I turned and buried my face in the pillow when I remembered how he’d almost begged me to come home with him. His hands on my body, the way he crushed his lips against mine—it was like he was trying to cage me. My body reacted, but not to the point of losing control. I couldn’t figure out what was holding me back. Link was perfect: great job, smart, handsome, and patient. So why wouldn’t I give him what he wanted? I didn’t have an answer.
I’d ended up back where I’d begun my evening, worrying myself to pieces while lying in Veronica’s bed. A set of keys jangled in the lock, and the click clack of Veronica’s heels met my ears.
“You back already?” I rolled over and looked down the hallway.
“Yeah, I wasn’t feeling the scene tonight. Too many hipsters are invading further uptown. Skinny jeans everywhere, and not on the women.” She made a gagging noise and flopped on the bed next to me. “How did Link handle the Amazon news?”
“Pretty well. He wasn’t thrilled, but he eventually said he understood.”
“That doesn’t sound so great.” After unzipping her boots she tossed them to the foot of the bed.
“It wasn’t at first, but by the end of the night, he was asking me to go home with him.”
“But you didn’t.” She threaded her bra out from beneath her dress.
“No.”
“Hmm.” She settled in next to me.
“What?”
“I don’t know. I just think maybe you and Link will benefit from being separated over Christmas.”
“How so?”
“I assume you aren’t going to have very much phone access, if any. You’ll be completely cut off from each other. If, when you get back, you still can’t take the plunge.” She turned to look at me. “I think that means that he’s not the one. On the other hand, if you run back into his arms the moment you step off the plane, then you’ll know he’s it.”
“Based on your scientific analysis, if I have sex with him the day I get back from the expedition, he’s my one true love, huh?”
“Yes. Scientific. I’ll tell you another fact, too. If Sebastian the boss had asked me to bend over and show him my Brazilian, I would have done it in a heartbeat.”
Sebastian had been flitting around the edges of my mind all night while I was at dinner with Link. When Veronica had made a pass at him, an unusual sense of jealousy had trickled through me. And, if I were being honest, I was relieved when he’d turned her down for the evening.
“He seems sort of private.” I shrugged. “I only met him last weekend at the Lindstrom Gala. He was nice there, but reserved for the most part. We danced.”
“There’s something about him. I can’t put my finger on it, but I can assure you he’s the worst sort of trouble.” She stretched her arms over her head and closed her eyes. “The kind I like.”
“Link doesn’t care for him.”
“Of course he doesn’t. Sebastian stared at you every chance he got. I only hit on him to take some of the heat off Link. I could feel the testosterone churning between them.”
“That’s ridiculous.” I almost put my thumbnail between my teeth, but stopped at the last second.
“No, it’s not. They were both keyed in to you. I can sense these things. For one, even when I was up against Sebastian’s rock hard body, his cock didn’t seem even a little bit interested. Odd. For two, he got sort of—I don’t know—twitchy when Link was getting handsy with you.”
“Maybe he’s anti-PDA.”
“Or maybe he wants to be the one feeling you up.”
“I think your imagination is getting out of hand. This was only the second time I’ve ever seen the man.” Despite my words, I heard the ring of truth in what Veronica was saying. I’d felt it, too.
“It doesn’t take a week-long interview to get the hots for someone.” She turned over and sighed, her familiar whiskey-breath oddly comforting.
“You’re about to fall asleep in your makeup.”
“That’s okay. I got this ridiculously expensive crap from Nordstrom’s that I’ll put on in the morning. Make me look five years younger in fifteen minutes. Best part was that I used Dad’s credit card.”
Veronica and her father had a rough relationship, given that he’d left her and her mother to run off with his secretary when Veronica was eleven. Once the secretary had left for a younger man, Veronica’s father showed back up, wanting to be in her life. Veronica agreed, but exacted monetary vengeance whenever she saw fit.
“Does he know about that purchase?”
She smiled, eyes still closed. “He won’t get the credit card bill till the fifteenth.”
“You’re a piece of work.”
“Thanks.”
I snorted. “I don’t know if I was complimenting you or not.”
“Thanks anyway, bitch.”
She could always make me smile.
A slight snore stuck in her throat as she fell asleep. I rose and washed my face, then threw on my sleep shirt before crawling back into bed.