he nodded. “Two of them. I would have tried you first if you lived closer.”
“Real hardship to get in your car and drive three miles,” she said.
His eyebrows furrowed together. “You sound like a bitter shrew tonight. What’s your problem? Wasn’t something exciting supposed to happen at work?”
“It did,” she said. “Kinda. I got a promotion and raise.”
“Fantastic! You should be celebrating.” He grinned engagingly. “You should take me out.”
“It’s complicated. There are conditions with the position. It’s mine, but not really mine,” she said, and realized that didn’t make sense. “It’s temporary.”
“So take the money and enjoy the moment.”
“I will, after I pay for the new battery for my car,” she said, and sighed. “It just made me start thinking. Do you realize everything I have isn’t really mine? I keep a great kid after school almost every day, but she’s not mine. I have a new position, but it’s not really mine. I have a friend who takes me salsa dancing, but he’s not my boyfriend.”
Chad looked stricken. “I didn’t know you felt that way about me.”
Jenny rolled her eyes. “I don’t. I’m just venting. My apartment isn’t even really mine. I sublet it.”
“Then get a different one.”
“I like the price and location.”
“Then quit griping.”
“Plus my boss can’t remember my name.”
“I thought you said your boss was a nice guy. Sal Somebody.”
“Different boss. The vice president.” She sighed again. “He’s so hot, and he can’t see me.”
Chad gave her a double take. “Oh, my. Unrequited love?”
“Unrequited lust.”
His eyes widened. “Jenny, I never knew. You always seemed so…so…”
She covered her ears. “If you say sexless, I’ll scream.”
He removed her hands from her ears. “I was going to say shy, inhibited.” He paused. “Don’t you ever get tired of not going after what you want? If this VP is so hot, then why don’t you just bed him and get it over with?” He shrugged. “If your job isn’t really yours, then I don’t see the problem.” He raised an eyebrow. “Unless you’re saving yourself for Prince Charming. You’re not a virgin, are you?”
She glowered at him and pulled her hands from his. “It’s really none of your business, but no.”
“Must not have been a great experience based on your expression,” he taunted.
“It was more than once,” she said, then stopped herself. She’d made love with two men and neither experience in bed had rocked her world. “Besides, this situation isn’t that easy. This man is going out with a beauty pageant winner.”
Chad’s eyes rounded as he spooned servings of creole and rice onto plates. “A beauty pageant winner,” he echoed. “I wonder what kind of plastic surgery she’s had.”
Jenny laughed despite herself. “Maybe none. Maybe she’s just naturally beautiful.”
“Honey, natural and beautiful rarely go together in the same sentence.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not beauty pageant material.”
Chad took a seat. “Well, not looking like that you aren’t.”
Affronted, she pursed her lips. “What do you mean, not looking like this? This skirt is above my knees and the sweater is fitted. This is office sexy,” she told him.
“If you’re my mother,” he muttered, and took a bite. He immediately fanned his mouth. “Oooh, too hot.”
“You went overboard with the seasoning.”
“Stop fussing and get me some bread.”
Jenny grabbed the fresh loaf from the counter and pinched off a large piece. Chad immediately put the bread in his mouth and chewed it. “Thanks,” he said, and added more rice to the creole. “That’s not office sexy. Your skirt should be shorter, although it doesn’t have to be skintight. I like the idea of one that flips a little as you walk. You need to show more cleavage.”
“I don’t have a lot of cleavage.”
“Then create it.” He shook a piece of bread at her. “If men can create cleavage, then women can, too. And you need to wear sexier shoes.”
“Not if I’m on my feet all day.”
“I thought the objective was to get off your feet and into VP boy’s bed,” he retorted without batting an eye. “And you need to lose the red glasses and do something different with your hair.”
“I like my red glasses,” she said, touching the lenses, comforted by the fact that she’d worn them for six years and successfully irritated the living daylights out of her sister with the glasses.
“They’re not seductive. They’re weird.”
“Well, maybe I’m weird.”
“You don’t need to advertise the fact if you want to bonk VP boy.”
“That’s a crass way of putting it.”
He shot her a sideways glance. “Would you like to be Mrs. VP?”
Jenny felt the back of her neck itch and gave an involuntary shudder. Marc would be a demanding husband. A woman would have to build her world and schedule around his, and since he was type A to the core, he would probably be a pain in the butt to live with. “That would be a nightmare,” she confessed.
“But you find him attractive.”
Ohhhhh, yeah. She nodded. “Everything that makes him unappealing as a husband makes him irresistible as a lover. He’s got this whole power thing going on and he’s got a great body. His lips are sort of full, but a little hard at the same time. He’s intense in a passionate kind of way. It makes you wonder how he would be if he cut loose and—” She broke off and cleared her throat, self-conscious.
Chad studied her for a long moment. “I’ve never seen your hormones in full throttle before. Pity,” he added. “This could be fun, but I don’t think you’re enough of a risk taker.” He patted her hand. “I’ll get you a good vibrator for Christmas.”
SO THE FOLLOWING DAY Jenny bought a new pair of heels, Bellagio, of course. Even with her employee discount, she flinched at the cost. The weekend after her shoe purchase, she brooded over Chad’s advice. Her fantasies about Marc Waterson had always seemed like harmless fun until now. She’d never spoken to him except over the phone. The man couldn’t even remember her name.
