At that Nate laughed so loud his sides hurt. “You’re a savvy operator, Saskia Bloom. In fact, why don’t you work for me?”
“I like being the boss.”
“Mmm, woman after my own heart.”
When he’d first come upon that picture of a girl in a hat with big, sultry eyes, he’d struggled to believe them the same species. Yet the more he got to know her the more alike it seemed they were. Stubborn, determined, captains of their own destiny. Equals in very many ways.
Then with a saucy little lift of her shoulder Saskia was up, heading for the door. “The sooner we face them, the sooner the mortification will be over and done with.”
“You’re one hell of a woman, Saskia Bloom,” said Nate as he took her hand.
“Don’t you forget it.”
FIVE
“You what?” Lissy yelled to be heard over the sound of The Cave’s house band who’d just started up a grunge version of “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.”
“I kissed him,” Saskia said, the words no easier to spit out second time around. Stupid, stupid, stupid, she sang inside her head along with the chorus.
“I thought you already had. By the cab. And at his office.”
“I kissed him again.”
“Where?”
“At his family home. In his childhood bedroom, with sailing ships and baseball mitts watching over us.”
“You hussy.”
“It’s worse. My hand was on his...you know...when his mum walked in on us.”
Lissy clutched her stomach and fell to the couch they had staked out at The Cave a couple of hours earlier.
“We barely spoke on the way home after,” Saskia said. “Then he walked me to the door, kissed me on the cheek and went on home.”
Between clutches at breath Lissy managed to get out, “You tell me I crave dysfunctional relationships—but, honey, you take the cake.”
“It’s not dysfunctional. We’re merely...renegotiating the terms of our mutually beneficial agreement.”
“Until one day I come to work and find a tie hanging on the door handle.”
“No,” Saskia said. Then, “I don’t think so anyway. We haven’t discussed it.”
“You haven’t discussed sex? Sweetie, I saw his photo. You don’t discuss sleeping with that. You just hold on tight and enjoy the ride.”
Saskia swallowed. Not that it helped. The lump in her throat at the thought of holding on to Nate Mackenzie, enjoying Nate Mackenzie, riding Nate Mackenzie was immovable. Much like the guy himself. From the second he’d come knocking on her email he’d loomed larger than life.
“It was right that we stopped,” Saskia said, straightening.
“Why on earth?” Lissy asked, eyes large with astonishment.
“It’s complicated.”
“It’s really not. You take your clothes off, kiss a bit, he puts his—”
“It’s temporary!” Saskia nearly shouted to stop Lissy from putting any more images in her head. Nate was naked in there now, as it was, his hot-as-a-furnace skin all glistening with sweat.
“The majority of love affairs are temporary, hon. But that doesn’t diminish the possibility the next one might become something more.”
“Nate’s not a possibility, Lis. He’s like the door of a bank safe—all big and hard and shiny and tempting, but impossible to get through.”
“Knock harder. There’s treasure behind that there door.”
“Maybe,” Saskia said, frowning.
“Oh, sweetie,” Lissy said, dragging herself upright to hold Saskia by both cheeks. “You should see the mope you have on right now. You like the guy. For real. He might be pretending, but you’re not.”
Saskia shook her head—hopelessly, as it turned out, because Lissy had caught the arm of a busboy and was flirting him into getting fresh drinks for them. Leaving Saskia to think it out on her own.
She liked kissing him. The man had skill.
She liked pretending to like him. It was great fun. A caper.
She liked Nate too. How could she not? Every layer she managed to laboriously shave away only revealed more to like beneath. And more to make her certain that despite the perfect appearance, Nate was a true fixer-upper.
But... But what if she found the combination to unlock that door and discovered that his odds at finding and keeping love were as dim as the rest of the poor saps out there? What hope did she have then?
“Good God,” Lissy uttered. “No wonder you felt him up all over.”
Saskia blinked and turned to Lissy who was staring at some point over Saskia’s shoulder.