Fuming in her office a few hours later, Sydni tried to bury her head in some new contracts, a few mundane phone calls to clients and lots of dull paperwork. It wasn’t working. Not even close.
With a hand at the small of her back, she slowly pressed into the tense muscles and rose from her desk. Standing at the floor to ceiling windows, she watched the sunset off in the distance, loving the purples and pinks reflected on the walls of her office. The automatic blinds began to close, slowly blocking out the first twinkling of stars in the clear twilight sky. Must be six o’clock.
In the middle of packing her briefcase and laptop her office door opened and closed with a sharp snap. Sydni didn’t look up. No need. She’d recognize the heady scent of this particular visitor anywhere. Drew. She’d known it was him the second he walked in. Had actually expected him sooner. What had he and Alex been doing all this time? No, wait. Him doing Alex is what she wanted, wasn’t it?
“Want to tell me what the hell that shit was about at lunch?”
A scowl, laid from one end of his brow to the other, accompanied the near snarl wrapped around his words. She pulled a deep breath into suddenly depleted lungs and sighed.
Did she want to try to explain? “No, not really.”
“Too fuckin’ bad, baby. I want to know what’s going on in that beautiful, though no doubt misguided, brain of yours. Why did you bail on me and leave me with that…that woman?” He motioned furiously toward the door. His motions so sharp, even the sleeve of his exquisitely cut suit jacket snapped unhappily as he moved with irritated motions.
And the man was changing colors. If he got anymore pissed off he’d turn cherry-colored and blow a major gasket. In as soothing a voice as she could muster, Sydni spoke quietly and with conviction. Sort of.
“She’s perfect for you, Drew. Alex is settled in her career, smart, beautiful, perky.” There was that “P” word again. “And closer to your age.”
“Damn it, Sydni, if I wanted someone my age I’d have them. And yes, I said them. Why the hell do we have to keep having this conversation?”
“Look, Drew, I really don’t want to do this with you right now,” she sighed with annoyance, her expression hard and determined to steer him clear of her. After she got rid of him, she’d dive into some work. That always took her mind off of things. Pitifully, it was all she really knew how to do, and do well. Relationships? Not so much.
“Well that’s too damn bad because we’re going home and we’re going to deal with this. Then I plan to fuck you until you realize that I don’t want anyone in my bed but you. Hell, I can’t handle more than you.”
“I have plans this evening. I’m not going home right now,” she lied. Hell, all she’d done before meeting Drew was work, go home and work some more. Now after having him in her life, even for just a few weeks, the last thing she wanted was to totter around that big house alone…working.
“Then I guess I’ll just have to follow you all over town until you end up at home. If I have to stay on your ass until you walk it through your door, Sydni, I have no problem with that.”
Storm clouds remained in his wake after he yanked open her office door and carefully closed it behind him. Well, she could say this for the man—he had class enough to keep their argument private rather than slamming the heavy wood door and letting the whole division know.
Damn it, there must be something else to do other than drive around pretending to be out on the town. Maybe she’d straighten up her office? After a brief look around that idea lost appeal considering Tsubaki-san kept the place spic and span. Perhaps she’d have dinner out at that little jazz scene she enjoyed all too seldom? Sigh. No denying the fact that she simply didn’t want to be in her own little one-some. She flipped her cell phone open, started to call Charli, then changed her mind. Sister or not, Charli would never understand what she’d been trying to do during that moment of—oh yes, she could admit it now—insanity when she’d pretty much abandoned Drew to the possibility of landing in Alex’s arms.
Abandoned. God, that sounded so dramatic. Besides, pushing him toward Mizz Voltier had seemed like a perfectly great idea at the time. But after seeing the disappointment and indignant anger in Drew’s beautiful grays, her grand idea now seemed plain old stupid.
Second guessing herself had never been a habit. But now it seemed as if every action, every idea, every thought was all wrapped up around a man she shouldn’t want. The problem was the reasons she shouldn’t want him were beginning to make less and less sense the more time they spent together.
Sydni took the elevator down to the second floor, then walked across the glass and steel skyway that connected Expedex to its private parking lot across the street. Row upon row of empty spaces left no doubt there was nobody else in the lot this late. The sound of her heels click-clicking against the pavement seemed to come from a million echo-filled miles away. Regardless of what Drew had said in her office, he’d obviously changed his mind about tailing her home. Could she blame him if he’d decided to say to hell with her and her emotional roller coasting? Wanting him one day, then tossing him at some other woman the next? Distracted, and practically running into one of the lampposts, Sydni made her way to her car. There was a hole in her stomach forty feet deep, and not from hunger, though she’d thrown away most of her lunch. What was she supposed to do now that she’d hurt Drew so deeply?
What a mess.
Briefcase tossed into the passenger seat of her car, Sydni climbed in, locked the door, fastened her seat belt and sat studying how the fluorescent lights shone over her car. On yet another forlorn sigh, her eyes slid closed and the marble-sculptured face of the man who had her tied up in knots appeared, then morphed from mad, to happy, to horny and back again. Suddenly her mind veered to the last time he’d slept over at her house. Wait, it had just been last night. Yet already her body missed him so much it felt like forever since he’d touched her, caressed and licked every inch of her skin. Just the thought of his talented hands working magic across her sensitive ass sent a warming pool of need to gather at the entrance to her suddenly glowing pussy.
The phone rang. Her heart jetted up into her throat.
“This is Sydni,” she stammered, quickly masking her shock with a calm “you’re bothering me” timbre—the one she used to use on Charli when she was younger. Didn’t work worth a damn now, but it still sounded good and solid.
“Move it, Sydni. I only have so much patience and you are pushing it, baby.”
She looked up and there he was. He’d pulled his car right up to hers and she hadn’t even noticed. No, you were too busy imagining his pole of a cock.
“Tantrums don’t suit you, Drew,” she blew out on a loud breath, then snapped the phone shut, amazed at how gorgeous the man was even when he was pissed off. Peeling out of her parking space, Sydni was glad he couldn’t see her biting her lip trying not to chuckle.
And true to his word, the man stayed on her ass all the way to her house.
In fact, instead of parking on the street like he usually did, when the garage door went up Drew pulled inside, right into the empty space next to her. She cut the engine, let the door down and slowly got out of the car. Drew was there to take her hand and help her out.
He reached for the briefcase in her hand. It was a sweet gesture for him to carry her things inside. Allowing him to take the case from her suddenly nerveless fingers, she lowered her head. His words had her snapping it back up.
“You won’t need this, Syd. No working tonight, except with me.” Then he tossed the thing into the back seat, slammed the car door, and pulled her in his wake.
“Look, Drew, I’m not one for being manhandled, damn it. Let go of my hand, or slow the hell down.”
He paused in the hallway leading from the garage door into the house, looked down at her feet and growled. The heat in his gaze flared, then ratcheted up a notch to flat out blazing.
“Damn, I’d forgotten you were wearing those fuck-me pumps. When I saw you put them on this morning I wanted to drag you back to bed and fuck you silly with nothing on but those sexy-as-hell shoes.”
“What the hell does that have to do with what I just said?” She scowled for all she was worth, but his one-sided “I’m gonna wear you out” grin had her knees practically knocking together to keep her cunt from twitching. Damn man.