Inconsolable (Love Triumphs 2)

“I’m serious. My name is Sienna and I’ll buy.”

“She’s deadly serious. And she’s picky. Plus she puts out on the first date.”

Laughter, then, “Maddy! You’ll scare him off.”

He clipped the hedge. He could scare them off with one sentence, with one word. He knew women like this: confident, predatory, competitive, a lot tougher than they appeared. They looked like pictures from a magazine, slender and serene, but they’d worked to be that proud, they weren’t trembling flowers, they could be softly, persuasively aggressive.

They used to be his playtime, his fun hard after work hard, his distraction so he could focus again. He clipped the hedge and squinted at Sienna. It was tempting. It’d been a very long time and it might not take much. If she wanted an uncomplicated fuck there was nothing stopping him, unless there was a husband, a steady someone. He wasn’t getting in the middle of that.

Sienna brought him another glass of the sweet tea. Up close she was all bird bones, reminded him of tinier, sharper version of his Anna. He hadn’t thought about Anna in years. She’d likely have two point five kids with that banker now, the mansion house, the private schools, the skiing holidays in Vale, and yachting around the Greek Islands. And she deserved it.

He took the glass from the Anna pretender. “What do you drink?” He gulped the tea, taking an ice cube into his mouth as she eyed him over.

“Cocktails, darling.”

“Ah-huh. Do you really want to buy me a drink?” They still had an audience. Rapt.

“What would it take to get you to come out with me?”

“You don’t really want to go out, do you?”

She grinned. “Not really. I’d rather stay in.”

This was too easy. He could break this one between his teeth like the ice cube he’d just crunched. He hadn’t thought about sex since he’d walked away, thought that part of him was in deep hibernation until Foley arrived. Now his body was tuned back in. He could have Sienna and use her and forget about Foley, like Sienna was using him for whatever the fuck reason made her come on to him in her girlfriend’s backyard with an audience.

“How about we skip the prelims and go straight to the main event?” He couldn’t keep meeting Foley if he kept burning for her, this might help.

Sienna took

the glass out of his hand, then pressed it against his chest, running its wet, cool surface down his abdomen till it bumped the waistband of his shorts.

“I could do that.” Her eyes went from his attentive dick to his face. “Your place or mine?”

He laughed, stepping away from her hand. “Mine is a mess.”

“I don’t care. Yours would be better, easier.”

So there was a man, or it was her way of staying safe, having an exit plan. It was his as well. There was no way this woman, even if she’d invented the blowjob, could make him forget Foley.

“I’m homeless, honey. I live in a cave at the beach.”

Sienna’s mouth opened, her eyes bulged. He heard, “What?” and, “No,” from the deck.

Sienna laughed. “Hunky and hilarious.”

“No joke, babe.”

Her hand to his arm. “No, really?” She still thought he was joking.

From the deck, “Are you that man from the paper?” Homeowner clicked on and she was worried. A homeless guy was drinking her iced tea, cluttering up her designer backyard.

“Yup.”

“Actually, you know what, it’s too hot. You can leave the hedge for another day.”

The game was over, but for the final moments. “It’ll only take me a few minutes.”

“No, no, seriously,” flapping hands with those manicured fingers, leopard spot nails, “it’s too hot, really.”