Some Kind of Incredible

“This sounds like the verbiage for a damned memo. This isn’t about the job, you know. This is about life.”

“My job is my life, Lila.”

Truer words were never spoken.

“How soon until you’ll know if you’re knocked up?”

“Jeez, now that I’ve seen your charm I know why you’re so popular with the ladies.”

“Dammit, Lila—”

“Yes, dammit, Nick.”

She walked out of his office and grabbed her purse from the bottom desk drawer.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

She sighed. She knew how dogged he could be when he set his mind to something. “A few days maybe. I’m not real regular.”

She shut off her desk lamp and felt the heavy weight of his hand on her shoulder. “I’ll drive you home.”

“No, thank you.”

“It wasn’t an offer.”

“Was it an order?”

“Tell me you’re not planning to walk home in the dark.”

“I’m not planning to walk home in the dark,” she said, feeling an edge that she normally tempered with lots of baking and a call to her mother.

“Smart-ass.”

“Look, this is Youngsville, not Chicago. I’ll be fine.”

“You’re not going without me and that’s final.”

“Okay,” she said.

He grabbed his coat from the rack and reached around the corner to hit the light switch. Lila’s discarded undergarments were under his desk. He stopped and pocketed them without a word. Then he closed and locked his inner office door. He took her elbow and escorted her down the darkened hallway.

Lila felt the emotions inside her swirling like a black mist and rising so quickly she couldn’t control them. She knew she had to keep her mouth shut but somehow the words wouldn’t stop.

“So I guess I shouldn’t ask if it was good for you?”

Three

Nick had been at some low places in his life but never had he felt like this. The night was pitch dark and he was thankful that Lila was silent as they drove. He didn’t think he could take much more conversation from her at this point. In his mind’s eye he was surrounded by an image of Lila’s wide brown eyes brimming with a sheen of tears.

Though his mind screamed for him to back away his body relived the incredible rightness that their joining had brought. And he knew that he should regret that he hadn’t used a condom when they’d made love, but deep inside he was glad he hadn’t. His groin still throbbed at the remembered feel of her around him.

Lila had been the fulfillment of his dreams, of what a woman could be. But she was his assistant, dammit. How could he have let this happen?

But he knew once hadn’t been enough. In fact, as he came to a stop in front of her building, he knew that he wanted to come up tonight and mate with her again. To cement what was between them so that she didn’t have to react with her sharp tongue.

“Well, thanks for the ride,” she said and then a bitter laugh escaped her. “I meant the car ride.”

“Lila, stop it. I’m sorry for the way that our first time happened, but I won’t let you think it meant nothing to me.”

“I’m sure you say that to all the girls, Nick.”

“I don’t have a stock of lines I pull out for the appropriate moment.”

“I’m relieved.”

She looked at him, but her expression was indiscernible in the feeble light of the street lamp. He knew his reaction earlier had made his comments seem, well, like a lie, but truer words had never been spoken. Lila meant more to him than the faceless ladies in his past and she deserved better than a burnt-out executive whose only emotion was cold, hard lust.

Except it hadn’t felt cold or hard when he’d been with Lila. Buried in her sweet warm body he’d felt like he’d found the home he’d been forcing Colette, Inc. to be for years.

“Are you feeling better?”

She shook her head, the silky length of her blond hair was illuminated by the light of the moon. He wished he’d taken his time with her. He wished they’d had all night to learn each other’s bodies instead of a hurried explosion in his office. He wished that he could go back to the moment he’d pulled away from her and lie against her breast and comfort them both.

“I can’t do this right now. I’m achy and not myself,” she said.

“That’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. I’m feeling mean, Nick. And I want to hurt you so deeply that you’ll still feel it weeks from now.”

“If it would make you feel better.”

She looked out the window, and when she spoke again her voice was so soft he had to lean in to hear it. “My mother gave birth to me when she was only sixteen. I’ve never met my father.”

Simple sentences. Simple words that summed up a life that was anything but simple. He hadn’t realized how complex the situation was, but now he did.

“We’re not in that situation.”

“No?”

He wanted to do the right thing, to say he’d marry her if she found out she was pregnant with his child, but he knew he couldn’t. The low points in his life were manageable because he’d found a way to guarantee they never happened a second time. He’d made the vow never to marry again because Amelia’s death had cut through the layers of who he was and left him a quivering mound of insecurity. If there was one thing he wouldn’t tolerate it was weakness.

“Well, you’re not sixteen.”

She reached for the door handle and Nick hit the locks.

“Let me out of the car.”

“I can’t.”