Something Wild (21 page)

Half an hour later, the office remained quiet, everyone working at their various tasks, but still no Martin. Was Ryan the only one to notice his absence? Did everyone else know where Martin was and had just neglected to tell
him?

Clicking the save icon on his computer screen, Ryan made his way to the lobby. Grace looked up from opening the mail when he stopped at her desk. "Yes?"

"I was just wondering about Martin. Isn't he due back today? I haven't seen him."

"He's not back in town yet."

Ryan felt his blood pressure begin to spike. "He's not back? Why not? Do you have any idea?"

Grace gave him the same look one might cast upon a suspected mental ward escapee. "Don't get upset, Ryan. He'll be back."

Don't get upset?
Don't get upset?

But he had to keep his emotions under control. They were showing way too much and Grace clearly thought he was going insane. And the fact was, he was starting to
feel
a little crazy upon realizing he'd just spent a weekend apart from Penny for apparently no reason at all.

"I just … need to talk to him about some projects," he said, working to keep his voice even. "I was anxious for his return."

"Well, he called just a little while ago."

"What did he say?"

Grace turned her attention back to the mail. "He couldn't talk long, but wanted to tell me he'd been delayed. He said he'd call again tomorrow to let me know when he'd be home."

"Well … what do you think is keeping him?"

Grace lifted her gaze once more, clearly getting frustrated. "Could be a lot of things. Most likely, some business opportunity came up that couldn't wait."

Ryan nodded and tried to act as if that was a good enough answer, but no matter what was holding Martin in Vegas, Ryan was starting to think it damned irresponsible of him. He had a business to run. Messages were piling up. And for God's sake, he'd asked a woman to marry him who was waiting to give him an answer! What kind of a man
was
this?

And to think Ryan had lost his last job for showing up somewhere ninety minutes late!

He made his way back to his desk and returned to work, but when noon arrived and still his bones ached with missing Penny, he threw down his pencil and got to his feet. This was it! He was taking action.

For one thing, he couldn't live with the fact that he'd hurt her. For another, he was beginning to think he had his priorities screwed up. Not to mention that he was confused as hell about his recent realization that he was in love with her.

No wonder he was acting so ridiculous; part of him remained concerned about his job, while another part was starting to think about some impossible, improbable future, and he'd even started worrying about her wild side. What if he was wrong and she
didn't
feel the same way he felt about her? What if she realized she wanted to have fun, live the single life? Maybe Penny wouldn't even
want
anything long-term.

Oh hell, nothing made sense to him anymore, and this new fear just complicated things even further.

"I'm going out for a while," he told Grace as he headed toward the elevator. He had to get out of the office before he lost his mind.

"I already ordered your sandwich. Do you still want it."

"Yeah, I'll eat when I get back. I just need to run an errand."

Getting off the elevator and moving through the revolving door onto

a minute later, Ryan hit the sidewalk toward the Tower Place Mall. What he planned to do wouldn't even begin to help his confusion or solve their problems, but at least it would let Penny know she was on his mind, and that he wanted her desperately.

* * *

Penny went through the workday in a daze. They were busy for a Monday, and she kept up with the pub's traffic, but she barely remembered what she was doing from one moment to the next. When she left a little before five, she was exhausted, although she knew it was more mental than physical. Martin's unexplained absence was eating at her, and Ryan's
explained
absence was killing her.

Maybe Patti had been right. Maybe her only crime was falling for a guy who couldn't return her feelings no matter how wonderful things seemed when they were together. So she tried not to concentrate on memories of their shared laughter, their sweet quiet moments, their lovemaking, and instead attempted to focus on the fact that none of it had been enough to win his love.

After Patti's relentless prodding, Penny
had
returned home with a new miniskirt yesterday, her first ever. She'd also picked up a couple of tops that were more formfitting than the clothes she usually wore. She had actually enjoyed their spree, and even liked the idea of wearing her new purchases; she was used to wearing flirty stuff underneath her clothes, but wearing it on the outside would be a new thing for her—other than the night of the limo encounter, of course. The only problem was, she wasn't sure she'd feel comfortable wearing her new clothes for anyone, with anyone, but Ryan.

Swinging the car into the driveway, she dragged herself over the lawn and into the house. As she thumbed through her mail, she noticed her answering machine was blinking and absently reached to press the playback button. When she heard Martin's voice, she dropped the mail on the counter and stared at the phone.

"Penny, it's Martin. Forgive me for not calling sooner—time has gotten away from me here. I wish you were home; I'd hoped we could talk." He paused then, sighing. "Well, as you know by now, I've been delayed, but I'll be back soon, and you'll be hearing from me."

When the machine clicked off, Penny just kept staring at it. She was glad he'd finally called, but his vague message about being delayed left her even
more
frustrated. This meant he wouldn't be home tonight, just as he hadn't been home all weekend. And for all she knew, he wouldn't come home for days yet. Something in his voice had sounded so cryptic that it added to her feelings of disappointment. Why hadn't he said when he was coming back? Why hadn't he mentioned what the holdup was?

When the doorbell interrupted her thoughts, Penny shifted her thoughts away from Martin as best she could to find a deliveryman waiting on her front porch. After signing and accepting the small package—a pretty little box covered in tiny red hearts with a redfoil bow on top—she shut the door and looked at it. "What on earth…?"

Thoughts skittered through her head. Had Patti sent her something to cheer her up? No, if her sister had wanted to give her a gift, she'd have done it at the restaurant, or yesterday when they'd shopped together. And then it hit her. Martin. This was some sort of combination romance/apology/explanation present. He'd said she'd be hearing from him and maybe this was what he'd meant.

Penny untied the bow, letting the ribbon drop to the floor, then removed the lid. Nestled in a bed of red tissue paper lay a skimpy, flirty pair of tiger-striped thong panties with a scalloped edge. Oh my. This was from
Martin?

But slowly, warily, another possibility began to nudge its way into her mind as she reached for the card inside.

To the woman who brings out the animal in me. I miss you. Ryan.

Penny went as weak as a kitten, even as her heart pounded out of control. She remembered wanting to bring out the animal in Martin, and instead it had happened with someone else.

Oh God, she loved him. With all her aching heart.

She wasn't even sure exactly what the panties meant, if anything had really changed, but … maybe she could
make
them change.

* * *

Ryan had planned to leave the office by six, anxious to get home to see if a message from Penny might be waiting on his answering machine. If not, he'd thought he might call her or drive by her house to see if she'd gotten his gift, and to see if she hated him or if the gesture had managed to smooth things over at all.

But when Ryan checked Martin's e-mail right before leaving, he found one that had to be dealt with, which meant so much for leaving by six. A client in California was having system problems and Ryan didn't know if he could help, but felt obligated to call him anyway, especially since it was only three o'clock there.

Two hours later, he hung up the phone. It had taken a while, but he'd figured out the problem and walked the guy through fixing it. After turning off the last light in the office, he made his way up a now empty

toward his parking garage. And even if he didn't feel great about much else in his life at the moment, he at least knew he'd put in a good, hard day's work.

The sun was sinking over the river by the time he got out of his car, the Daniel Beard bridge silhouetted in the forefront, and it made him think of Penny and the sunset they'd shared just a few nights ago. Strange, it seemed more like an eternity.

He wondered if it was too late to go see her now, knowing she must have gotten her surprise by this time. His skin prickled with uncharacteristic nervousness as he tried to imagine her reaction. He felt like a kid who'd just sent his first love note.

Stepping into the condo, dark but for the pink glow of sky blazing through the huge living room window, he flipped on an overhead light. He'd been just about to swing his briefcase onto the kitchen counter when he stopped, his eyes drawn to a piece of paper he hadn't put there, a note written in red ink.

Come to the bedroom, Tiger.

10

«
^
»

R
yan stopped in the bedroom doorway, stunned by the sight before him. Penny stood against the open balcony door, arms stretched above her head, wearing nothing but the tiger-striped panties he'd sent her.

The first seductive notes of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" wafted from the radio by the bed. Penny's hair spilled over her shoulders in dark blond waves, framing her pretty face and the rounded breasts below, their pink crests beaded. Her hips flared slightly from her narrowed waist, the small swath of tiger print stretching across them. With the white sheers fluttering around her in the breeze, she looked like a flesh-and-blood sex goddess, something he might've dreamed.

But he wasn't dreaming. This was real.
She
was real. He let his briefcase drop to the floor.

"Hello there," she said in a breathy voice that added to his arousal.

"Uh, hi. I see you, uh, got my…"

She gave him a provocative nod. "Do you like?"

"Yeah," he said, adding a deeper, "Oh yeah," as her hips began to sway in slow rhythm with the music. "Uh, how did you…"

She kept the sexy voice. "I forgot to return your key."

"I'm glad."

"Me, too," she whispered, but then the sensual look in her eyes softened as her hips stilled. "I missed you, Ryan."

Her words pierced his heart as it beat out of control, not just with arousal now, but so much more.

He finally left the doorway and went to her. She was so beautiful he almost couldn't bear to touch her, to mar the perfect image before him, to let the moment end. Yet, tentatively, he lifted both hands to her face, then gave her a slow, lingering kiss. When he pulled back, she looked as awed by his tenderness as he was. His whole body thrummed with emotion … with love. She was his sun and moon, his day and night, his sweet, innocent sandwich girl and his hot, daring sex kitten.

He touched her lips with two fingertips. "I've missed your kisses."

A familiar look of romantic desperation grew in her eyes just before Penny threw her arms around his neck, clinging to him. He savored how much she needed him, knowing now what should've been apparent from the beginning—he needed her just as much.

When next their lips met, they traded kisses filled with more urgency than he'd ever known, and his hands roamed her tantalizing curves as she worked to get him out of his clothes. Soon he stood naked before her, his arousal brushing her stomach as he drank in the heat that burned in her eyes.

"Lie down," she said.

The command caught him so off guard he merely gaped.

"Remember the night when you did all the work and gave me all the pleasure?"

He nodded, letting her back him onto the bed.

"Well," she said, coming to kneel over him, "I want to return the favor."

He rested his head on the feather pillow, watching as Penny hovered above him, her breasts suspended mere inches over his face. He thought to lift his head enough to nip at one of them, to get one sweet taste of her, when he heard something click—twice—and realized his wrists were encircled with plush fabric.

He knew before he even looked up that she'd hooked him to the wrought iron that lined the top of his sleigh bed with the velvet handcuffs. A laugh erupted from his throat, yet his amusement quickly dissolved into a look of pure sexuality he hoped she felt to her core. "Maybe I was wrong," he said. "Maybe
you're
the animal."

"I think we both are; that's why we go together so well." She gave him a suggestive smile. "Although I should warn you, you ain't seen nothin' yet."

With that, Penny lowered a soft kiss to his lips, then took one last look into his eyes before proceeding downward. She rained kisses onto his neck, his shoulders, his chest, each vibrating through him like the gentle but potent strum of a harp. "You're so sweet," he murmured as her kisses moved lower over his stomach, making the muscles in his groin pull taut.