Chapter 94: Balance, pride... Disappointment

A few hours later, Tom was ready.

He stood in front of the wardrobe and fastened the last button of the third corporate suit from his shopping trip and took a few seconds to admire the outfit on his body.

The color of the suit was Espresso brown and it hugged his shoulders perfectly and made him look every part of a young, handsome CEO only that he wasn’t going to an office.

"This will do." He muttered and gave his reflection a small smile.

On the bed behind him lay the backpack he had packed with more care than he wanted to admit. There were two casual changes in it, basic necessities, the premium cologne and several of the obscene undergarments from the System’s collection, folded beneath the rest as if burying them under ordinary clothes could make the intention behind them any less obvious.

He packed the undergarments because the system had interfered while he was packing and maintained that those would fasten the completion of the mission.

He drew the zipper shut, slung the bag over one shoulder, and left the room.

Sienna was in the living room when he got there.

However, she was not simply passing through it. Tom saw that at once. Her posture gave her away; upright, waiting, her attention already angled toward the entrance side of the house as if the next person through the door had already been decided in her mind.

She heard footsteps, glanced back briefly then faced her front sharply as if that was going to erase the fact that she had just looked at him and they would start all over again that he had just walked in and she hadn’t seen him.

Tom pressed his lips together at the reaction. He knew it was the tension from the hallway encounter still occupying the space between them. It had not been cleared by time. It had only been left untouched long enough to thicken.

Tom cleared his throat.

Sienna turned her head. Then she allowed her eyes to take him in properly. Her eyes moved over the suit, the bag and the obvious fact that he was going somewhere dawned on her. Whatever she had been holding ready shifted behind her expression.

"I’m going away on a vacation for two days. If anything develops with L×L Boxers, let me know." Tom informed her.

Surprise crossed her face first. Then, more faintly, disappointment. She controlled it quickly, but not quickly enough for him to miss the change around her mouth and eyes. For a moment it looked like she might ask where. Or with whom. Or why the decision sat so fully formed already.

Tom appreciated the fact that she didn’t open her mouth.

"Bye," he said simply.

He walked past her and out of the house, and without turning around, he was certain her gaze was following him as far as the door. It was, indeed.

Tom breathed in the outside air eagerly as he got there, then slided into the Mercedes. He dropped his bag on the passenger seat the he summoned the System interface with a thought and opened the inventory.

The vacation home reward from the earlier side mission was still there with its six months of free access, key and address sealed cleanly into the record.

He checked both.

It was a coastal villa outside the city, private enough to have an enclosed courtyard. It was discreet enough for unregistered stays. Exactly the sort of place a man could take a woman like Stella without inviting the wrong kind of attention.

[Host finally intends to make proper use of the property?] the System asked, tone lightly edged with amusement then added before even allowing Tom to reply;[Go on then. Do whatever you wish inside it.]

Tom’s mouth curved despite himself. "That’s the plan."

He was in a good mood... Not just because of the fun of the vacation but for the simple realization that he could go on a vacation without having to worry about money or time. He had both available, something he had never enjoyed since he grew into an adult.

He closed the interface, texted Stella for the pickup point, and only after her reply landed did he start the engine and pull out of the compound.

He did not notice the second car turning in as he left.

~~~~~~~~~~~

From the living room window, Sienna did notice the second car turning in.

Vincent’s car came through the entrance just after Tom’s Mercedes disappeared down the road. The timing was close enough to frustrate her immediately. She remained where she was, one hand resting against the back of a chair, and watched Vincent step out, the man carrying himself with the easy confidence of a man who had never been told to wait for anything that mattered.

"Wrong timing."

The thought arrived fully formed. She had wanted him to arrive while Tom was still in the house. She wanted the door to open on that picture, another man walking in for her, easy and familiar, while Tom was forced to see it. She could not properly explain why she wanted that.

Was it balance? Pride? Or a need to prove to herself that the hallway scene had not left her disordered. Whatever the reason, the opportunity had already gone down the road in Tom’s car.

Vincent entered without hesitating, he knew his way around the house so well. He was already calling her name as he walked through;

"Sienna... Babe..."

He found her standing in the living room and smiled like the evening was already arranged to his satisfaction. Crossing the space, he slid an arm around her waist and pulled her into a close hug, his body angling in with open suggestion.

He pressed his lower body against hers, making her feel his bulge, making her breathe in the scent of his cologne, the pressure of his hand at her back, the familiar claim in the way he held her... all of it should have worked. It had worked before.

She should be melting in those arms...

Instead, her mind betrayed her.

The moment his hand settled against her, memory cut through the present with brutal clarity. All she could think was Tom’s palm locking over her ass, the wall at her back, pinning her to him, the thick, unmistakable brush of him against her stomach and the gasp she had not been able to kill in time.

Heat that had nothing to do with Vincent moved through her in a short, unwanted wave.

Sienna swallowed hard.

Something in her body leaned away from the man actually holding her, and there was no elegant way to pretend she had not felt the shift.

"I’m suddenly not in the mood anymore," she said.

Vincent’s arms loosened just enough for him to lean back and look at her face. "What?"

"I just remembered I still have fabric sorting to finish." The excuse came too quickly, but she held to it anyway. "I can’t do this right now."

Disappointment spread over his expression at once, followed by confusion. He had arrived expecting an open door, a hungry woman, an easy reclaiming of her attention. What he found instead was a closed tone and a body that had already stepped emotionally out of his hold.

"We should reschedule, yeah. We should." She said, sounding urgent.

Sienna moved back from Vincent before he could recover the embrace, her eyes already turning away.

Vincent’s lips parted as he stared at her in disbelief.