"Eric," he heard through fuzz.
"Eric, baby," he heard and felt his shoulders being jostled.
"
Erriic
," Peggy sang.
"Just five more minutes," he groaned into his pillow.
"Wake up, sleepy-head. We gotta get moving, don't we?"
"Why?" he said without moving.
"Didn't you tell me the meetings start at nine?"
"Yeah."
"It's 7:45."
"Oh,
crap
!" he yelped. "My alarm didn't go off!"
She chuckled. "Don't blame your phone, dude. I forgot to set mine, too."
He quickly rousted himself out of the bed, and the two shared a shower, refusing their mutual urges for a little morning hanky-panky.
Eric shaved at the sink while Peggy shaved her legs in the shower. He finished dressing as she began to style her hair. When she joined him back in the living area of the suite, he was brewing himself a cup of coffee from a Keurig.
"Want a cup?" he asked her.
"Absolutely. Just like yours, please." She smiled, seeing he prepared his with cream and no sugar. "I've gotta finish putting on my makeup."
"Hold up a second," he said, stepping toward her. He loosened the cinch-knot at the top of her towel and it fell to the floor around her ankles. He held her warm, dewy, naked body close and kissed her softly.
"Good
lord
you're so beautiful."
"Why'd you do that?" she asked and smiled sweetly.
"What. Kiss you?"
"Yeah, but like just right then."
"Because that kind of kiss would mess up your makeup if I waited until after."
The threads continued to unravel. Others followed in an incessant tug.
"I'm hands off from this point on. I promise," he added.
"Oh? I'll bet you a thousand dollars you can't."
"Can't what?" he asked with arched brows.
"Keep your promise."
"You're on in five seconds."
"Why five sec--
Ow
!" she shrieked with laughter when he playfully but firmly swatted a cheek of her bare bottom. "You're on!"
He left her alone to finish her morning routine. She didn't replace the towel, so he watched her beautiful naked body work its magic as she preened. He couldn't take his eyes off her tush. Its cheeks were so firm and tight. Her little pecan-colored pucker just an inch behind her bare vulva was beautiful. The sight of it made him want to tackle her and have his way, but he decided it'd have to wait.
She pulled two business suits from her case.
"Which one?" she asked him, holding up two blazers.
He looked at the pairings then pointed to the one she held in her right hand. She brought it under her neck.
"Yeah. That one's color sets off your hair and eyes."
"Really? It's dark. What does it have to do with my eyes?"
"Just telling you what I think. You've got those incredible green eyes and flaxen hair. Light versus dark. Rebels versus Empire. Sweet versus savory. Yin and Yang. I should stop now."
She laughed at his comical comparisons.
She pulled a pair of tiny black cotton panties from her suitcase and slipped them on, then a lacy bra. She saw him smile as she put it on, hiding her little breasts away.
"Want to go downstairs and get some breakfast?" Eric asked when she was finished dressing and re-packing.
"A light one. Maybe just a piece of fruit."
"Perfect. Lead the way."
She started walking toward the door, then stopped.
"What's wrong?" Eric asked.
"Nothing," she said. She unzipped the back of her skirt, pushed her panties over her hips, then re-situated her skirt. She slipped off her thong, folded it, and secreted it in the zippered compartment in her purse. She checked herself in the mirror one more time.
"Ready," she said with a wicked grin, and walked out the door with him following.
"I think I'm going to need to stop at the ATM on the way out of here," he said with a chuckle.
She returned a simple, innocent, coquettish smile.
"Hand-holding doesn't count," she offered, taking his as they walked down the corridor.
They each selected a piece of fruit from the complimentary buffet in the restaurant and headed out for the day.
Eric found it intensely distracting knowing the delightful, incredibly attractive and wickedly intelligent woman sitting a few seats away from him at the conference table, being completely professional and insanely well-postured and poised, was not wearing anything under her skirt. It was a choice she made spur-of-the-moment, and purely to cause those very thoughts.
When the dozen or so doctors and other professionals rose for a break, Peggy turned in Eric's direction and crouched to pull something from her soft-sided leather briefcase. Her posture and position were modest and ladylike, but she knew he was watching.
There was no one near him, and no one either in front of or behind him. She caught his eyes with hers and parted her knees very slightly. He caught just the slightest hint of what was bare there. From the slight grin on her face, he knew she was aware of what she was doing. He noticed the guy behind her watching what was probably, for him, a very nice view of her hips and bottom without the faintest hint of a panty line under the taut fabric.
Eric saw the man's eyes widen slightly for a few seconds before he politely averted his gaze, and it took every ounce of his own self-control to not let his own mouth go agape or show any sort of untoward reaction. It would certainly not be very professional for him to display what was happening at his midsection, so he decided to return to his seat and distract himself with case reports and charts until his anatomy returned to baseline.
He heard Peggy chuckle when she walked behind him, as if she'd heard something funny.
"Your visuals are helpful," Eric said, turning a page as she passed, wondering if she'd catch his double entendre.
"I try to ensure the reader's interest is piqued," she said as she leaned just close enough to him he could smell her delicate perfume. "I try to keep the fluff in proportion to bare information. I want the reader to be left with a rigid understanding, wanting to penetrate the morass of detail, and to be prepared to dive hard and deep into the conclusion."
She had certainly caught it, and her own multiple delivery made it where he wouldn't be able to stand up again for a few minutes.
Both during and after lunch, the conversations and discussions delved deeper into Peggy's background and experience. The meeting continued for several additional hours.
At close to four o'clock, a staff aide asked Peggy to follow him to another room. Eric went with them.
"Please, wait here. The board needs some time to talk privately," he said before he closed the door to the room to which he'd escorted them.
"Eric, what's all this about?" Peggy asked.
"I have no idea. I guess they want to talk without you in there."
"Yeah. Obviously, but it makes me nervous."
"Why?"
"I know they're talking about me, and they'd be doing it whether I'm in the building or not. But stashing me in another room? Yeah. Just makes me feel great," she said, her voice dripping in sarcasm.
The team room in which they sat was walled with floor-to-ceiling glass on one side. Eric wanted to take Peggy in his arms and offer her a reassuring hug, but felt it wouldn't be appropriate where they presently were. They sat and idly chatted for about thirty minutes before they were fetched and returned to the conference room.
"Doctor Foreman," Doctor Shields, the chairman of the hospital board, spoke. "Consider this hypothetical. If you were offered this position, and you chose to accept it, please describe to us what your departure from OC Regional would entail."
There it is
, Peggy thought to herself.
There's the magic question.
She knew it was a mildly loaded one. He was tacitly asking what she would do if, while working as the director of research at his hospital, another exciting opportunity were to cross her path. He was enquiring how her prospective new employer would be treated if she was wooed away.
"My time at Regional has been intensely satisfying and both personally and professionally fulfilling. I've made a number of friends there, and it will be very difficult to say goodbye. Please understand, I say this with no ego in mind, but I like to think my departure will be noticed, that I'll be missed.
"I'm sure I'll face questions, and it will be easy and honest to explain how my time at OCR has provided many invaluable experiences, but it's time for me to travel another avenue.
"It should come as no surprise to my peers. Not only do we seek to improve patient care, we want to better ourselves as physicians to ensure it. I will certainly strive to maintain professional contact and continue to network with them from whatever distance.
"I think it fair to offer one month's notice of my resignation. I might be prepared to offer another if appropriate incentives were provided."
Peggy had collected a small stack of papers and a few folders. She straightened them by tapping them on the table as a final punctuation mark to her answer. She didn't think about such actions consciously, but her skill and diplomacy in interacting with decidedly bureaucratic personnel guided her instincts.
She watched as Dr. Shields scanned the board members seated around the table. Peggy observed seven subtle nods. Dr. Shields smiled.
"Doctor Foreman, thank you so much for spending your valuable time with us. I'm to understand you're due back in Orlando this evening?"
Peggy nodded. "I'm on call tomorrow morning at seven o'clock."
He chuckled. "I definitely don't miss on-call rotations. I think we have everything we need, so we'll let you go on your way. The board has some other items to discuss before we can make it official, but I don't think it's terribly premature to say you might want to think about broaching the subject of your departure with your... perhaps... former employer."
She stood from the table as Doctor Shields rose and walked around it toward her. He shook her hand and the rest of the participants stood as well to offer presumptive congratulatory handshakes.
Peggy collected the remainder of her papers, closed her laptop, and put everything in her attaché. Eric followed behind her as she exited the room.
"How are you feeling?" he asked as she slowly walked the corridor toward the elevators.
"What. Just. Happened?" she whispered, stopping almost mid-stride to lean against a column.
"I think they might have said you have a new avenue ahead of you."
"I'm numb," she said. "This all happened so fast. I think I need a bit of a drink."
"Sure." He relieved her of her attaché and offered his arm. She placed her hand through it and resumed walking.
"What am I supposed to do now?" she asked when they boarded an elevator.
"Nothing is set in concrete yet, Peggy. Don't panic."
"I'm not panicking. I'm just kind of reeling. But really. What am I supposed to do now?"
"I guess you'll start by going home. Hopefully your on-call won't be busy and you'll have plenty of time to think. Remember. Nothing is set in motion until they send you an official offer letter. And you can still say no."
"I wonder how long they'll let me think about it."
"I imagine they'll give you a few days to sleep on it. They've done what I asked, so the endowment is locked in. They'll be anxious to see it getting put to use as quickly as they can."
"Are you surprised they gave me a wink-wink just now?
I
am."
