Otherwise Engaged (17 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Saturday night,
as promised, Rain made himself go to the party, and he put on his best front of
being the old Rain. He flirted. He helped Skylar tell wild stories about their
college days. He’d even kept his promise to himself to not try to contact
Daphne at all that night. It wasn’t like he would have gotten a response anyway.

Flashes of her
would ambush him when he least expected them.
Her silky
thighs under his palms.
He’d be listening to a conversation about golf
and then he’d remember the sound of her moaning his name, her soft, full lips
pressed to his ear. He’d be talking about the beach, and he’d see her in that
damned swimsuit with the sides cut out, nicely exposing more than it covered up.
He’d be trying to interest himself in getting to know one of the women at the
party, and he’d be drawn back to that suite, picturing Daphne on the sofa
wearing nothing but his shirt.

He needed more
to drink if he was going to make it through that night. He made his way over to
the bar area. A short, thin half-Japanese, half-Lithuanian woman who’d been eyeing
him for most of the night trailed him. She’d tried to start a conversation up
with him several times already that night. He’d kept making excuses to get
away, but this time he decided he wouldn’t fight it. Why not see where this
led? It would keep Skylar off his case for a while at the very least.

“You know, I
thought you were mixed, even before you told me you were half-white, half-Thai.
Us halfies. We can spot each other, huh?” She laughed wildly, flirtatiously,
and took a sip of her white wine spritzer.

Rain nodded and
swallowed down a mouthful of vodka. He’d stayed away from rum since he nearly
killed himself with it in San Juan. He looked around for Skylar, but Skylar had
disappeared at some point.
Probably with a lady.
At least one.
Maybe more than that,
knowing him.

Like you’re much better than him.
At
least he hadn’t been. And maybe he still wasn’t. He didn’t know who he was or
what he wanted at the moment. Well, he knew one thing he wanted. He drank more
vodka.

“You’re quiet,”
she said, moving closer and flipping her silky black hair over her shoulder. Her
lips curled up with a classic green light smile.

“Yeah, sorry.”
He forced a smile. “I guess I don’t have a lot to say tonight.”

“You know, we
don’t have to do any more talking if you don’t want to.” She put a hand on his
arm.

Damn. He didn’t
even have to try. This was what he used to call an easy kill. He could take her
into a dark room right now and knock it out. If that was what he still wanted.
Was it? Should it have been? He didn’t know. Although part of him wanted to
give it a try, maybe knock Daphne out of his system, most of him was wondering
what the hell he was doing even entertaining that thought. He hadn’t been with
anyone since Daphne, and scarily enough, he only wanted Daphne. Scary indeed.

Screw it. He
needed to snap out of this funk. Maybe the easy kill here could help him with
that.

“C’mon,” she
said in a low, sultry voice. She grabbed his hand.

“Hold on a
sec.” He poured more vodka and then said, “Lead the way.”

She took him over
to the pool house. It was dark and empty. They went inside and locked the door
but didn’t turn on any lights. Outside of a small window across the room, he
could see the party going on without them. He could hear it as well through the
thin walls of the pool house. The woman whose name he hadn’t bothered to learn
started to undress. He stood there, watching her and sipping vodka.

“Aren’t you
going to take off your clothes?” she purred.

He was all
mixed up. He wanted to want to get naked, but something was wrong. Something
had broken, and he couldn’t get back to his old self. It would’ve been so much
simpler if he could have sex with this woman and go on with his life. Like he’d
always done. But he realized that wasn’t what he wanted.

She stared at
him expectantly, standing there in only the scrap of black material that
constituted her panties. Her black dress had pooled around her ankles. In his
mind’s eye, he saw Daphne standing in the suite in Puerto Rico with her pink dress
similarly pooled. The look that’d been in her brown eyes—that look had undone
something in him. And the way she’d given herself over completely to his every
touch. It had all been very different with her. Not only incredibly hot
but…right somehow. He didn’t know how to describe it other than to say it had
felt right—like they fit perfectly. Those feelings were forever with him
even if Daphne was nowhere near.

“What are you
waiting for?” the nearly naked woman asked him in a low and sultry voice.

“I can’t,” he
said, surprising them both. “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, but I can’t. I gotta
go.”

“Where?” she
said, sounding understandably pissed.

“To D.C.”

“What?”

“Yeah,” he
said, suddenly realizing it was true. He had to leave tonight or whenever the
next flight was. He had to go in person. Maybe his pleas would make more of an
impact that way. The only thing he knew for sure was he had to get to Daphne as
quickly as possible. He pointed his vodka glass in the direction of her dress.
“You should probably put that back on. Again, I’m really sorry. It’s definitely
me, not you.”

“You got that
right.” She snatched the dress from the floor. He slipped out of the pool house
while she was getting dressed and muttering unflattering things about him under
her breath. He was already on his phone, figuring out when the next flight for any
of the three airports in or near D.C. left from SFO.

When he got
back to the house, he finally found Skylar who was looking quite dazed and
pleased with himself. That was Skylar’s I-just-got-me-some look.

“I’m going back
to Frank’s house.” Rain informed Skylar.

“Why?” Sklyar’s
expression transformed from dazed to
shocked
before
settling on mildly annoyed.

“I have to
pack.”

“Pack? What?
Why? Just where are you going?”

“Back to D.C.”

“And why would
you do that?”

Rain took a
deep breath. He was going to have to tell him eventually. Especially since he
didn’t plan to stop pursuing her until she at least heard him out. “Daphne.”

“What?” Skylar
squinted at him. “You mean to tell me all this trouble, all this hell you look
like you’ve been going through lately, it’s all over some woman?”

“Yes.”

“Why?” Skylar
looked at him as if he had trouble comprehending something so unreasonable and
far-fetched and silly.

“Because—because…”
How could he explain it to Skylar if he didn’t quite understand it himself? All
he knew was that he had to go. He had to talk to her, and the only way he might
get to do that was face-to-face. Nothing else had worked. And, he realized,
nothing else would do. Rain sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I just
have to go.”

“What, is she
pregnant or something?”

“No, no nothing
like that,” he said. At least he hoped that wasn’t the case. He’d like to think
she would’ve at least picked if the phone if she were—were…that thing. He
couldn’t even bear to think that word. He was trying to work through one major
life change at a time here.

Life change.
Was what he felt for Daphne life-changing? Potentially. He knew he’d never felt
anything like it before. That was for sure. He pictured Carolina in his mind’s
eye. Nope. Never.

“So you’re just
going to up and leave? Right now?”

“I promised my
partners I would come home soon anyway.”

“Right this
moment. As in tonight?”

Rain looked
down at his watch. “There’s a flight out a little after midnight. If I throw
everything into a suitcase and haul ass, I can probably make it.” He didn’t
have anything to check anyway—just a carry-on and his laptop.

“You’re sick,
man. You have a sickness,” Skylar said.

“We can talk
about it when I get back, but I really have to go right now if I’m going to
make that flight.” Rain was already backing away from Skylar.

“I don’t think
I like this. It’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.” Skylar shook his head
slowly from side to side.

“Gotta leave. Now.
I already bought the ticket.” Before Skylar could make him doubt a decision he
already thought was pretty nuts even more, Rain turned and jogged toward
Frank’s, which was only a few houses away.

#

Rain deplaned
at Reagan and took a cab straight to Daphne’s place. Due to a serious delay
before takeoff and the time difference, he got there around ten-thirty in the
morning. He’d gotten maybe a couple hours of restless sleep on the plane, but
he was basically running on empty. Not knowing how long it would take Daphne to
show up if she weren’t home, or come outside if she were home and wouldn’t
answer for him if he tried to buzz her on the callbox, he paid and tipped the
cabbie and sent him away.

He thought
better of trying the callbox given his track record with calls and texts to
her. The element of surprise was his best bet here. He sat on the stoop of her
building with his suitcase next to him. He ran a hand through his bedraggled
hair, hoping he didn’t look too terrible. He hadn’t had time to go home first.
He had to see her as soon as possible.

A little after noon,
Daphne walked up carrying one reusable grocery bag on her left hip and holding
a second one by its handle in her left hand. She used her free hand to hold her
phone. She was talking and laughing with someone on the phone.

Daphne’s laugh cut
short as her eyes landed on him. The grocery bag slipped down her hip a little.
“I’m going to have to call you back,” she murmured into her phone. She dropped
her phone into her purse, her eyes never leaving Rain’s face.

He stood. He
had a visceral reaction to her. His memories and the pictures on his phone
didn’t compare with the real thing. Neither had done her justice. Gray pants
hugged the hips he wanted pressed against his. A black sweater hid those round
breasts he wanted to palm from view. His eyes made their way back up to her
perfect oval shaped face. Her full lips were still slightly parted in surprise,
her brown eyes wide. He missed kissing those lips; he wanted to kiss the
eyelids that went with those beautiful eyes as well.

The groceries
slumped a little farther. He reached out to grab them, and she stepped back and
hugged the green bags to her chest.

“I’m fine,” she
said in her low, soft voice. “I’ve got them.”

“Okay.” It was
a good thing his rumpled shirt was un-tucked. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be able
to miss his strong reaction to seeing her again. He couldn’t help it. She was
so gorgeous. Sexy. All the things they’d done together and how good they’d felt
flooded his mind and rushed right down into his groin. After so long, she was
finally right there a few feet away from him.
So close yet so
far away.

She set the
grocery bags at her feet and crossed her arms over her chest. “What are you
doing here?”

He licked his
lips. “I had to see you. Talk to you. This was the only way.”

She quirked an eyebrow.
“An ambush?” God, she was so
flawless.
And sexy when she was angry.
When wasn’t she
sexy?

“Not an ambush.
I just have to talk to you. Please.”

“We’ve said
everything that needs to be said to each other.”

He nodded at
the grocery bags. “Just let me carry those upstairs for you.”

“I can manage.”

“If you let me
take your groceries up, and you still want me to leave, I’ll go.” He grabbed
his laptop bag and slung the strap over his shoulder.

She sighed.
“There’s another bag in the car.”

He scooped up
the bags by her feet, followed her to the car and took the third bag, and then
followed her back to her building. She held her fob up in front of the box near
the front door, and a buzzer sounded as the door clicked open. They went
inside.

“Lots of fruits
and vegetables here,” he remarked.

She threw him an
annoyed look as they stepped on the elevator. “I stopped by Eastern Market.” It
was like it physically pained her to talk to him. She tapped her foot against
the floor and glared at the inside of the elevator doors. She seemed ready to
spring off the elevator the second the doors opened. It was as if she couldn’t
stand to be in such a small space with him. He sadly noted the difference
between the
way
she was now and the way she’d been
during those last days in Puerto Rico. Even before that, he remembered that she’d
had a smile for him whenever they’d run into each other in D.C. She’d never
been this cold to him.

Oh, and you don’t think you deserve it?
Ignoring this thought because he didn’t have time to feel sorry for
himself—he might only get a few minutes with her—he launched into
his apology. “Look, I handled things really badly.”

The doors
opened. She got off the elevator and walked down the hall. He followed.

“I’m sorry. I
should’ve called sooner,” he said.

“Nothing to be
sorry about. I know how you are.” She gave him a scornful glance. “What
happened happened, and it’s time for us to move on.”

“I don’t want
it to be like this,” Rain said.

She unlocked
her door and pushed it open. They stood in the hall facing each other. “We
crossed a line we shouldn’t have crossed, and we can’t go back now.” She looked
into her condo instead of at him. He studied her profile, thought about freeing
her hair from its ponytail and running his fingers through it. The way he had so
many times during those few hot, sizzling days.