Before she could close it, Billy said, “I thought you were different, I guess I was wrong.” Not bothering to reply, Claire slammed her door shut and vowed that she would start looking for another place to live. It was obvious that Billy was going to continue to be a problem.
She didn’t think the idea of her having a boyfriend would help especially since said boyfriend wasn’t likely to be at her place again. Great, like my life isn’t hectic enough, now I’ve a nut job neighbor stalking me, greeaat. The confrontation with Billy took some of the enjoyment out of the evening. After a quick shower, Claire climbed into bed and tried to forget the angry expression on Billy’s face; maybe Jason was right about him after all.
Chapter Twelve
Saturday morning she was up and out early. She picked up a few things at the market that Louise had requested then dropped them by along with her mother’s medicine. Claire went inside and spent an enjoyable hour eating breakfast and chatting. Her mother was having another good day and seeing how well she was doing this week made Claire that much more determined to keep her mother in her home no matter what it took.
All too soon it was time to go to the office. It felt strange to see the usually full parking garage bare but for a few other cars. The office door was ajar when she arrived on their floor, and Jason was already seated at his desk with his door open. Claire stored her handbag and walked through his door to see what he needed her to work on. Jason leaned back in his leather chair and studied her as she approached his desk.
“Thanks for coming in today, I hope it didn’t interfere with your weekend plans,” said Jason. The amused smirk on his face told her exactly what plans he was referring to.
“No, not at all. What shall I get started on?” asked Claire.
Completely ignoring her question Jason continued on, “No big party this weekend huh?”
“Did we come here to work or discuss my private life?” asked Claire.
“Well if your private life is open for discussion, I would be happy to put work aside because, quite frankly, I’m dying to hear more about your other life as a stripper.” Claire could only look at him in surprise.
After Jason hadn’t broached the subject of her second job during the week, she assumed he had decided to let it go. The look on his face assured her that he had far from forgotten it and intended to have that discussion now. “I don’t think my private life is any of your business so no; it isn’t open for discussion,” snapped Claire.
“Oh that’s where you’re wrong Claire; it is indeed my business when it reflects on Danvers. Now have a seat and let’s have this long-overdue discussion shall we?”
~~~
What the hell am I doing? I had no intention of having this conversation today. She’d reduced him to an aching, obsessing mess in the last week. That night in her apartment, with her wrapped around him, still haunted him so much he could barely concentrate on what was the biggest deal this company had ever been involved in. This was about the worst time possible to go crazy over a woman. That never happened; he enjoyed women but always on his own terms. Never had someone so completely confused and intrigued him.
The one piece to the puzzle that he couldn’t figure out was the side job. Sure, people worked two jobs all the time, hell he felt like he worked three most of the time so that wasn’t the confusing part, it was the second job that she’d obviously chosen that floored him. Claire was about as far from a stripper as he could imagine. Ok, so she didn’t actually take all her clothes off, but she was damn near naked when she popped out of that cake. She was beautiful, and no doubt men loved looking at her; he hated to admit that. He had never noticed exactly how beautiful she was until the weekend with Liz and Harold.
She presented a whole different person daily in the office, and even though he was sure he had to have noticed she was attractive, he had never been tempted to cross the line with her. Now he was practically running and clawing his way across that line. She’d become an ache that he couldn’t get past. He needed to have her, be inside her, but more than that, he needed to know what was going on with her because none of it made any sense to him.
He rarely thought or cared what was going on in any woman’s life he was seeing. His life was this company, and that left very little to give to anyone else. With Claire though, it was fast becoming her first and the company second. It had to just be the mystery there. Once he had his questions answered then life could return to normal.
Claire seated herself stiffly in the chair in front of Jason, and the silence stretched as he seemed to be lost in thought. “Jason?”
His name seemed to jerk him back to the present, and he said, “Um… yes, where were we?”
Confused Claire said, “you wanted to tell me why my private life was your business I believe.”
“Oh yes, let’s see….Why don’t we just start at the beginning? How long have you been working your er… second job?”
Stiffly, Claire replied, “About a year.”