The Satin Sash (32 page)

By the time Louisa Fairchild arrived at the quaint café only blocks away from the RS Corporation building, Toni waited for her by a quiet corner table at the far end. She had been fidgeting with her napkin and utensils, and the relief she felt when she spotted her friend was immediate.

She’d had nonstop anxiety for a week. The feeling wouldn’t leave her, not for a second. It was a heaviness. An anxiousness. Like when she had something to do but couldn’t remember what it was. Like when she and Grey fought. It was there, always. This thought of Heath. This wondering about Heath. This wish that the weekend had never happened, and another that it would have never stopped.

Her smile spread as she watched the slim, sexy blonde slide into the seat across from hers. A friendly face. A familiar face. A female face. God, she was happy to see her.

“Corporate life suits you, Louisa,”Toni said teasingly.

Louisa’s blond hair tumbled lustrously behind her back, and she was dressed as sexily as if she were going out to a nightclub. Toni felt a momentary pang of jealousy at the thought of Grey seeing her every day, especially when Toni sometimes waved him off to work in her pajamas, but she quickly dismissed her concern when her friend laughed. Like they used to laugh in college.

“I’m still such a nervous wreck, but getting better.” Louisa smoothed her napkin on her lap and, remembering to do the same, Toni followed suit.

“How’s Grey treating you?” Toni asked her. “Not too bad, I hope.”

Louisa lifted her gaze, startled.“Oh, no, he’s . . .” Her gaze drifted to the window as though a passerby had caught her eye. “Grey’s wonderful.”

Dreamily,Toni propped her chin on her linked hands.“I’m glad. He’s really a softie, isn’t he?”

The moment she spoke the words, she had an image of Grey cooing at her, touching her, and what went soft was her own body.

“Soft?” Louisa said testily. “Not in appearance
or
personality. Not with me, I mean.”

Toni smiled.Yes, of course.
Soft
was the last word you’d use to describe him.
Greek god
, more likely.
Sex with Midas eyes.
The only thing soft in relation to Grey Richards was the way Toni felt on the inside when he looked at her. And the way he was when he coddled her. And the way he—

“Well! What are we having?” Louisa surveyed the offerings on the menu. Toni already knew what she would order—the Caesar salad and the chicken parmigiana—but she waited until Louisa finished her perusal and set the menu aside.

“So,” Louisa said. “How was Cabo?”

“Fabulous.We went to a Mexican wedding. It was so lively and interesting. I wore my first mariachi hat, too. Grey said it was wonderful, but Heath said it was ridiculous.”

The waitress interrupted to inform them of the daily specials, and while Louisa inquired about the soup of the day, Toni warred between spilling her guts and attempting to have a normal meal.

Once the waitress jotted down their food orders and left, Louisa fished into the bread basket the waitress had left behind. “So you mentioned Heath.You mean Heath Solis, the—”

“Grey’s partner, yes.”When Louisa made a face,Toni was compelled to ask, “You’ve met him?”

She munched with a thoughtful face. “Once at the office, yes. He’s rude. Gorgeous and rude.”

“Oh, really? Why?”

“He’s just rude. Everyone says so at the office. He gives me the creeps.”

Heath smiling . . .
No. I liked your big scared eyes when you said
haunting. Heath encouraging . . .
Cluck to it, beautiful. Send it a kiss. You’re the boss here. Ask it to trot for you. . . .

Her stomach vaulted, and she dropped her face to hide the color flaming in her cheeks. Absently, she circled a pattern on the linen with the tip of one finger. “What else do they say about him?”

“Well.” Louisa took a sip of water. “That he’s Grey’s attack dog. One of the funny guys calls him the Mastiff. They say he growls like one, too. That he sniffs out lots for Grey, does all the dirty work, that sort of thing.”

“A dog?” Toni slumped back in her seat, flabbergasted. “That isn’t a nice thing to say about someone.”

The thought of her speaking those words made her furious at herself, furious at these people.

“Hey, I’m just passing it on. I don’t know the guy,” Louisa said defensively.

Toni had a staggering urge to punch these people. No wonder Heath was always on the defensive. Did anyone want him close? He was obviously intimidating to men, and maybe a little too much man for some women. But if only one would take a good look up close and open her heart to him, she was sure Heath Solis was a man to love a woman forever.

He would love so surely and determinedly, steadfastly . . .

Why couldn’t it be
her
?

Frowning at the despairing turn her thoughts had taken, she asked, “Louisa, does Grey know that’s what these people call Heath?”

“Of course not, no!” Diving across the table, Louisa clenched Toni’s hand between hers. “You aren’t going to tell him, are you?”

Worry shone bright in her friend’s eyes, and without hesitation Toni turned her hand and squeezed in reassurance. “I won’t. But I don’t think he’d appreciate it. Much less Heath.”

“So how do you know him?” Not entirely concealing her curiosity, Louisa went back to the rolls, spreading butter on a piece.

Memories threatened to surface, and Toni fought to keep them inside, to push Heath away. But it felt like he was knocking from inside her, living in her,
breathing
in her. “I just told you he said my hat is ridiculous,” she said, as if that explained it all. Why she couldn’t sleep.Why she and Grey did not speak of him.Why he had become their ghost.

“But he’s never in the city, as far as I know. Except that once when he stopped by the office a few weeks ago. Some of the workers didn’t even know what he looked like!”

“I met him a few weeks ago, too,” Toni admitted, and gathered her breath. “He was with us the whole weekend in Cabo, actually. Remember arranging his schedule?”

“Vaguely, yes.”

“Well, he’s not a dog,” she defended, still smarting over it. “He’s . . . Heath is . . .” How to explain Heath to someone? To anyone. He was a mystery, a beautiful, damaged box with all kinds of novelties and goodies inside.“He’s just as wonderful as Grey is,” she admitted. “Different, but wonderful. Rough on the edges. A little bad.” And fun and rebellious and enchanting.

Alarm skated through Louisa’s eyes. “Toni . . . don’t tell me—”

“We had sex, all right! We had a threesome.”

If a waitress had come by and dropped a tray fully loaded with icy beverages, she doubted Louisa would have been more paralyzed. The shock and horror on her friend’s face made Toni sigh in despair. She shouldn’t have spoken about this to her.Threesomes were not discussed with regular people, period. “I’m sorry to dump it on you like this. I needed to talk to someone.”

“What do—exactly what did you do? What do you mean, a threesome?” Louisa’s color had risen, and her voice was an octave shy of a shriek.

“The three of us had sex.” She said it simply, matter-of-f actly, as she figured one should deal with these situations once they were done.As if they happened every day.Yes, yes,
yes
. That was her problem. She should just say it, deal with it, and let it go. “There!” She impulsively slammed a hand down in mock celebration. “I’ve said it, I feel great, and I really needed to get that off my chest.”

“And whose idea was it? I can’t imagine Grey would be so kinky. He’s so . . . he’s so . . . reserved.”

“On the outside. And it was our idea.”Toni refused to look directly into Louisa’s stunned blue gaze as she dismally added,“Sometimes I wish we could do it again and again, forever and ever.”

“What does that mean? Are you dumping Grey?”

“Never! No! I love Grey.” Her hands trembled, and she plucked at her straw, frowning into the depths of her iced tea as she twirled it. “I sometimes feel Heath belongs with us, that’s all.”

“As in, you three?”

Toni spread her arms aside.“It’s just that I’ve lately wondered . . . well, we have two legs, right?” She smiled wanly, lifted her shoulders. “Two eyes.Two hands.Why can’t we have two lovers?”

Two lovers who also went at each other, two male lovers who also understood, cared about, admired, and complemented each other. . . .

“Okay. This conversation has turned from normal to creepiest ever. I don’t know what to say! The extent of my sexual experience ranges from missionary to woman on top, and that was weeks ago. Now you tell me you have not one hunk in your bed, but two?”

“Oh, god, and I want them both!” she groaned in a strange combo of mirth and misery. “What does that make me?”

“A bitch!” Louisa said with such force Toni felt electrocuted in her seat. “And you’re speaking nonsense,” Louisa continued, calming herself with a breath. “I mean, who’s ever heard of that?”

“It’s not that unusual, Louisa.” Toni angled her head and assessed her friend, a little surprised by the sudden, overwhelming ire Louisa was trying and failing to control.“I’ve Googled it.And some people make it work.”

“But, Toni, you have Grey! How can Grey Richards not be enough for any woman in the world?”

“He’s enough. I adore him! One has nothing to do with the other. Having four children doesn’t mean you don’t love all four of them.
Anyway.
Enough about me.Tell me about you.”

“You’d be asleep in minutes. No. Explain this to me, because I’m finding it difficult to come to terms with all of this. What would your parents think? I mean, do they even know?”

“I don’t care what they think. I don’t care what anyone thinks except Grey . . . and Heath.” She went red remembering them in Cabo . . . their hands . . . their mouths . . .

Glancing over her shoulder, Louisa scanned the expanse of the restaurant and dropped her voice to a whisper. “How did they . . . Was this at the same time?”

“Sometimes.” Toni cooled her palms with her glass and placed them over her cheeks, refreshing her burning face. “This is a little awkward. Can we talk about you now?”

Louisa sat back, nodded, and for a while they talked. They ate. They laughed.Then an odd, strained silence came, and Louisa said, “No wonder.”

“No wonder what?” Toni asked, munching the last bit of her chicken.

“No wonder Grey has been so distant since his return. He stares blankly off into space, or dictates something while staring at the window. He rubs his face with his hands. Today he hadn’t shaved when he came in. I’ve never seen him looking so scruffy. I thought he was stressed. The wheels in his head never seem to cease, and you know he always seems to be thinking something, evaluating, analyzing? Now I know what he’s . . . stressing about. He’s stressing about
you
.”

When the words hit—and they took a stunned moment to—her heart clenched awfully tight. If she’d thought she could feel no more anxious, no more confused and miserable, she wasn’t counting on this last.The thought of Grey unhappy . . .

“What do you mean?” she said weakly. “At home he’s . . . at home he’s fine.”

He’d been fine with her all week. At night he whispered to her, told her he loved her, and by day he showered her with attention and welcomed her own eager attempts to be with him. They couldn’t seem to stop calling each other, wanting to be together. She and Grey were fine!

“Really?” Louisa pursed her lips in distaste. “Maybe it’s work stuff, then. I hear there’s an IPO of the company coming up.”

Toni’s eyes dropped to her plate, and she frowned at the remains of her food in puzzlement. Was he closing himself to her? Was he pretending to be all right for her sake? And if he was, could she blame him? Wasn’t she doing the same, desperately attempting to restore their lives as they were before?

As soon as the bill had been paid and they stepped out into the sidewalk,Toni asked, “Want to hit the shops?”

Louisa glanced at her watch. “I need to get back. Lunch hour’s over—”

“Do you know where he is?” Toni whispered, running a hand down her skirt as they hit the busy sidewalks of Michigan Avenue.

“He?”

“Heath.”

Louisa stared at her, then briskly answered,“Oaxaca.” She added meaningfully, “It’s in Mexico.”

Toni waved a hand. “I know where it is.”

“You do? I had to look it up.”

“Louisa?” Pausing as though to think straight, Toni stared at a window display, her eyes on the clothes but her mind far away.“Do you think you could get me his phone number?”

“Might I ask what you want it for?”

“I want to talk to him,” she admitted.
To know he is all right
, she told herself. “And I want to know if he’s talking to Grey.”

“Give me until this afternoon.”

“Thank you.”

Minutes later,Toni followed her to the impressive marble lobby of the RS Corporation building.All eyes across the nineteenth floor seemed to zero in on Toni when they stepped out of the elevator.

Louisa settled behind her desk and fidgeted around before she announced her to Grey. It took only a second for six feet three inches of handsome and magnificent to fill the doorway.That smile. From her desk, Louisa looked like she had never seen it. It was wide and devastating, it was so dazzling. Toni felt tiny butterflies race down to her toes when he jerked his head toward his office. “Get in here, Miss Kearny.”

Toni did.

He leaned back against his desk and crossed his arms, looking displeased. “You steal my assistant for two hours and dare come here without something for me?”

“I’ve got this.” She lifted her skirt, and Grey peeked at one of her newest acquisitions: a sheer pink thong that was barely there. He palmed her ass, his hands huge and tanned on Toni’s creamy buttocks as they squeezed.