His Desire (7 page)

“Kylie,” Jeff said softly. He was ready to try another approach. Good luck with that buddy, she thought. You don’t’ stand a chance after…

“Can you excuse me for a second.” Kylie didn’t wait to hear his response.

She stepped back into the kitchen and drug Sarah with her. “I’ll only be a minute. Just need to cover some things with Sarah before tomorrow morning’s brunch.”

Kylie closed the door and resisted the urge to lock it.

“Would you stop it?” she said before Sarah could get a word out.

“Kylie, you can’t sleep with him. Don’t even think about it. In fact, you need to break up with him. You know it as well as me. Jeff’s not the one.”

In spite of all her attempts at appearing differently, Sarah was still at heart a woman who believed in happy ever afters.

She was convinced, especially after Kylie told her about sleeping with Aaron, that they were meant to be one of those happy ever afters in spite of all Kylie’s attempts to make her see another truth.

“I'm seeing Jeff, not Aaron. Jeff is a great guy. Wonderful…not perfect. And I’ve been a fool putting him off for so long. I don’t know why? I mean I knew that nothing would ever come of Aaron and…Jeff’s perfect for me. And I’m not going to keep him waiting any longer.”

“You’re going to regret it if you do,” Sarah all but yelled as Kylie turned and walked out of the kitchen.

“Everything okay with you two?” Jeff asked at the obvious anger in Kylie’s eyes.

“Fine. Everything’s fine. We just had a minor disagreement over dessert tomorrow. It’s all worked out now. Let’s go.”

Jeff clearly wasn’t buying the lie but decided after another look at her expression not to press the matter.

Seated next to Jeff in his bright red Corvette convertible, Kylie decided dinner wasn’t an option if she was actually going through with this.

“You know what, Jeff, I’m not hungry. Let’s go back to my place.”

Jeff swerved then tried to keep the car from going off the busy road before turning to look at her with a kid in a candy store expression.

Clearly, Jeff was torn between sex and doing the right thing. And Kylie groaned. Jeff was a good guy. He had patiently waited for her to make the decision. “Kylie, are you sure. I don’t want to pressure you.”

Was this guy for real? What had she been waiting for? Aaron? Aaron hadn’t waited for her to decide he’d simply seduced her. Aaron probably knew all about her little crush on him. Suddenly it was so clear. And she had been such an idiot waiting for Aaron. Aaron couldn’t commit. Mariah had been the closest he would ever be able to come to committing to a woman and Mariah had dumped him. What chance did any other woman, especially one that was a non-model, have?

“I’m positive. I’ve never been more positive.”

“Really? Because you don’t really sound…”

Kylie leaned over and kissed him on his lips. “Yes, I’m sure. I’m positive Jeff.

I don’t want to wait a second longer. Not even for dinner.”

Jeff literally grinned from ear to ear, turned the car around, and headed back to Kylie’s apartment, while Kylie argued with herself. Was she just about to make the biggest mistake of her life, correction second biggest, by sleeping with Jeff? Wasn’t she about to do exactly what she’d accused Aaron of doing? Just using Jeff for sex. Or worse, she was using Jeff to forget about Aaron. No, no, no. It wasn’t using, because Jeff was all for it. And Jeff was the perfect boyfriend.

Jeff parked the ’Vette outside of Kylie’s two-story apartment. Kylie didn’t wait for him to do the gentlemanly thing. She got out of the car and unlocked the door. Jeff followed at a slightly more hesitant pace.

Once inside, Kylie gave him just enough time to close the door before reaching for his shirt.

Jeff’s fingers closed over her wrists. “Wait. Kylie, hold on. I think we should talk a little.”

Kylie stopped just long enough to roll her eyes at the irony of that statement. Wasn’t that supposed to be her line?

“Talk? I don’t want to talk. We can talk anytime. Come here.”

Jeff gave in for a minute until the last of his buttons were undone and the shirt hit the floor.

“Kylie, wait, I’m sorry, I can’t. Not like this.” Jeff reached for his shirt and turned away, re-buttoning it.

Kylie became the one with regrets. “Why not? Don’t you want me?”

Jeff’s frustrated sigh spoke volumes. He took his time facing her again. “Of course I want you, Kylie. I’d have to be dead not to. But not like this. Not when your doing it out of anger or whatever reason that’s suddenly caused you to change your mind.” He studied her for a moment. “I can’t even begin to understand why you agreed to sleep with me tonight, but I can see your heart’s not really in it and I don’t want to be a mistake for you. I deserve better than that.”

“But I thought…” She couldn’t quite meet his gaze.

I know, and believe me, refusing you is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Look, let’s talk.

Kylie tried not to cry. Tried not to show her disappointment. And somewhere through all of her regrets, Jeff seemed to pick up on her inner turmoil. He took her hand. “Come on, I’ll make us some coffee or better yet, why don’t I fix us some dinner.”

Chapter Six

Aaron stood outside Kylie’s apartment for what felt like hours before finally knocking. He held her locket in one hand and wondered what to say to her.

He’d replayed this first face-to-face encounter in his head a dozen times. But reality had a way of not working in his favor where Kylie was concerned.

He heard footsteps coming to the door followed by silence.

“Open the door, Kylie. I know you’re there.” Impatience threaded through every syllable of his voice. Aaron wasn’t expecting this response.

Kylie opened the door but didn’t invite him inside. Definitely not the reaction he’d imagined in all his imaginary conversations with her.

“Let me in,” Aaron told her, his impatience growing when his eyes swept over her. Kylie wasn’t wearing anything but a pale yellow, terrycloth robe.

Or at least that was what his imagination told him as he made his way slowly back to her face. She wasn’t dressed for work at seven in the morning. Even though he knew she was normally in the office by eight. She made no attempt to speak. Nor did she move to let him pass.

Aaron placed his hand against her stomach and pushed her gently back inside, following her.

“What’s up with you?” Aaron demanded before remembering his promise not to lose his cool with her.

“Nothing. I just wasn’t expecting you. What are you doing here anyway?”

Kylie looked nervous. Was that all because of him or was something else up.

He took a second to really look at her. Kylie looked as if she’d just gotten out of bed, or hadn’t been there at all. He crushed that thought. He couldn’t think about that without wanting to demand to know things that were none of his business.

“I should have called. I’m sorry, but it occurred to me that you might be missing this.” Aaron held the locket up for her to see and watched as some of her nervousness disappeared.

“Where did you find this?”

Aaron was just ready to pull her close, unable to stand this distance between them when he became aware that they were not alone.

Jeff walked out of Kylie’s bedroom, fresh from the shower.

“Oh, hey there, Aaron. I thought I heard someone at the door. Didn’t know you were back in town.” Jeff came over to where Kylie stood, her eyes locked with Aaron’s, pleading with him not to say anything. Jeff placed a familiar arm around her waist, pulling her body back against his in an intimate gesture that spoke the truth. Jeff was very familiar with her body.

For a moment, Aaron couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. He felt as if someone had just kicked him in the stomach hard. It took all of his willpower to actually attempt something in the lines of a coherent response to Jeff’s hello.

“Hi, Jeff. Sorry, I didn’t realize you had company.”

Aaron’s eyes never left hers. He handed her the locket. Their hands touched for just a moment. Aaron could feel her trembling. She was afraid he would give something away to Jeff. She didn’t want Jeff to know about their secret.

“Hey, there’s your locket. You know I was going to ask you what happened to it. Where did you find it?” Jeff said before kissing her temple.

“At my place.” Aaron said and saw Kylie’s mortified reaction. “You must have lost it during the party you threw for my promotion.”

He watched her relax a little. “Thank you,” she told him.

“I should go.” Aaron turned and walked to the door. Kylie followed. Aaron turned to face her aware that Jeff stood watching their exchange. Aaron leaned over and hugged her whispering in her ear. “I think we need to talk.

I’ll call you later.” While Kylie was still too shocked to do anything more than look at him with those amazingly sultry eyes, Aaron kissed her. Jeff could just read whatever he wanted into that. After a moment, he felt her kiss him back. He smiled against her lips when he felt her surrender. Maybe she’d spent the night with Jeff, but Kylie wasn’t over him any more than he was over her. In fact, if Jeff weren’t there, it would be interesting to see where this kiss would lead.

“I’ll call you later,” he told her, meeting her shocked expression with a smile.

“Jeff, it was good to see you again.” With a slight wave of his hand, Aaron turned and left the two of them standing there watching him walk away, whistling a tune under his breath. He would give just about anything to be a fly on the wall in that apartment once the door shut.

* * * *

“What the hell was that about?” Jeff was angry. She couldn’t blame him. She was angry too. She couldn’t believe Aaron had kissed her in front of him. But then, Aaron had been angry as well. And shocked. Aaron clearly wasn’t expecting Jeff to be there and he’d obviously jumped to the wrong conclusion because of it. Kylie had never felt more like a cheat, even when she’d slept with Aaron.

She’d hurt Jeff by not being completely honest with him. He’d given her the right opening; she just couldn’t walk through that door. They’d spent the night talking about where their relationship was heading, or rather, Jeff had talked. She’d mostly pretended to listen. When they finally realized the time, it was almost five in the morning. Unfortunately she hadn’t expected Aaron to show up at her door today of all days.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Yeah, that was the mature way of handling things. Deny their existence.

Jeff stepped in front of her blocking her escape to the bathroom. “Like hell you don’t. Since when do ‘friends’ kiss like that?” When she didn’t answer, Jeff got angrier. “What’s going on between you? Kylie, I want to know. What about the things you and I talked about last night? Our future? What was last night about?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing. That’s all it was to you.”

“No, I was talking about Aaron and me. There’s nothing going on between us.”

“You’re lying. Last night, well I just thought it was because you were disappointed that I wanted to wait it was our first time together, but now…

You weren’t there. Oh, you said all the right things,” he added when she was about to protest that point. “But emotionally you weren’t even close. Have you slept with him?”

“Jeff, I’m not having this conversation with you?” Kylie tried to hang onto her anger, but looking into Jeff’s eyes made the magnitude of what she’d done to him seem terrible.

“Yes you are,” he told her, reaching for her arm, preventing her escape.

“You owe me that much. Since the beginning, you’ve talked about waiting until you were in a position to commit emotionally. I thought it was because of a past boyfriend. I never suspected it was your friend’s boyfriend.”

“Jeff, please. I don’t want to talk about this.”

He released her as if she were contaminated as the truth set in. “You don’t have to.” Jeff turned away, gathered the rest of his clothes, and headed for the door. “You just confirmed it. I can’t believe you did that to me. You’ll understand when I tell you I don’t ever want to hear from you again.” Jeff slammed the door leaving pictures rattling against the wall in the wake of his anger.

* * * *

When Kylie walked in two hours late, she was expecting questions from her assistant. What she hadn’t been expecting was Sarah’s anger.

It took a full hour for Kylie to work up the nerve to call Jeff and apologize.

She’d never felt more like a man before in her life. What exactly had she expected the outcome of her actions to be? That she could lie Aaron out of her system?

What had she been expecting?

She wasn’t sure if Jeff would even return her call. Kylie wasn’t really sure that she wanted him to.

Midway through leaving a very detailed and very repentant apology, Jeff picked up.

“I hope you don’t expect me to forgive you Kylie, because frankly I don’t see that happening. I’m still in shock. I can’t believe you’d do that to me. I’m beginning to think I don’t know you at all.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say. I can’t take it back now. I know it was wrong.”

“Wrong? Kylie, it was way beyond wrong. It was unforgivable. I cared for you. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. Why do you think I was so patient, waiting for the right moment before we made love? I wanted it to be special with you."

“Jeff…”

“Don’t bother denying it. We both know it’s true. Forget about the fact that he is—was—your friend and roommate’s boyfriend. I mean, I can excuse that, knowing Mariah, but you said yourself Aaron isn’t the type of guy to want more from a woman than sex. Is that all you want? How could you sleep with him feeling the way you do about that type of thing?”

“Jeff…”

“You know what, forget about it. Just do me a favor and lose my number.”

It took another hour for her to come to grips with the truth. She’d treated Jeff miserably.

The second she walked into the store, Sarah hit her with the question and the anger and round two began. “Tell me you didn’t.”

“I’m not going to tell you anything,” Kylie countered, dropping her things behind the counter.

“Oh, God, you did. Kylie, you idiot!”