Wallbanger(25)

“So how do you know Benjamin and Jil ian?” I asked, walking up the stairs ahead of him. I knew for certain he was checking out my legs, and

why wouldn’t he? I had great stems, currently flattered by my flouncy little dress.

“Benjamin’s been a friend of my family’s for years. I’ve known him practical y my whole life. He also manages my investments,” Simon

answered as we rounded the first floor and started on the second.

I looked over my shoulder and confirmed him peeking at my legs. Ha! Caught him. “Oooh, your investments. Have a few savings bonds left

over from birthdays there, moneybags?” I teased.

He chuckled. “Yeah, something like that.”

We continued up the stairs.

“It’s curious, don’t you think?” I offered.

“Curious?” he asked, his voice slipping over me like warm honey.

“Wel , I mean, Benjamin and Jil ian both knowing us, us meeting at a party like this, and you being the one that’s been keeping me nocturnal y

amused al these weeks. Smal world, I suppose?” We rounded the top stair, and I got my keys out.

“San Francisco’s a big city, but it can feel like a smal town in some ways,” he offered. “But yes, it’s curious. Intriguing even. Who knew that the

nice designer Jil ian wanted to set me up with was actual y Pink Nightie Girl? Had I known, I might have taken her up on it,” he replied, that

damnable grin back on his beautiful face.

Dammit, why couldn’t he have stayed an asshole?

“Yes, but Pink Nightie Girl would have said no. After al , thin wal s and al …” I winked, making a fist and thumping on the wal next to my door. I

could hear Clive prattling around behind the door, and I needed to get inside before he began to wail.

“Ah yes, thin wal s. Hmmm…Wel , good night, Caroline. Truce is stil on, right?” he asked, turning toward his door.

“Truce is stil on, unless you do something to make me mad again.” I laughed, leaning in the doorway.

“Oh, count on that. And Caroline? Speaking of thin wal s?” he said, as he opened his door and looked back at me. He leaned in his own

doorway, thumping his fist on the wal .

“Yes?” I asked, a little too dreamily for my own good.

The smirk reappeared and he said, “Sweet dreams.”

He thumped the wal one more time, winked, and went inside.

Huh. Sweet dreams and thin wal s. Sweet dreams and thin wal s…

Mother of pearl. He’d heard me.





Chapter Seven


POKE.

“Grrr.”

Poke. Knead, knead. Poke.

“Enough.”

Knead, knead, knead. Head butt.

“I realize you don’t know how to read a calendar, but you should know when it’s Sunday. Seriously, Clive.”

Hard head butt.

I rol ed over, away from Clive’s head butts and persistent poking, and pul ed the covers over my head. Flashes of the night before kept

appearing. Simon in Jil ian’s kitchen with the intro heard round the world. His friends cal ing me Pink Nightie Girl. Benjamin putting two and two

together when he learned I was the Pink Nightie Girl. Kissing Simon. Mmm, kissing Simon.

No, no kissing the Simon! I snuggled deeper under the covers.

Sweet dreams and thin walls…Sheer mortification washed over me as I remembered his parting words. I burrowed farther under the covers.

My heart beat faster, thinking about how embarrassed I’d been. Heart, pay no attention to that girl below the covers.

Last night had been decidedly dream free, but to make sure no one (Simon) could hear me screaming in passion, I’d slept with the TV on. The

revelation that Simon had heard me dreaming of him had thrown me for such a loop that I flipped endlessly through the channels, trying to find

something that would not sound like me having my own version of the Simon Wet Dream. I ended up on the al -infomercial channel, which, of

course, kept me up later that I’d planned. Everything they sold was fascinating. I had to pry the cel phone out of my own hand at three thirty a.m.

when I almost ordered the Slap Chop—to say nothing of the half hour I wil never get back after watching Bowser try to sel me the Time Life

col ection of songs from the fifties.

Al this was in addition to listening to the sounds of Tommy Dorsey coming through the wal . They made me smile. I can’t lie.

I stretched lazily under the sheet, stifling a giggle as I watched the shadow of Clive stalking me, trying to figure out a way in. He tried every

angle as I deflected his advances. Final y, he resumed his poke-poke-knead approach, and I popped my head back up to laugh at him.

I could handle this thing with Simon. I didn’t have to be total y embarrassed. Sure, my O was gone, maybe for forever. Sure, I’d been having sex