The Merger (7 page)

Spencer stood and walked to the drawer for a fork. It was then he heard the sound of someone stomping up the back steps of the porch. A moment later the door flew open and there stood Julie with two enormous cups of coffee in her hands.

“Oh, hi,” she said kicking the door shut behind her. “I didn’t know you’d be here. I could have brought more coffee.”

“I didn’t know I’d be here either and Avery just left.”

Julie’s eyes opened wide. “She left? We just did yoga and decided to splurge on fancy coffee. She bought, I flew. You know how that is.”

“Her friend Pete needed a date for a work thing. She just left.”

“Date for work.” She laughed just as he had. “He came by this morning and I met him. He’s absolutely in love with her and she has no idea.”

“I told her that too. He’s been in love with her since the second grade and she’s been in denial that long.”

Julie set down the coffees. “You’re having dinner?”

“I
brought
it thinking I could convince Avery to have dinner with me.”

“I guess she left us both hanging.”

“Looks like it. Join me then? I have plenty and could use the company.”

She smiled easily. “I’ll trade you a French vanilla latte for dinner then. On Avery.”

“Deal.”

She sat down at the table in her yoga pants and a snug exercise top that showed off a soft set of shoulders and sculpted arms. Her blonde hair was in a ponytail high on the top of her head.

With chopsticks woven between her fingers, she began diving into the sweet and sour pork.

“Oh, this is fabulous,” she said with a moan. “Much better than my soup I’d been planning.”

He smiled as he watched her take another bite. He’d never seen anyone eat with such enjoyment. It was nearly erotic to watch her.

“Eggroll?”

She nodded and he slid the small white bag toward her. “You’ll have to tell me where to get this. I enjoy Chinese food.”

He figured, by the way she dug in with those damn chopsticks. Spencer looked down at his fork full of noodles and thought he was pathetic sitting there eating like that.

“Trade?”

She nodded and passed him
the box
in her hand and took the noodles.

Spencer stabbed a sweet and sour pork piece and lifted it to his mouth, just as he caught sight of her sucking in a
noodle
through her lips.

Certainly he wasn’t going to be able to eat with her anymore. His mind wasn’t on food.

His eyes were on her lips. Those lips, which had taken him off guard the night in the elevator. Her fingers, which wrapped around the chopsticks, had pressed to his lips when they’d toured the apartment in the basement. With her hair pulled
back,
he could see the very delicate skin of her neck and the gentle pulse on the side of it.

He bit down on his fork. Why hadn’t Tiffany just had sex with him? He could have gotten all this pent up frustration out and he wouldn’t be sitting at his cousin’s kitchen table dissecting the delectable parts of the bitch lawyer.

When she raised her eyes to him and a strand of hair fell over those dark wonders, he realized he’d been staring. She wasn’t so much a bitch, he
thought
as she sucked in a noodle, and he wasn’t so afraid of
her
.

“Is something wrong with the pork?” she asked before she covered her mouth and finished her mouthful.

Spencer shook his head. “No. I just have a few things on my mind.”

Julie set her chopsticks on the table and picked up her coffee cup. “I’ve always been told I have a good ear. If you just want to get something off your
chest,
I’m here.”

What he wanted was to scoop her up and he didn’t like that he wanted that at all. He was much more comfortable before he liked her.

There had been some deep satisfaction when she’d fallen on her ass yesterday.

“It’s nothing really. You know in this industry there is always something going on.”

She sat back in her seat and studied him. “Why are you here having Chinese?”

He shrugged. “I was hungry for it.”

“I thought you were having steak for dinner.”

He was confused for a moment and then realized what she’d been thinking that morning at the store.

“Oh, no. That wasn’t for me. Tiffany is trying to hook up with the British guy a few floors below my apartment.”

Cautiously, she lifted her cup to her lips and studied him. “She’s trying to hook up with another guy? I thought you were an item.”

“Me and Tiffany? No.”

She nodded slowly and her dark eyes narrowed on him. “So what was that scene in the office yesterday? The kissing and touching?”

Spencer set his fork down and took a sip of the coffee. He winced at the taste. “Oh, Lord. Avery drinks this?”

“She ordered it.”

“Our tastes are very different.” He set down the cup and realized she was still staring at him. He hadn’t answered her question. “Me and Tiffany.”

“Let me guess. It’s complicated.”

Maybe she did, or would, understand him. “Yes. It’s complicated.”

“Open relationship?”

“No. No.” He stood and walked to the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water and wash down that nasty taste from the coffee, which didn’t go with Chinese food at all.

She was still staring at him over the rim of her coffee cup. Why did he have to answer her? He didn’t owe it to her. What he and Tiffany had was good, when it was anything. Besides, had she ever come clean with why she’d kissed him in the elevator?

Spencer reminded himself that he was her boss. Maybe
he
should be asking the questions.

Her eyes grew wider and he squirmed where he stood next to the counter. “Why are you glaring at me?”

“You’re not answering my question.”

“Do I need to?”

“No. It’s just a politeness factor. But your love life is your own business. I was just making small talk. I can stop.” She took another long sip of that nasty coffee and smiled. “I should probably leave you alone. I don’t think either of us expected to spend the evening together and we probably don’t have a real good basis for a friendship.”

“You don’t think we’re friends?”

Now she narrowed her eyes on him again. “We’re friends?”

“
Well,
we’re not
not
friends.”

Now she nodded and stood. “I know how you feel about me. I can read people. I spent the better part of five months knowing how you felt about me. Everyone in that room hated me. I was just trying to do my job.”

“Now that’s not fair,” he said taking a single step toward her. “I never said I hated you.”

“Not to my face. I’ll bet somewhere in your vocabulary when talking about me you used the word bitch a time or two,” she said sharply.

He took a breath to argue the fact, but then stopped. He
had, in fact,
more than a dozen times, at least, called her a bitch aloud to others. He’d even used the term when speaking to his father.

Her pained look let him know she had her answer. “I’m very grateful you even considered giving me a job that will work so closely with you. I’m even more grateful you found me a place to live. I’ll look for something that isn’t so close to your family. I think that would be easier.”

She started for the back door, but he had to stop her. He set his water on the counter and cut off her exit.

“Don’t go looking for a new place to live. I can tell Avery has already taken to you.”

She wasn’t looking at him now. “Then I’ll find a new job. There is no reason for you to
have
to work with me.”

He reached for her arm and rested his hand against her skin. “I offered you
the job.
I wouldn’t have if I thought it was a bad idea.”

“You’re uncomfortable around me. I don’t like people to be uncomfortable unless I’m trying to make them uncomfortable.”

He stepped even closer. “I’m not uncomfortable around you. In fact, I seem to be too comfortable.”

Again, her eyes dulled in confusion. “I need to go.” She reached for the door handle.

“Why did you kiss me?” He blurted the question out there.

“Is that what all this is about?”

“I know why you were in the hotel now, but the kiss...”

“I will talk to you on Monday.”

She pushed past him, hurried down the steps of the back porch, and disappeared down the steps to her apartment.

Spencer bit back an oath. He wanted to go after her. He wanted an answer. The angrier he got, the more he wanted another kiss.

Julie paced the floor, finally ripping out the tie that held back her hair just so she could run her fingers through it.

How come that man could spark both love and hate in her? Okay, not love, but strong attraction. With that dark wavy hair and those shimmering brown eyes. Then the thought about his lips made her body throb.

She cursed. She didn’t need to think of him that way. She didn’t need to think of him at all.

Julie set her coffee cup on the end table and picked up the remote control, only to set it back down again.

Her mind was buzzing. So asking if he had some open relationship with the redhead he was kissing was wrong? Yet he needed to know why she kissed him?

Well,
she didn’t have an answer for that. Maybe she had too many answers for that.

He was handsome.

He was nice.

He was right there.

Weren’t those good enough reasons to kiss him?

Of
course,
she was hurt.

She was desperate.

She needed validation that she
was every bit
as desirable as Libby Grayson.

Had Spencer Benson pushed her away the moment their lips touched, she’d have known that there was a reason no man wanted
her.
But he hadn’t pushed her away. He’d deepened the kiss. He’d pulled her in. He’d pressed his body right to hers.

Julie’s breath caught.

It was vivid in her mind. Less than a week had passed since their mouths had melded. Now she would work in his office and live in his aunt’s home. This was crazy.

What had possessed her to drive across country to his doorstep? She had connections in the industry. There were other jobs. But for some reason this had been her choice when she realized she had nothing left in Oregon.

Her mind drifted back to Spencer, which it did so often. So what really was the story with him and the redhead? Should she just forget about it?

The answer to that was yes. Attraction wasn’t a reason to pack up and move, but she had. The moment she’d been released from PLL, all she had was emotion to guide her because she had nothing left.

No job. No house. No husband. She was pathetic.

No wonder her ex-husband was making his move with Libby. Julie had nothing to offer anyone. From the
day
they’d met he’d done nothing
but belittle
her. She wasn’t a good lawyer, a good cook, or any good in bed. That must have been why he’d been caught in more than one indiscretion.

The very thought made her sick to her stomach. There never should have been
an opportunity
for more than one. She should have left him the first time.

She slid to the floor and sobbed.

This was what she wanted wasn’t it? After all, if she didn’t have the position she’d worked for and earned, she didn’t want to be in Oregon anymore. She didn’t want to miss it either.

Fresh starts were supposed to be enjoyable. But she was miserable and she’d only been in town two days. It would get better.

Benson, Benson, and Hart was an enormous firm. She’d be working with a lot more people than just Spencer Benson. Assisting on his new community build could mean a lot of things. She’d be working with architects and land developers. Construction foremen and accountants would filter into her day to day. There was a whole new world to open up to her, even if she’d been in the construction world most of her life, in one capacity or another.

But the pain of being absolutely alone gnawed at her and made her heart ache. It was a slow and squeezing pain that sometimes made her lose her breath. No brothers or sisters. No cousins that she personally knew. All she’d had for years was a husband and even he couldn’t be faithful to her.

She was twenty-seven-years-old. Being alone wasn’t the end of the world. Lots of people
started
over before they were thirty. She’d just keep that in mind. And when she turned thirty she could reevaluate.

For
now,
she’d become exhausted at the thought of everything. And just to keep her sanity she promised herself she wouldn’t even leave the small basement apartment tomorrow. There wasn’t any need to. That would ensure she wouldn’t run into any other of Spencer’s family or
friends
.

Julie pulled off her yoga clothes, ran a hot shower, and washed away the pain. Then she climbed into her shorts and tank top and crawled into bed. If she were lucky, sleep would take her away from all those feelings that were bundling up in her mind and body. And maybe sleep would
erase
Spencer Benson from her mind for a few hours.