Dirty Little Secret(21)

Beaker’s Deli was a popular lunch destination for the offices in the vicinity, including theirs, but at two o’clock, the crowds had thinned enough for her to grab a quick bite. Even so, by the time she’d placed her order, Cailin’s arms ached. She carried everything to a chair at a table by the front window, then returned to fill her drink cup and pick up her tray. The Caesar chicken wrap sparked her taste buds with the first bite, and she found herself eating hungrily for the first time in days. Nothing tasted good with a side dish of depression; at least the return of emotion meant her palate could also return to normal. Hey, if sex was off the menu, good food could make up for it. And she’d prove it tonight with a pint of rocky-road ice cream.

Sipping her sweet tea and people watching allowed for a few extra minutes to gather her strength—and courage—for the return trip. Hopefully Alex would still be involved with Ian when she got back.

Ian, the office flirt. The man might head the biggest and most lucrative research project at Keane Industries, which meant he was brilliant, but from all appearances there was not a serious bone in his body. He’d flirted outrageously when he came in the office this morning, then even worse when she brought their lunch, to the point where her tongue had felt tied in permanent knots. Alex’s dark stare and the memory of that almost kiss had unnerved her enough; she certainly didn’t need to add another, albeit very attractive, man’s attention to the mix.

A feminine giggle caught her attention as she took a final bite of her wrap. She shifted, her gaze wandering the café, and noticed a table in a rear corner, the chairs turned so their backs faced her. The occupants, two women, laughed and chatted together. Something about one of the women was familiar, but it wasn’t until the woman turned her head that Cailin realized it was Sara Beth.

Look away, she thought. Yet taking her eyes off the woman proved impossible.

Bold red hair lay like a curtain around her delicate features, her bangs ultralong in front and trimmed short on her neck in back. When she twisted a bit more toward her companion, her face came clearly into view. Beauty shone from her dark green eyes and perfect bow lips, and Cailin knew from seeing Sara Beth around the office and hearing others speak about her that the daughter of the company’s CEO was beautiful inside as well as out. The woman’s build was small, almost pixielike, the perfect foil for Alex’s dark, muscular good looks. Everything Cailin had always wanted to be. Her failure to keep Sean happy, her inability to have a baby weighed heavily on her as she watched the woman eat and talk. Sara Beth seemed to have it all.

Trying to shake off the thought—and the self-pity it generated—Cailin turned her attention to the other woman at the table. Taller, darker, with olive skin and nut-brown hair and eyes. It took Cailin a moment to place her as one of the women she’d seen when she went through processing with the human resources department on her first day. Samantha, maybe? Something like that. Her first day at Keane Industries remained a huge blur in her mind, everything overshadowed by the discovery of Alex’s marriage and her own duplicity in his deceit.

She’d welcomed that blur for two weeks. But today…today woke her up fast. Guilt slammed into her. God, she’d frozen completely at his touch, the feel of him just so darn good. She’d wanted his hands everywhere, his tongue in her mouth. He’d been hard against her. Amazing. Appalling. How could she feel this way about a man without integrity? Without honor? He was worse than Sean, wasn’t he? At least Sean hadn’t turned to another woman; Alex had.

Her gaze lingered on Sara Beth and her companion. The woman lifted a fry and placed it in Sara Beth’s mouth, and the look they exchanged… Cailin frowned. Something about it just… She didn’t know.

She shook her head as if the rattling would straighten out her thoughts, her confusion. Heck, maybe even her life. But experience had taught her pain didn’t heal that fast. She had a long road ahead of her.

And a long afternoon, she thought as she looked over at the pile of stuff she still had to schlep back to the office. She’d better get on it.

Cailin hurried to take care of her trash. Just as she settled her tray on the waiting shelf, she heard her name being called in the feminine voice she’d most wanted to avoid.

“It’s great to see you here,” Sara Beth cried with what seemed like genuine excitement as Cailin cautiously approached their table. “Sam, this is Alex’s new executive assistant, Cailin. Cailin, Sam.”

Cailin smiled a hello, but Sara Beth was far from done.

“Sit, please.” That gentle addition didn’t change the command of the first word. Sara Beth patted the chair kitty-corner to hers. “How have things been going?”