floor beside the table.
In the kitchen, he glanced around for more incriminating evidence. The answering machine blinked at him with a message waiting, so he turned it off to avoid any disastrous “Hey, Alex” messages. A few pieces of mail lay on the counter near the phone. He grabbed them up and shoved them in a drawer beneath the phone book, then found the silverware.
“What would you like to drink?” he called into the living room. “I have beer, water, milk and OJ.”
“Guess I’ll take a beer, then.”
He emerged from the kitchen carrying two Heinekens, plates, forks and serving spoons, then arranged it all on the cocktail table.
“I need to use the bathroom,” he said. “I’ll be right back. Go ahead and start without me.”
Inside his small bathroom, he threw open the medicine cabinet and scooped out the labeled prescription medicine, then wrapped it all in a towel and stowed it in the back of the cabinet under the sink. After relieving himself and washing his hands, he went to the bedroom and gave it a quick survey for more evidence of his real identity.
For once, his lack of effort in making his apartment a personal space seemed to be paying off. The only thing he needed to hide in his bedroom was an old photo of himself and his brother, which he stowed in a dresser drawer. Entering the hallway again, he bumped into Yasmine leaving the bathroom.
“Just needed to wash my hands,” she said. “What are you doing?”
“Hiding some dirty laundry from you.”
She grinned. “I’ve been in bachelor pads before. Socks on the floor are not going to shock me.”
“I’d at least like your first impression to be something besides ‘hopeless slob.’”
“Trust me, your first impression is safe,” she said, glancing down at his crotch—or was it his reindeer boxers?
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he said as he followed her down the short hallway.
She turned and slid her arms around his waist, peering up at him. “It means, when you give a girl the kind of ride you just gave me, she’s not going to give a damn what your apartment looks like.”
His cock, predictable as it was, stirred against her abdomen. At the same time, his stomach growled, and she glanced down at the sound.
“We’d better feed you so you’ll have energy for later.”
For later. A jolt of satisfaction shot through him to know that there’d be more, that this wasn’t just a one-shot deal.
In the living room again, Alex grabbed two large pillows from the sofa and tossed them on the area rug as makeshift floor pillows. “Dining doesn’t get any finer than this,” he said as he motioned for her to sit.
She smiled. “I’m a simple girl. Great sex, good carryout—it doesn’t take a lot to make me happy.”
They dug into the food and ate in silence for a few minutes. Alex hadn’t realized just how hungry he was until he’d devoured most of his shrimp fried rice and looked up to see Yasmine staring at his work space on the other side of the room.
“Looks like you’ve got a whole business set up there,” she said, and the food in his stomach turned to stone.
He did all his security business work from home, and if she looked closely enough, she’d be able to figure it out.
He shrugged. “I’m a computer geek—what can I say?”
“Bet my system’s better than your system,” she taunted.
“Did you build it yourself?”
“Yeah, you?”
He nodded. “Play your cards right and I might show you what’s inside the CPU case, water-cooled system and all.”
“We’re verging on sounding like the world’s biggest geeks, you know.”
“Yeah.” He grinned. “We should stop while we’re still ahead.”
She cast a curious glance at him. “What exactly are we doing here?”
“Eating fried rice and Kung Pao chicken?”
“I mean you and me. Are we going to pretend this never happened come Tuesday?”
“I know the whole sleeping-with-a-coworker thing can get awkward,” he said, buying time until he could think of the best angle.
“Maybe we should establish some ground rules.”
“Is this a one-night thing?” he asked, hoping like hell it wasn’t. “Or do you see this happening again?”
She smiled and glanced down at his bare feet. “You do have nice feet,” she said.
He slid his foot closer, then trailed his toes along her inner thigh until they made contact with her panties. He found her clit with his big toe and massaged, watching as her eyes fluttered shut.
“Mmm,” she moaned, letting her fork clatter onto the plate.
“Are you avoiding my question?”