Sarah Mayberry - Her Favourite Rival

Not that she hadn’t given some consideration to the more intimate aspects of his body over the past week, most notably when she’d been drifting back to sleep at four o’clock Sunday morning, picturing Zach doing the same thing on the other side of town. She was only human, and he was the sexiest man she’d ever spent so much time with.

Hands down.

All he had to do was walk into the room these days and she could feel her body warming. She didn’t even want to imagine what he could do if he put his mind to it.

Okay, she did. But she wasn’t going to, because she loved her job, and she wanted to get ahead, and sleeping with Zach was the best way she could think of to destroy both those things.

She would dearly love to discuss all of the above with Megan, however, because that was what they did best. It would be so good to get her friend’s perspective. But Megan would make a big deal out it, along with encouraging all sorts of reckless fantasies and behavior, and Audrey so did not need that kind of encouragement right now.

It was bad enough dealing with her own inappropriate thoughts and feelings.

Megan sighed heavily. “I knew it. You’re wasting this golden opportunity by squabbling with him, aren’t you?”

“No.”

Not since the night he’d forced her to see him as he really was. Nope, since then they’d been getting on just fine. Chatting in the staff room. Popping into each other’s offices to pass on new pieces of information they’d dug up. Emailing each other in the dead of night and having inappropriate, unprofessional conversations.

“Why are you smiling like that?”

Audrey adopted a more serious expression. “Is that better?”

“You’d tell me, wouldn’t you, if you and Zach were doing the dirty?” Megan asked beseechingly.

Audrey suspected her friend was only half kidding.

“You’ll be the first to know. Outside of Zach, of course.”

“Cross your heart and hope to die?”

“Stick a needle in my eye,” Audrey promised.

It wasn’t as though it was ever going to be an issue, after all. She might be sexually frustrated, but she wasn’t an idiot.

“Okay, fine.” Megan pointed to the half a sandwich still left on Audrey’s plate. “Are you going to eat that?”

“It’s all yours.”

“Thank you. That sub barely touched the sides. I think I’m having a growth spurt.”

Audrey managed to change the subject then, but Megan’s words popped into her mind as she hit the mall afterward to shop for a present for her sister.

The truth was, she was finding it incredibly difficult to believe that she had ever not liked Zach. He was funny. He was cheeky. He said amazingly clever things that made her brain hurt trying to keep up. And he was also one hundred percent male.

Hot, firm, hard male.

Yesterday, they’d shared a pizza and worked into the night as they pasted their separate sections of the analysis into one coherent report and massaged it into shape. At some point he’d loosened his tie and she’d kicked off her shoes. She’d been tired after days of doing her normal job as well as working every spare minute on the project, but Zach had made it fun.

Be honest. He made it more than fun.

Okay, he’d made it exciting. Sitting in the same room with him when the rest of the building was dark and silent had created a special sort of intimacy. They’d laughed and told jokes in between bouts of intense productivity. And they were doing it all over again tonight.

There was no denying the frisson of excitement that fizzed through her belly at the thought. There was also no denying that she’d dressed with particular care this morning, choosing a black pencil skirt and fitted latte-colored silk blouse that made her feel like a heroine in a forties movie. And yes, she’d even spritzed on perfume, something she didn’t usually bother with for the office.

“He’s your coworker,” she murmured to herself, in case that rather important fact had slipped her mind.

“Excuse me, ma’am? Can I help you?”

Audrey lifted her gaze from the scarf display she’d been eyeing and realized that the sales assistant had overheard her talking to herself. Such a good look.

“I’m just browsing, thanks,” she said with a sheepish smile.

“For yourself or are you looking for a gift?” the young woman asked.

“It’s a gift, for my sister. Her thirtieth, actually.”

“Something special, then? Were you thinking a scarf? We have some lovely French silk scarves....”

Audrey blinked at the display. She had no idea, really, why she’d stopped in front of it.

“I was thinking maybe a watch, actually. Or a piece of jewelry.”

“Lovely. Jeannie is over in the watch department. She’ll be sure to help you out,” the saleswoman said, already drifting away to serve another customer.

Audrey made her way to the shiny glass display cabinets in the jewelry department, finally locating the watches. She did a slow circuit of the cabinets, running her eye over the range, hoping something would jump out at her as being perfect for Leah.

Her gaze moved from watch to watch, doubt and indecision gnawing at her. Despite the fact that there were only four years separating them, she and Leah had never really been close. She had no idea whether her sister would be all over a watch loaded with shiny bling, or if she would prefer a more conservative, traditional model.

Funny, because she could still remember how excited she’d been when she’d learned her parents would be bringing home a little sister for her from the hospital. She’d mistakenly believed that it would be her and Leah against the world.

She did a slower circuit, this time stopping when she saw a small-faced gold watch with a leather band and distinctive art deco styling. She thought it was beautiful, but there was no telling whether Leah would. For a moment Audrey was filled with a piercing, ineffable sadness that she knew so little about her own sister’s likes and dislikes.

“Excuse me. Could I take a closer look at this one, please?” Audrey called out to the saleswoman.

“Of course, let me grab my key.”

Half a minute later, Audrey was wrapping the thin leather band around her wrist. It really was gorgeous. Maybe she should take a punt on it, go with her gut and hope for the best. She flipped the dangling price tag over and blinked in shock when she saw the price.

Twelve hundred dollars.

Whoa.

She did a mental check of her savings account, but she already knew the watch was beyond her budget.

“So, what do you think?” the saleswoman asked.

“It’s lovely, but I might look around a little more before I make my final decision,” Audrey said.

She smiled politely and handed the watch back before resuming her slow cruise of the display. Nothing else caught her eye, and after five minutes she left the store and headed for her car. Her thoughts kept returning to the watch as she drove back to Makers, however. If she extended the limit on her credit card, she could swing it, barely. It would take a bite out of her savings and make life a little less fun for a few months, but she could do it.

It was her little sister’s thirtieth, after all. She wanted to mark the occasion.

What you really mean is that you want to try to buy your way into her favor.

It was a sobering realization, so profound that she didn’t notice the traffic light change and had to be honked to awareness by the driver behind her.

Amazing, the way the past could keep coming back to bite her on the ass, even when she was sure that she’d dealt with it and reconciled herself and gotten on with things. Because she’d thought she was done with trying to make amends, in the same way that she’d thought she was beyond feeling hurt by her outsider status in her own family.