Free Executive Perks by Angela Claire Page B

began to wash over them as Aaron rocked her gently. She was a smooth and graceful dancer, he noted with satisfaction.
    “What are you thinking?” he asked her softly, one hand reaching up the smooth slope of her back left bare by the evening dress to massage her neck beneath the heavy mass of her unbound hair.
    “I was thinking you dance well.”
    “Thanks. I was thinking the same about you.”
    “In fact, you probably do everything well.”
    He caught his breath at her lovely, open face as she parted her lips and delivered that incredibly sexy line. He leaned down to brush his lips against her throat, not caring who might have been watching, and whispered, “I would love the chance to finish showing you one or two things I can do fairly well. I’d just barely gotten started the other night in the limousine.”
    The eerie blue light of the giant aquariums bathed the room in an other-wordly air.
    “All right,” she said simply.
    His head shot up. “What?”
    “I said all right. Let’s go.”
    He was stunned for a moment by her acquiescence—too much like one of the many dirty dreams he’d had about her—but it stopped him only for a second and then he was leading her toward the brightly lit exit sign. They had almost made it when unfortunately a hearty voice boomed behind them, “Hey, guys, where are you going?”
    Aaron would have gone on, pretending not to hear, but Virginia stopped to greet Rye, looking uncomfortable in a tuxedo, and his wife, a diminutive curly-haired brunette. “Rye, how are you? Tammy, what a lovely party. You really did a wonderful job.”
    “What are you skipping out so early for, then?” Rye asked, fiddling with his wayward glasses and staring in confusion at Aaron’s arm possessively at Virginia’s elbow. “Where’s Julie?”
    Aaron flashed Rye a killer look and dropped his hand from Virginia’s elbow. “She had to leave…and we were just going.”
    Virginia, in her expansive, wine-induced mood, beamed at Rye and his wife, enthusiastically complimenting Tammy on the decor, the music, even her flowered dress. Aaron hovered behind her, interjecting a casual “we really should be going” once or twice as Virginia continued to chat with Tammy.
    “This isn’t really your style, is it, Aaron?” Rye spoke to him quietly enough so that Virginia and Tammy could not hear them over the background music and their own animated small talk.
    “What do you mean?” Aaron didn’t want to drag himself away from his efforts to extract Virginia from her inopportune interest in socializing, but he was intrigued by the lawyer’s comment.
    “We both know you cut a few corners in the business world, never crossing the line, just dancing damn close. But in your personal life, I always took you for a straight shooter. No little tricks, like promising a girl a ring someday…or getting her drunk.”
    “Don’t push it, Rye.”
    But he did.
    “Look at her. She’s obviously bombed out of her mind. She wouldn’t even know what she’s doing.”
    Aaron felt a rush of indignant anger at the accusation. “She’ll know what she’s doing, believe me. You stay out of this.”
    “I’ve heard she doesn’t drink much. It must be that she can’t handle it,” Rye continued, but Aaron had already turned away and forcefully took Virginia’s hand to lead her away.
    “Great party. See you later,” he murmured to Rye and Tammy behind them and then they were out into the crisp, cool autumn air.
    * * * * *
     
     
    Brendan Beckett hadn’t peeked underneath bathroom stalls since he was in prep school, but Linda had promised him it’d be worth his while. Stall after stall showed no heels on the marble floors. The room was empty. He walked back to the door and smiled, pushing it open to let Linda glide in. “Coast is clear.”
    Giving one last furtive look down the thankfully deserted hallway, he followed the willowy brunette down to the last stall in the bathroom, the biggest, designed for handicap