InstructionbySeduction Page 14

  “Scott,” she breathed, then gave herself over to the pleasure. Hale drove into her slowly but firmly, with purpose, rubbing her deep and hitting every pleasure center possible. Leah didn’t even want to close her eyes. She just wanted to watch Hale/Scott feel her from the inside out…in every way.

  Leah briefly thought of her other “plain vanilla” sexual experiences. They happened the same basic way—man on top, kissing, touching, plain old screwing. How could it be the same activity and yet feel so very different? Leah thought of the discomfort and disappointment she remembered during those other experiences. The pressure, the feeling of being used and neglected. None of it was present here. All she felt was warmth, passion…love?

  Leah pulled her legs up around Hale and hooked her ankles around his back. She squeezed when he pushed, driving him farther within her. They moved together in a symphony, each moving in just the right way. With bodies moving in harmony, it was time for the climax.

  Hale moved in perfect time with Leah’s body, his thrusts and strokes as gentle and firm as though Leah’s mind were a guiding hand. Leah laid her head back against the pillow. The sweet pressure was almost ready to burst. He touched her most sensitive spot again and again, the intensity building.

  As it boiled over, Leah opened her eyes and stared at Hale square in the eyes, Scott’s blue depths meeting her gaze. They came together in a storm befitting the end of a passionate symphony. Leah struggled to keep her eyes open as she shook and came hard against Hale’s shaft, watching him as he released into her. Hale’s new blue eyes displayed the euphoria and the unmatched delectation of their coupling and it was all that Leah had ever hoped to see.

  Leah closed her eyes as Hale collapsed over her.

  “Forget strawberry jam,” Hale said. “Forget honey. You are pure silk. The expensive kind. The kind that men will max out their credit card to buy because it’s just so damn beautiful and they can’t wait to see it on the love of their life.”

  Leah wanted to smile but instead she nearly cried. For all the poetry she assigned to Hale’s crude, sometimes crass words in the past, those few sentences were enough to turn her into a puddle. The sincerity doubled the beauty of the words. Leah was warm in places she didn’t know she could be.

  As Hale moved his upper body in preparation to rise off Leah, he looked down at her and she up at him.

  “Are you ready?” he asked.

  “I don’t understand,” Leah said with a slight shake of her head.

  Without responding, Hale’s body shook slightly—and he shook off the outer form of Scott. Brown hair replaced blond, green eyes replaced blue, Hale’s fine features replaced Scott’s. All while he touched her, held her, his flesh still within her.

  Leah tried not to scream and was mostly successful. All that came out was a little shriek and a hefty shudder. Up until then she still could have convinced herself that Hale was human. That he had a twin brother. That somehow Scott had known about all this and actually shown up on her doorstep. But at that moment, watching him transfigure from Scott into Hale right on top of her, there was no denying the truth.

  “What are you?” Leah choked.

  “You know exactly what I am. Why do you keep denying what you already know?”

  * * * * *

  Freedom from her classes as the days led into summer break meant Leah had more time to focus on her duties at FoodSmart, more time to spend doing kickboxing…and more time to stalk Mayfaire’s for Scott. Leah sat in her car again, out in front of the store. She adjusted her top, which was very flattering on her new kickboxing-induced figure. She was closer to her ideal weight than she’d been since high school and she felt great. She looked great. She desperately wanted to show that greatness to Scott.

  Leah slid out of the Honda and walked into the store. She thought of Scott’s business card and was amused at how she lacked the nads to call him but had no qualms about being a psycho stalker at his workplace. Leah made her rounds at the store and after not seeing him, bought a pack of gum and walked back to her car. She would see him again soon. She could feel it. And nothing would hold her back next time.

  She hadn’t called on Hale in the days since their last encounter. After watching his disguise act she was unnerved. It had been a beautiful evening with a heart-stopping end. She still couldn’t tell him what he was so sure she knew. What was he? A demon? His insistence that she already knew what he was infuriated her. She didn’t damn know and was irritated that he was so sure she did.

  * * * * *

  It was a week until the trade show. Leah was embarrassed at how excited she was about going on a business trip. It was a first for her and somehow it made her feel more like an adult and less like a kid playing pretend in a grown-up world. Not only did she have a position sufficient enough to go on a business trip but she was trusted enough to do so.

  “What are you smirking about?” Kelly asked.

  “What do you mean?” Leah leaned against the metal bin that caught the scanned groceries. They were a little short-handed and she’d been helping out by bagging groceries for Kelly.

  “You’re always smirking that snotty little smirk,” Kelly teased. “And it’s particularly snotty today. What are you thinking about?”

  Leah laughed and shook her head then stopped. A cold sensation swept through her and a frozen rock formed in the pit of her stomach. Kelly’s words had sparked a bittersweet, sick feeling within her.

  “Hey, you okay?” Kelly asked. “Now you look like you’re going to toss your cookies.”

  “I’ll be right back,” Leah whispered, then turned and ran for the employee restroom. She slammed and locked the door behind her. As she turned to face the mirror, the rock rotated and shifted in her guts.

  Leah looked at her reflection and her face was both white and flushed, if that were possible. She stared into the glacier-like green of her eyes. And smirked.

  Leah threw herself back against the wall, fearing she would crash right through the drywall. She stared at herself. She stared at Hale’s very essence in her own reflection.

  You know exactly what I am.

  “He’s me,” Leah choked in shock. “He came from me. I created him from myself.”

  * * * * *

  Leah stared at the box. Remembering all the times she tore it off the top of the dresser in a near-frenzy made her apprehension all that much more unbearable. Her savior was now making her question her own sanity. How was it possible? How could a box create a flesh-and-blood human being from her psyche alone? Had she hallucinated the whole thing?

  Impossible, Leah thought, turning away and pacing. I was sore. I was wet. I was relaxed. I was touched in every possible place in every possible way. Plus I’m not psychotic.

  The box seemed to dare Leah as she looked at it over her shoulder. Open me. See what happens. Open me like I opened you.

  Looking away again, Leah stopped pacing. You cannot open the box. The box opens you.

  “The box opens you,” she whispered. “The box can make your dreams come true.”

  Leah leaned against the dresser and pulled the box down. She cradled it in her hands like a tiny infant, an invaluable part of herself. She opened the lid.

  And there was nothing.

  Not a bang, not a whimper. Not a shimmer of power or a black hole sucking all the life out of her. Just nothing. Just the box. And a stronger, more confident, more vigilant Leah.

  Hale’s last lesson.

  It all came from you, a voice in Leah’s mind said. It was within you all along. Every word, every revelation, every act and moan and whisper. After all, you already knew…the box opens you.

  Chapter Eleven

  Excitement stirred within Leah as she rocketed up I-35 toward Kansas City. Three days of hard-core grocery store management awaited her but the idea of being in that professional environment thrilled her. People would look at her and think she was somebody. Not too long ago she could have been the one making up the room and now she was staying in it. A
nice hotel, too. Doubletree.

  Leah squealed out loud inside the Chevy Malibu that FoodSmart had rented for her. She wanted to wiggle around to go with it but didn’t think that crashing the car would do much for her career. So she settled for another squeal and cranking up the radio.

  After two hours on the road, inevitably her thoughts turned to Hale. The revelation that he didn’t really exist—or at least not anymore—wasn’t as devastating as she originally thought. Instead, it was almost a newfound freedom. Empowerment.

  She knew all that stuff all along but she had to find a magic box to personify all she already had inside her. The box. Who knew what it was? But Hale…how could she have missed it? The same eyes. The same smirk. His name was an anagram of her own, for Christ’s sake. How he knew everything about her. How he knew where she kept things. That’s exactly where I would have put it, he’d said on his first visit to her, referring to the beer. Of course he would have.

  Leah wondered if she’d been born male she would have looked like Hale. Or maybe his features and build were all from her imagination, since she knew exactly what she liked in a man.

  In a man, Leah thought, getting sidetracked by thoughts of Scott. Maybe while she was in Kansas City she’d waste some time perusing Mayfaire’s to see if she could find him again. She had to see him again.

  Just call him, jackass! she chastised herself. You’re in KC. He’s in KC. Just call him.

  Instead Leah checked into her room at the Doubletree and received a warm welcome from the front-desk staff. She slung her borrowed garment bag over her shoulder and made her way to her room.

  It was a simple but elegant room. Leah felt a little bit like royalty when she compared it to her subsidized student apartment back in Wichita. She hung up her clothes, three new suits that it would take her a lifetime to pay off. But they fit like they were made for her, looked great and would last as long as classic fashion did.

  The clerk at the front desk told her that some of the vendors would be setting up their booths that night if she wanted to get a sneak peek. Mostly Leah was hungry but she decided to swing by anyway and get a feel for the place. She slid into a skirt and jacket, casual but sophisticated and looked in the mirror.

  “Who are you?” she asked her reflection, then giggled. She pocketed her room key card and headed back down to the main floor.

  Following the map on the paper holder from her key card, Leah located Salon A. The door was closed but she pushed it open a few inches to peek inside. Many of the exhibits were already up but a good number were still under construction. Leah slipped inside and started briefly reviewing the ones that were up.

  Leah passed a booth for cleaning products targeted toward grocery stores, a supply chain management software company and a few others before she came to one that made her stop dead in her tracks.

  Do your employees know the law? the banner asked. Let us make sure they do! Leah picked up one of the brochures. The company did on-site training of laws pertaining to the food environment, with updates on recent legislation, ongoing support, the works.

  Training, she thought. I could do this. Leah envisioned her own booth. Customer service sells more products than displays—let us show you how! Or maybe, Increase sales ten percent in one month by training your employees to deliver stellar service. Or…

  “So were you just checking out the competition? Or maybe trying to cause a disruption?”

  That voice. Leah’s thought froze in her brain then melted away. That voice, the voice of perfection. She turned around slowly, feeling like she might spin and pass out. But there he stood, in a collared shirt and blue jeans.

  “Hi, Scott,” she whispered.

  “You remember my name. Impressive.”

  Scott leaned back and crossed his arms, appearing to size her up.

  “Let’s see—you work for…Dillon’s.”

  Leah shook her head.

  “Wal-Mart Super Center.”

  Leah shook her head again, trying not to laugh.

  “Well that only leaves FoodSmart then.”

  “Yes, that’s right. And no, I wasn’t trying to cause trouble…but I guess that’s what I ended up doing.”

  “So if you manage a FoodSmart…”

  Leah didn’t correct him.

  “Then how is it that you were produce shopping at Mayfaire’s? Unless you were, in fact, checking out the competition?”

  I was checking out something.

  Leah paused, not wanting to lie but too embarrassed to tell the truth. Scott took her hesitation as confirmation.

  “I see,” he said. “No, don’t worry. We’ve all done it. So you must have heard about the problems that store was having.”

  “Actually I had no clue until…”

  Leah trailed off. She didn’t want to narc on those employees.

  “Until?”

  “Hey,” she said abruptly. “Do you want to get something to eat?” She flashed him a smile, somewhere in between stellar customer service and you would look great without those pants on. “We can talk shop.”

  “I’d love to.” Scott looked as if he were trying to return her smile but it got stuck somewhere while he was locking eyes with her. “I know a place.”

  Scott walked Leah across the street to a tiny Italian restaurant. He held open the door for her, then set his hand lightly on the small of her back as they entered. Leah closed her eyes and took a deep breath to keep from shivering noticeably. The hostess greeted them warmly and they were seated immediately—it was still a little early for the dinner crowd.

  Leah smiled across the table at Scott, contemplating how the hell she’d gotten here. When had she ever asked for a date? Was this a date? She didn’t know and she didn’t care. All she knew was that she had her chance and she wasn’t going to waste it.

  “Are you here often?” she asked.

  “I’ve been here several times. The salmon is killer. I wonder if they’ll have it on the menu tonight. It changes with whatever they get in.”

  “Sounds wonderful. So—you live close to here?”

  Leah tried not to sound like she was fishing.

  “I live in Overland Park so it’s not like I would just swing by here on a whim. But when I’m in the area it’s a definite.”

  “So you’re not staying in the hotel, I take it?”

  “No, Mayfaire’s wouldn’t pay for it, so unless someone else invites me to stay in their room I’m not…”

  Scott trailed off, then lowered his head. Was he blushing?

  “I’m sorry.” He shook his head as he looked at Leah. “I wasn’t at all insinuating that… I mean…”

  Leah grinned. She was thoroughly enjoying his discomfort almost as much as the thought of inviting him up to her room.

  “You mean…?” she asked innocently, feeling the wicked smile spreading.

  Scott laughed. “Enjoying yourself?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Over a glass of cabernet Leah learned all about Scott. As soon as he had half a glass of wine in him he opened up quite a bit, she noted. Lightweight. She listened with fascination about his time at Iowa State University and how he’d never worked anywhere else but for a grocery store chain. He talked halfway through dinner before Leah realized that he was rambling because he was nervous.

  Nervous because of me? When has that happened…ever?

  The server cleared away the dishes and Scott paid the tab. Leah and Scott were left with the remains of a bottle of wine. Leah was a little tipsy, a lightweight herself, and was trying not to act drunk. They laughed over a hundred stories from work. It amazed Leah that no matter how hard a grocery store tried to differentiate itself, it was really just the same as all the others when it came to the crazy things people would do within those four walls.

  “Oh my God,” Leah laughed, recovering from yet another story. “This one time we had a mother put her baby on the conveyor belt. The baby got all the way up to the cashier so he lifted her up and said, ‘ma’am, do y
ou have a coupon for this?’ I thought the woman was going to lose it. Baby thought it was pretty funny too.”

  “There was this one time,” Scott said, turning slightly red, “there was this beautiful girl running down aisle six and she slipped and fell. I ran to help her but I realized…it was really me who’d fallen.”

  Leah’s lips parted and she stared at Scott. Was it the wine talking?

  “I’m sorry,” Scott said quickly. “We should go.”

  Scott stood and held out his hand to Leah. “Shall we?”

  Leah took his hand and let him help her out of the seat. His hand was warm and comforting but the way his touch sent shivers all through her body made Leah desperate for a little more. When she was out of the seat, Scott tried to release her but she didn’t let go of his hand.

  It was still light outside when they emerged from the restaurant, which surprised Leah. It seemed like they’d been there for hours. Too bad, since Leah would have enjoyed a walk under the stars.

  “Have you ever been down to the plaza?” Scott asked.

  “Once but I wasn’t there long. Hardly counts, really.”

  “Would you like to go? The river walk is beautiful.”

  “I’d love to,” Leah breathed.

  Leah followed Scott back across the street to his silver Acura. He opened the door for Leah and she slid in, the supple leather of the interior molding to her body like it was made for her.

  “I love your car,” Leah said as Scott slid behind the wheel.

  “So do I.” He laughed. “This is what I get for driving an old beater for ten years.”

  “Ah, so you’re a man who saves and plans ahead?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Leah watched Scott in shrouded amazement as he backed the car out of its parking spot. He looked perfect in it. She couldn’t imagine him driving anything else. Classy yet not pretentious. Solid but not stuffy.

  Within moments of leaving the parking lot Leah was lost. She knew Kansas City like it was Shanghai. Without her map she might as well be anywhere in the world. But Scott knew exactly where he was going and delivered them to the plaza in a matter of fifteen minutes.