style="font-size:15px;"> “You’re becoming very nutty.” Courtney said it with a smile that didn’t quite disguise her concern. “I get chills just thinking of you launching yourself into thin air.”
“I was perfectly safe. Listen, the happy-hour special is raspberry margaritas. Let’s get a pitcher for the three of us.”
“Sounds a hell of a lot better than skydiving.”
“That’s because you’ve never tried it.” Eileen signaled a waitress and gave her their order.
“And I never will.” Courtney leaned both arms on the table and shook her head. “I’ll bet Benjamin had a fit, not to mention your parents.”
“Uh, I didn’t tell them.”
“You didn’t tell your parents?”
“Or Benjamin.”
“Ah-ha. So that’s how you got away with it. Well, I can understand not telling your folks and having them freak. I admit they’re overprotective. But you told Benjamin about the rafting, so why not this?”
“Because he didn’t react well to the raft trip, so why stir up trouble?”
Courtney gazed at her. “Shouldn’t he be aware that you’re turning into a daredevil? What’s next, bungee-jumping?”
“Maybe.” Eileen hadn’t decided between that and hang-gliding. “But it doesn’t matter, because once Benjamin and I move in together, I will give up that kind of thing. That’s why I’m getting it out of my system now.”
Courtney looked unconvinced. “I don’t know if it works like that.”
“Sure it does. This is a phase, that’s all. Soon I’ll— Hey, here comes Suz.” She waved at her friend, who was blond like Eileen but wore her hair in a short boyish cut. Eileen had felt extremely lucky when she’d introduced her two buddies to each other ten years ago and they’d hit it off.
The three of them had become a unit during college, and the friendship had lasted through graduation, job hunting and broken hearts. They’d lived together for a while, but then Suz and Courtney had each moved in with boyfriends. Suz was still with hers, but Courtney wasn’t. She hadn’t suggested sharing an apartment with Eileen, though, because everyone expected Eileen to move in with Benjamin when her lease was up.
Eileen expected it, too. Time had flown by, and her parents wanted grandchildren. She was the sole candidate to give them that, which was fine because she’d always envisioned a husband, a home and kids in her future. Ultimately she needed that kind of stability. She just had to get past this thrill-seeking phase of hers first. And sex with a stranger kept nudging its way to the top of her to-do list.
“How’s a pitcher of margaritas sound?” Courtney asked.
“Great.” Suz, an advertising rep for the Arizona Republic, shoved her briefcase under the table to join Courtney’s and Eileen’s. She looked uncharacteristically awkward doing it, using only her right hand and keeping her left in the pocket of her linen slacks.
Courtney hadn’t seemed to notice, but Eileen had her suspicions. She gazed at her friend. “What’s up, Suz?”
Suz looked innocent. “Not much. How was the skydiving?”
“Amazing.” She glanced at Suz’s right hand. “Nice manicure.”
“Thanks,” she said casually. “I like this magenta.” But she only spread out the fingers of her right hand, while keeping her left in her pocket.
“Okay, Suz,” Eileen said, watching her closely. “Spill.”
Suz grinned as she pulled her hand out of her pocket to display a glittering diamond. “Chad proposed!”
Pandemonium erupted at the table as the three friends squealed, embraced and even got a little teary. Suz was the first to become engaged.
“Eileen, you’re next,” Suz said sometime after they’d started in on their second pitcher of margaritas.
“We’ll see.” But Eileen thought so, too. Even though she’d been careful not to promise Benjamin exclusivity, she hadn’t dated anyone else in quite a while. Benjamin wanted her to move in with him. After that, knowing Benjamin and his timetable, the next step would be a proposal. Suz’s engagement brought the concept of marriage a lot closer than it had been an hour ago.
No doubt about it, commitment was closing in on her. As she contemplated a lifetime with Benjamin, she suddenly knew what she had to do. Before she agreed to forsake all others, she wanted the ultimate adventure—sex with the perfect stranger.
1
IT WAS NOW OR NEVER. Traynor and Sizemore, the law firm that employed both Benjamin and Eileen, had sent Benjamin to Switzerland for six days. That left Eileen free to enact her sex-with-a-stranger fantasy without any danger of him finding out.
Although she wasn’t breaking any agreement between them, she didn’t want to have sex with someone else right under his nose. Benjamin’s last-minute trip to Switzerland was like being handed an engraved invitation to take care of unfinished business. Sure, she was scared, but that was part of the excitement.
She was also incredibly turned on by the idea of choosing a sexual partner she’d never met before and would never meet again. Unfortunately, she’d seen Benjamin off at Sky Harbor last night at seven, nearly twenty-four hours ago, and since then she’d made no real progress toward her goal. The condoms she’d stashed in her purse this morning in preparation for some wild and crazy adventure were still there, untouched.
From her second-floor office window, she’d spent at least a half-hour watching a good-looking guy down below working with a street-repair crew. She’d just mustered up her courage to go down and speak to him when he’d paused to spit tobacco juice into the gutter. Then the overnight mail courier had looked like a possibility until she’d checked out his wedding band. Her bad luck had continued when the muscled hunk she’d made eye contact with on her lunch break had been joined shortly thereafter by his gay partner.
Scoping out handsome strangers had cut way down on her efficiency at the office today. She’d deleted a valuable file from her hard drive while daydreaming about sex, and now she was stuck at her desk after hours trying to reconstruct it from her scribbled notes.
She could give up the handsome stranger project right now and no one would be the wiser. No, damn it, she wouldn’t forget it. If she did, she’d end up like Meryl Streep in The Bridges of Madison County. She’d rather succumb to temptation before the wedding, not years after when the guilt would probably kill her.
On the drive to the airport Benjamin had reminded her that when he came back at the end of the week, he expected an answer to his question about living together. And he was a damned good catch. He was a cinch to make partner at Traynor and Sizemore a good year ahead of Eileen because he worked harder than she did. He kissed ass better, too. Well, metaphorically speaking. In bed, he wasn’t particularly imaginative, poor guy.
He’d promised that once Eileen shifted her belongings over to his luxury apartment, he’d morph into a more spontaneous lover. She thought it was possible. Some people needed security to let loose, and Benjamin seemed to
