5:45 p.m. Wednesday
The ladies room outside the office, Keely decided, was the perfect place for a quick-change artist. It was low-lit, quiet, and stocked with everything from lotion to fluffy hand towels.
This was the executive floor and everyone else- save for the night crew downstairs at the concierge desk-were gone.
Jack’s flowers had been delivered earlier. In a separate, clear-lidded box, four juicy-fat golden-pink cherries with long stems nestled in their white chocolate cloaks. The cherries were an ultra sweet, extra-large Northwest variety that she’d always wanted to try, but at twenty-four dollars a pound she could only afford to press her nose against the chocolatier’s window and drool.
“Lei will be here after five,” Keely had told Jack
that morning. “I’ll leave the door unlocked, just in case I’m gone. You’ll still be here, won’t you?”
He’d nodded. “Sure.” Well, duh. Of course.
Getting Lei alone with Jack was the point, but he had not said much the past two days. It was almost like he’d pushed Lei to the back of his mind.
Keely nibbled on her lower lip, nervous. She hadn’t seen Jack since he left for lunch after noon. He had yet to come back.
She tugged the hem of her white denim halter mini-dress further down her thighs, picked up her tote bag that held her office clothes, and stuffed it under the vanity where it wouldn’t be noticed. She
plucked a gardenia from one of the fresh arrangements, stuck the bloom behind her right ear, and walked down the hall to the Island Lily’s office suites.
She stepped inside and knew right away he wasn’t there. She could always catch the piney edge of his cologne whenever he was in.
Oh no. He really had gotten bored. He wasn’t planning on coming back.
The lights were still turned low, as she deliberately left them earlier. The roses were on her desk, the cherries in their gold foil box with its clear lid and sheer pink ribbon undisturbed.
It was just as well. Nothing would have come of a sexual interlude with Jack, except fabulous sex.
She buried her nose in the jewel-colored roses, then pulled a creamy blossom from the bunch to take home with her.
This was the end of the road for Lei. Jack was never meant to meet her anyway, Keely thought. Resigned, she opened the door to leave only to find Jack standing on the other side.
His shades were on his handsome face, and his hands were full with take-out bags from J’s. He’d changed into black cargo pants and wore an offbeat yellow-green-black plaid shirt with a black T-shirt underneath. He smelled so good and looked hella sexy!
“Leaving so soon?” he drawled.
This time her heart went ka-pow at the smile that curved his lips. She could feel his gaze eating her up, from her face to her pink toenails, and back up to her face with a slight pause where her breasts bumped together behind her halter-top.
Oh, and you can just forget about any exit strategies tonight, Lei!
“There was n-nobody here,” she stammered. “I-I thought everyone had left for the night.”
“And you were going to leave without your goodies?”
“These were for me?” she asked, and blushed at her shameless acting.
He looked at the creamy rose she twirled in her hand. “Yes.”
She brought the flower up to her nose. “Well, good. Now I don’t feel so bad that I planned to take this one with me.”
He smiled. “Interesting. Of all the colors there, you went for the plainest one,” he observed, thinking, no doubt, how he’d paid out the ying-yang for the rarest roses that she’d simply ignored in favor of the plainest, sweetest smelling one.
She nodded, happy. “It’s my favorite.”
“So are white chocolate covered cherries, I’m told. What do you like to eat?”
“Whatever’s in that bag? It smells good,” she said, her stomach growling. She hadn’t been able to eat at all today for thinking of the night to come.
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
She took one of the bags from him and pushed the door back so he could pass. This was a side of her boss she’d never seen: the brash, casual, after-hours side when the brash office executive was all she’d ever known.
And…she thought, mouth watering, she hoped to see a lot more of him tonight.