Chapter Seven
Iwatched our table from the cash bar while I waited in line for the drinks. It was hard to tell what they were discussing but it seemed congenial. Louisa grabbed Emilia’s hand again and put it on her pregnant belly. I turned my back to the scene, irrationally furious. I didn’t need Louisa rubbing that shit in Emilia’s face and though Emilia hadn’t said anything, I knew this would cause some hurt.
A reminder that her husband was a coward.
I took a breath, stepped up to the bar, ordered our drinks and waited while they were made. Emilia was right. We had time. We were still young.
Which meant that I had time to get over this. Eventually.
When I returned to the table, Emilia was telling Louisa and her husband, Josh, about the new pet project that she had thrown herself into.
“I’m so excited about it,” she was saying. “It’s still early days and there’s so much paperwork to do before anything else. Thanks, Adam.” She flashed me a brilliant smile as I handed her a cosmopolitan. I set my drink down in my place and turned to Louisa and Josh. “What can I get the two of you?”
Josh was about to stand but I motioned for him to stay seated. “No, no. Please. I’m already up. Tell me what you’re drinking?”
“Club soda with a lime twist for me,” Louisa said with a sheepish—almost guilty—smile.
Josh piped up, “Your beer looks good. One of those, please?”
“Sure,” I said.
Emilia grinned at me. “It’s amazing how shockingly handsome the waiters are at this place, isn’t it?”
“Maybe you’ll get to go home with this one.” Louisa laughed.
“That’s a definite.” I grinned, winked at my wife, and noped the fuck out of their conversation for a few more minutes. Thank God.
The one big advantage to having associated mostly with Emilia’s friend Louisa and her husband was that they were not night owls, and we were able to leave this doctor shindig relatively early. Emilia seemed happy and we chatted like normal on the way home. I was mildly relieved that there were no lasting effects from all the baby bombs that had been dropped at our table.
In fact, the baby subject never came up again...until bedtime. Guess I shouldn’t have called it a complete program before compiling the code.
She was sitting on the bed in her night shirt rubbing lotion into her legs and arms after a shower.
I plopped down on the bed beside her and she ran her eyes down my bare chest above my pajama bottoms. “Nice view.”
I leaned over and kissed her. “It can be nicer, if you want.”
“I’m too slippery at the moment. Give me a few, then you can do a striptease for me.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “With music? You’re quite demanding.”
She leered at me, licking her lips. “I know how to keep the marriage alive and fizzling with excitement.”
I snorted. “You’re talking like you’re the one who’s going to be doing the striptease.”
“Don’t you wish.” She smirked at me. “Nope, I’m the lucky spectator tonight. I want some wiggle in those hips, or I won’t give you a tip.”
“That’s okay, I’ll be the one giving you the tip—and more.” I ran my gaze down her luscious, if still slippery, legs. “You need any help rubbing that lotion into those gorgeous gams of yours?”
Without a word, she handed me the lotion bottle. Oh, hell yes. I was here for this. I lovingly spread a few dollops from the palm of my hand across her shapely legs, across her muscular calves. She let out a very quiet moan of pleasure, so I wasn’t the only one who was turned on. By the time I got to her second leg, I was rock hard.
“Hey...” she said quietly as I was finishing up, rubbing my own slippery hands together and wondering how long it would take to get the gardenia smell off them. Oh well, if it meant I got to score with my wife, totally worth the residual flower scent for a few hours.
“Yes?” I raised a brow. “Did you want that strip tease now?”
She grabbed one of my hands and wrapped her fingers around mine. “I just want to make sure that you weren’t too weirded out about all that with Louisa.”
I knew exactly what she was talking about, but I shook my head regardless, as if I had no idea.
“I didn’t know she was going to say something like that...about their baby needing a playmate. I know you heard her say it.”
I shrugged.
“I’m okay and I don’t want you to suspect—”
I shifted my hand inside hers, switching who was holding whose hand. My greasy fingers slipped over hers as I held them tight. “I don’t suspect anything. It’s good. It’s all good.”
She smiled and gave me a pointed look as she raised her other hand to smooth over my chest. “Oh, dude, it’s about to get a whole lot better—for both of us.”
Then she pulled me on top of her and I was helpless to resist her bewitching charms. The best part? I hadn’t even had to do the striptease.
The next day at work was a whirlwind of meetings, briefings and piles of unanswered emails that had to be handled after careful cataloging and prioritization by my assistant. Without Maggie, I would have been sunk long ago.
Jordan and I shared a working lunch of cold subs at the table in my office while we went over the most important things that had to get done today and in the next week.
“So tell me all about that new CEO program the board has you in. Spare no detail.”
I leaned back and, with a heavy sigh, stared at him. “I gotta go back up there soon for a full weekend retreat. Honestly, the next time the board wants me to participate in one of these bullshit things, I’m tempted to send you instead, starting with this program. Coming back to a pile of shit to deal with at the office doesn’t make it worth it.”
“Truth,” he said right before taking his last bite of sandwich and washing it down with a bottled drink that resembled some sort of green-brown sludge.
“What the fuck are you drinking these days? Looks like a potion of lost hopes and dreams.”
He shrugged. “It’s healthy. April’s on a kick.”
I laughed. “I understand the incentive to comply now.” I watched with unmitigated disgust as he took another sip of the sludge. “What the hell is she giving you in exchange for you drinking shit that looks like that?”
He sent me a sly grin. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
I held up a hand to stop any unwanted details. “Actually, I don’t think I would.”
“True. You’d probably be way too jealous.”
I rolled my eyes. “On to more serious subjects.”
“Like you sending me in as a pinch hitter on your next CEO retreat. I would like the record to show that I heartily approve of that plan.”
I paused for a second, then laid the rest on him. “How’d you like to pinch hit for me as CEO, too?”
“Ha ha. Funny. I’m sure the Board of Directors would love it. I am, after all, ten times better looking than you are.”
I smirked. “And infinitely more modest—”
“And charming. Very charming.”
I chuckled. “Prince Charming, actually. With your very own Snow White on your arm.”
He gave me a leering look. “We’re so good, we could actually bring in the bucks making Snow White/Prince Charming internet porn.”
“TMI.”
“Rule 34 at work, after all. If it exists, then somewhere on the internet, there’s porn for it.”
I laughed. “While Walt Disney turns in his grave.”
He shook his head. “We all know he’s not in a grave. He’s in a cryochamber at Disneyland under Sleeping Beauty’s castle.”
I arched a brow. “Is that anywhere near the movie studio where they faked the moon landings?”
“Right across the street, I’ve heard.”
Sometimes I wondered if people outside in the atrium to the company officer’s suites ever wondered what idiocy we were in here laughing about.
“So, wild conspiracy theories aside...” Jordan opened his pack of potato chips.
I gave him a disapproving look. “Would She-Who-Is-Making-You-Drink-the-Sludge approve of the potato chips?”
He made a face. “I’m not telling her, and neither are you. Now, about the CEO gig, what are you thinking?”
I slurped on the last of my unsweetened iced tea. Definitely much less healthy—but tastier—than the green-brown sludge. “Is this my performance review?” I arched a brow at him.
He gave a half shrug. “Straight up, I was just asking because you seem distracted lately. And also because you just asked if I’d pinch hit for you. You know I’d do it in a heartbeat if you were serious. So, I’m wondering what you really want.”
I blinked. “Let me get back to you on it. Soon. If I don’t, ask me about it in a month or two.”
His brow arched. “You know I’m going to.”
“That’s why I asked you.” With a smile, we finished up our bullshitting and I grabbed my stuff to rush off to the next meeting.
Never a dull moment around here, that was for sure.