That Night with You (23 page)

“
I was fine, Adam.” She
went back to her plans.

“
Are you sure that’s all
that happened?”

Her hand squeezed the mouse. Did he
know something? “Yes, why do you ask?”

“
I just got the impression
that Mr. Parr likes you…a lot.”

She turned in her chair and glared at
Adam. “You’re joking, right?”

He stood up. “Come on, didn’t you see
the way he looked at you?”

“
Funny, people are saying
the same thing about how you look at me.”

He shrugged and moved closer to her
desk. “Me everyone can understand. I’m your age, and we have a lot
in common. But Mr. Parr? He’s too old for you.”

Sitting back in her chair, she smirked
up at him. “Old for me? He’s what…maybe seven or eight years older
than me. That’s not exactly ancient, Adam.”

He plopped down on the corner of her
desk, grinning. “Ah ha, so you do think he’s
attractive?”

“
Adam, what is with you?
Why all these questions about Mr. Parr? He’s my boss,” she returned
her to her computer, “and your boss, too.”

“
There’s no rule that says
you can’t be interested in your boss, Madison.”

“
I’m not interested, Adam.
He’s my boss.”

“
What if he was interested
in you? Would you go for it?”

“
Go for what?” Hayden asked
from the open office doorway. “Adam,” he nodded to Adam as he
walked in the door, “feeling better?”

Adam quickly moved away from Madison’s
desk. “Ah, yes, Mr. Parr.”

“
Glad to hear it.” Hayden
came into the room, his intense eyes dissecting Adam. “Garrett
wants to speak with you. He has an assignment for you.”

Adam’s glum countenance sparked to
life. “Really?”

Hayden motioned to the door. “He’s
waiting in his office to go over the details with you.” Shifting
his focus to Madison, he stated, “I came to see how the Martins’
design is coming.”

As Hayden approached her desk, Adam
moved toward the door. After Adam had exited the office, Hayden
angled closer to her.

“
What was that
about?”

She glanced back at the open door,
checking for Adam. “He thinks you’re too old for me and insisted
that you have a thing for me.”

“
Do you think I’m too old
for you?”

Her lips curled into a grin. “You
weren’t this morning.”

Hayden backed away from her desk, took
in a ragged breath, and then went to the office door. Quietly
closing it, he came back to her.

“
What else did Adam
say?”

She leaned back in her chair. “Does it
matter?”

“
You need to watch out for
him. He’s been asking a lot of questions about me and if I’m seeing
anyone.” His thick brow furrowed. “It makes me wonder if Ellen sent
him here to spy on me.”

“
Why would she do that?
You’re divorced.”

He had a seat on the edge of her desk.
“Divorced, but there is still the property settlement to get
through, and if she had her way she would break me.”

“
I’m sure Adam is just
being…Adam.” She patted his arm reassuringly.

“
Let’s hope so.” He nodded
to her. “How are you feeling? Are you still sore?”

“
A little, but it’s not
bad.”

“
I’ll try and be gentle
tonight.”

She wrinkled her brow. “Is that an
invitation?”

“
Do you need
one?”

“
Yes, I do.”

Madison noted a change in his
features. He eyes grew a little darker, accentuating their
intimidating appearance.

“
We’re not dating, Madison.
There is no formality here.” Leaning over to her computer, he
pretended to study the screen. “Come by after work,” he softly
added.

Excited butterflies in her stomach
took wing. “I should go home and pack a bag first. So I won’t be
late like this morning.” She placed her hand on her mouse. “My boss
is a real jerk when I’m late.”

“
Does he spank you when
you’re bad?”

She grinned at him. “No.”

“
Perhaps he should.” His
face remained unchanged as he pointed to her computer screen. “Now
let’s go over these plans.”

***

Madison was leaving her apartment
later that evening, her overnight bag and purse slung over her
shoulder, and as she was setting her deadlock, she saw Mrs. Leder’s
door open down the hall. Dropping her head slightly, she sighed,
wishing she could have avoided running into her
landlady.

“
Where are you off to?”
Mrs. Leder queried, sauntering down the hall toward her.

Madison looked over her bright
turquoise muumuu and matching slippers. “You look pretty
tonight.”

Her brown eyes behind her thick
glasses inspected Madison’s blue jeans and red sweatshirt. “Hot
date?”

Madison pulled her blue canvas
overnight bag closer. “No, I was going to the gym.”

“
I’m old honey, not senile.
I know when a girl is off to see a man. Besides, if you were going
to the gym, you wouldn’t have put on lipstick and mascara.” She
rested her hand on her hip. “Is it the hottie boss?”

“
What makes
you—?”

“
Your roommate told me,”
Mrs. Leder cut in. “She mentioned catching the two of you making
out in the kitchen.” She winked. “Seems that old dress of mine did
the trick, eh?”

Embarrassed, Madison glanced down at
the dull brown carpet in the hallway. “We weren’t making out. We
were talking.”

“
Madison, I was young once,
too.” Mrs. Leder placed her hand beneath Madison’s chin, and gently
lifted her head. “And I also had a romance with my boss, so I know
a little about what you’re going through.” She dropped her arm to
her side. “Just remember to keep it interesting. When men get
bored, they move on.”

Alarmed at the suggestion, Madison
thought of how experienced Hayden was with sex. What if he did get
bored with her?

“
Exactly how do you keep a
man from getting bored?” Madison innocently entreated.

Mrs. Leder’s cackle reverberated about
the brightly lit hallway. “Oh my God, girl, you do have a lot to
learn about men.” She took Madison’s hand. “Come with
me.”

The inside of Mrs. Leder’s apartment
always reminded Madison of a museum. The light red walls were
crowded with framed pictures of Mrs. Leder in various stages of her
youth, standing next to celebrities and politicians Madison had
never heard of. The furniture was antique and made of dark wood
with the sofa, love seat, and dining table chairs covered with
different shades of green velvet. Mrs. Leder had always bragged
about it being called Gothic Chippendale, and it had a lot of
pointed arches and s-designs, but to Madison it was just clunky.
The air was thick with orange blossom air freshener, and the wide
screen TV on the living room wall was always set to The Soap Opera
Channel.

Gliding past the array of Chinese
knickknacks scattered atop the oval coffee table—Mrs. Leder was
obsessed with anything Chinese—and over the deep red Oriental rug,
Mrs. Leder pulled Madison into a kitchen very much like her own.
The cabinets were painted blue instead of white, but the white
Formica countertops were identical, as was the jutting breakfast
bar.

“
I always keep a pair in my
kitchen drawer,” Mrs. Leder muttered.

“
A pair of what?” Madison
eyed a porcelain Chinese pug cookie jar on the
countertop.

Pushing her glasses up on her nose,
Mrs. Leder went to a drawer set below the breakfast bar and began
rummaging around. After a few seconds, she uttered a triumphant cry
and raised a pair of silver handcuffs in the air.

Madison’s jaw almost dropped to the
floor when she saw her diminutive, elderly landlady holding up the
handcuffs.

“
This should keep him
interested for a while,” Mrs. Leder declared as she waved the
handcuffs in front of Madison.

“
You’re joking, right?”
Madison sounded more astonished than amused.

Mrs. Leder went to Madison’s side and
unzipped the overnight bag. “Trust me, you’ll thank me later.” She
dropped the handcuffs inside. “It will open up a whole new world
for you.”

“
Mrs. Leder, I can’t take
those.” Madison’s overnight bag suddenly felt as if it weighed a
hundred pounds. “I know you mean well, but I’m not—”

“
Yes, you are that kind of
girl, Madison. We all are. The only difference between someone who
has explored their desires and someone who hasn’t is fear.” She
patted her arm. “When you get to be my age, you discover the only
thing that held you back in youth was fear. You realize that there
was nothing to be afraid of in the first place. All that does
matter in life are the people you share it with.” She waved her
hand about her cluttered living room. “All the possessions, the
money, and the accolades on your wall don’t mean a thing without
someone to love.”

“
I don’t know if we’re that
serious yet. Who can say how long we will last? It might just be a
fling.”

“
I can tell by the way you
blush whenever you speak of him that this isn’t a fling. Always
fight to hold on to the special ones, Madison. They don’t come
around all that often.” She shrugged and smiled wistfully.
“Sometimes just once in a lifetime. Cherish it.”

Madison gave Mrs. Leder a tolerant
smile, but her thoughts were on how to get out of the apartment and
on her way to Hayden’s. “Thank you, Mrs. Leder, and I will….” She
stumbled, trying to think what was considered polite when lending
bondage equipment. “I’ll get the handcuffs back to you later, I
guess?”

Mrs. Leder waved off the suggestion.
“You keep them, honey. I’ve got others.” She showed Madison to the
door

Madison regarded her landlady with a
new appreciation. “You sure are full of surprises, Mrs.
Leder.”

Mrs. Leder reached for her doorknob.
“Everyone lives a life, Madison. We’re all the same, no matter the
generations in between. You have fun with that man of
yours.”

After Mrs. Leder had shut her front
door, Madison jogged down the hallway toward the elevator. Deciding
it would take too long, she darted across the hall to the stairwell
and sprinted down five flights until she emerged in the lobby.
Pushing through the glass doors at the building entrance, she spied
the last orange spindles of the setting sun dragging across the
sky.

Finally behind the wheel of her car,
she tossed her bags to the passenger seat, and as she reflected on
her overnight bag, she imagined Hayden naked and handcuffed to his
bed.

“
Thank you, Mrs. Leder,”
she giggled, starting the car. “This might just be a very memorable
evening, after all.”

Chapter 12

It was dark by the time she parked in
front of Hayden’s contemporary home in Highland Park. The oversized
mansions up and down his street were lit from within, sending out
warm beams of light into the chilly night. Lifting her overnight
bag from the car, the eerie quiet blanketing the picturesque
manicured lawns and pristine gardens made Madison feel even more
anxious about returning to his home. It was not that she didn’t
want to be with him again—she did, desperately—but in the back of
her mind, a little voice kept asking if she was doing the right
thing. Perhaps she should have turned down his proposal,
concentrated on her job, and pushed Hayden out of her life for
good.

“
You’re overthinking things
again,” she grumbled, climbing up his long front steps. “You always
do this when you get scared of a man.”

Scared?
The word rattled about in her head. Maybe that had always
been her problem. When things had gotten serious with a man and
should have moved to the bedroom, Madison had run. It had not been
the intimacy that she had feared; it had been sharing all of those
pesky little details of her life with someone. Shaking her head,
Madison realized that had been the real reason why she had sought
out a stranger that night to rid her of her bothersome virginity;
she had simply wanted to do the deed without being weighed down by
the burden of a relationship.

But now, here she stood, on the front
doorstep of the very stranger she had given herself to, yearning
for that long-avoided emotional relationship, but unable to pursue
it. Life was more than ironic, it was downright
sadistic.

“
Hey, baby,” Hayden greeted
after he opened his front door. When he kissed her lips, all of her
doubts were magically swept aside.

Putting his arm around her shoulders,
he ushered her inside. After shutting the door and setting the
alarm, Hayden took the overnight bag from her.

“
I hope you’re hungry.” He
put the overnight bag on the stairs in the open foyer. “I picked up
a large pepperoni pizza on the way home.” He glanced back at her.
“You do like pepperoni, don’t you?”

She nodded. “And I like mushrooms,
peppers, and chicken on my pizza. But no onions, anchovies, or
pineapple.”