Just for Fun (20 page)

Okay, that wasn’t entirely true. She needed him. Just not to keep her away from Todd.

“I’m done, Todd.”

“Done? With us? Look, Morgan, it’s obvious you and Doug have something going on but I’m not giving up so easily. Let’s spend some time—”

“Yes, with us. For sure.”

“Because of Doug?”

She thought about that. Doug was a factor in a few things, but not this. Not really. Not anymore. “No,” she finally answered. “Because of you. I’m done giving you ideas, Todd. I’m done helping you get ahead. I want this job too. You’re going to have to get it on your own. Good luck.”

He let his frown show this time. “Giving me ideas?”

“I figured it out. You’re charming, you’re smart, you’re one of the best schmoozers I’ve ever met. You’ll always have connections and you’ll always look good making other people’s ideas work. But you’re going to have to find someone else to give you the ideas, since you clearly can’t come up with anything on your own.”

His frown deepened. “I can help you too, you know. I can make your ideas bigger and better. I can give glitz and glamour to what you come up with.”

“I don’t need your glitz and glamour, Todd.”

“You sure about that? I can find someone else with good ideas. Do you have someone to take your ideas and actually make them work?”

She frowned now. “
I
can make them work.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. You have yet to implement any of the big stuff you’ve come up with.”

She opened her mouth, then shut it again. Dammit. He was right. She had ideas, lots of them, but he was the one who had actually done something with them. Why was that?

The answer came almost immediately. She wasn’t confident enough. She couldn’t risk it not working out. She had ideas but Todd had showed her they were
good
ideas, ideas that worked. Security was a big deal for her, being sure of things before jumping in.

“That’s going to change.” She
sounded
confident anyway.

“If you say so.”

“Goodbye, Todd.”

He gave her a smirk and a wink. “You know where to find me when you realize you need me too.”

She wasn’t going to need him. That she knew for sure. But that was about the only thing she was sure of.

Todd turned and sauntered down the hall as she continued on to the elevators. She pressed the up button, lost in thought.

“Hey.”

The deep voice and warm body behind her, made her turn with a smile. “Hey.”

Doug looked great.

She sighed. Would he ever not look great to her?

His hair was familiarly rumpled, his eyes looked tired, and his shirt read
Cleverly disguised as an adult
, but his smile was sexy and warm.

“I already packed us up.” He indicated their bags resting by the closest colonnade in the lobby. “You said you just needed to call the car and the pilot and we could leave right away, right?”

She’d mentioned that as they dried off from their shared shower last night. But she hadn’t expected him to be so anxious to leave. Her heart twinged and she had to shake her head. Her business in Chicago was over. That’s why they were here. Since the meeting was done, their reason for being here was done.

That shouldn’t make her feel so miserable.

“How did you know I’d be done now?” she asked, trying to keep her disappointment from her face. One of the great things about a private company jet was that they didn’t have a scheduled departure time. They could have made use of the suite a little longer.

“Oh, I’ve been hanging out down here for about an hour,” he said, waving toward the valet stand. Roger and Stan were on duty.

She gave them a wave too.

“Okay, well, just let me call the car.” She pulled her phone out, knowing it was childish to hit the numbers more slowly than she usually would have. This didn’t have to mean things were over. The trip was over, but she could see him again. They were headed back to the same city. Where they both lived and worked.

At least for now.

That was the part that hung her up. A high-paying job with travel and great perks and benefits was what she’d always wanted. It wasn’t shallow or materialistic. Her job meant security. It meant she didn’t have to worry about having adequate health insurance, or a dependable car, or enough money in the bank to cover unexpected things like repairs to her house after a bad storm.

She’d lived through all of those things with her parents.

At age ten, Maddie had flipped over the handlebars on her bike and needed stitches. Morgan had heard her mom on the phone with the doctor’s office afterward trying to set up a payment plan for the x-rays and other expenses. She’d seen her mom’s tears.

Morgan had been fourteen when she and her dad were stranded on the highway in ninety-degree heat when their transmission gave up. They’d had only one car for almost a year after that and she remembered her mom’s stress, and even embarrassment, when arranging rides with friends and co-workers.

She’d lain awake at night listening to her parents fight about how they were going to replace everything their home owner’s insurance wouldn’t cover when their basement flooded.

The job in California meant she never had to worry about how to take care of herself and she’d have enough to help her parents or Maddie if they ever needed anything.

She knew there was more to life than money. Her sister didn’t make the kind of money Morgan did, and she was perfectly happy. Her father was the perfect example of not needing money to enjoy life.

And as long as Morgan had money she could sit back and let them enjoy things, knowing she could bail them out of anything that came up.

So did she want to pursue a relationship right now?

As she waited to be connected to the car service she watched Doug. He was conversing casually with the two guys from the cleaning crew who were polishing the front windows and he hurried forward to help two older women get through the revolving door as Roger and Stan loaded what appeared to be a dozen suitcases on a valet cart.

No, she didn’t want to start a new relationship right now.

She wanted to keep having one with Doug.

Yes, it had been three days. Four if she counted the fundraiser. But she could not deny that this felt very relationship-like. It had been intended just for fun, just a fling, sex only, but it had turned into more. Surely he had to feel it too?

Still, she was sure flat-out asking him, or telling him her thoughts and feelings on the subject, would do nothing but send him running. This had been a weekend agreement, short-term, nothing serious just three days ago. She couldn’t jump ahead here. He dated casually. That’s all he wanted. So she’d keep this casual, simple, straight-forward. But fun and sexy too.

They got into the car only five minutes later and headed for the airport. It wasn’t the same car, but she couldn’t help but think about kneeling on the floor in front of him in the limo last night.

Strangely, it wasn’t just about the physical, sexual thrill it gave her but the idea that she could make him feel that way. She loved that in that moment she was all he was thinking of, all he wanted or needed.

Which all sounded a lot like what he’d been saying when he had her up against the sliding glass door last night.

The desire to be the most important thing to him, to fulfill every one of his fantasies, had to be more than she was supposed to feel for a fling.

In fact, she’d thought she’d had a relationship with Todd and she’d never felt that way for him.

“How’d the meeting go?” Doug asked as they turned on to the street.

“Um, great.” It had been. “Great. But the position is still up in the air. He said he would be talking more with both of us.”

“That’s a good thing,” Doug said, taking her hand.

He did it so casually, she wondered if he realized he’d done it.

“It’s good he’s carefully considering everything. But I think in the end you have nothing to worry about.”

She smiled, warmed by his loyalty. “Thanks. Based on what?”

“He’s a down-to-earth guy. I don’t think you truly get ahead in a service industry unless you’re a people person…or you recognize you’re not and you surround yourself with others who are. Todd might have good ideas but when it comes to making it happen, it’s going to take someone like you.”

He squeezed her hand and she again wondered if he was aware of it.

“I’m flattered,” she said. “But how do you know this? About Jonathan or me?”

“I’ve seen it in you,” he said with a grin. “You like people. When you’re not worried about smudging the crystal and silver, you can be quite sweet and charming.”

She smiled in spite of herself. He’d pegged her—at least about the worry over smudges. She hoped the sweet and charming was true too.

“Jonathan is the same. At breakfast he was talking to all the waitresses and even the bus boys. He impressed me.”

Morgan sat up straighter. “At breakfast?”

“Yeah, the other morning… Geez, was it just yesterday?” he said with a little frown.

“You had breakfast with Jonathan yesterday?” she repeated.

“We both happened to be having breakfast at the same time in the same place and so we sat together,” Doug said.

“Then what?”

“We drank orange juice.”

“What did you talk about?” she insisted, squeezing his fingers. Oh, Lord, was this when he’d pulled out the raunchy jokes? Or had he divulged how he’d met Morgan? That
she
was the one to jump on him first?

“We talked about the hotel.”

She stared at him for a few seconds. “The hotel?” she asked.

“All the hotels.”

“What do you mean?”

“I just gave him my opinion on some things.”

Oh…boy. “Like what, for instance.”

He turned to face her more fully. “What are you afraid I told him?” he asked, a knowing look in his eyes.

“I, um, don’t know,” she hedged.

“Uh-huh. I told him what I told you. That he should be talking to his employees if he wants good ideas about how to improve things.”

“What did he think?”

“He loved it.” Doug leaned in closer. “I’m sure it would impress him if you incorporated that into some of your stuff for him.”

She wasn’t one to let a golden opportunity pass her by. She leaned in too. “We should spend some more time together so you can fill me in completely. You know, so I can impress him.”

Doug jerked back as if she’d spit on him. “Um, oh, no. That’s not necessary. I mean, I told you…just talk to the employees. Empower them to be part of it. That’s all you have to do.”

She watched him with surprise. And a little hurt. The idea of seeing her again was
that
bad?

She narrowed her eyes. “But I’d
like
to see you again.”

“Maybe I’m only good in fancy hotels.”

She could tell he was trying to make light but now he wasn’t looking at her, holding her hand, or sitting comfortably, at least it seemed that way with all the shifting on the seat he was doing.

He had a point. The fundraiser had been at a fancy hotel too. One of her competitors, incidentally. But she knew it wasn’t where they’d been that made her feel like…well, whatever she was feeling.

“That’s not a problem,” she said flippantly. “I happen to
have
a fancy hotel we can use whenever we want.”

He gave her a weak smile. “Right. How could I forget?”

“Or we could test the theory and go to my apartment. Or yours.”

“That would be a test all right,” he muttered.

Morgan frowned. Well, that had certainly lacked the enthusiasm she’d been hoping for. In fact, it sounded decidedly
un
enthusiastic. She was offering more naked time. Doug really liked naked time with her.

She wasn’t even asking him out. She wasn’t planning on bringing an extra toothbrush to keep at his place. She wasn’t asking him to meet her parents.

She just wanted more time with him. Even if the only talking they did was between the sheets.

If this was how he responded to that offer, she could only imagine how he’d react if she confessed her oh-crap-I-could-be-falling-for-you feelings.

Watching him stoically keep his eyes everywhere but on her, she thought about her offer. Maybe going to her apartment felt too real-life to him, too serious. Maybe the locations they’d been in were a part of why
he
was feeling whatever he was feeling. Or maybe he
thought
the fancy hotels were part of it, anyway.

She didn’t love that idea. She wanted him to be crazy about
her
, like she was about him. But the hotel, the box seats, the private jet all certainly contributed to the sense that this was just a fantasy. And who wouldn’t like that?

Fine.

She wanted more time with him, period. If the only way she could see him again was to keep the fantasy going, she could do that.

But before she could say anything more, they turned into the airport. Okay. They had another hour on the plane. Just the two of them. She was going to be the best Richard Gere ever.

She wanted to see him again.

Dammit.

Dooley got into his seat and pulled his book out immediately, hoping to curtail further conversation.

She wanted to see him again.

Why? That was stupid. He wasn’t just complimenting her when he said he was sure Jonathan was going to eventually choose her for the California resort. She was obviously the better choice. Anything Todd had to contribute to the project could be done via conference call, frankly. The on-site person had to be Morgan.

He might just have to call Jonathan up and tell him so.

Which meant she was leaving.
Why
prolong this…thing they were doing? No matter how great it was, there was no future. He already knew all good things had to come to an end, and this end was already set up.

His dad had been—and still was—a vivid reminder that things like health, marriages, jobs, friendships, security and wealth could be snatched away from you without warning. Dooley preferred to stay on top of those things so he knew, and had some say in, how they were going to go.