Unconventional Fling (A Working Girl’s Guide, Book 1) (8 page)

She clenched her teeth, annoyance shoving aside her reluctance. “I like it. Your favorite movie is better?
Dumb and Dumber
or something?”

He snorted. “
Ace Ventura, Pet Detective
.”

She rolled her eyes and flopped back onto the mattress. “Forget I said anything.”

“What?”

“This isn’t working.”

“You haven’t even given it a chance.” His voice was heavy with irritation.

She glared at his back with disbelief. “First thing out of the gate, and you all but told me my favorite movie was stupid.”

“So? That’s my opinion. I’m allowed to have those, right? It’s not my fault you like something lame. Relationships aren’t built on favorite movies anyway.”

This wasn’t working at all. She rolled over so her back was to him. “Forget it. The sex is fantastic, that’s what matters, right?”

“Jade.” He sighed. “I’m sorry. If you’d like to talk, I want to listen. I’ll take it seriously.” His finger traced along her back, sending a pleasant chill through her. “Please?”

The light touch filled her with ambivalence. “I don’t want to fight. We can do this in the morning.”

“We’re both awake now.” He tugged on her shoulder. “And I can tell it’s still eating at you.”

She rolled onto her back so she was looking up at him. “But it’s not the kind of thing we can fix with a few hours of swapping favorites. That’s the problem. We’ll never have more than a few hours. And when we manage to find that time, we have to choose get to know each other or lose ourselves—and our clothes—in the moment.”

He trailed a finger down her arm. “We knew it was going to be like this. We both spend our working lives on the road; we live worlds apart. Okay, maybe just states, but it feels like worlds. It’s a balance we’ll have to strike.”

“Except we’re not building on a solid foundation.” She shouldn’t be making this difficult, but she needed to get it out now, or it would devour her. “A couple of stolen kisses and shared words don’t last long, and then weeks or months apart at a time are going to feel like we’ve taken two steps back in our relationship. We’ll spend as much time catching up as we will on moving forward.”

He frowned and pulled away. “Have you ever heard this speech before?”

His question triggered something inside, and she pushed it aside. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it made her stomach churn and her head ache. “No.”

“Are you sure?” He leaned back on his arms, dark gaze seeping into her. “Not from those other men who got fed up with your schedule and didn’t think it was going to work out?”

The realization cut deep. Shit, she sounded just like them. Something else joined it, and she choked back the frustration. “What if they were onto something?”

His jaw clenched, and his eyes narrowed. “Really. Then you actually think this is just sex wrapped in a waste of time and frequent flier miles?”

The words dug into her and hurt even more when she couldn’t deny them. “Maybe.”

He stared at her for a moment, lips pressed into a thin line. He shook his head. “If you feel that way, that’s not the relationship I signed on for.”

“It’s not a relationship. That’s the problem. It’s hot and heavy screwing punctuated with long-distance dirty talk.”

Frustration, hurt, and anger smeared across his face, and he turned away. “If that’s what you believe, who am I to argue?”

Brandon’s fingers itched over the pocket holding his phone. He wasn’t going to check it again. There wouldn’t be anything from Jade on it. He paced near the luggage carousel in the airport. He hadn’t heard anything from her in two weeks, but that hadn’t stopped him from checking, hoping, and glancing for new messages every few minutes.

Funny how quickly she’d become a habit and how much it ached to try and break himself of her. Even now, there were still times he swore he caught a tease of her body wash from that evening in the shower.

He shook away the thoughts. As much as he hated to dwell, she had a point. He didn’t want to admit it because it meant things wouldn’t be as easy for them as he’d hoped. The more he’d thought about it, the more he’d known she was right. Meeting occasionally for a quick screw did not make a relationship.

His familiar duffel bag dropped onto the carousel. He’d debated about whether or not to replace it with a sturdier, black suitcase but decided he liked being able to find his bag at a glance among the others on the conveyor.

He hopped on the rental car shuttle and stood near the door, not interested in sitting down. Her schedule said she’d be in Phoenix all this week and next. She hadn’t been looking forward to it when she’d told him. He didn’t blame her. It was October. It shouldn’t be one hundred degrees.

Twenty minutes later, he had his destination programmed into the GPS on the rental car and was following the mechanical voice’s directions. He pulled onto the 202 Loop, heading east.

The biggest problem he had with Jade’s logic was that it didn’t make it any easier to forget her. He knew there was something between them, and he couldn’t move past that.
How do I prove it to her, though?

His thoughts drifted to fantasies and memories of a woman with straight black hair and an intoxicating laugh. His brain only checked in enough to focus on driving, leaving the rest to pore over images of Jade. It was early enough in the afternoon though, even on a Friday, that traffic wasn’t too heavy. He’d wanted to make sure he arrived before anyone started leaving their offices.

He made a brief detour, to the dismay of the GPS, pulling through the drive-thru before finishing his trip.

By the time he pulled into the hotel parking lot, his fingers were drumming on the steering wheel without permission. He couldn’t ignore the adrenaline pumping through him anymore.

He made his way to the front entrance.
One foot in front of the other. Nice and normal-like
. There was no need to run. It wouldn’t make time go any faster. The building was five stories tall, mostly brick, with minimal but well-groomed plants out front; just like every other hotel he’d seen over the years.

Inside, the lobby was just as predictable: polished tile floors stretching past a check-in desk to elevators and a smattering of plush furniture. The man behind the counter looked up as Brandon approached, giving him a practiced smile. “Can I help you?”

Brandon took a deep breath.
Please let this work. Please to whoever’s listening out there in the ether, let this be the right thing to do and the right place to be.

*

Jade wasn’t looking forward to the weekend. For the first time in ages, she just wanted to go home, hide in her apartment, and eat ice cream. Fat chance of that. She was stuck in Phoenix for another week.

She was trying not to linger on thoughts of Brandon. Struggling with every ounce of willpower to convince herself he’d just been a fling. The problem was, she didn’t believe her own denial. The connection she felt to him was so much more than a one-time deal.

Cool air blasted her skin when she stepped through the hotel front doors, shoving away most of the heat. She stopped just inside the entrance, legs refusing to move, when her gaze landed on the lobby.
No way.

Her heart skipped. Her brain screamed that this was just going to hurt again, and she told it to shut the hell up. Brandon was sitting in one of the chairs, half-turned toward the door, attention on a book.

He looked up, grin threatening to split his face when his eyes met hers. He was on his feet in an instant and crossing the room. He stopped before he reached her. Was she relieved or disappointed at the distance between them?

He held up a generic white paper bag full of something. “Italian sub, no onions, right?”

Her favorite food, she couldn’t help her smile. She nodded.

“Tomorrow I’m picking. That is, if you’ve got a few hours to spend getting to know each other.”

She closed the remaining distance, threw her arms around his neck, and pressed her lips to his. For the first time that day, she welcomed the heat. His free hand rested against the small of her back. He returned the kiss with a hungry growl, tongue diving in to probe her mouth.

She broke the kiss but didn’t pull away. She’d missed this feeling so much. But she wouldn’t let it be a repeat of the last two times. “You wanted to talk?”

He nipped her bottom lip. “Yes. I know you have to work next week, but I’m between gigs and cons, so I was hoping you’d let me stick around.”

She tugged him toward the elevators. “I would love that.”

The moment the doors closed behind them, he pressed her against the far wall of the car and kissed her again. His solid frame pinned her to the wood paneling, and her pulse raced in response. She ran her fingers up his arms, memorizing the muscle definition and burning every sensation into her memory.

The elevator jerked to a stop at her floor, and he pulled back with a gasp. He grasped her fingers and tugged her into the hallway.

She led the way, her thoughts still trying to wrap themselves around the situation. He was there. He’d tracked her down and offered exactly what she asked for. Maybe she was dreaming.

He let go of her the moment they were in the room, set the food on the table by the door, and stepped away from her.

That was a little disappointing. His fingers twitched at his side. When she stepped closer, he moved out of reach. She raised her eyebrows in question.

His shoulders slumped. “It’s taking all of my restraint not to strip you down, toss you on the bed, and ravage you until you’re too worn out to move.”

Her pulse kicked up a notch at the suggestion, and wetness grew between her legs. “Okay?”

“But…” He tapped his foot, still keeping his distance. “I want to make this work, and I need you to be happy with it long-term. So we have to set some ground rules first.”

“Like what?”

“I couldn’t even handle being away from you for two weeks. I know we weren’t talking at all, and that made it infinitely worse, but you’re right, long-distance is going to be tough.”

She nodded. None of that sounded like a solution, but it was a painful reminder of her doubts.

“So.” He grabbed her fingers again and pulled her toward the bed. He sat down and prompted her to do the same, hip and arm resting against hers. “I want to know everything about you, or at least as much as we can fill a weekend with. And I want to see you as often as possible. I want to at least give us a real chance.”

She leaned her head on his shoulder. “And then you’ll strip me down and have your way with me?”

He chuckled. “I might do that in between, but not unless you’ve told me one or two more ways to make sure our neighbors know what we’re up to.”

Heat spread across her cheeks at the implication. “You just have to ask the right questions.”

He slid from the bed and knelt at her feet. A pleasant tremor traveled through her when he ran his palms up her calves and back down again. He pulled off one shoe and then the other, setting them aside in the corner.

He stood and kicked off his own shoes, crawled to the head of the bed, fluffed the pillows, and sat so his back was to the headboard. He patted the comforter between his legs. “Join me?”

She climbed between his legs and sat with her back to his chest. His arms draped around her shoulders, and she snuggled into him more. “What now?”

“Now, we start simple. We’re both ruled by our jobs, so talking about work makes sense, right?”

The warmth of his arms was reassuring, and as much as she wanted to dive into the physical, she was content with what they were doing right now. “Sounds reasonable.”

“So I’ve got a couple of nibbles on a new agent. Two have made me offers, I’m just trying to narrow things down.”

She turned her head to the side as much as she could without pulling away from him. “That’s fantastic. Are you leaning toward one or the other?”

He rested his cheek against hers. “I’m getting close. They’ve both got an impressive client list, but once I’m done with more important things—you, namely—I’ll probably be making my call.”

“That’s fantastic, congratulations.” It felt incredible to be happy for someone else’s good news. She didn’t know if she could be more pleased if it had been her own. It was even better that it stemmed from the thing that had almost kept them apart to begin with.

He kissed her cheek. “Now, you tell me how you got into a job that keeps you on the road seventy percent of the time. Start with the bit about wanting to travel when you were younger.”

He’d remembered. That comment from the very first day they met. The realization warmed her as much as any of his flirting. “Well, when I was seven, I figured out the difference between a state and a country…”

* * * *

Conversations clattered off tile and stainless steel. Lines inched forward. Luggage slid along the footprint-covered floors. Jade didn’t care how crowded the airport was. She was a little disappointed to be there, but the warm body at her back made the looming separation easier to ignore.

She leaned back into Brandon, who was using a nearby wall for support. He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. His voice was low, but so close to her ear it cut through all the noise at the gate for her flight. “What are you proposing?”

It had been an incredible week; not just the sex, but everything. “Joint apartment custody?”

He pushed the bottom of her shirt up, just enough to trace his thumb along her bare skin. She loved that sensation. He kissed along her neck. “Technically, that term doesn’t make any sense. It means we’re sharing an apartment, but not at the same time.”

She gave a fake growl, not able to wipe the smile off her face. She wasn’t looking forward to leaving this behind. “It sounded clever in my head, and you know what I mean.”

“You’re right, I do. And yes, you should come stay with me whenever you can get away with it, and I’ll do the same.”

She leaned her head back so she could rest her cheek against his. “Final boarding call.”

He nudged her away, grabbed her wrist, and spun her to face him. Hands at the small of her back, he tugged her in close again. “I’ll see you next weekend?”