Otherwise Engaged (4 page)

“I wouldn’t
dare.” He could hear the smile in her voice. She had a lovely voice. It was
warm and soft like honey.

“Okay. Good.”

“Have a good
trip. Be safe.”

“I will. I’ll
call and email you from Thailand.” Why did he suddenly feel guilty about leaving
because he’d promised her they would hang out more? It wasn’t like he’d known
about this business opportunity at the time. “We’re going to see each other
more when I get back the way I promised at brunch. My partners and I throw a
Christmas party for our clients every year. You should come.” He didn’t know
why he’d tacked that last bit on either. What was wrong with him? He didn’t owe
her anything.

“Okay,” she
said in a completely non-committal tone. He wondered if she was mad. What would
she have to be mad about though? Would she think he was lying about the business
trip as a way of getting himself out of the promise he’d made earlier that same
day? Why would he make up an elaborate lie about a business trip to get out of
a commitment that was two months away? And why in the world was he freaking out
so much?

“I have the
flight information. You know that,” he laughed nervously. “You sent it to me at
brunch. I’m going to book my flight to San Juan at the same time as I book my
flight to Bangkok. Okay?”

“Sounds good,”
she said. She sounded chill. She was probably okay. He still had no clue why he
was making such a big deal out of this. Maybe because the thought of possibly standing
her up—even though the chances of him not getting back in time for the
wedding were very remote—was such an awful thing. She’d always been such
a good friend, and he couldn’t say the same for himself.

Had he been a
jerk to her over the past few years? Well, it wasn’t like he meant to ignore
her. He didn’t have a whole lot of free time. Work kept him busy. It took a lot
of time and effort to build a company up from the ground. Things would be
different once his relatively new company got on steadier footing. And this opportunity
in Thailand could be just the thing the small venture capital firm he’d started
with two classmates from business school needed to become a major player in the
field.

After he got
off the phone with Daphne, he made a list of things he had to do. Call Skylar
and tell him what happened as well as get the name of an I.P. contact at the
law firm Skylar retained. Call his partners. Pack. Flight reservations.

Once he had a
flight booked from BWI to London Heathrow to Bangkok, he looked down at the
flight information Daphne had given him. They’d be flying out of Dulles.
December twenty-sixth.

This trip to
Thailand should be enough to get his mind off Carolina for the next couple of
months and stop him from making a fool of
himself
.
After all, she’d made her choice. He had to let that go and attend that wedding
as a man wishing his good friend well in her new marriage. Hopefully a trip to
Thailand that was a little bit family visit, a little bit rowdy, and mostly
business would help him do that.

Chapter Six

Six
weeks later

It was early
December. It had to be freezing back home, but in Thailand, the weather was warm
and sunny. Rain walked down a street in downtown Bangkok on a nice, balmy
75-degree afternoon. It was hard to think that Christmas was only a few weeks
away with palm fronds swaying in the breeze and lovely women walking around in
slight, short, little dresses. Christmas. That meant the wedding was close.
Too close.

He hadn’t been
in touch with Daphne as much as he’d wanted to over the past few weeks. Business
meetings had kept him extremely tied up. Skylar wanted to set up a partnership
to run his company’s software as the platform on the new phones that were
hopefully to be under development soon. That was, if Panjamawat decided that
developing an entire phone instead of just the part Uncle Fai had designed was
a good idea. After all, Panjamawat was the main source of financial support in
this whole thing. If Panjamawat backed the idea, there were still partnerships
to work
out
as at least some of the phone
manufacturing would have to be outsourced. Everyone thought developing an
entire phone was a good idea, including Rain, but it was a lot of work.

The idea of
potentially partnering with Skylar and Bevyx for the phone’s platform worried
him a little but not a whole lot. Working with Skylar had been too difficult
when they were partners in the same business, but it would be different having
a partnership between their two businesses.

Besides dealing
with Pamjamawat, there were patents to secure, contracts to be drawn up, and
trade secrets to be kept hidden. People to track down. They were working on the
paperwork to buy a factory in Thailand. That wasn’t an easy task. They were in
the middle of a mess, but Rain felt confident he could tie everything up in the
next few weeks. He could get home just in time for Christmas, so his mom
wouldn’t yell at him, and that meant he would also be home in time for his
flight out of Dulles. December twenty-sixth.

He felt so bad
for running away and not coming back until the last minute. He hoped Daphne
wasn’t stressed about him making it back in time. He really needed to call and
reassure her he would make it in time. They had only talked a couple of times,
and it had been difficult for him to estimate when he’d be home each of those
times.

He’d upgraded
her ticket to first-class without telling her as a surprise because he felt so
bad about his tendencies to pull jackass moves. Like
leave
the country and fall
off the face of the map after he’d promised her
he’d keep in touch with her better. And he was definitely not going to be back
in time for that Christmas party he’d kind of invited her to. He’d spent years
all but ignoring her even though they lived in the same city, asked her to
brunch out of the blue, and then disappeared again. He didn’t want it to look
like he was using her as a date to the wedding and then planning to flit out of
her life again.
Because that wasn’t his plan.
At least
he didn’t think it was.

Daphne called
him that day while he was on his way to a lunch business meeting with
Panjamawat and some of his people. “I was just going to call you,” he said,
guilt for his disappearing act settling in yet again.

“No worries,”
she said. “I was just wondering if you’ve booked your room at the resort hotel
yet.”

“Crap. No.” He
knew there was something he’d forgotten to do. He had a tux. He didn’t rent
since he used them so often for charity events and other business functions. He
would just have to pick it up at his penthouse apartment whenever he made it
home. He had his ticket to San Juan. He’d kept putting off booking the room,
though. Until he let it get to be December.

“Because the
hotel is all booked up now. Our block as well as the rest of it,” she said. “No
available rooms.”

“Oh shit,” he
muttered, stopping in the street. Annoyed people chattering in Thai moved all
around him, saying nasty things they probably thought he didn’t understand
because he was speaking English with an American accent to Daphne. “I guess I’ll
have to look for a room in another hotel then,” he said. It wouldn’t be as much
fun being separated from everyone, but maybe it was for the best. Did he really
want to be around a bunch of people who were partying to celebrate the marriage
of the only woman he’d ever loved to this Manny guy?
Manny
the engineer?

“Or,” she said.
Then she paused for a moment. “You can stay with me,” she said the words in a rush
all in one breath so that he could barely make them out.

“Are you sure?”
he asked. She hadn’t sounded so sure.

“Yeah.” Another
pause. Then she said, “I mean, the wedding party members all have suites. It
was Manny and Carolina’s gift to us. They felt so bad asking us to put up a
bunch of money for a destination wedding. I mean
,
it’s
fine with me. I’m going to make a vacation out of it anyway. Oh goodness.” She
laughed nervously. “I’m babbling.”

“Sure,” he
said. “I’d love to stay with you.”

“I mean
,
you’re my date. It makes more sense for us to share the
suite.” She sounded as if she were trying to rationalize this to herself.

“Yeah.” He
hoped she didn’t think he was going to try anything and that was why she was
nervous. “I’m sure there’s a couch or something where I can sleep,” he said in
an attempt to reassure her that he had no intentions of crossing the friend
line.

“Um, probably.”
There was an awkward pause. She took a deep breath, and he thought she wanted
to say something more about the suite. All she said, though was, “I guess I’ll
let you go now.”

“Okay,” he
said. He looked down at his watch. He was going to be late for this very
important meeting if he didn’t move it. Today was the day he made his pitch to
Panjamawat about developing an entire phone. Later that day, he had a meeting with
a few government officials they needed on their side if they were going to get
things moving on this factory.
Busy day ahead.
“I’ll
talk to you later.”

Damn. He
realized when they got off the phone that he didn’t even ask her if she’d had a
nice Thanksgiving. He really was the crappiest friend ever. He would have to
make it up to her by being the best wedding date ever.

In the meantime, business.
He had to get to this meeting,
and this meeting had to go well. Although both meetings were big deals, it was
more important for the second meeting to go well. Otherwise, the last six weeks
would have all been for nothing. They wouldn’t be able to do much to develop
his uncle’s invention without the support they hoped to get from those
government officials. There was another reason these meetings needed to go as
smoothly as possible. He needed to be back in the U.S. with the quickness. He
couldn’t let Daphne down. Especially when he’d boycotted the idea of her
finding another wedding date.

Chapter Seven

Daphne opened
the door and Bettina ran into her condo, heels clicking on the hardwood floor.
Her cousin turned to her, green eyes wide, slender hands on the lapels of her
stylish, black winter coat.

“I ran.
All the way here.
From parking garage.
Took stairs. You know.
How slow your garage.
Elevator is.
More stairs. Lobby elevator. Not. Moving.
Quickly enough.
Ran. In Louboutins.” She held up her shoe to show Daphne the red bottom as
proof. “What’s the man emergency?”

Daphne was
still dressed in her work clothes as well, but she was dressed a lot simpler
than her cousin. Daphne wore charcoal gray slacks and a beige blouse. She’d
left her burgundy leather loafers by the front door hours ago. She didn’t know
who’d made any of her clothes, and she really didn’t care.

“I just told
Rain we could share my suite for the wedding.” Daphne still couldn’t believe
she’d done it. The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. Why
hadn’t she just let him get a room at another hotel the way he’d planned?

Bettina’s mouth
dropped open. She managed to close it for a moment. Then a wide grin spread over
her face. She jumped up and down, her Louboutins clacking against the hardwood
floor. “Finally!”

“Hold on. Don’t
get so excited.” Bettina had been jumping to conclusions left and right ever
since Daphne told her Rain was going to be her date for the wedding.

“What do you
mean, don’t get so excited? You are going to Puerto Rico with sexy, sexy Rain,
and you are finally going to get you some much-needed play!”

“We’re just
friends,” Daphne said. Had she been thinking that when she’d asked him to share
her suite? “He said
he’ll
sleep on the couch. I’m sure
the suite is huge. It’s not like we’ll be all that close quarters.”

“Who you trying
to convince?” Bettina asked, hand on her hip.

Good question.
“I mean, it’s like, it would be too complicated. We’ve been friends since
college.”

“Good friends?”

Daphne evaded
most of the question. “We don’t see each other a lot, but we’re both very busy
people.”

“All I’m saying
is, if there’s not that much friendship left to lose, and you’re going to be in
close quarters—I don’t care how big that suite is, it’s still a suite and
I consider that close quarters—with a sexy, gorgeous, unbelievably hot
man, why not go for it?” Bettina had seen Rain in pictures and had met him once
briefly when they’d run into Rain and a group of his friends at Rocket Bar in
Chinatown, but she didn’t know much about him other than how pretty he was on
the outside. Oh and that he was dangerously charming. You didn’t have to know
Rain long to know that.

“It wouldn’t be
a good idea,” Daphne said. “I know how it would turn out, and I wouldn’t want
things to get weird between us. I know I don’t see Rain much, but that doesn’t
change the fact that I want to keep him as a friend.”

“Who asked if
he could share the suite? Did you invite him to, or did he invite himself?”

“I asked him
to,” Daphne admitted reluctantly.

Bettina raised
an eyebrow. “See? It’s already on your mind.”

“But it doesn’t
mean that!” Daphne cried. “I swear, it doesn’t. I just wanted to. I mean, the
hotel is sold out, and I didn’t want him to have to stay at some other place
far away from the rest of the people there for the wedding. And. I just thought
it’d give us a chance to catch up.”

“Okay,” Bettina
said. “Have fun ‘catching up.’” Bettina’s smile was positively devilish.

“I’m going on a
date,” Daphne lied. A little. Some guy from dreamdate.com had sent her an
email, and she’d been putting off responding to it, not sure if she was
interested in going out with him or not. “Really, it’s not like that between
Rain and me.”

“But you want
it to be,” Bettina said in a
sing-song
voice.

“No,” Daphne
said slowly. “I do not.” And it wouldn’t change one thing for the better if she
did. And she didn’t. She was positive. She had to know better than to want
that.

“You know I’ve
known you long enough to know when to call bullshit, right?” Bettina laughed.
“I can see right through you, cousin dear.”

“Whatever you
say. But I am going on a date this weekend.”

“Oh yeah? Where
you going?”

“We haven’t
decided yet.”

“Oh.” Bettina
snorted. “Okay.”

“You think you
know me so well.”

“That’s because
I do.”

They laughed.

She didn’t care
what Bettina said or thought. She wasn’t going to sleep with Rain Foster no
matter how badly she wanted to. She’d resisted the temptation all through
college. She wasn’t going to give in now.

#

The funny thing
was, the harder she tried not to think about sleeping with Rain Foster, the
more it seemed that was all she could think about. Her mind kept drifting the
next day at work, and she couldn’t get a thing done.

The thing she
thought about most was the night it’d almost happened. Crazily enough, Rain of
all people was the one who’d stopped it.

It’d been
during spring semester of their junior year. They’d gone to some dance together
that April. She couldn’t remember the name or the theme of the dance now.
Neither one of them had other date prospects. Carolina had been dating some guy
seriously at the time, so she’d gone to the dance with him. Carolina and her
boyfriend left the dance together. Daphne and Rain had ended up together back
at his apartment.

She hadn’t
wanted to go home alone that night. She hadn’t known exactly what she’d wanted,
or how far she’d wanted things to go, but she knew she wanted to be with Rain.

That night was
the only night they’d ever kissed. Kissing him was unlike kissing anyone else
whose lips hers had ever touched. She remembered melting every time he touched
her, pulled her closer. His lips sent warm sensations rushing through every
inch of her body. All she’d wanted was to never stop kissing him. She’d felt
more than a spark. All of her had been crazy with desire for him. She’d never
wanted anyone more—before or after. She’d felt as if her lips were made
to kiss only his. She’d found the place she fit. Too bad she knew all too well
how Rain would feel about her theories.

Still, she’d
never forget the way his lips had felt on hers.
Smooth, firm,
his mouth a perfect fit against hers.
She didn’t know how long they’d
spent on his couch, just kissing. Their bodies pressed together. His hands had
slipped down her back, to her waist, across her stomach. Up to her breasts.
She’d been in a trance, not able to pull him close enough or kiss him deeply
enough.

His lips had
moved to her neck. Although that felt good, she was impatient for his lips to
find hers again. When they did, she pulled off his suit jacket. After pulling
his shirt out of the waistband of his slacks, she began fumbling with the
button. Her fingers scrabbled against his torso as she pulled at the button to
his pants, and she felt his muscles tighten under her skin.

He put his
hands over hers and pulled back. Slowly, reluctantly it seemed, he said, “We
can’t.”

“But it’s okay.
I want to,” she whispered.

“Right now, you
do. And I do, too. But you’re the one person I’m going to hold back with.
Believe me, if we didn’t have the history we have, I’d take you right now. I
do
want to. Bad.”

“But?”

“But,” he said,
his eyes roaming over her face and lower. Her face flooded with heat. As did
lower parts of her body. His eyes moved back to her face. His gaze met hers.
“You’re one of the best friends I have. I don’t have many female friends. I’m
not the best at making them, and I’m even worse at keeping them. I don’t want
to lose you for one night of sex. Even if it would be a really incredible night.”

“It doesn’t
have to be that way. We can have both,” she said.

“No. We can’t.
Carolina and I…we proved that. I just wish things had never changed between
us.” By that point, Rain and Carolina had tried to date and had ugly breakups
several times. They were still friends, but things would never be the same
between them.

“But if we both
go into this knowing what it is, nobody’s going to be hurt. We’ll still be good
friends,” she’d said. She was desperate to have him pressed against her again.
She’d say whatever it took to get that—the only thing she wanted at that
moment—again.

He’d smiled
sadly at her. “That’s what you think now.”

She bit her
lower lip and looked up at him. At the time, she’d wondered if he was right. If
he’d had such an effect on her when they were just making out, maybe she
wouldn’t be able to handle more. Especially when she knew Rain was just being
honest with her. He had no interest in a relationship. The only person he’d
ever been bothered to try one out for was Carolina. Carolina was the love of his
life. Part of her knew stopping right there was the best idea. Most of her just
wanted more of those intoxicating kisses.

“I think I
should take you home now,” he said, giving her one last tender kiss on the
cheek.

Even though the
kiss was chaste, the simple touch of his lips to her skin had her ready to tear
off both their clothes. Still, thinking about the fact that he wasn’t the
relationship type, and he was just trying to be honest with her and save their
friendship, was enough to make her agree. She’d grabbed her coat and let him
take her home.

Touching her
lips now, she smiled at the bittersweet memory. Now she had neither. She and
Rain had drifted apart since college, and she’d missed out on her big chance to
have sex with the most incredible guy she’d ever known. With the one person
who’d turned her on in ways no one else ever had.

Or had she?
Maybe Bettina was right.

#

Daphne was glad
for the interruption when her co-worker, Arlen, walked into her office that
afternoon. Arlen was six-foot-four and rail thin. His light brown hair was short
and fashionably coiffed; he had baby blue eyes. He was good-looking, but a
little on the average side. Not plain, not exceptional. The fact that he had a
great sense of style, though, gave him the aura of exceptionality. There’d been
lots of speculation in the way of office gossip over whether he was metrosexual
or gay until he’d brought his partner, Tom, to a company picnic. She had a
feeling he’d done it just to shut people up when the rumors had gotten back to
him. Daphne didn’t think it was anybody’s business or that it mattered. She and
Arlen had become friends right away.

Arlen folded
himself down into the chair in front of her desk and crossed an ankle over his knee.
“Ready for your presentation tomorrow?”

Daphne made a
face at her computer screen. “Not even close.” She was supposed to give a joint
presentation to the D.C. Zoning Commission and the D.C. Council’s Committee on
Economic Development on the benefits to the community of mixed income housing.
The final decision on the zoning application was to be made early in the
new year
. A representative from the real estate development
company her employer worked with would be present as well. It was her last big
work project until San Juan. Ah San Juan. She couldn’t wait. She needed a
vacation so badly, and she was looking forward to seeing Carolina. Those were
the only reasons. Yep. She wouldn’t allow herself to even consider other
reasons one might hypothetically, potentially look forward to such a trip.

“You want to
practice on me?” Arlen asked.

She often ran
her presentations by Arlen. They worked well together. “Maybe in a little
while. I literally have nothing right now.” Gathering her long black hair in
her hands, she lifted it from her neck for a moment before letting it settle
back behind her shoulders. She frowned a little. She was glad her hairdresser
was doing something with it before she went to San Juan. She and Bettina had
set up a hair and waxing day a few days before Christmas so she’d be good to go
for the trip. It was never hard to talk Bettina into doing a self-care day.

“So let’s talk
about the thing you’re really looking forward to.” Arlen uncrossed his legs and
leaned forward in his chair. “How excited are you for Puerto Rico?”

“Absolutely
cannot wait. I just got a swimsuit from Sand and Water yesterday.” Sand and
Water was a new swimwear shop not too far from Metro Center.

“I love that
place. I’ve already been in there so many times, and I don’t even have a warm
place to go to the beach this winter,” Arlen gushed.

The
conversation turned to Sand and Water for a while before Arlen asked, “Any word
from your wedding date recently?”

She’d kept him up
to date on the whole Rain saga over the past few weeks. He lived for updates.
Everybody told Daphne she told the funniest stories. She had a knack for adding
details and looking-back-on-the-moment commentary that kept everyone laughing. Besides,
Arlen was not one to miss an opportunity to harangue Daphne about her single-dom.
He harassed Daphne about being eternally single and closing herself off to
opportunities to change that almost as much as Bettina did.

They didn’t
seem to understand that the only men Daphne could attract were men who
disappointed her, and so it was better not to try. What was the point? Nearly
every boyfriend she’d ever had cheated on her. She was saving everyone time by
not getting into some relationship she’d have to end eventually anyway. In the
end, they never failed to disappoint her.

 
Daphne shook her head. No word from Rain
recently. “Not since I told him he could stay in my suite. Not that I really
expected him to keep in touch. He’s notoriously bad at that—even when
he’s in the country, right here in D.C.,” she said.