Katherine Garbera - Secrets Of The Night - A Case of Kiss and Tell

“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.