Chapter 38: Chapter 38

“Where are you going?”

Yolanda glanced up from packing her clothes as Lucas ambled into her room dripping wet from his shower with a towel slung low on his hips. She released an inward groan as she stared at his chiseled body.

She wanted to scream at her pussy—down girl. They’d spent all last night and most of the early morning burning up the sheets, not to mention the two times they’d played the horizontal tango as soon as they got back to the hotel after their meetings.

“That’s what I was trying to tell you last night, this morning, and as soon as we got back here, but you always have a way of distracting me,” she said with a smile, before she turned her attention back to packing. “Since we only had two designers today I was planning to take an early flight back.”

Crossing the room to stand beside her, his brows knitted together as he frowned. “Why?”

She pushed down on the suitcase until it clicked shut before she

turned her full attention to him. “Because I have company coming into

town tomorrow and I wanted to get a head start on cleaning up my place.”

“I was hoping we could spend the rest of this evening enjoying Vegas.” She heard the disappointment in his voice and it tugged at her heart more than she wanted it to. This is just a meaningless affair, she

chanted to herself. This is just about sex, and nothing else, she forced herself

to repeat over and over in her head, hoping it would stick—hoping that she didn’t carry around this weight in her heart when she watched Lucas move on to his next conquest. She knew what she’d gotten herself into, she just had to remind herself that she was a big girl having a grown up affair. Hopefully one day soon, she’d believe that.

“I wish I could stay,” she said with a small smile. “I’ve really enjoyed our time together, but now it’s time to get back to the real world.”

She swore he winced at her last words, but if he did, he didn’t let it show for long.

“So how long is your friend staying? Maybe we could get together this weekend if you’re not too busy.”

Later she would realize that she was a fool, but she just wasn’t used to having affairs, so admittedly she wasn’t the best when it came to rules about what to say and what not to say. And she definitely ended up breaking the rule on what not to say.

“I imagine I will be a little busy, I’m afraid. Chris is planning to stay

the entire weekend. He said his conference doesn’t end until Sunday.” He arched a single brow. “Chris? As in a man?”

She may not have known the rules of having a fling, but she knew from the tightness around his eyes that she’d messed up. Letting out a long sigh, she decided to just be honest.

“Yes, Chris is a man. He’s my ex and he asked if he could stay with me while he’s attending some mechanical engineering conference he’s in town for.”

“I see.” Several charged seconds ticked by as a tense silence hung between them before he finally spoke again. “You know when people come into town if they’re there for the conference they usually stay at the conference hotel.” His gaze bored into her. “I hope you know this Chris

of yours isn’t in town for the conference. He’s in town to see you.”

“I’d considered that,” she said truthfully. And she had, which was why she’d made a point to tell him he could stay with her but all he was getting was a free bed, a couple of meals, and a very platonic friendship.

“I see.” Was all Lucas said again as he moved away from her. A

storm of conflicting emotions swirled inside her at the hard look on his face. She wanted to explain to him that Chris meant nothing to her, but then that would mean she’d have to admit that he did and she knew Lucas

wasn’t that type of man. He enjoyed having flings, but that was it. The

only reason why he was even upset was because his ego couldn’t handle the thought of her jumping from his bed to Chris’. But she knew that’s exactly what he planned to do himself and she said as much.

“Look, I understand how this works, Lucas.” No she didn’t. “We’re

both adults, we had an affair and that’s that. I know when we get back to work it will be business as usual.”

She was proud of the speech she gave, it made her sound sophisticated and worldly. As if she did this on a regular basis.

“I see.” Was all he said again as he completely closed himself off

from her, his face as empty as a blank canvas, devoid of any expression.

“I wish you would say something besides I see—

“What else is there to say? You seem to have this all figured out.” She heard the hard edge in his voice, but it only confused her more.

She didn’t have time to figure out what was going on in Lucas’ head. She had a plane to catch. “I don’t know what your problem is. I would think you’d be grateful I wasn’t trying to read more into this then there is. I just wanted you to know that I won’t make things uncomfortable or weird for you back at work, that’s all.”

“How nice of you,” he said tightly as he grabbed his clothes and stalked toward the door.

She didn’t know what was bugging him, but she hated that he was leaving angry, especially after what they’d shared. If he’d been any other man, maybe she could have let her guard down, but Lucas was far too suave and sophisticated to open herself up to without winding up hurt. “Lucas,” she said quietly as his hand closed around the door. She watched him hesitate as if he wanted to pretend he hadn’t heard her and just walk out, but at the last second he turned around. She didn’t even

recognize him as he stood there, his expression cold.

“I just wanted to let you know, I really did have a wonderful time,” she said softly.

Something flashed in his gaze, but it was so fleeting that she didn’t even have a chance to identify it.

In response to her words he simply nodded his head and said with a tight smile. “Me too.” And then he turned away from her and disappeared out of her room without another word or a look back.