Page 5 of Tempted at Midnight

“Yeah, but you already spoke at second shift yesterday, remember?”

“Oh yeah, of course.”

It was better to have David think I was a moron than wonder why I was really asking. I couldn’t help myself but to try to pump him for information. I’d damn near fell over when I realized that Lillian was one of the workers here.

She looked so different than she had New Year’s Eve, with her hair braided down the back of her head, wearing a faded tee shirt and ratty old jeans. There was no hint of the sophisticated lady I’d danced with and then taken home, but every day Lillian was no less alluring.

When the guy in the audience said her name, I knew immediately it had to be her. There weren’t a lot of Lillians out there, and the entire time I’d been speaking at the meeting I’d felt this weird kind of buzzing in my body, like something big was going to happen.

And then it did.

If Lillian sneaking out when I was sleeping without so much as a goodbye or a ‘here’s my number’ wasn’t enough of a hint, her hiding to avoid seeing me sure was. Not to mention that when I finished my presentation, she’d run out of the room like she was being chased by hellhounds.

She didn’t want to see me, that was clear. Except now that I knew she was here, now that I knew where to find her, I wanted to talk to her. I needed to talk to her.

We’d had what I thought was the perfect night. I’d taken one look at her at the party and fallen half in love with her. By the time I sank into her heat the first time I was fully in love with her. I didn’t have a ton of experience with women, other than my ex-wife, but I was absolutely certain she’d felt something that night, same as me.

What had I done wrong?

I borrowed a conference room in the admin suite, telling David I needed to do some work before I made the drive back to Houston, then snuck out of the building a few minutes before four to hang out by the employee entrance. I’d seen it yesterday when I took a wrong turn.

I leaned against the concrete wall facing a sea of concrete parking lot while doing deep breathing exercises and telling myself I was doing the right thing waiting to talk to Lillian. It just didn’t make sense, her running away like that.

At precisely five minutes after four o’clock, employees started streaming out of the building. A few minutes later Lillian walked out with the giant man who’d been sitting beside her in the meeting. I hoped he wasn’t her boyfriend because there’s no way I could take that guy.

“Lillian.”

Her back stiffened as she heard my voice. She stood stock still for a long moment before turning slowly to face me. The hulk beside her stopped as well, and so did two other guys, closing ranks around her.

The look she gave me was less than welcoming, but I couldn’t look away from her natural beauty.

“Hey Lillian, could I talk to you for a minute? Please?”

Her face flushed with anger. “I have nothing to say to you, Martin.”

I was so confused. Why was she mad at me when she was the one who’d disappeared?

The men around her looked between us curiously but didn’t interfere. Clearly they thought she could hold her own. Taking my life in my hands, I stepped closer to their little group.

“I just...why did you leave me like that?” I knew I sounded like a pussy, but it had been killing me, not knowing what happened.

“I thought most guys liked it when a woman didn’t hang around the morning after a one-night stand?”

Her entourage all looked surprised, like it had never occurred to them that she’d do something so wild. I took another step closer. Her eyes looked troubled and maybe a little hurt.

“I’m not most guys. I, uh, I thought there was a connection there. We had fun.”

“Do you have fun with your wife too?” she snapped.

Her voice was cold and hard, nothing like the sweet and fun woman I’d held in my arms. The three guys protecting her snapped to attention at her question, each of them looking like they were fixing to cut me.

“What are you talking about? I don’t have a wife,” I protested.

“That’s funny, because your house was filled with kids’ toys, your bathroom had a bunch of girlie shit in it, and there was a picture of you and your family on the fireplace mantle. It looked like y’all were having a grand old time at Disney World.”

I was starting to realize what had gone wrong. Damn it, we’d never got around to talking about our personal lives, what with all the fucking we’d been doing. She must have woken up, looked around my house, and jumped to all the wrong conclusions.

“I have three sons,” I started.