He had gone to the baseball game on Saturday with Rob, thinking it was nice to hang with his old friend, something he hadn’t done in a long time. Halfway through Rob had confessed Mandy had given him the tickets. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
Clearly Mandy was thinking about him, but she was ignoring him. He spent half his workdays trying to run her to ground in her cubicle and the other half trying to engage her in conversation with him via e-mail or instant messaging.
Her responses were polite but brusque.
It was driving him insane. He had to see her. He had to talk to her. He had to make love to her.
He no longer cared if he wasn’t capable of having a relationship with Mandy. He had to take whatever she was willing to give, and if that was just sex, so be it.
Their little decision on the plane back from Punta Cana to leave it alone, at just good memories, had been either stupidly naive or just plain crazy.
"Can I help you, Mr. Sharpton?" The receptionist stared at him nervously from behind an enormous fake floral arrangement sitting on the desk.
He could barely see her around the damn thing. Shoving the meadow-in-a-vase over, he asked, "Have you seen Mandy Keeling?"
She dropped her pen, and her lip trembled. Damn, without meaning to he was glaring at her ogrelike. He tried to smooth out his features as she shook her head.
"I haven’t seen her. But I could call…"
Damien cut her off with his hand in the air, because right at that moment he spotted Mandy coming out of the rest room. "Never mind."
It had been twenty-two long and lousy days since he’d seen Mandy, except for that split second in his office doorway when she had scurried away from him.
Now as she walked toward him, he swallowed hard. She looked incredible. Her hair was loose, falling past her chin in those waves he loved, and she was wearing a sundress. The coral one she’d had on in Punta Cana. He figured she was wearing the dress because it had no waist, but he could tell with one glance that her stomach had popped out even farther.
Her breasts were bigger, too, if that were possible.
Something happened inside of him. Everything shifted and cracked and splintered, and he took a deep breath.
"Mandy."
She looked up at him, her hand still in the purse where she’d been digging for something.
Her mouth opened in surprise, and a smile flitted across her face. But then she glanced at the receptionist and tucked her hair behind her ear nervously. "Mr. Sharpton? Did you need me?"
That was a loaded question. "Yes. In my office. Now."
He turned just in time to see the receptionist wincing. When she saw him looking at her, she dropped her gaze to the desk and grabbed a pad of paper. She coughed.
Rubbing the palm of his hand into the middle of his forehead, Damien sighed.
"Do I need anything from my desk?" Mandy started down the hall.
"No." Even he could hear how harsh his voice sounded.
She glanced at him in surprise, but she didn’t look inclined to wince or cry or tremble.
When they got into the office, he closed the door, and she turned to look at him in question. "What did you need?"
He ignored the question. "You look good. Sexy. I have such great memories of pulling that dress down over your breasts."
Her expression went from astonished to cautious. "What are you doing, Damien? I thought we weren’t going to continue in that… vein."
"I tried, babe, I really did. But the last three weeks just haven’t been right. I miss you."
And in case she didn’t get the message, he stepped up to her, completely invading all of her personal space, and pulled her into his arms.
"Damien…"
She dragged his name out so long, it practically took a minute to say it.
Brushing her hair off her cheek, he kissed her forehead. Her eyelid. Her temple, her jaw. "Why have you been avoiding me?"
"That’s what we agreed to do. That’s what we need to do."
But even as she spoke, her arms were twining around his neck. "And you haven’t exactly been coming on to me. You’re more concerned about the baby than me."
Breathing deeply, he tugged her closer. He’d been an idiot to think he could just give her up. "That’s just not true. I’ve been going crazy wanting you, and I thought at least if we were friends, I could look out for you, still be in your life." All his thinking, all his logic of the past three weeks, seemed stupid and irrelevant now.
Damien tugged the neckline of her dress down an inch so he could see her impressive cleavage. Nuzzling there, he heard her sigh. "Tell me again why we can’t keep doing what we were doing in Punta Cana?"
"Because I’m having a baby and I need to get my life sorted out. I need to find a place to live, make sure my job is secure, find day care. I need to figure out how I’m going to pay for two-thousand-dollar pieces of baby furniture."
He kept kissing, moving from right to left, tasting her sweet flesh. "Anything else?"
"Ben showed up at my apartment wanting to get back together."
That gave him pause. He hovered over her chest and asked carefully, "And did you say yes or no?"
"Of course I said no! After what he did, and after what you and I shared… and how could you think I would be letting you kiss me right now if I’d got back together with Ben?"
"Just making sure." He resumed his movements, this time sliding his tongue under the rim of her bra. She tasted absolutely delicious. And he really liked the way she had phrased that… after what you and I shared.
He felt the same way. It had been something special. Was something special. Could continue to be that way.
"So Ben took a hike?"
"Well, not exactly." When he stopped and lifted his head, she pushed him back down to her breast. "He wants to be in the baby’s life. It’s all very awkward right now. Which is why you and I can’t do this."
"Any other reasons we can’t do this?" Damien peeled back one cup of the bra and flicked his tongue over her nipple.
Her words were breathless. "You’re not over losing Jess. You said yourself you can’t be in a relationship, and you certainly don’t want me with all my baggage."
The things she said all made sense. None of the reasoning had changed. She was pregnant. He was an emotional mess.
But none of it mattered. It really didn’t.
He would figure out the future later. Right now he just knew he needed to have Mandy in his life.