They were both breathless when Jacquie stepped back. Pierce reached out to touch her lips, probably because her lipstick was smeared a bit. Her heart was thundering and she felt alive all over again. He ran his thumb over her cheek as if he couldn’t get enough of her.
“Tonight,” he whispered.
“Tonight but I have to get back to work now.” She paused in front of him, savoring the moment. “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome. Thanks for another second chance.”
She left the studio with the box and the gloves, well aware of his gaze as he watched her go.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Jacquie wondered how she’d get through the rest of the day. It was unexpected that Pierce understood her so well, but she knew she could get used to it.
How had he guessed that she wouldn’t be excited about chocolate or roses? These gloves, though, were perfect. She would never have bought them for herself, even though she’d been admiring gloves like them for ages. She just wouldn’t have done it—and having someone else buy them for her, without being told what she wanted, was the very definition of being pampered.
Jacquie could get used to Pierce and his gestures.
What she really liked was that he’d been nervous about her reaction. He was concerned that she like the gift, and hadn’t been able to hide it. Jacquie appreciated and understood that. It was no fun to receive the perfect gift from someone who was offhand about it.
Pierce had thought about it and made a deliberate choice.
And the hotel. Again, he’d played it perfectly. On Tuesday night, she might have taken him home, but after all that had happened, there was no way she’d feel comfortable doing that. On the other hand, she wasn’t at ease with the idea of going to his place, wherever it was. The hotel was the perfect solution, if an expensive one.
More indulgence. Jacquie was ready.
And he’d told her about it in advance. Maybe it was because he was a planner, too, but he’d guessed that jumping into spontaneity wouldn’t be as easy as she might like it to be. They were both planners and she loved knowing his scheme in advance.
It meant she could look forward to it. It wouldn’t be a shock or a surprise; she wouldn’t have to make an immediate decision. She had all day to savor the possibilities, even though she had no doubt what her answer would be.
Whisked away at midnight. Jacquie allowed herself to be thrilled, knowing that Pierce would make it happen.
It was nice to be able to rely on someone to arrange a tryst and manage all the details.
It was nice to be spoiled.
It was nice to have someone take care of her.
“Well?” Sonia asked when Jacquie stepped into the office. The other woman’s expectant manner proved that she’d known something.
“You knew!”
“Pierce asked me to send you down to the studio for a surprise.”
“Silver fox on the move,” Meesha said with approval. “What’d you get?”
Jacquie lifted out the gloves, still unable to believe they were hers.
Sonia and Meesha made all the right admiring sounds, and Meesha even threatened to steal them.
“They’re not pink,” Jacquie said. “I think they’re safe with me.”
“Does he want you to kick his butt?” Meesha asked, her tone teasing.
“I think he wanted to apologize, and it worked,” Jacquie said firmly. “Now, did we work out who was covering the evening Aquafit class, since you’ve insisted that all the staff come to the party?”
Was one night going to be enough with a man who understood her so well?
There was only one way to find out.
“It’s not right,” Katia complained, throwing herself into Sonia’s favorite reading chair. “You shouldn’t be allowed to do things like that.” She lit a cigarette, blowing the smoke into the air as if she was a dragon, and glared at Sonia’s new tattoo.
“It’s one of a kind,” Sonia told her infuriating twin. “Chynna won’t duplicate it for you.”
“How do you know? I might convince her.”
“I made her promise. She’s one of those people who keeps her promises.”
Katia muttered something under her breath, then took another long drag. “But now we don’t match. Where’s the fun in that?”
“Maybe that’s the point,” Sonia said, not bothering to hide her frustration. “Maybe I’m tired of your stupid games.”
“You used to think it was fun to switch places.”
“When I was six.” Sonia folded the sweater that she’d worn to work, trying to manage her annoyance with her twin sister. She’d gotten home to find Katia in her apartment, smoking and making herself comfortable.
Sonia lived in a converted brownstone in Gramercy Park. It must once have been a beautiful single-family residence, but now was divided into eight small apartments, two on each floor. Hers was on the fourth floor—4B—and looked over the backyard, which was a long way down. Her landlady lived on the ground floor and kept a garden in the back.
“How did you get in here anyway?” she asked Katia, feeling as jangled as she usually did in her twin’s presence. Katia had a tendency to stop by to make trouble and whenever she turned up, Sonia braced herself for the other shoe to drop.
“I have a key, of course.”
“I never gave you one.”
“I know.” Katia sighed and stubbed out her cigarette in a saucer she’d obviously liberated from Sonia’s small galley kitchen. The matching teacup, one of Sonia’s favorites because it had been her grandmother’s, was left beside the sink. There were already three butts in the saucer and the apartment stank.
Sonia crossed the room to open a window, even though it was cold outside.
“That’s why I had to borrow your key and get it copied,” Katia explained. “It would have been a lot easier if you’d just done the sisterly thing and
