They decided not to go home.
"Troy, Robby, a bevy of servants," Dean said, after the second time in his office. Panting, he handed Kelly her shirt. "We'll get a hotel room." Then he looked at her and added, "Now."
Kelly wiggled back into her clothes. As she trotted with Dean past the dragon outside his office, she tried her best to look as if she hadn't been tumbled twice in the past half hour. Judging by the expression on Mrs. Barnes' face, Kelly wasn't too successful.
Dean didn't seem to care. With Kelly's hand firmly clasped in his own, he led her the few city blocks from his office to the Parker House. Classy place. But no sooner were they upstairs and in their hotel room then they were attacking each other's clothes again.
It went on like that for the rest of the afternoon. Rolling over the bed and onto the floor; panting, hot, and entwined. It was crazy. It was wonderful. Kelly couldn't get enough of him. Better yet, Dean couldn't get enough of her. Oh, it was as if a dam had broken.
He was finally letting go.
Yes, later in the dusk and lying in Dean's arms, Kelly smugly assumed she had managed to break through. Dean was reaching out for what he wanted and needed.
And what he wanted and needed was her.
Smiling, Kelly caressed his toe with her own. "Say," she said with a yawn. "Do you know what time it is?"
"Does it matter?"
"No." Kelly's smile widened. It didn't matter in the slightest, except that Dean Singleton didn't care what time it was. She abandoned her warm spot and lifted onto her palms to look down at him.
The lights from downtown Boston drifted through the sheer curtains over the window and illumined one half of his face. It was a fabulous face; sharply cut features, deep intelligence, profound passion. It was the face of a man she'd come to know much, much better that afternoon. His lashes were low as he returned her gaze.
A sensation like honey flowed through Kelly; warm, complete, and unutterably tender. "Hmm." She smiled and tapped his chin.
All right, the feeling was love. She'd been in love with him since — well, probably since he'd first flown back to Las Vegas to apologize. She just hadn't realized it. How could she have? He kept the real him, the all-of-him, so well hidden. Now she leaned down and gave him a kiss as a laugh escaped her.
Dean's eyebrows raised.
"I was just thinking — " She bit the inside of her cheek. "This sure has been a revelation."
"Indeed."
"Uh huh." With a grin, Kelly lowered her chin onto his chest. "You are quite...inventive."
He frowned, clearly not understanding.
Kelly couldn't help giggling. "You know." She cocked her head toward the bed. "At this."
"At this?" His eyebrows jumped, then came way down. "But — wasn't I inventive in Las Vegas?"
"Unh unh." Kelly chuckled and rose onto her knees. "So I guess there are some advantages to you being, well, just plain you."
He continued to frown, appearing to digest this.
"That's good," Kelly assured him.
"Hm." His gaze shifted to one side. "Well I'm glad something good has come of this."
Kelly stopped. Hearing his tone, she did a slow blink. "Is something wrong?"
"Is something wrong." He repeated it like a statement, then pushed himself to a sitting position. "What's wrong is that you were absolutely correct. I don't have any self-control when it comes to you."
Kelly blinked rapidly now, trying to make sense of what she was hearing. Well yes, he didn't have self-control, but hadn't that been the point? She'd thought he'd let go — happily. For heaven's sake, hadn't they been going at it like rabbits all afternoon?
With an oath, Dean shoved the covers aside and stood up. He had a beautiful back, broad at the shoulders, tapering to the hips. He seemed utterly unaware of his own nakedness, though, as he began to pace the room.
"We went from a kiss to pure insanity. And now this — " He threw out an arm, encompassing the room. "I walked out of my office, just walked out, in order to spend the afternoon...here."
Kelly remained scrunched on her knees, watching him. She'd thought there had been joy in their lovemaking. But Dean, bitterly pacing the room, did not look the least bit joyful. He looked, in fact — now that she really looked at him — utterly miserable.
Kelly felt a terrible lowering sensation. It was as though a dark blanket were getting pulled over the brightness of her own joy. Why, none of this was what it had seemed. None of it was what he had wanted. He wasn't happy. He hadn't let go. Nor did he want her, really, at all.
She'd completely mistaken everything.
Dean muttered something unintelligible and paced away from her again.
A huge knot lodged in her throat. "I'm sorry."
He stopped. His head whipped around.
"I'm sorry," Kelly repeated, then tried to swallow the knot. "I certainly didn't intend to make you unhappy."
Dean stared at her.
"If it's any consolation," Kelly chattered on, "I don't have much self-control when it comes to you, either. I mean, believe it or not, I didn't intend this to happen." She waved her own arm to encompass the room. "Either."
Dean's eyes grew dark. "But you came to my office. You were dressed like — "
"I know, I know." Kelly looked away and heaved a deep sigh. "But all I really wanted was to get your attention."
There was a short silence, and then Dean barked a laugh. "Consider it gotten."
"Yeah, well." Kelly sank to pull the bed sheet over her chest. Her heart was shriveling. He was upset he'd let go with her. He wasn't happy about this.
She'd completely fooled herself, just blinded her eyes. Heck, she'd known he was scared. He'd actually left town in order to avoid her. That should have told her something. But no. She'd thought she could push through.
Instead what she'd done was simply push.
"Tell you what." Pulling the sheets with her, Kelly slipped off the bed. "It's not too late. Put on your clothes, go back to the office. You can catch up on whatever you left undone this afternoon."
The expression on Dean's face changed rapidly. "Go back — ?"
"A few phone calls and I'll bet you can reschedule whatever appointments you missed." Wrapping the sheet around her, Kelly hobbled over to her skirt. Her shirt, she saw, was all the way by the door.
"Kelly — " To her surprise, Dean's tone indicated resistance to her plan. But there was relief in there, too. He wanted to go back to the office, retrace his steps, she could tell.
Kelly bit her lower lip and bent to retrieve her shirt. Oh, how had she fooled herself that he was happy, that he felt anything for her?
"Kelly, no." Dean began to walk toward her, utterly naked, gloriously so, and way too preoccupied to care. His tone was firm. "This is my fault. It was my choice to walk out, my choice to come here. I'm not going to compound my sins by treating you like a — like a — "
Kelly didn't wait to hear what word he might come up with. "I'll take a cab home. The party's kind of over, anyway, don't you think?" She ventured to glance over at him. Somehow, she smiled.
He paused in the center of the room. His expression was conflicted. On the one hand, he clearly did want to go back to the office, to prove he wasn't completely out of control. On the other hand, he seemed to think there were certain rules that applied to this kind of situation and they did not include walking out on a recent sex partner.
Kelly felt warmth rush back into her chest. He truly was a good man.
Just not one who was ready to love her.
The knot leaped back into her throat. She'd done it again. Jumped the gun, made up stories about the man's feelings. Kelly clicked open the door to the bathroom. "It'll just take me a minute to get dressed."
"Kelly — " Dean stepped toward her and Kelly halted. The look that was suddenly on his face — For half an instant she thought he was going to say something incredible, something magical, something that might allow her to believe she hadn't made such a terrible mistake, after all. Then whatever Kelly had seen in Dean's face disappeared.
"I'll call you the cab," he said.
"Right." Kelly pushed open the door of the bathroom. She managed a breezy smile as she stepped through. Once the door was closed and she was alone, however, the smile vanished. She turned to rest her forehead against the closed door.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Here she was in love, and Dean wasn't even happy he'd had sex with her.
Quietly, Kelly knocked her head against the bathroom door. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
###
Alone in his downtown office that Monday evening, Dean didn't get much done. It wasn't that he was tired, though he'd certainly exerted himself during the afternoon spent at the Parker House. Nor did he have trouble finding the parties he needed to reach in order to reschedule his missed appointments — Myers the attorney excluded. No, those weren't his problems.
His problem was Kelly.
Oh, she wasn't there physically. He couldn't blame her sensual aura, the clothes she wore, or that special light in her eyes. But she was there in front of him all the same.
I'm sorry, she'd said, her voice hoarse, her eyes shadowed. I didn't mean to make you miserable, she'd said.
Dean sat behind his desk and stared unseeingly at a budget projection. He couldn't get her voice or those words out of his mind. And he couldn't help wondering: could she have been sincere?
Was it possible she really hadn't wanted to make him miserable?
At his office desk, Dean squeezed his fountain pen between his fingers. An hour ago he'd been in her thrall. Utterly bewitched. Sexually stupefied. He'd easily have spent the next day, the next week, in her arms. He'd have hated himself afterwards, but he'd have done it. He'd totally lost control.
She'd had him just where she wanted him — that is, just where Dean had imagined she wanted him — and she'd let go. She'd called a halt to things, extricated him. She'd even sent him here to his office so he could take care of his responsibilities.
Dean pushed the budget projection away. He stared heavily at the opposite wall. One could almost argue she'd looked out for him, though he wasn't ready to go that far. However...
However, she most certainly hadn't taken advantage of him. She hadn't used his weakness to gain some selfish concession.
Dean scowled and uncurled from his chair. This was not what he'd expected of her, not what he'd...counted on. She was supposed to be bad, selfish, manipulative. She was supposed to be like one of his father's awful brides. Somebody he didn't have to consider.
Instead, she'd been...a mystery. Inexplicable.
Dean paced over to the window. With one hand on the frame, he stared at the lights on the street below. His own behavior had not been mysterious, however. His own behavior had been cloddish, at best. Loutish, at worst. The woman had been giving him the most exhilarating sexual experience of his life, and he'd brought her to an apology! He'd let her take the blame for his own flaws, his own miscalculations. She'd left the Parker House clearly feeling awful, as though she'd done something wrong. He'd let her leave that way.
Talk about bad, selfish, and manipulative.
Cars and people traveled by on the street fifteen stories below. Dean moved his hand from the window frame to a spot beneath his tie.
No, he was not getting much accomplished here at the office.