Sweet Little Lies (9 page)

M
y goal for the day was simply to survive. To get through it with minimal drama and get into bed (alone). It had been a hell of a week and I flat out needed some downtime. I lost track of how many glasses of wine I self-medicated with last night. Clarke ended up driving me home. Then he drove back into the city to take Carey home. The whole night was more than I wanted to think about.

I had spent the first part of the morning battling with Lisa and trying not to look like warmed-over roadkill on the air. I prayed that Carey was ready to take the reins because I only had time to jump out of the chair, change clothes, grab my file for this interview, pick up my car from the restaurant parking lot, and make my way to Bayside. I hadn’t appreciated the smirk on the valet’s face when I picked up my car either. Clearly, he remembered me from the night before.

Finding an authorized visitor’s parking space on Bayside University’s campus was no small task. Next item up: finding the engineering quad. Of course it was nowhere near where I had parked. The morning fog had burned through the clouds,
but there was still that bay breeze to contend with. With a sigh, I switched out my stilettos for cute loafers I kept in my trunk. To be safe, I dug out a suede trapeze jacket in a chestnut color, in case the breeze picked up or the temperature dropped.

Checking my reflection in the right window of my Kelly green BMW convertible (my gift to myself on my last promotion), I was glad I looked better than I felt. My dark mulberry pantsuit with crisp lilac shirt underneath, was just the right touch of professional meets trendy. My hair was contained in a sleek ponytail and the bags under my eyes were concealed with the wonders of Lancôme makeup.

Double-checking the map and building directory, I headed out. First things first, I had to do some surveillance on Celia. According to her class schedule, she was taking a class called The Movement of People, Places, and Products. I had no idea what that was about, but luckily it was in the same building where I was to meet the professor I needed to consult with today.

Entering the building, I asked a passing student for direc-tions.“Which way to auditorium 1.178?”

“Professor Williams’s class is straight ahead to the right. He’s just wrapping up.”

“Thanks.” I found the door quickly and slipped into the first empty seat without looking up.

A familiar voice that I hadn’t heard in a very long time rang out, reaching all the way to the second level of the room. It sent a shiver straight down my spine. “In a few years, more than six billion people will inhabit the world, placing enormous stress on existing air, rail, and highway transportation systems and creating the need for new ways to plan, manage, and engineer the systems of the future. What can we do, here and now? What can we engineer to avert certain transportation catastrophe? That’s our challenge, that’s our purpose, and that’s what you need to think about.We’ll pick up here next week, and don’t forget your midsemester papers are due next week as
well. I will not have office hours this weekend, so catch me on e-mail or make an appointment to see me next week. Thanks, everybody.”

The class erupted into applause as I sat with my mouth open. Up on the dais stood S. Dub, former deliveryman, former student, former fling. All the promise of his youth had come to fruition. He had come into his own. The lean, wiry muscle had turned into solid-packed muscle. His dreads had grown down his back and he had them partially secured with a leather band. His skin was still that warmed-up honey color, but it was stretched over features that were chiseled now. The baby face was replaced with a more squared and defined jaw. The dimples were more like grooves outlining those full lips. Basically, he looked good. Really, really good.

I was completely oblivious to the students filing past me as I sat staring at him. I wondered how his life had changed, how he got from there to here in five years, and yes, I wondered if he was married. I could honestly say that out of all the man drama I had been through in my thirty-seven years, Steven was my only regret. I still thought I did the best thing for both of us, but I regretted not being brave enough to at least try. I thought back on what I knew about Steven and dug out the information from Brandon to find the name of the professor I was supposed to meet. Scanning through, my eyes fell on a name: Dr. Steven Williams, MST. MST—Master of Science in Transportation. Doctor Steven Williams—he had done it. I was extraordinarily proud…and curious to know more.

“Christina, what are you doing here?” Celia’s voice yanked me out of my reflection.

I reluctantly lifted my eyes from Steven’s bio to find Celia frowning down at me. Celia, bless her heart, was wearing a tailored skirt suit with pearls and boots. To a college class. My sister-in-law was a tall, willowy, dark-skinned beauty with a very proper side-part pageboy swinging just above her shoulders,
and lips that magically stayed lightly glossed in the same neutral mauve tone twenty-four hours a day. Standing to her left was a man I guesstimated to be in his midtwenties. He was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. I noticed he kept his eyes focused on Celia’s lips. He was kinda cute, kinda fine, and very young. The boy had cougar bait written all over him. Hmm. Now
this
was interesting.

“Celia, hey!” I stood up to give her a hug. Celia and I were never the bestest of friends. We generally kept our conversations superficial. Collin, clothes, culinary arts. “I’m here to interview Dr. Williams for a piece I’m working on.Who’s your friend?”

She paused before answering and then turned reluctantly toward the young man.“This is Dax Fredericks, my study partner. Dax, this is—”

“Oh, cool, you are Christina Brinsley from that news channel! You doing big things. I’m a fan.” He spoke loudly and two other students turned to look. As word rippled that a news reporter was in the room, I held my breath. I could physically feel the minute Steven’s eyes fell on me. I literally flushed from head to toe. My nerve endings jumped to full attention.Wow. I hadn’t felt that in quite a while. It took every bit of whatever acting ability I ever possessed not to turn and look at him. I was dying to know what he saw when he looked at me, what he thought, what he felt, and if his eyes still changed from green to brown with his mood.

Calmly, I shook Dax’s hand. What the hell kind of name is Dax Fredericks? Sounded like a porn name. But it would be tacky to point that out, wouldn’t it? “Great to meet you. Thanks for the kind words. Celia, I didn’t realize you were taking engineering classes.”The story was that she was pursuing a master’s degree in business administration. So I was interested to know exactly how transportation science fit in.

Now she looked uncomfortable. Something was definitely
going on. “I’m taking this as an elective. Steven is one of the most dynamic speakers on campus. And, of course, I’m a supporter of his research foundation.”

Did she just say Steven? This gets more interesting by the minute.“Chi-Wind? That’s one of the things I’m here to talk to him about. So if you’ll excuse me? Great to see you.” I stepped into the aisle before turning back to watch her and Dax exit together, heads close together in conversation. My urge to follow them was superseded by my urge to talk to Dr. Williams. Heading down the steps, a few students stopped me to say hello and let me know how much they enjoyed VNN. I murmured politely and made the appropriate responses, feeling like it was taking forever to get down the aisle. One student stepped out in front of me.

“Hey, do you know you’re on YouTube today?”

That stopped me in my tracks.“I beg your pardon? Me?”

“You are Christina Brinsley from VNN, right?”

“Yes.”

“Yep, it’s you. Someone posted a video of you throwing water on Dante Esteban in a restaurant last night.”

Damn this new media generation. Was nothing private? “Oh.”Weak, I know, but it was the best response I could come up with on no notice.

“Wanna see?” Before I could answer yea or nay, the student had shoved his phone in my face. And sure enough, there I was in high-def. Sip, smile, splash, exit. For the whole world to see.

A young girl pushed her way through the students who now hovered around me.“Hey, did you really throw him out naked in the rain?”

Well, double damn. I had forgotten what came before the smile-n-splash.“I might have.”

“A man who looks like that? Really?!”

Okay, enough of that. “Pardon me, guys. I have to interview Professor Williams.”

“Cool! Have you seen him naked, too?”

As much as I wished the world to just swallow me up right then and there, I dug into my reserves of patience.“I’m interviewing him about his research foundation.” See how I did that? Answered the question without answering the ques-tion—I had skills. I had paid my dues and made my way to the top (sort of ) of my profession… if I could just act like it!

“Can we YouTube the interview?”

“No, you cannot, and since I just expressly forbade it, if you do—that’s a problem.” I threaded my way through and continued toward Steven.

When I reached the edge of the stage I looked up. Steven looked at me with no expression on his face at all. But his eyes …they spoke volumes. They were currently hazel. They said both “hello, glad to see you” and “why the hell are you here—go away” all at the same time. And I became nervous. Something that hadn’t happened to me in years. I had interviewed all manner of celebrities, politicians, and bigwigs in my day, but walking up five short stairs with Dr. Steven Williams’s eyes on me had my stomach in knots and my pulse skittering.

He didn’t move a muscle as I strolled in a deceptively casual fashion toward him. He was perched just as casually on the edge of a tall stool with his arms crossed. When I was a foot away, I stopped and drank him in without guile. He wore flat-front gray slacks paired with a polo-style gray cashmere sweater. I noted the quality of both items before allowing my eyes to travel up to his face.

He had a brow raised at my bold head-to-toe appraisal, and the slightest shadow of a smile was chasing around the corners of his mouth.

I allowed a grin to spread across my face. Whatever thoughts or feelings he had about me, I was happy to see him. So happy to see him here, successful and well—doing exactly what he set out to do.

He stood up to his full height.“Of all the classrooms in all the world, she had to walk into mine…”

“Here’s looking at you, Dr.Williams.”

We stood still, sizing each other up in silence for a few more moments until we realized that the remaining students in the auditorium were all focused on us. Frankly, I was tired of having an audience for all the moments of my life. Something about the energy between me and Steven—it was a palpable, living, breathing thing.And apparently everyone could see it.

“My office.” He turned and picked up a cognac-colored leather messenger bag. Without looking back to see if I followed, he slung the bag over his shoulder and exited through the back door.

Guess that puts me in my place.
Hustling, I followed behind him.

S
triding out of the building with Christina Brinsley following me, I was overcome by the most surreal feeling. It was as though I was still there, walking briskly and not saying a word, while a whole other me was witnessing this and bouncing up and down, asking,“Can you believe this?”

Christina Brinsley. If she was still Brinsley. I knew she was using it as her professional name, but for all I knew, she could be married with children by now. Though the way she ate me up with her eyes, I felt bad for the man if he existed. The vibe between her and me screamed “unfinished business.”

I had been contacted by a man at VNN wanting background on Chi-Wind and the missing government funds. It never occurred to me that they would send Christina. And why hadn’t it? If I had given this the slightest amount of thought, then maybe I would have been the slightest bit prepared to see her standing, gorgeous as ever, in my classroom. Just like that, there she was.

Crossing the quad to my office building, I calculated that I had about five minutes to figure out how I felt about seeing
Christina again. On the one hand, this woman had very casually, almost callously, rejected the offer of any sort of relationship with me, boarded a plane, and never looked back. Not a call or an e-mail out of her in five years. On the other hand, she’d done me a huge favor. Thanks to those five days way back when, I wasn’t willing to settle for any less than what I’d felt with her. I did not have to worry about being distracted by the women I met in New York. I was kind, even generous, but I never made promises or gave my heart. I stayed on the grind, working two jobs, carrying heavy class loads and never taking the summer off. So I guess I owed thanks to Christina. I was so focused, I finished my program in half the time and was able to quickly establish myself in the industry that interested me that much sooner.

It was actually a finance genius that I met at the party for Yung T hosted by Repo Records that Christina had taken me to that assisted me in launching the research foundation and getting it attached to this university and aligned with government sponsorship. That, plus the contacts I had made back in my delivery days put me ahead. So in a twisted act of fate, I had Christina to partially thank for my current success.

I didn’t know how I felt about that either. What I did know was that she still looked
good
. A little tired but good nonetheless. It was clear she kept up her gym visits. Her skin had that same Hershey’s Kiss glow. And whatever the hell that thing was between us that made me want her naked and willing under me … that was still there. I was still susceptible. Dammit.

Entering building 4, I turned left and climbed the stairs two at a time. Reaching the third floor, I marched to the end of the hallway only to find two students camped out. One was Sarah, an adoring young freshman who was clearly out of her depth in the engineering program and looked to me as some sort of savior. The other was Jeffrey, a grad student who reminded me very much of myself at his age.

“No office hours today, guys. Is it crucial?”

Jeffrey spoke first.“I wanted to talk to you about my thesis.”

“I was hoping to volunteer at your foundation,” Sarah added softly.

I nodded at both of them. “Come by Monday between eight and ten and we’ll talk about it.” Unlocking my office door, I waved Christina inside.

Sarah still hovered in the hallway, looking from me to Christina and back.

“Is there something else, Sarah?”

“Um, no. Have a good weekend.” One more glance and she scurried off down the hallway.

With a sigh, I closed the door. Locking it, I leaned back against it and just spent a minute adjusting to the fact that Christina Brinsley was in my office. Life was funny.

“Someone has a crush,” Christina said softly.

I shrugged.“It happens.”

“You never cut your hair.” Her eyes swept over me again.

I shrugged. “I’ve developed a bit of a Samson thing with it.”

“So… how long have you been teaching here, Professor?” Her lips curled upward as she pronounced the last word. “It thrills me to call you that. It really does.”

“It thrills me to hear it.”We shared a smile. The list of people who knew exactly how long and hard the road was from S. Dub to Dr. Williams was a short one. But she was on that list.

“So how long have you been at Bayside?”

“I’m in my second year.”

Her eyes flashed with something unhappy. “You’ve been back in San Francisco for two years?”,

“You sound surprised.” She actually sounded hurt. I found that surprising and ironic.

“I told you to call me when you finished school.”

“You told me a lot of things.” A little something slipped out in my tone there, but I kept my face neutral. I was not that guy begging in the airport anymore.

She took a step backwards.“You
cannot
still be angry with me?! Look at you. Look how things turned out for you.” She whirled around in a circle, gesturing to the interior of my office.

More than anything, I did not plan to have this conversation with her right now. “I’m not mad, Christina. How have you been?”

She tilted her head in a way that took me back. It reminded me of a moment when she and I were arguing over tacos near Chelsea Piers in New York. She wanted pork; I thought the chicken was a better bet. Funny how things like that come back to you.“Okay, Steven. I’ve been okay.”

“No Mr. Christina?”

“Absolutely not.”

Well, that was worded strongly.“Absolutely not?”

“Definitively not,” she reiterated firmly.

“Still all about the no muss, no fuss?”

“It works for me.”

“Interesting.” I nodded and moved past her to my desk. I sat behind it and motioned to the chairs in front. She sat down.

“That’s interesting to you? Where is Mrs. Dr. Williams?”

“Yet to be discovered.”

“I see.”

I sighed. We could be here all day talking around each other.“You see what?”

She rested her chin on her hand and blinked.

“You know, I’ve seen you use that trick on unwitting subjects in your interviews. But I’m immune to that one, Ti-Ti.”

At the nickname, visible color stole across her cheeks. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one feeling that chemistry thing. “You’re immune to me?”

I set myself up for that one.“I’m immune to that particular trick in your arsenal.”

“Is this war?”

“Never.”

She met my gaze for a few beats more. “You’re not the same.”

“I’m not twenty-six anymore, no.”

“It’s not just the maturity.You’ve got an edge now.”

“An edge?”

“Yes, like what you did just now. Five years ago you would have answered me straight, instead of deflecting the question so I had to clarify my meaning. Even though you and I both know that you catch my meaning. You have a harder shell now.”

“Don’t most of us have on a little more protective gear? You’re pretty much the same, but maybe a little more withdrawn. Just a little more calculating.” I didn’t say it in a mean way, just as a matter of fact.

“I’ve had to fight to protect myself,” she said quietly, and I wondered who she was protecting herself against. Everybody? Men? The world?

Well, I’d learned a lesson or two myself. “And I’ve had to learn not to give pieces of myself away.”

She leaned back.“That was my fault?”

“Not completely. It was a lesson that I had to learn. So thanks for that.”

“You don’t sound grateful.”

I wasn’t.“How do I sound?”

“I’m not sure. I can’t read you now.”

Five years was a long time.“And?”

“I’m not sure I like it.”A slight frown line appeared in the middle of her forehead.

“Well, I’m not standing in the airport begging you to give me a chance anymore. Maybe that’s what you don’t like?” I kept my tone deliberately light.

“Um…ouch?”

“Too much truth?”

“Too much anger.”

“I told you. I’m not angry, Christina.”

“So you say.” She clasped her hands together in front of her and crossed one leg over the over.“So this thing…”

“This thing?”

She sent me a glowering look that I remembered all too well. “The zingy thing between you and me. That makes us banter and crackle around each other.”

“Ah, yes. That thing.”

“Is it going to get in the way? Tell me now, because I really need your help with this investigation.”

She, on the other hand, had not changed very much at all. “Still have your priorities in order, huh?”

“This is important to me,” she snapped.

“And it’s still all about you, huh?”

“You know, for someone who swears they aren’t angry, you do seem to be getting some zingers in.”

She had a point. I might have a little hold-over resentment. In my experience, women were generally extremely interested in being whatever I wanted them to be. She was the only one to walk away…without a glance back.“We’ll chalk it up to a young man’s slightly bruised ego. It won’t get in the way.”

I must not have sounded too convincing. “I can get the channel to assign someone else if you’d be more comfortable.”

I wasn’t even trying to play games with Christina. I would not be giving her the satisfaction of knowing how she affected me.“Sister, you can dial back that melodrama. I have no problems working with you. We cool?”

“Yeah, brother, we cool.”

“Anything else?”

“So we keep this strictly professional?”

Down this road again? I wasn’t that guy anymore, and she needed to understand that…now. In one motion, I was out of
my chair, around the desk, and had her up and in my arms. Before attacking her lips with mine, I realized she smelled the same. Like vanilla frosting over something fruity. It threw me, sapping the anger from my spirit and leaving nothing but the want. The reality of that scent rising from her skin unsteadied me to the point that my lips gentled as they settled against hers.With either a sigh or a gasp, her lips opened and I slid my tongue into her mouth. Her hands slipped around my neck and I tightened my arms around her waist.We both groaned. It felt like…coming home. Coming home after a long, lonely journey and finding it just as warm and welcoming as ever.

We let our lips and tongues rediscover each other slowly, then eagerly, then frantically. Like two parched souls long banished to the wilderness, we tried to slake our thirst for the taste of each other. Our tongues teased and tickled and slipped and slid against each other.And it still wasn’t enough. I growled in frustration and she answered with a shudder that ran the length of her taut body.

Fighting against the need to go further, faster, now! I set my hands on her waist and lifted my head. In a move that felt way too comfortable for my liking, I rested my forehead against hers and took in deep gasps of air.

“Dammit, that still works.” Her voice was achy with longing. The sound of it had me considering tossing her on the desk and just getting it out of our systems. Scratching the itch for once and for all. But I was smarter now, right? Wiser? I had an edge or a shell or whatever it was she called it. Tempting. Very, very tempting.
Pull it together, Dr. Williams.

I cleared my throat.“Yeah, that still works well. So no more of that strictly professional bullshit, okay? I think we’ll get along fine if we keep things as real as possible. Let’s not play games with each other. We’ll just try not to label things and put them in a box.” I released her and moved back around the desk. No way was I going to sit in this office with six surfaces I could take her on, and calmly talk about wind energy and
cross-country rail systems. “So, how about you come out to the Chi-Wind offices a week from Sunday around eleven in the morning and we’ll get started with what you need for your story.”

I would be lying if I didn’t say that I was pleased to see that she looked a little unsteady and more than a little unsure about what just happened. The upper hand was something I had never enjoyed with Christina. I had to savor it for a moment.

The expression on her face was part confusion, part resignation, and all sexy.“You have most definitely changed, S. Dub. For the better or worse remains to be seen.” She came around the desk and reached across me. She plucked one of my business cards from the holder.As she retreated, she caught my ear-lobe in her teeth, biting lightly and licking before backing away. Evil. She remembered that was a quick and easy way to get me ready to go in an instant. “See you next Sunday. I’ll e-mail you for details.”

With a wave she was out the door and gone before I even moved out of the chair. Damn, she retook the upper hand in less than thirty seconds. Truthfully, I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about that.