A CONTRACT ENGAGEMENT

The waiter appeared with food, and she blinked because she hadn’t remembered ordering. She glanced at the half-empty wineglass and couldn’t for the life of her remember drinking so much as a sip. Julian was bad, bad for her brain. He was as bad as some wasting disease. She wouldn’t survive, either.

“Julian,” she began again, and promptly shut up when it came out more as a plaintive wail than a protest.

“I’ll send a car for you, Nina. No one needs to see you getting into a vehicle with me. I don’t why you are so worried about that… I’m not. I’ll have my driver pick you up from work, or if you prefer, you can drive your car to your apartment and I’ll have him pick you up there. And I’ll have him take you home in time for you to prepare for work. You don’t even have to come to my house…. Not that I mind if you do”

Why wasn’t she immediately shutting him down? Instead of telling him that in no uncertain terms would she agree to such a thing, she found herself contemplating how decadent it would be to dash off to an elicit rendezvous with her lover.

She shivered at the word lover. Julian was a superb specimen of a man. He was fantastic in bed and insatiable to boot. He knew how to pleasure a woman and was as unselfish a lover as she’d ever had. The mere idea of spending the night with him had her tied in so many knots it would take a team of massage therapists to work them out.

She chewed absently at the food, not registering the taste or even what she ate.

Her throat was as dry as the desert and her tongue was swollen and clumsy.

“You act as though it’s a crime for us to make love,” he said in an oddly tender voice. “I don’t understand why you act like that… What’s so wrong if we want each other… And you know you want me just as much as I want you. Why do we have to deny ourselves the pleasure of being together? What are you so worried about? It doesn’t have to be so complicated. We are both adults and we know what we want”

If it had been coaxing or wheedling, she could have been cold to him. But she could swear he was reassuring her and attempting to allay her fears. Trying to make her stop being nervous… It worked… well, To an extent.

She licked her lips and raised her gaze to meet his. And immediately she knew she shouldn’t have done that. Awareness hit her square in the chest. In his eyes she saw undulating bodies. Hers and his. In perfect rhythm. So beautiful and so pleasurable that she closed her eyes to further immerse herself in the memory.

“Say yes, Red, ” he said softly. “Say you will come be with me tonight… You know you want to”

His voice stroked her as surely as his fingers had done. A prickle of goose bumps spread rapidly over her shoulders and down her chest until her nipples tightened into two painful knots.

“Nina,” he prompted when she said nothing.

Finally she opened her eyes and fixed him with her unfocused gaze.

“Fine,” she whispered. “I will come”

Julian grinned at her. “Thank you” he said.

————–

Nina entered her office with a heightened sense of anticipation. She already knew she’d be clock watching until it was quitting time and then she’d race home so she could change and look her best for her naughty escape to Julian’s.

Her mouth curved into a naughty smile to match the naughtiness of her and Julian’s plan. It was wicked, forbidden, and she was so turned on that she was ready to fidget right out of her shoes.

With a sigh, she sank into her chair behind her desk, kicked off her shoes and logged onto catch up on email. She hadn’t planned to go out for lunch at all and had, in fact, brought food from home, planning to eat at her desk. After missing Friday, she’d spent the morning getting a report from Mason on her client meetings he covered and then she’d gone through messages.

She groaned as her in-box stacked up with email after email. She started at the bottom and worked up, deleting several after cursory glances. Those requiring a lengthy response she flagged to respond to later and the ones she could just do a one-line response to she typed furiously and sent on their way.

She was nearly to the end when her gaze flickered over the name Elizabeth Martin. She did a double take. Julian’s mom? Why would she e-mail and how had she gotten her email address?Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

Her stomach fluttered a bit, and guilt crept over her all over again. Elizabeth was nice. She had always been nice and Nina hated lying to her. She hated lying as a rule for any reason but especially not for such a frivolous endeavor. This was one of the reasons why continuing this relationship… Or whatever this was with Julian… Was a bad idea.

She braced herself and clicked on the message. It began as cheerfully as Elizabeth herself was in person. She said again how thrilled she was that Julian and Nina had found each other. Talk about another shot to the gut. She expressed her desire to see Nina again and hoped Julian would bring her for a visit sometime.

Could this get any worse?

Her message ended with a short note that she’d attached some pictures from the wedding that she thought Nina would enjoy.

Nina opened the attached pictures and couldn’t help but smile. The pictures were of her and Julian at the wedding reception. They looked happy and….. in love.

There was one of them dancing, another of Julian looking down with a tender expression and the last was when Julian had kissed her. Nina’s hand rested on his chest and the glitter of the ring contrasted with the black of Julian’s tuxedo. Their mouths were fused together, and it was obvious to anyone looking at the picture that they were in danger of combusting right there in the middle of a crowded reception.

For several minutes, she debated whether or not to reply to Elizabeth’s e-mail. It seemed rude not to, and the last thing she wanted to do was to be rude to such a nice and wonderful woman, but it was also a terrible thing to prolong the charade.