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Her cellphone rang as she hurried along the corridor toward a conference room at work. Stacey had sent her an email requesting her presence. No meeting was scheduled, not in her calendar or mentioned at the morning briefing. Not much went by unscheduled these days.
The phone. Right. The phone.
“Yeah?” she asked, the weight of her thoughts stalling her as she answered.
“Shiny?”
“Dem,” she said, closing her eyes. “Sorry, I missed your call.”
More than one of them. He’d left a few messages over the weekend, and she hadn’t returned any of them.
“Yeah, I’m getting a complex over here since you ran out on me the other night.”
Ran out on him at Xander’s almost two weeks ago.
“I’m sorry. I had my reasons. Long, complicated reasons. I can’t get into it right now.”
“You hate complicated.”
Thank you! At least one man understood her needs without her having to explain herself. “Thank you, Dem. Yes, I hate complicated.”
“You busy tonight? We could start over… over again. Just us this time.”
Without her tagalong friends. Should she? Probably not. Being around him hadn’t felt great the last time they’d met up. Though Xander had his own role to play in that hot mess.
“What do you want to do?” she asked. “Dinner? Drinks?”
“The Grand. Room two thirty-four,” he said. “We can get room service.”
And there it was. Just like she’d said, Dem wanted it and was direct about it.
Getting down and dirty with any man was about the furthest thing from her mind. While she was conscious anyway. Her subconscious kept R-rated dreams running all night, but Demetri wasn’t the star of those.
Even considering being with Demetri felt like a betrayal. Damn, she needed to get over it. Xander wasn’t the one putting that guilt on her, she’d told him they were over. She didn’t owe him anything.
It was a betrayal of whatever was going on inside her.
A betrayal of what her body craved. Giving herself to anyone else would be a bad substitute. She couldn’t con her body into thinking Demetri would be enough. Even in the dark, and despite never being intimate with Xander, her libido would know he wasn’t the one devouring her if she got it on with Demetri. A ringer would never satisfy it.
“Let me think about it,” she said. “I’ll call you later?”
“Sure.”
They hung up and she stayed there, leaning on the wall, her phone resting on her jaw. Sex with Demetri. She could do it. He was good in bed. Present. Though he didn’t spend a lot of time staring into her. Even if it did feel awkward or weird, Demetri probably wouldn’t notice.
Xander.
Why couldn’t she get him out of her mind?
Closing her eyes, she lowered her chin, bouncing the corner of her phone off the center of her forehead. Was she a gold-digging whore? Had she turned out to be one of those people? Xander was used to people like that, probably had a sensitive radar for it. She didn’t have any concise idea how she felt about the money. Did it matter to her or not? With that uncertainty, she couldn’t argue the point with him.
Though he was the one who wouldn’t get out of her head, not his money. She didn’t obsess over how the money kissed. How its hands felt on her. How it put a smile on her face and teased her with gentle touches.
“Stop it,” she hissed at herself.
The guy had made one comment. She, being her, jumped on it as a major insult only to then conclude he was possibly correct. She should apologize. That would be the decent, human thing to do.
But whatever they weren’t, she looped back to his condition. No other guys. And the caveat… That would only matter if they were still friends. If they were still…
