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because if she hadn’t, she
might never have met Blaine Parker.
     

Chapter
Eight
     
    Monday
morning, Blaine’s groin was still sore. Each time the memories of the past
weekend filtered into his consciousness, he couldn’t stop the smile, and he
lost his concentration at work. The first thing he’d done yesterday morning,
while Colleen was still sleeping, was to apply for the permits online.
    The
process had taken much longer than he’d anticipated, and he wasn’t quite
finished when she came downstairs, poured herself a cup of coffee, and glanced
over his shoulder. As soon as she realized what he was up to, she got down on
her knees in the middle of the kitchen and gave him another mind-numbing
blowjob.
    He
had a small live-in staff like most of his friends, but it was a good thing
there weren’t more people living in the apartment because the woman had no
inhibitions and she was insatiable. Not that Blaine was complaining. He’d never
had a weekend like this past one. He hadn’t expected her to stay beyond
Saturday morning, and had wanted her to stay all week, but she had gone back to
her apartment this morning before he left for work.
    That
didn’t bother him. It usually took him a couple of weeks before he started
asking a woman to stay over all the time, and not all of them were comfortable
doing so. Colleen was the first woman in a long time he hadn’t been wishing
would leave after a couple of days. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy having them
around while they were dating, but he liked his personal space and his free
time.
    Now,
he missed her. If she worked here, he could have lunch with her, but her office
was across town, and he wouldn’t dare show his face in the building. He could
only imagine what people would say, and he didn’t want to jeopardize her job.
    Blaine
rose and stood in front of the wall of windows facing the fake outdoors. Soon,
he could once again gaze out at the plains in North Dakota every day. It didn’t
matter to him if it was no longer called that. It would always be North Dakota
to him. The day he’d met Colleen he’d been on the surface, glancing out over
what was left of the place he’d grown up.
    Guilt
gnawed at him as he remembered discovering that Charlene O’Leary was Colleen’s
aunt. He had meant to find a way to bring up the subject all weekend, but the
timing never seemed right.
    That’s because you were either
fucking her or sleeping!
    All
true, but it would have to be addressed. If she found out about his past with
her aunt before he told her, she’d assume he’d kept it from her on purpose.
While that was true, it wasn’t right for him not to divulge this now that they
were an item. It would come back to haunt him, and might jeopardize his
project.
    He
returned to his desk and clicked around, checking out the background on Colleen
Newton, which he should have done before Friday. He could have saved himself a
lot of angst. Information on her wasn’t difficult to find. Her mother’s family
was well-connected and insanely wealthy. He simply hadn’t known her mother’s
maiden name or he would have made the connection before.
    She
was the youngest of three daughters. Her older sisters were both married with
kids, and were heavily entrenched in the charity ball circuit, just like her
mother. Her father had worked in real estate development before everyone moved
underground. Once they did, he had still worked in real estate, but six months
ago he’d changed careers.
    Now,
he had a middle management position in a satellite office here in North
Central, at what used to be the US Post Office. The post office still
functioned like it used to, but it had recently been combined with several
other government offices into a centralized communications department.
Colleen’s father worked in a department that exercised control over media,
among other things. That included Blaine’s business, Clear Channel Communication.
    Blaine
had never had any trouble from the