Sleepless in Manhattan (16 page)

But instead, here he was, trying to do the decent thing and she was making him feel bad about it.

The injustice of it made him irritable.

He pushed back from the desk. “You were hyperventilating.”

“You kissed me to stop me overbreathing?”

It sounded ridiculous even to him. “You were scared and I comforted you. That’s what it was about. Don’t make something of it, Paige.”

“Don’t
make something
of it?” She paced to the desk on those crazily long legs that had been wrapped around his waist the night before.

Restless, he shifted his gaze from her legs to her mouth. That didn’t help, because her mouth was soft and glossy and he knew exactly how it tasted. The truth was there wasn’t a single part of her that didn’t tempt him. He tried staring at his computer screen. “Yeah, you know—don’t spin things.”

“Things?”

He ground his teeth. “Fairy tales. That’s Eva’s domain.”

“And what are you in this fairy tale, Jake? Prince Charming? Because I don’t remember being asleep. The big bad wolf?
All the better to eat you with?
”

“It was a kiss, dammit.” He stood up, irritable, cornered. Dragging his fingers through his hair, he looked at her. “What do you want me to say? I kissed you.”

“I know you kissed me. I was there. What I don’t know is why. And don’t tell me you were trying to stop me hyperventilating.”

Why had he kissed her?

Because for a few seconds he’d let his guard drop.
“You were upset.”

“You don’t kiss women when they’re upset. You hug them. You pat them. You say ‘there, there.’”

“It started that way.”
Why the hell couldn’t she let it alone?

“But it didn’t end that way.”

“No, it didn’t.” The memory of how it had ended had kept him awake for most of the night. He’d paced the considerable length of his loft apartment several times. He’d taken two cold showers. “Do you always analyze everything?”

“No, not everything. But I’m analyzing this.”

“You need to let it go.”

“You think we can ignore it?”

“Yeah, that’s what I think.”

“Tell me you’re not interested and I won’t mention it again.” She dropped the words into a pulsing, thickened silence.

She had him trapped, squirming like a fish on a hook.

“I’m not interested. Look, we were two people trapped in an elevator—you were stressed, I comforted you and it turned into more than I planned. I’d had a glass of champagne, you were there all cute and vulnerable, your mouth was all red and kissable. But it was just a kiss. It happens.” He hoped she’d leave it at that, but of course she didn’t.

“It wasn’t just a kiss. It was—” she’d lost a little of her confidence, seemed puzzled “—more. It was more, Jake. I felt it. It was different.”

“No it wasn’t. I kiss like that all the time.” He stripped the emotion out of his voice. “That kiss felt the same as all the others.” He shot the arrow straight through her heart.

The hurt pulsed from her and right at that moment he truly hated himself.

Why the hell had he taken the elevator with her?

“So you’re saying you kissed me because I was there. Because I happened to have a mouth, and I was wearing red lipstick.” Her voice was monotone. “That’s all it was?”

“Yes.”

She stared at him for a moment and then picked one of the smiles from her collection. She had several that he knew of. There was the “I’m fine” smile. The “I’m not in pain” smile and the “I don’t care” smile.

This was a combination of all three. Matt would have called it her Brave Face.

“Right—well, I appreciate your honesty.” She straightened her shoulders. “Sorry to disturb you. If you have any questions about the venue, let me know. Otherwise Urban Genie will carry on with the planning.”

“I don’t have questions.” Except for wondering why he’d agreed to this. “Do your thing.”

As long as she did her thing well away from him, they might even survive this.

CHAPTER TEN

Men are like lipstick; you have to try a few before you find the perfect one.

—Paige

“S
O
HOW
’
S
BUSINESS
?”
Jake was sprawled on the sofa in Matt’s man cave killing zombies on the Xbox while they waited for the rest of their friends to arrive for a game of pool. “Busy?”

“Yeah. Did you drink all the beer from my fridge? I could have sworn it was full last week.”

“It was. Then we had poker night. You’re forgetting.”

“I’m not forgetting. I lost more than beer that night.” Matt gave a grunt and stood up. “If you empty the damn fridge, you should fill it up, especially as you walked away with half my money last time.”

It was an easy exchange. One they’d had a hundred times before.

“I seem to recall emptying your fridge was a joint project, and as I filled it up in the first place you can’t complain. And I’m empty-handed this time because I came on the bike. I can go to the restaurant if you like and raid supplies.”

“You’d steal from your own mother? You have no conscience.”

Given that his conscience was the only thing holding Jake back from screwing Paige, the accusation made him irritable. “Do you want beer or not?”

“Well, aren’t you in a sunny mood?” Matt studied him. “Do you want to talk about it? Or would you rather have a tantrum by yourself?”

“By myself works fine.” Jake destroyed more zombies.

“So you’re not going to tell me what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. And since when did you encourage me to talk about my problems? That’s Eva’s role.”

Matt looked at him steadily. “Right, I get it. You don’t want to talk about it. And don’t worry about the beer. We have enough for tonight. I told Paige I’d drive the van to pick up some scaffolding for your event tomorrow, so I can pick some more up then.”

“Scaffolding?”

“They’re building a centerpiece—they haven’t told you?” Matt frowned. “Paige has found a set designer. Don’t you have meetings about this stuff?”

Not if he could help it.
“We had a meeting at the beginning. I told her what I wanted. They’re coming up with a plan that fits. I glance at the emails occasionally.”

“You didn’t give them a budget?”

“Open-ended.”

Matt winced. “You gave Eva an open-ended budget? She’ll open an account at Bloomingdale’s and strip the place bare. I thought you were a businessman.”

“I gave Paige the budget. I want to make a splash. It will be worth the investment, I’m sure.” And he’d wanted to give Paige full rein to wow Manhattan’s finest. That much he could do for her.

“You’re telling me you don’t know the details?”

“Why buy a dog and bark yourself?”

“Are you calling my sister a dog?”

“No.” Jake got violent with the zombies. “I’m telling you I know how to delegate. I don’t care what’s in the food, as long as my guests are fed and happy. It doesn’t matter to me if the mushrooms are chanterelle or oyster, which is what I told Eva when she tried to discuss details with me. She’s the food expert. I’m leaving it to her.”

“And Paige is overseeing the whole thing. She’s working twenty-hour days for you, so you’d better say something encouraging.”

Jake kept his eyes on the screen and killed a few more zombies. Since the conversation in his office, he’d stayed out of her way.

“How is she doing?”

“Why are you asking me? I thought she was sharing your office?”

“She is, but she’s working and I’m working and we’re not working on the same thing.” Jake destroyed everything on the screen in a violent bloodbath.

Matt raised his eyebrows. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong. Why would you think anything is wrong?”

“Because you’re tense and you’ve killed a hell of a lot of zombies.”

“That’s the point of the game. To kill zombies.” Jake dropped the controller, hating the fact that he felt guilty. What did he have to feel guilty about? He was doing this for her. Putting himself through the hell of sexual frustration for her. “So last time you saw Paige, she didn’t seem upset?”

“Upset?” Matt’s eyes narrowed. “Why would she be upset? Has something happened?”

Yeah, he’d virtually stripped her naked and feasted on her mouth as if she were his next meal. “It was a friendly enquiry, that’s all.” He felt his neck grow hot. “She’s been working hard.”

“I thought you hadn’t seen her.”

“That’s how I know she’s working hard. I haven’t.” Apart from in the elevator when he’d seen, and tasted, far too much of her.

“You haven’t put your head around the office door once to check on her?” Matt sounded more amused than annoyed, but the whole situation was as uncomfortable as walking on gravel in bare feet. Jake shifted.

“I’ve been busy. I have my own business to run.” And if he’d put his head around the door to check on her he might have come away with a black eye. He wouldn’t have blamed her for punching him. Guilt scraped over his conscience like sandpaper. “What more do you want from me? I’ve invited everyone important in my contacts. The rest is up to her.”

“Hey, you’ve been good to her, Jake.” Matt’s tone was warm. “You’ve been a good friend.”

There was a cold, knotted feeling in his gut.

He’d been the worst friend.

“I should have checked on her, I suppose, but I haven’t been in the office much.” He’d found a thousand reasons not to be there. He’d flown to LA to talk to a client instead of making them fly to him. He’d driven to DC to discuss a security issue with a high-level contact there and taken his time returning.

He hadn’t seen Paige in over a week.

It annoyed him that he couldn’t stop thinking about her, and it annoyed him that he hadn’t been able to keep his hands off her in the elevator.

He couldn’t stop replaying that damn kiss in his mind.

Matt put his hand on Jake’s shoulder. “Don’t feel bad about it. I appreciate what you’re doing for her, I really do. I owe you.”

Jake felt guilt shoot through him. This was his friend. He’d never deceived his friend before. It didn’t feel good. “You don’t owe me, but if you really want to pay me back you can let me win tonight.”

Matt grinned. “You couldn’t beat me even if I was wasted.”

“Is that a challenge?” Right now drinking everything in sight seemed like a good way to go. “Let’s try it.”

* * *

“T
HAT
WAS
THE
WORST
,
most embarrassing date of my life. Thank goodness for the emergency phone call.”

Frankie was on her knees, tending the roof garden. “I’m not going to say I told you so.”

“Good.” Eva slipped off her shoes and dropped onto one of the cushions. “Because right now I’m feeling evil and I’d probably deadhead you alongside your roses.”

Paige lit the candles. It was the first time they’d been up on the roof garden all week. They’d been working long hours and there had been plenty of days when they’d gone straight from the office to bed and then back again.

Still, at least working hard had dulled the acute pain she’d felt after her encounter with Jake. She was too exhausted to feel anything.

She flopped on the cushions next to Eva. “Tell us about your date.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Eva shuddered. “It was bad enough experiencing it once, without reliving it.”

Frankie carefully added another layer of soil to the planter. “Are you going to tell us where he took you?” She paused as Matt emerged onto the roof with Jake behind him.

Eva and Frankie both sent anxious looks in her direction.

She’d told them about the conversation that had followed that kiss. They knew she hadn’t seen Jake since that day. He’d been avoiding her, and the thought of it sent a flush of embarrassment across her skin.

Why was he here now? And with Matt? Was he afraid he might have to fight her off?

Frankie rose to her feet, protective as a bodyguard. “I thought it was poker night?”

“Pool night, but two of the guys didn’t show. Pressures of the corporate world. We thought we’d come up here and drink our beer with a view. Unless we’re disturbing you.”

Yes
, Paige thought desperately,
you are
. She was tired and looking forward to an evening chilling with her friends. She didn’t need Jake intruding on that. Being near him was anything but relaxing. For the second time in her life she’d humiliated herself around him. No amount of wafting plants, scented candles or chilled white wine was going to help with that.

Matt put his beer down on the bluestone patio. “Are we interrupting an off-site meeting of Urban Genie?”

“No. We were catching up on all the juicy intimate details of Eva’s love life.” Paige hoped that would be sufficient to have them running for the stairs.

Instead, Matt sat down. Given it was technically his roof terrace, Paige couldn’t argue his right to do that.

“You have a love life, Ev? Update us.”

“That won’t take long. It was short. And not at all sweet. I never want it mentioned again. It was my lowest dating moment.” Eva slumped in the seat. “Tell me I’m not the only one to have ever had an embarrassing date. Paige? Make me feel better. Tell me your most embarrassing incident with a guy ever.”

They were piling up. And all of them involved Jake.

He was standing in the shadows at the edge of the roof garden, and although his expression was sheathed by the darkness she knew he was watching her.

She’d spent years wishing he’d kiss her, and now that he had, she wished he hadn’t because every intense, erotic detail was imprinted on her brain.

“Tell us about the date, Ev.” Fortunately Matt took the heat off Paige for a moment.

“He took me to a fight club. I
hate
all forms of violence.” Eva curled her legs under her, indignant. “What sort of person thinks that is a dream date?”

Paige stole a glance at Jake, and then looked away again.

Part of her was annoyed. Why had he kissed her? If he’d wanted to distract her he could have used other methods. Knowing how she’d once felt about him, he should definitely have used one of those methods instead of doing something so, so—
personal
.

Where did their relationship go from here? How did you rewind the clock from intimacy to mere acquaintance? Somehow she had to forget the feel of his mouth on hers, the skilled stroke of his hand on her thigh and the brutal explosion of heat.

If that was how all his kisses felt it was a wonder half the women in New York hadn’t gone up in flames.

“Dream date?” Matt sounded amused by the question. “Hey Jake, what’s your idea of a dream date?”

“A night of incredible, amazing sex, preferably with Swedish triplets who are only in town for a night.”

Paige tightened her grip on her glass and Eva quickly changed the subject.

“If you were going on a date with
me
, Matt, where would you take me? And please don’t say a fight club.”

“I would never take you on a date, Ev.”

Eva bristled. “Why not?”

“Because I’ve known you since you were four years old.”

“Are you saying I’m not cute?”

“You’re cute.” Matt’s hand locked around a bottle of beer. “But it would be like dating my sister.”

“What about Frankie?”

There was a brief hesitation and then Matt lifted the bottle to his lips. “Same.”

Something in his tone made Paige think it wasn’t the same at all, but she didn’t say anything.

Matt’s love life was his business and she had enough problems with her own.

Taken aback, Eva glanced at Jake. “Would you ever date one of us, Jake?”

“Of course he wouldn’t,” Matt said easily. “For a start he knows you almost as well as I do and it would be weird, and then there’s the fact he knows I’d beat him to a pulp if he put a hand on any of you.”

Paige stopped breathing.

Through the darkness her eyes met Jake’s, and she knew he was thinking of that moment in the elevator when he’d put both hands on her. And his mouth.

“If none of us are dating and Jake can drag himself away from his Swedish triplets, we should take a picnic up to Central Park one weekend, all of us.” Matt carried on talking, oblivious to the tension. “Eva could make something delicious, we can walk, maybe take a couple of boats out, listen to the jazz—”

Frankie gave him a quick smile. “Sounds good.”

“I can’t make it.” Jake’s tone was short and Matt frowned.

“I didn’t fix a time so how the hell do you know you can’t make it?”

“I have a lot on right now.”

Paige felt a rush of misery.

She knew exactly why Jake couldn’t make it, and it made her feel horrible and a touch exasperated.

He was the one who had kissed
her
, not the other way around.

He’d created this situation.

A lifetime of uncomfortable encounters stretched ahead of her.

She needed to meet someone else. She need to bring a hot guy up to this roof terrace and laugh and joke with him so that Jake could see she was happy.

She needed to stop thinking about Jake.

She needed to stop thinking about that kiss.

The conversation drifted around her, driven mostly by Frankie and Matt.

“How was your day, Matt? Weren’t you meeting a new client?”

“I produced a concept design package for a guy on the Upper East Side who has more money than taste.”

Frankie wiped the soil from her fingers. “So are you going to work with him?”

“I haven’t decided. I’m meeting him again tomorrow. We’re visiting a couple of sites together. I need to hang out with him for a while and decide if he’s going to be too much trouble.”

Paige wondered how it felt to be able to turn down business. “When do you get to the point where you feel able to say no? I can’t imagine that time ever coming.”

“It will come. One day you’ll look at your schedule and realize you’re juggling, that you can’t do it all. Then someone will ask you to do something that doesn’t feel quite right and you’ll realize that your reputation matters and that you want what you do to stand for something. You’ll choose not to take jobs that clash with that.”