Authors: Nicki Elson
“I’m afraid we’ve got too many small growth managers,” Lyssa said.
“Yeah, it feels counterintuitive, but we’re not concerned about style diversification for this segment of the fund. As much as we’re trying to identify strong managers, the reality is most of them aren’t going to work out—only a shining few will rise to the top and get moved into the main part of the fund. We don’t want to risk throwing out one of the few with long-term potential for the sake of diversification.”
She nodded. “Has Shep made any progress with Lula?”
“Not yet. She keeps canceling on him, but I think they have something set up for within the next couple of weeks.”
“It’d be great to be able to include her.”
“I know, but time’s ticking. We can only afford to spend so much time on a single manager, no matter how promising.”
Nearly halfway through her second beer, Lyssa had a realization: she was guzzling the hops and barley to quiet the rumbling in her stomach. She’d proven to herself more than once that drinking her dinner rarely turned out well. “Do you think they have chicken wings or stuffed jalapenos or anything?”
“Yeah, I could go for some food. I think I saw a menu up at the bar.” He hopped up to bring one back, and they ordered a few plates of appetizers. While they ate and continued to discuss business, the atmosphere of the bar gradually changed. People in business attire departed and were replaced by a younger crowd in slinkier clothing. The music went from mellow Michael Buble-esque thrumming to the hyper beat of dance-club music.
When the volume of the music had risen so high that Lyssa asked “What?” three times in a row, Hayden shouted, “I think that’s our cue to leave!”
She nodded, and they slung their coats over their arms and brought their empty dishes back to the bar like the bartender had asked them to. The bar was lined with people, so Hayden took Lyssa’s plate and suavely inserted himself between two women to reach the counter. The woman to his right snapped her head toward him when he inadvertently bumped her shoulder, but her scowl dissolved after she got a look at him.
She was tall and thin with her bony curves hugged by a tight top and a butt-high skirt. Fluffy hair framed her painted face. She said something to Hayden that Lyssa couldn’t hear over the music, and whatever it was made him tilt his head back slightly and laugh. He turned fully toward the girl and said something back to her, inciting her to reach out and run her fingers over the lapel of his suit jacket before leaning in to talk directly into his ear.
Lyssa took a step back, feeling suddenly uncomfortable. Her movement seemed to catch Hayden’s eye, and he nodded toward her, holding out his hand and motioning for her to come in close. She did, and he put his arm over her shoulder, half shouting, “This is my partner, Lyssa. We were just leaving, but it was nice to meet you.”
The girl curved her shiny lips into a pout, and Lyssa told him, “You can stay if you want.” He tilted his head sideways and gave her an odd stare, she assumed to assess her sincerity, so she rose onto the balls of her feet, saying into his ear, “You’ve got an empty stall to fill, and she’s really pretty so … ”
He smiled and slid his hand off her shoulder, leaving a cold empty space behind. Holding his hand out to the woman, he repeated, “Like I said, it was nice meeting you, but we’re leaving.”
The woman didn’t take his hand. Instead, she lifted her elbow onto the bar and leaned back, scanning her falsely lashed eyes over Lyssa. “I think you should listen to him and stay,” she said loud enough for Lyssa to hear.
“Him?” Hayden asked.
The woman nudged the girl standing next to her, who must’ve been a friend. She turned and followed the woman’s gaze as it again scraped over Lyssa, who was in her typical pantsuit, hair twisted up in a tight bun, and most of her makeup probably worn off after the long day. “Ohhh, it’s a girl. I’m sorry, my mistake.”
The other girl snickered.
“Really?” Hayden pushed back from the bar. “Let me show you something.” He turned to Lyssa and took her wool winter coat from her arm. “Take off your suit jacket.”
“What?” She thought she must’ve heard him wrong, but the look he gave her was dead serious, and though she had no idea why he’d made the request, she complied.
Now standing in her sleeveless, high collared blouse, she watched him take her coat and jacket and hand them over to the girl. “Mind holding onto these for a moment?” He shrugged out of his jacket and gave it along with his overcoat to her friend. “Watch and learn, ladies.” He put his hand to the small of Lyssa’s back and steered her toward the dance floor.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“We’re going to show those witches what sexy is.”
“We are? How?”
“By dirty dancing, silly.”
Lyssa pivoted on the ball of her foot only steps away from the dance floor, where a half-dozen couples gyrated to sultry, thumping rhythms. Placing a hand on his chest under the knot of his loosened tie, she said, “I don’t think so. Hall and Oates is really more my speed.”
“Ehhh … ” He twisted his mouth and scrunched his eyes doubtfully, and she interpreted the gesture to mean she hadn’t been quite up to par even with that.
“My point exactly.”
“You need to relax.” He placed a hand on each of her hips and gently pushed her backward until she felt her heels click on the parquet squares. “Didn’t I do an excellent job of gliding you across the dance floor at the Christmas party?”
“That was diff—rent.” Her voice skipped when he guided her hand from his chest to the thick, hard roundness of his shoulder and moved in close, pressing against her.
Into her ear, he murmured, “Let the music flow through you and follow my lead. It’s just you and me out here. Close your eyes if you need to.”
Shutting her eyes with him so close, thus giving that much more hold to her imagination, wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but he obviously wasn’t going to make it easy to escape this humiliation, so she let her lids flutter shut and focused on the vibration of the music. It shook her toes and traveled through her, settling in her chest and making it feel as if her heart pumped in time to the song. Inhaling, she caught Hayden’s scent. The musky spices and hint of sweetness filled her. With her senses distracted, her body began to move with the slow undulations of his firm body against hers.
“Good,” he whispered, his breath hot against her neck. Her eyes flew open with a need to reinforce that there were no ancient artifacts around them. The guitar and sax morphed together and eventually gave way to a persistent beat of percussion and cymbals. When more instruments joined them, Hayden chuckled. “Looks like 80s tunes are going to be our thing.” It was a remix of Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love.”
He guided her to turn around and pressed into her backside. She kept her eyes open and moved with him, trying to forget that anyone else was watching them—though observation was the entire purpose of this exercise.
“Come on, relax,” Hayden said. “You’re too stiff.”
The only way she was going to get through this was to pretend. She’d already been able to get past one night of erotic Hayden fantasies; surely a few minutes of wanton, provocative dancing wouldn’t make a difference. Her lids again fell shut, and she and Hayden were back in the Egyptian room. His hands stayed on her hips, holding her to him while he directed their rhythm. Under his sure guidance, she relaxed and gave herself over to the steady, seductive beat, raising her arms overhead and crossing them at the wrists. Hayden stroked her sides, one hand moving to stretch across her stomach, which she sucked in immediately, engaging her core to move with the music and with him. Yeah … she’d show those bitches what sexy was.
When he spun her around to face him, she opened her eyes, and they immediately met his. He kept his gaze steady on her while his hand at the small of her back urged her forward. With her hips pulsing in time with his, she pressed further and further to him, sliding up one of his thighs until it was held tight between both of hers. She couldn’t possibly get any closer without sinking into him. Hayden’s heat surrounded her, cocooned her, and she no longer had to think to move. No body part was distinguishable from any other; they were just Hayden and Lyss, and they flowed together like it was the most natural thing in the world.
The beat faded, giving way to a tinny, synthetic strain, and Hayden laid a quick, wet kiss on the side of her neck. “Absolutely brilliant,” he murmured.
Grabbing her hand, he led her back to the bitches, who didn’t say a word, just stood there with their glossy mouths pressed into a scowl as they pushed Lyssa and Hayden’s things toward them. Hayden took the coats, handing Lyssa hers and folding his over his arm.
“Your lesson for the day, ladies,” he said, “is that you don’t need to dress like a prostitute to be sexy as all hell.” To hide her laugh, Lyssa turned and started walking toward the door, but before her partner followed, she heard him say over the music, “I could stare at that nicely rounded ass all day long!”
Outside, they pulled on their coats, laughing, and Hayden said, “I’ve gotta get you on a dance floor outside of a work function more often. That was … hot.”
Lyssa flushed. The heat of her skin collided deliciously with the cold air. As they began their short walk to the hotel, she said, “It was chivalrous of you to defend my gender-identity back there, but you didn’t need to. Five years ago, something like that might’ve bothered me, but now … ” She shrugged. “Now I feel bad for people like that, permanently stuck in high school mean-girl mode.”
“The dance was still pretty fun though, no?”
She smiled. “Yes, it was fun. But really, you could’ve stayed without me.”
“I have no interest in spending time with nasty women like that. And I’ve got Roni to tide me over until I find a worthy new recruit.”
“So there’ll be new recruits?”
“Of course.”
“Is it Roni’s age that keeps you from getting more serious with her?”
“Her age? No. That doesn’t bother me.”
“No?”
“Why would it? She’s got decades of experience packed into that firm, bitable bod.”
“Then it’s just a sexual attraction with her?”
“No, there’s definitely more than the physical there. She’s a great woman all around. I really like her.”
“So … I don’t understand. Why haven’t you ever tried to make it more than a casual thing? Is it because she lives out of state?”
“Wrong again. The world has become a very small place, and Atlanta isn’t that far to begin with.”
“What’s holding you back then?”
He gave her a sideways glance as they reached the front of their hotel. “You’re asking me to reveal a piece of my soul. That comes at a price.”
She stepped into the open section of the revolving door, turning toward him to ask, “What’s the price?”
“A piece of yours.” He raised a challenging eyebrow.
“Which piece?”
“Any piece you choose.”
Chapter Fifteen
“I guess there’s no point in trading bits of our souls now that we’ve made it back,” Lyssa said to Hayden as soon as he completed his rotation through the revolving door and joined her in the dimly lit lobby.
“Pool’s open for another two hours,” he said. “Change and meet me there—I’ll bring the beer.”
“Don’t you need to prepare for the meetings tomorrow?”
“Nope. All done, and we can review on the train to D.C. tomorrow morning.”
“What about your beauty rest?”
“The night is young. We’ll be sleeping by eleven. Unless, of course, you have special plans with Andre Agassi.” He gave her a teasing tilt of his head.
“He has an actual name, you know.”
“Yeah? What is it? Wait, no, save it for poolside soul-spilling.” Lyssa opened her mouth to continue her protest, but he stopped her with, “You wouldn’t abandon your partner on the very evening he got callously dumped, would you?” He blinked faux puppy dog eyes, and although she knew he was full of it, she suspected some truth behind his joking.
Huffing out a breath, she said, “Fine. But after that, this little Baltimore crawl is over.”
His lips spread wide in a smile. “Great. See you in a few.” Winking, he headed over to the convenience market by the front desk while she went to the elevators.
Once in her room, she brushed out her hair and pulled it up into a high ponytail. Then she changed into a cami and chose sweatpants instead of jeans. She could easily roll them up to dangle her feet in the water. It wasn’t like she’d thought to pack a bathing suit for a work trip, so she was surprised to find Hayden swimming laps when she arrived at the pool. He reached the edge and stopped, folding his arms over the gutter and kicking his feet behind him. Fat drops of water spilled from his short black waves now plastered to his forehead, running down to get caught in the stubble of his new beard. He wiped a hand over his whiskers to squeegee out the water.
Nodding toward a six-pack on one of the round, frosted glass tables, he said, “Help yourself.”
She continued looking down at him. “You’re wearing swim trunks?”
“It’s the customary attire for a swimming pool.”
“No, I mean, why do you even have them for a business trip?”
“I try to work in a swim every morning when I stay somewhere with a pool.”
“You do?”
He shrugged. “Kind of small for a real workout, but it’s better than nothing.”
She turned her attention from him, taking two towels from the nearby stack and laying them at the edge of the hot tub to make a dry place to sit. Then she doubled back to the beverages.
“Would you grab me one?” Hayden asked.
“A beer or a towel?”
He smiled and waded toward the ladder. “Both.”
She grabbed a towel and two beers, turning in time to see Hayden lift his wet and half-naked body out of the pool. Oh, what she wouldn’t have given for a pair of mirrored sunglasses right then. That way she could’ve given his magnificent physique more than a cursory glance as he approached to snatch the towel from her hand. From what she’d gleaned, the reality of Hayden struck dangerously close to Fantasy Hayden.