Mr. Big(39)

“Look at you working away in here! It’s such a pretty day outside! Have you been out yet? You should. It’s gorgeous. The weather report is calling for rain next week; you ought to take at least a few minutes and go out to walk around in the sunshine. It’s good for you.” Maddie walked over to Mia’s desk and passed it, going to the windows and looking down onto the street.

“This is a nice view, and the fresh air through the window is good for you, but it isn’t the same thing,” she said, looking at Mia as Mia rose from her desk and walked over to stand beside Maddie at the window.

“I know it isn’t. I just have a lot to do before I can get out to enjoy any of that, but I will.” Mia reached her arms up and hugged Maddie tightly. She looked at her curiously when she let go and slid her hands to her hips.

“So what brings you over here to my neighborhood?” she asked. Maddie worked on Wall Street, and was not often outside of the area, although SoHo wasn’t really far away at all.

Maddie grinned at her. “Well, business with you brings me over here, but after having seen some of the men in your neighborhood and in this building, I think I might have to start coming over here to have lunch with you! You never told me there were so many hot guys over here. Have you been keeping them all to yourself?” Maddie winked and then waved her hand and pulled her purse from her shoulder and set it on Mia’s desk.

Mia watched as she pulled an envelope out of it and held it in front of her by the edges as if she was presenting an Oscar award. Maddie lifted her chin and raised her voice, giving it an authoritative sound.

“Mia James, as one of your best friends, it is my honor to present you with this reward for going above and beyond the call in the line of sexual duty in the endeavor that we challenged you with. You were given the task of meeting one Alexander Daniels, with the sole intent of seducing him into bed to discern whether or not the rumors were true that his nickname is Mr. Big because he is much more amply endowed than most men. You accepted the challenge, and you gave it your best, which is what you do in everything that you undertake. Your third try with him was a charm and you bedded him successfully. You came back to the group and reported your findings, telling us that he is indeed a man of big, big means, and that report fully satisfied the requirements of the challenge set forth to you by the group.”

Maddie paused dramatically and grinned, handing the envelope to Mia, who was trying to withhold a laugh and listen to her friend’s dramatic presentation with some semblance of austerity.

“In recognition for work very well done, and for all of your efforts, it is our happy delight to present you with this round trip ticket to Italy, as well as funds for hotels, meals, and half the wine in the country. Challenge well met!” she said proudly, and Mia took the envelope into her hands and laughed as she looked at Maddie.

Her laugh was interrupted however, by a deep voice that startled both of the ladies. They turned sharply and looked at the doorway behind them, and Maddie raised one eyebrow and smiled, while Mia’s mouth fell full open and she gasped. The envelope in her hand slipped from her fingers and dropped to the floor, making a sharp noise that seemed to echo around all of them.

“A challenge?” Alexander said in amazement as his normally warm eyes locked on Mia like cold steel. “This was a game to you?” he gasped, walking into the room toward them both. “I was a game? You planned the whole thing? You came to my office and met me so you could try to get me into bed to find out how big of an erection I can get?”

The red in his face was darkening by the moment. He shook his head in disbelief. Mia felt as if she had somehow been hit by lightning and everything in her froze. Her stomach tightened into a hard knot and she wished that there was some way her lungs would let her breathe, because they were beginning to hurt.

Maddie, who had begun to realize just who it was that had been standing in the doorway, gaped and stared in horror.

Alexander stepped closer to them both, but his eyes never left Mia. His voice was strong and unforgiving and she could see the whole truth forming in his mind as comprehension shed light on all of it for him. “This whole time? Everything between us from the very first day was so that you could… you could… win a trip to Italy? Is that right? Did I just hear all of that right?”

She wished that she didn’t feel frozen to the spot. She wished with everything in her that she could think or speak, and she opened her mouth to try to respond to him, but nothing came out. Nothing at all.

His brows furrowed and his eyes grew ice cold. “I believed you, Mia. I believed everything about you, about us, and about what was happening between us, because for me there was something very good and special happening between us, and I actually thought that it was going to go somewhere. I thought that you were one of the best women I had ever met in my life.” He shook his head, never looking away from her as her heart threatened to thud right out of her chest.