Читать книгу Her Boss by Day... - Joss Wood - Страница 10

SHE WASN’T DRUNK, Willa told herself. Happy, relaxed … slightly buzzed, maybe, but not drunk. And she was having fun, she realised on a happy sigh. Fun … She rolled the word around her tongue. Well … hello, there, stranger.

She was twenty-six years old—jeez, nearly twenty-seven—and she’d played the part of young, gorgeous, thick trophy wife all her adult life because Wayne and what he’d wanted had been important … her, not so much.

She was a great example of why you shouldn’t be in charge of your own destiny when you were too young and too dumb to be making decisions more complicated than how to operate a teaspoon.

Willa pushed her heavy hair back from her face. She’d stopped loving Wayne years and years ago, and now she just wished she could finally be free of him—legally, mentally, comprehensively. And when she was she could fully enjoy men like … Rob.

Willa sneaked a look at that face and swallowed her lusty sigh. He was scruffy in all the right places, she thought. Sable-coloured curls that she longed to touch to see if they felt as soft as they looked, a four-day-old beard, a shirt that skimmed long muscles and tanned skin, giving hints of well-defined pecs, and an impressive six-pack.

Those grey piercing eyes seemed to be shockingly observant and yet basically unreadable.

Rough, rugged, and completely at ease in his skin. She couldn’t help but to compare him to the only other man she’d ever slept with—she was biggest of big girl’s blouses!—and it was like comparing instant coffee to Mountain Blue. Simply an exercise in stupidity.

Wayne was smart Italian suits and hair gel to cover the bald patch on the crown of his head. Cologne, cufflinks and designer labels. Rob was … not. He didn’t need to accessorise—he was excellent just as he was.

Sexy. Masculine. Nuclear-hot.

‘Honey, you keep looking at me like that and I’m going to have to do something about it.’

Willa blinked as his drawling voice pulled her back into the moment and she noticed Amy leaving the table with a tall blond guy. They were heading towards the dance floor in the centre of the club. When had that happened? Maybe while she’d been spending the last five minutes drooling over Nuclear-Hot across the table.

She turned back to Rob and blinked like an owl. ‘Hi …’ she whispered.

‘Hi back. You okay?’

‘Mmm. I’m having fun. I haven’t had fun for a long, long time.’ Willa tapped her fingers on the table in time to the music. ‘Do you dance?’

Rob’s mobile mouth kicked up. ‘If I have to.’

Willa looked from the dance floor to him and nibbled on the bottom of her lip. The last time she’d danced—really danced, with feeling and heart and soul—had been in the Whitsundays at that dive bar where all the staff employed at the hotels in the area had congregated to hook up, break up, kiss and make up.

She wanted to feel young again—eighteen again—when the nights had been long and had held a myriad of possibilities.

She wanted to dance with Rob …

Maybe it was the cocktails making her feel brave. If it was she’d have another three or four Screaming Os, thank you very much. Then you’d be face-down on the floor, commented doormat Willa.

Willa took a breath and blurted out her question. ‘Will you dance … with me?’

Rob immediately rose to his feet and held out his hand.

Willa took a moment to find her shoe before standing up and placing her hand in his much bigger one. She followed in his wake as he pushed through the packed crowds to the edge of the dance floor. Instead of finding a spot on the edge, Rob pulled her into the centre of the floor, flashed her a grin and started to move.

Willa stared at him in shock as he immediately picked up the beat and moved his hips in a sinuous rhythm that dried up all the moisture in her mouth. Dear Lord, those hips … If he took the same skill to the bedroom he would be declared a lethal sexual weapon in several countries.

‘I thought you said you don’t dance!’ Willa shouted.

Rob flashed her a smile as his shoulders lifted and rolled. ‘I said that I dance if I have to.’

Willa stepped closer to him so that she could speak directly in his ear. ‘You’re pretty good.’

‘Just one of my talents.’

Rob placed his hands on her hips and before she knew it her thigh was between his and they were rocking together. Willa swallowed the lump in her throat as Rob’s hand lifted to encircle her neck, using his thumb to push her jaw up so that their eyes met. Willa wasn’t that out of practice that she couldn’t recognise the attraction in his eyes, the accelerated pulse under the wrists she loosely held.

‘Man … you are seriously gorgeous. And to think that I nearly blew this off,’ Rob muttered, mostly to himself, as his other hand slid around her back and yanked her towards him so that their bodies were pressed flush against each other.

His chest was wider and bigger and harder than hers, Willa thought as she dropped her nose to the V of skin his shirt revealed and inhaled his man smell, his heat. Lust boiled and roiled and her happy place throbbed, echoing the beat of the music. His surprisingly soft chest hair tickled her nose and she felt rather than heard the rumble of a moan in his chest, his throat. One hand splayed across her back, between her shoulder blades, and the other dropped lower onto her ass, holding her firmly in place against him. And that, she could feel, made him very happy indeed.

Somehow he kept them swaying to the beat, pretending to dance.

‘So, twenty questions time?’

Rob’s deep voice in her ear did nothing to assuage the heat between her legs—in fact it sped up her sluggish blood.

Questions? Was he mad? Between him and the cocktails she’d didn’t have an operational brain cell left.

‘Yes … no … I don’t know,’ Willa murmured back.

‘Wrong, wrong and wrong,’ Rob responded with an appreciative grin. ‘Let’s try that again. Why do you have a lawyer?’

She didn’t feel like explaining about Wayne and her imminent divorce. She wasn’t going to see Rob again after tonight, but she still thought it would be tacky to explain about her ex while she was pressed up very close and very personal against him. Besides, she didn’t want memories of Wayne to taint this experience of her first fun night out in for ever. Her ex and her old life were in the past.

Rob was here—now.

Carpe diem, Willa.

‘Pass.’

‘Okay … next one. What do you do that you’re such an expert on the health and fitness market? Stockbroker? Financial analyst?’

She wished—she really, really wished.

‘I read. A lot.’ Even she, novice that she was at this flirting and seduction stuff, knew that he didn’t need to know that reading finance and business magazines was one of her favourite ways to pass some time. Willa squinted at him and pulled a face. ‘These are very boring questions …’

Rob laughed. ‘Okay, then—you hit me with one.’

Willa sucked in her cheeks. There were a million things she wanted to know about him, but the least important flew out of her mouth.

‘Boxers or briefs?’

Bad girl, Willa.

Rob’s laugh brushed over her skin.

‘Why don’t you drop your hands and find out?’ Rob suggested, and her face immediately pinked up. Taking one of her hands from his neck, he guided it around his hips and slapped it on his butt. ‘Feel free to explore.’

Oh, that was a mighty fine ass, she thought as she took him up on his offer. Hard, muscular … male.

‘What do you sleep in?’ he asked, his breath teasing her ear.

A pair of sleep shorts and a ratty T-shirt. That wasn’t sexy, Willa thought. She tossed back her hair and widened her eyes as she prepared to lie. ‘I sleep naked. All … the … time.’

His eyes dilated and Willa remembered how much fun it was to flirt, to tease, how thrilling it was to get a hard-eyed and hard man—in every way that counted—all flustered. Sometimes being a girl was such a kick.

‘Bet you look damn good naked.’

‘I do. As, I suspect …’ Willa gave his butt a squeeze ‘… do you.’

In her head wild Willa tried to high-five doormat Willa, but she was banging her head against an imaginary wall.

Rob let out a muffled groan and rested his forehead on hers. ‘How hot is it, exactly, in here?’

‘It’s cookin’,’ Willa agreed, surprised at their effortless banter, her ability to flirt so easily.

Maybe it was the Screaming Os, the obvious appreciation and attraction in Rob’s eyes, his hot hands sliding over her arms, back, hips, that made her feel bolder and brighter—the best version of herself. Confident, slightly crazy, prepared to take a risk.

One night, she told herself. Didn’t she deserve one night of uncomplicated pleasure with a hot man who looked as if he wanted to gobble her up in one big bite? Hell, yes! shouted wild Willa, thoroughly over-excited. Didn’t she deserve a night of stupendous sex after more than eight months of sexual drought? Her house was empty, her bed was empty … she was all but free.

You betcha, sister!

Doormat Willa groaned and slapped her hand over her eyes.

Before she could lose her courage and change her mind, Willa tipped her head back and nailed him with her silver-green eyes. ‘Got condoms?’

‘Yes. Why?’ Rob replied carefully as his hands tightened on her hips. ‘You offering to let me use a couple?’

‘Yeah … you interested?’

Rob sucked in a breath. ‘Yeah—to the max. I’ve been thinking about it …’

‘Since when?’

‘I’ve been having X-rated fantasies about your fabulous legs encircling my hips since I first clocked them.’ He stepped back and looked at her legs. When he lifted his eyes again they’d turned sombre and serious. ‘You sure about this, Willa? Why do I have the feeling that this isn’t the way you normally operate?’

It isn’t—we don’t know what we’re doing here! Doormat Willa wrung her hands, whimpering.

Well, she wasn’t in charge tonight. Wild Willa was going to have some fun. ‘I’m very sure.’

Relief flashed across Rob’s face. ‘Where would you feel more comfortable? My place or yours?’

Oh, her place—absolutely. And if she was silently raising her middle finger to her ex by sleeping with someone else in a bed that he’d paid for, then nobody had to know but her.

Oh, dear God, she was sleeping with someone else … someone other than her forty-something husband who didn’t exactly encourage creativity in bed. Mr Missionary Position, she’d privately called him. Wham, bam … skip the thank-you, ma’am.

Rob’s thumb brushing her cheekbone pulled her back to reality. ‘Hey, where did you go?’

Willa grabbed his wrist. It was only fair to give him a heads-up so that he didn’t feel cheated when he realised that she was more below par than porn star. ‘Look, you should know that I don’t do this … often.’ Try never. ‘And I’m not …’

‘Not what?’

‘Experienced.’

Rob looked at her for a long time without saying anything. Before he spoke, he brushed her lips with a kiss and Willa quivered. ‘Feel that?’ he murmured against her mouth. ‘Feel the electricity between us?’

‘Mmm-hmm.’

‘I’m old enough and experienced enough to know that doesn’t happen often, and when it does you don’t need anything else but to give yourself over to it. But, since you were honest enough to tell me that you aren’t a pro at this, let me remind you of the rules.’

There are rules? God! Seriously? Her lower lip pushed out. Wild Willa didn’t like rules.

‘Okay,’ Willa agreed, although she’d really much prefer Rob just to kiss her again.

‘This is a one-night thing, so no thinking about hearts and flowers.’

Willa felt the power of his honest statement.

‘I’m attracted to you, and the little I’ve seen of you, I like. I don’t sleep with women I don’t like, but tonight is it … there will be nothing more than a couple of laughs and some good sex.’

‘Good sex is the minimum I require,’ Willa said, making herself sound innocent.

Rob’s lips twitched. ‘Why do I suspect that when you widen those eyes and sound naïve you are at your most sarcastic?’

Because he wasn’t a fool, Willa realised, but she didn’t confirm or deny his statement.

‘And if you change your mind at any point—any point at all!—you say so and I back off. I can’t guarantee that I’ll be happy about it, but I’ll back off. You don’t like anything I do, you say so and I don’t do it again.’

Willa blinked. ‘My God, you are direct.’

‘No point in being anything else,’ Rob retorted. ‘I’m uncomfortably honest, or so I’ve frequently been told. It’s the only way I know how to be. Can you handle that?’

After the last eight years, honesty was a brilliant change of pace. ‘Since you’re only going to be around for the rest of the night, I think I can cope.’

Rob grinned at her jibe. ‘There’s that gentle sarcasm again … I love it. So, let’s go—so that I can get you naked sooner rather than later.’

Willa felt his hand wrap around hers—solid, masculine and sure—and she allowed him to tug her off the dance floor and towards the exit of the club.

We’re gonna get laid, Wild Willa shouted, thoroughly thrilled. Whooo-hooo!

Willa didn’t bother to switch on any lights as she entered the double-volume hallway of her Vaucluse waterfront property—she just kicked the door closed behind Rob and immediately reached for him.

They’d found a taxi as they’d left the club and a heated silence had filled the interior of the vehicle. Yet she hadn’t needed words to know that he couldn’t wait to get his hands on her. His warm hand had started off on her bare knee and slowly worked its way up her thigh, so that when the taxi had pulled up in front of the massive mansion her dress had been skimming her crotch line and his fingers had been not too far from her happy place.

Now she was damp and hot and horny, and if she didn’t get him touching her soon she was going to cry like a little girl.

Rob, finding her plastered against his chest, didn’t need any encouragement and immediately yanked her dress up and palmed her butt with his masterful hand. He shoved his other hand into her heavy mass of hair, clasped her head and angled her face to receive his no-holds-barred kiss. Tongues danced as he devoured her mouth, learning her, tasting her, pushing her for more.

Emboldened by his passion and his groans of appreciation, Willa pulled his shirt up so that she could touch his hot body. So hard, she thought. Muscular, but not over the top … just pure masculine strength. Her fingers traced the rows of his six-pack and the long muscles that covered his hips, brushed over the hard erection that tented his jeans.

Ooh, she liked that, so she traced his long length with the tip of her finger. Yeah, she liked that. A lot.

‘Yeah, that’s it,’ Rob muttered against her mouth, pulling her dress up and over her hips, revealing her tiny black thong to his hungry gaze.

His hands gripped and released her hips as he looked down at her, past her flat stomach to her long legs. She was still in her heels.

‘Perfect,’ he breathed. ‘Is the rest of you as pretty, Willa?’

‘Maybe,’ Willa replied, undoing his belt buckle.

Rob slid his hand between her legs and cupped her, his thumb immediately finding and brushing her clitoris through her thong, causing her to yelp into her mouth.

‘So good … so good,’ Willa moaned against his lips. ‘More … more.’

Rob’s hand stilled and his breath was hot and laboured. ‘If we don’t stop now I’m going to yank these off and take you right here, right now. Against the front door or on this Persian carpet under our feet.’

Willa tipped her head back to look up into his fabulous passion-soaked steel-coloured eyes. ‘Yeah …. either. Both. Just do it now.’

Rob smiled and reached for the foil strip of condoms he’d shoved into the back pocket of his jeans. He ripped a packet off with his teeth and allowed the rest to drop to the floor. He placed it in her hand with a wicked grin.

‘Put it on me while I get rid of your panties.’

Willa popped open the first button of his jeans, then the second, and when they were loose around his hips she shoved her hands inside his briefs and pushed both his underwear and jeans down. His erection stood tall and proud, and Willa sighed at how big he was … It seemed that Wayne wasn’t nearly as well-endowed as he’d claimed. Well, he’d lied about everything else so she wasn’t particularly surprised.

But Rob was long and thick, and she knew that taking him inside her meant she would have to stretch and … She licked her lips … She couldn’t wait. She wanted to be pushed, filled, taken to the limit. She wanted to feel like a woman being possessed by a man … in the best way possible.

Willa ripped the packet open with her teeth, pulled out the condom and swiftly rolled it over his penis, sucking in her breath as he hardened even further.

Above her head, Rob swore. ‘Honey, this is going to be hectic … we’ll keep slow and sexy for later.’

With those words, he hooked his big hands under her thighs and lifted her up, spreading her legs so that the head of his penis probed her wet and moist feminine core. It was only then that Willa realised he’d magicked her panties away without her even realizing …

Rob pressed her against the massive wooden front door and pinned her there with his body, sliding into her with one long, sure stroke. Willa felt herself dissolving from the inside out as her world narrowed to what was happening between them. Her surroundings faded away and there were only Rob’s hands on her thighs, his tongue in her mouth mimicking his thrust of his hips, the sure strokes as he lifted her higher and higher.

‘You need to come, honey, ‘cos I’m not going to be able to hang on,’ Rob muttered, his forehead against hers.

‘Don’t you dare stop!’ Willa shot back, grinding down on him as lightning bugs danced along her skin.

Rob dropped his head to talk in her ear. ‘That’s it, Willa, take all of me. Yeah, move … use me … higher, dammit!’

‘Harder …’ Willa demanded, reaching for her release.

Rob slammed her against the door and she shouted as stars exploded behind her eyeballs and her body splintered into a million billion pieces. She vaguely heard Rob’s roar in her ear, felt his orgasm deep inside her, but didn’t particularly care. She’d come and it had been magnificent …

Rob moved his hips again and, still mostly hard, touched something inside her. She rocketed up again, harder and faster than before. She slammed her eyes shut and screamed his name before she fractured again in a big bang of cosmic proportions.

Minutes, hours or years might have passed before she came back down to earth, her head on his shoulder, pinned to the door by Rob’s strength.

‘I really don’t think you hit the mark, Willa. We might have to do that again.’

She heard Rob’s smile in his words, felt the curve of his lips against her temple.

‘Slow and sexy this time?’ Willa agreed on a happy smile, sliding to the floor.

Early the next morning, after another round of blow-her-head-off morning sex, Willa, her head on Rob’s shoulder, felt well satisfied with herself. She thought that she’d feel dirty and guilty, going to bed with a complete stranger, but all she felt was … satisfied—and strangely safe.

Sure, he was good-looking—what was the point of having a one-night stand with an ugly man?—and he had a body that spoke of a lifetime of physical fitness. He smelt good, and he had treated her with care and made sure that that she was fully satisfied—every single time—before climaxing himself.

He was as close to a perfect lover as she’d ever encountered—okay, that didn’t mean anything at all!—and she idly wondered whether it was his skill in the sack or her previous lack of satisfactory sex that had had her coming over and over again.

She suspected that it was mostly Rob. He was an amazing lover. She’d felt safe enough to allow herself to lose control—to touch, to explore, to taste—and she had lost all her inhibitions in her quest to explore those long, lean muscles. That had never happened to her before.

With Wayne … No. No comparisons—no thinking about him.

Suffice to say that with Rob she felt energised. Sleep had been forgotten in the delight of his body. She remembered thinking that she hadn’t wanted the feast of touch and textures and taste and masculinity to end.

She still didn’t.

‘I need sustenance,’ Willa said on a long yawn. ‘What’s the time?’

‘Half-eight.’

Rob patted her butt to get her to move. He slid out of bed and walked across the ridiculously enormous bedroom to the balcony doors. He gripped the top of the doorframe and Willa rolled over on her stomach to look at his beautiful back, tight ass and long, muscular legs.

Hot damn, the man was sexy. Willa licked her lips and was suddenly conscious of her pounding head and the fact that her mouth felt as if a herd of llamas had bedded down in it during the night.

‘This is a hell of place you have here, Willa. Yours?’

‘Yeah.’ Well, it would be in a few weeks’ time.

This massive house she’d moved into eight months ago still didn’t feel like her home. But the exclusive property would form part of her divorce settlement—along with her Mercedes and a hefty donation to her bank account. She’d wanted to walk away with nothing, just to get rid of Wayne, but Kate, her lawyer and now a good friend, had refused to allow her even to go there.

‘He cheats, he pays,’ Kate had told her, over and over again.

‘Where exactly are we?’ Rob asked. ‘Is that Sydney harbour bridge?’

‘Yep.’

Willa stood up, wrapped a sheet around her torso and ducked under his arm to move onto the veranda off the bedroom.

She leaned against the railing and pointed down to the jetty that kissed the crystal-clear water below. ‘At the end of the garden is a gate that leads onto that path, and via that jetty I have direct access to Parsley Bay. I can swim, snorkel, kayak, or picnic in the beautiful neighbouring parkland.’

Willa turned her back to the bay and looked at him.

‘It’s a big house on a big plot of land—six bedrooms, four bathrooms, lots of living space and decks. Double garage. Private.’

‘And you live here all alone?’ Rob asked, sceptical.

‘Ridiculous, isn’t it?’ Willa replied lightly, not wanting to go into details about her failed marriage. ‘The house is cold and empty and it should have kids running around in it, pets, people visiting and loud parties …’

‘Well, it will today.’

Willa looked at him blankly.

Rob grinned and she caught a flash of white teeth and the glint of the sun in his stubble. ‘Honey, you have a bunch of people arriving for a barbecue …’ he looked at his watch ‘… later this morning.’

It took a moment for her to remember that she’d invited the entire Whitsundays gang—not just her old friends—for a barbecue this morning.

Grabbing Rob’s wrist, she looked at the dial of his watch and let out a low wail of panic. She had nothing in her house to eat, no booze, and the fact that she had to entertain people she hadn’t seen in years—not to mention dealing with this very sexy souvenir from the night below—had panic crawling up her throat.

She couldn’t do this,—she really couldn’t. Maybe she could hustle Rob out through the front door and she could escape out the back—hightail it to her canoe and belt her way up the bay.

Opening her mouth like a fish desperate for oxygen, she stared at Rob in horror.

‘Take a breath, Willa,’ Rob suggested on a slow grin.

Willa slapped her hands against her cheeks and gasped as the sheet dropped and fell over the lounger. Rob’s eyes darkened with passion and his penis started to swell. Willa saw what was happening, lifted her hand and tried to step away from him—she really did. But her legs weren’t doing much listening. In fact they were taking her to him!

‘No! No! No, no, no, no, no, no! I don’t have time, Rob!’

Rob’s thumb drifted over her nipple and Willa felt her resolve weaken. How could she just look at him and feel prickly and horny and … wet? Get a grip, Willa. But one more time her body whispered its demand. One more thrilling, amazing orgasm or … four.

‘I want to take you here, on this lounger, in the morning sun.’

‘God, Rob … It’s out in the open. The neighbours….’

Why was she even thinking about doing this? Was she mad?

‘Nobody can see us, Willa. This balcony was built for privacy,’ Rob said, sliding his hand between her thighs.

Willa instantly melted.

‘Here … in the sun, Wills. Say yes.’

‘Yes.’ Willa sighed, looping her hands around his neck and slapping her naked body against his. As if she’d ever had any chance of saying no.

Ding-dong! Ding-dong!

Willa’s eyes shot open and she bolted upright in bed. Fudge, was that the doorbell? That couldn’t be the doorbell, there was no way that it was eleven already …

Ding-dong. Ding-dong.

Dammit, it was the doorbell, and the doorbell meant guests. Arrrggghhhhh. She was in such trouble …

Rob groaned and opened one eye. Willa glared down at him. ‘This is your fault!’ she hissed.

‘Huh? Why?’

Willa shot out of bed and ran to her walk-in closet, reaching for clean underwear and a pair of shorts. Grabbing a denim pair that were more holes than fabric, she yanked them on.

‘“I want to take you here, on this lounger, in the morning sun …’” Willa growled, imitating his deep voice. ‘“Just come back to bed for a little while,” you said. “we have time,” you said!’

‘We must have dozed off.’ Rob rolled over, taking the sheets with him, and squinted at his watch. ‘Huh—ten-forty. Someone is early. Either way, it seems we’re out of time.’

‘You think, Einstein?’ Willa barked, yanking on a tank top and pulling her hair up into a haphazard tail. ‘I need a shower, to brush my teeth …’

‘Slow down, gorgeous …’ Rob suggested, standing up and stretching.

Willa glared at him as the doorbell chimed again. ‘Keep your pants on,’ she muttered, and then pointed to Rob. ‘You too, hotshot.’

Rob grinned at her. ‘I’m going to have a shower first …’

‘I hate you!’ Willa barked, before rushing out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

Through the stained glass windows of the door she could see two people on the other side. Yanking it open, she was relieved to see Amy and Jessica on her front steps.

‘Thank God it’s you!’ she stated, holding her hand to her head, hoping to keep it from exploding. God, she had the headache from hell. What had been in those cocktails? Liquid mercury?

‘Are you okay, Wills? You look … frazzled,’ Amy said.

‘I am frazzled,’ Willa admitted. ‘God, can I cancel this?’

Amy stepped into the double volume hall and whistled her appreciation as she turned in a circle. ‘Hell, no, you’re not cancelling a damn thing—and … wow, Wills, this house is a hell of a divorce settlement.’

‘Kate’s a hell of a divorce lawyer.’

And she wasn’t letting Willa settle for just a house. She was, as she frequently told Willa, better and meaner than that.

Willa took a seat on the bottom step of the floating staircase. ‘She’s the sharpest tool in the shed; you’d like her, Amy.’

‘If she’s helping you bury Wayne-the-Pain then I like her already,’ Amy agreed.

The Pain. Such an apt moniker.

‘Anyway … can we concentrate, here? I have a cracking headache from those cocktails, I have God knows how many people arriving at any minute, and I have nothing—repeat, nothing!—in this house to feed or lubricate them.’

Amy frowned. ‘Did you forget you invited us?’

‘Sorta … kinda…. yeah.’ She couldn’t tell her friend that she’d been having too much fun playing with Rob to think about her guests. ‘What am I going to doooooo?’

‘You are going to go and have a shower. Jessica will greet anyone who arrives and Amy will shoot to the shops and grab food and drink.’

The deep, masculine, made-for-sin voice floated down the stairs.

Willa watched as Jessica and Amy’s heads shot up and quickly turned to see Rob, his hair wet from his ultra-quick shower, dressed in his clothes from the night before, walking down the stairs, bare feet sticking out from the ragged hem of his jeans. Their surprise turned to feminine approval and she groaned as two sets of perfectly arched eyebrows lifted in a silent question.

‘Way to go, Wills.’

Willa threw her hands up in defeat at Amy’s mischievous murmur. ‘Ah … Rob. Rob stayed over …’

‘I can see that,’ Amy stated with a grin.

Willa caught Amy’s eye and saw the glint of sisterly pride in her eye. So, didja have fun? she could imagine her asking, if Jessica and Rob hadn’t been there.

So much fun.

Thought you would. He looks the type who knows what he’s doing.

You have no idea, old friend.

‘You two done with your telepathic conversation?’ Jessica demanded as she put out her hand and hauled Willa to her feet. ‘Go shower, Willa. Amy, let’s take a look and see what Willa has so that you know what to buy.’

‘Nothing,’ Willa said mournfully. ‘I have nothing.’

‘Why do I have to get the food?’ Amy wailed.

‘Because it was your idea to do this,’ Willa retorted, hand still on her head. ‘There’s a deli down the road. They have everything … Just buy them out and I’ll pay you back.’

Willa looked at Jessica and pointed to her left.

‘Kitchen that way. Through the French doors of the kitchen—and off all the rooms on that side of the house—is a covered patio and the pool. Chairs, tables—all outside. Outside kitchen … grill. Go wild.’

Amy whistled her appreciation. ‘As I said, Wills, it’s a helluva settlement.’

Yeah, Willa thought as she climbed the stairs to the second floor and her bedroom. All I had to do was put up with crap and be an aimless, thick trophy wife for eight years.