Kitabı oku: «Secrets Of The Night», sayfa 7

Then he turned and walked out of her bedroom, but he knew he couldn’t walk away from the new emotions that were flowing inside of him.

Nichole’s morning flew by. Her editorial meeting was long and boring as usual, but she was preoccupied with thoughts of Conner and the previous night. A couple of her coworkers mentioned that she seemed distracted and she told them that she was on a new story and that was all that was on her mind.

But part of her knew that Conner was definitely a distraction. She’d always been 100 percent focused at work and today she wasn’t. Instead, she remembered the way he’d felt inside her this morning in her shower. And she hoped that tonight she’d sleep a little better, but doubted it.

She was his mistress now. She didn’t know what the reality of that would entail, but she did know that there was going to be a lot more of Conner in her life. And she had to get it together to focus on the story she wanted to write or else she was going to find that she’d wasted this time with him.

But part of her just wanted to revel in being in a new relationship. That scared her. Especially since Conner had made it clear that he was moving on when their month of being lovers was up.

She glanced at her iPhone and saw that she had fifteen minutes to get across town to meet Conner for lunch. She wanted to be prepared to ask him a few interview questions or at least schedule some interview time so that she didn’t get distracted by being his lover.

Just as she was about to walk out of the office, her phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID and saw that it was Gail.

“Hey, girl,” she said, forcing herself to sound cheerful, even though she was in the midst of her greatest moral dilemma ever.

“Hey. Are you free for lunch today? I wanted to talk to you and see how things were going,” Gail said.

“I can’t. Why do you want to talk to me?”

“You seemed a little … lost is the wrong word, so don’t get mad, but just unsettled about the entire thing with Conner Macafee,” Gail said.

“I am lost,” Nichole admitted. “But only because he’s not like other guys and I don’t know exactly what to do to handle him. I could use a sounding board.”

“I thought so. I’m busy tonight, but I can do breakfast or lunch tomorrow,” Gail said.

“Maybe breakfast. I’m supposed to drop by the set of the TV show tomorrow, so if you tag along maybe we can rope Willow into joining us.”

“I’m already on it,” Gail said. “I’ll text you the details later. Bye.”

“Gail?”

“Yes?”

“Thanks for calling,” Nichole said. She knew that she wasn’t comfortable reaching out to her friends because she never wanted them to think she was whiney, but she needed someone to talk to.

“No problem. You and Willow are my soul sisters and we have to look out for each other.”

“I know that, but it’s hard when we’re all so busy.”

“I’m never too busy for you,” Gail said. “Take care, honey.”

“You, too.”

Nichole felt less alone when she hung up the phone. She left her office and hailed a cab. Traffic was heavy and she sent a text to Conner that she’d be ten minutes late. He replied right away.

I’m running late, too.

I’ll get a table if I’m there first.

I have one reserved. See you soon.

Nichole was unsure if she should answer back. She knew it would just be something like okay, but she hated to not respond to a message. When she IMed with Gail and Willow, they teased her that she had to have the last word. And she knew it was true. Finally, she just texted back Okay and put her phone away.

The cab pulled to a stop in front of the Big Apple Kiwi Klub, which housed a hotel and nightclub in one facility. The hotel had a Michelin-starred restaurant and featured a traveling exhibit of Gustav Klimt’s work. The Klubs were an international chain, owned by Gail’s fiancé, Russell Holloway.

Nichole exited the taxi and headed to the restaurant on the third floor. She gave Conner’s name to the maître d’ and by the time their table was ready, Conner had arrived. He put his hand on the small of her back as they followed the seating hostess to their table.

No one looking at them would think that they weren’t involved. Nichole realized that she needed to have a chat with her editor and let him know that she was “dating” Conner before the story ran so that it didn’t look like anything inappropriate was going on.

That was just another complication to this deal she’d made. She knew the stakes were high and she’d gambled everything on this being a story that could take her career to the next level.

Once they were seated, she noticed that Conner had found time to shave and change his clothes after he’d left her apartment this morning.

He ordered sparkling water for both of them and told the waiter they’d signal him when they were ready to order. “We need a few minutes to talk.”

“No problem, sir,” the waiter said and backed away.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I wanted to talk to you before we order our food.”

“Not at all. What’s up?” she asked.

“I wanted to give you a chance to back out of our bargain,” he said.

“Why now?” she asked.

“It seems as if it’s weighing heavily on your mind and I don’t want you to feel that you have to continue on with it.”

“Will you still sit down for an interview?” she asked.

He shook his head. She felt angry that he might want to renege on their deal now that she’d slept with him. “I’m not going back on my word, Conner. Are you?”

Ten

Conner immediately realized his mistake, but he had wanted to give her a chance to back out. “I didn’t mean it at all the way you’ve taken it.”

“How did you mean it, then?”

“Just that I can tell how much our bargain is troubling you … and I wanted to give you an out.”

“I appreciate that, but I’d only take it if you still intended to pursue a relationship with me as well as letting me talk to you about Matchmakers, Inc.”

“I understand. Let’s put my question behind us. Shall we order lunch and then discuss the details of our arrangement?”

She nodded, but there was a tightness to her features that told him he wasn’t forgiven. And he couldn’t blame her. He’d worded his idea in the worst possible way.

And he’d forgotten something extremely important: She’d slept with him last night and undoubtedly felt a little vulnerable as far as he was concerned this morning.

They both ordered and once they were alone again, Nichole pulled a notebook from her purse and a fountain pen. “I would like to get a couple of interviews scheduled.”

“I understand. I think for both our sakes, maybe we should draw up an agreement between the two of us.”

“Like what?”

“Just what I expect from you and what you expect from me,” he said.

She wrote their names next to each other on a blank page in her notebook then drew a line down the middle. Under her name she wrote the word mistress and under his interviews.

“That’s just the start,” she said. “We agreed last night that you would do an interview about the matchmaking service and that you would allow me to observe you with your family.”

“Yes, we did,” he said.

She added those to the column under his name.

“Mistress is a vague term,” he said. “But I’d like you to live with me in my apartment for the duration of our time together.”

“I don’t know about that. Will you allow me to check with my boss this afternoon?” she asked. “I’m going to say simply that I’ve interviewed you and we are dating. Let him know about the relationship and make sure that he’s cool with it.”

“Shouldn’t you have already checked?” he asked. It sounded like there were details she hadn’t covered and that didn’t seem like Nichole.

“I have to check it out. There are other reporters who have written about their significant others, but I just want to let my editor know we are dating. If we hadn’t been seen out in public together we might have a chance at remaining under the radar, but I’d rather not take any additional chances.”

“Agreed,” he said. “Barring any problems with that, I think you should move into my apartment this evening.”

“Isn’t that quick?” she asked.

“It’s a little late to think of that now. You’re mine, red, and I want you under my roof.”

She shivered with sensual excitement at the way he claimed her. Her mind tried to warn her not to let it go to her head, though. She had to focus on the interview. That should help her keep cool as far as he was concerned. Not so easily agitated by everything he said and did.

“Sounds good. Do you have time to meet with me tomorrow for the interview?” she asked.

He pulled out his iPhone and after a few minutes said, “I can give you thirty minutes tomorrow.”

“That’s not enough time, but it will do for a start. When?” she asked.

“Ten-thirty,” he said.

She jotted that under the column for his name.

“I’d like to do one interview at the Matchmakers, Inc. offices,” she said. “Do you keep an office there?”

“I don’t. I’m not all that involved with the everyday operations of the company.”

“Do you ever go down there?”

“Occasionally, for board meetings. We can use the boardroom at Macafee International if you don’t feel like using my office,” he said. “Are you afraid of a repeat of what happened last time?”

She was. But then they could be riding together in a cab and she’d want him. What was the hold he had over her? If past experience had taught her anything, once she’d slept with a man usually the lust started to wane, but the opposite was true with Conner.

She seemed to want him more. Even now, sitting across from him and writing down details of their indecent agreement, she was thinking about the way his hands had caressed her body last night and the way his mouth felt against hers when he kissed her.

“Not unless you are,” she said, leaning forward and taking his hand in hers.

“Hell, I’m not afraid it will happen—I’m counting on it,” he said.

She almost smiled, but Conner was too self-confident to begin with. She didn’t need to react to everything he said and let him know that she was under his spell.

Damn. She hadn’t thought about it that way before, but that was the truth. She was truly under his spell. No other man had made her feel this way. Which was why she’d been a serial dater with her little boy toys.

But now, as she sat across from Conner and stared into his blue eyes, she realized that she wanted so much more from him. She wanted something that felt scary. Something she’d never tried before.

She wanted something permanent and solid. And she knew that she had no idea how to make that work. It was a good thing she was writing down the details of this arrangement because maybe seeing those stark facts would help her remember that Conner was just a story and she was his mistress, not his girlfriend. He had been very clear on what he wanted from her and that was sex—not forever.

Forever had never been that important to her because, after her childhood, she’d always believed that it would be smart for her to live alone. But there was something about Conner that made her rethink that. Or maybe it was all the stories she’d been doing on matchmaking. She was forgetting the realistic woman she’d always been and dreaming of things she wasn’t sure she wanted.

Conner had booked the lunch right before another meeting so he wouldn’t be tempted to linger too long with Nichole. When his iPhone beeped to remind him it was time to go, he signaled for the check.

“Text me as soon as you find out from your boss if you can move in with me. From my side that is one of my must-haves.”

“You made that clear. I’ll let you know as soon as I can,” she said.

“I have a meeting in fifteen minutes,” Conner said as he handed his credit card to the waiter. “I’m sorry we didn’t get to finish talking over the details, but I feel as if we got the main things out and on the table.”

“I do, too,” she said.

“Great. I’ll be looking forward to hearing from you about tonight.”

“Not a problem,” she said, closing the notebook and putting it in her purse.

Conner signed the check, then stood up and followed Nichole from the dining room. He was very aware that most of the men in the room watched her as she walked. She was one of those women who drew men’s gazes. Conner felt a spark of jealousy and reached out to grab her hand. She glanced up at him.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to make sure that every man in the room knows you’re with me,” he said.

“I guess I should be glad you didn’t pull me into your arms and kiss me,” she said.

“I thought about it. But one kiss is never enough with you and me,” he said.

She shook her head. “You’re very arrogant, you know that, right?”

“I’m not being arrogant,” he said. “I’m being possessive. You’re mine by our agreement.”

“I know,” she said.

As soon as they exited the restaurant, he did drop a light kiss on her lips, but then quickly stepped away.

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist,” she said.

He arched one eyebrow at her.

“Me. I have a power over you,” she said.

“You do? We can talk about this power tonight,” he said.

“Yes, we can,” she agreed. “I have a lot of things I want to talk to you about.”

“I’ll bet you do,” he said.

The elevator arrived and they both got in and rode it to the ground floor. Once they stepped outside the lobby, Conner saw his car waiting. “Do you want me to have Randall take you back to your office after he drops me at my meeting?”

“No, thanks. I’ll take a cab,” she said.

He couldn’t resist kissing her again and for that very reason almost didn’t do it, but he was in control of this arrangement and his own body. So he kissed her to prove to himself that he could stop if he wanted to.

“Until tonight.”

He got in the back of the waiting Rolls Royce Phantom and glanced back only once as Randall drove away. He saw Nichole standing there with her hand on her mouth watching his car. Then she shook her head and turned and started walking in the opposite direction.

His cell phone rang and he glanced at the caller ID. It was his mom. Probably the last person he should be talking to right now when he was feeling … not any particular thing, just feeling emotions. For so long he’d pretended that he was aloof and didn’t feel the same way other people did.

Often he felt superior by his ability to keep his emotions out of his daily life. But he knew now that it was only the fact that he’d never met a woman like Nichole before. She tempted him in ways that had nothing to do with sex.

He answered the call. “Hi, Mom.”

“Are you busy, Conner?” she asked.

Even though he’d told her he wouldn’t answer if he couldn’t talk, she always asked him that. “No. What’s up?”

“I’m having a charity open house in Bridgehampton this weekend and I want you to come.”

“What day?”

“Saturday, but I was thinking you could come down Friday night and stay until Sunday and you can bring that reporter you had dinner with at your sister’s house the other night.”

“How do you know about that?”

“Janey. She doesn’t mind talking to me every day.”

He was annoyed with his sister for telling their mom about Nichole. “Did she mention she’s dating Palmer?”

“Is she? No, she didn’t. I guess I’ll include him in my weekend invitation, too. Oh, this will be so nice. Both of you home and with—”

“Mom, I will come to the event on Saturday but I can’t make it for the entire weekend.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, is there anything else?”

“Jane said you and Nichole Reynolds really hit it off. Did you?”

“Yes, we did. But it’s not serious,” he said.

“It never is with you,” she said with a forlorn sigh. “I would like grandkids one day.”

“Janey can give them to you, too,” Conner said.

“I think she’s waiting for a sign from you that life is okay,” his mom said.

That couldn’t be true. “I don’t see why. She’s better at making a home than I ever was.”

“You both have created what you felt was missing when everything happened with your father. You created financial security for all of us and Janey the perfect house. But it’s not enough, and I don’t know what to do to show you both that.”

Conner didn’t like hearing what his mom had to say. He knew that he put money first and had made interpersonal relationships a distant second. He hadn’t gotten to be thirty-five by not knowing what made him tick, but it hurt to hear his mom sum it up that way.

“I’ll be there on Saturday,” he said. “And I will be bringing Nichole Reynolds. I’ve got to go now, Mom. Love you.”

He hung up before she could say anything more. After the lunch with Nichole, the last thing he needed was an emotional discussion with his mom. He wasn’t sure how it had happened, but his tidy little life had suddenly been thrown upside down. Actually, he did know how it had happened and exactly who was to blame—Nichole Reynolds.

Nichole had taken the subway back to her office, hoping that by being around other people she’d be less likely to get stuck in her own head. But it didn’t work. She was still unsure of what she’d agreed to with Conner and the more time she spent thinking about it, the worse that knot of tension in her stomach became.

She had had a number of uncomfortable conversations with people over the years. She had gotten to be such a good reporter by asking tough questions, but she’d never had to discuss her personal life with her boss before and she knew she was going to have to do that today.

She had the distinct feeling that her own knowledge of what she’d agreed to with Conner was coloring her feelings on the issue, but she couldn’t help that.

She took the stairs up to her floor instead of the elevator, no doubt to put off the inevitable. But as luck would have it, her boss was in his office when she stopped by to see him.

“Do you have a minute?” she asked.

“I’ve got a few. What do you need?” he asked.

She stepped into his office and closed the door behind her. Ross Kleeman had started as reporter a long time ago and he’d managed to keep America Today vibrant and profitable. Many newspapers hadn’t made the transition to the web-based editions as skillfully as America Today, thanks in large part to Ross.

“Well, two things. The first is that I got an interview with Conner Macafee. I see this as a two-part story. The first will focus on his matchmaking company, featured in the new Sexy & Single television show. And the second will be a color piece on how the scandal with his father influenced his business and personal choices.”

“Wow. How’d you get him to agree to that? And what do you mean by color piece?” Ross asked.

“How I got him to agree kind of ties into the second thing I wanted to tell you—Conner and I are dating. Is that going to be a problem?”

Ross leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “We can disclose your relationship when we print the articles. That should take care of any ethics issues. So he agreed to let you write about that because you’re dating?”

Nichole nodded. “For the second piece, I’m going to rely on my own observations, since he won’t talk to me about the scandal with his father. But I can see how it has influenced the choices that Conner has made. To some extent I can see that in his sister, too.”

“Interesting. Depending on the type of story you end up writing, we might be able to run it in the Weekend Magazine edition.”

“Okay. I don’t intend it to be an exposé. It’ll be a longer version of my usual column,” she said.

“See what you come up with. And think feature piece instead of column when you’re writing,” Ross said. “Was that all?”

“Yes,” she said, heading out of his office.

She walked back to her cubicle and stowed her purse in her desk while turning on her computer. She got out her cell phone to text Conner.

No problems with my boss. I can move in tonight.

A few minutes passed before she got a reply.

Good. I have a 5 pm meeting so I can’t meet you until 8. Will call when I’m done here.

OK

Do you have to get the last word in all the time?

Yes. ☺

OK

TTYL

You win.

Good.

There was no other response from Conner and Nichole smiled to herself. That was the part that always surprised her about him. He was fun. He shouldn’t be because he was arrogant and too used to getting his own way. But he made her smile a lot of the time.

Part of her was worried about how she was going to be able to manage to live with him and not fall in love with him. It was bad enough that they had this bargain. She wished she could keep her emotions out of it.

She wondered what other men’s mistresses did. When she was in college, she’d done an article on a study that was conducted at NYU on brain chemistry and sex, and she knew that no matter how sophisticated society was, at its most basic level everyone was still programmed to find a mate and procreate.

If she tried, maybe she could use science to protect herself, but she doubted it. Conner just didn’t fit in the nice little mold she’d always used to make sure that she didn’t fall in love with anyone.

What she needed to do was somehow figure out how to make every time they were together about the articles she was writing instead of their attraction.

But she knew it would be next to impossible because she wanted him.

It hadn’t taken much prodding on her part to get him to kiss her after lunch. She’d needed it. She needed to know that she wasn’t the only one who was helpless in this infatuation. Conner seemed so much in control—both of himself and the world around him. Something she’d always assumed she was, but he put those beliefs to shame.

Her career had only been so super-important to her because the men she’d dated in the past had been boys. She hadn’t realized that the fun she was having had been designed to shield her commitment until this moment.

She put her head in her hands and stared at her desktop. In her mind’s eye she saw the list she’d written at lunch with Conner and she knew that she’d left one very important thing out of her column.

Don’t fall for Conner.

He’d told her he didn’t want to hurt her, and he’d been honest from the beginning, so she knew if she did get hurt she’d have no one to blame but herself. But that still didn’t help her figure out how she was going to get her story, be his mistress and not fall in love with him.