’s go to my place,” he suggested gruffly.

“Oh…all right.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her hastily toward the door.

“I’ve got a surprise for you,” he had told her before he’d ducked his head and kissed her through the car window, quick and potent, and then left to get in his own vehicle.

“Why are you leaving your truck here?” Esa asked, eyeing the white pickup truck where he’d parked it next to a bulldozer that read Madigan Construction on the side of it.

“I don’t need it. I’ve got my car at home and I can always take the ‘L’ to get to work. I usually only use the truck to get back and forth along the highway during work hours.”

Esa couldn’t help but feel like an insider as she gazed at the huge machinery and the brand-new stretch of pristine white road that led just inside the barricade. On the other side of the cement barricade traffic moved at a sluggish thirty miles per hour even at eleven-fifteen at night.

Finn readjusted the seat so that it went back as far as possible.

“When I was with your Grandma Glory earlier she said that you have master’s degrees both in architecture and engineering,” Esa stated baldly.

He paused for a fraction of a second in the process of pulling on his seat belt.

“Yeah. Is the number of degrees I have important to you or something?” he asked with a stiff jaw as he fastened his seat belt.

“Yes…I mean
no
, not in some kind of nasty way. I’m not…you know, hanging around you for your
diplomas
,” she replied with a roll of her eyes. “It just struck me when she said it because you’d never told me. Jeez, Julia really did a number on you, didn’t she?” Esa mumbled under her breath after a strained silence.

He shifted in his seat, seeming entirely too big for the confines of the sleek sports car. “I’ve wanted to talk to you about Julia. I’m sorry about what happened last weekend. I was as shocked about Julia showing up as you were.”

“I know. I mean, it seemed pretty obvious that you were surprised. Besides, you don’t owe me any explanations,” Esa added with a sinking feeling, thinking about Finn saying something similar earlier.

She felt his gaze on her. “I do. For the discomfort you experienced—I at least owe you something for that.”

Despite the anxiety the topic of Julia provoked, Esa’s lips twitched slightly. Molly Madigan would approve of her son’s manners.

“So…Julia Weatherell was the fiancée they you told me about. The one who walked out when you decided to take over your dad’s business?” Esa prompted.

He nodded. She listened while Finn explained in more detail about his father and uncle dying and leaving a faltering business, his decision to sell the architecture and design firm that he’d developed with a friend, the resulting fights between Julia and him and her ultimate decision to leave.

“She was dead set against me selling my shares in the firm to Jason. When she realized I wasn’t going to change my mind about getting Dad’s business on solid ground again she decided to leave. I guess she felt like I was saying my family was more important than she was.”

“If that’s the way she felt, she was being unfair. You weren’t choosing your family over her. It didn’t have anything to do with
her
,” Esa said sourly. Although of course Julia would have made it all about
her
—her needs, her expectations, her image. Never mind the fact that her fiancé was suffering from the abrupt death of his father and that his family required support. Never mind that
Finn
had needed someone in his corner.

Hearing about Julia’s selfishness always irritated her but hearing about what she’d done to Finn got her really boiling.

He shrugged. “She’s got a high-profile job. Apparently having a partner who fits her image is more important to her than I’d ever imagined. That’s how it is sometimes. You never really know what a person is really made of until the bombs fly.”

Esa scowled in the semi-darkness.

“But Julia hasn’t given up the hope of being with you, despite the fact that she doesn’t want to marry a guy who works in construction. Am I right?”

“I can’t control what Julia does or thinks, Esa.”

“No, I don’t suppose you can,” Esa conceded.

That still didn’t answer all her unasked questions about how he really felt about Julia, her betrayal…or relationships in general for that matter. But did she really need to ask? It seemed pretty obvious Finn was still nursing some pretty raw wounds—certainly significant enough injuries to keep him well out of the dating arena.

They sat for a moment in thoughtful silence.

“Traffic’s still pretty bad, huh?” he observed, an obvious attempt at breaking the weighty silence.

Esa exhaled tiredly as she shifted the car into drive. Even the word “traffic” seemed to drain her of energy nowadays.

“Uh uh,” Finn said sharply when she started to take the restricted ramp back onto the overpass so that they could merge onto the Dan Ryan. “Keep going on this road.”

Esa stared at him wide-eyed. “But it’s not even finished yet, is it?”

Finn’s eyes gleamed in the semi-darkness. “As of yesterday, one driving lane as well as the emergency lane are finished and cleared. We’ll open up the extra express lane come Monday but tonight…it’s wide open.”

Esa braked, bringing the car to an abrupt stop.

“You mean this road is clear sailing all the way into the city?” Esa asked, excitement making her voice tremble slightly.

“That’s my surprise to you.”

Esa just stared at him for a few seconds. Suddenly she laughed and pressed her foot to the accelerator.

The thought struck her as they blew past the cars moving sluggishly in traffic to the right of them that Finn had just given her a gift. And even though she hadn’t known him for that long, it was the most intimate, exhilarating…
wonderful
gift she’d ever been given.

“I felt like I was
flying
,” Esa exclaimed ten minutes later as she came to a neat stop inside of Finn’s parking garage.

“That’s because we were.”

For the first time Esa realized he looked a little pale.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Was I going too fast?”

“Going fast was the whole point, I suppose.”

He looked a little surprised when she unsnapped her belt and leaned across the console to hug him tightly.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she repeated as she pressed feverish kisses against his neck and jaw.

“I guessed that driving fast and free on the Dan Ryan would be the equivalent of foreplay for you. I’m just glad the feeling is transferring to me,” he chuckled.

“Oh, it transferred to you all right,” Esa assured him with a soft growl as she bit at his earlobe. “You have no idea what you just unleashed.”

He grinned broadly but his hand on her jaw was firm as he gently pushed her back so that he could look into her eyes.

“I had an idea. But let’s get one thing straight, honey.”

“What?” Esa asked impatiently. Her nostrils flared to catch his delicious male scent. She couldn’t take her eyes off his firm lips. She noticed that they set into a determined line when she tried to crane over to kiss him. He fingers burrowed into her hair and tightened, restraining her.

“Here in the car you’re the boss. But up there my bedroom I’m in the driver’s seat. Understood?”

Heat simmered between her thighs. She squirmed restlessly in the seat but Finn quirked one eyebrow…waiting.

“Yes, all right,” she murmured, recognizing that he expected a verbal agreement.

He smiled. “Okay, let’s go.”

Esa wondered if Finn was testing her.

He’d led her into his bedroom and set her down on the edge of this bed. Then he’d said he would be right back and gone into the bathroom. Esa glanced around the dim bedroom in rising anticipation and nervousness.

It was almost the precise same scenario as that first night…the night she’d run out on him.

Like that night, she stood hesitantly and fiddled with her coat. She jumped when the bathroom door suddenly opened and she saw Finn’s shadow outlined in the doorway. He’d left on the lights over the mirror in the bathroom so she could make out that he wasn’t wearing anything but his low-riding jeans. His fly was partially unfastened. The erotic sight of the thin trail of golden-brown hair that ran from his taut bellybutton down below the waistband of his starkly white boxer briefs left Esa temporarily speechless.

“What are you doing?” he asked as he padded into the room with silent stealth. “Were you planning on running out again?”

“No!” Esa assured him when she heard the incredulity in his tone. She swallowed thickly. She didn’t know why she was so nervous. It wasn’t as if she’d never slept with him before. Maybe her anxiety was due to that taut challenge he’d issued her in the parking garage. Maybe it was caused by the fact that she’d accepted it.

Perhaps she trembled with nerves and wild excitement because tonight it wasn’t the same with Finn. The playful, fun, delicious near-stranger had disappeared. At some point he’d transformed into a fierce, determined, dead-sexy lover.

“I was…was starting to undress,” Esa admitted in a hushed tone as he came toward her.

He grabbed her hand and swung her around while he seated himself on the bed. “Good. I can watch you.”

Her heartbeat began to throb in her ears in the seconds that followed. His face looked sober and set.

“I…uh, well, I—”

He interrupted her stammering with a firm command.

“Take off your clothes, Esa.”

Her hands shook a little, betraying her nervousness as she shrugged out of her leather jacket and tossed it on the floor. She’d never stripped for a man before. Surely Finn was going to be disappointed in her lack of seduction skills. But Esa just couldn’t see herself morphing into slinky-stripper mode and giving him sultry winks as she tossed her panties into his lap.

Somehow she knew the sex kitten role would ring glaringly false tonight. Just as it should, perhaps. Esa craved to be herself with Finn as much as she feared that he would be turned off when he realized she wasn’t really as experienced with no-strings-attached sexual affairs as she’d led him to believe.

She certainly didn’t feel like much of a seductress as she unzipped her short boots and stripped off her socks, letting them fall limply to the carpet. Nevertheless Finn sat utterly motionless as he watched her every movement.

His gaze trailed her fingers when they rose to unbutton the pumpkin-colored sweater she wore. She knew the color flattered her skin tone, hair and eye color. Esa also recalled the way she’d caught Finn staring at her chest with a gleam of masculine appreciation in his eyes several times that evening. The sweater didn’t cling to her indecently but it certainly left little to the imagination in regard to the shape and size of her breasts.

That recollection gave her confidence as she parted the two sides of the fabric and gave him a peek at the valley between her black lace-encased breasts. He tensed. His nostrils flared noticeably. Sexual excitement seemed to flood into her veins at the sight, quickening her flesh and sharpening her senses. Her fingers smoothed down the bare strip of exposed skin to her jeans and curled beneath the waistband.

“Take the sweater all the way off,” Finn ordered abruptly.

Esa hesitated only for as long as it took her to recall her agreement in the parking garage earlier. Well a deal
was
a deal, after all.

The sweater dropped to the floor.

Finn leaned forward slightly in his sitting position. Her nipples tightened beneath his palpable stare as though he’d just reached out and caressed the tips.

“Now the jeans,” he instructed after a tense moment.

Her fingers flew over her button fly at first, until she noticed how Finn’s pulse leapt at his throat. Her movements slowed as she unfastened the buttons just over her most sensitive, aching flesh. Seemingly of their own accord her hips gyrated, circling subtly against her hand.

Esa bit her lip to still a moan at the subtle, evocative pressure. How many times in her life had she unbuttoned her jeans? And never once had it ever felt so tantalizingly sexual as it did with Finn’s hot eyes watching her.

Finn’s gaze shot up from where it had been glued to her crotch.

“Stop teasing me, Esa,” he said in a hard tone.

“I wasn’t—”

“Take off those jeans. Now.”

Esa wasted no time in shoving the jeans down her hips and shimmying out of them. When she stood in front of him wearing just her bra and panties she saw that Finn was in the process of unfastening the rest of his own button flies. The glimpse of the thick pillar of his cock pressing tightly against the white cotton of his underwear made Esa reach hastily for her panties.

“No. Turn around to take them off,” Finn demanded.

Esa turned around slowly, not because she was trying to be seductive but because she wasn’t overly thrilled about him getting an eyeful of all her bountiful flesh. She paused in wide-eyed disbelief while in the process of pulling her silk panties over her bottom when she heard him groan behind her.