Chapter 15
Anderson wrappedhis arms around Ruth from behind as she worked on cutting cheese. Since she had her white blonde hair in a braid that ran down her back, he was able to nibble on her neck as she worked. She elbowed him in the gut, laughing as she scolded him. “Leave me alone, Anderson. I need to get this tray together before the girls get here. I want them to think I am not completely lost in the kitchen.”
“Except you are.” He trailed kisses up to her ear and felt her shiver in his arms.
“But I don’t want them to know that.” She set the knife down and turned into his arms to meet his lips with her own. As she kissed him, he let her take the lead. He knew they wouldn’t make it into the bedroom because the book club would arrive in a few minutes, but it didn’t matter, as long as they were kissing. But still, he wanted to see how far she would go.
Not that he wouldn’t happily take this to the bedroom again, even if they had made love twice already that morning.
The relief he had felt yesterday when he had finally found her in her kitchen had turned instantly to anger. There she was, after two days of not answering her phone or texts, just hiding. She had been standing innocently in her kitchen, eating a sandwich with cordless headphones on so loud he could hear the buzz of music from the doorway. Just in sweats and a T-shirt, she looked so defeated when she had seen him heartbroken. Instantly, he had watched her turn into personal assistant Ruth, cold and aloof. Distant.
Everything he had suspected she had concluded about Daphne’s call had been exactly what she had been thinking. Why would she think that with just a phone call, he would leave her and go back to his ex? But he knew the answer to that. Franky had destroyed her when he left. The call made her think that Anderson was leaving her as well. He saw it in her eyes when he walked in the door that she had been hurting, thinking he was gone. That she had taken second place again.
For two days, he had thought she had given up on them, but he’d been frantic to find her and get her back. And she had been spent those days thinking he didn’t want her anymore, that he would just leave her the moment someone else showed up. Just like her first love had.
That look was what made him panic when she talked about quitting. What would she do if she didn’t work for him? What would he do if she didn’t work for him? The office would turn into a dull and boring place.
She pushed him away, breathing heavily as she looked at him with those pale blue eyes. “Quit that,” she said, like it hadn’t been her that had started to kiss him.
The front door suddenly opened, interrupting their standoff. Both spun to look at the new arrivals.
Anderson watched as Tess from the bank and a short-haired blonde entered. Both were carrying a book, and they were chatting with each other as they came in. Neither seemed to notice that they were interrupting something.
Tess was the first to notice him, and she smiled. “You are joining us, Anderson?”
Beside him, Ruth tensed and said, “No, he is leaving.”
“Too bad,” the bank president said. “It would be nice to have a man's perspective.”
Anderson didn’t know the woman very well, but he knew of her, as did everyone in town. What he knew was that she had become one of Ruth’s best friends in just a few short weeks. All these women had.
“I would be happy to stay and give my opinion. What book are you reading this week?” He watched both women walk to the kitchen area and dropped off the trays of food they were carrying.
Instead of answering right away, Tess sat on a barstool before asking with all seriousness, “Does tying up women turn you on?”
Anderson choked on the piece of cheese in his mouth and stared at the woman. “What?”
Ruth slapped him on the back as if he was choking, which he was. “Tess, leave him alone. The book this week is BTK. I assume her next question will be about torture.”
“Of course, it was.” Tess laughed and popped a piece of cheese into her mouth.
Anderson turned to Ruth, who was biting her bottom lip to control her laugh. Cupping her chin in his hand, he kissed the bottom lip that she was biting so cutely. “I will head out so you can enjoy book club.”
As he walked out of the apartment, he heard Tess quietly say something about him, but he decided he didn’t need to know what. Slipping on his shoes in the hallway, he saw the tall, dark-haired librarian, Natalie, making her way up the stairs with a bag over her shoulder and a box in her arms. Hurrying down the stairs, he grabbed the box from her, and she rewarded him with a smile.
“This is a lot of stuff for a book club,” he said as the weight of the box was heavier than he had expected it to be.
“Have you ever been a part of a book club?” the younger woman asked with a raised eyebrow.
“No.”
“Then you don’t know what’s involved,” she stated as they walked into the apartment. The women present greeted the new arrival. He set the box by the door, not wanting to interfere in Ruth’s girl time. After two days of not knowing where she was, he realized he liked to spend all his time with her. But she had friends.
Not bothering to say goodbyes again, he slipped out the door without a word. Ruth was joking with the women in the room. Her smile made him smile as he walked down the stairs.
He almost ran into Mia at Ruth’s street-level door. The landing was small, and he and Mia did a little dance as they tried to get past each other. Mia was carrying two bottles of alcohol and a bottle of coke. Laughing when she finally got past him, she headed up the stairs but stopped on the first step.
“You finally found her?”