Designed for Love (4 page)

"Sounds good to me, but how about we
get the coffee at the airport while we wait. You know there's going to be a long
line waiting for that flight." He went into the bathroom and took a deep
breath. The affect he had on her wasn't lost on him. So she was interested.
Part of him wanted to cross the room and take her in his arms. Hell, he wanted
to take her to bed. Good thing they had a plane to catch, and the sooner the
better. He had to ignore the way she licked her lips. He splashed cold water on
his face. Lots of cold water.

After he calmed down, he brushed his
teeth. He couldn't remember wanting a woman that bad before. What was it about
her? She wasn't his usual type. He preferred blonds. But that red hair sure did
something to him. He'd never dated a redhead before. Usually he stayed away
from them. He'd never met a redhead who didn't have a volatile temper. One thing
he didn't need was a temperamental woman. And Wendy sure fit the bill.

But for some reason he wanted to throw
all caution to the wind. He wanted to know her better. Sure, he wanted to take
her to bed, but he wanted more. That scared the hell out of him. What he didn't
need was a relationship with a redhead. She'd already showed her temper. Yet,
she also presented a challenge. And one thing he loved was a challenge. He
never shied away from one. In business or in his personal life. Somehow, he
knew he wouldn't shy away from this one either.

He came out of the bathroom, grabbed his
shirt and caught her looking out of the corner of his eye. She's attracted to
me, can't deny that. The look in her eyes screamed desire. If nothing else, she
wanted him. Oh, yeah, she wanted him as much as he wanted her. Problem is, he
didn't just want a quick one night stand. He wanted a long term relationship.
He doubted she'd even give in to her desire to sleep with him anyway. She
didn't appear to be that kind of woman. Hell, she'd already made it very clear
she didn't want a man in her life. Didn't have time for one.

What made him think she'd give into the
temptation to go to bed with him? Nope, not her. Just from that one
conversation he knew she was self-disciplined. Even if she wanted to, she
wouldn't give in. Now that presented a real challenge. He buttoned the last
button on his shirt and looked up at her. The desire hadn't lessened.

"Ready?" he asked as he grabbed
their coats off the hangers.

"As I'll ever be." Wendy took
her coat from him, hooked it over her arm and grabbed her carry-on bag. "I
sure hope we don't have to sit at the airport all day waiting for a
flight."

"I wonder if we shouldn't have got
up earlier. I have a funny feeling that line is going to be a long one."
Bill picked up his duffel bag, did a quick scan around the room and followed
her to the hall.

"Glad we asked for the airport
shuttle to pick us up." Wendy said.

On the elevator, Bill watched her facial
expressions change. From desire to confusion to downright disgust. With him?
Maybe with herself? Whatever it was, he had to figure a way to break through
it. She wasn't the type to go in for a casual relationship, and she wasn't
ready for a serious one. Not at this point of her life, he believed she said.
So, how to change her mind? He'd like to take her to dinner while they were in Florida, but she was
there on business, and she'd made it very clear she didn't mix business with
pleasure. In fact, she said she didn't have time for pleasure.

At the airport, he held the door while
she climbed out of the shuttle. He resisted the urge to take her hand again.
Not easy to do under the circumstances. She almost tripped on the way out. But
he gave her space. They hurried to the ticket counter, and he let out a big
breath. The line wasn't nearly as long as he feared.

"Do you suppose this is a good omen?
Not that I believe in omens. But, either everyone already went through the line
and we're late, or no one else wants to get on this flight," Wendy said.

Bill couldn't believe his eyes. The line
was actually shorter than yesterday. Yesterday, he didn't have to stand in
line, since he'd pre-registered through the internet. Unfortunately, today he
wasn't as lucky.

"We'll see in a minute." Bill
followed her through the maze of posts and ropes to the counter.

Wendy finally approached the counter,
Bill stood right behind her. Hopefully, they'd get seats next to each other. It
was obvious Wendy would have preferred he wait his turn, and even tried to
ignore him.
 

"I'd like to rebook a flight to Fort Myers." Wendy
turned sideways away from him.

The lady behind the counter looked at
them. "Both of you?"

"Yes," Bill said before Wendy
had a chance to reply.

"It doesn't matter if it's the same
flight," Wendy quickly interjected.

The woman punched some information into
her computer. "I have two seats on Flight 675. It leaves at 8:45. You
still have time to make it."

"We'll take it." Bill wasn't
about to give Wendy a chance to refuse.

"Our luggage from last night, will
they be able to get it on the plane?" Wendy asked.

The clerk shook her head. "I believe
they've already started loading the luggage." She printed out two tickets
and handed them to Bill. "Gate D."

Bill looked at the tickets. Two seats
next to each other, talk about luck. "We'd better hurry. They're going to
be boarding soon."

Wendy followed Bill and grabbed one of
the tickets from him. They stopped at the security gate, took off their coats,
set them in the tray and set their carry-ons next to it. He hated all this
security. A necessary evil, he supposed. Better to do this than to have the
plane hijacked. Or worse, another nine-eleven.

They went through the security device and
waited for their stuff to come out the other end. Thank goodness, they had a
flight.

"Damn it." Wendy snapped her
fingers.

"What's wrong?"

"My samples are in my luggage,
somewhere in the baggage compartment. This trip does absolutely no good without
those samples. That was the main reason for me going to Florida," Wendy said. "This is
totally insane. I should have thought this through before I rebooked the
flight. If the luggage didn't arrive I have no reason to go."

"But you can still meet with your
client."

"I should have called my boss and
explained it to him. Maybe it isn't too late." She took out her cell phone
and punched in the number.

"I'll get us a couple coffees."
Bill figured she needed her privacy. Besides, he needed a cup.

* * *

I nodded and walked away. Good, I didn't
need him listening to my conversation. Nick's phone rang and rang. No answer.
Not even his voice mail. That wasn't like Nick. He always had his phone turned
on. Great, now what? Guess I'd have to get on the plane and explain it when I
got there. Maybe I could have the office overnight another batch of samples. I
still didn't understand why Nick didn't just do that to begin with.

I punched in the number to my office.
"Alex, this is Wendy. I need a big favor. I need you to get identical
samples that I had and overnight them to Nick."

"Don't tell me yours was one of the
flights that got cancelled." Alex said.

"Yep, lucky me."

"Oh, no. You didn't have to spend
the night at the airport. Did you?"

"No, I was fortunate enough to get a
room." No point in telling her I had to share it with a hunk. Alex would
never understand why I didn't take advantage. Hell, Alex didn't understand why
I didn't date. No one did. Even my family. They just didn't realize how
important my career was to me.

"Do you have a flight out now?"

"Yeah, I'm about ready to board. So
find those samples and get them sent ASAP, okay?"

"Will do. You have a great flight.
Oh, and Wendy..."

"What?"

"Try to have a little fun while
you're there. Take in some sun. Bask in the warmth. Live a little."

I groaned. The usual advice. Live a
little. I was living. It wasn't my fault if no one agreed with my lifestyle. It
suited me.

"Right. Okay, bye." I clicked
off the phone before Alex had a chance to say anything else. Alex was a good
friend, and we did a lot together. I'd trust her with my life if it came down
to it. But I was damned tired of everyone trying to run my life.

Why couldn't they accept me the way I
was? I didn't need a man to complicate things right now. That's what men did.
Complicated things. They needed attention, and I didn't have time to share my
attention with anyone.

Men wanted homes, families. They wanted
the little woman to be there with dinner on the table when they came home from
work. Look at my sisters. The lifestyle suited them. They had kids, beautiful
homes. Homes I helped decorate.

But they didn't have the kind of careers
I wanted and that was fine for them. Okay, so Emily taught school. That was
great for her. She worked when the kids were in school. When they were home,
she was home, other than a couple days a year when she had to be at school for
conferences or whatever. Then Jake took over. Good job for my sister. It suited
her.

Emily was a good teacher. But that wasn't
for me. I didn't want to stay home with kids. I loved my job. And I often
worked nights. What husband would put up with that?

Nope, until I established my own business
and could set my own hours, I didn't want a man, let alone kids. I loved my
nieces and nephews. Loved them dearly and truth be told, sometimes I envied my
sisters. Amber, the romance novelist, worked from home. She set her own hours,
and if her kids were sick, she didn't have to take a day off work to attend to
them. Not that Amber didn't work hard, but once she published her fist romance
novel her career really took off. It seemed she cranked books out faster than
most people can think. Five, sometimes six a year.

Besides that, Jake and Kevin were great
husbands and helped more than the average bear. They thought nothing of doing
laundry or making dinner. So it worked for my sisters.

And Allie, well that poor girl couldn't
wait to get married. That's all she ever talked about. How many times had we
tried to talk some sense into her? Allie needed to finish college before she
thought about marriage. She needed some kind of career to count on. A back up
plan of sorts.

Even Emily and Amber knew that. If
anything ever happened to Kevin or Jake, they could take care of themselves.
Heck, Amber could start her own web design firm if she wanted to, even now. Not
to mention the royalties from her books.

How many times had all three of us ganged
up on Allie? Even our parents begged her to finish school. Although, God only
knew what any of us were worried about, Allie didn't even have a serious
boyfriend.

Sometimes, I thought Allie said stuff
like that to get a rise out of us. Looking for attention more than likely. Poor
kid felt neglected since the grandkids came along. Not that Mom and Dad
neglected her. Ha, far from it. If anything, she was spoiled rotten. Hell, even
Emily, Amber, and I spoiled Allie. Always had. Yeah, poor little Allie. Baby of
the family and neglected. I had to stifle a laugh.

But face it– my job was more demanding
than my sisters. I had to meet with clients at all hours. Whatever suited them.
Sure I tried to schedule the meetings at reasonable times to suit myself too,
but more often than not I gave in to their demands. It wasn't unusual to meet
with a client at seven or eight in the evening. After all, most of them had
careers too. And the ones that didn't had other responsibilities. Charity
events or club projects. Just because they were undeniably wealthy didn't mean
they sat around all day and did nothing. Nope, I didn't have time for men.

"Hey, they're calling our flight for
boarding." Bill handed me a cup of coffee and shook me back to the
present. I put my phone back in my purse, stood up, took a sip of coffee and
hurried to the boarding gate.

Bill found our seats and stored my
carry-on in the overhead compartment along with his duffel bag. How ironic that
we had seats together. Heck, I'd hoped we wouldn't even get on the same flight.
What was it I said about omens? That I didn't believe in them. Shoot, I didn't
even believe in fate. Maybe I was starting to believe after all. Whatever you
wanted to call it, I didn't like it.

I leaned back and stretched my legs as
much as the area allowed, which wasn't much. One of the things I hated about
flying. Why couldn't they give you some decent leg room? I glanced at Bill's
long legs. Maybe I should quit complaining. At almost six feet tall, he looked
anything but comfortable.

The whirr of the motors started and the
plane moved forward. Grasping the arms of the seat, I closed my eyes, took a
deep breath and leaned back. Another thing I hated about flying. Taking off and
landing.

I tried to clear my mind as the plane
lifted off the ground.

Chapter Seven

I gripped the armrest and closed my eyes.
Worst part of flying, taking off and landing. Bill's hand covered mine. Great,
just what I needed, I hated showing fear. Bill probably thought I was a big
baby.