Doris Brown’s eyes lit up. “Yes, definitely. I would like to check some things out.” She rose from her seat and grabbed her oversize bag before Matthew ushered her inside his office.
The older woman stood in the middle of the room with her fists planted on her hips. She pursed and twisted her mouth as she studied every inch. “A view of the town square.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Matthew walked around his desk and gestured for Doris to sit.
She ignored his offer and frowned as he sat down. “Red leather chair.”
“It came with the office.” He knew the mayor’s office was supposed to impress visitors, but he found the decor too grand and old-fashioned.
“Messy desk, just as she described it,” Miss Doris murmured as she stared at the stacks of files on his desk.
“Just as who described it?” he asked.
Miss Doris shook her head. “I thought you had changed, Matthew Stone.”
His eyebrows went up. It was the first time Doris Brown had used his proper name. “As you’ve told me.”
“But you couldn’t keep it in your pants,” she said with the cluck of her tongue. “You are still being led by your penis.”
His mouth dropped open in shock. It had been a kiss. Just a kiss. “Miss Doris, I’m not sure what prompted this, but—”
“This is what I’m talking about,” Miss Doris said as she pulled out a notebook from her purse. “She described everything.”
“Isn’t that one of Sydney’s?” he asked, pointing at the speckled black-and-white cover.
Miss Doris reared her head back. “So you don’t deny it?”
“Why would I deny it?” Matthew asked. “She uses those all the time for work. And she also had one for her writing challenge.”
Miss Doris pulled her glasses down to the very tip of her nose. “What writing challenge?”
“I don’t know much about it. It has something to do with her book club.” He reached out his hand. “May I see it?”
While his smiles didn’t work on Miss Doris, his authoritative tone did. She handed over the notebook and Matthew flipped through it. He recognized Sydney’s handwriting. Words were crammed together on the pages just as he’d seen yesterday morning.
A phrase leaped off the page and caught his attention. “X drove into me with one smooth thrust. My body welcomed him, gripping him tightly, as I tilted my hips, ready for more.”
Sydney was sleeping with someone? His eyes widened as bitter jealousy and painful loss slammed through him. Who the hell was X?
He flipped to the front of the notebook.
The park was quiet this late at night, but I knew we could get caught at any moment. I was kneeling on his discarded flannel shirt and arching my spine. My silent offer was blatant and shameless, but X had other plans. He leaned over me and I inhaled the scent of his woodsy aftershave. He captured my breast with one hand and sought my clitoris with the other. I couldn’t hold back the guttural cries as he caressed me. Short, fast strokes that made my flesh slick and swollen. For him.
Flannel shirt? Woodsy aftershave? That didn’t narrow it down. Even he wore those things. Who was this guy? He flipped through a few more pages.
I sat on the edge of his desk and faced the open window. I was naked but X was fully dressed, lounging in his red leather chair. I should have felt vulnerable but I saw the need in his brown eyes. The desperation. I felt powerful as he spread my legs with reverence and bent his head. I glanced out into the town square before his mouth covered my sex. He moaned from the first taste of me. I gripped his hair with my fingers, urging him closer as he pleasured me with his tongue.
He went very still as his fingertips pinched the paper. Sydney was talking about him. The flannel shirt. The office. But they hadn’t done any of this. He’d thought about it, sure. Every time he saw her, stood close to her or heard her voice. It seemed she had the same ideas.
Something close to triumph surged through him. Matthew tried to maintain a blank expression as his blood was pumping hard through his veins. “You realize this is fiction, right, Miss Doris?”
“Is that the excuse you’re going with? Really?” Miss Doris drawled. “You know, there was a time when you confessed after you got caught. I guess a job in politics will make a man dishonest.”
Back then he’d admitted his wrongdoings because he had been guilty of every accusation.
He suddenly recalled how everyone had reacted today when they’d seen him. “Where did you get this?” Matthew dropped the notebook on his desk.
“I got it from a friend who got it from another friend who found it lying around.”
Matthew sighed and dragged his hands down his face. So basically all of Seedling had heard about the contents of this notebook. “If you knew it belonged to Sydney, why didn’t you give it back to her?”
Miss Doris gave a defiant shrug. “I wanted to confront you with the evidence.”
Evidence? Matthew wanted to roll his eyes. Instead he opened the bottom drawer of his desk and tossed the notebook inside.
“What are you doing?” Miss Doris asked. “I haven’t finished reading it.”
“And you’re not going to.” He kicked the drawer closed. “I’m returning it to Sydney. Immediately.”
MATTHEW PARKED HIS TRUCK across the street from Sydney’s home. As he cut the ignition, he settled back in his seat and looked at the small house. It was one floor and made of brick. Sleek patio furniture obviously from her former life sat on the front porch. He noticed she had a big fenced-in yard and not many neighbors.
He became aware of the silence on this warm summer night and realized there weren’t many people out. It wouldn’t get dark for another couple of hours but no one was sitting on their porches or walking around. They must all be at the baseball game. He could hear the lazy buzzing of the bees and the music from an ice cream truck several blocks away.
As he got out of his truck, one phrase kept repeating in his head. You shouldn’t be doing this... You shouldn’t be doing this...
There were a lot of things he shouldn’t have done. Reading Sydney’s notebook would be on the top of that list. Matthew rubbed the back of his neck as he considered his actions. He had tried to convince himself that he’d needed to know what people were talking about, but he hadn’t been prepared to read Sydney’s most erotic fantasies.
Sophisticated and imaginative fantasies. Fantasies he could not compete with.
While his reputation was legendary around here, it was exaggerated. He’d had satisfying physical relationships with women, but that was because his needs were simple.
