Authors: Mary Eason
His Desire (5 page)
“Okay, yes. I want to know what’s going on with you today.”
“Nothing. Why?” Kylie couldn’t quite meet Sarah’s glance.
“Oh please! Kylie! You never miss an appointment. Never. And you haven’t even asked me about my evening?” Sarah knew her too well. She’d picked up on things that Kylie hadn’t expected.
“I’m sorry. I’ve just been worried about tonight. How was your evening?”
she asked politely only to have Sarah snort in response. Then the phone rang and their eyes locked.
“Aren’t you going to get that?” Sarah wanted to know. Kylie quietly shook her head and turned away.
Another snort. Sarah was getting close to guessing the truth.
“Your Every Desire Party Planners And Sweet Shop?" she answered sweetly while Kylie resisted the urge to tell her to let it go.
A very pregnant silence followed as Sarah held the phone away.
“Kylie, it's Aaron,” she said quietly.
Kylie shook her head and mouthed, ‘Tell him I’m not here.’
“I’m sorry, Aaron, she’s out with Jeff.” Kylie groaned. Of all the excuses to give, that was the wrong one. She glanced at her friend’s expression.
Sarah’s eyebrows lifted higher. “Can I take a message?” Silence while Sarah shot the obvious question back at her.
“Sure, I’ll tell her you’ve landed and that she should give you a call.”
The second the receiver hit the cradle, Sarah started the questioning.
“What the hell is going on between you two? You never dodge Aaron. What happened last night?”
“Nothing.”
“Kylie…”
Kylie turned and ran to the bathroom. She felt sick again. When she could finally leave the stall safely, Sarah stood waiting for her, Sprite in hand.
“Hear drink this,” she said quietly.
Kylie took a couple of sips. “I slept with Aaron last night,” she mumbled, unable to meet what she knew would be Sarah’s shocked expression.
“Just say it…”she said, close to tears.
Sarah didn’t. She took the Sprite from her and knelt in front.
“What happened?” Sarah asked so calmly that Kylie started to cry.
“It was horrible.” Kylie accepted the tissue she gave her and covered her face with it.
“Aaron was horrible in bed?” Sarah asked in disbelief.
“No. No, Aaron was wonderful. Aaron was everything that Mariah said and then some. I was horrible.”
“Oh, Kylie. That’s not true. You’ve had enough lovers for me to know you must be doing something right there.”
Kylie moved the tissue away from one eye and looked at her. “No, I’m not talking about in bed. We were great together in bed. I’m talking about as a human being. As a friend. As…” She started to cry even harder.
“You guys were great together. I knew it.” Sarah was thrilled. “So what’s the problem? Sounds wonderful to me and about time I might add.”
“Sarah, it’s not wonderful. It’s far from wonderful. Aaron wasn’t making love to me. He was thinking about Mariah. He was getting even with Mariah.”
“No!” She breathed the word into the silent room.
“Yes. Why else would he make love to me…more times than I can remember?”
Sarah tried hard to hide her smile. “Kylie, you two have had a year of foreplay. What did you expect? Of course, it was going to be unbelievably out of this world. You waited long enough for it.”
Her words made Kylie want to cry even more. If only that were true. She knew better. Aaron was in love with Mariah.
“No, that’s not true. I mean, yes it was. It was amazing, in fact. But it wasn’t directed at me. It was all Mariah. And I not only cheated on her, I cheated on Jeff as well.”
“Oh please!” Sarah interrupted in an explosion of anger. “Mariah only cares about Mariah. And Jeff, well, you’re right he didn’t deserve it but you knew going into the relationship that it was just to protect yourself against Aaron.”
Kylie stared at her. Was that the truth? Had she simply been dating the half dozen or more men to protect her heart from Aaron? Jeff was the latest in a long line of guys she’d dated this year. Truth was, Kylie rarely dated at all that much before Aaron. She’d been preoccupied with her career. Meeting Aaron had thrown her for a loop in so many ways.
“Kylie, Aaron’s not in love with Mariah. No way. He was just using her for…”
“For sex? Because she is the perfect female specimen for him? Because Aaron’s only attracted to models?” Sarah’s expression said all of those things were true. “So where does that leave me. I don’t want to be one of those women. I can’t. I—” Kylie bit her tongue and clamped the words off before she could say the words, ‘I’m in love with Aaron.’ In Love? Where had that come from?
“Who cares what happened in the past? Aaron was just playing the field. He could never be serious about Mariah or any of her kind.”
“Aaron isn’t serous about me either. I’m no different from the others. I just don’t look the same.”
“Oh, Kylie. You are such an idiot. You can’t possibly believe that?”
“Its true and I do and I don’t want to talk about it any more.”
“You’re not going to call him back, are you?”
“No. What’s the point? He just thinks he feels something for me. Give him a few days and he’ll be begging her to come back. Or worse still. He’ll have moved on from the both of us to Miss July.”
“Oh, Kylie.”
Kylie started back to the kitchen.
“You don’t want to talk about it?” Sarah asked as if she’d just sprouted two heads.
“No.” She took tonight’s entrée out of the oven and shoved it on the counter. “There’s nothing to talk about. And if Aaron calls back, I’m out.
Forever. For the rest of my life. In fact, I’ll never be in for Aaron again.”
* * * *
“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” he told himself again. Give her space. She was just…what? Upset that he’d made a move on her? Unhappy that she’d betrayed Jeff? Or just unmoved. Like he’d pictured her over the phone. Like she’d sounded when she’d told him it was just a mistake.
Mistake? He’d never met a woman whose body responded to him like Kylie’s had. How could that be anything but meant to be? Fate. The person he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with?
Aaron had a full day ahead of him. Best to stop obsessing over every little tone or word that she’d spoken. If he were going to give her space, he’d at least try to get the Shelby Advertising back to profitability after the former chief executives screw-ups. A year. That’s all. He’d promised himself that he would stick it out for one year to get the experience and then he was coming back home to Austin to start his own agency. That had been Aaron’s lifelong dream.
Two days ago, one year in his life hadn’t seemed like such a big thing. But that had been before Kylie had rocked his world and sent his prospective scattering in a million different directions. Since last night, well all he could think about was a repeat performance. More than once. Because once was never going to be enough.
Apparently, Kylie had not felt the same. In fact, she hadn’t had anything close to the same reaction as him. Kylie it seemed was full of regrets. Or at least, that’s what she wanted him to think.
Aaron debated on whether to go straight to the apartment that he’d picked out his last trip here. He could use the time to get settled in, even though the place came fully furnished and he hadn’t exactly added anything, except for a few clothes and basic necessities.
After listening to the three voicemails on his cell phone, he decided against spending the day settling into the apartment. Two of the three messages were from his second in command, Eric Reynolds. The man who had been forced to fill in for Aaron after the executive, who had run the company into bankruptcy in the first place, absconded to parts unknown with most of the pension plan, not to mention his secretary.
Things were in absolute chaos at Shelby. And that was just what he needed at the moment. Nothing like a sinking ship to take your mind off one stubborn brunette.
Aaron chanced another call to Kylie, this time bypassing the office and Sarah entirely. He dialed Kylie’s cell phone instead and got the expected recording asking him to leave a message. He didn’t. He’d be patient. She couldn’t screen her calls forever.
He turned off the main interstate and headed downtown. This part of the city was filled with a variety of long standing businesses. Shelby Advertising had been around for almost twenty years when its founder died and the next generation of Shelby’s took control. Alfred Shelby didn’t have the brains God gave a snail. It had taken him only five years to run his daddy’s dream into bankruptcy.
“Mr. Winters, good, you’re here. I have a dozen or more messages that need your attention.” Lois Brown was Eric’s assistant but she was covering like Eric in lieu of Alfred’s secretary disappearance.
“Good Morning, Lois. Is Eric in?” Eric was definitely in. Apparently, he’d been listening for Aaron’s arrival. He stood in the doorway of his office, looking like a man who had just been rescued from a burning building.
“Good morning, Eric. Things as bad as you look?” Aaron felt his bad mood grow when the man who looked to be twenty years his senior nodded furiously.
“They’re that bad all right. This place is one bad decision away from closing its doors entirely and I don’t think Southern’s going to be none to happy with the midyear earnings…or should I say lack of them.”
“Okay, well, let’s see if we can fix that.” Aaron started for his new office and stopped. Something on Lois’s desk caught his eye. Roses. Bright red roses.
“Is it your birthday?” he asked the woman.
“No, my husband sends those to me every month or so. Says he just wants to remind me that he loves me.”
On an impulse, Aaron turned to the older man. “Eric, I’ll be right there. Why don’t you get the files that are critical together and I’ll meet you in your office in two minutes.”
Eric didn’t need much coaxing, which only confirmed how bad things really were.
Aaron turned back to Lois. “Can you do me a favor?”
“Sure thing, Mr. Winters. You need me to type something up for you?”
“No, I need you to send flowers to someone. And I need them to be there by today?”
“A girlfriend?” Lois smiled gently.
Aaron considered that. Kylie wasn’t his girlfriend at all. Not because he hadn’t been considering it and trying to work toward that goal. Or more for that matter. But mostly because she was good at putting obstacles in his way. Namely that damn friendship thing. And then there was Mariah that she’d practically forced on him. And now this whole avoiding him thing.
“Something like that. But I’m hoping for more,” he told Lois honestly and was rewarded with the smile that women sometimes got when a man finally admitted he needed a woman.
“Tell me where to send them and I’ll have them delivered today.”
Aaron took a piece of paper and jotted Kylie’s work address and number.
“Could you see if the florist can do something in brown…no, not brown, nutmeg?”
Lois looked at him as if he’d just ordered black roses. “I can try. Any special reason.”
“Yeah, because I want them to match her eyes.”
“Aww…” Lois practically oozed that sentiment. “What do you want the card to say?”
Aaron thought about it. Considered how embarrassing the truth would be to admit to Lois.
He took the paper back from Lois and wrote:
It’s only a mistake if you regret it. I don’t. I hope that you don’t either. I’ll be back in two weeks. And once is never enough to know it wasn’t a mistake. It was only enough to want more. I want more. Aaron.
He didn’t look at Lois, but as he closed the door to Eric’s office he heard her say, “The girl’s a fool if she turns you down for seconds.”
Aaron closed the door, barely stifling his laugh.
The expression on Eric’s face was enough to wipe away any remnants of his grin.
Aaron let go of his breath. This was not going to be an easy year.
“Okay, who do we start with?” he asked his second in command before taking a seat across from him.
“There are three clients, all major money clients that are threatening to pull their accounts right away. Somehow, word got out about the merger, but that’s not the worst of it. They’ve heard about Alfred’s shenanigans as well.”
“Great. Who are they?”
Three hours later, Aaron understood Eric’s concern. He was halfway through the busy afternoon filled with crisis conference calls to the major clients when Lois sent him an instant message.
Mission accomplished. They’re called sassy brown, but the sales person assured me they were nutmeg. And they were delivered to her ten minutes ago.
Aaron smiled. He could almost see Kylie’s embarrassment.
He messaged Lois back:
You’re a miracle worker.
Those are the kinds or miracles I like to work. Now, why don’t you do the same for Shelby?
Easier said than done. But Aaron was determined to try.
* * * *
She lifted the receiver and said something. She wasn’t exactly sure what, never mind if it were civil. It was, according to her alarm clock, one in the morning. Whoever chose to call at one didn’t deserve civil.
“Caught ya.” Aaron. Aaron’s husky baritone voice filtered through her sleepiness, instantly clearing away the cobwebs.
“Aaron.” She couldn’t think of a single thing to say other than his name. She heard him laugh softly, which did disturbing things to her body.
“Its one in the morning.”
“I know. I figured you couldn’t run from me at one in the morning.” While Kylie tried to cover her embarrassment at being so obvious, she heard him ask, “Were you sleeping?”
“Yes.” The word almost didn’t sound at all. She was finding it hard to breathe.
“Are you alone?”
“I’m not answering that. That’s none of your business.”
