Revenge Sex (3 page)

Until Ruby had realized she’d forgotten her
damn panties. She’d just have to go into work early, tell Clay she
had some stuff to get ready for the board meeting. They never drove
together anyway; they lived in Palo Alto, only ten minutes from the
plant. Yeah, she could make it in early, grab her panties, and
everything would be fine.

Jessica would never tell what she’d seen.
Whether she believed Clay knew about it or not, she’d be too
mortified to bring it up. Clay and his silly rules: no sex at work
or with anyone from work. Ruby thought it was sexier to have a few
secrets, to push the envelope, to pretend she’d been out with a
girlfriend and see if he could smell the come on her when she
arrived home, to see if he noticed her scent all over his desk. Oh
yes, that was sexy. She wasn’t worried; he expected her to cheat.
And he adored their sex. It was the hottest he’d ever had in his
life, even better than with his wife. And when things got a little
boring, Clay would naturally expect her to spice them up. Of course
he would.

Ruby snuggled closer to Clay and fell asleep
sated and content.

But when she searched his office the next
morning, her purple thong was nowhere to be found.

Chapter Three

“Are you all right, Jessica?” Clay Blackwell
asked, one brow arched in question.

The midafternoon sun streamed across
Jessica’s work papers. They sat at Clay’s conference table by the
office window overlooking the parking lot. Thank God they weren’t
facing each other across his desk. She wouldn’t have been able to
utter a coherent word.

No, she wasn’t all right. The board meeting
was tomorrow, Friday, starting at nine in the morning. She was
always a little on edge when they were reviewing her numbers. Today
was worse. Every time she’d seen Ruby, the woman had smirked. The
accounting department was on the second floor of West Coast’s
corporate headquarters. Holt Montgomery, the company’s CEO, was on
the first level, along with Marketing and Sales. Which meant Ruby,
the CEO’s admin, was down there, too. Ruby had managed a couple of
forays up the stairs, and a series of irritating smirks. Obviously,
the thong in Clay’s drawer hadn’t had any effect.

It had all started to wear on Jessica’s
nerves by the time she arrived in Clay’s office for the afternoon
financial review with him. She felt sick with all the questions
running through her head. Not to mention the image of Ruby on
Clay’s desk. “It’s just this CIP account,” she said, trying to get
on track. “I can’t figure it out.”

West Coast Manufacturing was in the thin film
coating business. Their coatings had various applications anywhere
from low-e window films to touch screens on computer panels. The
production coaters were large and expensive and required an entire
department of machine experts. Those technicians and engineers
maintained and refurbished the company’s four coating machines.
They were in the process of refurbishing C1, their first coater,
which was now twenty years old. The refurbishment was a capital
expenditure, but it consisted of labor hours, materials, and
outside contractors, all of which required careful monitoring by
their fixed asset accountant. Within the last month, the
refurbishment had gone way over budget, and Jessica feared that
some of the costs had been categorized incorrectly and should
actually be expensed. And it was quarter-end, dammit.

Of course, that wasn’t the real issue
bothering her, but it was the only one she was willing to talk
about right now.

“Make it Mike’s priority,” Clay said,
referring to her fixed asset accountant. “I’ll let the board know
there’s an issue and that the numbers might change before we
finalize.”

Clay made everything sound so logical and
easy. He handled every situation with diplomacy, and he always had
an answer. She admired a man who didn’t get worked up. He was a
man’s man, six foot
three and
in great
shape for forty-five years old—or any age, for that matter. He had
a dash of gray in his dark hair, and hazel eyes that sometimes saw
too much. She’d always liked older men, commanding, intelligent
men.

Which made it all that much harder to believe
what Ruby said. Because Clay couldn’t be the kind of wimpy guy who
let his woman get away with fooling around on him.

Jessica hadn’t been able to resist Ruby’s
taunt. Last night, when she arrived home at her condo, she’d booted
up her computer and searched on
hot wife
. It came back with
a ton of sites on a phenomenon called
hotwifing
. Good Lord.
It was just as Ruby had said. There
were
men who loved
having their wives cheat on them, loved hearing about, even loved
watching it and participated by taking photos or actually holding
their wives as another man...

She jerked back from the abyss. Clay was
talking. She’d missed everything he said.

“It’s not a big deal,” Clay assured her,
obviously seeing something on her face.

“I don’t like not knowing exactly what’s in
an account.”

“If you’re controller, you have to step back
from the detail, and let your people handle it. You have to trust
them.”

“I know.” She’d worked her way through other
companies from financial analyst to general ledger accountant to
accounts payable supervisor, finally coming to West Coast
Manufacturing three years ago as their accounting manager. It was a
good job and an excellent salary, which, after the housing market
tanked, had enabled her to purchase a condo in a nice neighborhood,
with a short commute to work. She was responsible for payroll,
fixed assets, accounts payable and receivable, cash management, and
all the balance sheet accounts. She was thirty-five, and the next
step on her ladder was controller. Clay had been acting controller
since her former boss had gone on medical leave. A couple of weeks
ago, it became clear he wasn’t returning. Jessica didn’t like to
step on a sick man’s back, but she wanted that job. Both she and
Greg Stevens, finance and budget manager—and Bradley’s boss—had
applied.

Maybe that was another reason she didn’t want
to rock the boat about Ruby, fear of jeopardizing the
promotion.

“I’m set for the board meeting then.” Clay
closed the folder on the quarterly financials she’d given him.
“Good job, Jessica.”

“Thanks.” She rose, gathering her binder and
notepad.

His praise made her feel inordinately
pleased, like a gold star from the teacher when she was a kid. He
always complimented, always built up his employees, and he didn’t
treat her any differently from his other subordinates. Except
Bradley. Clay didn’t seem to have much respect for Bradley’s work,
but Bradley reported to Greg Stevens, and Greg thought he could
eventually bring Bradley up to snuff.

“I’ll get you the answers on those two
questions you had before the end of the day.” She’d taken notes
during the meeting.

“Good.” He was already moving behind his desk
and reaching for the phone.

Jessica headed back to her office, wondering
if Clay was calling Ruby. That’s what bothered her, Ruby with
Bradley. How Clay ran his relationship was his business. If he
liked his girlfriend to screw other men on his desk, fine. But
Bradley
? A man like Clay wouldn’t countenance his
girlfriend’s affair with an idiot; he’d want her to choose someone
he respected. Then again, maybe Bradley made him feel like the
bigger man. Except that Clay wouldn’t need a weasel like Bradley to
build up his own ego.

But she could hear Ruby’s voice:
You’re so
much better than Clay is
.

She turned the corner beside Bradley’s
cubicle, which was right outside Greg’s office. His back was to
her, but she could see her reflection in his blank computer
monitor. As if he heard her, he tapped the keyboard and brought the
monitor to life. How long had he been sitting there daydreaming?
He’d probably been reliving last evening with Ruby.

What if she
was
lying? She was good at
turning things around to suit herself, manipulating, getting people
to do what she wanted by saying Holt Montgomery,
CEO
, with
emphasis, had asked for it. Maybe Ruby had scammed her.

If she had, what in the hell was Jessica
going to do about it?

* * * * *

Clay rubbed the back of his neck, then rolled
his head to get the kinks out. Christ, it had been a long board
meeting. They usually continued past lunch, but today’s meeting had
gone on until four. Their computer system was outdated, and several
board members were in favor of doing a public offering to finance
an enterprise system and some other capital improvements, including
upgrading the cleanroom. Both he and Holt had argued that a public
offering in the current economic climate was suicide. They’d end up
devaluing the stock. The markets were too volatile to predict.

“Did they have any questions on the
financials?” Jessica stood in his door. She was good at her job,
intelligent, with excellent problem-solving skills. He admired her
dedication and work ethic. He was in favor of making her the next
controller, but Holt was leaning toward Greg Stevens. Jessica,
while having the expertise, was sometimes too involved in the
details and had problems delegating. As controller, she’d have to
step back from the minutia and let her people handle it. Greg, on
the other hand, had no problem offloading. While Clay valued Holt’s
opinion—they’d worked together at West Coast for ten years, plus
another five at a previous company—he would do his own
choosing.

“A couple of things,” he said to Jessica.
“Come on in. Close the door.” She had a right to hear his
reservations about the promotion.

She took the seat opposite, opening her
folder with the financials in it, fiddling with the papers a
moment. Jessica Murphy was a pretty woman, blonde hair that fell in
curls past her shoulders and intense blue eyes. She lacked Ruby’s
curves and natural seduction, her skirts were longer, her blouses
less form-fitting, her makeup understated, but there was something
fresh about her, girl-next-door, that was in many ways just as
appealing, if not more so.

His relationship with Ruby precluded other
women. She played, he didn’t. That’s how he liked it: no jealousy
on her part, no bitch fights, just hot sex, and his life on an even
keel.

That didn’t stop him from appreciating
Jessica as an extremely attractive woman. He didn’t, however, allow
himself sexual thoughts about her. If they managed to steal beneath
his defenses, he ruthlessly shut them down.
She
worked for him, and he’d never compromise one of his
employees,
nor would his assessment of her physical
attributes affect his decision about the controllership.

Jessica sat ready, her pen poised.

“Henckel wants more on the antiglare
reserve,” he told her. They’d developed a film that eliminated
monitor glare, but there’d been issues with scratches. Until that
was resolved, they had a reserve against returns. The junior board
member, Henckel, always wanted to know more. It made him feel
important. “Email him the spreadsheet calculation.”

“Sure.” Jessica jotted a note. She made a few
more tick marks on her pad as he ran down a couple of other to-dos.
When she wasn’t writing, she clicked her pen. She didn’t meet his
eye, and he could hear the soft tap of her heel on the carpet as
she jiggled her knee.

Maybe the closed door made her nervous. She
probably suspected he wanted to talk about the controller
position.

“Is that it?” she asked, then pursed her lips
as if she regretted the question.

“As far as the financials, yes.”

She jumped to her feet before he had a chance
to bring up his issues about the job. She paced two steps to the
door, then turned abruptly and came back to the edge of the desk.
He’d never seen her like this. She wasn’t a jumpy person. Something
had been bothering her yesterday; today it was worse.

“Jessica.”

She puffed out a sharp breath. “I don’t know
exactly how to bring this up, so I’m just going to say it.” She
inhaled as if she needed the extra air. “I saw Ruby having sex with
Bradley on your desk two nights ago.”

He opened his mouth, shut it again. His chest
was suddenly tight, and his only thought was that she must have
been mistaken. “That’s not possible.”

Ruby like to flirt with his rules, but there
were two she would never break. First, she was never to date anyone
from work, and second, no sex at the office. Both circumstances
could be compromising, especially since they were both employed at
West Coast. It was a small company, prone to gossip, and their sex
life was private and separate. She would not have sex at the
office, not in
his
office, and certainly not with Bradley
Palmer.

“Open the bottom drawer.” Jessica pointed to
the left-hand side of his desk.

He slid it open, saw nothing.

“Check at the back,” she said.

He bent slightly to see. Something purple.
Lacy. Miniscule. He pulled out the thong Ruby had worn on
Wednesday. The thong she said she’d left behind in a hotel room as
a memento. Knowing she was going on a date, he’d watched her dress
that morning,.

Maybe she’d put it there Thursday morning for
him to find later, so they could do a little reliving. But then he
remembered the photo of his sons. Thursday morning he’d found it
knocked over, he’d assumed by the cleaning staff. Now, there was
another possibility. His blood pumped faster.

“She told me that you know about the things
she does,” Jessica went on as if he’d been silent way too long.
“And that you’re okay with it all. But I wasn’t sure...” She
trailed off uncertainly.

Goddammit. There was no doubt now, and he was
pissed Ruby had put him in this position. “Sit down.” He indicated
the chair Jessica had just vacated.