Plum Girl (Romance) (8 page)

"By the way," Matt said, "you're coming to the holiday party on Monday night, right?" Undoubtedly he was making sure he'd have someone to be cynically miserable with that night, if that mood happened to strike him.

"Uh-huh," she replied, and focused some of her attention back on PowerPoint. "Are you kidding? You think I'm going to put the whole thing together and not go?"

"How many people are coming?" he asked. She gave him what she thought was a pretty accurate number, because she'd managed to confirm most of the guests coming Monday night. Except for Lyn Tang, who was reportedly "out of the office" every time she called. How typical that Lyn Tang was the one guest Twit cared the most about confirming. In fact, lately he appeared all but obsessed with getting Tang on staff.

Clicking her mouse, Lonnie added absently, "I'm dragging my little sister, too."

"Whoa!" B.J. exclaimed, leaning his arms on top of her PC. "There's
another
one of you? I should've been told this sooner!"

"How old's your sister?" Matt probed, obviously just as intrigued by the idea.

"She's twenty-two."

"Boyfriend?" Matt asked.

"No comment. I don't pimp for blood relatives."

"Well, a boyfriend's no impediment, anyway," Matt said, cockiness on full blast. Lonnie just laughed and rolled her eyes.

"Does she look like you?" B.J. asked.

"No, and no more questions. Guys, seriously, I have to finish this thing," she said, and motioned to her computer screen.

Matt said, "All right, all right. But bring her to happy hour tomorrow night."

B.J. gave his predictable agreement, and the two of them headed for the elevators. Lonnie shook her head in half amusement, half exasperation, until she realized they had given her a good idea. If she guilted Peach into meeting her at Whiskey's, maybe the night wouldn't be a total loss.

When she got home that evening, she found Peach working on her mural, which took up one full wall. Peach had titled the mural
BosYork
because it was an urban scene that combined features of her two favorite cities. She'd started it soon after she'd moved in with Lonnie, but with her hectic schedule as Iris Mew's personal assistant, she was only able to work on it sporadically.

Lonnie looked at her sweet little sister, with her slim body covered by white overalls, her streaky gold hair in long pigtails, her pretty face smudged with periwinkle paint, and figured she was too angelic looking to turn her down. So she asked her if she'd meet her at happy hour the following night. At first, she mentioned something about remulching Iris's indoor plants, but then she agreed. Lonnie figured that Peach felt sorry for her because Dominick had blown her off. Luckily, this was one of those times when Lonnie had no problem with pity.

* * *

Whiskey's was a spacious, stylish bar, with dark wood, upholstered booths, and cozy lighting. Tonight it was also a jam-packed madhouse of suits. Lonnie'd been there about twenty minutes, just talking to B.J. and waiting for Peach.

"So, I told you about my ex-girlfriend who just got engaged, right?" B.J. asked. Lonnie mentally reviewed the stories he'd already told her that night: graduating first in his class at Penn Law, breaking his gym's all-time bench-pressing record, getting on stage at a Blues Traveler concert and jamming with the band on his slide guitar. Nope, he hadn't told her about the ex-girlfriend getting engaged yet.

"No, I don't think so," she said amiably, and took a sip of her extra-spicy Bloody Mary. She slipped sly glances at the door behind B.J., while he launched into a story about an ex-girlfriend who got engaged to a neurosurgeon, only to confess to B.J. that she'd never gotten over
him.

"...and at that point she told me point-blank that I was the greatest lover she's ever had."
Sure she did.
"And her fiancé was only three or four feet away!" Then he stopped abruptly, and his expression turned more serious. "Oh, wait. You don't mind me telling you this, do you? I mean, I don't want you to yell 'sexual harassment' because I was telling you about being great in bed."

"Oh, no, it's okay."
It's also a load of crap.

"Hey, check that out," B.J. said, and motioned with his chin for Lonnie to turn around. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Lunther at the other end of the bar talking to Delia. He had two cigarettes hanging out of his mouth; when he exhaled, he took them both out at once, as if they were joined. Delia had her hand firmly planted on his upper arm, and she appeared to be in giddy hysterics over whatever he was saying. Then she leaned in to whisper something in his ear. Granted, the bar was loud that night, and it was difficult to hear over the din of the crowd, but whispering directly into your boss's ear? That seemed a little too intimate for Lonnie. And whispering into
Lunther's
ear seemed a little too icky. But it was typical of Delia to be clueless about behavior that was not appropriate.

She turned back to face B.J. and he had a smug grin on his face. "Something's up," he said. Then he raised his eyebrows expectantly. It took her a few seconds to realize that he'd meant it as a double entendre. And in light of the subject matter—double ick.

To avoid commenting, she glanced around the bar casually. Okay, so she also stole another peek at the door.

All of a sudden, her stomach dropped, her heart raced, and her pantyhose burned on her skin.
Dominick!
What was he doing there? Could it be a coincidence? Obviously this was a popular happy hour spot, and his company was just as geographically close to it as hers. He couldn't possibly have come to meet
her
or he would've answered her e-mail. Wouldn't he?

Before she could gather herself together, she felt an arm around her shoulder, and instantly, she was pulled against a man's chest. It happened so quickly that she didn't even have a chance to be disoriented. She lifted her face up to see who had grabbed her. It was Matt. "Hey, it's our raven-haired temp," he said loudly to B.J. and then smiled down at Lonnie, who was in the comfort equivalent of a half nelson at the moment.

"Uh, hi," she said, lacking some of her usual friendliness as she tried to push away from him. He slowly let her go, sensing her resistance.

B.J. commented, "Yeah, I know, I've been telling her about Jennifer's engagement."

"Here's our raven-haired temp," Matt said again, and Lonnie realized he was a little drunk. "The girl's probably smarter than half the people in the office and she's the friggin' temp." His remark came with a sneer, and Lonnie wasn't sure how she was supposed to take it. Was it intended as a compliment or a put down? Whatever it was, Matt was acting like an asshole, and she didn't feel like indulging in small talk. She wished Peach were there. Plus, she'd lost sight of Dominick and now had no idea where he'd gone.

Lonnie extricated herself from Matt and B.J. with the old "going to the bathroom" line, and made her way around the bar to try to find Dominick. Finally she spotted him—sitting in a booth, talking to an attractive redhead. From what Lonnie could see, there were two other girls in the booth, too, who were talking to each other. They all appeared to be in their early twenties.

Great, so not only had Dominick lost interest in her altogether, he'd moved on to someone else, and decided to meet her at the exact place Lonnie would be. Talk about
tactless.
Not that they were an item or anything, but still...

She clutched her drink tighter and sighed. Could this have been more of a disaster?

* * *

Dominick was laughing agreeably as Mo, a graphic artist with a cubicle adjacent to his office, told him a story about her latest designs being rejected by upper management. She didn't seem to mind that
he
was upper management himself while she told him the story. Maybe it was because their departments had nothing to do with each other. Although, he also figured out that she was interested in more than just business talk. It may have been a while for him, but he wasn't completely clueless. Mo was looking up at him from under her lashes, edging her drink closer to his and laughing at nearly everything he was saying. She was cute, and from what he could tell, smart and entertaining. Too bad the entire time she was talking to him he couldn't stop thinking about Lonnie.

He'd gotten back from his business trip only a few hours ago, and stopped in the office to check his messages, because the network had been down for the last couple days. He'd never expected the e-mail from Lonnie asking him to meet her at Whiskey's. His trip had been completely spur-of-the-moment. He'd scheduled a business lunch with the reps from E-Bizz Inc. on Tuesday at GraphNet, but at the last minute, they'd insisted on meeting at their home base—in New York City. Lately they had been hedging about their account, and Dominick wasn't about to argue with one of GraphNet's biggest sponsors. So he'd spent the past three days in tedious meeting after meeting with the E-Bizz people—the only bright spot being his complimentary room at the Plaza.

Lonnie's e-mail shocked him. He was sure after Monday night's debacle, she'd want to establish some distance between them. She had to be one of the sweetest girls he'd met in a while, so he knew she wouldn't just dismiss him entirely. But still, he figured she'd wait a while to get in touch with him, now that she realized he was interested in more than a platonic relationship. He'd only come tonight because she had no idea he'd been out of town, and he didn't want her to think he'd purposely blown off her e-mail.

Okay, and he'd come to see her... and feel the situation out. After all, she
had
asked him to meet her at a bar on a Friday night. Maybe that meant she
was
interested. After the way she acted at Rattlesnake, he knew it was a long shot, but he was hoping like hell it would come in because despite everything, he still woke up hard every morning with thoughts of her curvy body and wet, wine-colored lips.

Then, just like that, those thoughts went down the drain. He'd come in and seen her with another guy's arm around her. It looked like he knew Lonnie pretty well by the close way that he was leaning in to her and holding on to her almost possessively. Dominick had looked away quickly, inwardly denying he was
that
jealous, as his blood boiled and gut churned so fiercely he thought he might lose it. Normally he didn't even have a temper, but when it came to Lonnie, he couldn't seem to control the intensity of his feelings. Why the hell had she asked him to meet her if she was with someone already? The guy could've been just a coworker, but that wasn't how it had looked.

Damn it all!
Here he had this cute graphic artist interested, and he couldn't stop thinking about Lonnie, who was obviously playing games. He didn't need this. Christ, he was thirty years old! He wasn't some college kid anymore, and he sure as hell wouldn't play games.

He didn't care how much he liked being with her, or how mystified he was by her collection of degrees, or how much he lusted after her gorgeous mouth and full, round breasts. He was tired of trying to read her. Period.

Then again...

Maybe I'm overreacting,
Dominick thought, as he nodded to whatever Mo was saying and hoped affirmation was the appropriate response. Lonnie hadn't heard from him since Monday. She probably took that as a sign he wasn't interested anymore, which was far from the case. Obviously, he'd need to clarify that. Stat.

Well, that settled it. He'd found the rationalization he'd been looking for, and now he could go try to find her. Mo asked, "So, what's the deal with the guy in your group who wears power suits when the whole office is business-casual?" Harold, his over-eager protégé.

"Mo, I'm sorry, but will you excuse me? You just reminded me of a phone call I needed to make. For work." It was a lie, but what was the alternative? Have her think something was wrong with her when there was absolutely nothing wrong with her? That wasn't how he operated.

"Oh, yeah, okay," Mo replied, and Dominick could tell she was disappointed. But he figured she was young, smart, and good-looking, so she'd get over it soon enough. He said good-bye to her two friends across from him, and left the booth in search of Lonnie.

It didn't take long to spot her. She was the pretty girl with the black hair and the lost-puppy look in her green-honey-brown eyes. She was standing at the bar, not talking to anyone. God, she looked sweet. Okay, he had to get his infatuation in check. He still didn't know what the situation was with the guy who'd had his arm around her.

With his Guinness in his hand, he started to walk toward her.

Chapter 7

Lonnie was not exactly in the best mood of her life. The night had actually been sort of fun before she'd seen Dominick with another woman. Now she just wanted to go home, knowing this "thing" with Dominick Carter should not be bothering her as much as it was. But she couldn't leave because Peach hadn't arrived yet. Lonnie just hoped that Peach got there soon, and in the meantime, that nobody from Twit & Bell came over to make conversation. It was bad enough that she'd just had to deal with a slimy guy who'd tried to hit on her by sauntering up and saying, "I may not be the best-looking guy here, but I'm the only one talking to you."

She felt a hand tap her shoulder.
Oh, please, what now?
She spun around and found herself face-to-face with Dominick. Actually, her face was more aligned with his neck, and if she leaned over just a little more, she could kiss it. Lick it. All of a sudden, her mind went blank of everything except how happy she was that he was there. She knew there was some reason why she'd been feeling hopeless about him a minute ago, but for the life of her she couldn't remember what it was.

"Hey, you," he said. His jet-dark eyes were molten, and his face verged on five o'clock shadow. In other words, he looked like he always looked, and it was driving her crazy.

Lonnie smiled sociably and tried not to rip open his shirt and run her tongue down his stomach. Speaking of his naked flesh—
who, me?
—she wondered if he had hair on his chest, or if he was china doll-bare like Jake. Or worse, if he shaved it, like a guy Peach had dated. No, no, surely Dominick wouldn't do anything that cheesy. The guy Peach dated also shaved his butt, now that she thought about it, which made her wonder about the state of Dominick's
extremely
fine ass. All she'd been able to learn so far was that his butt was rounded and firm and cute as all hell. That information was hardly enough to satisfy one's curiosity.