a high-rise.”
“No one lives downtown.”
“People with offices downtown who work twenty hours a day do. Cuts down on the commute.” He brushed his thumb over her bottom lip. When she licked it, he did it again.
“But yet you are here in the afternoon, bringing me a beverage and chatting with my sister. You might be able to leave work a little earlier each night if you didn’t take so many post-lunch hours off. Just saying.”
“I needed a break.”
Wrong. He needed to engage in some recon. She might not be book smart, but she knew that much.
“I’m not going to tell anyone about us.” She dropped her hands. Didn’t try to inch away from him, but didn’t really want to touch him right now either. “That’s the big fear here, right? That I’ll wait until your campaign is officially launched and then run to the press and blab or blackmail you or some other awful thing.”
He had the nerve to look shocked at her suggestion. “I didn’t think—”
“Sure you did. A woman hits on you at a wedding, you have sex, and you start worrying. You think maybe you were set up.”
“You have an active imagination.”
She laced her fingers together to keep from fidgeting. “You worry there are photos somewhere or something equally incriminating.”
His eyes narrowed. “How long is it going to be before you remember that I approached you at the wedding?”
“That’s not true.” Since she’d hunted him down, that was absolutely not true.
“You were taking a break after serving the main course.” He closed the gap between them. Put his mouth against her ear. “I came up to you, put my hand on the wall beside your head, leaned in and asked if you could show me the bathroom.”
Nope. She wasn’t going to be lured in. Not until they got this topic behind them. She might not have a clean slate on this point, but she was not a pawn to bring him down, either. She’d been told one of his donors wanted to make sure Eric was as clean as he appeared. Wanted to see if the “Deana situation” was going to come back to bite the party in the ass. She could report that answer as no, and she had specifically refused further work when Jimmy came calling.
The only remaining question was whether she should come clean with Eric now. Let him know someone was checking on him. Let him know the brief role she’d played and why.
Something inside her deflated. She went back and forth on this subject, internally justifying her snooping as no big deal and not harmful to Eric. But as much as she wanted to spin this into someone else’s deal, the guilt still gnawed at her.
The only reason she didn’t tell him was that she figured there wasn’t a need because she didn’t matter to him. Because every time she saw him she thought it would be the last. She never expected him to keep coming around…no matter how much she wanted him to.
She locked all the jumbled feelings inside. Somehow, some way, she’d figure out how to deal with her role and minimize any impact on Eric. But for now, she’d concentrate on him. If this was their last meeting, she’d enjoy it.
“Before you sauntered over to me—”
He smiled down at her. “Sauntered?”
“You did more than walk, buddy.”
He rested his hands on the small of her back. “Interesting.”
“Not like you had a choice. I was staring you down pretty hard. You came over because I wanted you to come over. You got under my skirt because I invited you.”
“That’s some big confidence right there.”
“It’s not ego talking.” She poked his chest. “It’s reality.”
“Then what about the part where I came looking for you after the wedding? Where I found out the company that catered the event and went hunting for a pretty brunette with eyes the color of the sky right after sunrise?”
The thawing inside her started the second the words left his mouth. “You are smooth.”
“I have my moments.”
He was a good man, and she was screwing him in more ways than one. But she wasn’t guilty of the sin he wanted to leave at her door and she needed him to know that. “I’m still not talking to anyone about us. You don’t need to worry. Your secret is safe with me.”
He frowned. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable with you thinking of yourself as some big secret.”
“Is that why you brought coffee instead of asking me to go out with you? Out in public where someone might actually see us together?” He actually blushed. Under that tan skin, she saw a rosy hue burn into his cheeks. “Ahhhh, there it is. I can almost see reality nipping at your ass.”
“I never thought you were a setup. Honest.”
No matter what he said, she worried about the possibility. There was no hiding that guilty look on his face. She saw the same one on her face in the mirror each morning since she’d met him. “But…?”
“I do have to be careful in public.” His hands eased up until his fingers dipped under her hair to massage her neck.
“At places like your ex’s wedding.”
The gentle kneading slowed. “You do know everything, don’t you?”
“The entire island knows about that romance. You looked perfect together on the outside and then the unspeakable happened. Most people thought you got screwed in the process.”
Then his hands were gone. They hung at his sides. “Things happen.”
Katie wasn’t letting go that easily. Wrapping her hands around his neck, she leaned in close. “Can I ask you something?”
“The conversation can’t go worse, so shoot,” he said with a sigh.
“Sure it could.”
He rolled his eyes. “Now there’s some bad news.”
“Why did you go? Why put yourself through that?” She waited to feel his touch against her somewhere—anywhere—but it never came. “I mean, I’m assuming that’s why you needed to hook up with me. You were upset at seeing Deana and then this woman you didn’t know crossed your path. You needed to feel something and there I was.”
“I’m not sure if that explanation is less flattering to you or to me.”
“Probably me, but answer the question.”
He exhaled a long agonizing breath. “I needed to prove that I could.”
“Have sex?”
He didn’t even blink. “Stand there on that perfect day, in that incredible oceanfront spot, and watch Deana marry Josh.”
