Just for Today...

“Oh.” Sean dumped the bottle and glasses with a clatter on the table. “How will you get home?” he asked. “Do you want me to drive you?”

“No,” Jess said too quickly. It was absurd to be disappointed that he hadn’t tried to object to her leaving. “It’s late. I’ll get a cab.”

“I’ll call one for you.” He took a step toward his discarded suit, presumably to seek out a phone.

Jess put a hand on his arm to halt him. Oh, so hard and so velvet soft all at the same time. Really, Jess, would it be too much to ask to hang around for more? She shook the annoying inner voice away.

“It’s fine. I’ve caught cabs from here before. There’s no point calling one at this time on a Saturday night, it’ll take hours. I’ll just walk up the street to the main road and hail one.”

He blew out a breath and Jess wondered for a moment if he was going to argue or finally get around to asking her not to go. But then he shrugged. “Okay. Give me a minute to put some clothes on and I’ll walk with you.”

“No!” It came out louder and more forceful than she’d intended. “I mean,” she said, modulating her voice, “I’ll be fine on my own. I’ve done it hundreds of times.” A slight exaggeration. Maybe twice.

He gave her a look that made him seem older than his years. “Jess, forget it.” His tone brooked no protest. “I’m either driving you home, walking with you to hail a cab, or we call one and you wait for it here. I’m not letting you head off into the night by yourself. It’s just not happening.”

His commanding tone made Jess bristle. “I’m a grown woman. Old enough to look after myself. Older than you, remember?” He probably usually slept with nineteen-year-old airheads who’d get into a stranger’s car when offered candy, Jess thought, knowing she was being more than a little ridiculous. But the strange feeling of panic was growing, and her every instinct was yelling at her to escape.

Sean muttered something under his breath, then reached for his clothes. Jess told herself not to watch, but it was impossible. He pulled on his suit trousers without bothering with underwear and zipped them up in front of her, seemingly unconcerned by her close observation.

“What’s it to be?” he asked, ignoring her protest.

The quickest option would be to have him drive her home. Waiting for a cab at this time of night could, literally, take hours. It was impossible to know how long waiting for one on the street would take. From previous experience, Jess knew it could be minutes—or not.

All the options meant spending more time in close company with Sean. And Jess wasn’t sure what was going on, but her gut was screaming at her to get away from him. She didn’t know why. She needed to be alone to work out why she needed to be alone.

Her indecision must have shown on her face, because Sean reached out and took her hand.

“Look,” he began with an exaggerated air of patience, “I’m not sure why you’re freaking out like this, but—”

“I am not freaking out—”

He talked over her protest. “But everything’s fine, okay? You’re good, I’m good and we just had a helluva lot of fun.” He grinned. “I was kinda hoping you’d hang around a little longer so we could do it again, but I get that you might’ve had enough. And that’s okay. You only need to tell me how you want to get home.”

Faced with his sensible, emotionless dissection of the situation, Jess’s reaction felt like hysteria. A colder, more unpleasant feeling settled in her belly. If she didn’t know better, she’d call it disappointment.

“I’d like for you to drive me home,” she said after a moment. Logic won out. Of all the options, it meant getting home fastest. “If that’s okay.”

He squeezed her hand and then let it go. “That’s fine. Just give me a sec to grab a T-shirt.”

Jess had put on her shoes but still hadn’t located her underwear by the time he returned, wearing sneakers, a tight gray T-shirt that hugged his shoulders and chest, and his tuxedo pants. It should have looked silly, but instead he looked effortlessly sexy and it made Jess’s resolve weaken. Would there really be anything terribly wrong with staying a little longer? Maybe even sleeping over till the morning? If it had been a long time since her last sexual experience, it had been even longer since she’d slept with a man’s arms around her. Jess liked that feeling. Missed it.

Yeah, right. Sean had said he wanted her to stay so they could enjoy round two—nothing about breakfast in the morning. She was sure that after round two was done, he’d be the one bundling her into his car or calling for a taxi. All she was doing was speeding up that eventual outcome. And in doing so, staying in control of the situation. That was what was important.

“Ready?” he asked.

Jess opened her mouth to say something about her missing underwear, but the idea of going on a search for it seemed too...undignified.

“Sure, let’s go.”

* * *

SEAN THOUGHT he’d encountered pretty much every postcoital reaction womankind was capable of. This was a new one on him, though. He’d seen tears. Giggling. Snoring. Even one unfortunate episode of throwing up, but they’d both been very drunk and it had been a long time ago.

He’d never seen ruthless efficiency. He wasn’t sure what else to call the reaction from Jess Alexander. It was a pity, because he hadn’t been finished with her—not by a long shot.

She’d barely said a word since they’d left the house, just brief directions on how to get to her home. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, the silence in the car magnifying the soft rustle of her dress. The silence reminded him uncomfortably of the final weeks of the one-and-only long-term relationship he’d attempted.

Ten months—it hadn’t been a bad effort considering ten days was pretty much his usual limit. If you didn’t count the last month when they’d pretty much stopped talking to each other. There was still a minor ache somewhere hidden deeply away when he thought about that. He’d actually thought he’d been in love, when in reality he’d just been young and stupid.

“Crap,” Jess said suddenly.

“What?”

“My car. It’s parked at the hotel. I totally forgot.”

Sean backed off the accelerator. “Do you want me to take you there instead?”

“No... No, I’ll get it in the morning.”

“Sure?”

She nodded. “Positive.”

He thought about offering to pick her up in the morning, but after the argument about driving her home, he figured it was an offer extremely unlikely to be accepted, so he kept his mouth shut.

She shifted in the seat again, discomfort written all over her face.

“Are you okay?” he asked as she squirmed once more. He hadn’t hurt her somehow, had he? “You look like you have ants in your pants.”

“I, uh, couldn’t find my underwear.”

“Huh?” It took him a moment to realize what she’d said.

“I couldn’t find my underwear,” she said again.

He couldn’t help but laugh, even when she shot him a look designed to wither. “Is that why you’re twitching around over there?”

“It feels weird,” she said, not bothering to hide her annoyance.

“So you don’t make a habit of going commando, then?”

“No, I don’t. When you get back, turn the lights on and find my thong, okay? I don’t want Hailey and Rob coming back and finding it under a chair or something. I don’t even want to imagine Hailey trying to return them at work one day.” She shuddered.

“She wouldn’t know they were yours. Unless you write your name in your panties or something?”

Sean didn’t have to look to know that she was rolling her eyes at him. She seemed to like dismissing him like that.

“No. I imagine having you stay at their house means they’re fully expecting to have to go through it and remove discarded women’s underwear in every room before they unpack.”