Cara had just been thoroughly fucked.
And now he'd told her to get ready for more. Hell yea, she thought. He was intoxicating. She ached for him. In the time since college, she had forgotten what it felt like, but one hour of pool was all it took to have her enamored with him again. Taking the step she'd never done before had suddenly felt inevitable. It also felt fucking amazing.
Cara looked around his hotel suite. The clock read 10:15pm. She needed to be up by 7am and at the conference podium by 9:30am. But lying curled on his bed, spent of energy, was too heady of a feeling to make her move.
After retrieving robes, Tom had left the bathroom light on. Wrapped in the plush cotton, he turned on a side table lamp and approached the room service cart, and then began uncovering plates. Cara propped her head on one hand and watched.
She saw fruit, crackers and wedges of cheese, nuts, olives, a small tureen, and a plate with tiny chocolate cubes. There was also a bucket with the neck of a bottle sticking out and two glasses.
He pulled the bottle straight up, holding it in the air, letting cold water drip back into the ice. He stood still, looking Cara up and down...roving slowly over her bare knees, calves, unpainted toes, back up to the sash she'd tied around her waist and finally to her neckline which gaped open just enough to show off a freckle on her left breast. The Hotel Monaco would be proud of how well their leopard robe was flaunting itself, he thought.
"Ok. Drink first. You thirsty?" he quizzed.
She smirked teasingly. "Wow. I didn't take you for a champagne guy."
Tom unwrapped the foil and was twisting the wire cage off. "I'm not. It's prosecco actually. But its good....and it's even better with the cheese."
After popping the cork gently, he poured some and leaned over to hand her a glass. "And I bet you'll like it."
Cara sat up, kneeling at the end of the bed, and took the fluted glass from him. As he poured the second glass, she tipped hers forward gesturing a toast and eyed him with satisfaction.
"To the sexiest guy I've ever known."
He looked surprised for a fleeting moment, and then smiled crookedly, "I'm workin' on it."
Cara took a sip, letting the bubbles pop along the roof of her mouth. The wine was dry and crisp and faintly fruity going down her throat.
"That's pretty good," she admitted.
"Here...," as he held a slice of cheese gently between thumb and middle finger.
She bit into the rich pecorino, rolling the creamy sourness along her tongue. Then another sip from her glass. He was right.
"Mmm," she murmured, blinking very slowly and shaking her head. "How do you know this shit?" She bit into the cheese again.
"I don't," he said flatly. "I stole it. Coworker of mine did one of those organized bike tours of Tuscany or something. He came back raving about this stuff. Sounded like a pompous ass. But he paid for drinks one night after work and ordered it. I had to admit it wasn't bad."
Tom propped himself against the bureau which was next to the service cart. "So I wanted to have some good food with you." The corners of his mouth curled a bit more. "That and get you drunk on prosecco."
Cara laughed. The two beers from the lounge downstairs had worn off, but the new bubbles were quickly making her light-headed.
"Don't even think about it! I'm presenting the intricacies of media relations in corporate event planning at precisely 9:31am tomorrow morning. And I am not doin' it hung over."
He knew she was an event planner – and the national conference was in Chicago for two days. But they hadn't talked about it much. He reached forward for a flatbread cracker.
"So what events do you do? What's your talk about?"
"I don't do weddings," she said quickly and firmly. "Non-negotiable." He could tell that it wasn't the first - or even hundredth – time she'd made the assertion.
"But a lot of EP's do," she continued, shrugging. "They like to handle parties... personal events. I just can't stand the emotional mess at those things.
I do corporate. Sales meetings, annual meetings, executive summits, possibly retreats depending on how serious they are."
He frowned quizzically. "How serious they are?"
"Yea, like, if they're having a working retreat with meeting times, team bonding, goal setting, etc." She took another sip from her glass. "If they're just having a day of golf and 10 minutes of annual recap...no thanks. I learned my lesson at a thing for a small financial firm. Luxury resort, spouses were invited. There was supposed to be morning and afternoon meetings but once the CFO left on day one, they scrapped almost everything and had me scheduling pedicures and cognac tastings."
"They whined about the pillows, the lack of cigars, the weather, anything...." She laughed through her nose. "Speaking of pompous assholes... Anyway, I swore I'd never do that again – even for corporate."
Tom bit into an olive. "So you don't have asshole clients?"
Cara put a foot on the carpet and reached forward for a cracker. She nodded gently. "I do. But if they're serious about their event, I deal with it. I usually have bigger companies – mostly from Portland...construction, lumber. Sometimes the big guns like HP or Nike or Columbia Sportswear. Whenever Nike does an annual meeting, the press wants a piece of that. I handle the venue and A/V within the meeting - like vendors to do the big screen video projection....and then also press access after the meeting where the top execs might do a round of TV news interviews. Satellite uplink or VYVX fiber...everything. I make them look and sound good. First for their employees...then for the press." She took a bite of cracker.
"I bet you do." He was watching her intently.
Cara felt like she'd talked too much already. But his interest was flattering. Talking to him was energizing her.
"You meet some high powered men, I bet." Cara heard a question mark lying underneath.
She took a sip of prosecco. "I do. They're not bad with having a woman give them orders. Especially on the media stuff. They're usually out of their element on satellite interviews so they tend to listen. The lumber companies are pretty much Old Boys Clubs, so not as comfortable with me." She shrugged with a sigh. "But the IT and retail firms are more progressive. Their execs are pretty respectful....and thankful."
Finally, Cara answered the question hidden in his previous comment. "Senior execs all have very closed circles. I'm never allowed in."
She smiled, shaking her head and taking a final sip.
She reached over and set her empty glass on a nightstand. "No more bubbles."
She readjusted the leopard robe, tightening it around her waist, and then crossed her legs again on the bed. She cocked her head, watching his hands pick grapes off a small bunch.
"What about your client?" she quizzed. "You said you were here for a partner?"
Tom swallowed the fruit and rested his hands on the sides of the bureau.
"Yea, my firm does IT consulting. We have a partner here in Chicago that does implementation – boots on the ground type of thing. I'm here to talk with them about some internal legal stuff and also to train them on a new way to do software deployments for our clients."
He drained his glass and filled it again with more of the sparkling wine. Then he strolled to the nightstand and filled Cara's glass as well before handing it back to her.
She smirked, looking up through her eyelashes. "You're a bad influence."
Tom raised his eyebrows. "I should hope so," he agreed, curling the corners of his mouth. He turned and sat on the bed next to her, still holding the bottle.
Cara caught the musky scent of him. She leaned back on an arm watching him.
"So is that what you do? Deploy software?"
"No. I manage a team that does it. I'm fairly technical, but I focus on the client relationship. Then I hire the really geeky tech guys to handle the software."
Tom watched her take a sip from her glass. Her body language seemed shy but she held his gaze.
His eyes burned into hers. "You're so unbelievably sexy."
Cara smirked and dropped her head breaking their eye contact. Then looked up again at him thru her lashes.
"How long are you here?" he quizzed.
She wanted to say "As long as you'll have me," but answered broader. "Till Wednesday. Noon. And you?"
"Thursday. Unless I need to see some clients in addition to the partner. There may be one I have to wine and dine on Thursday night. When is your conference over?"
"My talk is tomorrow morning but I need to listen in on some of the afternoon sessions. And then a cocktail hour with some high level EPs at 4pm. But Tuesday is it. They do coffee and rolls Wednesday morning more as a sendoff – nothing official."
He paused, his soft gaze scanning her face, her neck, her shoulders. "Can I see you tomorrow night?"