Sexcapades (12 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Listen men, I get the whole need to take care of your woman feeling. But come on! We’re smart, sexy and more than capable of looking after ourselves. The caveman routine doesn’t do it for all of us.

—PC,
Sexcapades
—
sex advice for women

Listen women, I get the whole need to be the strong capable woman thing. But come on! There’s nothing wrong with getting a little help from your man. And I call bullshit! I saw you getting all turned on there. Now, come here woman!

—D. Williams,
Mantastic
—
advice for REAL men

It was the strangest feeling, the sensation of being watched. Petra would have chalked it up to paranoia after receiving the phone calls, her mind playing tricks on her when there really was no one around.

Except she really was being watched. By Darcy.

The reporter who’d been interviewing her had to repeat her questions more than once while Petra did her best to ignore the brooding force Darcy had transformed into overnight. He’d insisted that she take his bed, while he got to work solving their problem. She tried suggesting that he stay with her, but he hadn’t even given her the opportunity. He’d started making phone calls to both the award committee members and several friends he had on the police force. Sometime around eleven o’clock she’d given up waiting and went to bed.

It would have been better for her if she’d curled up on the chair in the living room, for all the sleep she got. The moment her head hit the pillow, she was surrounded by the scent of Darcy. His shampoo on the pillow. Remnants of his cologne on his sheets. The divot in the mattress where his body naturally lay every night. Her body responded without thinking, inflicting on her the most erotic dreams she’d ever had.

It was the best worst night’s sleep she’d ever had.

By morning, she was hoping Darcy had worked out whatever plan he had in mind and they’d be able to move beyond this. While there was something amazing about staying with him in his place, she wanted to get back to her own life too. Yeah, those thoughts quickly faded when she realized he wasn’t going to leave her on her own, even if that meant following her to interviews and distracting the crap out of her.

“PC, I have one last question for you.” The reporter, Sandy something-or-other, was a charming woman in her mid-forties, who’d been far more patient with Petra than she would have been if their roles were reversed. “There have been some rumblings in the past few days about the idea of the Toronto Web Awards being rigged. That you and D. Williams are actually working together and purposely misled the selection committee.”

Petra’s stomach turned and she snapped her attention back to Sandy. “I didn’t hear a question there.”

“Sorry. What exactly is the nature of your relationship with Mr. Williams?” Sandy nodded her head in the direction of where Darcy stood. “I couldn’t help but notice.”

“Sandy, I’ve called him an ignorant Neanderthal on my blog on more than one occasion.” No, he didn’t deserve that. She was frustrated and scared, but Darcy wasn’t responsible for that. “But to be honest, he’s not like that at all. I only met him face-to-face at the nomination ceremony this week. All of our interactions have been exactly what they appeared to be online. That’s our whole relationship.”
Liar.

“Forgive me, but you can’t actually expect me to believe that? Anyone looking at you for even a few minutes could see the sparks between you.”

Petra really didn’t understand this near instant connection between them either. It was all-consuming, did things to her body and mind that she’d never experienced with any other man. Chancing a glance at Darcy, Petra leaned in a bit closer. “Can I tell you a secret?”

“Darling, I’m a reporter.” Sandy grinned. “Please tell me anything you’d like.”

Petra chuckled, but figured she had nothing to lose at this point. “When you interact with people online, the veneer of anonymity can do strange things to you. While we think we’re projecting a fake front, a lot of the time people actually feel freer to be themselves than they do in real life.”

As much as she wasn’t PC the sex vixen, it was certainly something she
could
be. PC was her inner self and she was slowly coming to terms with that.

“So D. Williams is exactly who he portrays himself to be online? That doesn’t sound flattering.”

“Oh but it is. Because if you look at his posts, while he loves to be a pain in my ass, he’s never once said anything derogatory about women. He’s trying to show men that you can be yourself, but that doesn’t give you permission to be an ass. Meeting him in person opened up my eyes to that. Plus, I mean—” she waved her hand toward him, “—look at him. Dude’s hot and I’m not blind.”

Sandy’s smirk was only slightly more predatory than a shark’s. “I’ll give you that. So you’re claiming that the accusations that you knew each other before the event are false? There isn’t anything going on between you?”

“That’s right.” Not officially for two more weeks, at any rate.

“Well, thank you, PC. I’ll have my story in tomorrow’s paper, so you can check it out along with the other interviews.”

They chatted for a few seconds longer before Sandy shook her hand, turned and made her way directly for Darcy. Petra watched as the reporter rubbed her body against Darcy’s side and held up a business card. Darcy—the bastard—smiled at her, leaned in and whispered something in her ear as he took it from her. Sandy laughed, low and throaty, and ran her hand down his arm. Darcy gave her a wink before the woman slinked away.

That...did not just happen.

He closed the distance between them, that damn smile still on his face.”Is that your last interview for the day? If so I know this great little place—”

Petra had always envisioned what it would be like to slap a man. The reality of the act hurt her fingers and left her skin stinging.

“What the hell was that for?”

“Are you kidding me?” Time to reevaluate him again. “She was all over you, you flirted with her, and
you took her card.
”

“Of course I took her card.” Holding up the offending piece of card stock between his thumb and forefinger, he flicked it to the ground. “I’m the sexy, single advice man. If I didn’t take her card, what do you think the odds are she would have believed your story that there was nothing going on between us?”

Oh.

Right.

Darcy rubbed his cheek, stretching his jaw out as he did. “Man, you pack a punch.”

“I’m not normally violent.” She’d dreamed about it, standing up for herself and putting some of her asshole boyfriends in place. But actually doing it? “Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” His cheek still bore a red tinge from where her hand had connected. “Though remind me never to piss you off.”

“Will do.”

“Anyway. Food? Are you hungry?”

Petra had barely been able to eat anything this morning. With her erotic-dream-filled night, the interview schedule of the day and the reality of some weirdo watching her every move, the idea of keeping food in her stomach didn’t seem like something she could handle. But the loud growl from her stomach answered his question.

“Good food?”

“Only the best for PC.” He held out his arm and escorted her from the room that had been booked for the interviews. “We’ll only have two hours, though. I need to be back for my own interview.”

“It’s not with Sandy is it?” Yeah, that was definitely jealousy churning around inside her. “Because I might be forced to slap your other cheek.”

“We can call it a natural makeup application. I like it.”

Turning the corner, they came face to face with Evan Reid, who was leaving his own interview session. Evan glared at them, and it took Petra a second to realize why. As quickly as she could, she dropped Darcy’s arm and stepped away.

“I knew you two were full of shit. Nothing going on between you? Do you think this is some sort of game?” He pointed at where their arms had been joined. “How the hell can anyone compete fairly when you’ve already stacked the odds in your favor?”

In an instant Petra was transported back to high school. Evan’s sneer, the way he looked at her, was familiar.

“I knew you two were a couple from the minute I saw you. I’ve spent enough time with online people to know the difference.”

Darcy got in Evan’s face before Petra could open her mouth to defend herself. “Listen jackass, PC is exactly the woman who can dish out information like that online. And for the record, I didn’t know her before the other night. I’m not going to stand here and have you accuse us of doing something we didn’t. We entered the competition, same as you, and we were both lucky enough to be chosen by the committee. End of story.”

Evan spun around. “See, this is exactly what I was talking about.”

She hadn’t noticed the reporter standing in the doorway behind Evan, but he had clearly been paying attention to them. The man was staring at them as if they were a winning lottery ticket.

“Hi there, I’m Justin Cox. I do freelance reporting and have been covering interviews for the committee.” Lifting his MP3 recorder, Justin stepped forward, bypassing Darcy and getting close to Petra. “For two people who claim this is an innocent and coincidental meeting, you seem rather close.”

Justin’s gaze didn’t remain impartial or detached. If anything, the way his gaze slipped down to her breasts before sliding back to her face said he would have been more than happy to show a little bias.

“So you’re PC, the woman whose sex advice column has gained popularity because of its online sparring with
Mantastic
. What exactly is the nature of your relationship with Mr. Williams?”

“We aren’t in a relationship.” Darcy spoke the words through clenched teeth. “And even if we were, it would be none of your damned business.”

“It certainly is.” Evan turned his gaze to Petra, and the look he gave her made her skin crawl. He too took a step closer to Petra, flanking the opposite side from Justin. “I wouldn’t put it past you to make some sort of deal so you could split the winnings.”

The money. Of course he thought it was about that.

Petra couldn’t think with the two of them standing so close to her. She wasn’t used to being the center of attention, not like this. While Evan was certainly furious, she couldn’t shake the sensation that he wanted to do something more than shout. The way he kept lifting his hand toward her shoulder, only to let it drop without touching. Her lungs tightened and it was hard to suck in a breath.

Darcy came to her rescue once more, taking her hand and tugging her to his side. A single step backward and she could breathe once more.

“What the hell are you talking about? There aren’t any winnings.” Darcy looked down at Petra. “Right?”

Oh no.

She realized Darcy didn’t know about the grand prize. His brother filled out all the paperwork and he probably hadn’t seen the terms and conditions. It explained so much. Why he didn’t seem fazed about withdrawing from the contest. The way he couldn’t understand why people were getting so pissed off. He had no clue what the stakes really were.

She wanted nothing more than to lead him out of here so they could have their lunch and pretend this whole thing wasn’t about to explode. Instead she straightened her shoulders and faced him. She owed him at least that much. “Actually, there is. It’s the top prize for the whole competition. The winners for each sub category are pitted against each other.”

Darcy stared at her as if she’d grown a second head. “How much?”

“Twenty-five thousand.” She cringed at the look of shock on his face. “I honestly assumed you knew. That’s why I was so surprised when you offered to...do what you said.”

“Don’t try and play all coy, Williams.” Evan crossed his arms. “That prize is the reason everyone enters this competition.”

Not the only reason, but Petra couldn’t contradict him. Darcy opened his mouth to say something, and yet nothing came. He was the exception to the rule when it came to the awards, though no one would ever believe him if he said otherwise.

Justin cocked his head to the side and looked between Petra and Darcy. “I’m guessing we are going with a ‘no comment’ for now?”

“Yes, no comment.” Darcy took Petra’s arm and dragged her away from them.

Okay, so he was pissed. She got that. But it wasn’t her fault he didn’t know about the money—that was between him and his brother. “Darcy, you’re hurting me.”

He didn’t apologize, or let her go for that matter. If anything, he increased his stride, making it even harder for her to keep up with him.

“Darcy—”

“Not a word.”

“But—”

“Not. A. Word.”

Okay...back into Neanderthal mode. Check.

Pulling her into an office, he made a cursory look around before shutting and locking the door behind them. Petra found herself pressed against the wall, crowded by a large and very annoyed-looking D. Williams.

He placed a hand on either side of her head, pinning her in place and forcing her to look up into his narrowed gaze. If she thought he looked sexy when he was smiling and flirting, seeing this dark and brooding version of the man had her pussy clenching and her libido instantly charged.

“What’s wrong?”
Oh
,
so that’s what a breathy whisper sounds like.
Petra cleared her throat. “Is this about the money?”

The material from his shirt brushed against her cheeks. His arms were shaking, though she didn’t know if it was because he was trying to hold himself back or from anger. She’d seen so many sides of him in such a short time, Petra wasn’t sure if there was any part of his personality left hidden to her.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” His words were clipped.

“I assumed you knew. It was in the registration information. And Evan was right. It’s the main reason people enter this contest.”

“People will do a lot of fucked-up things for money. Including harassing one of the contestants.”

“But my website isn’t likely to win. I doubt I’ll even place in our own category.” Sure, she’d dreamed about what she could do with the grand prize. That was a shit-ton of money and she had a great imagination. But her site wasn’t anything special. Not really.