“Okay, line one,” Laura said and returned to her desk.
The meeting continued though Suzie did not hear a word of it. She knew the brother was Jeff, so what? She was not going to live her life frightened of what might happen, she knew that much. It was ridiculous to worry about what everyone else was doing. Suzie doodled on her paper to make it look like she was taking notes. She was giving herself another little pep talk again. It still bothered her that she hadn’t told Jared what happened with Jeff. What bothered her more is she knew she would never tell him and would downplay it if he ever found out. It was just a little lie. If Jeff told him he had kissed her, she would admit that she had not initiated it and she had ended it. Innocent accident was all it was. Then Jeff kissed her again, in her mind and she saw his painting.
“Thank you Suzie for volunteering to be the chair of the committee. I will send over all the relevant files later today.” The grouchy financial manager was actually smiling. The downside was, Suzie had volunteered to take on an additional project and she was already swamped.
Suzie felt exhausted and could not wait for the day to be over. It was going to be a shower and bed kind of day and she almost wanted to walk, except her stuff was in Jared’s car. Finally the day was over and Jared came to the makeshift door in her cubicle, ready to go.
“Want to get something to eat before I bring you home?” Jared asked.
“No, I am too tired. I just want to go home and go shower and go lie down,” Suzie said.
“Okay sweetie no problem, I will get you home. I have a few things to do anyway,” Jared said. “Jeff is coming a bit early and he needed to talk to me.”
Forcing every inch of her body to not flinch, she followed him out, got home, showered and immediately went to bed. She slept dreamlessly.
A loud knocking woke her up suddenly. It was dark and she did not know what time it was. Stumbling to the door while rubbing her eyes, she peeked out to see Jared standing at her door with flowers, pizza and beer. Her stomach growled. She had not remembered to eat lunch. Quickly, she opened the door. Jared came in with a flurry handing her the flowers and juggling the pizza and beer. Suzie watched Jared set up the table while she put the flowers in water and set them on the table.
Jared was sitting and serving them pizza and beer. She kissed his head and sat down next to him. He always knew just what she needed. She was famished.
“I thought you were busy tonight. What time is it anyway?” Suzie asked between bites.
Ignoring the second question, Jared covered her hand with his. “I am never too busy for you. Besides I was hungry and I figured you hadn’t eaten yet either. You looked so tired when I dropped you off I knew you would go right to sleep.”
Suzie squeezed his hand and drank for a long moment from her beer bottle. Watching Jared swoop in and take care of her, bringing over supper and flowers, she knew how lucky she was. Everyone wanted a man like him and she was not about to lose him over a small lie. Finishing her bottle of beer and getting herself and Jared another one, Suzie steeled her determination to get back in the groove with Jared and forget Jeff altogether. Who cared if he was going to be in town. She would be with Jared anytime she saw him; there would be no reason for them to be alone together.
“Thank you,” she said, looking Jared in the eyes. “This is exactly what I needed.”
Jared stared back at her before moving her hand to his lips. “The beer might have been a bit much since we have an early day tomorrow and I have to get some work done tonight, but pizza without beer just doesn’t fit. Besides, we need to ease back into the work week.”
When they finished, they cleaned up together, until Jared grabbed her to him. Spinning her in the kitchen, he stopped when her face faced his.
“The only problem with working with you is I have to look at you all day and not touch you,” Jared said and then he kissed her. Bringing his hands to her face and then hair, he pulled her to him for a deeper kiss. Then, he gently guided her towards the living room where they sat on the couch. “You rocked that meeting I knew you would. In fact, afterwards in the managers meeting everyone said that they no longer had misgivings about the position and…”
“Wait. No work stuff,” Suzie interrupted him and put her finger on his lips. “I do not want to know what happened at the managers meeting. We should not even talk about work when we are together. Isn’t it a violation of our work agreement?”
Jared laughed. “Okay, miss policy. No work talk.” And he tickled her. And it tickled. Suzie shrieked with laughter begging him to stop but he kept going until she grabbed him by the belt buckle and pulled him into her. She kissed him sucking his tongue and changing his focus.
“Stay here tonight,” she whispered.
“Oh,” Jared started, mentally arguing with himself.
“Don’t say no to me. I need you to myself tonight. I need to fall asleep in your arms like I did last night.” Suzie felt like if she let him go, she would never see him again. Slightly hysterical she wanted to shout at him to stay with her, let his brother stay by himself at Jared’s house and far away from the
m.
“You know I can’t say no to you,” he said and kissed her nose. “Means I will be busy tomorrow but I finally have you to myself.”
Suzie ran her hands through his hair and kissed him again. Slowly she led him to the bedroom where she undressed in front of him. He took his clothes off and joined her in bed. Sliding between the sheets, their skin was prickly from the cold. Jared gently rubbed her body with his hands, warming her up. She pressed her lips to his chest and nibbled on his shoulders. Suzie rolled on top of Jared as she warmed up. She leaned over him, holding him tight and smelling his clean aroma. Reaching between his legs she grabbed him and thrust herself upon him. Urgently possessing him she moved with increasing speed, building up rhythm as she grasped his hair. Moaning into his ear and then kissing him full on the mouth, she let the waves of passion wash away all the tension and leave her completely satisfied.
Jared looked at her with wide eyes. “Wow.”
Snuggling up against him with contentment Suzie sighed, “I needed that.”
Neither of them expected to fall asleep that way, both had left their phones/alarms in the other room and eight hours later they awoke to simultaneous ringing from multiple devices. Sticky and tangled, they removed their arms from each other. The beeping, buzzing and ringing continued. Jared got up and got dressed while Suzie immediately sauntered into the living room to silence the offending racket. She looked at the clock and shrieked. They were both very late. A quick kiss and Jared took off. Suzie sent a quick message to her manager that she was running late and would be there soon. Not arriving late with Jared would be essential. They did not need the attention.
Arriving breathless to work, Suzie plunked down at her desk and opened her inbox. Laura walked over and handed her a cup of coffee.
“Trouble this morning?” she asked.