A Place Called Home by Jo Goodman Read Free Book Online Page A

unbuttoned and halfway to their elbows. Disrobing interruptus. “Guys! Jackets. Hall closet.”
    Gina smirked when they didn’t move. “You’ve got to turn the TV off or stand in front of it. Even I know that.”
    Mitch chuckled and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for the help.”
     
     
    Thea was curled in one corner of the overstuffed sofa in her office when her assistant buzzed her. She looked up from the layout she was only pretending to study and stared just as vaguely at the offending phone.
    “Ms. Wyndham? Are you in there?”
    It was no use not answering. Mrs. Admundson, a frighteningly efficient holdover from the days when Thea’s father still ran the firm, would wonder why she hadn’t seen her leave and come in to check. “I’m here,” Thea answered, trying for a tone that was neither tired nor impatient and afraid it was both. “What do you need?”
    “Mr. Strahern is here.”
    “Oh. Of course.” She pushed the layout to one side. “Show him—” The door was opening before Thea could unfold her legs and make a search for her sling-back Ferragamos.
    “Don’t move,” Joel commanded. “You look all soft and sleepy-eyed. Very sexy.” He shut the door behind him and leaned one shoulder against it, just taking his fill of Thea’s momentary and unexpected vulnerability here in her office. “Were you napping?”
    “Hmmm. No, not really.” Thea’s smile surrendered to an abrupt yawn. Embarrassed, and not entirely certain why that was, she added, “Though I wasn’t doing anything more productive.” She found her shoes and slipped them on, coming to her feet in spite of Joel’s insistence that she do otherwise. “Come in. Can I get you something to drink?” She started in the direction of the wet bar, remembered herself, and backtracked to give Joel a kiss. What she intended as a peck on the cheek became something more than that when he turned his head and caught her mouth with his own. She returned it but her discomfort was clearly communicated. After a moment, he let her go. “It’s just that it’s my office,” she said, explaining herself for perhaps the dozenth time. “I have to work here and I don’t want—”
    He laughed deeply, a pleasant chuckle that was at once knowing and indulgent. “I know,” he said, cupping the side of her face. “But you can’t blame me for trying.”
    Actually she did, though she felt rather small about it. He was her fiancé, after all. One would think she’d be able to make some allowances where he was concerned. On the other side of the door Mrs. Admundson was probably thinking Joel already had her dress shoved up to her hips and was bending her over the desk. Mrs. Admundson remained thoroughly professional but Thea could see that the specter of some sexual escapade had been raised. It was there in her eyes, in the way she couldn’t quite meet Thea’s after Joel left. Thea was mortified. When she told Joel, he was amused. He rather liked the idea that the office staff at Foster and Wyndham thought he dropped in for a quickie. That was because she’d never told him about the seltzer-water-with-a-Viagra-chaser jokes that were going around. He would have screwed her in front of the entire agency just to prove medication had nothing to do with it.
    “Water,” Joel said.
    “Hmm?”
    He smiled indulgently. “You asked me if I wanted something to drink? I’ll take water.”
    “Oh.” Absurdly, Thea felt herself blushing. What in God’s name was wrong with her? She resolutely suppressed the answer that came immediately to her mind as too absurd to be true. Mitchell Baker had nothing to do with anything. Didn’t he? Stepping back, she beat a rather hasty retreat to the wet bar. “Lemon?”
    “If you have it.”
    Thea poured Evian into a glass for Joel, added a slice of fresh lemon, and carried it to the sofa where he was now sitting. He had the layout board on his lap and was studying it with more interest than she had shown minutes