“Thanks. You look nice, too.” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, holding her purse in front of her body with both hands. “And I could ask what you’re doing here as well.”
She could, and that would be just like Des—always ready with questions at any meeting or runway show and expecting quick answers. For a moment Maurice wondered how he should respond. Should he just come out and say he was there to meet the woman who’d had him jerking off in his bed too many nights to count in the past few months? Or should he come up with some other entertaining story about why he was at this ski resort, in this room, wearing the same badge...she was wearing.
“Are you registered with Dear Lover?” The surprised chuckle that followed the question barely had a chance to bubble free when he reached out and lifted her badge from where it was clipped to the top pleat of her dress.
Dear Lover 1288. He knew those numbers very well.
When he dragged his gaze back up to her face, she was directing her eyes to where his badge was boldly clipped to the lapel of his smoke-gray sports coat.
“No.” The one word came in a whisper as she finally looked up at him. “This is a joke, right? You’re playing one of your goofy practical jokes on me, and I swear to you, Maurice Silas Gold, my revenge is gonna be epic!”
She spoke the last through clenched teeth, and a part of him wanted to tell her she was right. He could easily throw his head back and laugh like he was watching a Kevin Hart stand-up, and she’d believe he’d constructed this elaborate hoax as one of the annual pranks he pulled on her and his siblings. That would’ve gotten him out of the very uncomfortable spot he was experiencing at this moment.
A variety of emotions went through him, and uncomfortable was the least of them. First and foremost, there was the physical reaction—lust, pure and simple—as he recalled all the messages they’d exchanged and how aroused he’d become reading them. Connecting each word from those emails to the sexy-as-hell woman he was staring at now was a little jarring and a lot exciting. But he couldn’t have been lusting after Des like this for the past few months. Her calm and controlled personality wasn’t his usual type, not to mention the whole coworker situation. In fact, she was more than just a coworker, thanks to his parents always inviting her to their family events because she had no family of her own in New York. Eventually, he’d come to see her as another sister.
Well, that certainly was no longer the case. The woman who’d been at Thanksgiving dinner with his family last night now collided with the woman who’d given him an in-depth explanation of why she loved the doggy-style position during sex. No way was he ever going to look at Des the same now. “Maybe we should go someplace private to talk about this.”
She closed her eyes at his suggestion, her long, curled lashes dropping. When they lifted again, she stared back at him with resolution.
Her answer was to turn and start walking toward the door. He followed, letting his gaze drop to the easy and very tempting sway of her ass. She had the age-old and much-coveted Coca-Cola-bottle shape, and from this view, it added to his already growing erection. This was something Maurice had long ago noticed. Des was a great-looking woman. She was dangerously smart, fiercely independent and competitive as hell. Any man would be lucky to have her.
This time yesterday, he would’ve sworn he was not that man. Yet, here he was, wondering how it was possible that she was the sexy vixen who’d coaxed him to jerk off for the first time since high school?
In less than two minutes they were in the lobby of the ski lodge, going to a far corner where couches were positioned in a cozy square facing a huge open fireplace. Des sat on the end of one couch, and Maurice sat at the end of another a couple feet from her.
“You’re the one who’s been messaging me all this time?”
Leave it to Des to dive right in before anyone else in the room could talk. It’s what she did at meetings. Particularly when someone in a meeting was acting like she didn’t exist. He’d always admired her talent in the business arena and counted her as a very valuable asset to their company. Now, he had to consider if also being insanely attracted to the woman behind all the sexy words was worth jeopardizing the company’s biggest marketing asset.
“We’ve been messaging each other.” He wanted to make sure she accepted that they’d both created this scenario.
“Why? You can get a date by snapping your fingers. Why in the world would you go to a dating app?”
“First, it’s not technically a dating app—it’s a social networking app.” At least that’s what he liked to remind himself. The app certainly didn’t market itself as a dating app.
Her lips turned up in a familiar look that said he should know better. “With definite sexual undertones that begin with the name Dear Lover. That’s a marketing tactic they’re using. If they don’t say they’re a dating app, they don’t have to advertise like one and be lumped in with all the other apps claiming to help people find a happily ever after.”
She was right about that. Dear Lover didn’t promise clients anything more than an opportunity to socialize in a private setting. The privacy part had been the deciding factor in him joining.
“I signed up because I wanted someone to talk to, not to go out on the town with. Or be photographed with.” Or even to sleep with, because—as she’d alluded to—there was no shortage of women willing to fall into bed with him. No, he’d simply wondered if he’d enjoy talking to someone who didn’t know who he was or how much money he had. The answer to that was hell yes. He’d enjoyed conversing with her immensely.
Desta’s hands covered her face as she shook her head. “Okay.” A deep inhale followed by a huff of breath, and her hands fell away. “Well, we’ll just take off these badges and walk out of this resort. There’re a couple hundred people in that room so they won’t notice two are gone. We’ll go back to the city and act like this never happened.”
It was a good suggestion. Efficient, to the point and effective. Probably exactly what they should do. But Maurice wasn’t known for doing what he should do. He was the most reckless and unruly of the four Gold siblings—the one who was exactly as the media portrayed him when it came to lovin’ and leavin’ women. Except lovin’ only meant sex; there were no emotions other than lust involved with him and any of the women he dated. He probably should just agree with Des and get out of here, but nothing they did from this point on was going to erase from his mind the words they’d already shared.
“Or we could stay for the weekend and act like those two adults who’ve been exchanging their deepest and most coveted sexual cravings. The two people who’ve been looking forward to this time together to explore each other’s bodies in all the ways they’d described.” His pulse pounded with the realization that he was totally flying by the seat of his pants right now. How was the transition from friends to lovers going to work here? And was that what he really wanted? Did he want to have sex with Des? And why hadn’t he figured that out before tonight?
She offered a bemused smile. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No.” He touched her knee. “This is the part where I tell you how much I enjoyed our exchanges these last three months. It’s where I ask if you enjoyed them, too, and if so, what’s stopping us from going further?” Because the reasons he was giving himself to walk away seemed awfully flimsy right now. Why couldn’t two consenting adults have sex? Why did having sex have to ruin a business relationship, or a friendship, as long as they both knew what the limits were?
When she didn’t immediately respond, he continued. “It’s the part where I confess that all week I’ve been thinking about this woman who I’d never met face-to-face and how good it would feel to experience some of the things she and I had discussed. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought you’d be that woman. But here we are, and to be honest, I don’t think there’s any way I can forget what we’ve shared now.” She licked her lips, just a quick swipe of her tongue, and he knew there was no turning back. “I can only admit that finding out that you’re Dear Lover 1288 makes me even more interested in spending this weekend with you.”