Pleasure After Hours

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“You know I haven’t.” Meg rolled her eyes toward the front of the dining room. “Shane wanted to come take the orders personally when he found out I was having lunch with you. Told me I could just wait ’til you got here.”

Temple laughed. Shane Barnum, the owner’s son, had women all over Wilmington and beyond. Temple never took his advances seriously. The fact that Shane realized this made his attempts even more humorously outrageous.

“So what’s going on?” Meg brought her elbows to the glossy oak table. “You sounded excited when you called about getting together for lunch.”

“I talked to Kendall last night.” Temple dropped her keys into her tote and set it on an empty chair at the table. “He found a place and claims I won’t need to see another one once he shows it to me.”

“That man.” Meg flipped a lock of her auburn hair around her finger. “Always trying to outdo himself. I don’t see how anything else could top the two places you already have.”

“Well, Kendall told me he could handle those sales, as well.” Temple reached for her water glass and took a hasty swallow.

“You’re going to sell them?” Meg’s brows drew close over her blue eyes. “Have you thought about what Mataeo will say?”

“No, I haven’t, Meg. I never spend any time there. I feel like I’ve wasted his money....” She grimaced and pushed at the glass as if the water had left a sour taste. “I haven’t spent a night in either place since he closed on them.”

“I never knew that.” Meg’s fingers slowed in her hair. “Why not?” Her expression turned more probing when Temple only shrugged.

“There she is!”

Temple and Meg couldn’t help but smile. Shane’s charm was irresistible and he had them giggling like schoolgirls within a matter of seconds.

“Anything you want, lovely. Just ask.”

“Cracked crab and lobster pulled fresh from the Atlantic no more than an hour ago,” Meg requested in her most haughty tone.

Shane’s stare matched the vivid blue of his cousin’s eyes. “I said ‘anything you want, lovely.’” He motioned toward Temple. “That would be her.”

Generous laughter fell into place once more. It had been weeks since Temple felt amusement at such a high level. That high lasted until she saw Mataeo walking past the columns guarding the entrance of the dining room. He wasn’t alone.

“What is it?” Meg waited until Shane left with the orders. She’d noticed the shadow that had crossed her friend’s face.

“Just hungry, that’s all.” Temple made pretense at studying the cuff of her blouse.

Meg turned in her chair to check the direction Temple had been looking. A thoughtful smile tugged at her mouth when she saw Mataeo North and his female lunch companion. Bowing her head, Meg traced the swirls in the oak table. Silence hung for a few minutes and then Meg leaned over to tap her fingers across the back of Temple’s hand.

Meg squeezed until Temple met her gaze. Then she asked the question she already knew the answer to.

“You love him, don’t you?”

Chapter 4

“’Course I love him.” Temple didn’t shrug off the question, but met it with sarcasm. “I’ve known him since—”

“Cut the crap, Temp. You know exactly what I mean.” Meg leaned across the table again. “You’re in love with him. Aren’t you?” Her expression softened as she took note of Temple’s reaction. “Honey, why does that upset you?”

“Are you crazy?” Temple’s wilting expression turned stony. “How can you ask me that? You of all people know what it’s like between the two of us. All the whispers, the rumor and innuendo that makes Mataeo look like the ladies’ man of all ladies’ men and me like a slut-come-lately.”

“Sorry,” Meg said as she laughed over the comparison.

Temple couldn’t help but give in to a smile, as well. Groaning, she raked her fingers across her thick tresses, drawn into a wavy chignon. “What good is it to love or be in love with him? What good is it to admit that I am or to even have the nerve to be happy about it? What good does it serve me?”

“That’s why you’re quitting, isn’t it?” Meg’s firm voice went soft and she trailed her nails along one of the swirls in the wood table. “None of this has anything to do with you being sick of the grind, does it?”

“God, Meg.” Temple hid her face in her hands. “I love my job…a lot. I love all the demands, all of it....”

“Especially all those little quirky ones you have to fulfill for Mataeo.” Meg kept her eyes on the table. “The ones that make folks think the two of you are sleeping together?”

Temple puffed out her cheeks while considering Meg’s valid query. She supposed screening calls from jilted girlfriends, tying his ties, letting him have a key to her apartment, all the little handholds and familiar pats they exchanged were a bit rumor-inducing. She had honestly never given a second thought to them. She guessed Mataeo hadn’t, either. Perhaps that was because it all came so naturally. Perhaps that was because there was far more than friendship at the heart of their involvement whether they realized it or not.

The water glass was sweating. Temple tapped her nails on the side until a bead of water slid across her finger. “This won’t be as easy as I thought, will it?”

Meg’s white wrap top crinkled near the shoulder when she shrugged. “I tried telling you that.” She smiled up at the server who had arrived with their drinks.

“You don’t know what this is like for me, Meg.” Temple risked a quick glance at Mataeo across the room. “I swear I never meant for this to happen. I…” She frowned. “I thought I got past those feelings a long time ago.”

“Oh, honey.” Meg rubbed her hand across Temple’s sleeve. “I guess it’s hard to get over a man you’re in love with when you see him every day.”

“Yeah.” Again Temple risked letting her eyes trail toward Mataeo and his lunch date. The woman looked vaguely familiar. Hmph, she thought. Probably one of the many bed warmers she’d had to give the boot on occasion.

“It’ll be fine.” Temple sighed and propped her chin on her hand. “Once this last deal is done, it’ll be fine. I’ll tell him my plans and that’ll be that.”

“Poor thing.” Meg shook her head. “Still lyin’ to yourself.”

Temple pursed her lips. “I think I’ll leave you with the check.”

“Honey, that man is never gonna let you go. He depends on you too much and you know that.” Meg paused to wave at a colleague she’d spotted across the room, but her attention quickly returned to Temple. “Whether his feelings are similar to yours, it doesn’t matter. Businesswise you’re his ace and I don’t care how many people you put in place to handle all your responsibilities—it’s gonna get messy if you try to leave him for good.”

“That’s silly.” Temple waved off Meg’s reasoning before propping her fist back against her cheek. “No one should ever think there isn’t someone else out there who can do the job as well as them or better.”

Meg spread her hands. “True. But when the boss thinks there’s no one who can do your job as well or better than you, then all bets are off.”

“Meg.” Temple merely waved again, refusing to give merit to her friend’s perception.

Across the room, Mataeo didn’t appear at ease with the woman he dined with. The lunch meeting with H.R. Executive Liaison Cursha Wagner had been on his mind ever since he decided to call it over a week ago.

“So you’re telling me she hasn’t made any inquiries?”

“Mataeo.” Cursha pressed her lips together and looked more than a tad uncertain. “I’m afraid I don’t quite under—”

“Listen.” He tapped an index finger on the table once. “What I’m saying to you is confidential. If I have any reason to suspect my concerns have been discussed in any way, shape or form—”

“Mataeo.” Cursha’s uncertainty faded and she sat up a little straighter in her chair. “There’s no need to stress that. I’m good at my job and I certainly know better than to air the boss’s laundry.”

“Hell,” Mataeo said and massaged the bridge of his nose. “Cursha, I’m sorry. Guess my concerns have me a little paranoid.”

She nodded, her smile laced with understanding. “You’re afraid you’re about to lose your best person.”

“She’s my right arm.” Mataeo’s jaw flexed as the muscle there danced wickedly.

To himself, he acknowledged that she was a great deal more than that. He couldn’t function without her. He chose to shake off the thought in the back of his mind that challenged whether that “functioning” only pertained to business matters.

“I haven’t had any conversations with her about her job or leaving it.”

Cursha’s words intruded on his thoughts. Mataeo nodded once quickly as though he were content.

“So…” Cursha tapped all ten fingers on the shellacked edge of the table. “Is this a onetime meeting or should I let you know if the situation changes?”

Mataeo focused on a spot near the edge of his tie. He didn’t relish the thought of continuing down the path suggested by the liaison, but he hadn’t gotten where he was by not following his instincts. Just then, his instincts were telling him that Temple was hiding something. He had no idea why he felt what she may’ve been hiding had anything to do with them. But when his instincts spoke, he had no choice but to listen.

Slowly, his mocha stare shifted toward Cursha. “Let me know,” he said.

Temple returned from her lunch with Meg hardly able to recall how she’d gotten from her car to the office. The conversation with Megaleen still played hot and heavy in her brain. Whatever dramas might arise from her sudden departure, Temple knew that leaving was her only choice. If she ever expected to live her life without thoughts of Mataeo North as her lover instead of her colleague, she had to leave.