Revenge Sex (4 page)

She sat, perched primly on the edge, her
knees jiggling again. “I know it’s not my business, but if you
don’t know about it, I just couldn’t stand by,” she prattled
on.

He held up the panties. “And these?”

She rolled her lips between her teeth and
chewed on them a moment. “She left them behind, and I put them
there as evidence.”

Jesus. How could Ruby be so stupid as to
flaunt their unconventional sex life?

How could she fuck Bradley Palmer? Her bad
taste was the worst crime of all.

“I realize it must have been a shock,” he
said, obviously understating. “I’m sorry you were caught in the
middle. But Ruby is right, I do know.” He wasn’t defending; he
simply refused to lie about it.

Except that Ruby wasn’t supposed to pull this
kind of crap at work. She wasn’t supposed to do it at home either.
He didn’t want one or both of his sons walking in. Sure, they were
in high school—he had them two weekends every month—but they didn’t
need to know anything he and Ruby did.

All Ruby had needed to do was show a little
discretion.

“Oh,” Jessica said. Emotions flitted across
her face. Confusion, consternation, then condemnation.

He didn’t know why he let that look bother
him. He’d always known how other people would react to his kinky
desires. He was divorced because of it. In heated moments, he and
his ex had occasionally fantasized about her being with other men,
but when he finally said he’d like to do it for real, she’d frozen
him out.

With that very look Jessica wore now.

Goddamn Ruby for doing this.

Jessica stood, hugging her folder to her
chest. “I don’t understand,” she said, bewildered like a child
faced with her first dead goldfish. “Don’t you feel cheated?”

He couldn’t say that love had never entered
into it with Ruby
; that was between Ruby and
him.
“I’m not wired like most men.” Yet he knew it would
explain nothing. Jessica couldn’t understand. His ex-wife had never
understood his needs. In the end, she left because of them.

Jessica seemed to gulp down air. “How can you
let her do that to you?”

He rose to look down on her. Her gaze was
stricken. He realized she’d allowed this to torment her for two
days. On his behalf. “She didn’t do it
to
me. She didn’t
hurt me. It’s the way I like it.”

She dropped the folder to her side and stared
at him as if he weren’t the man she’d worked for—and hopefully
admired—for the past three years. He actually felt diminished.

Jessica finally looked away. “She said it
turns you on.”

“It does,” he admitted. He owed her the truth
after what Ruby had put her through.

“She said”—she licked her lips—“that you love
to have sex with her afterwards.”

Her mouth glistened. Her eyes were a deep
blue, the pupils wide. A blush colored her cheeks. She was
breathing faster, a pulse fluttering at her throat. And beneath the
blouse, her nipples were hard peaks.

Looking at her, he was inexplicably hard. It
wasn’t about Ruby; it was suddenly about Jessica, the intimate
conversation, his earlier thoughts about her appeal. “I do.”

“Did you have sex with her when she came home
on Wednesday?” she asked softly.

The conversation was heated, the office walls
closer, the desk between them barely any separation at all. He
watched the rise and fall of her breasts. Like a wild dog, he
scented her, too, the faint aroma of arousal and emotion.

“Was it good?” She spoke with barely a sound,
but he read the words on her lips.

He could feel the sex from that night, and
heat suddenly burned all the way to his gut. “Yes, it was.”

But for a moment, the woman’s face he saw in
his mind, the feel of smooth female flesh beneath his fingers, the
warmth engulfing him, was no longer Ruby. It was Jessica.

Chapter Four

“It won’t happen again. Not here.”

Clay’s voice seemed to come from very far
away, but it was the images in her mind that consumed Jessica. Clay
with Ruby, reliving the things she’d just done with Bradley. Clay,
naked, gorgeous, powerful.

“Ruby won’t embarrass you this way
again.”

Embarrass her? It was what Ruby had done to
him that Jessica hated. He said he knew all about it, but there’d
been something in his face—his muscles tightening, lips
flat-lined—that testified Ruby had done some things he hadn’t known
about. Like where and with whom. That same look was in his eye now
as he apologized.

When you had to apologize for someone else,
they’d obviously done something wrong.

“Thank you,” she said. It felt like such an
inane response. She didn’t care if Ruby did it again; she only
cared how Clay felt about it, whether it hurt him. She would never
doing anything like that to him.

Yet, God help her, the thought of sex, and
him, and Wednesday night. The kinkiness of it made her wet, her
n
ipples hard, her skin flushed, a
nd she
wanted to know so much more. Like
why
he enjoyed letting
Ruby make a fool of him. He didn’t seem the type. Yet after the
reading she’d done on the Internet, there appeared to be men who
didn’t think of it like that. Maybe they didn’t feel jealousy.
Maybe they didn’t love in the same way. Maybe Clay didn’t really
love Ruby.

All the questions burning to be asked drove
her to the door. Before they spilled out. “I’ll get the answers on
these questions.” Thank God she’d written them down because she
didn’t remember a thing that had occurred before she blurted out
what she’d seen.

“Jessica.”

Please don’t say anything else
. She
didn’t want to know any more.

“Why were you here so late on Wednesday?”

It wasn’t what she’d been expecting at all.
“The review for the board meeting. I had some things to finish
up.”

“I don’t expect you to work until ten o’clock
at night,” he said.

But she would, for him, if he needed
something. She realized how pathetic she sounded, even in her own
mind. “It’s only once a quarter.” Actually, she did it every month,
staying late or coming in on a Saturday to work uninterrupted.

“I appreciate the dedication.”

But was she
too
dedicated? Maybe he
thought she didn’t have a life outside of West Coast. Maybe he
thought she paid too much attention to what Ruby did.

“Everything’s all right now, Jessica. Don’t
worry about it.”

He’d returned to Ruby. Everything wasn’t all
right. She’d fantasized about him before, but she’d had it in
perspective. He was
only
a sex fantasy. Now, she imagined
herself as his rescuer, saving him from his horrible
girlfriend.

She imagined taking Ruby’s place.

* * * * *

Clay allowed his anger to simmer until he got
home. The scent of Chinese food wafted out of the kitchen. Picking
up take-out was the extent of Ruby’s cooking skills. He didn’t
mind.

“Hey, baby, I’m in here,” she called. Ruby
had a smoky voice, always on the edge of seduction. She liked to
conquer men, and he’d enjoyed it when she came home to him after a
little conquering. At forty, she was in her prime, her muscles firm
beneath a short skirt that hugged her bottom. The stylish suit
jacket plunged low. Most women would have worn a blouse under it,
but not Ruby. She dared men to look down the front. He’d always
liked that sense of daring about her, the air of sexuality that
brought men to their knees.

He stood in the kitchen doorway, watching
from the other side of the center island as she unpacked the bag on
the granite counter, pulled down a couple of plates from the new
cabinets he’d had installed, and opened the cartons. More
mouthwatering aromas filled the air.

He couldn’t pinpoint why this time was
different? True, she’d broken one of his steadfast rules, but he
wasn’t stupid enough to think it was the first time. She enjoyed
surprising him. And he’d enjoyed the surprises.

Was it Jessica?

How can you let her do that to you?

The truth was that Ruby had fucked another
man on his desk, leaving her mark on it in an almost blatant
raising of the middle finger. Not to mention the man she’d
chosen—though the word
man
didn’t describe Bradley. Clay
didn’t complain about his subordinates, but Ruby knew enough to
understand that Bradley was less than adequate. If Greg Stevens
hadn’t gone to bat for the kid—Clay believed a manager had the
right to make the decisions about his own employees—he would have
been long gone.

There was a statement in Ruby’s choice of
place and partner. It wasn’t in the same league as telling him she
was seeing a girlfriend only to arrive home covered in come. Or
perhaps it was a greater degree of the same problem. When he let
her get away with one thing, she’d then needed to up the ante.

“What?” She was looking at him. He realized
he’d been staring at her, not really seeing her. Or seeing her too
clearly.

Reaching in his pocket, he pulled out her
thong and dropped it on the kitchen’s center island.

Ruby smiled, her lipstick still fresh and
glistening. “You found my surprise. I was wondering when you
would.” She didn’t miss a single beat.

“When’d you leave them for me?”

She winked. “The other morning.” Then she
dished out mu shu pork onto the thin pancakes.

“You’re lucky I found them in the filing
cabinet, instead of Angie.” He didn’t have a secretary, but one of
the accounts payable girls did his filing for him.

Ruby licked the spoon she’d used, then
laughed. “She only does that for you once a month. I figured you’d
find them first.”

Except they hadn’t been in his filing
cabinet. If Jessica hadn’t told him what she’d done, though, he’d
have assumed Ruby left them to titillate him during the day.

“Don’t lie to me, Ruby.”

She stopped, a spoon of lemon chicken halfway
between the carton and a plate. A large drop of yellow sauce
plopped onto the counter. “I don’t lie, baby. I just stretch the
truth.” The reply was typical Ruby.

“Why don’t you unstretch it and tell me what
you really did Wednesday night.”

She pursed her lips. It wasn’t a good look
for Ruby, adding five years to her face. “I’m sure
she
already told you everything.”

“I want to hear it from you.”

“The Chinese is getting cold,” she
complained, buying time.

“We can eat while you tell me.”

She shrugged, finished dishing out the food,
then carried the two plates to the table in the nook overlooking
the darkened garden. Clay carried the cartons and set them in the
center between them.

“I just wanted to see if it got you all
worked up in the morning when you went to work.” More likely, she’d
wanted to see if he’d detect her scent all over the desk. “I
thought it would be exceptionally hot.”

“We have a rule.”

She
tsked
. “It was late. No one was
there.”

“Jessica Murphy was there.”

She pressed her lips together. “How was I
supposed to know she’d be sneaking around at ten o’clock? There
weren’t any lights on.”

“Ruby, that’s exactly why we don’t do
anything at work. Because you never know when someone’s going to
walk in.”

She smiled slyly. “Oh, I remember how badly
you wanted to do a few things at work, sweetheart.”

When they were first dating—if fucking their
brains out could be called
dating
—he’d talked about wanting
to fuck her on his desk. But he’d never broken that rule, as hot as
it might have been. He wondered if she’d had Bradley Palmer do the
same things they’d described to each other back then. Her
carelessness and lack of regard pissed him off. Odd as it sounded,
when she fucked other men, it was for the two of them. While she
was out, he imagined what she was doing. And she was supposed to be
thinking about him, about how he’d be on her the minute she was
inside, wanting to hear everything while he fucked her. When she
lied, the sex became about
her
, not
them
. If she
didn’t know that already, he couldn’t explain.

So he attacked on a level she could
understand. “He’s a risk, Ruby. He can spread gossip.” Bradley
would brag.

“Oh, honey, no one’s going to believe
him.”

Actually, they would. Ruby didn’t have the
purist of reputations. After all, she’d worked at West Coast for
almost a year before they began their affair, and she’d gotten
around. “You don’t fuck other men at work, Ruby. No ifs, ands, or
buts.”

“Spoilsport,” she muttered.

He had to hand it to her. It didn’t bother
her that she’d been caught. But wasn’t that why he’d made things
more permanent with her, bringing her home? Because she was wild.
Because she did all the things he’d dreamed of having a woman do
for him. Because she’d fuck anyone, anywhere, anytime, and rush
home to tell him about it. He’d gotten everything he’d wanted.

Be careful what you ask for.

The problem was he couldn’t control her.
Because of that, he’d laid down only three rules. No sex with
anyone from or at work, never bring the guy home, and tell your
boyfriend every dirty detail about what you did.

She’d broken the first and the last rule. How
long before she broke the second? Maybe she’d already had another
man in their bed.

“Dump him.”

She moued. “It was silly, Clay. I’m sorry. He
came on to me, and you and I had already planned my date, and I was
so horny, I just did it without thinking it through.” Then she
fluttered her eyelashes at him. “How can I make it up to you?”

He didn’t believe her. This wasn’t the first
time. And he doubted who came on to whom.

“I don’t know, Ruby.” He didn’t play
games—not head games at any rate—but the truth was more
complicated. Something had shifted in him when Jessica asked how he
could let Ruby humiliate him.