Sweet Deal

Chapter Seven

Jake let himself into his house and was immediately attacked by an ecstatic Golden Retriever. “Hey, buddy!” Jake pushed the dog down then crouched to rub him all over. “I left you all night, didn’t I? You must’ve been wondering where I was. Sorry, big guy.” He rubbed Wayne’s ears. Guilt rose up in him. God, that wasn’t fair to the poor dog, to be left all night. Thank god he’d asked his neighbor to let Wayne out last evening, since he hadn’t known how late he’d be. Even so… “Need to go out?”

Wayne leaped toward the door and Jake let him out into his small backyard and watched him, leaning on the door. Poor Wayne.

When Wayne came back in, all happy, tongue lolling, Jake said, “C’mon, buddy, let’s go for a run.” He quickly changed into his running clothes, laced up his sneakers and grabbed Wayne’s leash, which made the dog delirious with pleasure. He gave a couple of short, sharp barks and Jake laughed.

Hopefully the run would clear his mind. Was he kidding himself when he told himself sleeping with Shelby wasn’t what he’d planned when he’d offered to help her?

He had to admit he’d always found her attractive, every time he’d seen her in the coffee shop. He truly didn’t think he’d had that ulterior motive when he’d made the crazy offer, but the chemistry between them was pretty damn explosive. It was no surprise they’d ended up burning up the sheets in Shelby’s bed.

He wiped sweat from his brow as he and Wayne ran through the park, the same park where the picnic had been held yesterday.

What was eating at him was the dilemma of what to do next.

Shelby was a sweetheart, and he’d done her a favor and that should be it. He’d complicated the hell out of things by having sex with her. It didn’t mean he ever had to see her again. But he wanted to. He’d had fun with her. And not just in bed.

And as if that weren’t complicated enough, because hey, if he wanted to see her again, why the hell shouldn’t he—there was Andrew.

Andrew was Shelby’s boss.

Fuck, what did it all mean? Jake actually stopped running and pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes. His heart was pounding and sweat dripped off him, soaking his loose, sleeveless shirt. If he’d had any notion of actually calling Shelby and seeing her again, the fact that she worked for Andrew should make him put that thought firmly out of his head.

He lowered his hands, chest heaving, lungs straining for oxygen, and grinned at Wayne, sitting patiently and panting. They started into a slow jog along the paved path lining the beach. Palm trees provided some shade from the hot summer sun for all the people out enjoying the beautiful Sunday afternoon beside the Pacific Ocean.

Did Andrew want Shelby? Andrew had seemed annoyed when Shelby’d introduced them. Was it because it was him? Or would Andrew be annoyed at whoever she was dating? Jesus, he hated to think that Andrew would be like that. Would he cheat on Gianna? Would Andrew put the moves on someone he worked for? Jake had to admit he didn’t have very friendly feelings for Andrew since the day he’d found out his girlfriend was in love with him, and maybe that was influencing his take on this whole thing. But hell, if Andrew had been such a douchebag as to steal his best friend’s girlfriend, who was to say he wouldn’t cheat on her with someone else? Fuck. Jake picked up the pace of his running, his Nikes hitting the pavement in a steady rhythm.

And maybe that was a good enough reason to see Shelby again. To make sure Andrew didn’t screw around with her. To make sure he didn’t cheat on his wife. Gianna. Jake’s gut tightened at the thought of Gianna.

She’d left him. For Andrew.

But that had been a long time ago. Over a year ago. She was married to Andrew now, and that wasn’t going to change. Or was it? What was going on with their marriage? Strangely, he would’ve thought he’d feel some sort of satisfaction if things didn’t work out for them after what had happened. But he didn’t.

Shelby didn’t need to know about all that. She was the one who’d needed a fake boyfriend. And he’d already admitted he liked her. A lot. The attraction between them was real. Why not explore it?

He could just tell her the truth—that her boss was an asshole who’d stolen his girlfriend. He mulled that idea over as he reached the end of the beach where the smooth rocks that gave Rocky Harbor its name rose in rounded heaps. The paved path ended, and he stopped at the edge of the grass. “But what good would that do?” he asked Wayne, sitting there looking at him with his tongue hanging out of his mouth in what appeared to be a wide smile. Wayne had no answer for him so he started running again, now across the grass toward Ocean Drive.

He didn’t want to make Shelby and Andrew’s working relationship even more awkward. He also didn’t want Shelby feeling sorry for him, like he knew Gianna had been at the picnic. Shelby already suspected Andrew was scum. She just needed a way to keep him away from her and keep her job. And Jake could help with that. She didn’t need to know all that history.

Maybe Shelby didn’t want to see him again. Maybe he was stewing about this all for nothing. She’d gotten what she wanted—and he didn’t mean the three orgasms!—and maybe that was enough to let Andrew know she wasn’t interested in a little office nooky.

The only way to find out was to call her.

He crossed Ocean Drive and started a sprint toward home.

“That was quite a surprise seeing you with Jake Magill.”

Shelby smiled at Andrew across the small table in his office Monday morning despite the tightening of her stomach. “Oh that’s right, you two know each other. I forgot about that.”

“It’s funny he never mentioned me to you. How long have you two been seeing each other?”

“Um…” Shelby’s mind went blank. What had they talked about Friday night? Something about meeting in April…which was two months ago. “About a month,” she finally said. Crap, she was such a bad liar. Why had she thought she could get away with this? She smoothed damp palms over her knees beneath the table. “I guess I never mentioned your name to him.” Which was true.

Had Jake had forgotten to share something significant with her? Now she might blow the whole thing because she didn’t know about it.

She hadn’t thought much about Andrew and Jake knowing each other, though she’d commented to Myra when they’d gone antiquing yesterday afternoon on the uncomfortable tension she’d noticed between Jake and Andrew. Something had happened and now she was curious. But she’d have to ask Jake that question, because for once Andrew changed the subject from personal to business.

“Have you started on your project charter yet?” he asked.

She blinked once, twice, then opened the file folder on the table. “Yes, I’ve started it, but I wanted to ask you about a couple of things.”

They finished their business meeting, and as Shelby passed by Susan’s desk, she paused to smile and say hello. This time Susan returned the greeting with a smile of her own and Shelby spent a few minutes chatting with her about the picnic before returning to her cubicle, for once without feeling frozen by Susan’s animosity or weirded out by Andrew’s attention. He’d been quite cool, actually. She nibbled her bottom lip as she entered her password into her computer. She’d just wanted him to not have any ideas of being more than business associates, but she didn’t want him to hate her. Guilt at lying to him gripped her insides and twisted.

She opened the document she’d started for the project charter just as her cell phone rang. She reached for it and flipped it open, typing with one hand. “Hello.”

“Hi.” Jake’s deep voice had her fingers going still.

“Hi.” She straightened, and her tummy fluttered.

“How are you?”

“Good. I’m good.”

“You’re at work?”

“Yes. You?”

“Yup. Monday mornings. Hate ’em.”

She laughed softly and leaned back in her chair. “I know. Me too.”

“How’s Andrew this morning? Did we pull it off?”

“Um, yeah. He’s…well, let’s just say our first meeting this morning was very businesslike.”

“Good.” His voice deepened.

“What happened between you and him?” The question popped right out.

“Uh.” A heavy beat of silence, then another. “He didn’t tell you?”

“He said I should ask you.”

“Well. It’s a long story. Why don’t I tell you over dinner one evening?”

Dinner? Was he asking her out? What was this?

This wasn’t a normal situation. This wasn’t your usual post-first-date phone call. Because they hadn’t really dated. They’d just been pretending.

But they sure as hell hadn’t been pretending to have scorching hot sex.

“Are you asking me out?” she said, throwing all the usual dating rules out the window. “Like, for real? Because you don’t have to, you know. You offered to come to the picnic…” She suddenly became aware that although her cubicle had walls on three sides, it wasn’t exactly private and anyone nearby could hear her conversation. “Er, maybe this isn’t a good time to talk about this.”

“How about over dinner?” he said again, amusement shading his voice and making her instantly wet.

Oh, this was crazy.

“Okay,” she said slowly.

“Tomorrow night. What time do you get home?”

That all depended on how long she wanted to stay at the office. With nothing but Lean Cuisines and her television to lure her away, she often worked late into the evening. “By about six.”

“Pick you up at six thirty, then. Did you get your car yesterday?”

“Oh. Yeah. Myra took me there. We went antiquing yesterday afternoon.”

“Find anything good?”

“I’ll tell you over dinner.” She smiled, all warm and tingly inside, leaning back in her chair.

He laughed softly. “Okay. Good. See you tomorrow.”

She clicked her phone shut and leaned her head back, staring up at the white acoustic tiles of the office ceiling. Well. What was this? Maybe the sex had meant more to him than just getting turned on by pretending to be in lust. Did that even make sense? She shook her head.

Myra, with her usual logic and reason, had been most helpful in convincing her that she hadn’t made a mistake by having sex with him, pointing out that Shelby had had a number of extremely satisfying orgasms—okay that didn’t even begin to describe how hot they’d been—and she’d definitely gotten something out of the night too. So she’d managed to come to terms with the fact that she’d had a hot one-night stand and she was okay with it, but she couldn’t help the deep-down little wish that it could happen again.

Because even though it had all been an act, or was supposed to have been an act, the truth was she’d had a lot of fun with Jake, both Friday night when they’d talked over drinks, then at the picnic and even in bed. Well, fun might not be the best word to describe the sex—how about off-the-freakin’-charts hot? Whatever. She liked him. And though she really didn’t want to admit she harbored secret feelings like this—she kinda wanted to see him again.

“Are you okay, Shelby?”

She jerked upright and blinked at Andrew standing at the entrance to her cubicle, his wide shoulders in the expensive suit jacket taking up much of the opening.

“Oh.” Heat washed into her cheeks. “Yes. Sorry. I was just thinking about…uh…the project charter.”

He gave her a skeptical look. “Sure. Listen, I need to reschedule the status update meeting tomorrow. I’m going to be in other meetings with Carl all day.” He named the CEO of Gold Shield Insurance. “I’ll be done by five, so I thought maybe we could grab dinner and do the update while we eat.”

“Tomorrow?” She stared back at him. “I can’t. I’m having dinner with Jake tomorrow night.”

“But this is important, Shelby.”

“It’s just a status update. We can do it Wednesday morning.”

“My schedule is full Wednesday.”

Shit, shit, shit. Would this never end? She did not want to have dinner with him! “Well, then I’ll email you the status reports and you can look them over.”

Andrew’s mouth tightened but he nodded. “Okay. But I need them for my meetings Wednesday afternoon with the project business units.”

She gazed after him as he walked away, rolling her lips in. Oh hell. A string of curses ran through her mind. This tension between them wasn’t exactly what she’d wanted.