A Wildly Seductive Night(20)
Tyler beamed. “Thanks, man.”
Clay turned on his heel, grabbed his suit jacket, and headed to a client meeting. That moment with Tyler was a small thing, but it was an important one, too. Sometimes you had to take chances. His wife was doing that in her career, embracing new opportunities, doing her damnedest to reinvent herself and not rest on her laurels. Clay had built a successful firm on the foundation of his guidelines and rules for running a business. Tyler might be a little wilder, a little less cautious, but that didn’t have to be bad. He might very well be what Clay needed to keep his firm ahead of the game.
By trying something different.
Like a new recipe.
Tyler knew what he was doing, and that was why Clay had wanted to work with him. To stay nimble.
Besides, tomorrow was his anniversary, and he was a happy man. His biggest worry had been what to get his wife for the occasion, and he’d figured it out. He was giving her exactly what she wanted. Something simple. Something basic. Because he knew her.
Thomas bounced up and down on the bed in the Plaza, and Carly joined her cousin, shooting higher in the air.
Brent's little boy, younger than Carly, was a whole heap of hellion. No surprise there. Brent had been the same. His daughter was quieter, and one of the happiest babies in the universe, though she was now a toddler, and Brent’s wife, Shannon, had to chase her around the hotel room.
“So, you’ve got yourself a real vacation here,” Clay deadpanned as he observed the chaos of his brother’s hotel room in Manhattan.
“That I do, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“What do you have planned for tonight?” Clay asked.
“We’re going to feed the kids sundaes, then we’ve set up mainlines for sugar,” Shannon teased. “After that, we’ll take Carly to the M&M store and make sure she surpasses the legal limit for candy consumption before we send her home to you.”
Clay nodded seriously and clapped his hands together. “On that note, I’m going to join my bride.”
When he returned to his home to take his wife to dinner and the premiere of a new heist movie, he wasn’t so sure they’d make their dinner reservation. Or the movie.
He didn’t care, not when he saw what she’d left for him on the table in the foyer.
16
Even if you were one of those people, even if sex was part of your routine, a night of passion that scorched your senses could still be special. Could be a treat.
Maybe even a surprise.
That was what Julia wanted to give Clay for their anniversary.
A wildly seductive night.
Stretching out her bare legs on the chaise lounge on the balcony, she crossed them at the ankles. She wore black heels and a simple short black dress with slim straps. The clothing hardly mattered, though. Soon, all her garments would be pooled at her feet when Clay stripped her and untied her.
For now, all that mattered was the presentation of his gift.
Her.
She wasn’t cocky. She wasn’t full of herself. She simply knew her man and what he wanted most: his woman, every day, every night.
As soon as she heard the clink of the door shutting, and the echo of his shoes on the hardwood, she pictured him walking through their home. He was on his way to her. She’d left him a trail of breadcrumbs.
On the table in the foyer he’d find the handcuffs, a nod to their very first night together at her bar in San Francisco. Then, a piece of black silk was draped over a chair at the kitchen table, like the one she’d been blindfolded with on this very balcony. On the couch he’d discover a purple scarf, and surely he’d remember the time they’d played bondage games with that scrap of fabric.
Honestly, she could have filled their home with mementos of their passion, but these were more than enough for him to get the hint as to what was on the agenda tonight.
And if there were any questions, those would be silenced when he opened the door to the balcony and found her. She’d procured a purple satin bow at a fabric store and had looped it around the waist of her black dress and tied it, the ends pointing south. On her neck dangled a long strand of pearls.
Oh, what pleasures he’d brought her with those pearls.
But pearls weren’t on the menu this evening.
Tonight, she was in the mood for adventure. She was ready to take a risk. Maybe it was the new drink she’d created that made her feel warm all over, or maybe it was just time to play, to push, to explore new territory. Break new ground, so to speak.
As Clay opened the door to the balcony, she reached for her new cocktail, brought it to her lips, and took another swallow of the concoction she’d created. From her phone, sexy music played, with a sultry beat. The neighbors weren’t home tonight.