Just This Once (23 page)

Paula masterfully raised a single eyebrow before laughing. “Oh no, it doesn’t work that way. What is that old saying? ‘The floggings will continue until morale improves.’”

“Yeah, that sounds like a corporate policy, alright.”

“Listen, while we’re not busy, I’m going to clean out this cabinet,” the manager said, indicating the space under the counter between the terminals. “You watch the desk.”

Pulling out a trashcan, Paula began to extract wayward items from the shelves below. Her haul included several cell phone adapters and laptop power cords; loose batteries; an empty backpack; a half dozen registration packets from conferences held months ago;

and a stack of old newspapers.

“How does all this stuff get in here?”

“If I were guessing, I’d say people bring it to the desk when we’re busy and everyone forgets about it,” Jolene explained.

“That’s probably right. Who reads all these newspapers at the front desk?” she asked with irritation.

“I don’t know. Maybe the guys on third shift. Hey, isn’t that the woman that used to come here?” Jolene grabbed a section of the paper Paula was pulling out.

“Now, don’t you start!”

“Well, isn’t it?” The desk clerk turned the paper around to show Paula the picture of K.

Wynne Connelly.

“I’ll be damned…that’s what it was!” Rapidly reading the announcement of the promotion to vice president, she now remembered that Wynne had wanted to share some big news last week. Instead, she’d gone out that night with Dee. But why hadn’t Wynne said anything since?

Jolene hadn’t realized that a former guest’s promotion would be such big news to her mentor, but she remembered the gossip from when Paula used to drop her off at the hotel late at night. “She’s a friend of yours, right?”

“Yeah, she moved here while I was in Denver.” Paula wasn’t about to offer any more.

Rusty confirmed for her before the move that some of the employees were speculating about her and the Baltimore guest. She hoped they would have forgotten.

“Maybe you should give her a call and congratulate her.”

“Good idea,” she agreed without looking up. She would do more than call.

———

“No, I get back on Friday night, Mom. It’ll be late…sure, I’ll stop by on Saturday.”

Wynne knew she’d have to suck it up sooner or later and make an appearance in the condo complex. She’d avoided coming by over the weekend on the off chance that Paula would be there with her sort-of date. “Mom, I need to go. There’s someone at the door…I don’t know who it is, but I need to answer it. I’ll call when I get back in town, okay?”

Wynne lowered the flame underneath the soup she was heating and hurried to the front door. She wasn’t expecting company, but the neighbors’ kids stopped by from time to time to sell things for school fundraisers, and that’s what she figured this would be.

Instead, she found the hotel manager — still dressed in her uniform — leaning against the pillar on the porch, her arms crossed in an accusing posture and a folded newspaper in her hand.

“Can you believe this? One of my best friends got promoted to vice president and I had to read it in the newspaper!”

“Come on in, Paula.” Wynne stood aside as the irate blonde stomped into her living room.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was going to, but you were busy.”

“I haven’t been busy every night, and we’ve talked on the phone three or four times….”

She stopped herself. “Wait a minute! You’re angry about me going out on a date, aren’t you?”

“I’m not angry about anything, Paula. You have every right to do what you please.” She wouldn’t meet the questioning green eyes.

“But that’s what this is about, isn’t it?” Her tone changed subtly from one of accusation to something more…compassionate.

Wynne didn’t answer; instead, she walked back into the kitchen to turn off the burner.

“You want some soup and crackers?”

“No, I want you to answer me.”

The tall woman sighed as she turned around, crossing her own arms this time as she leaned on the counter. “What right do I have to be angry, Paula? You told me you weren’t going to go there with me again, but I hoped you might change your mind. I’m not angry, but it….” She shook her head and sighed.
It breaks my heart
.

Paula’s heart went out to Wynne as she watched her struggle with her emotions. “Wynne, I….”

Wynne cut her off. She needed to get this out while she still had her nerve. “I wanted you to start trusting me again. I can’t…I can’t just let go of you, Paula.”

This time, Paula sighed. “I know,” she nodded, “I’ve been thinking about it too.”

“Thinking about what?”

“About you and me…about whether or not we can put the past in the past and give this all another chance.”

Wynne’s heart was racing at what she was hearing. Was Paula really saying they had a chance?

Paula moved across the kitchen and held out her arms, pulling the tall woman close. “You scare me half to death, Wynne.”

Wynne squeezed her tightly. “I love you. Please don’t be afraid.”

“You love me?”

“Yes,” Wynne whispered, finally touching the mouth she’d missed for so long. She could feel the smaller woman relax in her arms, returning the kiss with all the intensity of their first time. Memories of their night together roared back and the brunette forcibly calmed herself, breaking the kiss but not the embrace. “I do love you, Paula.”

Paula’s heart pounded at the simple words. All of her willpower evaporated as her hands reached underneath the long shirt to feel the warm skin on Wynne’s back. Just as they’d done before, both women were about to lose control.

Chapter 19

“Where’s your bedroom?” Paula asked, already working the buttons on Wynne’s shirt.

Wynne couldn’t believe what was happening as she led the woman she loved down the darkened hallway.

Moments later, both women were stripped to their waists and Paula was tossing her clothes over the trunk at the foot of the bed. Now naked, she stopped to stroke Wynne’s breasts, which gleamed white against her tanned skin.

The taller woman responded by pushing her back onto the kind-sized bed, standing again to rid herself of her slacks and thong in one fluid move, gloriously reminiscent of the last time they did this.

Slowly, Wynne crawled onto the bed, settling her body between the smaller woman’s thighs. She could feel Paula open as feet wrapped around and came to rest on her calves.

Resting her elbows beside Paula’s shoulders, she lowered her lips for a kiss.

“I haven’t been with anyone since you,” the blonde whispered.

Wynne thought her heart would explode with that knowledge. She wouldn’t have asked the question for a million dollars. “I haven’t either.”

“Not even Heather?”

“No, no one.” Dipping her head, she tenderly nibbled the soft skin below Paula’s ear.

“How could I?”

Wynne shifted her body to the side so she could run her hand up and down Paula’s nude form. The breasts, the hips, the silky blonde curls were all just as she remembered them, just as she had envisioned them so many nights alone in her bed. She lowered her head, sucking a taut nipple into her mouth as her hands wandered to the soft insides of Paula’s thighs.

“Go inside me, Wynne,” the blonde woman pleaded. She didn’t want to wait — she was ready now!

Wynne’s thoughts of savoring the moment flew out the window with the command.

Sliding her fingers through the wet folds, she pressed inside.

“God, yes!” Paula rocked her whole body against the plunging fingers, her hands subconsciously squeezing Wynne’s shoulders in the same rhythm.

The brunette slipped her other arm underneath the writhing woman and pulled her close.

Her own center ground against Paula’s thigh, and she would peak soon. “I love you,” she gasped as her climax began. Closing her eyes tightly, she fought to concentrate on her hand inside her lover.
There!
She felt the contraction as Paula stiffened in her arms.

“Annnnhhh!” The guttural sound came out like a cross between a scream and a moan.

Slowly, the smaller woman lowered herself to the bed, her throbbing center still gripping the fingers inside.

———

“I’ve missed you,” Paula said, her voice low and serious. Gently, she trailed her fingers across her lover’s prominent collarbone, dipping from time to time to the valley between her breasts. The lovers had spent more than two hours getting reacquainted and now lay temporarily sated.

“Me too. But it’s all just as wonderful as I remember it, only better.” Instantly, Wynne regretted her words, knowing where they would lead.

“Better? What’s better?”

The brunette sighed. “Just knowing that there’s a tomorrow this time, I guess.”

“I hope there is.” Paula nestled closer. “I like this.”

Wynne relaxed, glad she was getting a reprieve. Her relief, though, didn’t last.

“And this time, you don’t have to feel guilty about anything.”

Wynne shuddered uncomfortably as she planted a small apologetic kiss on the blonde head. “That’s right.”

“Can I ask you a question?” Paula felt the tension emanating from her lover’s body. She didn’t want this to be a confrontation, but she needed to know that things really were different this time. Wynne had used the “L” word, and she needed to trust that before deciding for herself that there really would be a tomorrow for them.

“Okay.”

“You said that someday you would tell me about Heather. Did you…fall out of love with her?”

She wants to talk about this
now
? “No, I really wasn’t in love with her to begin with.”

“But you lived together, right?”

“Yeah, but it was…complicated.”

Paula raised up on her elbow so she could see her lover’s face. “I really need to hear about it, Wynne.”

Of course she did. Wynne blew out a deep breath, thinking about where to begin. “I met Heather right before my accident and we went out a couple of times, but I didn’t feel like things were going anywhere between us. Then when I had my accident, she was there in the hospital when I woke up; she moved into my house to take care of me; and she was with me all through the surgeries and the rehab. We got to be really good friends through it all. Once I let her do all that stuff for me, I owed her so much.”

“So you became lovers?”

“It was all she wanted. And I tried to be that for her but I couldn’t. You can’t just will your heart to love somebody.” She searched the green eyes for understanding, for acceptance. “Just like you can’t will your heart not to love somebody else.”

“Did you ever tell her that you loved her?”

Wynne nodded. “And I did…but it was more of a friendship kind of love. Do you know what I mean?”

“I think so,” she sighed heavily. “But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t worry me a little that you betrayed her. I mean, she didn’t know that all you felt was friendship, right?”

“Right,” Wynne conceded. “And I understand your doubts, really I do. But what I feel for you is different, Paula. It’s so much more, and it has been, almost from the very beginning.” She had hoped Paula could see this for herself in the way they’d made love.

“This all feels like what it’s supposed to be, and if anything, it just shows me what all was missing from my relationship with Heather.”

“It’s like we’re supposed to do this, and nothing else works.” That’s how Paula understood it, but her doubts weren’t going to go away overnight. Still, she wanted this with Wynne; she wanted to someday be confident that it was real and that she could trust her lover completely.

“That’s exactly what it’s like.”

“You’re not going to believe this, but I have to be at work in about six hours.” Monday’s uniform lay crumpled at the foot of the bed.

“Lucky you. I have to be on a plane at 6:30, and I’m not even packed.”

“I should go.” Slowly, she extricated her limbs from Wynne’s and rose from the bed.

Wynne watched from the bed as her lover got dressed, then pulled back the covers and climbed out of bed. She couldn’t let Paula leave with her words of doubt still hanging in the air. Tying her robe around her waist, she moved behind the shorter woman and wrapped her arms around her middle. “I really do love you.”

“I believe you.”

———

For the second time in the last 10 minutes, Cheryl saw her colleague’s chin dip as she fought to stay awake. “Ms. Connelly, would you like some coffee, or would you prefer that I just sit here quietly for a while and let you catch a nap?” The twinkle in her eye told Wynne that she was teasing.

Wynne shook her head and sat up straight, unhooking her seatbelt so that she could stretch. “I didn’t get much sleep. I should probably have another cup of coffee.”

“You weren’t up working on this, were you?”

“No,” Wynne answered, unable to suppress the blush and the smile as she thought back to her evening with Paula.

“Oh, now that’s an interesting look,” Cheryl teased as the VP’s face turned redder. “I do believe you’ve met someone.”

“Actually,” her smile broadened as she thought again of her evening, “it’s the same person I mentioned before. I think we’re going to work things out.”

“That’s great news, Wynne. You want to tell me about her?”

“She’s…her name’s Paula, and she’s the ops manager at the Weller Regent.”

“Is that…? Wait a minute…you’ve been seeing her for awhile, haven’t you? I remember Ken saying something about running into the two of you at Jack Elam’s, but that was before you ever moved down here.”

“Wow, there really aren’t any secrets at Eldon-Markoff, are there?”

“Hey, I told you from Day 1: We’re a family. You should bring her to the Christmas party next week.”

“You think it would be alright?”

“Of course! I want to meet this woman! If she doesn’t come to the party, I’m going to have to show up at her house!”

Wynne laughed aloud at that image, wondering whether Paula would rather face a holiday party or a one-on-one with her boss. “I’ll ask her.”

“Good. Now why don’t you take a nap? I’ll wake you up when we start to land.”

The tired executive didn’t need to be asked twice. In just a few minutes, she was sound asleep.