Heart Robber (Lifestyle by Design Book 2) (6 page)

Who the hell are you?
Clarise got out of Will's bed and walked naked to the bathroom. She trusted Will implicitly but whoever this woman was, instinct told her she couldn't trust her.

Will had almost finished shaving as she leaned against the frame of the open bathroom door. His hand stilled as he gawked at her through the mirror with burning eyes. She knew that look. Even after very satisfying morning sex, it looked like Will wanted her again.

She smiled at him, reminding herself he was hers. She loved him so. For a second, she forgot about the annoying flirt on the phone.

"Who called, sweetheart?"

"Oh, yes. Some woman named Andrea something," she answered, her face registering disapproval. She reached behind the bathroom door for her bathrobe.

"Andrea something?"

"Yeah. Here, listen." She played back the voice message on speaker as she put on her robe.

"That's Rob's ex-girlfriend!" Will said in surprise.

"Rob's ex-girlfriend?" She was shocked.
Oh no. Jessa! And what did she want with my Will?
 

"What's she doing here?"

"I don't know," Will answered with a frown. "Rob didn't mention anything about Andrea when we spoke on the phone yesterday. All I know was he had a date with Jess."

"I'm calling Jess to see how she is."

Will's phone rang again in her hand, startling them both.

"It must be Andrea again. It's an unknown caller." She held the phone out to Will.

Will tossed the towel he patted his face with on the vanity and took three short, purposeful steps towards her. "Ignore it," he said as he reached into her robe, thumbed her nipples and started kissing her neck. "I'm still catching up from being away from you for one whole week."

"Honey, no," she pleaded even as her nipples hardened in attention. Her body never failed to respond to Will, but she really wanted him to take this call. "I want to know what Rob's ex-girlfriend wants."

Will sighed and took the ringing phone from her.

"Put her on speaker," she asked.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Will. It's Andrea Lyons."

"Hi, Andrea. This is a surprise."

"Yes, did you get my earlier message?"

"Yes, I just got it. What are you doing here in Sydney?"

"You wouldn't believe this but I thought Rob would still be here for another week. I wanted to surprise him, you see. Unfortunately, last night was the only night I was able to spend with him. I thought I'd look you up, as you're the only person I know here in Sydney. Isn't that pathetic? I'm such a social butterfly in Melbourne and I only know one soul in Sydney," Andrea said with a flirty little laugh.

Will's expression told Clarise he was thinking what she was thinking. If Andrea spent the night with Rob, what happened to Jessa?

"Will? Are you there?"

She nodded her head, indicating to Will she wanted to find out what was really going on and wanted him to extract it out of Andrea.

"Yes, I'm here. What did you have in mind, Andrea?"

"Well, I thought we might catch up over coffee or something. You can bring your girlfriend, too. Rob told me about her. Mind you, Antoinette will be crying for days when she hears you're taken. You know my sister's still crazy about you. She's still as hot for you now as she was during her birthday party. She said she'll kill me if I don't make you call her. Anyway, I don't want to talk about her. So, when can we meet?"

Clarise's face darkened as she folded her arms across her chest. Her mind went back to her telephone conversation with Will the last time he was in Melbourne. He was cold and impersonal to her then. When he mentioned he was going to the birthday party of Rob's girlfriend's sister, she was hurt, especially after he described the birthday girl as outgoing and
very
attractive. Jealousy sprouted within her and she glared at Will with remembered hurt in her eyes.

He frowned as he put an arm around her waist and pulled her close to him as he continued to speak with Andrea. "When do you leave Sydney, Andrea?"

She tried to push him away but he just held her tighter.

"I leave next Saturday," Andrea answered.

"I'll check my diary, but I'm really very busy this week."

"Oh, come on, Will. I'm sure you'll have time for coffee. I can even go to you if you give me the address. I can take a taxi. That will save you some time."

"I'll have to get back to you, Andrea."

"Okay, but make sure you clear some time on your diary for me, Will Matthews! You owe me," Andrea reminded him with a laugh.

Will cringed. "Yes, I know. I'll see you for coffee sometime this week. I'll bring my girlfriend with me."

When Will finished the call, Clarise freed herself from his embrace and strode wordlessly to the shower.

"Baby …" Will called to her.

She was mad - and hurt - although rationally she didn't have a good reason to be. That was in the past. Will had since proven to her many times over how much he loved her. But she just couldn't stand the thought that he might have slept with another woman, even though at the time they were only in a casual relationship.

Will caught her arm and she stilled.

"Did you sleep with that Antoinette woman?" She shut her eyes as she waited for him to respond. She was scared of the answer but she needed to know.

Will turned her around to face him. "Look at me," he commanded gruffly, tilting her chin with his finger. She opened her eyes to look into Will's intense gaze.

"No, I didn't." His forceful delivery released the tension in her body and made her knees go weak with relief. She leaned against him and he put his arms around her.

"Clarise, there has never been any other woman since I first laid my eyes on you." He caressed her cheek with a thumb. "And there will never be anyone else for me but you," he added softly, sincerity pouring out of him. "Baby, you know how much I love you, don't you?"

"Yes. I do," she responded with misty eyes. "Sorry. Overreaction. I just get silly over you sometimes."

Will chuckled and squeezed her tighter. "As long as you love me," he said huskily.

"I love you, Will."

As she melted in Will's arms, she gave herself a mental reminder to check up on Jessa later.

~~~~~~~

"So how was last night, Jess?" Clarise tried to sound nonchalant, wanting to hide her worry from her friend.

"Good, then disappointing, then sweet, then disappointing."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it was good to see Rob again, then something urgent came up that we didn't even get to have dessert, then he kissed me near the lifts," Jessa said with a dreamy sigh, "then I left and I'm still frustrated. I should have slept with him on the first date, Clarise. I could be replaying my sexy night with a gorgeous guy in my head rather than being frustrated over what could have been."

She laughed, her worry easing. Jessa did seem to only want the sexual experience with Rob and nothing more. "You'll live," she teased.

"Seriously, Clarise, I now know what it's like to be seriously turned on by a man's looks. But how do I cope with this … sexual frustration? How do you handle it when Will's not around?"

She blushed as she thought about how she and Will dealt with their need for each other when they were apart and how super hot they got when they were back together. She avoided Jessa's question with one of her own. "How did you cope with it before you met Rob, Jess?"

"Well, I really didn't have to deal with anything as intense as this before. I can honestly say he's the first man I've truly, seriously lusted after."

"So what happens next?"

"I don't know. He said he's coming back here soon. I guess I'll just have to wait."

Clarise decided to play devil's advocate and test her friend. "What if he doesn't come back for months? Or if he did come back soon, what if his sexual energy has already been spent elsewhere and … he's not as eager for you?" She hated herself as soon as the words came out, but she felt Jessa needed to hear it.

"Ouch," Jessa answered quietly after a long pause. "But you're right. Rob's into casual sex and it wouldn't be hard for a guy like him to find someone else to play with. Maybe I should go to Melbourne and get him out of my system before his attraction for me dies down."

"Jessa! Are you serious?"

"That or go find a gorgeous
Sydney
man to have a one-night-stand with."

"Wow, do you hear what's coming out of your mouth, Miss Allen?" she said in a tone that was full of wonder.

"It's this damned sexual frustration! I tell you what, though, Clarise. If someone like Rob could want to have sex with me, then I'm sure someone else equally as good-looking could as well."

Jessa told her about the dimpled guy she bumped into earlier in the day who called her beautiful.

"See? What do we keep telling you, Jess? There are all these men who notice you and think you're very attractive. The only reason you don't notice them is because you refuse to believe they could be attracted to you. Not all men just walk up to girls and say they're beautiful or they're interested, you know. A good number of them start out with giving hints, trying to gauge your level of interest. But most of the time, you ignore them because you just won't believe they're coming on to you."

Jessa was quiet for a long moment. "Really, Clarise?"

"Yes! Remember Paul at that expo we went to three months ago? He was cute."

"Oh, come on. He wasn't interested in me, was he? He just met me then. He couldn't have been wanting to go out with me."

"See what I mean?" she said. "I watched you ignore his subtle signals. He would have believed you weren't interested as opposed to simply being blissfully ignorant of his attraction to you."

"Okay, then. Maybe I'm starting to believe you. But it's not like I could just easily get a date with a handsome man like him."

"As if Rob and that dimpled guy from this morning weren't proof enough. But okay, just wait and we'll come up with ways for you to go out on dates with decent, good-looking guys."

Clarise was excited that her friend was starting to come out of her shell more. She had been hiding under it, putting on a mask of indifference and professionalism. That served Jessa well in her career, for she was truly brilliant at what she did. But she knew the loneliness Jessa felt from thinking she was unattractive when it was simply a belief from her childhood that totally skewed her perception. At least they could be thankful to Rob for helping them with a JAB of his own by asking Jessa out.

When she finished her conversation with Jessa, she was straight on the phone with Faye. They were determined to help Jessa go out there and have some fun. She'd held herself back too much. And if she dated more, they had no doubt she'd find herself a man who would just hold on to her and never let her go. In the end, that was what they wanted for her. They knew deep down it was what Jessa was looking for.

*******

Rob smiled with satisfaction and relief as the second of the big Sydney contracts he was chasing also came through, signed and dated. Now he could fully plan and prepare for a short-term stay in Sydney as he personally attended to these new clients.

He missed the city he grew up in and was looking forward to living there for four months. The good thing was he didn't need an office space there. He could work from the serviced apartment he would be staying at and any support he needed could be handled electronically by his Melbourne staff.

His thoughts turned to Jessa and his body started reacting. He had considered flying to Sydney for the weekend just to see her. He almost arranged it until he realised how crazy that was. How could he disrupt his schedule and fly to another state just for some casual sex? Crazy. He'd be back there in three weeks, anyway. By then, his attraction to her should have diminished so that he wouldn't be contemplating any more idiotic actions for a one night stand or two.

His phone rang. "Will."

"Hey, Rob, how's it going?"

"Good, good. You?"

"All right. Guess who I had coffee with today?"

"Who?"

"Your ex."

Oh, shit.
He'd forgotten all about Andrea being in Sydney. "Did she call you?"

"Yes. She's a very insistent woman. Wouldn't let me get away with not having coffee with her."

"What did she want from you?"

"Nothing much from me. She just asked me about places she could go and told me how she was enjoying Bondi and the new people she met on the beach. She did talk a lot about you, though."

"What about?"

"Oh, she was more like reminiscing on your good times together. She wants you back, you know."

Rob snorted and shook his head, then suddenly sat up straight in his chair as he remembered something. "Does Clarise know you saw Andrea?"

"Yes, of course," Will replied. "That's why I made sure we were done in less than an hour. Clarise was supposed to go with me but she couldn't fit it in her schedule."

"Did you tell her Andrea wanted me back?"

"Yeah, I told her what Andrea and I talked about. She wasn't happy to learn about Antoinette being all crazy about me. I wanted to reassure her we didn't talk about Antoinette."

He chuckled. "You are so under your girlfriend's thumb, Matthews!"

"Am not."

"Are, too! Anyway, what I want to know is does Clarise have any plans to warn Jessa off me?"

Will was silent for a beat. "No, not really."

"Not really?"

"Well, she hasn't mentioned anything about protecting Jessa from you, if that's what you mean. Although the girls have plans in place so Jessa can meet new guys."

"What?"

"I don't think it's particularly so she doesn't see you again. It's more like they want Jessa to meet a potential boyfriend, so they're helping her find dates. They all know you're not boyfriend material."

Rob's head started to throb as the unwanted image of Jessa dating other guys popped into his imagination.
No!
"How exactly are they helping her find dates?"

"I heard Clarise on the phone encouraging her to go to this speed dating thing they found for her tomorrow night."