Yours for the Night Read online

  Neal blushed again and smiled at Gwen, looking just slightly relieved to make his exit. “Uh, okay. I do have to go. Mr. Harris—Jack—has something he needs me to look at.”

  Raine smiled and nodded, feeling a slight twinge at the mention of Jack. “It was nice to meet you, Neal.”

  He nodded and left, offering Gwen a fleeting smile. Raine watched him leave, and frowned.

  “You could break that boy if you handle him too roughly, Gwen.”

  Gwen just giggled and sat back. “You’d think so, but there’s a lot more there than meets the eye. When he takes off those glasses he is just so yum. And he is very gentle, and shy, and then bam! He’s hotter than hot. I mean, he was all over me last night....”

  Raine held up her hand. “TMI, Gwen—too much information, that’s okay. I’ll take your word for it.”

  Gwen smiled widely. “Ha, no such thing. But, what did you need me for?”

  Raine smiled, taking a moment to consider the beautiful and energetic woman sitting on the other side of the desk, before gathering up some papers. Gwen was a bundle of unpredictability. She could probably crook her finger and have any guy she wanted, but she chose Neal. Raine hoped he knew how lucky he was.

  “I was hoping I could get some help on editing a few of these freelance articles. I am so behind, and I’ve just spent hours on the phone trying to straighten out a financial mess that I can’t figure out, and now I am even more behind.”

  Gwen nodded. “Sure, I can do some edits. No problem. What’s the financial thing? Do you need to borrow some cash?”

  Gwen was just too sweet. Just like that, without so much as a blink, she would help. That made Raine feel more wealthy than her father’s millions ever had. She smiled warmly.

  “No, just the opposite.” She told Gwen about the refunds, and sighed. “I just hope I can get someone to listen and figure out the problem.”

  “Well, if you can’t, bank the money and thank your gift horse.”

  “It’s not that easy, Gwen. There must be a computer glitch somewhere, and when they find it, I could get, well, screwed. I want them to find it now.”

  Gwen nodded. “Well, at least they didn’t mess up in the opposite way. They could be telling you that you owe them millions or something.”

  Raine smiled and shook her head; leave it to Gwen to always find the upside. She glanced at her computer as it made the little sound that alerted her she had new mail. Looking at the screen, she didn’t recognize the email address, and there was no subject line. Opening it, it only said:

  You’re so beautiful.

  And that was that. No signature. Raine spoke almost to herself. “Nice message—too bad the person it was for didn’t get it.”

  “What’s that?”

  Raine gestured to the computer screen. “Oh, someone just sent a nice note telling someone she’s beautiful, but it isn’t signed and there isn’t an email address I recognize, so it must have gotten misdirected.”

  “Well, you are beautiful.”

  Raine smiled. “Thanks, but compliments won’t get you out of work. Can you take care of these, and send them along later?” She pushed the pile of edits across the desk. Gwen took them and sharply tapped them on the desktop.

  “No problem, I have time today. See ya later.”

  * * *

  BY SEVEN, Raine’s concentration was fading, though she had gotten an immense amount of work done. Her new column was all but done and ready to submit for the first round of edits. The internet-relationships column had been a difficult one to handle. There were lots of issues to be dealt with: safety, honesty, and what to do when you meet someone whom you’ve only known on the internet.

  She thought she had kept her objective viewpoint fairly tightly in line. She had created a neat sidebar containing safety tips for romance on the Net, and emphasized that while her brief experience had not worked out, the fact remained that lots of people were finding happiness through online relationships. Regardless of her own experience, it was her job to report the facts for her readers, although now she could supplement them with a healthy bit of informed opinion.

  In the current day and age, the Net was just one more place to meet, no more no less. That’s how she pitched it. It didn’t matter if you met someone on the Net, or at, say, the park. The same relationship issues existed.

  Part of the problem, she wrote, was that people developed unrealistic expectations when they met online. Unrealistic expectations were a problem in many kinds of relationships, but the online universe seemed to multiply them. Or maybe relationships in general just never lived up to what we wanted them to be.

  She needed to wrap it up, but for the most part, the article was done. It made her feel as if she could lock one more door on that chapter of her life. The chapter where Jack had played a part. She checked her email once more before getting ready to go, and when she did, she was shocked. She had several more messages just like the one she had received earlier. At least fifty of them!

  She read through them quickly. There wasn’t anything lewd or threatening in them, but Raine felt a tiny shiver run up her spine. It was definitely weird. Maybe one of those funky internet viruses or something.

  She was being paranoid, and decided she should probably just email the person back and let them know. So, she hit the reply button, and typed out a neat and impersonal message informing the sender that they had mistakenly sent several personal emails to the wrong address, and that they should probably check their address book.

  “There, that should do it.” She shut down her computer and stared out the window. It was snowing again. She crossed her arms over herself and hugged. She hated the cold, even more so when she felt so alone. This time of year, the days were getting shorter, but the winter seemed so long. And the nights lasted forever.

  She had considered asking Gwen over for supper, but when she had popped back in to say good-night, she was clearly looking forward to seeing Neal at the end of the day. Raine wished it would go well for her. Gwen was exuberant and open, and dated all the time, but Raine couldn’t remember the last time she had seen someone as steadily as she was seeing Neal. Maybe it was because they were together in the same office, so it was easier to make plans, harder to avoid each other.

  She frowned. Not that Jack had any problems with avoidance. She had not seen him in over a week, since Sunday morning when he left her. She knew he must come in to work, and she caught herself looking for him when she left her office to get coffee, or go to the bathroom. He was never there.

  She wondered how it was she could still feel the touch of his hands on her skin, and the heat of his breath mingled with hers. Unconsciously, she squeezed her legs together remembering the pleasure he brought her, and a swirl of heat settled in her core that made her forget the cold outside.

  The office was silent, most everyone had left an hour or so ago. Suddenly she felt strange, vulnerable, being there all alone. She stood quickly, grabbed her jacket and briefcase, and headed out. She’d put in a long day and felt edgy and unreasonably agitated. She needed food, a couple glasses of wine and a long soak in a hot bath. Feeling good about that plan, she turned the corner to the exit, and saw him.

  Jack.

  He had just gone through the door a moment before her, and was walking across the street to the parking lot. She moved closer to the door, placing her hand on the glass, and watched him. He was a graceful man, slow-moving and sexy. Sexy as all hell. Her knees wobbled a bit as she pushed through the door, unable to keep her eyes off him.

  Even at a distance, she could see his hair being whipped around by the wind, and she curled her hand into a fist, her nails biting into her palm, as she remembered how it had felt to sink her fingers into those silky, burnished-copper waves.

  Then he stopped, and turned, and she felt the heat rush into her face. Suddenly the cold dropped away. She should have turned and left, but it was too late, he saw her, his gaze locking in on her like a hawk on its prey. All the need and unansw
ered questions tumbled between them, and then he turned away.

  She heard the door slam, the engine start. He drove out of the lot and disappeared down the road. Shaken for reasons she couldn’t even imagine, she crossed over to the lot as well, finding her own car. She got in, and sat, seriously rattled.

  God help her, she wanted him.

  * * *

  THE WINE AND THE BATH had been a very good idea, in theory. Except that as she sank into the relaxing effects of the merlot and hot water, she also sank helplessly into fantasies of Jack that tortured her until she had relied on her own hands, all the while thinking of his mouth on her, to find some release from the tension that was addling her brain.

  It hadn’t worked, but instead had brought all the memories of their night back to her full force, and she had gone to bed thinking she could detect his scent on the sheets, even though they had been washed days before. After a night of tossing and turning, trying to block erotic images from her mind, when she awoke she was in no mood to think about romance.

  But romance was exactly what was blooming all over her desk when she walked into her office. The bouquet of roses was so large that the spray of flowers practically obscured the top of her desk, their crimson petals eerily resembling blood on snow in the stark winter sunlight shining through the window. Raine stopped in her doorway for several minutes, staring at them until Gwen came up behind.

  “Looks like you and Jack made up—or at least he wants to! Good for you—oh, aren’t they amazing—they must have cost a fortune!” She wiggled past Raine, who was still caught in the doorway staring. Gwen fussed over the roses and inhaled deeply.

  “Ohhhh. My allergies are going to act up for the rest of the day, but it’s worth it, they smell as good as they look. You know, that’s how you can tell the quality of flowers, especially roses, they smell so wonderful—some of the inexpensive ones, like the ones you see at the grocery store, they don’t smell at all, or they have some weird kind of chemical smell, probably from the preservatives, I mean, who knows where they came from, but these are certainly not like that. These are amazing!” She turned to Raine, eyes sparkling, out of breath. “Have you looked at the card yet?”

  Raine stepped forward, amazed that Gwen could make it through that entire speech on one breath. She set her coat down on the chair and took the little white card out of the holder. Opening it slowly, she inhaled sharply as she read the simple, male script.

  “You’re so beautiful.” She whispered the words written on the card. There was no other signature, no hint as to the sender, and her heart pounded as she looked at the flowers again, frozen.

  Gwen wrinkled her forehead, and took the card, shrugging as she looked at it. “That’s kinda weird. Same as that email you got yesterday, huh?”

  Raine nodded. It was hard to believe that these were sent to the wrong person—her name was clearly written on the card’s envelope. She looked at Gwen. “I have no idea why anyone would be sending me these.”

  “Well, looks like maybe someone is trying to get on your good side. Maybe it is Jack, and he’s just trying to soften you up a little before he talks to you in person. I suppose it could be Jerry. Have you been seeing anyone else?”

  Raine shook her head. “No, not in months, not really—just that one date with Jerry, and I haven’t heard from him since. Nothing so serious that they would be sending me these.” She thought of Duane, and closed her eyes. He wouldn’t. Would he?

  “Except for Jack.”

  Raine nodded. She hadn’t told Gwen about Duane, and didn’t intend to. But this was not Jack’s style. Intuitively, she knew he would not try to get around her this way. But if not him, who? She had seen Duane daily since their talk in the park, and after he apologized profusely one more time, it was back to business as usual.

  She and Jack had seen each other last night—he had been too far away for her to make out his expression. Maybe he was trying to reconnect with her. Then why had he driven away? She shook her head and paced the office. No, that didn’t make sense. She didn’t know him very well, but she sensed that he would be more direct.

  But no one else had any reason to send her flowers. There simply was no one else. She looked at Gwen.

  “Well, I guess there is only one way to know for sure.”

  Gwen’s eyes widened. “You’re going down there? To see him?”

  “Yes. I need to get this settled. This doesn’t seem like Jack, but if it is, I want to know why. If not him, I want to know who.”

  Gwen nodded and smiled. “Well, you are going down to see him. Maybe that is the whole point. Very romantic.”

  Raine pursed her lips. “More like very creepy. I prefer to know who is sending me emails and flowers.”

  Gwen shook her head on her way to the door. “Raine, you are the only woman I can think of who would think that getting a dozen of these long-stemmed beauties was at all creepy.” She sighed dramatically. “Anyway, good luck! I want to know all about it later!”

  Raine summoned up the calm she needed to go deal with Jack and this problem. If the person responsible for sending the emails and flowers was him, though her instincts told her it wasn’t, she wasn’t exactly sure how she felt about it.

  Still, she needed to know, for her peace of mind, one way or the other. Raine crossed to her desk, looking up his extension, and dialed the numbers, her fingers tightening on the receiver as his phone rang.

  “Jack Harris.”

  The sound of his voice on the phone threatened another avalanche of erotic memories of the last time she had spoken with him on the phone, and she squelched them ruthlessly, keeping her voice neutral.

  “Hi, Jack. It’s Raine. I’m in my office, upstairs, and need you to come up when you get a moment.” Of course he knew where her office was! God, just hearing his voice had turned her into a babbling idiot.

  “Are you having a computer problem again? If you can tell me what the trouble is, I can send someone up to fix it.”

  His voice was impersonal, as if he was talking to a stranger. She nearly hung up, there was no way Jack had sent these notes and flowers. But she had to make sure before checking out other possibilities.

  “Um, no, I just need to ask you about something. It won’t take long.”

  She heard him sigh, and he said he would be up in a few minutes. Foolishly, she nodded, and hated how breathless her voice sounded when she said goodbye. Trying to get a grip, she took a deep breath, and looked at the work stacked on her desk, trying for normalcy while she waited.

  * * *

  JACK HEADED UP the stairs, hating the feeling that he was being “summoned.” He had been avoiding her for days, and now was going to have to be in close quarters with her in the office; he would just settle whatever problem she had, and get out as quickly as possible.

  Last night, seeing her standing there like a statue in the doorway, he had almost let go of his pride and gone to her. He found himself hungry to have her in his arms again in a way he had never experienced before, not with any other woman. He wanted to crush her to him, and make her want him, regardless of their differences. At this point he wasn’t sure he cared about her past or her attitude or what she thought about him; he wanted her body naked and hot underneath his.

  He wanted to make her beg for him and for what he could do to her. He had replayed making her come over and over in his mind, and wanted to do it again. He sighed in disgust at the direction of his thoughts. It had been like this ever since he left her, and he didn’t like it. Most times he got past bad experiences with women easily.

  Opening the door to the main floor, he walked down the hall to her office, his stride more controlled than usual. Rapping a knuckle on her door, he pushed it open a bit, and felt his mouth go dry.

  How was a mortal man supposed to deal with this? She was so damn hot, her blond hair spilling over the shoulders of a royal-blue sweater that hugged her breasts in a way that made him ache. She looked a little pale, and there were smudgy shadows under h
er eyes, which, perversely, only made him want to touch her more. She brought out his protective instincts; he wanted to comfort her. Maybe because doing so brought comfort to him, as well, among other things. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he spoke first.

  “Okay, I’m here. What’s the problem?” His voice was gruff and unfriendly, he knew. Good.

  She shifted in her seat a little, and motioned him to a chair, which he rejected. “I only have a minute.”

  She nodded vaguely. “Um, okay. Well, I feel foolish even asking this, but I needed to make sure. Are these from you?”

  He stared at her blankly and she pointed to the flowers; he saw them and his eyebrows lifted. Then he felt something twist in his gut—someone had sent her these? Although he had no right to feel one way or the other about the situation, it angered him.

  “You think I sent these to you?”

  She felt a slight color tinge her cheeks. Was she destined to be humiliated by this man?

  “Um, well, I figured it wasn’t you, but there was no name on the card, and I couldn’t think of anyone else.... I haven’t seen anyone for a long time. Except you.”

  He was at a momentary loss for words, and walked to the roses, which must have cost a mint. They would have put him back a good percentage of his paycheck if he had bought them. He looked at the card, and read it aloud, making her color even more deeply, hearing the words in his voice. He dropped the card carelessly back on the shelf.

  “No, it wasn’t me. Is that it? Is this all you needed me for?” He raised his eyebrows as she nodded. “Looks like you have a secret admirer, Raine. But it’s not me.” How ironic, he thought.

  Her forehead wrinkled and she nodded again. “I didn’t really think it was you, but the message on the card matched the one on the email, so—”

  “What email?”

  “I got a bunch of messages yesterday from the same person, and one of them had the same message as the card. Seeing as you and I met online, I thought, maybe…”