The Millionaire Affair(19)

He made himself a cup of coffee, pausing to tell Lyon to eat his  breakfast and to mention to her that he hoped he'd be home earlier than  the last two nights. He'd also slid her a knowing look that made her  nipples tighten before murmuring, "Red or white wine tonight? I'd like  to prepare my palate."

She fanned her shirt now, her face growing warm as she remembered the  way he'd licked his bottom lip and sent her a smile. Her palate was  prepared for one thing for sure: more of his amazing mouth.

"Well. Whatever label you put on it, it's still perfect," Glo said.

Back to that? "Okay. I give. What, exactly, is perfect?"

"Your situation with Landon. A fun-night stand with him would be the perfect fix to your issue with thinking you're in love."         

     



 

"I seriously doubt he has any interest in dating me." But her private  parts tingled at the idea of taking his clothes off. Because yowza.

"Not dating. No dating. Sometimes I think your vintage lifestyle has  seeped into your brain." Glo laughed at her own joke and elbowed Kimber  good-naturedly. "Anyway, I'm not talking about dating or having a  boyfriend. I'm talking about an affair. A clandestine one."

"Oh, I see. You're insane." Kimber sent her a wry smile.

"He kissed you. You kissed him. You're practically lovers already."

Kimber laughed but it sounded strange. And strained. And she was a  little sweaty now that a visual of her sexing up Landon Downey had  flashed onto the frontal lobe of her brain. She chewed on the inside of  her lip while she stirred her iced cappuccino with the straw. Glo was  right. He had kissed her. Heck, he'd made the first move. Well, if she  didn't count stroking his temple with her fingernails. And the moonlit  night had been romantic …

"You're thinking about it," Gloria sang.

"Yeah, I am. I've sort of been wandering in the desert since Mick and I  split. I'm on a diet of no sex and arguing with my ex. And, you know …   he's Mick." She gave Gloria a meaningful look. They'd dished about their  sex lives before. Glo knew how unsatisfied she'd been.

Glo grunted. "Yeah, well Cameron was my last and that was over a month ago." She wrinkled her nose. "No good."

"Why do you insist on finding guys at the club if it never works out?"

"Because one day it might." Sad thing was, she knew Glo really believed  that. That she'd find her Prince Charming in the midst of absinthe and  Jäger bombs. "Too bad I don't like kids. Or my client might be a good  option." She sent a meaningful glance over at Lyon.

"You don't mean … "

"Hey, Evan is hot. Hot with two Ts."

She couldn't argue. "He is. And he's a good dad."

Gloria sighed. Kimber said nothing. Gloria's home life hadn't been a  pretty one. Compared to her druggie mother and various foster homes,  Kimber's adolescence resembled The Brady Bunch. Glo probably thought  she'd make a terrible mother. But what woman didn't worry about what  kind of parent she'd be?

By comparison, Kimber couldn't fault her own parents. After she'd grown  up, she realized they were disturbingly normal. Human. Accidentally  pregnant with Kimber, her mother had married her father. The marriage  lasted sixteen years before ending in divorce. It was the  not-earth-shattering story of how two people who were once in love grew  apart. Kimber planned on getting married one time, and one time only.  But at this rate, even that was looking un-doable. She'd developed a bad  pattern. A pattern of searching for longevity where there was none. Why  she expected every next relationship to stand the test of time was  easily deciphered: She wanted forever.

"Hey." Glo snapped her fingers. "Jack Handey. Having some Deep Thoughts  over there?" She smiled at her own joke. "So what do you think of a  fling?"

"A fling?"

"Do you prefer millionaire affair?"

"Gloria," she reprimanded, appalled.

"Okay, okay," her friend said around a laugh. Fun-night stand."

"Mick was a one-night stand and that didn't work out." Or, at least,  that had been the idea. It'd been Glo who'd suggested Kimber pick up  Mick. He was supposed to help her get over an ex-boyfriend. It worked. A  little too well.

"Not a one-night stand." Glo fell silent as a woman walked by with her  toddler daughter in tow. When the mother was out of earshot, she  continued. "A fun-night stand."

"And that is?"

She shrugged. "A fling that lasts until it stops being fun. Yours is  pre-packaged to be just that. Landon doesn't do connection, obviously,  if he was so willing to have an ‘arrangement' with that supermodel."

Kimber wrinkled her nose. That arrangement didn't make sense. Not  really. Landon was from a beautiful, giving, lovely family. He genuinely  loved and cared for his siblings and nephew. She'd seen him around  Lyon. He was great with him. And Angel told her how he hadn't wanted  Lyon to stay at his business's day care. He'd hired Kimber so that Evan  could take his art immersion classes. So that Lyon could have  round-the-clock care. And Landon wasn't the Tin Man.

And now that she thought about Lyon …  "It won't be easy. We sort of have a child in the house."         

     



 

"A big house. Parents find a way. You"-Glo poked her arm-"will find a way."

She had to laugh. This was sounding more like a mission by the minute.  "I'm not a sitcom character, you know. This isn't a romantic comedy  where you can concoct a plot and a specific outcome."

"I know! This is your life." Glo opened her palms to the heavens, then  shook Kimber's arm. "And your life doesn't have to be this much  pressure! You've gone from long-term relationship to long-term  relationship. Trust me on this. You need laid, not encumbered."

She could get behind that. The very last thing she wanted was to be  encumbered. Again. "But Angel's my friend. Won't that be awkward?"

"Why? Do you go to her house for Christmas or something?"

Valid point. "What if Landon tells Evan and Evan talks to you about it?"

"They're men, sweetheart, they don't gossip like we do. If Landon did  tell Evan, it'd never get back to me. Plus, I'd already know because  you're going to tell me everything."

"Everything?" Kimber asked with a weak smile.

Glo waggled her brows. "Everything."

"A fun-night stand," Kimber murmured to herself. "It does have a nice ring to it."

Gloria grinned, satisfied. "Does, doesn't it?"

Lyon picked a dandelion and handed it to the very little girl who had  walked by with her mother a moment ago. She was sitting in the sandbox,  her chubby knees poking out of the sand. He offered again and the girl  took the weed and rolled it between her tiny fingers. Then he patted her  on the arm and smiled that charming Downey smile.

"God, he's cute," Glo said, something wistful and rare lining her happy-go-lucky voice.

"I know," Kimber replied softly.

You should see his uncle.



Landon hadn't wanted to go to work on Saturday, not when it was Lyon's  last day here. He'd appeased himself by promising he'd come home early.  He did; right around six, which wasn't half-bad.

And yeah, he'd been hard on his designers this week. Harder than  necessary, truth be told. They weren't as dim or imbecilic as he'd  accused them of being. He could be a tyrant when he was laser-focused.  He'd gifted them with certificates to a local restaurant, enough for  them to treat their spouses/significant others. They'd earned it. Windy  City now had a solid visual concept everyone was behind. No slogan yet,  but he breathed a sigh of relief at having made it this far.

When he'd overheard several people making plans to go out tonight, he'd  found himself feeling the rare urge to be included in the celebration.  Not that he'd intended on going-he never hung out with his employees in a  casual environment. They didn't want him to, and he understood why. Who  wanted to hang out with the boss? Watch everything they say? But he'd  entertained the notion, picturing Kimber on his arm, her body decked out  in a vintage dress showcasing the length of her legs, her hair a bright  red twist at the back of her neck.

That's when he'd concluded the fantasy had nothing to do with going out  with his co-workers. He wanted to go out with her. Especially after the  kiss on the balcony last night. How many times had he caught his mind  straying to the memory of her fingers on his neck, the press of her  breasts against his chest, the erotic way she slid her tongue along his  lips? Too many.

Or not enough.

The thought of Kimber at one of his work functions made him smile. Her  presence would go over a lot smoother than Lissa's. Lissa saw herself as  a work of art. As a result, she was constantly striking a pose or  pulling her lips into a moue for whoever might be looking in her  direction. She'd told him once her job was to be "consistently  beautiful." At the time, he'd understood. His job was to be consistently  professional; he could relate to the pressure of meeting expectations.