Insatiable (3 page)

She had her sandy-blonde hair done up in a serviceable bun, and I caught myself wondering what that hair might look like waving freely around her shoulders.

I had to admit that I found her interesting. I intimidated her, I could tell that. Except she didn’t clam up or just act afraid like so many others did. I mean, she actually had the nerve to talk back to me about my joke about the hotel. There weren’t many people who’d do that.

I smiled at that recollection. Yes, I liked this girl. And thinking about her kept my mind off Stacey. And all the ones that came before Stacey who’d had similar experiences.

We got to the elevators and she jabbed at the button. “We have a number of proofs to show you, as well as some test footage for a new commercial,” she said, keeping her eyes on her reflection in the brushed steel elevator doors. “I think you’ll be pleased.”

“With what I’m paying your firm, I’d expect nothing less,” I replied.

Her shoulders stiffened and I grinned. It tickled something inside me to get a rise out of her.

“Yes, well, you get what you pay for,” she replied. The elevator doors opened and she went inside. I followed. She stood in the opposite corner, her eyes fixed on the dial counting down the floors.

I was still grinning from her reply. I leaned back against the wall, hooking my thumbs in the pockets of my jacket. In the normal light of the elevator I got a better look at her.

I liked the front as much as I liked the back. She wore a minimal amount of makeup. She was pretty in that normal way that made me think immediately of the phrase “
the girl next door
.”

But she tried to downplay her looks, I noticed. That lack of makeup, the serviceable hairstyle, the plain if well-fitting suit. She was a young woman determined to get by on the merits of her skills and talents rather than a pretty face and nice eyes.

“I expect nothing less than the best,” I said. “Which is why I was surprised at your age.”

I couldn’t stop myself from looking at her lips. I wondered how soft and smooth and warm they might feel against mine. Part of me recognized this as my usual defense mechanism, my usual avoiding of the feelings for the last girl by moving onto the next as quickly as possible.

The rest of me didn’t care.

“I know what I’m doing, Mr. Ward. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of your needs.” She still hadn’t looked away from the dial.

My grin widened, “Oh, I know you are,” letting my tone convey the implication.

When she realized what I meant, her cheeks turned a rosy red that made me ache inside.

“Mr. Callaghan himself has taken the lead on handling your needs, we value your business so much. I’m sure you’ll benefit from his decades of experience,” I said.

I laughed again. I liked this one. Cheeky. And I could see her inner struggle playing out across her face. That desire to remain professional warring with her wit.

The flush in her cheeks deepened and I knew that she hadn’t been expecting laughter as a response. That was good. I liked surprising people, liked looking at things from angles people didn’t expect.

I attribute a good 80% of my success to that trait.

“You know,” I said. “You haven’t actually introduced yourself yet. I find that distinctly unfair, since you know who I am.”

“Mr. Ward, everyone knows who you are. In fact, we’re rather counting on that fact for a few of our proposals. Which Mr. Callaghan will be explaining in just a few minutes.”

I sucked a breath in through my teeth.
Ouch
. I could feel the teeth in that remark going right for the jugular. I had to say, I was enjoying myself. Women always wanted to get closer to me, to learn more about me, to talk to me.

The woman standing in the corner across from me looked like she wished she could slide through the wall of the elevator and disappear. It was refreshing.

And it was the opposite of what she wanted from me, I knew. I never could resist pressing people’s buttons. “Still, a real professional would introduce herself to her client.”

She winced and I knew I found her soft spot. This one was all work and no play. But my God, I wanted to see her at play so bad.

She swallowed, dragging her eyes from the dial and over to my face. I fixed my most charming smile to my lips, the one I knew went straight to my eyes. Women always went crazy over my eyes.

“I’m Quinn Windsor, and I’m a junior executive with Callaghan & Montblanc Publicity and Marketing.” With more than a little reluctance, she held out her hand. Her nails were plain and well-groomed, I noticed.

I reached out and engulfed her hand in mine. Her skin was warm and dry, which I found surprising. I was so used to clammy, nervous handshakes. “Quinn? That’s an unusual name.”

“So is Vaughn,” she replied. I could tell she wanted to pull her hand back, but was too professional to try an experimental tug.

“It’s good to be unusual. It gets you noticed,” I said.

She breathed a little too sharply on her next breath and I knew I found myself another nerve.

This one didn’t want to be noticed. At least, not for some things.

“I’ll have to take your word for it, Mr. Ward,” she said.

“Vaughn,” I replied. Her eyes kept straying up to mine, then taking in that smile. I liked it when she looked at me. The trouble was that I couldn’t tell if she reciprocated.

I thought that maybe there was some mutual attraction there, but I couldn’t be certain. It was intoxicating. That flush in her cheeks was intoxicating. The way her lips parted ever so slightly as she breathed was intoxicating.

“You know,” I said. “I think I’m usually pretty good at reading women. But I can’t quite get a bead on you.”

She looked away, fixing her gaze on the dial. We’d be out of the elevator soon, I knew. “Sorry to disappoint, Mr. Ward.”

The way she turned her face showed me her profile. I let my eyes run over her face.
Girl next door, indeed
.

“Don’t be. I’d like to ask you a question,” I said.

“You’re asking permission?” she asked, eyes flicking back at me for a moment.

“That surprises you?” I replied.

“It does. As near as I can tell, you say whatever is on your mind regardless of the content.”

“Sometimes,” I agreed. There was a firecracker under the surface of this one, I could tell. She needed someone to light her fire.

“So what is it?” she said, her curiosity overcoming her reservations.

I tugged her closer, our bodies almost touching. This close, I could see the hint of freckles on her cheeks. I bet they came out so nicely in the summer sun. I bet she hated them so much, hated how girlish they made her look. I wanted to kiss them.

She smelled nice, too. Nothing fancy. Maybe just the barest hint of perfume. It begged me to lean in closer, to graze her skin with my lips while I breathed deeply of her.

I could also feel her begin trembling. But what sort of tremble was it? Barely-suppressed attraction? Annoyance? Both? I still couldn’t tell.

“What would you do if I kissed you right now, junior executive Quinn Windsor from Callaghan & Montblanc?”

Her breath caught in her throat, and her eyes widened so that I could see the whites. Her mouth opened and closed a couple times. I considered leaning in and trying my luck then and there. I couldn’t get my mind off those freckles.

Her palm became hotter against mine. But she still didn’t make a move to pull it away.

Her face flushed again, bringing out those freckles even more. My heart palpitated.

“I...” she started. Her eyes bounced around the cramped space of the elevator, unable to stay still.

Then the elevator dinged, the doors sliding open. I groaned inwardly.
Just a few more seconds,
I thought,
a few more seconds was all I needed
.

Quinn looked out the door and saw no one waiting in the lobby. Then she turned back to me, leaning in. Unable to help it, my heart rate picked up. A tingle ran down the front of my stomach.

“I’d slap you so hard you’d have to explain the hand print on your cheek for the next week,” she said. Then she tugged her hand out of mine and wiped it on her jacket. “For me and for that girl, Stacey.”

Then she smiled and stepped out of the elevator, “Please follow me, Mr. Ward.”

Her mention of Stacey hit me in the gut like a hard-knuckled fist. I stood there, gaping at her until the elevator doors started closing again. She had to reach in and trip the sensor so that they’d re-open.

My expression seemed to satisfy her, and I knew she thought this whole thing was over.

It wasn’t.

So I smiled, tugging at my jacket to get it back in its proper place on my shoulders, and stepped out, “Lead the way.”

Q
UINN

Thank God that’s over!
I thought, yanking open the glass door to my condo building. I lived up in the North End on Clark Street. It was a nice building, with good views of some of the historic sections of the city.

I liked having my own place. I hated having a mortgage. But it beat renting, and besides, it made me feel more like an adult.

Although with how the day went I wasn’t certain for how much longer I could afford said mortgage.

I fished my key fob out and knocked it against the sensor of the inner door. The deadbolt shot back and I walked into the mailroom. The sound of the door closing and locking behind me was the best thing I’d heard all day.

I don’t know if it had been out of revenge or what, but Ward had really laid into me in the meeting. He hadn’t let Mr. Callaghan get a single word in.

Every slide Ward pressed me for more details. After viewing the rough cut of the commercial he’d asked me if I’d been the one to cast it, a reference to his displeasure with my having him booked at Langham instead of the Harbor.

By the end of it, I’d been getting dirty looks from everyone else there, like I was costing C&M a huge account.

“You’ll be hearing from me soon,” Ward had said to Mr. Callaghan at the end. Ward hadn’t smiled once throughout the whole meeting, his handsome face looking like it had been chipped from stone. It contrasted so sharply with his behavior before that.

Mr. Callaghan, normally composed, had shooed everyone from the room as soon as Ward had left. I wouldn’t be surprised if I went to the office on Monday and got called in for at the very least a dressing down, if not getting handed my pink slip then and there.

I checked my mail, sorting the junk into the recycling bin without really thinking.
God damn Vaughn Ward
, I kept thinking. I hated him so much. Right from the first time I set eyes on him.

And he asked to kiss me! The nerve!
Clearly being a rich and famous bachelor had gone to his head.

I slammed the little door to my mailbox shut and huffed my way down the hall. How could one man be so infuriating? So beautiful and infuriating? I didn’t mean to add that second part.

But I had to admit it, grudgingly. You could hate someone and still admit they were attractive, right?

Before I could get to the elevator the doors opened and two young children, a boy and a girl, both sandy-haired and freckle-faced, popped out.

“Quinn!” they both screamed when they saw me.

“Hey, guys!” I replied, dropping down to my knees.

Alexander and Charlie were brother and sister. Alexander was nine and Charlie seven. They both rushed into my arms. They both smelled of fresh soap, and Charlie’s long red head tickled at my nose.

“Watch out, or they might not let go,” Mary said as she came out of the elevator. She was their mother, and she had the same red hair. She looked a little more tired than usual, the darkness below her eyes detracting from her striking features.

“Maybe I’ll just hold on, then!” I said, wrapping my arms around their waists and standing up. They squealed as they left the ground. I groaned. “You guys are getting too big for this!”

I set them down, wincing and thinking I should up my workout from twice a week to three times down at the GoodLife on the corner.

“Kids, go wait by the door,” Mary said. The kids went, grinning back at us over their shoulders.

Mary came closer to me. She really did look tired. “Quinn... I hate to ask, but do you think you could watch them for me tonight? I had to take another late shift. And I just finished a double in time to go pick them up from school...”

She tried carrying on, but I held up my hand, “Not a problem. Send them over whenever you want to; I’ll be home all night.”

She put her hand on my shoulder. “You’re a lifesaver.”

“Seriously, don’t worry about it. I love seeing them,” I said, giving Mary’s elbow a reassuring squeeze. My heart went out to that woman.

“Kids! You’re going over to Quinn’s tonight, ok?” Mary said.

“Woo!” Alexander and Charlie called back from the door.

“And if you’re both good, I know I have some mac & cheese we can have for supper,” I added.

Both their faces lit up and I couldn’t help grinning. They were great kids.

I started up in the elevator. I had a nice corner unit on the fifth floor. I also had a nice bottle of merlot from California I intended on starting on right away, but now that babysitting came up that was out of the question.

Mary’s husband had died suddenly almost five years back. She worked three jobs to keep food on the table. I once suggested to her that she could find a cheaper place to live, but she wouldn’t hear it.

She and her husband had lived together here for nearly ten years, and she said she couldn’t stand to go. It felt too much like leaving her husband behind once and for all. Besides, she hated the thought of pulling the kids out of school.

I admired her, too. She never asked for help, and I didn’t think I could do what she did every day. So I offered when I could, taking the kids when she had late shifts. Because what sort of world would it be if no one offered a helping hand?

Sometimes she tried to pay me, but I never let her. It just felt wrong to take money for that sort of thing.

Besides, maybe they’ll take my mind off this day!
I hoped, going into my condo. I tossed my keys into the bowl beside the door and went to change into something comfier before the kids could get here.