Claire shrugged. “Very definitely but I was bored that afternoon. So don’t tell anyone,” she said and leaned forward. “But you’re also not going to change the subject. Spill it darling. How did you and the prince-dude end up so chummy today? Did something happen during the tour last week that you’re not telling us?”
Emma shook her head. “Nothing. I don’t know why this guy attached himself to me like that but he’s terrifying.”
“And yummy!” Claire said, smiling brightly.
Emma laughed. “You can have him.”
She shook her head. “He wants you.”
“I don’t want him either.”
“Why not?” Claire interjected. “He seems like he would be a fantastic lover! Why don’t you just jump his bones and find out what it’s all about?”
“Maybe because that’s exactly what I’m trying to teach my girls at the Rec Center not to do?”
Darcy laughed and turned to Claire. “She has a point. And it’s not like you’ve gone out and found out what it’s all about,” she said, taking a sip of her tea and hiding her smile behind the cup.
“Look who’s talking,” Claire said and pushed her glasses higher up on the bridge of her nose. “Besides, I would if I could find some guy who tempted me just a little. In my line of work, all I get are these geeky, boring types who have nothing better to do in their evenings that to play Dungeons and Dragons online.”
Emma and Darcy both grimaced at the thought and were silent for a long moment. Then Claire hit her head. “You did it again! You changed the subject and we’re not talking about us we’re talking about that hunky man who was foiling Charlie’s attempts to get you upstairs into one of his reserved suites for the rest of the afternoon.”
Darcy laughed. “The mayor doesn’t have a reserved suite of rooms, Claire. Don’t be so cynical. Just because he’s a politician and his wife might be having an affair,” she emphasized that she still wasn’t convinced, “that doesn’t mean he’s also trying to get down and dirty with his constituents.”
“Suite 1110, upstairs and it’s been reserved since the invitations went out two months ago. And no,” she said when Emma started to make an excuse for him, “he reserved it on his private credit card so it won’t be tracked by his campaign nor can he be accused of using campaign funds to do the deed with our little Ms. Emma here.”
Both Darcy and Emma stared at Claire. Emma was the first to speak and she shook her head. “You’re very scary, you know?”
“Yes, but I won’t get caught.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I have my ways, my dears. And I hacked into the FBI system and found their tracking software just to be sure I could avoid it.”
Darcy and Emma both started laughing at the same moment while Claire just sat there proudly. When they finally calmed down, Claire pointed at Emma. “You did it again. Which only leads me to wonder what’s really going on since you won’t tell us.”
“Go ahead and hack into my computer, Claire. There aren’t any mysterious e-mails or any odd funding patterns. There’s just nothing there.”
“You know I wouldn’t ever do something like that to my friends,” she said smoothly.
They sat at the table for the rest of the afternoon, eventually ordering burgers and laughing as they caught up on each other’s weeks. When the bill came, Darcy and Claire both looked at the total, then at Emma who was counting out her portion of the check by reading the menu prices.
Darcy looked at Claire, who looked back with a knowing grin. “So, there’s really nothing between you and that hunky babe from this afternoon?” Darcy asked.
“Nothing,” she said distracted as she pulled out the rest of her change to cover her share. “Why do you keep on asking me?”
“Because he paid our dinner tab with a note on the bottom.”
Emma looked across the table at her friends, then down at the meal tab Claire was holding, still confused. “What am I missing?”
Darcy handed her the check and sure enough, in bold scrawl, was a hand written note saying he hoped they’d had a good afternoon.
Emma sighed and tossed her money back into her purse. “That man just doesn’t know when to take no for an answer!”
“Why don’t you go upstairs and tell him yourself?”
Emma slapped her wallet closed and shook her head. “Not going to happen. He’s sneaky.”
Claire and Darcy exchanged another look. “I think you should let him be as sneaky as he wants, but that’s just my opinion.”
They all stood up and walked out of the hotel together, exchanging hugs and promising to call in the next few days.
Chapter 3
Emma drove back to her tiny apartment thinking about Dharran and how underhanded he was. Couldn’t he just leave things alone? She couldn’t do casual, she had to set an example with the kids. And she knew he didn’t do serious, so there wasn’t any middle ground.
Not that she was even interested, she reminded herself. She didn’t like him. She had to respect the man she had sex with. Any man who wanted a casual relationship, and who lived thousands of miles away, wasn’t someone she could grow to respect. That had to come from knowledge of one another, of mutual interests and hobbies. It came from relaxing over dinners, lunches and walks in the park with casual conversations. It definitely didn’t happen on fly by visits from one country to another for a quicky in between meetings.
It was after midnight before she finished all her paperwork for the day and, although she was exhausted, sleep simply wouldn’t come to her. She tossed and turned, wishing she could figure out a way to get that man out of her head. His touch this afternoon had gotten under her skin and she had thoughts now that were counterproductive. Like what it might be like to feel him touching her on areas other than her cheek. Or what he might feel like when she touched him. Or what he would taste like if he kissed her.
Emma threw the pillow across the room in frustration. The man was horrible! A womanizer and exactly the opposite of what she wanted from the man she chose to have sex with for the first time. She didn’t need to be married before becoming intimate with a man. But it damn well wasn’t going to be a one night stand. Or even worse, a torrid, dirty affair where she’s kept hidden away somewhere like a naughty secret, desperate and waiting for him whenever he felt the need to be with her.