Working It by Cathy Yardley Page B

wringing through her. She felt like crying. She felt like screaming. Instead, she just kept kissing him, their bodies stroking against each other as each moved. She buried her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck as she pulled him to her, closer. His breathing was uneven, ragged as hers.
    She felt his hand smooth down her hip…and reach for the hem of her skirt.
    Jade. What are you doing?
    She pulled away, almost throwing herself off of him.
    He sat up abruptly, his eyes looking dazed. “Jade, wait…”
    â€œ That is what my body is capable of.” She put ahand to her chest, feeling her heart beating wildly…and feeling the ache behind it, as what she’d just done started to sink in. Sexual frustration warred with shame. “If I’d wanted to use my body to convince that guy Skip, I could have gotten him to order ten years’ worth of steel, Drew. I could have gotten him to invest in your company. I could have made him do anything. So tell me again. Do you really think I used my body to get what I wanted?”
    He stared at her, his breathing still rasping. “Jade…”
    She pointed at him. “You’re just like all those other jerks who think that I’ve got a pretty face and a hot body and nothing else. You think I’m incapable of getting anything without using my looks. News flash, Drew. I don’t play that way. I don’t need to. I’m not going to pretend that I don’t know what I look like. And I’m not going to change how I look and wear sackcloth just to prove to idiots like you that I’ve got a mind, too. And whether you want to admit it or not, my mind is what got you the sale this afternoon, Drew!”
    Drew’s blue eyes were dilated, so large they almost looked black. “Now wait a minute…”
    â€œDon’t. Just…don’t. This conversation is finished.” With that, she turned and stormed out, back to her own room. She had just about unlocked the door when the tears started. She locked it behind her.
    What the hell have I done?
    She had tackled a client. She’d made an ass of herself. She’d lost the account, and her promotion, and what the hell, let’s just throw in some self-respect while we’re at it, huh?
    She felt sick.
    She paced for a minute, her breathing shallow, her stomach queasy. She needed to talk to someone. Obviously not Betsy—with news like this? Jade couldn’t believe what she’d just done.
    No. This called for someone closer than that. She picked up her cell phone.
    After four rings she heard the answering machine pick up. “You know who you’ve reached…and you know why I can’t answer the phone. Talk to you later.”
    Jade waited for the beep, then took a deep breath. “Hailey? I figure you’re bartending tonight, but whatever time you get in, could you call me? I really need to talk. If I don’t answer, check your e-mail. It’s important.”
    She hung up. She should have known Hailey would be at work. Unfortunately, there wasn’t really anybody else she felt she could talk to.
    She climbed onto the hotel bed, turning on the television with the remote and staring at the screen blankly. She would have to figure out how to get to the nearest airport. She would have to figure out how to explain this to Betsy. She would have to figure out how to save her career. She would have to figure this out alone.
    She had gone through worse alone, she thought as channel after channel flashed across the television screen. She would get through this.
    Â 
    D REW PACED THE CONFINES of his hotel room, holding his cell phone. “Ken, she’s got to go.”
    He heard Ken sigh over the crackle of static. “What happened?”
    Drew flashed mentally to seeing her descend on him, before his eyes had closed and his body had drownedin sensation. He couldn’t talk about that, not to Ken. Hell, he could barely get a