All Night Woman: A Contemporary Romance (13 page)

He had achieved everything he’d set out to accomplish:  success, wealth, freedom. 

And he’d never felt lonelier.

“It could be awesome, Dad.  I can see it now – Grayson Brothers and Son.  You can draw it.  I’ll make it structurally sound, and Uncle Adam can build it.”
  Brandon’s words echoed in his head once again as a tiny bubble of something – anticipation?  Excitement?  Hope? – bloomed in his chest.  He must be insane to even be considering it.  Going back to school at his age?

Miles kicked off his shoes, grabbed his Scotch, and sat on the bed.  With his legs extended before him, state-of-the-art tablet in hand, he hit the internet and started tapping away.  Even if it was kind of a pipe dream at this point, he should at least know his options, right?

The state university did have some good programs for architecture – both four year and five year degrees – as well as an excellent job placement record.  They even had a wide variety of courses available online to accommodate the hectic schedules of working adults.  Of course, that wouldn’t be an issue for him if he left his position with Barkeley’s...

Holy shit.  Was he seriously considering this? 

He’d have to start at the beginning, of course, but he didn’t doubt he could do well.  He’d faced much bigger obstacles in his lifetime than that and come out alright.

And he did love designing.  He glanced at the sketchbook he carried with him everywhere.  It was one of many that he had taken with him on his travels, one in which he captured in black and white the wonders of various architecture styles around the globe.  Everything from medieval castles to ramshackle fishing huts was in those books.

Drawing, sketching, designing.  That is where he found his peace.  To do that for living?  It wouldn’t be work at all.

Going back to school would require him to put down some roots again, though.  Adam had hinted that he was going to move into the old Penn gamekeeper’s cottage with Holly eventually.  Maybe Adam would be interested in selling his place to him.  He could live there, take a few classes, see if he liked it.  It would keep him near Brandon, too.  Brandon was graduating in a couple of weeks, but he had already decided to go for his Masters and work part-time with Adam’s renovation business for the real-life experience. 

Yeah, it could definitely work.

And it would put him close to Liz, too.  His cock twitched at the thought, as it always did when her beautiful, sexy image filled his mind. 

Damn it, that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.  His feelings for the woman were strong.  Scary strong.  He wanted her.  Craved her.  Still couldn’t stop thinking about her.

He was putting up a good fight, though.  Ever since their impromptu weekend in the Poconos, he hadn’t called her or stopped by, even though he had been in the area a couple of times.  Staying away wasn’t easy.

He’d even gone with the tried and true method of erasing thoughts of Liz by partaking elsewhere.  It had always worked in the past.  Not this time, though.  Every time he closed his eyes it was Liz’s stormy blue-gray eyes he saw gazing up at him.  It was her moans he heard in his head.  Her hands and lips making love to his body...

Shit
.  Miles scowled down at his hard-on.  “Where the hell were you when that redhead was slipping us her room key?” he snapped.

Whatever this obsession he had with Liz was, it wasn’t easing.  That weekend was supposed to get her out of his system, not get her hard-wired into his heart and head to the point where he couldn’t rouse interest in anyone else.  He hadn’t felt this way about someone since he’d first started seeing Mandy, and even then, it hadn’t been like
this
.  All-encompassing.  Never-ending.

The truth hit him like a ton of bricks.

Holy shit
. 

He was in love with Liz Benning.

“S
o... what are you doing next weekend?” Holly asked a bit too casually.

Liz tucked the phone between her head and shoulder while she chopped up some fresh herbs from her little windowsill garden and sprinkled them over the tilapia filet.  She really didn’t care for the taste of fish in general – or for the lingering aroma it left in her kitchen, but made sure she ate it at least once a week for the omega-3 benefits.

“Spring cleaning, probably.  Why?”

“How would you feel about a weekend in Vegas instead?”

Liz slipped the baking pan into the oven and set the timer.  “What’s going on, Holly?  Did you and Adam have a fight or something?”

“No, no, nothing like that.  It’s just... um, remember when we were joking around about eloping?  Well, that’s not seeming like such a crazy idea anymore.”

Stunned, Liz leaned back against the counter.  “Are you serious?”

“Yeah.  I can’t take it anymore, Liz.  I’m a basket case.  I’m so stressed out, I cry at the drop of a hat.  I feel like crap all the time.”

“It’s gotten that bad?”

“It’s horrible.  I sobbed for two hours last night because Adam surprised me with flowers and Chinese take-out.  It’s not worth it, Liz.  This isn’t me.”

No, that definitely didn’t sound like her feisty, independent friend.  “Just tell me where I need to be and when and I’m there.”

“I knew I could count on you, Liz.  You are my best friend, you know that?”  Holly sniffed.

“Yeah, I know.  What about your mother, though?”

“She’s just going to have to deal with it,” Holly said firmly.  “You were right when you said this was our wedding.  Princess gowns, ballrooms – that’s just not us.”  She exhaled heavily.  “Adam and I have talked about it, and we’ll let her throw us a dinner or something later.”

“You haven’t told her yet, have you?”

“Hell, no.  Are you kidding?  We are going to tell her after the deed is done.  Then she can wail and sob and wring her hands all she wants and I won’t be able to cave.”

It was a valid argument.  When it came to projecting culpability, Colleen McTierney was the supreme priestess.  Holly often claimed her mother could make a leopard feel guilty for having spots.

“It’s going to be very simple, very small.  Just the four of us – you, me, Adam, and Miles.  Brandon has graciously offered to watch Max for us.”

The thought of seeing Miles again sent a thrill through her, and Liz hated herself for that.  He hadn’t called once since their weekend in the Poconos.  Obviously, he’d managed to get over his “I can’t stop thinking about you” issue.  Despite her best efforts, she hadn’t been quite as successful. 

It was a good thing she had only allowed him into her bed and not her heart, because if she
had
allowed that tiny spark to take hold, his lack of follow-up would have really hurt.  Hell, it wasn’t like he promised her happily ever after or anything.  And he was a highly successful businessman who spent most of his time travelling.  As her father (a retired Navy man) used to say, ‘he probably had a woman in every port’, and wasn’t pining away his evenings thinking of her.

She had no right to feel angry, jealous, or hurt.

And it didn’t matter anyway.  This wasn’t about her, or her personal issues.  This was about Holly and being there for her on her special day.

“What about Miles?  Has Adam been able to get in touch with him?”

“Oh, didn’t I tell you?  Miles is staying at Adam’s place.”

Liz stilled.  An uncomfortable squirming began in her stomach, and it had nothing to do with the smell of baking fish currently permeating her kitchen space.  How long had he been in town?  And why hadn’t he called?  So much for her rationalizations that he hadn’t because he was busy working halfway across the world.

Tears welled in her eyes.  Damn it, she would not cry.  She had known what she was getting into when she slept with him.  She was no naïve teenager with a crush.  This is what mature, professional, single adults did, right?  They had satisfying, casual sex when they could fit it into their busy schedules and then moved on.  They didn’t spend evenings pining away for one another, checking their phones in the hopes of seeing a missed text or a missed call.  And they definitely didn’t feel a surge of anticipation every time they spotted a familiar-looking vehicle driving in the vicinity.

To Holly, she said, “He is?” 

“Yeah.  He’s quitting his job with Barkeley’s and going back to school for architecture.”

The discomfort intensified as her mind moved past
Miles is staying at Adam’s
and processed the rest of Holly’s words.  Leaving his job?  Going back to school?  That meant Miles wasn’t just visiting, he was planning on sticking around for a while. 

Is that why he hadn’t called?  Because she was good enough for a quick booty call when he was only in town for a couple of days, but not for anything longer than a night or a weekend here and there? 

“Isn’t he a little old for that?” she managed, relieved when her voice sounded normal.  Thank God they were talking over the phone instead of face-to-face.  Holly would take one look at her guilty, tear-streaked face and see right through her.  That would make things terribly awkward for everyone.

“That’s what he said, too, but Brandon talked him into it, and Adam is stoked.  Adam’s going to expand his business.  It’s going to be a real family thing.  Isn’t that cool?”

“Yeah,” Liz said, as the dull ache in her chest became a sharp, painful stab.  “Cool.”

––––––––

F
or the hundredth time, Liz considered backing out.  She could have an accident – she was clumsy enough that Holly would have no trouble believing it.  Or she could eat something bad and wind up with a nasty bout of food poisoning – there had to be something outdated in her kitchen somewhere.

Knowing Holly, though, she would simply postpone the wedding until Liz could make it.

No, she had to bite the bullet, pull up her big girl panties, and face Miles Grayson like the grown-up she was.  For the past several days, she’d worked through it.  She had cried, she had thrown a few things (mostly decorative pillows), and landed a few cathartic blows to her sofa cushions.  She could – and would – handle this.

So what if he was in town and hadn’t bothered to call or stop by?  No biggie.  Technically, they weren’t even dating. 

So what if she’d felt a connection with him?  That didn’t mean that
he
had, no matter how much she wanted to believe otherwise.  One-sided relationships never worked in the long run, no matter how great the sex was. 

It probably wasn’t the real thing anyway.  After her thirty-fifth birthday, she was just feeling more vulnerable than usual.  There was probably some physical, hormonally-based chemical change that occurred along with the sexual peak in women her age.  In another couple of months, when her estrogen levels evened out, she would look back and laugh at herself for being ridiculous. 

And she shouldn’t feel hurt by Miles’ lack of attention, either.  She had gotten exactly what she deserved.  Miles was a salesman, and a damn good one based on what she’d gleaned from Holly.  The man built a career out of analyzing people and telling them exactly what they wanted to hear in order to seal a deal. And she had made it so easy.

A knock sounded at the door just as she was closing the zipper on her bag.  Liz took a deep breath, pasted a smile on her face, and opened the door. 

* * *

G
od, she looked beautiful, even more so than he remembered.  Snug-fitting jeans and a soft-looking, pink sweater that subtly highlighted her gorgeous figure.  Her blonde hair was pulled back into some kind of loose, intricate knot, revealing the gentle slope of her neck.  A neck he wanted to bury his face into, to kiss and lick and elicit some of those low, throaty moans he loved so much. 

“Hello, Liz.”

“Hi, Miles,” she said politely.  “Ready?”

Without waiting for his answer, she pressed into his personal space.  For one very happy second or two he thought she was going to wrap that sexy body around him and give him a proper greeting.  Instead, she moved right past him, dragging her wheeled piece of luggage behind her. 

He was disappointed, but thankful that Liz had kept her wits about her.  A full-body embrace and the kind of kiss he wanted would have made it awkward.  Adam and Holly were waiting in the car and would have seen everything.  He knew he hadn’t told Adam anything, and he was pretty sure Liz hadn’t said anything to Holly, either.  If she had, Holly would have ripped him a new one by now, and Adam wouldn’t exactly be thrilled, either. 

He wasn’t sure how long he could keep it a secret, though.  As it was, he was having a hell of a time keeping his hands off of her.  The woman lit a fire in him like no other, and these last few weeks had been painfully, achingly celibate.

“Here, let me.”  He used his long stride to his advantage and caught up to her in a step or two, reaching out for her case. 

“No thanks, I’ve got it.” 

The first tendrils of unease skittered down his spine as she continued to move forward without looking his way.  Playing it cool was one thing, but the vibes he was picking up went beyond ‘cool’ and right into ‘chilly’.  He trailed along behind until they reached the trunk where Adam was waiting to load her bag.

“Hey, Liz.  Thanks for doing this,” Adam said.  “I know it’s short notice.”  Miles scowled when he saw Liz hand off her luggage to Adam easily enough.  She had no problem giving
Adam
a warm smile. 

“Anything for you guys,” Liz answered.  She moved around to the side, nibbling her lower lip as she peeked inside the car.  “Um, where should I sit?”

Miles was suddenly regretting his offer to drive.  If he had allowed Adam to, he could be in the backseat with Liz for the hour and a half trip to the airport.  It wasn’t as if they could actually do anything, but he had this totally irrational need to be close to her.

“You can sit in the back with Holly,” Adam replied, closing the trunk.  “That way you ladies can get your chatting out of the way, because I’m calling dibs on the plane.”

Was Miles imagining it, or was that a look of relief that passed over Liz’s features?

The drive to the airport was uneventful.  Miles kept checking the rearview mirror, seeing Holly and Liz huddled together.  Their voices were nothing but low murmurs, but they seemed pretty excited about something.  What the hell were they talking about?  And why hadn’t Liz looked his way even once?