Come With Me Page 16

  Lacy wrinkled her forehead. “There are different kinds of orgasms?” She was surprised, and a little saddened. She hadn’t had one of any kind and now she found out there were more than one.

  Kay laughed and she and Denise began to explain the difference between a clitoral orgasm, a vaginal orgasm, a blended orgasm and multiple orgasms. “Well, shit.” Lacy sighed. “I’ll never get caught up.” She would feel lucky if she could have one of any kind.

  “What else happened?” Denise turned her attention back to Kay.

  “A hand job, baby.” Kay grinned. “I teased and tortured him by rubbing him through his pants while he got me off. And when I finished, I unzipped his pants and jerked him off. The music was just right, pounding, thrusting, powerful. I pumped and fisted him, even played with his balls with my other hand. And just before he shot off, I leaned over and sucked his head in my mouth.” She licked her lips. “Swallowed every drop.”

  “And you agreed to be my bachelorette?” Lacy asked.

  “I did,” Kay responded. “Like I said, it’s casual with Sean. We both know it’s just a fun time. He’s hot and I enjoy being with him, but neither of us has those kind of feelings for each other.”

  Knock! Knock!

  “Lacy?” A voice at the door caused all three of them to jump.

  “Eden!” Lacy placed a hand over her heart. “You scared me.”

  Eden smiled. “What were you girls doing?”

  Did they look that guilty?

  “Talking about men,” Denise volunteered the truth. “What else do women talk about?”

  Eden smiled sadly. “I think I need less men friends. With my job, I don’t get the chance to hang around too many women.”

  “Well, you need to come hang out with us more!” Kay offered.

  “That’s a good idea. We’d be glad to have you.” Lacy welcomed her. “I’m always here at the resort, just give me a call.” Lacy opened her desk drawer and took out a card to hand to Eden. “I know what it’s like to need someone to talk to.”

  Eden took the card, smiling shyly. “There’s no one in the business office. Do you think you could help me?”

  “Of course we could,” Denise interjected. “I’m the damn accountant!”

  “All right.” Eden looked a little unsure. She sat where Lacy pointed and took out her wallet. “DeQuincy’s birthday is next month and I want to buy a Golf package for him so he can spend the night here and take part in the tournament that’s being held the same weekend.”

  “Wait here,” Denise directed, as she stood. “Let me go get the register book. I’ll fix you up, give you a receipt and have Stella enter it for you later.”

  “That was easy,” Eden breathed a sigh of relief. “Figuring out what to buy that man is difficult.”

  Kay and Lacy looked at one another. Then, Kay asked the question on both of their minds. “Are you dating Dr. Trahan? Is there something going on between you two?”

  Eden blushed. “Oh, no. We’re just friends and colleagues.” She assured them. As Eden watched Denise come back in the room, Kay looked at Lacy and mouthed, ‘yeah, right.’

  Lacy suddenly had an idea. “Eden, the Culture Center is an important organization in these parts. Your television program has really put our area on the map. Do you think your group would be one of the sponsors for the Fourth of July party?” She went on to explain everything to Eden.

  “I don’t know why not.” Eden made some notes.

  Lacy knew she was pushing it, but she decided to go for the goal. “And would you like to be one of our bachelorettes? You make a dessert and we auction it off and whoever bids the most on what you bring gets to take you out on a date, if you want to go, that is.” She remembered what Doc Barnes had said.

  Eden looked pole-axed. “No,” she said flatly.

  “Why not?” Denise asked, eavesdropping.

  “My dessert would sell.” Eden informed them. “I’m a damn good cook. But when they found out I was the booby prize, they’d probably throw it in my face before they walked off the property.”

  Lacy realized Eden had as big of an inferiority complex as she did. “Oh, they would not!

  “You’re beautiful,” Kay assured her. She picked up Eden’s long hair, and wound it up into a French twist.

  “Elegant, that’s the word I’d use,” Denise added. “I’d give anything for your complexion.”

  All they said was true. Kay and Denise were right. Eden was delicate, a classic beauty. If Eden could be so wrong about herself, could she be wrong also?

  * * *

  Jake stood near the check-in desk in the main lobby, facing the hall leading to the offices. It was quitting time. Well, quitting time for most of the staff at Willow Cove. His crew had gone home half an hour ago after a hard day’s work, a hard day’s work that Jake had spent a good chunk of sitting behind his desk as sick as a dog. The queasy feeling had just returned and the hall looked a mile long. Needing to regroup, he leaned against the wall and pretended to read an email on his phone. He was grateful for the delay in a way, it meant it would be that much longer before he saw Lacy. He’d left her there alone last night and now he had to go help her with the party preparations. Chances were, she was less than pleased with him right now and he couldn’t blame her.

  “Not joining us tonight?” Jake asked Jenny when she walked passed him.

  Jenny straightened her dress and smiled at him. “I just have to run home and do something really quick. I’ll be back in a bit.”

  The office was empty when Jake walked in. Lacy’s door was closed and Jake stopped at a window to catch himself in the reflection. He looked terrible, his eyes were bloodshot and his hair was standing straight up, wet with sweat. Now that he was staying at the resort, the option was to just go up to his room, shower and change. But he knew if he caught sight of his bed, he’d fall onto it and be out instantly. Lacy was on a time crunch and she needed his help. Plus, he needed to explain about last night and hopefully get out of there with all of his limbs still attached.

  He knocked and opened the door once Lacy had given her approval and said ‘come in.’

  “Jake!” Lacy said in a startled tone when she saw him. She’d been expecting Jenny. “What are you doing here?”

  “Were you expecting someone else?” He came in with that easy smile of his that turned Lacy’s core to lava. But there was something off, he looked pained.

  “Are you okay, Jake?” Lacy asked, coming around the side of her desk.

  He waved her off with a hand and fixed the hitch in his giddy-up. “I’m okay,” he said, taking a seat on Lacy’s couch. “We’ve got an event to put on. I’m here to work. I just need to sit down for a second.”

  He felt like death warmed over and Jake was glad it was showing. Hopefully it would stifle some of the fury he imagined Lacy was feeling, and so far it seemed like it had done just that.

  Seeing him like this had indeed cooled some of the anger which had bubbled up in Lacy when she first saw Jake walk in. “Something’s wrong. Are you hurt?”

  “I’m fine. Really.”

  Lacy walked back and took a seat at her desk. She wasn’t happy and she couldn’t pretend that she was. “Honestly, Jake. I don’t have time for your macho male bullshit. If something is wrong, just tell me. I have things to do.”

  Damn!

  The spunk she’d just shown had Jake reeling and he liked it. If he’d been banking on playing the sympathy card, he was now aware it wasn’t an option. “I’m a little sick from last night.”

  Lacy looked at the computer monitor in front of her. “Sick, huh?” she said with a snort of derision. Served him right for leaving her like he had, she hoped he’d eaten some bad fish and was now paying for it.

  “Yeah, about last night.”

  Lacy spoke before he could continue, “Listen, Jake. You don’t owe me any explanations about last night. Events are my job, not yours. You don’t need to explain what happened. Really, it’s fine.”

  “K
iss of death,” Jake murmured under his breath.

  “Pardon me?”

  “You said fine. No word in the English language makes a man’s balls shrivel up as fast as the word fine.”

  Lacy was getting more and more annoyed with him. “Please spare me the speech on the perils of being a man. I’ve heard it before and it’s not cute.”

  “Kitty has the claws out, I see.”

  “Whatever.”

  “Ouch. Whatever is also one of those ball shriveling words. But, I’ll spare you the lecture. I see you’ve had a bad day.”

  Bad day? Lacy thought. I had a bad day and a bad night, all because of you. “If you came here to annoy me, then you’re succeeding.”

  “No need to get your back up.” He held up his hand. “About last night.”

  “Jake, really, it’s fi—” She stopped herself and rephrased what she was going to say.

  “It’s okay. I’m sure you had to go somewhere or something. Like I said, events are my job, not yours.”

  “Would you knock that shit off?”

  His outburst shocked her. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “The whole, ‘events are my job’ crap.”

  “Well, they are.” She insisted.

  “Well, unless I remember things incorrectly, I was in Rick’s office with you when Barnes went in to raise a stink. So the way I see it, you and I are in this together. Despite what may have happened in the past between us, we need to get over it and get this job done. And that’s exactly what I was doing last night.” Jake stood up from the couch and fished around in his pocket as he walked over to Lacy’s desk.

  She watched him the whole way, wishing it was her hand thrusting down into his pocket. Whatever it was he was looking for, Lacy was sure it wasn’t the same thing she’d have been digging for if it was her hand in his pants instead of his own.

  “Here,” he said, holding out a piece of crumpled paper. “I’d have given it to you earlier, but I spent most of my day with my head down on my desk, feeling like shit.”

  Lacy unfolded the paper, it was a business card. “Who is Rich Tillman?”

  “He’s the head of marketing over at the lumber mill. Fred Gervais is a member here.” Lacy looked away from the card and up at Jake with a quizzical look. “Fred owns the mill.” The look was still there, Lacy wasn’t following. “Okay, I’ll back up a bit for you. Last night was about rounding up sponsors and getting them to supply bachelorettes for the auction. Well, when Bob called last night to talk to me, he wanted to come over and meet me. I had to go outside and show him something I was working on. It’s part of the new irrigation system we’re putting in, nothing you’d be interested in. But while we were out there, he mentioned he was on his way out to meet up with a bunch of his buddies. He asked if I wanted to come along, and since I know Bob knows just about everybody worth knowing around here, I figured I’d go along. Staying here making cold calls all night wasn’t going to get us that far, so I skipped the calls and went right to the source. You see where I’m going with all of this?”

  Lacy bounded from her seat and rushed around to the other side of the desk. “Oh, you wonderful, wonderful man. You’re saying that you got the lumber mill to come aboard for the event!” Lost in the excitement and relief of the moment, Lacy wrapped her arms around Jake’s neck and kissed him on the cheek.

  “And the electric company,” Jake said blandly, holding up a hand beside Lacy’s face with another business card in it.

  There was a grimace on his face when she hugged him again and Lacy let go and stepped back. “I’m sorry. I forgot you were sick. Wait. Why are you sick?”

  “Because those boys like to party and they like their scotch. I was out until four in the morning, drinking and carousing and wrangling up more of these.” He took a handful of business cards from his back pocket and handed them to Lacy. “There’s a few landscaping companies in there, a dress shop and some sort of esoteric book store, I can’t remember. Bob and his buddies all but guaranteed participation from all those businesses and they’re expecting a call from you tonight to discuss details. They’ll all provide bachelorettes for the auction, we just need to hunt one down to represent Willow. You should do it, Lacy.”

  “Me?”

  “Yeah, you. Pretty little thing like you, with that silky hair and gorgeous big eyes of yours, you’d bring in enough to build twenty memorials.”

  Lacy ran a hand through her hair shyly, feeling her cheeks bloom with heat. It’d been a long day and she imagined she didn’t look her best at the moment, but Jake had still complimented her. She avoided responding to his idea for her to be a bachelorette. Lacy only had eyes on one eligible bachelor around these parts and he was right in front of her.

  “I’m sorry I left without saying goodbye last night, or telling you where I was going, but Bob was in a hurry and I had to snatch the opportunity to meet his friends.”

  Lacy felt instantly angry with herself. She’d spent the entire night and day thinking that Jake had simply ditched her, when in reality he’d been helping her out.

  “I understand. It sucks that you didn’t say goodbye, but it was for a good cause and for that I thank you. You didn’t miss much anyway. Jenny left as soon as she got back with your coffee and I left a little bit after.” She didn’t want him to know she’d been fuming when she left, that she’d called him an asshole or that she’d spent her entire day angry about it.

  “Well, I’m sure tonight will be easier. We’d better start making those phone calls.” Jake sat back down on the couch gingerly.

  “Jake, please. Go to your room. Jenny will be back any second, we can handle the calls.”

  “No, I’m fine. I feel a bit queasy, but I’m good.”

  “Jake!” Lacy said with force. “Thank you for finding us sponsors and bachelorettes, but I have to insist that you go to your room and soak in the tub before going to bed. You did an amazing job helping me and for that I’m eternally thankful, but I can’t sit here and get my work done worrying about you and all that moaning you’re doing.”

  “You are a tough nut, aren’t you?” He couldn’t help but chuckle.

  “I can be and this is one of those instances. I’ll walk you out.” The building was all but empty as they made their way to the patio. Jake’s stomach rumbled, he hadn’t been able to eat much that day, but the thought of a hot bath was enough to keep the hunger pangs at bay.

  They stopped at the front door. “I really appreciate what you did for me, Jake.”

  “Maybe you should come back to my place and run me a bath.”

  There was a tilted grin on Jake’s face, but his comment didn’t feel like a joke to Lacy, there was a serious invitation in there somewhere.

  They stared into each other’s eyes for what seemed like forever. Despite the aches and pains in his body, Jake could feel the blood surging to his cock.

  For her part, Lacy wasn’t fairing much better. Jake had this indescribable attraction for her. From the looks of him, he hadn’t showered since yesterday. Maybe it was his cologne or deodorant or just him, but he smelled like a man was supposed to smell. His scent was arousing to her and the thought of him washing it off made her heart hurt.

  “Whadda you think?” Jake asked finally, breaking the silence.

  “Told you I’d be back,” Jenny’s annoying little voice cried out. “Are you leaving already, Jake? I just got back.”

  Lacy didn’t wait for Jake to answer. She answered for him, “He’s not feeling well. It’s just you and me tonight, Jenny.”

  The idea of being in a room with him and Jenny was not a good one. Lacy couldn’t sit with him for the next few hours and smell him without going out of her mind, and having Jenny there to keep her from doing anything about it would be the epitome of torture.

  Jake looked away from Jenny and back to Lacy. He asked her to join him in his room one last time, wordlessly with his eyes. And when she looked away, he knew he was going home alone.

  “I do not
understand women,” Jake mumbled with an exhausted sigh as he walked off.

  * * *

  Days flew by and before she knew it, things actually started to come together. Trinity, Marnie and Cody returned and Lacy conferred with them. It shocked Lacy to find out that Cody hadn’t broken the news to Marnie about being the company’s representative in the bachelorette auction. “Do you really think that’s a good idea?” she asked.

  “It will be okay.” Cody smiled. Today, she wore a big floppy hat which cast a shadow on her face. On anyone else it would have looked ridiculous, but Cody carried it off like she was at a polo match in England, stomping divots with an earl. “I have an ace up my sleeve.”

  “What do you mean?” Lacy couldn’t help but ask.

  “Since I’m not ready to change teams, just yet, I won’t play the lesbian card and bid on Marnie myself. I asked David to do it.”

  Trinity snorted, said nothing and walked off.

  They were sitting on the patio, having a cool drink. Lacy was worn out and just had to take a breather. She’d been relieved to see these three come through the door. Since meeting them a few months ago, their friendship had blossomed. “What’s wrong with her?” Lacy asked.

  Cody’s eyes followed Trinity as she hugged herself and walked out across the rose garden. “Today’s a hard day for her. It’s a sad anniversary, a few years ago she experienced a tragic loss.”

  Cody didn’t say anything else and Lacy dropped the subject, but she couldn’t help feeling sorry for Trinity. Lacy wasn’t very close to her family, not anymore. They hadn’t forgiven her for breaking it off with Stephen. Oh well, if that was the way they wanted it, she couldn’t help it. Someday, she’d have a new family of her own—maybe. The most horrible thing she could think about was being forever alone. More than anything, Lacy dreaded loneliness.

  “How will Marnie react when she finds out David is going to bid on her?”