by Lulu Pratt
She scoots closer to me and glides her hand up my thigh. “There’s only one place my mind is focused on and if you want, I can help you get there too.”
Her advances instantly make me regret requesting the private dining room. She’s taking advantage of the privacy we have and I want no part of it.
I place my hand over hers and give it a soft squeeze to stop her from going any higher up my leg. The server interrupts us again, returning with our food and I pretend to be overly excited about it.
Under normal circumstances, if I were with someone I like, I’d slip the server a few bucks to give us some added privacy and commence fucking my date across the table. But tonight doesn’t fall under the category of normal circumstances. In fact, I desperately want to get rid of Alexa and delete her contact information from my phone. Instead of a friendly fuck, I really want to give her a final farewell.
I take a bite of lobster and pick up my phone again. My mailbox icon flashes and I focus my attention on the documents Amelia just sent over. Thank goodness!
“I must be pretty boring,” says Alexa, pretending to pout. She lazily stabs at her salad and looks at me.
“Of course not,” I say. “But money never sleeps.”
She smiles, leans over the table again and runs her fingers through my hair. “I know, but maybe it can take a break. I’m positive I can take your mind off work after dinner. Or if you want, I can work my magic right now.”
There’s not a snowball’s chance in hell you’re taking my mind off anything. Not now or ever.
“Tell me more about what you do,” I say, trying to steer the conversation somewhere else and away from any idea of us getting naked together.
I stare as Alexa jumps back into talking about her favorite topic… herself. She reminds me of those kid dolls with the big eyes and huge lips everybody went crazy over that one year during Christmas season. I zero in on her face and I notice it doesn’t move very much, likely a result of too much Botox. I’m not one to judge a nip and a tuck here and there, but Alexa’s face is practically frozen.
I will never let Joe talk me into another blind date ever again.
I feel like a robot as I go through all the motions of being a gentleman. Once dinner is over, I settle the bill, pull out her chair, and reluctantly allow her to drape herself over my body as I escort her to my waiting Rolls-Royce.
Ed is parked right out front and stands there, holding the backdoor wide open. Alexa makes a big production of getting inside, her skin-tight dress riding up her thighs just enough to reveal she’s not wearing anything underneath. As soon as the door closes behind us, she leaps onto me, kissing my neck as she tries to shove my hand under her dress.
I politely attempt to dodge her advances but every once in a while, her lips hit her target… me.
“Ed, take me home,” I say.
He nods and hits the button to raise the partition. I really wish he hadn’t done that. Privacy is the last thing I need with Alexa and her tentacle-like hands groping all over my body. My mind replaces her with an image of the blonde mystery lady. If she was back here instead of Alexa I doubted we would be able to make it out of the parking lot with our clothes still intact.
I need that kind of fire in my life. I’ve had my fair share of the Alexas of the world and I don’t want more of the same. I gently hold Alexa off with one hand and check my phone with the other. The voicemail icon is flashing and I quickly check to see who I missed a call from.
“I really need to check this message,” I say, turning my back to Alexa. I press the button and listen closely.
“Hey uh, Mr. Jordan, it’s Grant. I dropped by your place but you weren’t there and I can’t find my key. So, um… I’ll catch you next time.”
I press the button to end the voicemail wanting to fold my phone in half. Since I don’t own the building yet, I can’t just flat out fire Grant. One thing for sure, I’m making it my personal mission to contact his boss and have him be the one to terminate his useless ass. What kind of maintenance man loses his copy of the resident’s key?
I turn back to Alexa to apologize for my distant and probably rude behavior, and I instantly want to roll my eyes. She has pulled her dress down to expose her breasts and has one hand working feverishly between her thighs.
“Come play,” she moans.
“You appear to have it under control,” I say dryly.
She nods her head and closes her eyes. “Right, you just sit there and watch, it’ll be your turn in just a minute.”
I ignore her moans and heavy breathing and scroll through my emails. Glancing out the window, I consider jumping out into traffic just to get away from this date from Hell. Luckily, I start seeing the familiar buildings of my street.
We pull up just in time and I slide over to open the door. Alexa scrambles to put herself back together and attempts to get out too, but I block her exit. Ed opens his door and gets out, trying to assist me.
“That won’t be necessary, Ed. Take Alexa home or wherever she wants to go.”
Alexa looks up at me and I notice her lipstick is smeared. I pray it’s not all over me and my collar.
“I thought we were going to your place,” she says.
I shake my head and smile. “I’m really beat, and tonight is not a good time. I’d rather wind down and be alone,” I say.
She pokes out her lip and sits back on the seat. “Next time?” she asks.
“Sure,” I say, not even trying to disguise the sarcasm in my voice. I close the door and walk to my building without so much as a backwards glance.
Chapter 7
JADE
After another busy shopping day, I hoist the heavy grocery bags into my personal rolling cart and slam the trunk closed. I decided to stock up on produce this week and the bags are too heavy for me to carry all at once. The cart makes getting the groceries inside ten times easier since I refuse to make multiple trips out to my car. I lock the doors and put my keys and phone into my purse before pushing the cart across the street to my building.
I manage to push the cart up the ramp and as soon as I’m about to reach for the door, I hear a man’s voice from behind me.
“Let me get that for you.”
I turn to the voice of the helpful stranger, my mouth poised to thank him, when I quickly realize I’m face to face with the rude Peeping Tom from the other day.
“Get away from me or I’ll scream,” I say.
He releases the door and holds up his hands defensively as he takes a couple of steps backwards.
“Whoa, I come in peace. Just give me a chance to explain before you haul off screaming bloody murder,” he says.
I roll my eyes and fold my arms across my chest. The half grin on his face makes me want to punch him. I’m pissed off and he’s grinning at me like an idiot, a sexy idiot.
“A chance? You had a chance to explain the other day and you waved off your crime like it was nothing.”
His smile fades a little as he tightens his face into a scowl. “Crime? I didn’t commit a crime, it was just a misunderstanding. You stormed off before I had a chance to explain.”
I decide to fish around in my purse and grab my keys. I have a tiny bottle of pepper spray on the keyring… just in case.
“What’s to explain? Watching someone undress, without their knowledge is a crime. In fact, I should report you.”
He closes his eyes and sighs. I can’t help but notice the musky scent of his cologne saturating the air. I’m trying to focus, but he smells so damn good.
“Listen, let’s start over. I’ve been waiting for you all day to clear up this issue between us.”
I shuffle nervously from one foot to the other. “What do you mean you’ve been waiting for me all day?”
The playful, yet sexy grin spreads across his face again. “I temporarily work and live over here and once you mentioned the window incident, I just used the process of elimination to figure out where you live. Of course, I don’t know which condo is your
s, which is why I decided to wait outside hoping to catch you.”
“Oh,” I say, fumbling with my keys.
His cool demeanor is unsettling and attractive at the same time. I take my time soaking in and analyzing every part of his appearance. His slacks are dark gray and custom fit. The button-down crisp white shirt he’s wearing is tucked neatly into his waistband. The top button of his shirt is undone, giving him more of a relaxed look. Despite his plain-looking outfit to the untrained eye, I’ve spent enough time around Magdalene and Heath to know what expensive looks like.
“Now about this whole telescope thing. Yes, I have a room full of telescopes, and they may be pointed in your direction, but I wasn’t spying on you.”
I raise my eyebrow and tilt my head to the side. He laughs again revealing straight white teeth.
“I’m telling the truth,” he says. “Scout’s honor. Besides, I’m pretty sure I’d remember seeing a beautiful woman undress.”
I feel my skin flush in reaction to the compliment. He’s coming off a lot less creepy, but I’m not completely convinced.
“You mentioned staying in the area temporarily. Why is that?” I ask.
He runs his fingers through his dark hair and sighs again. “Long story short, I’m doing some research and it requires me to be hands on.”
“Oh,” I say, ready to bring this conversation to an end. “Well, from now on make sure your telescopes aren’t pointing into my freaking window or I really will call the cops on you. If you’ll excuse me, I have to get going.”
I reach for the door handle again, but he beats me to it.
“I still detect a little bit of anger in your voice,” he says. “Allow me to take you to dinner as my way of apologizing. I seriously don’t like you thinking I would do something so dishonest. I think if you get to know me a little bit, you’ll see where I’m coming from.”
I look him over from head to toe, sizing him up. His explanation of the window incident sounds sincere, and his eyes appear to be honest. I’m still a little creeped out by the whole thing, but there’s something about this man pulling me in.
“Please,” he adds. “I really want to make it up to you. And just so you know, I don’t give up easily.” He flashes another toothy grin and the familiar throb between my thighs makes its presence known.
There’s no denying my reluctant attraction to the man, and I momentarily wrestle with the idea of saying yes. Surely dinner won’t hurt anything.
“Okay,” I say finally. “I have some free time tomorrow night, we can go to dinner then.”
“Perfect,” he says, opening the door to the lobby as he motions for me to go ahead. “I’ll walk you to the elevator.”
I nod and start to roll the cart forward, but he grabs it with his other hand.
“I’ll get the cart, you just go ahead,” he says.
Well, that’s an unexpected but rather gentlemanly move.
“Okay,” I say, trying to hide the smile pulling at the corners of my mouth.
We reach the elevator and I push the “up” button.
“So, dinner tomorrow night at around seven o’clock sound good to you?” he asks.
“Yes,” I say, reaching for the cart. “Thanks, I’ll take this now.”
He nods, takes a step back and shoves his hands in his pockets. The move makes him look nervous, which is a relief to me. The moment is brief, but I like seeing him appear not so confident and in control. The elevator reaches the lobby and dings loudly before the doors slide open.
I roll the cart inside, and turn around to face him before pushing the button for my floor.
“I’m Asher Jordan by the way,” he says as the doors start to close.
“Jade Sinclair,” I say, hoping he heard me.
I smile the entire ride up to my floor. I step out of the elevator and make my way inside the condo. The place is still dark, an obvious sign Magdalene hasn’t returned home with Jacob yet. Once every other week, Magdalene, Jacob and Heath get together for a little family time, or rather, a little Heath and Jacob time.
I lean against the door and exhale.
I have a date tomorrow.
Granted, the circumstances for how the date came about fall under the not-so-normal end of the dating spectrum. But still, I’m both excited and nervous at the same time. It’s been forever since I’ve gone out, let alone out with a handsome guy. A handsome guy who is now on my radar to be on the lookout for.
Asher.
Even his name is sounds sexy. Not only is he attractive, but he’s charming too. I’m positive his charm is the main reason I even agreed to go on the date. Something about him makes me want to know more.
“Shit,” I say. “I should have asked him which restaurant he wanted to go to, so I can know the dress code.”
I quickly brainstorm the outfit options in my closet collecting dust. This is one of those times I wish Magdalene and I were the same size, so I’d have something to borrow. I’m overthinking this date. This is just a casual dinner… a casual dinner with a sexy guy.
To be fair, Asher didn’t explicitly mention this being a date anyway. This is just an “I apologize for accidentally making you think I was watching you get naked” dinner. I’m sure I have something in my closet that will be appropriate.
I push my little grocery cart to the kitchen and start unloading and organizing the food on the counter. I consider pulling out my phone and telling Rachel all about my date and everything else that has happened, but I decide against it. Knowing her, she’ll ask a million questions and I’m not ready to be interrogated just yet about a guy I don’t know.
Chapter 8
ASHER
I open the folder and flip through the pages of the extensive background check I requested on Jade. Nathan, the head of my security department, brought the folder to me earlier in the day and I haven’t been able to stop staring at it ever since. Jade’s beauty and feisty attitude drew me in initially, but I have business interests to protect and one can never be too careful.
She’s a nanny. A new nanny to an infant.
I’ve never gone out with anyone outside of my circle, which is both a good and bad thing. I welcome the change of pace, but I’m not so sure I’m ready for a nanny per se. She can’t possibly make very much money and I’ve seen far too many of my friends get caught up in similar situations. The men always end up broke and the women end up having a major lifestyle enhancement. I refuse to allow anyone, no matter how beautiful, use me as a leg up in society.
I hold the paper with her employment listed to the light trying to decipher who her actual employer is. The fact that it’s blacked out is a pretty good indication she works for the upper echelon of society and I know firsthand they prefer their privacy.
Joe knocks twice on my open door before inviting himself inside my office.
“What do you have there?” he asks, taking a seat in the leather chair I have seated across from me.
I put the paper back in the folder and close it. “It’s a background check for my date tonight,” I say. “She’s a nanny.”
Joe shakes his head and turns a bright shade of crimson. I should have known saying she’s a nanny would trigger him.
“You do not want to date a nanny. I’m still going back and forth to court with Crystal. Married less than three years, and she thinks she deserves half of the money I have left,” he says.
“I understand your reservations, but to be fair, Crystal was nineteen when you married her. What did you expect?”
Joe snorts and folds his arms across his chest. “I expected the third time to be the charm, and I expected to have empty balls every night. But she turned out to be way worse than my other exes. Now I have three ex-wives and they all have their hands in my pockets. I’m just happy I never had kids with any of them.”
I shake my head and sigh. “I don’t understand why you didn’t request a pre-nuptial agreement.”
“Simple,” says Joe. “Love.”
I run my finger
s through my hair and stare at the folder on my desk. Jade is beautiful, but I’ve worked too hard to throw away my success.
“That wasn’t love, that’s called thinking with your dick. And in any case, I’m only going on the date to feel her out and see what she’s about,” I reason.
Joe gets to his feet and shakes his head again. “Protect your balls and your wallet. She’ll suck them both dry and leave you standing there blowing in the wind.”
I watch Joe walk out of my office, the ultimate cautionary tale, and pray I don’t fall victim to the same fate.
Shoving the folder holding all the details of Jade’s life into my briefcase, I finally prepare to leave for the day. I walk by Amelia, who’s still at her desk on the phone with a notepad and several folders spread out in front of her.
“Pack it in, Amelia,” I say. “Whoever is on the phone can reach us tomorrow.”
If I don’t usher her out of the building now, she’ll stay until midnight trying to get everything done. I refuse to replace another secretary. The last one quit due to exhaustion after being severely overworked. Working for me is very demanding but I try to make the compensation worthwhile.
She hits the mute button on the phone and looks up at me. “Mr. Tanaka is in town and is requesting a meeting. I’ll have this wrapped up within the next thirty minutes or so.”
“Thirty minutes,” I say. “No more. Then I want you to go home and relax.”
She nods and returns to the call, effectively ending our conversation. I check the time and quickly walk to the elevator. I need to head home and shower before my date. I hope Jade likes French food, because our reservations are for Mon Amour, a restaurant I’ve been wanting to get back to.
I had to call in several favors to get the reservation at the last minute. I love the authentic atmosphere of the place, mainly because it takes me back to the vacations I’ve spent in Paris.
Ed is waiting for me outside. He flicks his cigarette on the ground before stepping on it.
“All set, boss?” he asks, holding the door open for me.
