Just One Kiss (6 page)

Though he was in one way, at least, the antithesis of Tom, who didn’t let marriage vows even slow him down screwing the first woman he wanted. This guy had honored a vow that denied him a basic human need, a vow the woman he’d made it to wouldn’t even know or be able to care if he broke. Zero repercussions except from his own guilt and damaged sense of honor.

She couldn’t help admiring that quality. On some level this was a noble and romantic sacrifice for the woman he’d loved.

On the other hand…what a
colossal
waste. And what was this woman thinking when she extracted such a promise? That the sun rose and set on her and he needed to keep it that way even after she was gone? Angela tried to put herself in the same position and couldn’t imagine saying to a man she loved anything but, “Go out there and be happy. Keep living your life as fully as you can. I am not and never should be your entire world.” Maybe she’d be selfish enough to ask him not to forget her, but that was it.

It might not be polite to disrespect dead people, but Angela was pretty sure she wouldn’t have liked this chick. Not as a friend for herself and not as a match for Daniel. White-on-white should not be paired with a chocolate guy.

“Well.” She tried to speak brightly, but disappointment was deeper than she’d expected. “I guess that’s a no, then.”

“I’m sorry.” He had a funny bewildered expression on his face, as if he were finding out he really was sorry, and it surprised him. Sorry and embarrassed and maybe a bit wistful.

His expression gave Angela permission to have a really wonderful and slightly devious idea.

She’d need to do this carefully and make sure she wasn’t stepping over sacred boundaries, but what if she used the power of their attraction, which she was sure now she hadn’t imagined, for a good purpose? Something more selfless than satisfying her hunger for touch and physical intimacy, which frankly Daniel had wrenched awake—a greedy, cranky, posthibernation bear of a hunger. Something that would set him free from the unnecessary trap he found himself in, that would strike a blow for men and women everywhere who were unable to break free of ex-lovers, fiancés and spouses. Something that would make Daniel realize that he might owe this woman his past love and fond memories, but that he absolutely did not owe her from-the-grave dictatorship over his actions or his feelings or his body, and especially not over the pursuit of his own happiness, which was a constitutional right.

Something like Angela getting to know him. Becoming friends with him. And when he least expected having his unreasonable and unnecessary sentence commuted…

Seducing him.

5

S
ETH
TOOK
A
long swig of beer, burped at a healthy volume and set the bottle back on the scratched, wobbly coffee table he and Jack had carried up from the street where someone had abandoned it. “We should do this more often.”

“What, belch?” Angela sent Seth a disapproving look. Boys would, unfailingly, be boys.

“You’re a pig, Seth,” Bonnie said mildly.

“But I’m the best darn pig I can be.” Seth gestured around the room. “I meant how we’re here talking about something other than mortgages and business plans and profit margins.”

“You’re right.” Jack helped himself to a handful of Cheetos Puffs. “This venture turned us into grown-ups too soon. We need to reclaim our inner frat boys.”

“And girls,” Bonnie said.

Seth held up his Elysian Fields Pale Ale in a toast. “I vote we do this once a month at least. For our sanity if nothing else.”

“Hear, hear.” Angela looked up from her busy job coveting Cheetos. Given how many baked goods she needed to sample, she tried to limit her snack intake. “That’s actually an important point, Seth.”

“Actually? Like I don’t usually have important points?”

“Just on top of your head.” Bonnie blew him a kiss.

“I meant that we’ve had some rough times and will probably keep having them.” Angela held up her bottle, too. “Here’s to continuing to keep our sanity. Which in the last year I’m convinced would have been long gone without you guys.”

Jack hoisted his ale. “And then some.”

The four of them were sitting in the living room of the building’s vacant sixth apartment, which they’d agreed to use as a common area. Each of them had donated whatever leftover odds and ends of furniture and kitchen equipment they didn’t need in their own places, and regularly contributed toward keeping the refrigerator and cabinets stocked with wine, beer and snack foods for times when they needed to meet, or, as Seth pointed out they did all too rarely, get together and unwind.

Tonight Bonnie and Seth shared the hideous olive-green couch they’d scored from Seth’s parents’ basement, each sitting rather pointedly, Angela thought, at either end. Jack sprawled in an overstuffed, worn rust-colored easy chair from Bonnie’s grandmother, and Angela perched in the graceful wooden rocker she inherited from Aunt Dorcas, which hadn’t fit anywhere else in her apartment. Demi Anderson, Caroline’s friend, who’d taken over her massage therapy studio, and whom none of them knew well, had donated the black-and-white leather love seat that looked as if it belonged on the set of a futuristic movie. The four of them rarely sat on it. Silly, because it was in perfect condition and comfortable. Somehow they felt as if they were trespassing. Kind of how Demi seemed to feel around them.

“Jack, you haven’t talked about your artsy-fartsy work recently, what’s going on with that?” Bonnie changed position on the sofa to face Jack, which Angela couldn’t help noticing brought her about three inches closer to Seth.

“I haven’t talked about it because I haven’t been doing any.” Jack rolled his eyes, rubbing his hand across his cropped dark hair. He had perfected the art of the sexy scruffy look, and if he wasn’t so funny and charming he could be the kind of guy whose bubble needed serious bursting. Angela couldn’t wait until he met his match in a woman who’d have no trouble doing that when necessary. He and Bonnie had a brief fling before the quintet moved in together, and though it hadn’t worked out, she was just the type of no-nonsense chick Angela thought Jack needed. “I spent the weekend coping with another nightmare wedding.”

“Uh-oh. Bridezilla, part fifty-four?” Seth asked.

“Worse.”

“Groomzilla?” Bonnie guessed.

“Bride’s-parentzilla.” Jack slugged down some beer and shuddered. “Not a single pose or expression was too ordinary for me to capture. It was all I could do to remind them there were other people there, too. Like the groom and his family. Oh, and they made the wedding couple replay the first bite of cake about five times because it wasn’t ‘cute’ enough. Those kids are doomed.”

“Of course they are.” Seth snorted. “They’re getting married.”

“Stop. Now.”

“Aw, c’mon.” Seth gave Bonnie a friendly poke on the shoulder. “I have to say stuff like that. It’s my job.”

Bonnie rolled her green eyes and turned back to Jack. “I thought you had a new project lined up for the Unko Gallery.”

“I have an idea. The owner is interested. I haven’t been able to find the right model, though.”

“What kind of series this time?” Angela was genuinely curious, but pretty sure she wouldn’t care for the answer. No question Jack was a brilliant photographer, but his work always managed to make her uneasy, which she supposed was part of its brilliance. She was just one of those people who preferred that art filled her with joy rather than nameless dread.

“A commentary on the country’s attitudes toward sex. How they sell it on every corner and label anyone who expresses interest as a degenerate.”

Angela wasn’t sure she wanted to know how he intended to depict that.

“What kind of model haven’t you been able to find?”

“Girl-next-door. Totally virginal and innocent.” His eyes came to rest on Bonnie’s faintly freckled skin and auburn hair. “She’ll have to wear a dominatrix outfit in one shot.”

“Ooh, sign me up for that action.” Bonnie winked at him.

“Really? You’d want to try it?” Jack looked her over carefully. “I’m not sure. I could do a test. You’d need to be okay naked in front of a camera.”

“Huh.” Seth jumped up and disappeared into the kitchen. Seconds later, they heard an empty bottle hitting the bottom of the recycling bin with unnecessary force.

Bonnie gazed after him, giggling. “Maybe I should take a pass.”

“I was actually thinking you might like to do a similar shot with flowers. Maybe publicity for Bonnie Blooms? With that pretty face of yours, you’d be a great advertisement for your own store.”

“Oh, you are such a sweetheart.” She smiled adoringly at Jack. Seth emerged with another beer at his lips, trying to hide his scowl. “I’d love that.”

“Want to try some out?”

“I’m all yours.”

“I knew that about you.” Jack sent her his signature smoldering look, a thing of beauty and power.

“You guys need a room?” Seth threw himself back down on the sofa, closer to Bonnie this time.

“Of course not,” Bonnie said. “We can do it anywhere.”

“Say please and I’ll give you space right here.” Seth patted the cushion between him and Bonnie, now partly occupied by each of them.

“By the way, Seth,” Jack said. “Who was that total babe you had up in your room yesterday?”

Seth glanced at Bonnie, who was trying to pretend her expression hadn’t just fallen about a mile. Angela groaned silently. Those two needed to get over it or get on with it.

“Oh, her.” Seth waved the concept away. “She’s a friend.”

“Really.” Jack winked at him. “How friendly does she get?”

“
Speaking
of hotties,” Bonnie interrupted. “Angela, tell us about that bike-riding dude who came into your shop today for the second day in a row.”

“The guy she couldn’t take her eyes off of?” Seth’s deliberately effeminate
do
-tell look, complete with wide eyes and prudishly puckered lips, cracked Angela up when she was trying very hard to glare.

“What makes you think I couldn’t take my eyes off—”

“Bonnie was spying on you. She had high-powered binoculars and a wide range of sophisticated listening devices. Me, I just
happened
to be there. A
totally
innocent bystander who—oof.” Seth caught a pillow, which Bonnie had hurled expertly, in the face. Like Angela, Bonnie had four brothers. Bonnie could take care of herself.

“I think we are waiting for
Angela
to speak now.” Bonnie turned a true schoolmarm look of disapproval on Seth, who winked charmingly, then hurled the pillow right back at her.

Seth had brothers, too.

“Go on, Angela,” Jack said.

“Not much to tell.” Angela felt herself blushing. “His name is Daniel Flynn.”

“And?” Bonnie prompted.

“He works at Slatewood International, writing security code.”

“Ooh, good salary. He gets points for that. And a great ass. And adorable.” Bonnie gestured to Angela. “More, more.”

“He is single.” She found herself hesitating, speaking slowly. She felt as if her hopes around Daniel existed in a safe place in her thoughts, and if she pulled any out to share, she risked exposing them to ruin.

Strange, but true.

“And?” Bonnie was practically bouncing off the cushions. “Did he ask you out?”

“Not exactly.” She took a deep breath, then allowed a small smile. “I asked him.”

“Woo-hoo!” Bonnie jumped up for a high five, her short orange pleated skirt flaring. “You go, girl. When are you going out?”

“We almost weren’t.”

“What? Why not?” Bonnie backed up without taking her eyes off Angela. Seth put a hand to her thigh to guide her to sitting—even closer to him than before.

“Get this.” Angela leaned the rocker forward and gave in to the siren call of Cheetos. One handful wouldn’t kill her. “His former fiancée made him promise on her deathbed that he wouldn’t date anyone for two years.”

Bonnie’s jaw dropped. “Oh, my God.”

“Holy shit.” Seth’s nose wrinkled as if he’d smelled something foul. “That is just inhuman.”

Jack winced. “Can she
do
that?”

“So…he’s not dating?” Bonnie asked.

“He’s not.” Angela shrugged. “Unbelievable.”

“That is weird.” Bonnie frowned thoughtfully at her beer, while Seth and Jack contorted themselves in various ways meant to represent death from sexual deprivation. “But it’s also really romantic.”

“Be serious.” Seth snapped out of impending rigor mortis.

“No, no, I am. I know, it was a lot to ask, and probably not fair. I just mean that he did promise and now he’s honoring it.” She looked suddenly stricken. “Wait, though, Angela, how much longer?”

Angela sighed. “Six months.”

Bonnie sucked in a pained breath. “Ouch.”

“Two years of celib— Celiba—” Jack pretended to be choking on the word.

“Ce-lib-a-cy,”
Bonnie said loudly. “Sitting home night after night with
Hustler
and the internet.”

Jack cringed in on himself as if he were imploding. “Help…me…”

“You know what?” Seth shook his head firmly. “I’m not buying it.”

“What, you think he’s lying?” Bonnie asked.

“I bet you anything it’s a line he uses on women to get them all schmoopy at how loyal he is and how noble, and then bang.” Seth snapped his fingers. “He’s got ’em. Piece of cake. The only hard part is getting anyone to believe such stup—”

Bonnie coughed extra loud.

Seth looked genuinely stricken. “Angela, I didn’t mean…”

Angela shrugged. Weird as it might sound, she had believed him. No one could fake that kind of pain or vulnerability. And even if he did deserve an Oscar for his performance, she’d been planning to get what she wanted from him in a slightly twisted way herself, which didn’t leave her much solid outrage to get behind. “I guess I’m as much of a sucker from Iowa as I look.”

Bonnie bristled. “You don’t know that he’s lying. Not all guys are complete scum like those in this room.”

“Yeah, okay.” Seth held up his hands. “I just can’t imagine any guy promising something like that.”

“No,
you
can’t,” Bonnie said primly. “But that doesn’t mean squat.”

“Sorry, Angela, I’m with Seth on this one.” Jack got up and headed for the kitchen. “Something weird about this guy. I’d be careful.”

Angela sighed. What had she just been thinking about not sharing her hopes about Daniel for fear they’d be destroyed?

“Oh. Hi. Did I miss a meeting notice?” Demi stood uncertainly in the doorway, wearing black as usual—a scoop-necked clingy top and tight black pants that showed off her slender figure. On her arms hung silver bracelets, and the silver chain she invariably wore sparkled around her neck. She had medium-length straight dark hair parted slightly off to one side, and large exquisite eyes of an unusual gray color. The rest of her face was unremarkable except for an adorably dimpled chin. She was one of those women who exuded glamorous beauty no matter what because of her remarkable grace and style.

“Nope. We’re just hanging out.” Seth craned his neck around and gestured her in. “C’mon in and have a seat. Beer’s in the fridge.”

“Oh.” She glanced around the room, frowning. “I was going to take a shower and catch up on some reading.”

“Plans were made to be broken.” Jack held out the bottle he’d just gotten from the refrigerator. “Take mine, I’ll get another.”

She locked eyes with him for a beat too long, which made Bonnie and Angela exchange glances. “Thanks. Really. But not tonight.”