After all, he was a good-looking man. Very good-looking. And she had a history with him. Like she had told Sabrina, she had suffered a painful crush.
But she couldn’t allow herself to get confused. He was a business associate and that was all, one whom she did not even like. So why did a part of her wish that perhaps they were truly lovers? Why did a part of her wish that all their kissing and cuddling could lead to something else?
She would simply block it from her mind. She closed her eyes.
But she couldn’t stop thinking about Rick. She remembered overhearing a conversation about him in the ladies’ room a while ago. A woman in a neighboring stall had apparently known someone whom Rick had dated. Not realizing that Lessa was in the bathroom as well, the woman had said to her friend, “She said Rick told her on their first date that he didn’t want any commitment.”
“So what happened?” the other woman had asked.
“She slept with him anyway,” the woman had said.
“Did he call her after that?”
“Nope. She was disappointed, of course. You know how it is. We all want to believe we’re ‘the one.’ But she said it was worth it. She said he’s great in bed.”
“Great in bed?”
“Between you and me,” the woman said, “I made a pass at him right after that.”
“And?”
“He said no. He was very nice about it, but he said we work together. You know, he didn’t want an office affair.”
Lessa turned up the air conditioner, as if a blast of cold air might cool her off. She had to stop thinking like this. Maybe if she had more of a social life, maybe if she
Unfortunately, it had been years since she’d been intimate with a man. And her last date had been months earlier, when her aunt had fixed her up with a friend’s grandson. On paper he had sounded great, an engineer and part-time pro at a tennis club in the city. But it had been a disaster, right down to the three gold chains around his neck and the way he’d referred to every woman they’d encountered-the waitress, the hostess, the old lady whose cab he’d tried to steal-as “doll.” The icing on the cake had been when he’d told her that for a businesswoman she had a “nice rack.” And he should know, he’d added, because he’d “known”-big wink-a lot of businesswomen.
She knew her aunt blamed her long hours for her lack of a social life, but Lessa knew the problem was more complicated than that. After all, what twenty-six-year-old woman these days had only slept with one man? One sexual affair to her credit and that had ended five years ago. Since then, she hadn’t dated anyone longer than a week or two. And it wasn’t just her love life that was suffering. Her entire social life was lacking. She had tried to make friends since she had come to New York to work for Lawrence, but it was difficult. Everyone she met was connected with Lawrence. Men were intimidated by her position and women tended to avoid her like the plague. One time she had invited a potential friend out for coffee only to find that the woman had not slept the night before, so worried was she that Lessa’s invitation had been a ruse to fire her.
The truth of the matter was that Lessa didn’t fit in with people her own age any more than she fit in with her fellow board members. Patience, her aunt had told her. It will all change with time.
But how could it when she spent all of her time at work? There was no way around it: She was lonely. It had gotten so bad that lately she had begun to wonder if perhaps she was destined for a life without love.
“It’s freezing in here.”
At the sound of Rick’s voice, she turned. The sight of him, standing in the doorway with a mere towel around his waist, was enough to take her breath away. “You couldn’t get dressed?” she asked, quickly averting her eyes.
“Not without my clothes.”
She hurried past him and into the bathroom. He had left the shower running for her. She hurriedly took off her suit and stepped into the warm water. Only then did she realize that her clothes were still in the other room. She had been so flustered when Rick had come out in a towel that she had neglected to get her things. Now she had no choice but to do the same thing she had faulted Rick for-parade through the room in a towel. She finished her shower and grabbed the sole remaining towel, drying off and wrapping it tightly around her. Sabrina’s decor might be nice but her towels left a lot to be desired. Thin and small, it barely covered Lessa’s backside.
She opened the door and took a deep breath. What was the big deal? Rick had seen her in a bathing suit, and the towel covered more than that did. She glanced at her clothes on the chair and quickly calculated the amount of time she would be half-naked in front of Rick. To walk over and grab them, twenty seconds max. The key was to act as if she weren’t embarrassed. To appear cool and in control.
Rick glanced up when the door opened. And there she was, wrapped only in a towel. For a split second he thought that perhaps she had come out to seduce him. But when she didn’t look at him, when she walked right past him, he realized what had happened. She, like him, had forgotten her clothes. But if nothing else, he was a gentleman. He pulled a contract out of his briefcase and perused it, trying not to notice the way the towel slid open, revealing her leg. The way her plump white breasts peeked out of the top.
She hurried back inside the bathroom and when she came out again, she was dressed in her suit skirt and sleeveless blouse, holding her jacket in her hand.
She tossed her jacket on the bed and checked her watch. “Should we go?” Without waiting for him to answer, she walked outside.
“Lessa, wait,” he said, tossing down the contract and following. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“We’re lovers, remember?” he said, sliding his arm around her waist. But the unhappiness in her eyes was almost enough to cool his desire. “It’s almost over with,” he said, as much to her as to himself. “As soon as she signs the papers we can go back to business as usual.”
They walked down a winding path, following the signs to the restaurant. Although the sun had nearly set, it was still hot and muggy. They wove their way around thick patches of bougainvillea and tropical ferns, lit with multicolored spotlights. The restaurant was situated on a hill overlooking the sea. Completely open to the outside, it was lit only by candles, their flames flickering in the warm breeze. Rick gave the hostess their names and they were promptly led to a small, intimate table in the corner.
“I don’t see her,” Lessa said.
“I don’t either,” Rick said, taking the seat next to her. “But that doesn’t mean she’s not watching us.”
“What should we do?”
“Let’s just talk like two people who are interested in what the other has to say.”
She glanced nervously at the door. She looked so uncomfortable he felt almost sorry for her. What had happened to the cool and collected woman from the office? The one who had fired him and then just as quickly negotiated his return?
“Where are you from?” she asked.
“I grew up outside the city. In fact, my parents still live in the same house.”
“Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“I have a sister and a brother.”
“Do you see them often?”
“Fairly.”
This was painful. She was looking everywhere but at him. “So, Lessa,” he said, touching her hand to get her attention, “what are your plans for Christmas?”
“My Gran and I are going to have a quiet dinner. Just the two of us.”
“Your grandmother?”
“No. She’s my great-aunt. My only family. She fell down a year ago and hurt her hip, so I moved her in with me. She’s better now but I like having her around.”
She lived with her aunt? The image of Alessandra as a sweet and caring niece did not jive with the cold, self- reliant woman he knew from the office. “That’s nice of you to take care of her.”
“It’s the least I could do. After all, she took me in after my dad died. She’d never had any children and she took
