tell time, Lizzie, just not time zones. Anyway, I wanted to be the first to congratulate you on your promotion, and I knew our friends would wait until the hour was decent.”
“But not my bad-boy best friend,” she said, trying not to sigh. A part of her had hoped he’d called because he remembered their friends-with-benefits pact, but clearly that wasn’t the case.
“I like being first,” he replied.
That wasn’t news to her. When they’d first met, he turned getting good grades into a competition and she’d risen to the challenge. She hated to lose. Had to bite her lip and smile politely when she did, and in Bradley she’d found a fellow competitor who always wanted to win. If things had been different... She thought of her torrid dream and the one scorching kiss they’d shared five years ago.
“Did you fall back to sleep?” he asked, breaking into her thoughts.
“No, of course not,” she said.
“Then, what’s up, Lizzie?”
“How many times do I have to tell you not to call me Lizzie?” She was stalling for time. How was she going to bring up something that had been said so long ago? Something he’d more than likely forgotten but that she’d kept tucked away in the back of her mind as a kind of insurance policy.
“An infinite number, but I like it,” he said. “Lizzie suits you.”
“My boss wouldn’t agree,” she retorted.
Lars Usten, former Olympian and owner of the very exclusive Lars Usten Lodge and Spa luxury hotel chain, never called her anything but Elizabeth.
“He doesn’t know the real woman.”
“And you think you do?” she asked. She doubted that Bradley had ever really paid any attention to anything other than himself. He was fun, flirty and way too self-absorbed, or so she’d always thought.
“I know I do,” he said.
“Cocky and arrogant, as always,” she said. “Okay, hotshot. Prove it.”
“I know that you’re an executive now, so you’ve met your business goals. I know that you’re going to be thirty on December 31. And I know that we made a bargain with each other that if we were both still single at thirty...”
He let the words trail off and she lay in her bed, sheets twisted around her hips, shaking her head that he’d beaten her to it. She wanted to be mad but could only laugh. This was one time when she was glad he had won. His ability to always rise to any challenge was one of the things she’d always liked about him.
“I wasn’t sure you remembered,” she admitted.
“How could I forget?” he asked. “I’ve had a thing for you for years, but you’ve always kept your distance.”
“It was hard to tell you wanted me through all the women surrounding you,” she quipped.
He laughed. “Touché. So, you still want to give it a try?”
He was so blasé about it that she wondered if there was something she was missing. She’d spent her entire adult life focused and contained so that she wouldn’t do anything stupid like she had when she was twenty. Now, ten years later, she’d accomplished everything she’d always wanted to.
She had it all...except for a lover.
And playboy jokester Bradley...well, he turned her on like no one else, and unless she’d missed something, he could be hers. She wanted him in her life temporarily to sooth that sexual ache that was keeping her up at night. It wasn’t surprising, given his virile nature and how demonstrative he was all the time, but over the years she’d always felt a little ping of excitement in her stomach whenever he called her or walked into a room.
“Do you?” she asked, throwing the ball back into his court.
“I brought it up. Do I really have to be the one to say yes first?”
“Yes,” Elizabeth said. She needed to be very careful about how she handled this because she wanted to keep their friendship intact. He was one of her longest relationships, and he got her in ways others didn’t. Maybe he wasn’t as self-absorbed as she’d always wanted to believe. Her girlfriends all teased her about being too intense, but not him. She guessed it was because she was always busy and distracted with work. Plus, as her female friends started getting married and having kids, she’d stepped back. That whole thing—husbands, kids, settled life—it wasn’t her.
“Okay, fine, I want to try dating and see if our friendship can be more.” He paused. “And if not, it will finally put to rest that nagging question.”
“What nagging question?” she asked, trying to play it cool. Bradley and this affair thing were like a business deal. But in her heart she knew it was more.
“Was that kiss a fluke or is there real sexual attraction between us?” he asked.
“Oh, I think it was real,” she said. “As real as you can get.”
* * *
BRADLEY HUNT LEANED farther back in his seat in the departure lounge at London’s Heathrow airport. Cradling his smartphone in his hand, he pictured Elizabeth with her long blond hair falling around her shoulders, her blue-green eyes sleepy, maybe even drifting shut, and wearing some sort of pajamas that covered her from her neck to her toes. She was that buttoned-up, but there had always been something more lingering beneath the surface. She needed a lover to awaken her and remind her she was young.
Hiding in the depths of her beautiful eyes he occasionally caught a fleeting glimpse of fire and passion. And he’d wanted to unlock it, but she’d shut him down each and every time.
Starting when they’d first met...
They’d originally crossed paths when she’d stopped in front of his frat house on her moving-in day at the University of Texas at Austin and asked for directions. She’d been so damned cute with her ponytail and large horn-rimmed glasses that he’d been unable to resist making a pass. And, being Elizabeth, she’d turned him down flat.
He’d taken that rejection as a challenge and the game between the two of them had started. A game she’d done her best to simply ignore until that kiss five years ago that had culminated in a sweet, slightly inebriated bargain.
Back then, on that one unforgettable night, it had seemed as if he was finally going to get a chance to see if the attraction between them was genuine, but in the end...she’d been too vulnerable. He intended to win and have her in his bed, but not because she was feeling lonely and any man would do.
He’d have felt like a cad if he’d gone through with seducing her when she was clearly so not herself. The Elizabeth he wanted to make love with was feisty and confident. Not scared of ending up alone. She was this woman. At her prime. Youngest general manager in the Lars Usten Corporation. He was very proud of her and had never wanted her more.
But with Elizabeth, just as with any competitor, he couldn’t let her see it. He’d built his business from the ground up with hard work. One client at a time. Which was why he had to keep her guessing about how he felt and what he really wanted. She liked the challenge as much as
