Free The Proposal by Lily Zante

restaurants
for her but she was nowhere to be found. He was just about to call her on her
cell when Sandra pounced on him out of nowhere.
    "Ethan!" she
exclaimed, most pleasantly surprised. She craned her neck expecting Nadine to
appear and when she didn't, Sandra concluded that he must be alone. The thought
of this made her almost salivate.
    "You look lost, are
you?" she purred, seeing his confused face. Ethan, who had been in the
middle of calling Nadine, was interrupted and put his phone away.
    "I'm going for
lunch, join me," she ordered. When he looked undecided, she added,
"Nadine's going to join me later."  This made Ethan's choice
much easier.  He kept his distance from Sandra, but noted that she tried
to invade his space and sidle up to him at every opportunity, especially when
they went around the buffet table getting their food.
    "Isn't your husband
coming?" he asked, more out of irritation than out of any particular
interest. His eyes darted around the other tables in the restaurant as he kept
an eye out for Nadine.
    "Why yes, he'll be
here this evening I expect," she said shortly, nibbling away at her salad.
"So," she said, narrowing her eyes, and moving closer towards him
across the table, "tell me how you and Nadine met."
    "Why?" he asked,
coolly.
    "Oh, because I want
to know where she picked up such a cute looking man like you." She looked
at him as though she’d rather eat him than the dinner on her plate.
    "We met at her
sister's dinner party."
    "And got to know
each other from there," said a voice over his shoulder.
    Sandra, who was facing
him, saw Nadine approaching before Ethan did. Her face darkened.
    Nadine had been looking
for Ethan ever since her presentation had finished just before lunchtime. She
had scoured the hotel's restaurants before bumping into Melissa who told her
that she had seen him with Sandra. This was why Nadine knew exactly where to
find him. But she hadn't bargained on what the sight of him with Sandra would
make her feel like. It wasn't that she saw Sandra as a threat. She knew that
Ethan didn't have the slightest interest in that type of woman. But the sight
of his full, broad back and the sensual memories of their early morning
encounter coupled with the sight of Sandra sitting opposite him and
interrogating him, sparked a flame of anger inside her. And at the same
time another flame of desire shot through her body. 
    She came up behind Ethan,
catching the briefest bit about their conversation. She traced her
 fingers gently around his neck and sat down beside him. She interrupted
the conversation blatantly and said, "And we got to know each other from
there." And then, she moved Ethan’s head towards her, catching just a
flicker of a smile across his face, and did what came naturally to her at that
moment. She leaned over and kissed him on the lips, lightly.
    But she was not prepared
for what came next.  As she pulled away, Ethan responded by kissing her
back and she met his kiss with an urgency that they both felt. They kissed
fervently, releasing the feelings that had been bottling up inside them since
the morning. Not wanting to stop, Nadine forced herself to break away. She
looked straight into the eyes of Sandra, whose deep maroon fingernails shone
like talons as she held her fork in mid-air, watching their passion unfold
before her. She found herself in the uncanny position of an onlooker to a very
private moment.
    Ethan sensed a shift in
Nadine and felt that their business arrangement had just moved to another
level. It both excited and intrigued him. "Nice to see you too,
honey," he said in a low voice.
    "Cat got your tongue
Sandra?" Nadine asked, noting that the fork still remained poised in the
air. "You don't seem to have your usual ravenous appetite."
    "Not any more,"
returned Sandra, slamming down her fork and pushing her plate away. She wiped
her bright red lips with a napkin. Nadine marveled at how not a single trace of
lipstick stained the soft tissue of the