Her Best Mistake (Novella) (7 page)

“Are you okay? You’re going to have to tone down those aerobic workouts some if they have you limping around all the next day,” Martha said.

“It’s a new exercise program,” Lisa said, trying to make the white lie sound as good as possible. “I just overdid it a bit.”

Actually when she thought about it, she had barely participated at all. Finn had carried her to bed, undressed her, dragged her to the edge of the mattress, and literally forced her to climax over and over before making her ride him for his own relief. Her legs still quivered over it today. Her entire body had been surprised at his aggressive demands. No one had been like that with her before.

And she really had to stop reliving it over and over
,
Lisa decided, her underwear already suffering for her lustful thoughts
.
She had walked around aroused since she’d gotten her first whiff of Finn.

The front door buzzer rang and Martha zoomed off to see who it was. She came back moments later loaded with an enormous vase of flowers.

“Well, look at you,” Martha told her. “Looks like that young man really does have a serious thing for you.”

She pulled the card and read the signature.

“Who’s UB? I thought his name was Eric.”

Lisa frowned.
UB?
No—he couldn’t have signed that card UB. What had Finn told the florists? She shook her head and laughed as she thought about it.

Martha continued to look at the card. “This card doesn’t make sense. Maybe the courier delivered it to the wrong person.”

Lisa rose reluctantly from her chair and came around to take both the flowers and the card from Martha. She read the card several times, her heart fluttering, an idiotic smile on her face. She had to go sit back down to really take it in.

I have as many apologies for you as there are petals on these flowers. I know I keep saying this, but I really am not the kind of guy who gets carried away, especially like last night. Please don’t hate all men because of me. Come back one more time. I’m leaving Sunday and I don’t want it to end like this. ~ UB

PS: Speech at Harvard 3pm today if you want to come by.

She laughed at Finn’s dramatics. What did he think? That he’d broken her or something? The note was priceless
. ‘Speech at Harvard’
was preceded by
‘Please don’t hate all men because of me
’.

God, he kept her mind hopping. First she was a booty call. Now today he was worried he’d gone too far with her. The man was a total wreck, as bad as she was. Maybe she and Finn were more like twins than he and his brother were.

Small surprise she had crawled into bed with him a second time. No surprise at all that she wanted to again, especially after her three giant orgasms with him yesterday. The only question that remained for her was how rational to be about all of her sexual interest in him, which Lisa took about five seconds to decide just wasn’t worth losing brain cells over.

“Martha, reschedule our appointments for the afternoon. Move them to later in the week, will you? I have to go to a lecture at Harvard at three.”

“Shouldn’t be hard. All we have this afternoon is a conference call. Are you taking classes again? Why aren’t they on the calendar?” Martha demanded.

Lisa met Martha’s gaze. Her assistant had been with her for five years and ran the office like it was a military post.

“No classes, just going to a lecture,” Lisa said firmly, smiling at her confused assistant.

“Okay,” Martha said, face wrinkling in concern.

Lisa rose gingerly from the chair to walk around the desk. “Do we have any aspirin?”

“I may have something in my purse. Do you need to go get checked out? You seem like you’re hurting all over today.”

Lisa saw Martha looking at her with great sympathy. It suddenly struck her as incredibly funny, so she dissolved into laughter.

“I know it’s been a while since you’ve seen me with a sex hang over, but I swear I’m going to live,” Lisa assured her. “I’m not dying. I just got laid really, really well last night. My body is just way out of practice, and the man was outside anything I’d known before.”

She watched Martha blink twice. Probably unable to believe she had said ‘
laid
,’ Lisa thought, grinning wickedly at the idea of the witty Martha being scandalized.

“I’m confused,” Martha admitted finally.

“It wasn’t an exercise video, okay?” Lisa exclaimed finally, blurting out the truth as she was tucking Finn’s apology into the side pocket of her purse.

“Hold the rest of that explanation for a minute. Let me get you the medicine first.”

Lisa watched Martha scurry away. The woman probably needed time to assimilate the information. Lord knows she did.
UB?
What had possessed him to sign the card that way? His nerve made her laugh.

While she waited on Martha, Lisa dug through the contents of her purse for a pair of long, dangling earrings she had dropped in there a couple weeks ago. At the time she’d thought the bundle of silver circles were too much to wear to the office. Today they suited her mood. Humming, she fastened them to her ears, smiling at the jingling sound they made when she moved around.

Martha came back, stopped, and stared at the sight of her boss humming. She was definitely going to have a little talk with Harlan tonight. She hadn’t hummed in a great while. “Okay. Explain now.”

“We got a little carried away last night. Today, I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck, but happier than I’ve been in a very long time. So now I have to go tell the idiot I slept with that he didn’t hurt me and that I like it rough sometimes.”

Martha lowered her voice to a whisper. “Yeah, that happens to me once in while with Harlan. We call it ‘
the Viking and the Maiden’
at our house.”

She stopped, remembering the apology on the card, which had her looking at Lisa Dennison with new eyes.

“He referred to what we did as
unleashing the beast
.” Lisa supplied in a whisper back.

“Was it the one in the t-shirt or the one in the suit?” Martha demanded, mentally crossing her fingers.

“Guess,” Lisa teased. She followed Martha slowly to the door, taking the pills from her assistant’s hand and tossing them back with a cup of water from the cooler near the front desk.

“I’d put my money on the t-shirt guy,” Martha finally said. “He wasn’t as polished as the other one but looked like he’d be a lot more fun in the sack. The polished one probably can’t pay attention long enough to get a woman there. He seemed to have more interest in his phone than in impressing you.”

“Martha!” Lisa exclaimed, pretending shock as she walked out the door.

She laughed on her walk to the subway, remembering Finn’s preciseness in getting them both there—her several times.

***

When she got to the building where Finn was speaking, Lisa saw it was packed to capacity. She moved around the edges looking for an empty seat because she wasn’t going to be able to stand the whole time in her current condition.

Then she saw him. Finn was wearing a blue polo and khaki slacks. One hand held a bunch of index cards, and he was using the other to emphasize something he was saying to a man standing next to him. Just as she was wondering if she should go up and say hello, Finn lifted his head and saw her. Everything in her leapt to attention as he smiled.

Silly girl
, Lisa chided, but a part her of was so excited she could barely restrain herself from giggling.

She smiled back, especially when Finn stopped talking. He walked away from the man, but made her laugh when he stopped and turned back, probably remembering to be polite. She heard him excuse himself before he started walking towards her again.

She met him halfway, a soft smile on her face.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi,” he said back.

“Thanks for the flowers,” Lisa said, just getting it out there.

Finn smiled, enjoying her flirty gaze on his face. “Did you come all this way just to say that?”

Lisa shook her head, smile fading a little as she cleared her throat. “No, I came to tell you that you didn’t hurt me last night. Well, you did hurt me a little, but the end result was worth it.”

When Finn flushed, looking guilty and remorseful, Lisa winced at his discomfort.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I just didn’t want you to be worried,” she said softly.

Deciding they needed lot more privacy for this discussion, Finn took Lisa’s arm to lead her out into the hall. He pulled his hand away immediately when she flinched. Then he saw a ring of blue bruises around her arms peeking out of her sleeve. Those were his fingerprints where he had gripped her yesterday, held her to him as he. . .fuck—he’d hurt her.

A muscle started ticking in his clenched jaw. He wanted to swear in the hallowed halls of Harvard. If it had been anyone else that had done that to her, he’d have literally torn the man apart with his bare hands.

“Lisa. . .” Finn began, but she cut him off.

“If you apologize for one of the best nights of my life, I’m leaving and you will never see me again,” she warned.

“I swear I have never bruised a woman in my life until you,” he said, keeping his words to a whisper in her ear.

They stopped a long hallway. Lisa firmed her mouth. “How much time before this starts?” she demanded, instead of responding to his comment the way she wanted.

Finn checked the clock at the end of the hall. “Ten minutes or so.”

“Then that will have to do. We need to clear this up.” Lisa grabbed Finn by the hand and pulled him down the corridor of classrooms until she found an empty one. She opened the door and dragged Finn inside with her. Once in, she pushed him back against it.

“Kiss me now,” she demanded. “And I want it all. Don’t you dare hold back. I haven’t been able to think of anything else but your mouth on mine all day.”

He slid his hand into her hair and tugged her head back, careful not to grab her hard with his hands. He kissed her lips, at first just playing with her mouth, but finally gave in his urges and stroked her tongue with his until they were both on fire.

This was just how it was between them. The fire still too new and surprising to be tamed by inappropriate circumstances. He wrestled with his conscience, trying to be okay and to believe Lisa still wanted him after all. He hoped like hell she wasn’t bluffing about how she felt because he was close to insane with need for her.

Freed of Finn’s demanding mouth, Lisa pulled away and looked at him. Her breathing was unsteady. Her hair was tangled. She knew she probably looked like a woman who’d just climbed out of bed, but she didn’t care. Finn was giving her a look that promised all sorts of rewards for getting horizontal with him. She was never going to be able to hear a word of his lecture because of it.

“Are we good?” she demanded. To make sure no repeats occurred, she stepped back from him and worked to get her raging hormonal reaction under control.

“Yes,” Finn said roughly. “Are you coming to see me tonight? Mind you there is only one acceptable answer to that question.”

Lisa nodded. She felt the exact same way. “Yes. I want to see you again.”

Finn let out the breath he’d been holding. Now he had a chance to make things up to her. He opened the classroom door and held it while Lisa reluctantly walked through it. His body’s reaction was becoming very predictable around the woman.

“Is Eric here?” she asked, realizing it had just occurred to her to check.

“No,” Finn said. “Eric hates these things. He’s wining and dining a rich client today.”

Despite the conversation circling back to his brother, Finn didn’t argue or grill Lisa for more revelations about her feelings. Instead he just pulled her to him for a fierce hug. Then he wove their fingers together and walked her back down the hall to the auditorium.

Lisa was amazed. Somehow even in the crowd, Finn found her an empty seat. For the next hour she listened and watched as Finn held the attention of a packed auditorium full of people. When it was done, he answered questions for another fifteen minutes. Finally, he held up a hand and told them he had to leave. She stood and waited for him to walk to her.

“Very impressive, Dr. Roberts. I had no idea how smart you were. If I had known, I might never have gotten the nerve to. . .”

Finn cut off what she was saying by clamping his mouth on hers in a kiss that said that he had been waiting too long to do it. People stopped talking to look at him, and then at her, undoubtedly because they were in public at one of the most prestigious universities in the U.S. Finn Roberts had just gotten all kind of accolades from his field for his work.

And he had just kissed her senseless in full view of the world like he could care less who saw.

Feeling Finn’s eyes so hot on her, Lisa was shocked at how much she wanted him. She had never had a relationship where being with a man felt so necessary.

“Let’s get out of here and find someplace private,” she suggested, her voice husky. “I don’t want to wait until tonight. I want to be alone with you now.”

Finn didn’t say anything in agreement, just pulled her along with him to the gates of the campus where he picked the first cab he saw. He gave the driver the name of the hotel.

As they moved through Cambridge into Boston’s Back Bay, Finn held her hand in his lap with her knuckles grazing his thigh. At the hotel, they ducked into the first elevator and punched the button for the top floor.

When they got to the room, he opened the door with his card. This time it was Finn who backed her up against the door as he secured the deadbolt to keep out the world, as well as his brother. Then he was tugging her hair back again, stroking her tongue with his tongue again, holding nothing back at all. As the fire threatened to consume them, Finn lifted Lisa into his arms and carried her to the bedroom. It was a long time before either of them said anything else.

A couple hours later, Lisa decided Finn seemed calmer, but he was still kissing her bruises, laving them with his tongue and making her shiver. Yet under all the passion, there was something more, and it concerned her. Her nerves were stretched, but Lisa still felt compelled to ask.