a break from each other.”
“What?”
“A break. A hiatus. A sabbatical. It’s perfect timing because you’re heading into tax season and I’m leaving on a book tour Friday morning.”
“Emma, don’t do this. I know you wanted me to show up last night, but the meeting was important. A couple of members are thinking of giving me their corporate business, and that would be huge.”
“This isn’t about last night.” And it really wasn’t. It was about this morning. Well, it might be about last night, but not in the way he thought. She might not be able to have Aidan Wallace, but she could start looking around for someone who was more exciting than Doug.
Because of her heavy writing schedule, she’d allowed herself to settle for someone who was near at hand, even if he did virtually nothing for her sexually. That wasn’t fair to her, and it wasn’t fair to Doug.
“Emma, let’s have lunch today. We’ll talk it out. I promise to come to the next book signing you have here in town.”
“I’m not free for lunch, and I mean it, Doug. I don’t think either of us is invested in this relationship the way we should be. Let’s take a step back. After tax season is over, if we decide to continue seeing each other, we can talk about what we each want in a partner.” Unfortunately for Doug, she now wanted muscles on her man.
“You don’t want to see me until after April fifteenth? That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“We have to review your tax picture.”
She almost laughed but caught herself before she did. Laughing would be mean. The fact remained that he was more worried about her 1040 than their future as a couple. “Doug, you’ve been doing my taxes for five years. I don’t think we need to review them in person.”
“It’s better if we do.”
“You could be right.” Privately she thought Doug liked using the sessions to parade his knowledge and pass out what he considered gold-plated advice. He got to be the authority and the big cheese during those meetings. She’d never enjoyed them much.
“Then let’s set up a time.”
“Let’s not.” She hoped he wouldn’t screw up her taxes on purpose, but she didn’t think he would stoop that low. “We can communicate by e-mail. Have a great tax season. I truly wish you the best.”
“Wait. You can’t just do this.”
“It’s for the best. Good-bye, Doug.” Then she disconnected the call. When he immediately called back, she didn’t answer. She did, however, listen to the message he left.
Emma, is it that time of the month?
Yep, he was a dweeb.
Aidan and his team had spent several hours on the e-mail trace, and then he had managed to grab some sleep at home. Now he was headed back to the Wallace building in lower Manhattan to report his findings to his father. Ralph picked him up, as usual.
Technically Aidan should have been exhausted, but the challenge of this case and his concern for Emma kept his adrenaline pumping. A good run always helped, too. His recreational romp through Central Park had been without incident.
Few people with any sense wandered around in there late at night anyway. Anyone at the park at that hour likely wouldn’t be the kind of person who ran to the police for any reason, let alone because he or she’d seen a large brown-and-silver wolf loping through the trees.
Still, it had been a risk. Anything that called attention to the pack constituted a risk. Yet he’d been forced to do something that would allow him to work off his sexual tension so he could shift back into human form. Once he’d felt that beginning to happen, he’d bounded back to the town car so that he could use the privacy of the backseat to shift and then dress in the clothes he’d left there.
The sun was shining brightly the next morning when Ralph pulled up in front of the fifty-story building that housed Wallace Enterprises on the top two floors. “Want me to wait for you?”
“That’s okay. I’m thinking you could use
“What?”
“A break. A hiatus. A sabbatical. It’s perfect timing because you’re heading into tax season and I’m leaving on a book tour Friday morning.”
“Emma, don’t do this. I know you wanted me to show up last night, but the meeting was important. A couple of members are thinking of giving me their corporate business, and that would be huge.”
“This isn’t about last night.” And it really wasn’t. It was about this morning. Well, it might be about last night, but not in the way he thought. She might not be able to have Aidan Wallace, but she could start looking around for someone who was more exciting than Doug.
Because of her heavy writing schedule, she’d allowed herself to settle for someone who was near at hand, even if he did virtually nothing for her sexually. That wasn’t fair to her, and it wasn’t fair to Doug.
“Emma, let’s have lunch today. We’ll talk it out. I promise to come to the next book signing you have here in town.”
“I’m not free for lunch, and I mean it, Doug. I don’t think either of us is invested in this relationship the way we should be. Let’s take a step back. After tax season is over, if we decide to continue seeing each other, we can talk about what we each want in a partner.” Unfortunately for Doug, she now wanted muscles on her man.
“You don’t want to see me until after April fifteenth? That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“We have to review your tax picture.”
She almost laughed but caught herself before she did. Laughing would be mean. The fact remained that he was more worried about her 1040 than their future as a couple. “Doug, you’ve been doing my taxes for five years. I don’t think we need to review them in person.”
“It’s better if we do.”
“You could be right.” Privately she thought Doug liked using the sessions to parade his knowledge and pass out what he considered gold-plated advice. He got to be the authority and the big cheese during those meetings. She’d never enjoyed them much.
“Then let’s set up a time.”
“Let’s not.” She hoped he wouldn’t screw up her taxes on purpose, but she didn’t think he would stoop that low. “We can communicate by e-mail. Have a great tax season. I truly wish you the best.”
“Wait. You can’t just do this.”
“It’s for the best. Good-bye, Doug.” Then she disconnected the call. When he immediately called back, she didn’t answer. She did, however, listen to the message he left.
Emma, is it that time of the month?
Yep, he was a dweeb.
Aidan and his team had spent several hours on the e-mail trace, and then he had managed to grab some sleep at home. Now he was headed back to the Wallace building in lower Manhattan to report his findings to his father. Ralph picked him up, as usual.
Technically Aidan should have been exhausted, but the challenge of this case and his concern for Emma kept his adrenaline pumping. A good run always helped, too. His recreational romp through Central Park had been without incident.
Few people with any sense wandered around in there late at night anyway. Anyone at the park at that hour likely wouldn’t be the kind of person who ran to the police for any reason, let alone because he or she’d seen a large brown-and-silver wolf loping through the trees.
Still, it had been a risk. Anything that called attention to the pack constituted a risk. Yet he’d been forced to do something that would allow him to work off his sexual tension so he could shift back into human form. Once he’d felt that beginning to happen, he’d bounded back to the town car so that he could use the privacy of the backseat to shift and then dress in the clothes he’d left there.
The sun was shining brightly the next morning when Ralph pulled up in front of the fifty-story building that housed Wallace Enterprises on the top two floors. “Want me to wait for you?”
“That’s okay. I’m thinking you could use
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