The harmless flirting that marked most of our interactions had escalated over the last few months. I ran into her and a friend once while out walking and literally couldn’t stop staring at her breasts while she and her friend talked to me. Up until that day, I’d successfully limited our conversations to a minute or two. But after that day, I started seeing her more often when I was coming or going from the house. She was fun to talk to; I was admittedly a little isolated because of my divorce and trying to care for my son. Our fun conversations did make me smile, and she always left me in a great mood.
The trampoline had ratcheted things up to a level that I’d never intended, though. My late—night fantasies were right there with her in that moment. The line between the things Anna and I did in real life and in fantasies was starting to blur. In an effort to stop thinking about her, I dialed the nanny as soon as I got into the house.
“Hi Rosie, how was Clyde on the way to school?”
“He was good.” She seemed a little thrown off by my phone call. I normally didn’t bother her during the day when I knew Clyde was at school because it was Rosie’s time to herself.
“Um, okay, good. I just wanted to remind you I’m working from home this afternoon. But I’ll probably head into the office around three.”
“Okay, is there anything else?”
“Yeah, I’ll call Clyde at five to talk, and I should be home by seven.”
“Like usual?”
“Oh, yeah, yeah, just like usual. Okay, um. Have a good day. Sorry for bothering you.”
“You too. I’ll see you around seven tonight.”
“Yep, seven it is. Okay, bye.”
The utter stupidity of that conversation had me laughing as I fell back onto my couch. I’d literally made a fool of myself in an effort to forget about Anna. This girl was driving me crazy, but crazy in the sort of way that I liked.
Since my wife decided she was going to run off with a musician and be his groupie, I’d had a bit of low self—confidence in recent months. Not enough of a matter to actually think about, but Anna’s flirting made me happy, without a doubt. What man didn’t like to be wanted by a young woman? It was a surefire way to boost my confidence as I rambled along and back into the world of dating.
My phone rang, and I welcomed the distraction as I picked up the call from my business partner, Kevin. “Yo, what’s going on Kev,” I said in a hip-hop gangster tone, jokingly.
“Nothing much, dog. What’s up with you, homeboy?” he said with a laugh.
“I just had a nineteen-year-old grinding on top of me while water sprayed down on us until her parents came home and I ran into my house and am now hiding. How’s your day?”
“Dude, what the hell? Don’t tell me about your scandalous neighbor again. I can’t take it. I’ve got a wife and two kids. My fantasy life consists of dreaming about having the television to myself for one whole hour this weekend.”
“I don’t know if I can say no to this girl much longer. She’s impossible to resist.”
“Jason Hartley, you can’t screw that girl. We need this deal. It’s the only thing we have on the schedule this year, and it has to be perfect.”
“Her ass is perfect. When was the last time you had your hands on a nineteen—year—old’s ass? I can tell you—it was perfect.”
“Dude, I was nineteen the last time I had my hands on a nineteen—year—old, and it was my wife. Just stop talking to the girl for now, please. I need this deal. We are buying a new house, Jason. I can’t have this deal fall through. Plus, we need the reputation for being easy to work with so we can get new projects. You understand, right?”
I understood exactly what Kevin was talking about, but I wasn’t sure he understood just how unbelievably hard it was to say no to Anna. I was going to have to hire someone to do my yard work and totally avoid her if I was ever going to make it through to the end of this deal.
“I gotcha, man. I’ll avoid her.”
“Yes, make sure you do. By the way, how is the legal paperwork coming for the buyout?” Kevin asked as he expertly changed the subject.
“It’s good. The lawyer made a few changes to the wording, but otherwise, it is ready to go.”
“Great, we will have a meeting at the first of next week, and if all goes well, we could have things wrapped up in no time. Then you can sow your wild oats with that hot piece of ass.”
I had to laugh at Kevin and his effort to be hip. At forty years of age, he certainly wasn’t old at all; he was only two years older than I was, but Kevin typically acted like he was closer to eighty. His life revolved around his wife and kids, and he never had time for anything but work and being with his family. It was annoying, yet I sometimes missed the sanctuary of having a family and marriage to come home to.
“Sounds like a deal. I’ll send over the numbers, and I’ve got calls to make with a few companies that are interested in supporting the venture. We can talk later.”
“Dude, seriously. Stay away from that girl, okay?”
“Yeah, I’m a grown man. I can resist a little temptation,” I said with much more confidence in my abilities to resist than I actually had.
Our business was thriving, but our cash was all tied up in other projects we had invested in. This particular project was more about using our contacts to build up the Cook, Sparser, and Conner Buildings. We stood to gain a huge commission, and then we could step away from the deal when the time was right.
So, Kevin was right, I had to stay away from Anna. I couldn’t have my way with her and expect things with Edward Cook would go over smoothly. She was his youngest daughter, and I was his business partner—those two worlds had to stay separate for now.
Chapter 2
Anna
Jason was absolutely going to be mine. I had no doubt about it at all. The way he looked at me made me horny, and I knew he could barely resist me. I wasn’t even sure why he kept trying to resist at all. I was more than happy to have a fun fling with him and leave it at that, nothing major, nothing like a commitment or anything. I just wanted Jason to be my first. After fantasizing about him since he and his wife had moved in next door, I couldn’t help but keep thinking about him as I grew into adulthood and his wife left him.
It was perfect. We would be perfect together. I’d saved my virginity for the right man, and deep down I knew that man was Jason. I couldn’t describe it; I just knew he was the guy for me. I had to call Patrick and tell him all about my afternoon.
“It’s the middle of the night, why are you calling me?” Patrick said in his usual grumpy voice.
“What are you talking about? It’s the middle of the afternoon. Did you go out all night without me?”
“I had a date with that new guy. You know the really tough guy that surprised me by asking me out? I swear he’s the perfect gay man. He’s a fitness model… can you even imagine me dating a fitness model? We would seriously be the talk of the town.”
“Was he nice?”
“Oh, yeah. I mean he’s perfect. Nice, smart, amazingly handsome. I’ve hit the jackpot, Anna. The total jackpot.”
“That’s so amazing. I can’t wait to meet him.”
“Well, I was thinking I might wait a little bit to have him meet everyone. I don’t want to rush things like I normally do.”
“Oh, um. Okay...”
“It’s not that I don’t think you’re amazing, Anna. You know you are the most amazing friend in the world. I am just trying to do things a little differently this time. What’s that saying about when you do things over and over and expect a different result?”
“It’s the definition of insanity,” I said as I climbed up the stairs in my house and then into my own bed as Patrick and I talked.
“Yeah, that was it. I don’t want to keep messing up. I’m getting old, you know. It’s hard for a guy like me to find a good match here in Chicago. It’s not like we live in San Francisco or someplace amazing like that.”
The idea of Patrick running off with a b
oyfriend and not including me made me sad. It was silly that I was thinking about it and even sillier that I didn’t want him to be totally happy. But Patrick was my go-to guy when everyone else was working or out with their boyfriends. Patrick was perpetually single, like me, and therefore always available.
My best friend Lilli had run off with her new boyfriend and was traveling the world. I had plenty of other girlfriends, but they were perpetually dating guys and hanging out with them. The only other friend I could count on being available was Summer Edwards, but she drove me crazy with her whining and always trying to get a rich boyfriend so she didn’t have to work.
“Speaking of doing something new…” I giggled as I thought of how I’d jumped into Jason’s lap. “I may have done something a little crazy this morning.”
“May have? That implies you don’t know if you did or didn’t do this crazy thing. We both know you did it. Now tell me what happened. Was it that hottie dad that lives next door to you? Did you bone him? Please tell me the two of you finally knocked boots.”
“No!” I protested as if he had just suggested something vulgar. “But I did tease him and force him onto my trampoline.”
“You got a trampoline?”
“Yeah, I told my dad that it was to help prevent backaches.”
“Your dad believed that? How can such a smart man be so absolutely stupid when it comes to anything you want from him?”
“My dad just really likes it when I’m happy,” I said proudly. “He’s the best dad in the world.”
“He is a pretty damn good father to you. I wish my father were half the man yours was. But seriously, a trampoline? How does he not know you are trying to seduce that hot neighbor of yours?”
“I don’t know, but he doesn’t seem to have a clue. I even ran into Jason and was talking to him in the front driveway when my father got home from work. Not a clue at all.” I laughed at the memory.
My father really was oblivious to what I did with my time. He and my mother traveled often with his work and left me home to fend for myself. My four older brothers were all out of the house and living their own lives, and I swore my parents couldn’t wait for me to finally decide to move out. At nineteen years of age, I had put off going to college because I didn’t know what I wanted to do with myself yet, but sooner or later I’d have to make some life decisions.
“I feel bad for your hot neighbor. He’s got to have blue balls by this point.”
“What?”
“Never mind. I just can’t believe he hasn’t given in to you yet. I mean he seems like a pretty stand-up guy for refusing your flirting. Does he know you’re nineteen or does he think you’re jailbait?”
“Oh, he knows. Since the day I turned eighteen, I made sure he knew it was my birthday, and I was an official adult. I’m almost twenty now, Patrick. For nearly two years, he’s been avoiding my flirting.”
“Some girls would have taken that as a hint that he wasn’t interested,” Patrick snickered.
“Shut up. He’s interested. His shorts were about to burst open as he was so hard for me today.”
“Really? How do you know?”
“I straddled him and ground up against him on my trampoline.” I couldn’t help laughing at what I had done. It was a bit strong even for me.
“Anna, really?” Patrick said with a huge hint of disappointment in his voice.
“What Patrick? What’s that tone about? He liked it. He could barely keep his hands off of me, and he almost kissed me.”
Patrick was quiet for a minute, and I knew that was a really bad sign. Patrick was never quiet, and he never had an issue with telling me exactly what he was thinking. One time when I’d used my fake ID and we went out drinking, Patrick told me I looked like I was twelve because the dress I had on was too childish. Sure enough, we got turned away at the club door, and my identification was confiscated as a fake. Another time, I’d been dancing with this dude who I liked, and Patrick told me he was married. I argued that he couldn’t tell such a thing by looking at someone, but sure enough, the guy ended up being married. Basically, I knew Patrick had something he wanted to say to me and was biting his tongue instead of saying it.
“Come on, just tell me. What do you want to say?” I urged him.
“You know I love you. I’d never say anything to hurt your feelings, and this is coming from a place of total love,” he said as he paused again. “You’re acting like a slut.”
“Patrick!”
“I’m not saying you are a slut. I know you aren’t. But what kind of self—respecting woman chases after a guy and basically accosts him like that? Why not let him chase after you?”
“Because he won’t chase after me. He’s not that kind of guy. He’ll just keep going about his busy life and not show any interest at all.”
“Well…” Patrick started to say and then stopped himself.
“Well, what?”
“Maybe he’s not really interested in you then.”
Patrick’s words hit me hard, and I sat up in my bed as I tried to come to terms with what he was saying. I wasn’t acting like a slut. I was just teasing Jason. He obviously wanted me and was just saying no because of my father. There was no other reason for him to deny his attraction to me.
“He is too interested,” I protested.
“Anna, don’t you want a guy who will do anything to have you? Who will go out of his way to make you feel special? This guy won’t even give you the time of day.”
“That’s not true. We talk all the time. He is just in the middle of a business deal, and it involves my dad, so he’s keeping his distance.”
“I wish you’d back off a little and see what he does. If he wanted you, he’d come after you and let you know it.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. When this deal with my father is over with, I know he’s going to be asking me out. Like a real date and everything. And I know he likes it when I flirt with him. He smiles and laughs and can’t keep his eyes off me.”
“I’m sorry if I sounded harsh. I just want you to find that fairytale man for your first time. You deserve that.”
“Well, you don’t know him like I do. Anyways, I better go. I have to help my mom with cleaning up. I’ll talk to you later,” I said curtly and hung up without giving Patrick time to respond.
Patrick meant well. If there was anything in life that I was sure of, it was his intent. I wasn’t angry with him. I just didn’t like the idea of looking at the situation from his perspective. Never had I thought I was throwing myself at Jason. Instead, I was seducing him and teasing him so he couldn’t refuse me.
Jason wasn’t saying no to me because he didn’t want me—that wasn’t it at all. I might have been inexperienced in sex, but I knew men, and Jason wanted me. It wasn’t something I could explain to Patrick, but I knew Jason wanted me just as badly as I wanted him.
The way his hands grabbed my ass, that wasn’t the grip of a man who was being forced into anything. Sure, I’d been a little more aggressive than I probably should have, and I was going to back off a little when I saw Jason the next time. I wasn’t going to be one of those girls who kept throwing herself at a man who didn’t make any effort to go after her. Patrick was one hundred percent right about that. I deserved a guy who couldn’t resist me and wanted nothing else in the world than to be with me.
But, I didn’t want Jason to think I was a cheap girl who didn’t respect herself and perhaps throwing myself at him wasn’t the best way to show him I liked him. Then again, I hadn’t even had a regular boyfriend yet, so I really didn’t know what I was doing when it came to Jason. I acted like I had all the answers, but the truth was, I was just pretending because it was easier than being vulnerable and honest with people.
“Your father is going to be home at six o’clock. Do you want to help me get the grill going so he can cook?” my mother said from the bottom of the stairs.
I jumped out of bed and sat on the top step as I looked down at my be
autiful mother. I was the spitting image of her with blonde hair and blue eyes and a petite frame. My mother and I could wear some of the same clothing, and if we did our hair the same, we practically looked like sisters.
“Mom, what is the purpose of getting all the food prepared and ready, but then waiting for Dad to come home to grill it? I can just grill it and have everything ready for when he gets home.”
“Oh, no! Your dad likes to do the grilling. We can’t touch the grill.”
“Are you serious? Is this the eighteen-hundreds and women can’t touch the grill?”
“Anna, I’m a happily married woman who knows that her husband really enjoys his grill and takes pride in making his family food on it. That’s part of being in a relationship—sometimes you do things purely because it makes the other person happy. Now come help me already.”
“Fine, fine, but someday I’m going to get my hands on that grill,” I joked as I came downstairs to help my mother get dinner ready, or semi—ready since we had to wait for Dad to come home to actually start the grilling.
She pulled the hamburger meat out of the fridge and all the extra ingredients she liked to put into the patties. My mom was a little fanatical about her cooking and added chia seeds and other antioxidants to just about everything. She insisted that we couldn’t tell the difference in the taste, and all her extra ingredients made us healthier. My father and I learned a long time ago not to question Mom’s ideas around the super foods she wanted us to eat.
“So, how are you?” Mom asked as she tried to weasel in some typical Mom questions while we worked.
“I’m good.”
“How’s Lilli doing? Did she run off with that man?”
“Yeah, and she says she’s in love.” I laughed.
“Well, love is a sneaky creature. You never know when it will bite you,” she said under her breath as she kept squishing the meat with her hands to work in the ingredients.
Bedroom Rodeo: A Billionaire Romance Page 29
