Missing (2 page)

For the thirteenth time in the last
hour, Lynn checked the clock.

It was twenty after seven on a Thursday evening, and the
minutes were passing very slowly.

She grabbed the note she’d just scrawled onto a stray piece
of paper—a lead someone had just called in—and got up to see if anyone was
around to cover the story.

“Where is everyone?” she asked the slender brunette who was
the only person in the open area where several desks were set up.

Beth Broadview had started working on Monday this week. She
was a pretty girl—with classic features, trendy glasses, and long shiny hair. 

“Josh was sick, so he went home early,” Beth replied,
straightening up in the way a lot of the younger staffers did when Lynn
appeared. “And Marleigh and Ross are out following stories.”

“Busy night, I guess.” She handed Beth the lead she’d
scrawled a few minutes before. “Since no one else is around right now, you get
to write your first story this evening. No more than three hundred words. Get
it to Kevin by eleven-thirty tonight.”

Beth’s eyes—which looked more gray now than blue—widened as
she read the handwriting on the paper. “Thank you, Ms. Madison. I won’t let you
down.”

“I’m sure you won’t. And everyone calls me Lynn. Now get
going. Don’t waste time.”

Beth jumped up, grabbed her sweater and bag, and then turned
back to Lynn, practically brimming with excitement but clearly trying to rein
it into composure. For a girl who seemed so perfectly contained, it was
touching to see her so overjoyed. “Thank you so much, Ms….Lynn.”

With a laugh, Lynn shooed the girl toward the door. “You’re
welcome. Now go!”

Beth disappeared out the door with a flutter of sleek dark
hair.

Lynn chuckled and shook her head. Then she glanced at the
clock. It was after seven-thirty now, and she needed to get going.

She returned to her office to close down her computer and
grab her stuff. She was leaving when Matt wandered by.  “Heading home?” he
asked casually. “Did you want to grab some dinner?”

“I can’t. I’ve got plans.” She double-checked to make sure
her office was locked and secured the strap of her satchel on her shoulder.

“Ah,” he murmured, giving her a careful inspection. She’d
gone home to shower and change in the middle of the afternoon, and now she was
dressed with more care than normal, in heels, a pencil skirt, and a moss green satin
blouse which she’d found in a second-hand store the previous weekend. “No
wonder you look so nice. Hot date?”

Sometimes Matt seemed genuinely interested in what passed
for her social life, and sometimes he expressed lingering jealousy or
possessiveness. A quick look at his eyes revealed he was trying to be mature
and reasonable this evening.

“Something like that. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“So you’re not even going to give me a clue about who he
is?”

Lynn laughed as she walked away. “Not even a clue.”

***

She took a cab over to the hotel,
but traffic was backed up so it took longer than normal.

She was going to be late.

The week had seemed interminable, and the day had lasted
forever.

Now that it was finally eight o’clock on the 24th, she was
trapped in a traffic jam.

She was so annoyed she wanted to scream.

She’d been suffering from sexual fantasies about what would
happen tonight for days now. Her body was primed and ready, from nothing more
than anticipation. As she finally got out of the cab and walked in through the
front doors of the exclusive hotel, she realized her cheeks were flushed and
her breath was coming out in little pants.

Her blood pulsed in her veins, somehow matching the pulsing
of her expectations.

She tried to talk herself down a little. Reality was rarely
as good as fantasies, and Nathan might not even be here tonight.

They’d never made any promises. It was always understood
that their meetings would cease whenever one of them started a relationship or
had some other reason to no longer get together for a night of sex. They never
contacted each other between their nights together, so she wouldn’t know until
she arrived whether he would be there or not.

Her intense flash of nervousness at the possibility of his
not showing up dispelled as soon as she entered the hotel lobby.

Nathan was already there, standing near the front window and
evidently absorbed by something on his smart phone.

Lynn ignored him. After thanking the doorman for holding the
door, she headed calmly for the main elevator.

She waited with the other people for one of the elevators to
return and was conscious of Nathan approaching behind her, although she didn’t
turn back to see him.

When the elevator doors slid open, she walked on with about
five other people, including him. Just as the doors were about to shut, another
man jumped on.

“Nathan Livingston,” the man said, grinning broadly. “Good
to see you!”

“Moore,” Nathan greeted, reaching out to shake the other
man’s hand. “It’s been a long time.”

“Too long. I keep meaning to see if you can have lunch
sometime.”

Because the two men were the only ones talking in the
elevator and were drawing everyone's attention, Lynn allowed herself to really
look at Nathan for the first time.

Her heart leapt in excitement when she rested her eyes on
his handsome face and cool, contained demeanor.

He was recognizably the man from the press conference.
Expensive tailored suit. Classic good-looks. Brown hair with a slight trace of
gray near his sideburns. Close up, however, his presence was even more
powerful.

He was a man who seemed to fill up the elevator with
something more than his lean, broad-shouldered form.

He was a man who was used to being in control.

He was a man who’d lived a full life since she’d been his
intern ten years ago.

He'd had two failed marriages. He'd raised two daughters
basically on his own and had appeared to do a pretty good job of it, since
neither had ever been notorious party girls who made tabloid headlines. The
younger was still in high school, and the older was at some exclusive school in
Europe. Nathan kept both out of the public eye.

Lynn could see evidence of time, of experience, of the life
he'd lived, etched into the lines and contours of Nathan's face now.

The corners of his mouth and eyes creased as he smiled at Moore
with the practiced smile of a politician. “Just call my office, and we’ll
arrange something.”

“Will do.”

The conversation halted as the elevator stopped and four of
the occupants got off. Moore glanced idly over to Lynn, the only other person
left on the elevator, and then back to Nathan. “You’re not staying here
tonight, are you?” he asked. He looked curious, but not suspicious, and his
tone was still friendly and casual.

Nathan didn’t even hesitate. “Meeting a client who likes to
fly under the radar.”

Lynn just stared up as the floors lit up in sequence and
breathed a sigh of relief when Moore got off on the twenty-third floor.

Nathan looked over at Lynn for the first time. He didn't
speak, but she saw his mouth quirk up just a little.

She looked away, hiding an answering smile.

He was absolutely scrumptious, cool and unflappable in one
of the business suits he wore like armor. For some reason, seeing him like this
was an irresistible temptation, a challenge.

He appeared utterly untouchable.

Which made her want nothing more than to touch him.

When the elevator stopped on the next floor up, Lynn got off
first. Then she paused, leaning over as if she were fixing her shoe as Nathan
walked past her and continued on down the hall.

No one else was around, so they were almost certainly safe.
They were always meticulously careful about discretion, though—since they both
had very good reasons for not wanting it to be made public that they were
sleeping with each other, even so infrequently.

So Lynn waited until Nathan had slid the keycard into the
lock of the suite. Then she straightened up and walked quickly down the hall,
ducking into the room just as he opened it.

She had barely closed the door and turned the deadbolt when he
was on her—grabbing her, turning her around, and pressing her up against the wall.

“You’re late,” he murmured before he kissed her hard.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and opened her mouth to
the advance of his tongue. He wasn’t a rough lover by nature, but he seemed
very urgent at the moment and was thus more aggressive than normal.

She moaned against his lips as she felt his hard, hot body
pressing against her, holding her against the wall. His mouth moved eagerly,
and his tongue dueled with hers, stroking with increasing passion.

When she’d lost her breath completely, her hands tightened in
his thick hair, and she pulled his head back enough to break the kiss. “Just
ten minutes late. I had something come up at work, and then there was traffic.”

Nathan lowered his face to her neck. He mouthed a trail down
her throat, nibbling and sucking in a way that caused shivers of pleasure to rush
through her. When he bit gently just over her pulse, Lynn cried out breathlessly.

 “I was starting to wonder if you were coming at all.” His
voice was muffled by her skin. His hands were all over her, touching her body
with a shameless entitlement that was as intoxicating to her as the feel of his
hands.

“I wasn't about to miss
this
.” She tugged on his suit
jacket until he let her push it off. She dropped it on the floor and ran her
palms up and down his back. The fabric of his shirt was soft, and the planes of
his body were firm and smooth. “It’s definitely the highlight of my week.” She
pitched her voice to be teasing, which she thought was a remarkable feat given
how aroused she already was.

Nathan pushed his pelvis into her middle, and she moaned in
pleasure as she realized that he was already hard. “Just your week, huh?”

He edged her skirt up as he stroked her thighs until he was
palming her bottom with both hands. Then he lifted her up a little, pressing
her more tightly against the wall until her groin was aligned with his and she
could wrap her legs around him.

She gasped and squirmed against the bulge in his pants, the
friction exactly what she wanted to feel, but she managed to retain enough of
her wit to reply, “Maybe that was an exaggeration. It's at least the highlight
of my
day
.”

He choked on amusement as he pressed his erection against
her arousal.

She whimpered, trapped between his hard body and the hard
wall.

“You like that?” The heat from his body was overwhelming,
and she could tell he was starting to sweat beneath his clothes.

She was relieved he sounded as breathless as she did, and
she was turned on even more by the sensual texture in his voice.

“Yeah.” She tightened her arms and legs around him. “If you
don’t fuck me soon I’m going to strangle you with your pretty red tie.”

He made a breathless sound—which she took to be
amusement—but he adjusted his arms so he could carry her across the room.

He lowered her to the side of the bed, and she stayed were
she was put, half hanging off the edge. She was too distracted with pulling him
down on top of her and into another kiss to bother scooting more securely onto
the bed.

They kissed deeply and urgently until Lynn was rocking eagerly
beneath him, trying to rub herself against any part of his body she could. They
both worked on her blouse until they’d managed to get it off, and Nathan slid
off her skirt while she fumbled around with his tie.

She’d loosened it but hadn’t pulled it off when he lowered
his mouth to one of her breasts.

She cried out loudly as he suckled her nipple through the
lace of her bra. The ache between her legs deepened as he sucked and fluttered his
tongue through the fabric, and she found it impossible to keep her hips still
when he began to also fondle her other breast with his hand.

“Please, Nathan,” she gasped at last, arching beneath him.
She pulled his shirt until it was untucked from his pants, but she couldn’t
reach any of the buttons. “You’re killing me.”

He made a guttural sound of approval and kissed his way down
to her shuddering belly. Her muscles clenched in excitement as he mouthed a
line even lower to the waistband of her panties.

She pushed his head lower still until he nuzzled her
intimately, his breath hot even through her panties. Lynn parted her thighs and
held onto her knees as he used his tongue to explore until he found her clit.

He flicked it a few times through the dampened fabric, and
she released a ragged sob of pleasure.

His blue-gray eyes crawled over her body and up to her face.
“Fuck, you’re gorgeous.”

She clawed at the bedding in desperation with one hand,
still clutching her knee with her other, as he lowered his mouth again and
closed his lips around her clit.

He sucked hard. She cried out helplessly as her body
shuddered through an orgasm, breaking so quickly it surprised her.

“Oh, God,” she gasped, the tension in her body relaxing as
she came down. “That was amazing.” She grabbed his shoulders and pulled him up
until his face was above hers again and the weight of his lower body rested on
hers. “If you don't mind, I'd like you to fuck me now.”

“I don't mind at all.” Nathan pulled a condom out of his
pocket and unwrapped it as she fumbled with his pants. Together, they managed
to free his erection and roll the condom over his length.

She wished they didn't have to use the condom. She was on
birth control, and she was sure he was healthy, but they weren't in a
relationship.

While she was pretty sure he wasn’t promiscuous, she
couldn't imagine he remained celibate except for their infrequent evenings
together the way she had for the last two years.