Love.com (18 page)

“Nothing if you’re planning on getting laid tonight. Everything if you’re not.”

“Ok, I don’t really want to have this discussion right now,” Emily snapped and set down her wine glass. “I have to go in a minute.”

Jay regarded her with a grin and tossed down the wine in one gulp. He set down his glass on the counter. “Alright, I won’t hold you up. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Emily
simmered in annoyance as Jay left. She cringed to think she looked like a bar floozy. She went to look at herself in the hall mirror and cursed him for pointing out the obvious. She didn’t look like she was meeting a coworker at all, but a man she very much wanted to impress. There was no time to find something else to wear. She had to leave. She took a deep breath and decided to brazen it out. 

~
~ ~

Ian’s eyebrows shot up when he answered the door. Emily
wondered what he was thinking as he stood aside for her to enter. The luxurious accommodations took her immediate concentration. Ambidor treated Ian well. The penthouse was decorated in tasteful richness, each heavy piece of furniture expensive and matching.

Ian was looking at her in confusion, dressed in
simple cotton grey sweats and a Chicago Cubs tee shirt. “You going somewhere later, Em?”

The perfect out! Emily smiled and nodded. “I’m meeting a friend for a drink.”

Ian shut the door and regarded her with a raised eyebrow. “One of your computer dates?”

“No, a girlfriend
is meeting me later,” Emily lied and crossed her fingers behind her back, knowing she was going to burn to a crisp one day for all this lying. “She wanted to go out dancing. I thought ‘why not’?”

“Dancing huh?” Ian smiled his terrific smile and gestured to the sunken living room where he lounged before her arrival. “I’m glad you’re getting out and having fun, Emily.”

“Yeah well, playing the grieving widow does get old,” Emily replied airily as she followed him in, noticing every curve of his perfect backside in the sweat pants. She swallowed hard as she stepped down into the living room and took a seat on the plush loveseat across from him.

Ian flopped back down and looked her over under his lashes, making her fidget despite her best efforts. Those blue eyes looked decidedly pleased at what they saw. “You don’t look like a
grieving widow tonight, Emily.”

“What do I look like? Good, I hope
?” Emily grinned and forced a lighter tone, feeling impaled by his eyes. Recalling the endless text pictures she sent him the night before encouraged her confidence. “I haven’t gone to the bar in years.”

“You haven’t missed much. Just a bunch of lonely people drinking to forget how lonely they are.”

“Wow, I feel encouraged by that,” Emily said with a laugh. “Might as well give it up, right?”

“Nah, don’t give it up just yet,”
Ian said and his lips curved with a smile. “Leave a little to the imagination. Guys dig that shit.”

“I didn’t mean it like—“

“Yeah, I know what you meant,” Ian said and laughed softly, making her blush. “I was teasing you, Emily. You look great. Get out and have some fun. I hope you aren’t planning on doing a lot of drinking tonight? DUI’s aren’t a lot of fun.”

“Oh, just a little
drinking,” Emily admitted, disgusted to know she achieved a glow from the wine and then some. “I’ll be careful. I don’t plan on closing the bar, if that’s what you think?”

“If you need a ride
later, you can call me,” Ian said and took her by surprise with his offer. “Better to be safe than in jail.”

“You speak from experience?”

Ian rolled his eyes. “I got a DUI several years ago on New Year’s Eve. Trust me when I say that jail isn’t a pleasant place to spend one’s evening. It was a tough lesson to learn.”

Emily couldn’t see Ian drunk and
spiraling out of control. It contradicted with the clean image he exuded, even now; so laid back and at ease in his sweats. “I can’t see you wasted.”

“Let’s just say I was fighting with a woman
I thought myself in love with. I drank to forget about it that night. I was reminded when I turned down a one-way street in Chicago. The cop threw the book at me. I never let myself drink to forget anything after that.”

“And the woman?” Emily wanted to know more about his past, hoping he’d let his guard down to give her more details about himself. “Did you forget
about her?”

“She bailed me out the next morning
. We promptly broke up,” Ian recalled with a pleased smirk. “She said she was too embarrassed for any of her friends to know about my criminal past.”

Emily burst out laughing. “You have to be kidding
me? A DUI hardly makes you a hardened criminal!”

“Her dad was the
current district attorney at the time. The fact her boyfriend was now a jailbird became an issue between us right away.”

“That couldn’t have been pleasant for you.”

“It was the best thing that could have happened.” Ian smiled readily at the memory. “We were going nowhere fast. She was too narrow-minded about a lot of things.”

“Such as?”

“Do we really need to talk about another one of my ex-girlfriends, Emily? This is getting to be routine with us. Don’t try to figure me out. You’d be wrong.”

“It takes my mind off my
own troubles.”

“Fine
, I’ll share. Julie was just one of many girls I dated back then. I was twenty-five, just making my sales quota with Ambidor at the time. She was very beautiful, very good at pushing my buttons. When I dumped all the other girls I was seeing for her, she seemed to become even more of a challenge to me. She kept me chasing her for months. I was at my wit’s end. That’s how I wound up at that party, drunk off my ass, and trying to take my mind off of her.”

“Did it work?”

“Until I woke up hung-over in a jail cell,” Ian recalled with a reminiscent grin. “She came and bailed me out, told me all the reasons why we wouldn’t work as a couple. I think I shocked her by agreeing with her. I left her standing in the lobby of the police department. I think she expected me to continue to chase her. I just gave up. She still sends me Christmas cards. I think she isn’t used to guys giving up on her.”

Emily realized Ian wouldn’t be played in any way. He would see through it as he had his former girlfriend. Julie must have
kicked herself when Ian walked out on her. He refused to play games, even back then. She hated the game she played with him now, feeling worse than the attention-seeking Julie.

“Poor Julie.”

“Not so poor. She’s married to a fancy attorney; lives in the best part of the city. She got everything she wanted, and it wasn’t me. Trust me when I say; we wouldn’t have worked out. Besides my criminal past, her dad hated my guts.”

“Why was that?” Emily was curious to know why any father wouldn’t want Ian Sawyer as a son-in-law.

Ian frowned and looked away, his expression tense. “Julie was in law school when I met her. She was on her way to something better. Her dad wanted more for her than he ever saw me providing. I was just a nothing sales rep then, and not so well-to-do. She introduced me to all the right people, we went to all the right parties, but we weren’t right for each other. Maybe he saw that before we did.”

“You dated other people,” Emily pointed out. “Maybe he thought you weren’t serious about his daughter.”

“I admit I was no angel, but either was she, Emily. Let’s just say I wasn’t the only fish on her line. Meeting me and dangling me just got the junior district attorney to get up the nerve to ask her out when I stepped aside. I’d say I benefitted her more than she did me.”

“Well it looks like she made out like a bandit.”

“And then some,” Ian reflected with a grin. “Last I heard; her husband was going into politics. Julie always wanted more than I ever did. There, are you satisfied? Now tell me more about you. Did you date much before you met your husband?”

“Not really,” Emily disclosed and avoided his
searching eyes. “I never even had a real boyfriend before Eddie came along. Just a couple of near-misses.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Ian said and eyed her with a disbelieving look. “Your very pretty, Emily.”

Emily blushed furiously, feeling her face flame at his words. Pretty was hardly a word she felt described her at all. Average, ordinary, and not special came to mind, but pretty? She swallowed hard in discomfort, recalling his encouraging words during their naughty session the night before. “Thank you, but I never dated much in high school and college. Guys always went for Joan first.”

“Who is Joan?”

“My best friend, Joan. She was the pretty, popular one. I was always the quiet one, nerdy really.”

“I find it hard to believe you didn’t have a dozen guys chasing you back then.”

“Believe it because it’s true,” Emily said and smiled slightly. “I was never good at flirting. Joan could teach classes on how to get a guy’s attention.”

“You have all mine
right now,” Ian observed quietly, making Emily’s breath catch in her throat at the intense look in those cobalt eyes.

Just then
, the buzzer to the door rang, taking Ian’s attention away from her enough for her to regroup. “That would be our dinner, I’m guessing.” He rose and went to the door. A uniformed waiter entered with a rolling cart covered in stainless steel covered trays. He rolled to an elegant dining table and began setting the service out for them. Ian paid the man and he left discreetly.

Emily rose and joined him at the table, amazed by the array of dishes laid out for them. There was enough food for ten people. The
aromatic smells reminded her of her diet, eliminating half the dishes as she estimated the caloric count in her head. She smiled as Ian seated her, feeling giddy and like a princess as he pushed in her chair. He sat and gestured to the chilled wine. She nodded and allowed him to pour her a glass, needing it to calm her clamoring nerves.

Ian sat down and smiled at her. “Dig in. I can tell you the chef here is a
n absolute genius. This is the best food I’ve ever had while on the road.”

“I’m on a diet,” Emily confessed and shook her head. “I can’t eat half of it, but I’ll take your word for it.”

“You look great, Emily. I’ve noticed it lately. Live a little,” Ian ordered and gestured to a succulent rice and cheese casserole at his elbow. “You have to try this. It’s amazing.”

“No, I have to be
a good girl,” Emily said as she refused the rich food and opted for steamed veggies and the fish. “I haven’t worked my ass off at the gym to throw it all away tonight.”

“Yeah, you look great,” Ian said approvingly
, his eyes lingering below her neck. “Everybody comments on it at work. They say you have secret affairs going on.”

“They do?” Emily looked mortified to think people at work thought she was sleeping
around, attributing her tremendous weight-loss to that; and that alone.

“No, I’m just kidding
with you,” Ian said with a grin and chuckled at her shocked expression. “You can’t take a joke, I see?”

“Sorry, just worry about the talk,”
Emily mumbled into her wine. “Office gossip can ruin one’s career. Trust me, I’ve seen many account reps come and go over the years because they played too much where they work. They couldn’t keep their personal lives out of it. I learned to keep myself very private as a result.”

“Nobody has anything bad to say about you, Emily,” Ian told her as he sipped his wine. “To the contrary
; I’ve heard nothing but good, admirable things about you since I got here. You worry too much about what other people think. They never speak badly about you.”

“Even Tabitha? I find that hard to believe,” Emily sipped her wine, disconcerted by the look in his blue eyes. Did she just imagine that smoky, heated look in his gaze? Did she want to see it so bad
ly, she tricked herself to believing it was there?

“Tabitha never said anything
about you to me,” Ian replied and shook his head. “Why would she? It seems she has everything she wants. Looks like her and Evan are out in the open.”

“Yeah, well, let’s just say her marrying my boss doesn’t bode well for some of us,” Emily said
moodily and grimaced. “I might as well start working on my resume now.”

“Evan isn’t that stupid, Emily. He knows what an asset you are
to the agency.”

“
Evan is just a man. His soon-to-be wife despises me. Just wait and see how soon I get canned after they say ‘I do’. I’m the first one to go, I bet.”

“He told me he won’t ever marry her if it puts you at ease,” Ian responded with a secretive smile. “He knows she only wants him for his money. He’s playing it for all that its worth. Don’t tell her that, but she won’t be the next Mrs. Stone.”

“I’d like to believe that, but men are weak when it comes to beautiful women. Tabitha definitely knows what she wants,” Emily concluded with a sad smile. “She more or less told me my days were numbered recently.”