FallingforSharde_MLU (8 page)

“Me and him? Never!” She shook her head. “No offense, Sharde, but I prefer my men a lot darker.”

“None taken. I didn’t set out to fall in love with him. It just happened. When he hired me, he was struggling to get the company off the ground and we worked a lot of overtime together. More than one night, we worked so late we fell asleep in the office... me on the sofa and him in a chair. One night, while we were working, he asked if I’d mind if he put the radio on so he could listen to the World Series. Since I had set my VCR to tape it in case I missed it, I said no. That night we discovered we had a lot in common and we liked each other. At least he liked me and I fell in love with him. I don’t know when it happened. One night I went to sleep really liking him a lot. The next morning I woke up in love with him.

“Until that happened, I’d planned to get a few years’ experience in here and then head out to work in Atlanta. Instead, I’ve spent the last several years waiting for him to wake up and realize we should be more than friends.”

“I think he realizes that now, Sharde.”

“He realizes he wants to be my lover. I want more than that from him.”

“Isn’t part of getting to that point going out with him?”

“Yes... when he wants more than sex. Does that make me sound hard?”

She shook her head. “No. You have to do what you feel is right. Just don’t push him too hard too fast. It can’t be easy for him... after being betrayed by two women he loved in such a short time.”

“It’s his own fault for being so bloody stupid! I knew the moment I saw Vanessa she was a bitch! All he could see was her shaking her bony behind at him.”

“Likes bony asses, huh?”

Sharde arched a brow. “Not anymore.”

Darbi laughed. “I heard that, girl.”

“Tomorrow’s Friday. Any plans?”

“Jadan has this new male strip club she wants to check out,” she said of a mutual friend. “She’s heard about this hot dancer named Sarro. Do you want to come with us to ogle him?”

“Hmmm. Sounds like fun, but the only man I’m interested in ogling is Jefferson. We have a meeting tomorrow afternoon.”

“You going to cut him some slack?”

“Maybe. I don’t know.” She sighed. “But how is Jadan? I haven’t seen her in a while.”

“You know Jadan.”

“What is Tom going to say about her ogling some gorgeous stripper?”

“I don’t think they’re an item anymore.”

“Oh. How’s she taking that?”

“Better than I thought.”

“Well, say hi for me. And while you two are ogling your gorgeous stripper, I’ll be plotting Jeff’s downfall.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Smiling, Sharde closed her eyes, forming a mental picture of Jefferson. One of these days he was going to be hers. “Oh, yeah.”

The next day, Sharde took a long lunch to go shopping for lingerie at Victoria’s Secret. Recalling Jefferson’s reaction to the teddy she’d worn at the cabin, she bought a skimpy red teddy with spaghetti straps. It was called a strappy-back baby doll. Without the matching thong, it left the sides of her breasts, thighs, and ass exposed. All he’d have to do was lift up the front, part her legs, and enter her.

When she returned to the office, she took her hair down and shook it out, running her fingers through it. Looking in the mirror in her private bathroom, she decided she’d managed to achieve the look she wanted, as if a lover had been stroking his fingers through her hair.

She freshened her lipstick, unbuttoned the top two buttons of her blouse, revealing her cleavage, and waited. Right on time for their two o’clock meeting, a knock sounded on her door.

She rose, walked over to the next to lowest file cabinet in her office, bent over so that the short black skirt rose up the back of her thighs and called out, “Come in.”

The door opened. She heard a quick inhalation. Still bending, she looked over her shoulder. “Be with you in a second, Jeff. Just need a few files.”

He stood by the closed door staring at the backs of her thighs. Pretending not to notice, she turned back to the file cabinet, pulled two files out, and straightened. “Got them.”

She sat down and motioned to the chair in front of her desk. “Have a seat.”

He sat, his gaze going to her hair.

She opened the folders on her desk and glanced up at him. “We’ll start interviewing for the system analysts positions on Monday.” She tapped the top folder on her desk. “I have the monthly reports here and–”

He held up a hand, shaking his head. “I have the headache from hell.”

She opened her top left desk drawer. “I have some aspirins.”

“Aspirins aren’t going to help, Sharde.”

“No?”

“No. What I need is...” He raked a hand through his hair. “Could we discuss this over dinner?”

“When?”

“Tonight.”

“Tonight?” She widened her eyes. “I’d like to Jefferson, but–”

His gaze narrowed and he rose to lean over her desk. He stared into her eyes. “Why are you avoiding me?”

“Avoiding you? I’m not. I–”

“The hell you’re not. If I walk into the coffee room, you walk out. If we arrive in the private parking area at the same time, you always manage to linger in your car until I’m inside. If I ask you out for a simple damned meal, you always have other plans!”

Resting his weight on one hand, he curled the fingers of the other hand in her hair, giving it a painful tug. “Don’t jerk my chain, Sharde. You’re avoiding me and I want to know why.”

He was so close she could see the anger in his gray gaze and feel his breath on her lips. She longed to lean forward and kiss the color off his lips. She swallowed instead. “It’s the first Friday of the month. I volunteer at the shelter. Remember? You should. We chose it together as a way for company employees to celebrate Martin Luther King Service Day.”

“Don’t hand me that, Sharde. You’re avoiding me.” His gaze settled on her cleavage. “And flaunting yourself at the same time.”

“Let go of my hair, Jefferson.”

He released her hair.

She lifted her chin. “What is it that you want from me?”

He stroked his fingers through her hair and moved closer until his lips were but a breath away. He leaned his body against the desk and stroked the forefinger of his free hand down her chest to come to rest between her cleavage. “I am tired of being teased and denied, Sharde.”

His finger seemed to burn into the insides of her breasts. She wet her lips. “We agreed when we left the cabin we’d go back to normal. It was your idea, Jeff. You’d rather have me as a friend than a lover. Remember?”

“I want you.”

The muscles in her stomach tightened. “As what?”

He touched his mouth to hers. “I want to sleep with you.” He nibbled at her lips, sliding his hand into her blouse to cup her breasts.

She resisted the temptation to lean into him. Instead, she leaned as far back as his fingers in her hair would allow. “And what would happen on Monday? You’d want us to go back to normal?”

He released her hair and cupped his hand on the back of her neck. “We can be friends and lovers,” he murmured against her lips.

She drew back, ignoring the ache for his kiss. “We want different things, Jefferson. I’m not interested in a casual relationship that’s based solely on sex.”

“What do you want it based on?”

“I’m thirty-two and you’re thirty-eight. Sex alone doesn’t interest me.”

“So you’re saying... what? What it is that you want out of a relationship, Sharde?”

“One of these days I’m going to want to get married and have a couple of kids.”

He released his grip on her neck and recoiled as if she’d attempted to strike him. “Marriage? To who?”

She leaned back in her chair, her face flushing. “Clearly not to you.”

He stared at her. “Are you seeing anyone?”

She pushed her chair back and rose. “If you’re not interested in the meeting, I need some air. It’s kind of stuffy in here.”

He swung around and turned her to face him. “What do you want me to do, Sharde? Beg? I know the desire isn’t all on my side.”

She tossed her hair and stared at him. “I’m not interested in casual, meaningless sex, Jefferson. If I were, I wouldn’t seek it from you. Is that clear enough for you?”

He released her, his eyes narrowing. “It’s very clear, Sharde.”

“So what’s it going to be?”

“I’m not in the mood for any shit from you, Sharde.” He walked across her office and out the door.

So her wanting anything more than sex from him was shit? Shaking, she went back to her desk and sank down into her seat. Her attempt to force him into something more had backfired. She buttoned her blouse and put her hair back up.

She spent the rest of the day trying without success to concentrate on work. Two hours later, she decided she’d had enough. She picked up her briefcase, the decorative bag containing her new teddy, and walked out her office.

She paused at her secretary’s desk. “Judi, I’m going to call it a day. If anything comes up within the next hour that can’t wait–”

Judi, fifty-something and mother of several children, gave her a long look. “I’m sure Darbi can handle whatever comes up. You go home and relax.”

“I can’t. This is my Friday to work at the shelter. I’ll see you on Monday.”

Judi nodded. “Okay. If you want to talk about it–”

She shook her head. She wasn’t about to admit to anyone in the office that she and Jefferson had broken a cardinal rule by sleeping with each other. What was the point when she suspected Judi didn’t miss much? “I’ll be fine. Thanks. Once I get to the shelter, there’ll be so much to do it’ll be time to head home to bed before I know it.”

She encountered Jefferson in the lobby. “I’m leaving early,” she told him. “Have a good weekend.”

He nodded curtly and held the entrance door open.

As she went to slip past him, the handle on her lingerie bag caught on one of the brass handles of the door. She heard a tearing sound. She dropped her briefcase and made a grab for the bag. She missed it and the torn bag tumbled to the floor, exposing the dark red teddy.

Before she could bend and grab it and stuff it into her open jacket, Jefferson reached down and picked it up. He stared down at the skimpy material for a long time before he looked at her. “Who are you planning to wear this for?”

Face burning, she snatched it from him, stuffed it inside her coat, picked up her briefcase, and hurried past him into the private parking lot.

She felt a tingle along the back of her neck and turned. Although it was freezing cold and he only wore a suit, he followed her. She paused at her car and faced him. “What is it?”

“You told me you weren’t seeing anyone, Sharde.”

She opened her car door and tossed her briefcase inside. “It’s none of your concern who I see, Jefferson.”

“I didn’t say it was.”

She slid into her car. “Then why the third degree?”

“What third degree? I asked a simple question. If that’s too personal for you, forget I asked! Wear it for whoever the hell you like!” He slammed the driver door and quickly walked back towards the building entrance. She sat watching him until he went inside.

Taking several deep breaths, she started her car, then jumped as someone tapped on her driver side window. She turned and stiffened.

A beautiful blonde with blue eyes bent over her car. Swallowing a rush of dislike, she lowered her window, considering Vanessa Del Warren with a smile that was as phony as the other woman’s. “Vanessa. What brings you here?”

“It’s lovely to see you again, Sharde. I’m here to see Jefferson, of course.”

“Why?”

Vanessa’s smile widened. “Because I want him back. Why else?”

Sharde’s nostrils flared. Vanessa would get him back not a moment before hell froze over. “What makes you think that’s possible after the way you walked out on him?”

Vanessa flashed her ungloved left hand where she wore a large diamond engagement ring. “He allowed me to keep this ring because he was hoping I’d come back to him. Well, I have.”

Bile rose in Sharde’s throat. “Things didn’t work out in your greener pasture? What’s the matter? Frazier wasn’t interested?”

Vanessa’s eyes shot angry daggers at her. “Look, I’ve always known you were jealous, but the fact is, Jefferson wants me. He has from the moment we met. I was hoping to enlist your help in getting him back, but now I see you’re still consumed by jealousy! I wouldn’t waste any more of your time lusting for him, Sharde, because I will have him back!”

“Get the hell out of my face, Vanessa, before I’m tempted to run you over like the road kill you are!”

Vanessa sucked in a breath. “When I have him back under my thumb, the first thing I’m going to do is have you fired.”

She laughed. “Wise up, Vanessa. No matter how in love with you he might be, he’d never even consider firing me. You only
think
you know him. I actually know him. Get out of my face–now!”

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe he won’t fire you. But that just might suit me better. I think I’m going to enjoy watching you eat your heart out again as I reclaim his heart and this time take his name. How does Vanessa D. Calder sound?”

“Like a pipe dream!”

“Don’t you wish?” Vanessa straightened, held her full-length mink around her body, and stalked to the entrance.

Shaken, Sharde sat in her car, uncertain if she should leave as planned or return to work in an effort to ensure Jeff didn’t fall into Vanessa’s clutches again. She gave an angry shake of her head. If he took her back after she’d left him for Clayton Frazier, they deserved each other.

She drove out of the parking lot to the other side of town. In the shelter’s small parking lot, she removed her heels and replaced them with flat shoes. Her wallet, checkbook, and keys went into the leather fanny pack she fastened around her waist, under her jacket. Getting out of the car, she locked her briefcase, handbag, and the teddy in the trunk of her car before going into the big rundown building where she spent the first Friday of the month volunteering.

She went in through the back entrance. A tall, thin woman with faded blonde hair and brown eyes stood behind a table serving a group of men and women. She looked up, her smile rearranging the lines around her mouth. “Sharde. You’re early.”