The Job Offer (14 page)

Ben and Anne arrived late for dinner in
the inn’s dining room that evening.  They were supposed to meet everyone in the
lounge at seven then head into the dining room a half hour later, but when they
finally managed to drag themselves from bed and into a shared shower, it was
already five minutes before seven o'clock.  Anne didn't mind too much, however,
because the shower proved to be a sensual experience with Ben running his soapy
hands over every inch of her body and stirring her desire again.  Then it was
her turn to wash him.  If it wasn't for the fact that they already made love
twice and needed some food, they would have stayed in the shower longer.  After
their shower, they dried themselves with towels and she took the room’s
complimentary hair drier to her hair and used Ben’s comb to try to bring some
semblance of order to her mess of curls.  Once she had her hair in order, it
finally dawned on her.  She did not have any clothing other than her wet
swimsuit.

"I can't call mom, now," she
told Ben as she stood in front of the bed wrapped in a towel.  Ben was dressing
himself in a pair of black trousers and a black polo shirt looking far too sexy
for his own good.

"Leave your suit and tee shirt here
to dry and you can borrow my sweats to run to your parents and change.  Where
are your shorts and shoes?"  Ben crossed to the dresser and pulled out his
sweatpants from that morning and a sweatshirt with a screen print of the U of W
Huskies logo on front.

"Probably still on the patio table
where I left them when I started swimming."  While his back was turned, she
put the sweats on over her naked body.  Despite all he had done to and with her
body that afternoon, she still felt a little self conscious with him seeing her
naked.  The sweats were loose on her, and she pulled the drawstring of the
pants tight to prevent them from sliding down indecently.  "What will you
do while I'm changing?"

"I'll go down to the lounge and
make excuses.  Don't worry, I'll make something up.  When I'm there, I'll see
if Chelsea and her parents are in the dining room then I'll call up to let you
know if the coast is clear.  If it is, then you can head over to your parents'
and change.  Bring some clothing back for tomorrow, too."  He sat on the
edge of the bed in front of her, and leaned over to tie his shoelaces as he
laid out his plan.  She smiled down at his head.

"You're really getting into this
subterfuge, aren't you?  What's next; secret codes?"

"I suppose we should have one,
shouldn't we?  How about if the coast if clear, I say 'the red hen is roosting'
or some such nonsense."  He sat back up and watched her with a boyish
smile she could not help but respond too.  He used to smile the same way at her
when she would lead him, Lily, and Carla out on adventures when they were
younger.  "Or, I could say 'It's a clear night and promises clean
sailing', or better yet 'There will be a red sky tonight...'"

"Sailors delight.  And if the way
isn't clear, you say, "there will be a red sky at morn...'"

"Sailors be warned," he
finished using their old code system to sneak out and explore the island as
kids.  Then he reached out and took her hand to pull her forward until she
stood between his legs.  Putting his hands on her hips under the shirt, he
looked up to her face.  She rested her hands on his shoulders and smiled down
at him.  He gave her a naughty grin and slid one hand down and pulled the ties
of the pants loose.  She gasped in surprise and at the sudden longing that
entered her.  He slid his hands under the fabric and pushed the waistband down
until it rested low on her hips and the front rested at the top of her curls.  Glancing
up, he smiled devilishly at her.  "You know, the spy always gets the girl
in the end."

"I've seen all of the Bond
movies."  Heat flooded her body, and her core began to ache at his look.  When
he placed an open mouth kiss on her low belly just above her curls, she moved
her hands into his head, feeling the silky texture of his hair with her
fingers.  Then he slid his hands down until his thumbs met at the juncture of
her thighs before sliding into her cleft and separating her folds.  She closed
her eyes and enjoyed the pleasurable sensations of his mouth and fingers on her
again.  "We are going to be late, Ben," she said absently as she
spread her legs wider to let his thumbs find more of her.  She had to grip him
tighter with her hands to hold herself up.

"Hmm.  What's a few more minutes?"
was his response against her belly.  A moan escaped her as his thumbs found her
nub and began to tease it.  She became wet and his thumbs slide through the
moisture.  She felt him smile against her belly as he felt her response to his
touch.  "You're body is wonderful, Anne.  So beautiful.  So responsive.  I
want to feel you come again."  She looked down at him, and he glanced up
to give her a wicked smile.

"You can come again, so soon?"
 Her voice was breathless.

"No, but you can."

He suddenly moved his hands to the
waistband of the sweatpants and pushed them down to the floor until the pants
were pooled around her ankles.  Then he moved the elastic over her ankles so
that he could get them all of the way off.  With her standing before him with
only his sweatshirt on, he changed positions with her until she sat on the end
of the bed, and he was standing between her legs.  She felt another wave of
moisture flood her core when she knew what he had planned.

He pushed her gently backward until she
was lying down then picked up her leg.  She closed her eyes when he put his
mouth to her instep.  She had no idea that an instep could be so sensitive.  She
opened her eyes again to watch him.  Then he kissed his way up her inner leg
until she was moaning from the pleasure of his lips on her skin.  When he knelt
before her, she was already melting in anticipation and spread her legs.  Then
he reached her inner thigh and moved his mouth as far as he could go before
spreading her thighs with his hands on each of her legs.  She closed her eyes
and gripped the blanket under her, holding her breath as pushed her legs wider
to give him total access to what she offered.  When he moved his thumbs to her
to hold her folds open while his tongue glided through her opening.  Her breath
released in a gasp of surrender to be followed quickly with a moan.

She let out the breath she was holding again
and cried out in pleasure at the soft grazing of his tongue.  When his mouth
moved to suck on her nub, and she felt his thumbs move into her opening, she
pushed herself against him.  The combination of his tongue and thumbs stretching
her and rubbing against her silky sides drove her wild.  The pleasure built
again until it overcame her.  She felt the climax come in waves that took her
under and wrapped her in total bliss.  Minutes later when her body calmed down,
Ben raised his head and looked at her giving her a satisfied male expression
that Anne could only think reminded her of a hunter who had gotten his prey.  Then
he removed his thumbs and rubbed them through the moisture teasing her nub
until she could feel the pleasure begin to build again.  She finally had to beg
him to stop; the sweet torture was too much.

Grinning, he gave her belly another kiss
then stood up, staring down into her eyes.  He leaned over, kissed her lips,
and rubbed his tongue against hers so that she could taste herself on him.  He
pulled back when she felt herself drowning again and gave her a satisfied male
smile.  Then he stood back up and helped her to pull the sweatpants back on.  She
did not think she could stand, but he helped her up.  Her core continued to
throb with her desire for him, and her breasts ached, highly sensitive to the
material of his shirt that rubbed against her nipples.

In a daze, she looked over at the
bedside clock and saw that it was seven forty and that they were already late.  Alarmed,
she instantly started moving, pulled from the lethargies of her desire.

"Oh, no!  Go, go, go," she
said as she pushed him toward the door and out into the sitting room.  "I'll
wait here until you call me, but hurry up."

"I forgot how bossy you were,"
he said cheekily as he picked up the room key card, his cell phone, and wallet.
 She walked him to the door and he kissed her hard before grinning at her and
leaving.

A few minutes later the room phone rang
and she ran to pick it up.  Smiling, she picked up the spare room key card Ben
had made for her and went out onto the balcony.  It would be a red sky that
night.

*  *  *  *  *

Anne let herself into her parents’ house
and went straight to her room.  Looking through her clothing, she found a blush
pink colored sleeveless sheath dress that hugged her figure and ended at mid
thigh and her silver sandals from the night before.  Dressing first in a white
lace thong and barely there lace demi-bra, she stood in front of her bedroom mirror
and looked at herself.  She looked like a woman who was well pleasured.  Her
eyes were too bright and her lips were swollen from Ben’s kisses.  Oh, my God,
she thought, and had to sit down on the bed.  She could still feel him.  When
she came to Seattle, she had just been expecting to interview for the job then
come and enjoy herself at her parents' inn.  She never expected that she would
be involved in a vacation romance with Ben Carlson of all people.

But she was, and it felt right somehow.

Maybe that was why she responded to him
as she did, she thought.  She had always liked him when they were younger, and
now that they were older, she found that she liked him even more.  There were
even times last night when she watched him talk through dinner, and then again
today when they were kayaking, that she thought it would be so easy to fall in
love with him.  Her heart did little flips when she was with him.  Then there
was the attraction thing that, at times, felt like much more.  He made her
blood heat up with just a look or a touch of his hands.

Was she confusing attraction for love?  She
just did not have enough experience with men to know what she was feeling.  The
first man she was with was her fiancé with whom she thought she loved.  After
their miserable first time together, she overheard him tell a friend of his
that she was a cold fish, but he had agreed to take her father's money to marry
her with the promise of more to follow once the deed was done.  Feeling
betrayed, angry, and ashamed, she confronted him about it and learned the truth
of her engagement.  It was just a setup created by her father who wanted to control
her and, more importantly, her inheritance.

The experience shattered her confidence
with men, and it was years before she would even go out with another man for
more than a few dates.  Once things began to progress and the men wanted a
physical relationship, she always backed away, afraid that her father had
somehow found a way to control her from the other side of the country.  She knew
she was being ridiculous, but she could not help it, and she eventually sought
help from a therapist a few years ago.  Then just before her company closed,
she began dating another scientist with the company.  She allowed the
relationship to progress once to the sexual stage, but never felt anything
close to burning desire for the man.  Her interest was lukewarm, at best.  When
the company closed a few days later, the relationship ended because neither of
them wanted to put in any more effort into it with now needing to find jobs.

That brought her here.  If she got the
job with Stanford Enterprise or someplace else local, would Ben still want to
see her?  She knew that she wanted to still see him, but they had agreed to end
the relationship once the wedding was over.  Maybe that was why everything she
felt was so much more intense?  Maybe it was just an illusion created by the
circumstance?  She knew it would be over soon, so their time together was
sweeter, their passion more powerful.  She groaned.  She was over thinking it
again.  Her just trying to make sense of her crazy emotions was making her head
spin.

The clock chimed the time, and she
jumped up to pull on the dress.  She needed to get going.  Running into the
bathroom, she pulled her unruly hair back in a loose clip that allowed soft
tendrils to fall around her face, brushed some mascara on her lashes, and
applied some lipstick.  Then running back into her bedroom, she slipped on
earrings and her sandals, grabbed clean underwear, a shirt and jeans, Ben's
sweats, and picked up her cell phone.

That was when she noticed that there was
a new message on her phone.  She looked at the caller ID log saw that it was a
Seattle number and that the call came at four o'clock that afternoon.  It could
only be Stanford Enterprises.  Dropping her extra clothing on the bed, she sat
down and listened to the message.  It was Ms. Tomlinson explaining that Mr.
Stanford would not be available for interviews next week, but that he wanted to
offer her the position.  If she was still interested in joining them at
Stanford Enterprises as a Biochemical Research Scientist, please call Ms.
Tomlinson as soon as possible.

Anne called the number and was surprised
to hear Ms. Tomlinson answer on the third ring.  Either the woman was still
working, or this was her cell phone number.

"Ms. Tomlinson, this is Dr. Conner
returning your call."  Anne used her professional voice.