“Leave Sadie out of this,” she snapped. “You know it was more than lust.”
Ariel fell in love at first sight with the woman who cleaned her condo. After years of pining for her, she’d discovered Sadie sleeping in her bed Goldilocks style. In Sadie’s defense, she was homeless at the time and believed that Ariel was out of town for the weekend. Somehow my friend had convinced Sadie to stay with her, and the two were living happily ever after a few bumps in the road. I was glad. I liked Sadie – we all did – and she was good for Ariel.
Maeve put her hand on Ariel’s thigh in a silent message to shut up, then leaned forward to study me.
“How did you wind up kissing Nicole?” she asked quietly.
“Well, we were meeting at Lowenthal Properties about the proposal, hashing out details, and when we went to leave the door to the conference room got stuck,” I started. “We banged on the door, but it’s Friday so everyone left the office on time. I wanted to break a window, but Nicole thought she could use her nail file to unscrew the door handle.”
Ariel gave me a look that clearly said we were both idiots. “Why didn’t you call security? Or someone else with a key to the building? Anyone else.”
“We didn’t think of that until after.”
“After what?” Ariel asked.
“After we got busted making out like horny teenagers on the conference room table.”
Nicole
Two hours ago…
“Look, I agree that our proposal will be stronger if Lowenthal Properties joins forces with Sanderson Real Estate Services,” Grace said. “But I’m only working at Sanderson part time. I’ve got a whole other company I need to manage.”
I stared across the table at the woman I’d had a secret crush on the entire time we were in school. Not that I realized it back then. No, I’d always been convinced that I hated Grace since she’d been a royal bitch to me all the way through high school. It was only with the insight of being an adult that I realized I’d liked her but was unable to process the emotions, so I hid behind our mutual acrimony. It was easy to do given how much Grace hated me.
Unfortunately for me I realized that my feelings for her had never died. That realization hit me about a week ago when she walked into a joint meeting between our two family companies, Sanderson Real Estate Services and Lowenthal Properties. I hadn’t seen Grace in years, but I’d taken one look at her and despite the fact that I’d always thought love at first sight was a fairy tale, I’d fallen in love so fast it took my breath away.
There was a lot to love about Grace. She was beautiful, poised, and brilliant. Her mind worked at least twice as fast as normal people. When you talked to her she was always several steps ahead of everyone else. And her analytical mind was amazing. I’d had to bust my ass all through school to beat her in mathletes competitions.
Grace was tall, at least five ten, with long curly blonde hair, dark brown eyes, and thick, luscious lips. I stared at the pink gloss on them, dying to kiss them clean. Dragging my attention away from her lips I cataloged her thin but feminine figure with small, high breasts, gently rounded hips, and strong thighs.
She was dressed professionally in a form-fitting navy dress with silver buttons down the front and a bright red belt around the waist, clearly a designer item. Her dress was perfectly matched with expensive red high heeled pumps that were sexy as hell.
Damn, I had it bad. This was so confusing.
“I just don’t think I have the bandwidth for a project of this size,” she continued.
“You won’t be doing it alone,” I reminded her. “We can share the work.”
I didn’t know why I was defending this insane idea of our parents. It was going to be a stretch for both of us, and like Grace, I had my own interests outside working for my family’s company. It would be a stretch, but I’d be lying if I said the project didn’t intrigue me.
“And what if we get the project?” she continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “We’ll be working on this for at least three years, even if we get the mayor’s office to push the permits.”
Chicago’s building permit process was notoriously slow.
“Our parents asked us to do this,” I reminded her. “We should at least give it due diligence.”
“You always were a goody goody,” she sneered. “At least around the adults.”
It was an old insult, and honestly well justified. As a kid I had a knack for acting sweet and innocent around the adults, never letting on that I had a naughty side. Of course I still had a bad habit of doing whatever my parents wanted, even if it ran counter to my own desires.I really need to work on that, I reminded myself for the millionth time.
“How about we take the weekend to think about it?” I suggested. “We can make a go/no go call on Monday.”
“Sounds fine,” she said, standing up and shoving her portfolio into her fancy designer briefcase.
Grace had done well for herself, making a name for herself outside of her family legacy. I liked that about her. She and her partners were all ridiculously wealthy. They’d been super tight in school to the exclusion of the other girls. While I had my own group of friends, I’d always been jealous of how close they were.
I followed Grace to the door. She tugged on the handle, paused, then tugged again.