As soon as the doors opened, my attention was immediately drawn to the man standing inside. Good God, not now, I thought, as Jax made eye contact with me. I hesitated before entering after Amelie and stood quietly, feeling the tension mount as the car slowly made its descent.
It didn’t seem like Amelie noticed, because she continued talking to me, asking if I wanted to have lunch with her tomorrow to work out the details of how we would get to the play that night.
“That sounds great,” I told her, without expounding.
“Great! How about the coffee shop around the corner? I hear they serve the best paninis during lunch time,” she suggested.
“No!” I blurted without thinking.
Amelie looked at me, confused.
“Sorry. I, uh… don’t care for coffee. Maybe we can try something else. What about the sub shop across the street, instead?” I offered. I swore I could feel Jax’s eyes on me, and it was making me squirm.
The doors opened on floor seven, and another gentleman entered the elevator, causing me to have to move closer to Jax to make room. As the doors closed again, a phone began to ring. Jax brought his cell phone up to his ear and answered.
“Yes? … Does she, now? … No, that won’t be necessary. I’ll call her. … No, we’re having dinner this Thursday. … You just worry about getting me that report I need. … Okay.”
He ended the call and put his phone in a pocket inside his jacket, then gave me a sideways glance. I wondered who he was taking to dinner on Thursday, but it didn’t matter. He was certainly free to dine with whomever he wanted.
The elevator finally came to a stop on the ground floor. Amelie and I exited the elevator car, following the gentleman who had gotten on at the seventh floor. Just as we began making our way across the atrium, I heard Jax call my name.
“Perla?”
I stopped in my tracks, as did Amelie, and turned back toward him, curious as to what he might want and embarrassed at what Amelie might think.
Jax gave a simple smile. “Have a good evening.” He nodded before strutting away in another direction.
“You, too,” I mumbled under my breath. I turned back toward Amelie who was gawking at me with her mouth gaping open. We continued toward the exit.
“You know him?” she asked, wide-eyed in disbelief.
“Not really. He’s just an acquaintance I’ve run into once or twice,” I minimized. There was no sense in making a big deal out of nothing.
“So, then, you know who he is.” It wasn’t a question. I walked through the exit and held the door for Amelie. Then, we continued out from beneath the awning, into the stifling heat.
I knew she was hoping for a juicy story, but really, there was nothing to tell. I shrugged. “That’s Mr. Maddox of Maddox Industries.”
Amelie laughed. “Mr. Maddox? He seemed to be on a first-name basis with you.” She searched my face, and whatever she found there, she decided to change the subject. “Well, anyway, should I pick you up at your place around six-thirty? I need to run and check on my mom, then go home and change. After that I can be on my way.”
“Sure, that sounds perfect.” I gave her my address before we parted ways and I caught the DART bus back to my apartment.
JAX
So Perla and I were back to being strangers, it seemed. Sure, I appreciated her discretion, but after saying hello, I at least thought she would have stopped to talk for a moment. As it was, she barely acknowledged me.
I found it almost comical, the extent that she was going to keep me at arms’ length. No matter, I thought. I had seen her eyes shift in my direction when Ezra had called and I had mentioned meeting my mother for dinner on Thursday. At the very least, she was somewhat affected by me. I figured it was just a matter of time before I had her where I wanted her, coming apart beneath me in my bed with my dick balls-deep inside her.
As I approached the curb outside the side entrance to Maddox Tower, Holden pulled the black Escalade around, and I got in the back seat. Pulling my phone out of my inner coat pocket, I called my mother, following up on Ezra’s tip that she had an issue at work that day.
“Hello, dear. What a surprise.” Victoria answered in a cheerful tone.
“Mother, Ezra called. He said you were having problems with a vendor?” My mother was a strong, independent, assertive woman. She could handle her own, but she lacked one quality I had inherited from the old man, a trait I had mastered over the years, mostly out of necessity, which was being an asshole.
“It’s really nothing, honey. I just had a little trouble today with the venue we were trying to book for the Heart for Children back-to-school fundraiser. I’ll get it figured out.” I could hear the uncertainty in her voice, and it pained me that someone had been giving her grief.
Heart for Children was one of the charitable organizations Victoria had a hand in through her role with my company’s philanthropic branch. Young was my mother’s maiden name, and the Young Foundation was a means to turn her troubled past into something positive by helping others. She oversaw the Foundation and its day-to-day-business, including grant writing, advertisement, and event planning.
Few people knew the association between Maddox Industries and the Young Foundation, but it created some nice tax breaks, and gave my mother an outlet for helping children and others less fortunate within our community. If there was one thing Victoria had a heart for, it was children. She had a soft-spot for those who were impoverished and parentless, in no small part because she had been both for part of her own childhood.
“All you need to do is say the word. I don’t mind calling in favors.” Or putting some prick in his place for being rude to my mother, I thought but didn’t say aloud.
“I have it under control. If I need anything, you’ll be the first to know,” she said, appeasing me.
“So you say, and yet, I had to hear from Ezra that there was an issue to begin with,” I said, unable to mask my irritation.
Ezra and I were close, having known each other since high school, and through our hell-raising days as roommates in college. Sometimes I thought Ezra spoke to my mother more than I did. He had spent a lot of time at our place in his teen years, so Victoria was like a second mother to him, though that didn’t stop him from making the occasional “hot mom” or “MILF” comments. It was one of his many ways to push my buttons, and it usually worked.
“He just happened to have good timing. I ran into him having lunch today at the Zodiac Room. He said you two are working on a new project together,” she said.
It was beginning to sound like Ezra and I needed a night out soon. Apparently I needed to introduce him to some more age-appropriate women.
“Yes, I’m looking into acquiring a manufacturing business that’s about to go under. I have some ideas to turn it around and make it profitable,” I told her, staring out the window as the car made the transition from inner city to the more residential areas of Dallas.
“My son, the business mogul,” she said, approvingly.
“All right, mother. I have to go. Are we still good for dinner this Thursday evening?” I said as Holden pulled into the gated entrance to my suburban estate.
“Yes, talk to you soon, dear. Kisses.”
I hung up the phone and immediately dialed Ezra.
“Jax, what’s up?” he answered.
“Ezra, you horny bastard. You failed to mention you had lunch with my mother.” I feigned disapproval. The Escalade came to a stop inside the connected four-car garage, and I got out, heading inside.
“Yes, it was delicious. And the food wasn’t bad either,” he teased.
I shook my head, entering the kitchen as I pulled a beer out of the stainless steel, French-door refrigerator. “Very funny,” I grumbled. “We’re going out Friday night, so clear your calendar.”
“What’s the occasion?” he asked.
“Do you need an occasion?” I challenged.
“Friday it is,” he accepted.
SEVEN
&n
bsp; Hand In the Cookie Jar
“I’ll have the California Club on wheat,” Amelie requested from the waitress taking our orders.
“Can I just get the chef’s salad with Ranch dressing on the side?” I asked, sitting across from her at the small restaurant table for two.
The waitress finished writing our orders on her pad and scurried off to the kitchen.
We had just finalized our plans for getting to the Wyly Theater that evening while waiting on our drink orders, and had discussed what each of us planned to wear.
“So tell me about your weekend,” I told Amelie, taking a sip of my iced tea with lemon.
“There’s not much to tell,” she said. “My mother is chronically ill, so when I’m not taking care of her, I’m usually busy trying to plan my wedding. Saturday night, though, Owen came over and cooked dinner. Then we watched a movie on Amazon Prime. Sounds boring, doesn’t it?” She gave a sheepish smile.
“Actually, that sounds amazing. What I wouldn’t give to have a guy cook for me and to snuggle with while we watch a movie,” I admitted.
“So tell me about your weekend,” she urged.
“Mine was pretty uneventful, too, except for Friday night.” I questioned myself on how much I really wanted to tell her. “My sister and I went to a charity event with our uncle, but while we were there, I ran into my ex, Grayson, who still insists on making my life a living hell.”
“What was he doing there?” she asked.
“I guess he was working security. He was in uniform, anyway. He’s a Sherriff’s Deputy for Dallas County.” I paused while the waitress approached and sat our plates in front of us.
“So, what happened between you two, if you don’t mind my asking?” Amelie had a sympathetic expression.
“We dated for nearly a year. I was crazy-in-love with him, but I caught him cheating on me, and that was it. I was devastated. That’s why I quit my last job to come work here. I had to get away from him. I couldn’t keep going to work and seeing him all the time. It just hurt too much,” I explained. I felt my mood darken, and I sat my fork down, having lost my appetite.
“I’m so sorry, Perla. That really is awful. No one should have to go through being cheated on.” She reached her hand across the small table and gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “Did you see the tie Mr. Morrison was wearing today?” she laughed, changing the subject.
We chatted casually and finished our lunch before heading back across the street to the Maddox Tower. As we had gotten up to leave, I noticed Lisette sitting at the table behind us. I had a bad feeling she had been eavesdropping on our conversation, but she didn’t seem to notice us as we stood to leave.
That afternoon, my excitement grew in anticipation of seeing the play with Amelie that night. It had been a long time since I had gone out with friends other than Jada. It didn’t help that I had made Grayson the center of my life when he and I had been together. All the friends I had prior to dating him just kind of dropped off when I had started spending all my time with him. It had been all the more heart-wrenching when he and I had split, because it had been like my entire world had collapsed on me and disappeared overnight. Looking back on it, I knew now that had been a colossal mistake, giving up my friends for a guy. I had been left with no one, except for Jada.
Of course, Jada was busy with friends of her own that she had met from school now, and it wasn’t fair to expect her to spend all of her free time with me, just because I had alienated myself over a guy and had no other friends left.
I knew it wasn’t a good idea to get so wrapped up in one person, but I also knew why I did it. I wanted to have a family again, someone to belong to, and to fill the void that was left when my parents were killed. Maybe it wasn’t the right way to go about things, but it wasn’t like I sat around and planned it out that way. It just kind of happened.
About mid-afternoon, Lisette came wandering over to my desk with an overconfident smile, seeming all-too-pleased with herself about something.
“I hope you don’t have anything too important going on. The Craigs will be dropping in to meet with Vandergild in a bit, and he’s going to need you to help him with a deposition,” she boasted.
“What? Are you sure? I don’t have them on the schedule for this afternoon.” I double-checked my calendar, making sure I hadn’t overlooked an appointment.
“They were about to leave town on business, so they needed to come in before they left.” Lisette shrugged with indifference and sauntered back to her desk with a smug look on her face.
I began to panic. A deposition could take hours, and it was already almost three o’clock! This had the potential to cause me to miss the play tonight, and I was so disheartened by the thought.
Sure enough, the Craigs showed up about fifteen minutes later, and Vandergild asked me to sit in and record the interview, since I had experience with court-reporting.
I sat through the meeting, and it seemed to drag on and on. At five o’clock, I stole a glance at my watch and groaned internally. Not having my phone with me, I had no way to even get word to Amelie, who had left early to go to court with Mr. Fitzgerald. She would be expecting me in a little over an hour at my apartment building, and it didn’t look like this meeting would be wrapping up any time soon.
Another hour passed at a snail’s pace. Just when I thought for sure I would miss the play, Mr. Vandergild finally, reported he had no other questions and wrapped up the meeting.
Thank God! A swell of hope rushed through me.
I stood, appearing nonchalant, but my impatience was screaming inside my head as I waited for everyone to say their goodbyes and eventually make their way out of the meeting room.
“Goodbye, Perla. Have a good evening,” Mr. Vandergild said as we both exited the room.
“Goodbye, sir. You, too,” I replied. Then I hurried to my desk to grab my phone and called Amelie. It was already a quarter past six, and she would surely already be on her way to my place.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Amelie, I’m so sorry. I am just now leaving work. Can you pick me up at Maddox Tower instead?” I asked in a rush.
“Of course,” she replied. “I’ll turn around and head that way.”
“Bless you. I’ll see you when you get here.” I looked down at my button-down blouse tucked in to my pencil skirt, a wide belt bridging the two, and my heels, wishing I would have had time to change into something more casual, but it would just have to do.
I hung up the phone and made my way down to the first floor. The building was practically empty, and the only person left in the atrium was a man cleaning the floors. I sat in an armchair in a secluded corner and watched out the front windows to see when she arrived.
A few minutes into my wait, I heard the familiar ding to indicate someone getting off the elevator. A man and woman stepped out. The man’s head was ducked down whispering something in the woman’s ear as she clung to him and pawed up and down his body as they walked. A pang of jealousy shot through me as I wished I had someone to be in so love with, that I couldn’t keep my hands off of.
As the couple walked further toward the exit, I caught a better glimpse of the man and recognition hit me like a brick wall at ninety miles per hour.
Without realizing it, my cell phone went crashing to the floor from out of my hand. It echoed through the empty corridor. Jax turned in time to see my wide-eyed embarrassment looking straight at him before I went scrambling for my phone. He paused, and I could see the realization pass through him before the busty blonde pulled him out the door by his tie.
What the fuck had just happened? And more importantly, why did I just feel like someone had knocked the wind out of my chest? It shouldn’t have bothered me in the slightest that Mr. Maddox had turned his attention elsewhere. I should have been relieved that he might leave me alone now.
I guessed the woman was whom he had mentioned having dinner with on Thursday in the elevator phone call I’d overheard just the day prior. They
certainly looked cozy with each other. I knew I shouldn’t have been angry, but I was.
A few minutes later, Amelie’s car pulled up to the curb outside the front entrance, and I dashed out to meet her, buckling myself into the passenger seat as she drove us away from the scene that had just ruined my entire evening.
JAX
Well, that was awkward, I thought, as Miranda and I climbed into the back of the Escalade.
I typed a text to Holden, letting him know to drop us off at Miranda’s place. I rarely took women back to my house, because I liked having the control to leave whenever I wanted.
The SUV moved away from the curb, slowly putting distance between me and that look of disappointment on Perla’s face when I had turned around and seen her sitting right there in the lobby, staring me right in the eyes.
I couldn’t think about that now. I would deal with it later, I thought, as Miranda began stroking my length through my suit trousers.
Miranda was someone I often shared adult relations with, no strings attached. She and I had a mutual understanding. All she wanted from me was sex, which was good, because that was all I intended to give to and take from her. She and I didn’t waste time with any bullshit conversation or getting-to-know-each-other business. It was simply meet, fuck, and leave. Maybe it was a little more involved than that. Foreplay wasn’t out of the question, but aside from that, there wasn’t much else.
When she had shown up in my office unexpectedly, under the ruse of having documents I needed to proof before she could file them for a merger meeting, I had nearly been tempted to send her away.
Then she pressed those enormous tits up against my chest, pressed her hips firmly into my cock, and lifted a leg that she rubbed up and down mine. My body decided to give it a second thought, or more accurately, my cock.
I had been at a stopping point for the day, so that made it even harder to say no. What the hell, I decided. I needed to blow off some steam. Why wouldn’t I, anyway? Perla’s face hovered in the back of my mind, but I still had a ways to go before getting that woman to warm up to me, and it had been over two weeks since I’d had a good fuck.
Tragedy and Desire: An Adult Romance Page 7
