But he was getting horny lately. And she was beautiful and not-too-dumb and certainly eager to give it up. Instead of blocking her number, he answered the call. “Hello?”
“William, hi! Finally you answer.”
“What are you up to?”
“Absolutely nothing, darling. Isn’t that fav? I was just laying here all alone and without a stitch on. And thinking about you. Thought I’d give you a call before you got too busy.”
“Uh-hun.”
“I really enjoyed our dinner date.”
He actually enjoyed it too. “Same here.”
“Really?”
That eagerness again. He would have to make it clear to her his true intentions before any true feelings on her part entered the picture. There would never be any feelings whatsoever on his part. “You’re a very nice person, Felicity, and I wouldn’t mind a friendship.” He emphasized that word.
But that word didn’t seem to faze her. “A friendship with benefits?” she quickly interjected.
William knew that game too. Get him hooked on her body and that would get her to the front of the line too. And she just might be right. But it wasn’t the kind of front line she thought it was going to be.
“Yes,” he said.
“When? I can come over tonight.”
“Not tonight. I’m still in New York. I’m flying back tomorrow, but I’ll be dead on my feet when I get back in Chicago tomorrow night.”
“Tuesday night then?”
William exhaled. That eagerness didn’t match what he’d said to her. She wasn’t listening. “You do understand that a friendship is as far as this is going. Correct?”
“Oh yes! That’s what I want too,” she claimed. “What time Tuesday?”
He shook his head. He told the few ladies he bothered to bed what they were getting themselves into, but they never believed him. That was why, after that one time, he never accepted a phone call from them ever again. It seemed as if she would be heading in that direction too. “Come over to the house around ten.”
“Ten will work excellently for me too. Now you have yourself a very good day, William. And a safe flight back home to me. I’ll see you Tuesday night.” She ended the call.
Have a safe flight back hometo hershe said. As if she was already at the front of the line. Yep. She was going to be a one-and-done for sure.
He leaned his head back, moving it from side to side to get the stress-kinks out of his neck. What was he getting himself into with a woman that desperate? But she was definitely a looker. One of the best-looking ladies he’d seen in a long time. Maybe she could back up all of that eagerness.
“Sorry to disturb you, sir.”
He didn’t realize his French doors had opened. When he looked back and saw that it was his private secretary Sloane Drummond, he exhaled. She was efficient and smart, and did her job well, but she hinted at wanting more too. Not that William viewed himself as this irresistible man: he didn’t and women didn’t either. But he was rich.
The only reason she got the job at all was that she was the sister of a hottie one of his childhood friends were dating, and he called in a favor. Since his last private secretary had quit, the timing worked. He just didn’t know for how long. “If you do not wish to disturb me, then why are you disturbing me?”
“We have a brunch scheduled with the head of Exxon and your staff is here for instructions. I don’t think it would be a good look if you were late, sir.”
He knew it too. That was why he didn’t dress her down the way he had wanted to. He nodded. “Give me a couple minutes, Sloane.”
“Yes sir,” she said, closed the door back, and left.
William looked out over Times Square as it began to fill-up and truly come alive again, and then he sighed.
“Here goes nothing,” he said out loud as he poured his remaining coffee in his plant pot, put out his cigar, and then headed back inside too.
CHAPTER THREE
