hit it off.
The three of them had become a unit during college, and the friendship had lasted through graduation, job hunting and broken hearts. They’d lived together for a while, but then Suz and Courtney had each moved in with boyfriends. Suz was still with hers, but Courtney wasn’t. She hadn’t suggested sharing an apartment with Eileen, though, because everyone expected Eileen to move in with Benjamin when her lease was up.
Eileen expected it, too. Time had flown by, and her parents wanted grandchildren. She was the sole candidate to give them that, which was fine because she’d always envisioned a husband, a home and kids in her future. Ultimately she needed that kind of stability. She just had to get past this thrill-seeking phase of hers first. And sex with a stranger kept nudging its way to the top of her to-do list.
“How’s a pitcher of margaritas sound?” Courtney asked.
“Great.” Suz, an advertising rep for the Arizona Republic, shoved her briefcase under the table to join Courtney’s and Eileen’s. She looked uncharacteristically awkward doing it, using only her right hand and keeping her left in the pocket of her linen slacks.
Courtney hadn’t seemed to notice, but Eileen had her suspicions. She gazed at her friend. “What’s up, Suz?”
Suz looked innocent. “Not much. How was the skydiving?”
“Amazing.” She glanced at Suz’s right hand. “Nice manicure.”
“Thanks,” she said casually. “I like this magenta.” But she only spread out the fingers of her right hand, while keeping her left in her pocket.
“Okay, Suz,” Eileen said, watching her closely. “Spill.”
Suz grinned as she pulled her hand out of her pocket to display a glittering diamond. “Chad proposed!”
Pandemonium erupted at the table as the three friends squealed, embraced and even got a little teary. Suz was the first to become engaged.
“Eileen, you’re next,” Suz said sometime after they’d started in on their second pitcher of margaritas.
“We’ll see.” But Eileen thought so, too. Even though she’d been careful not to promise Benjamin exclusivity, she hadn’t dated anyone else in quite a while. Benjamin wanted her to move in with him. After that, knowing Benjamin and his timetable, the next step would be a proposal. Suz’s engagement brought the concept of marriage a lot closer than it had been an hour ago.
No doubt about it, commitment was closing in on her. As she contemplated a lifetime with Benjamin, she suddenly knew what she had to do. Before she agreed to forsake all others, she wanted the ultimate adventure—sex with the perfect stranger.
1
IT WAS NOW OR NEVER. Traynor and Sizemore, the law firm that employed both Benjamin and Eileen, had sent Benjamin to Switzerland for six days. That left Eileen free to enact her sex-with-a-stranger fantasy without any danger of him finding out.
Although she wasn’t breaking any agreement between them, she didn’t want to have sex with someone else right under his nose. Benjamin’s last-minute trip to Switzerland was like being handed an engraved invitation to take care of unfinished business. Sure, she was scared, but that was part of the excitement.
She was also incredibly turned on by the idea of choosing a sexual partner she’d never met before and would never meet again. Unfortunately, she’d seen Benjamin off at Sky Harbor last night at seven, nearly twenty-four hours ago, and since then she’d made no real progress toward her goal. The condoms she’d stashed in her purse this morning in preparation for some wild and crazy adventure were still there, untouched.
From her second-floor office window, she’d spent at least a half-hour watching a good-looking guy down below working with a street-repair crew. She’d just mustered up her courage to go down and speak to him when he’d paused to spit tobacco juice into the gutter. Then the overnight mail courier had looked like a possibility until she’d checked out his wedding band. Her bad luck had continued when the muscled hunk she’d made eye contact with on her lunch break had been joined shortly thereafter by his gay partner.
Scoping out handsome strangers had cut way down on her efficiency at the office today. She’d deleted a valuable file from her hard drive while daydreaming about sex, and now she was stuck at her desk after hours trying to reconstruct it from her scribbled notes.
She could give up the handsome stranger project right now and no one would be the wiser. No, damn it, she wouldn’t forget it. If she did, she’d end up like Meryl Streep in The Bridges of Madison County. She’d rather succumb to temptation before the wedding, not years after when the guilt would probably kill her.
On the drive to the airport Benjamin had reminded her that when he came back at the end of the week, he expected an answer to his question about living together. And he was a damned good catch. He was a cinch to make partner at Traynor and Sizemore a good year ahead of Eileen because he worked harder than she did. He kissed ass better, too. Well, metaphorically speaking. In bed, he wasn’t particularly imaginative, poor guy.
He’d promised that once Eileen shifted her belongings over to his luxury apartment, he’d morph into a more spontaneous lover. She thought it was possible. Some people needed security to let loose, and Benjamin seemed to fit in that group. And maybe it didn’t matter whether he became more sexually impulsive. She didn’t want to put too much importance on one trait.
She’d dated enough guys to know that she’d never find anybody higher on the compatibility scale than Benjamin. Yep, they had the compatibility thing down…except Benjamin didn’t like risks and he wasn’t into sexual fantasies. He’d told her flat out that he didn’t have fantasies, didn’t need them, and wondered about the people who did. That had shut her up fast.
Considering his attitude, she wasn’t about to tell him about the fantasy that had gripped her from the age of eighteen. That was the year Michael Keaton as Batman had stepped through the open window of Kim Basinger’s darkened apartment. Eileen remembered the hot stab of desire she’d felt while sitting in the theater. What would it be like to have an anonymous man in her bedroom? She wanted that thrill for real.
But she’d been in her good-girl mode at eighteen, not wanting to rock the boat. Her parents’ marriage had stabilized by then. At the age of ten she hadn’t understood what had caused the problem, but looking back on it now, she was pretty sure another woman had been part of the equation. Her dad had also bought a Corvette and had tried out local stock-car racing.
But all that was over now. Her parents’ marriage was solid. But Eileen had learned from the experience that adventures need to take place before marriage, before the serious business of creating a family. If she could complete her sex-with-a-stranger project this week, she’d be ready to give Benjamin an answer on Saturday.
However, she’d have to concentrate on the project after she’d finished keying in these notes. Maybe her sexual fantasy was a priority, but keeping her job ranked right up there, too. She wasn’t willing to trade security for adventure. She wanted both.
By seven, she was the only person left in the suite of offices. Not surprising. The Diamondbacks were playing a three-game series at home, and she was one of the few who didn’t have season tickets. Benjamin had suggested they buy some for next year after she moved in with him. Maybe it was his version of a promise ring, to have tickets for next season.
Around seven-thirty, she opened her desk and pulled out the raspberry mocha energy bar that would substitute for dinner. She’d taken the first bite when she heard a clanking noise in the reception area.
Could be the cleaning service, except…that sounded like a power screwdriver, not a vacuum. She tried to imagine why a thief would be using a power screwdriver, or even what there was to steal in the reception area.
She’d have to investigate, but she didn’t want to be stupid, in case an intruder was really out there. All she had in the way of a weapon was her collapsible umbrella, a hold-over from the monsoon season