When All Else Fails (4 page)

Eva rolled her eyes and gave a half smile at Andrea’s arched brow, waiting patiently. Resting her forearms on the arms of her desk chair, she held the cup in her left hand. She waited until the woman turned on her toes. The torture intensified from the back, the fabric cupping a full, lush ass.

Clenching her teeth, she tightened her fingers around the chair arm to keep from reaching out. Andrea took a sip of coffee to wet her suddenly dry mouth.

“So, blew my money right?” The mixture of seductive huskiness and barely restrained insecurity called to her to soothe Eva. It shocked her that her friend truly didn’t realize the extent of her sexiness.

“Definitely not. You’ve got your eye on some nice girl?”

“Maybe,” Eva answered, cheeks flushing.

She frowned. “You haven’t mentioned anyone before. Anyone I know?” She hoped her voice didn’t convey the envy burning a hole in her stomach.

Leaning back in her chair, to put some space between herself and the maddening woman, she drew closer to losing her hard-earned control.

Eva slid onto the corner of her desk and crossed her sexy legs. It would be so easy to reach out and wrap fingers around her slender ankle, and ease those plump thighs apart.
Fuck! This isn’t good, not good at all
.

“I’m not ready to say anything yet.”

Eva picked up the file she’d tossed aside and opened it. Andrea took advantage of her distraction to pick through her memory for clues. She didn’t remember anything from conversations with Artie or any of their mutual friends. Smarties had told her about every date her friend had had over the last five years. The incidences weren’t many.

She’d never thought of herself as selfish, but that’s exactly how she felt. She needed the dates to be disastrous. The one date the striking woman had gone on with a woman, Andrea had sabotaged. While she considered Marley a good friend—one of her best for fifteen years—she couldn’t allow her to get her hands on Eva. If Eva dated a man, Andrea wouldn’t have to see the happy couple interplay, but she would if her friend brought a date to Sappho’s Kiss or anywhere else in the Pride District. Her barely contained jealousy could only take so much.

“Andrea!”

She snapped out of her thoughts, a worried Eva coming into focus.

“Sorry, sorry, I just zoned out there. I think after this Sanderson case, I might need a vacation.”

A sympathetic smile tilted lush lips, and the urge to kiss her knocked Andrea for a loop. The craving was a gnawing hunger—an unquenchable thirst. She’d always felt she had her needs under control. But the short skirt and the low blouse frayed the tight reins pulled taut by too many years of denials.

“Is my tough boss lady in need of a nap?” Shapely legs uncrossed, the tight skirt only allowing them to part slightly, and a pointed toe stroked the side of Andrea’s leg.

Without thought, she set her cup aside and curved her fingers around the back of Eva’s tanned calf. She stroked upward, one corner of her mouth lifting into a smirk at the catch in the exquisite redhead’s breathing. “Oh, I need something, but it isn't a nap.”

She placed her woman’s foot on her leg, felt the press of the spiked heel into her skin through her slacks. Increasing the pressure of her hold, she tugged, and Eva turned toward her. The shadowed view of silky inner thighs made her score her short nails along silky skin. Leaning forward, she placed a soft teasing kiss to a dimpled knee.

“Andrea.” The beautiful woman released a breathless sigh.

No one had ever said her name with such passion over a simple caress. What would it sound like when she had her friend’s scent filling her nose and her taste bursting on her tongue? She smoothed her cheek to the inside of Eva’s left knee then the velvet-soft skin of her inner thigh.

“What are you doing to me?” Her flushed partner breath hitched.

“If you have to ask, then I’m not doing something right, baby.” Andrea nipped tender flesh, Eva gasped, and she soothed the tiny mark with a stroke of her tongue.

Heavy-lidded eyes stared down at her, and Andrea eased to her feet to stand between Eva’s legs. Hers.
Mine
. A surge of possessiveness heated her blood, made her pussy clench, and nipples harden.

Andrea cupped her soon-to-be lover’s face, stroking her thumb over perfect, kissable lips and along high cheekbones. “Do you know how long I have thought about”—she sighed when their mouths touched—“this?”

Andrea swept her tongue over parted lips. She groaned deep in her chest at the tentative touch of Eva’s tongue to hers.

Small hands came to rest on her sides, and fingers twisted in her dress shirt. Eva lifted her chin, angling her head to bring their mouths into closer contact. She stroked the side of Eva’s throat, a shuddered breath her reward. Eva’s pulse under her questing fingertips, and she forgot every reason she needed to stop.

The sweetness of subtle perfume, the taste of coffee, and warmth of lush curves stole whatever sense of control she possessed. Her tongue pushed past the plump curves of Eva’s mouth, tongues met in a desperate dance. They took what they needed, years of desire trapped in one kiss. Her arms wrapped tight around the beautiful woman in her arms, and full, soft breasts crushed to Andrea’s chest.

They clung to each other, shaking. Eva’s nails pricked the hollow at the small of her back. Her palms flattened between shoulder blades, stroked downward until she cupped Eva’s lush ass in her palms. She slipped her thigh between Eva’s, felt the heat and dampness of the woman’s need through the fabric of her pants. Rounded hips rolled and rode her thigh.

“More please,” she whimpered, a hard shudder coursing through her.

The words filled with neediness heated her blood further, but that plea brought her to a startling reality.

She pressed her forehead to Eva’s brow. “Baby, I…. We can’t…. Natalia.”

Eva’s sudden retreat left her cold and shaken. Shame heated the other woman’s face. Casting her eyes downward, Eva jumped from the desk to pull her skirt back down.

“I have to get to work. You have the meeting with Sanderson at noon. I already made all the arrangements for lunch, and the car service will pick him up.” Eva spoke without ever looking at her, the words rushed and stilted. There wasn’t a hint of the want from minutes ago.

“Eva, wait. I-I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’m going back to work. I’ve made a big enough fool of myself already today.”

Andrea opened her mouth to call her back, but her assistant walked out of the office.

“Damn it!” She tilted her head back to stare at the ceiling. Things had gotten out of hand. She hadn’t lied about how long she’d wanted Eva, but even though her relationship with Natalia neared the end, they were still together. That would be remedied soon enough. It didn’t change the fact the woman she adored, cared about more than any other, was already hurt and embarrassed. She never should’ve let Eva leave without explaining that she wanted the woman, but had to have a clean break. Her parents had left her with enough issues, although being a cheater wasn’t one of them.

She swore she would make it up to Eva, no matter what it took. Her woman would be back in her arms, and they would finish what they’d started. A tightening in her gut told her what she needed to do wouldn’t be easy.

Sighing, she fell back into her desk chair, stroked her tongue over her lips—once more tasting Eva—and smelled the woman’s perfume on her. This would be a long fucking day.

Awkward— the word of the day after the aborted seduction attempt. Well, it had turned out more than an attempt, and Andrea had seemed to enjoy their kisses and flirting. Yet it had ended with a hard hit of cold reality. Eva’s face would be permanently flushed with embarrassment.

They’d danced around each other until Andrea left for her lunch with Sanderson. Only then had she let her muscles relax, but she couldn’t let go altogether.

She’d kill her sister for this stupid plan and clothes, especially the clothes. What the hell had she been thinking? Closing her eyes, she let her forehead fall to her desk and wished the day over. Pulled from her misery by the chirping of her phone, she sighed and tapped the screen to connect.

Her voice was muffled when she answered. “Thank you for calling Misery Loves Company. How may I help you today?”

“Mom!” Two of the voices she loved most in the world yelled her name, and a smile bloomed on her face.

“Babies, are you two ready to come home yet?”

Teenage laughter answered. “We miss you, but Jenny met this cute Greek girl and has fallen completely in love.” Bradley snorted, and she couldn’t hold back a laugh at her daughter’s unladylike reply.

“She’s very pretty, and her accent is to die for.” The dreamy, girlish sigh caused the corners of her mouth to quirk up even farther.

“Congratulations, how about your brother? Any cute girls for him, or are you stealing them all?” Eva sat back.

Jenny, at the age of six, had told her she’d marry her kindergarten teacher. No nuptials occurred, but years of girl crushes followed. Mark and she had fought many nights over their daughter’s supposed coming out. He’d blamed her for being too lenient.

Eva cut off that line of thought. Her marriage and all their issues were in the past and would stay there.

“Mom, he tried to hit on a twenty-three-year-old lifeguard, and she patted him on the head and gave him an aw-you’re-so-cute look,” she said in a singsong voice. “I almost peed myself laughing. She didn’t seem impressed with the one chest hair he’s sporting.”

Her son growled over the line and Eva failed to hold back her laughter. “I’m sorry, honey, I really am. Maybe she will appreciate you in three more years.”

“Ha ha. I overwhelmed her with the magnificence of my manly chest hair.”

Biting her lip, she listened to her daughter’s giggling snorts and pants for breath. Man, she loved her kids. The sulk in her son’s voice sounded more like a pouty five year old than a young man of fifteen.

“I’m sure.”

People say girls have fragile egos, but they’d never spent time with a teenage boy.

“Sooo….”

She almost groaned at that one word drawn out into four syllables, which meant she wouldn’t like the question Jenny prepared to ask.

“How’s the dating going with you? Anyone special? A cool stepmom or dad would be nice.”

“Jenny.” Her tone was thick with warning.

“Don’t Jenny me, Mom. A whole summer without us? You gotta have some fun. Auntie Art dragging you to Sappho? We aren’t stupid. We know she has.”

“If you don’t mind me making a suggestion, Aunt Andy already thinks we do no wrong.”

“Bradley, Jenny, you know she has a girlfriend.”

Bradley snorted, and she could imagine his huge eye roll. “Natalia doesn’t like us, and we don’t want her for an aunt.”

Laughter would be inappropriate, but the disgust in her son’s voice made it impossible to hold it in. “I will promise you while my babies are away I’ll try to secure you a new person to torture.”

“Score!”

The weight on her shoulders and the knots in her stomach subsided. Hearing from her kids made everything better. Being a mom had turned out to be one of the few things she’d done right in her thirty-seven years.

“Okay, it’s bedtime, Mom. Snorkeling in the morning, and we have to catch the boat early.”

“I love you both, and have fun.”

“Love you, Mom!” her kids said in unison before a quick good-bye and promises to call in a few days.

When the call ended, the problems that had disappeared for a few moments came rushing back. She dropped her head back to her desk and groaned. A fool, she’d probably screwed up her most cherished friendship along with a job she loved. Fucking hindsight being twenty-twenty sucked.

***

Andrea couldn’t push the memories of velvet-soft lips and vanilla lip balm from her mind. Groans threatened to pass her lips on several occasions. She cleared her throat, took a sip of her favorite top-shelf Scotch, and tried to bring her mind back to the job at hand.

“Mr. Sanderson, your wife has more than enough evidence to prove adultery since your second year of marriage on your part. The pre-nup you both signed possessed an ironclad clause. The best we can hope for is a compromise on settlement.” The rich man with his heavy jowls and thinning hair shook his head but didn’t speak. “Either way, your wife’s going to get a rather large sum of money along with monthly maintenance. Maybe we could convince her to take a one-time payment.”

“That bitch has lived off me for ten years. She won’t get a dime more than I absolutely have to give her, and she isn’t getting alimony.”

The pompous ass had been caught. His soon to-be-ex had done her research. Andrea gritted her back teeth until her jaw ached. “If I may be honest here, Mr. Sanderson, you both signed a contract which clearly stipulated what happens when adultery is proven on either side. You, yourself, had the contract drawn up.”

He sputtered at her across the table. After the day she’d had, Andrea didn’t need to get into an argument. “I’ll investigate it further and contact my investigator. We still have a month and a half until court. Maybe we can find something by then.”

“You do what needs to be done.”

The order in his voice made her muscles tighten. Maybe the time had come for her to consider a different line of work. When the waitress arrived, she declined to order, using the excuse of another meeting, and spoke with Sanderson a few more minutes before she escaped.

Andrea returned to her car, threw her case inside, and removed her jacket. She needed some thinking time. There were too many decisions to make. Slipping her hands into the pockets of her gray trousers, she headed off toward the park. The fifteen-minute stroll helped clear her mind a bit, and Andrea plopped down on a bench near the playground. Children laughed and squealed bringing back dreams best left forgotten.

Andrea had thought about starting a family more times than she wanted to admit. Hers hadn’t been the greatest. They had provided well, but it hadn’t been the most loving home. It’d always been appearance and wealth. Her mother had married for wealth and status. Her father needed the newest model, a brighter trophy than the last. Andrea’s mother had only been one in a long line. She’d never really thought about what families were supposed to be, until she’d met the newly divorced mother of two.