“Why not?”
“Well, I sort of got the impression after you met her that you were interested in her, like, romantically.”
“So?”
“Well, she doesn’t date. So, if you’re trying to trick her into a way to spend more time with you hoping you’ll be able to parlay that into some sort of relationship...”
“Whoa, Riley, hold on,” I said, laughing as though what she had said was funny. When in reality, the idea of Rose never agreeing to go on a date with me had my breakfast swirling in my gut. “I’m not doing this to get a date out of Rose.”
Lie.
“I don’t even want to date Rose.”
Lie.
Well, not entirely a lie. I wanted to do a lot more to Rose than just date her.
Riley crossed her arms over her chest and gave me a withering look that clearly expressed how much she wasn’t buying my bullshit.
“Seriously. Rose had a lot of great ideas about the party and we just really jived. Professionally. This has nothing to do with me being attracted to her. Come on, Riley. I’m a grown man. I can handle a tiny crush.”
“Did you, the man on the package of Bounty Paper Towels, just admit you have a tiny crush on Rose?”
“You’re being ridiculous.”
“I just can’t figure out if it’s endearing or sad. I mean, obviously, you’re a catch, but Rose isn’t fishing right now. She’s, like, not even on the boat or close to the dock. Trust me. Anglerwoman she is not.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Riley. I just think Rose should plan the event. No hard feelings.”
“My feelings aren’t hurt, Aiden. I’m a big girl. I’ve got plenty to keep me busy, and I want you—the client—to work with whomever you’re most comfortable. I’m just not sure this is best for everyone involved.”
“Are you saying no?”
“It’s not up to me. I think we need to ask Rose.”
Just the idea of seeing and speaking to Rose made my heart pump a little faster.
Riley walked back around her desk and then picked up her phone, dialing Rose, I assumed.
“Hey, it’s Riley. Do you have a minute? I have a client here who’d like a word with you.” Riley’s eyes blinked up at me and she gave me an uncomfortable smile. “Okay. We’ll be right over.” She hung up and then let out a sigh. “She has a few minutes available right now.”
“Great,” I replied with enthusiasm.
Riley led me out of her office and through the big room. My eyes fell on Rose again as soon as I noticed her sitting in an office made of glass. Literally. The walls were glass, and everyone could see right into it as well as she could see everyone outside of it.
So, when our eyes met from two-hundred feet away, it was easy to hold her gaze.
I watched, amused, as she started to panic once she realized I was the client on my way to see her.
“Mr. Daniels,” she greeted coolly as Riley and I entered her office.
“Ms. Finch,” I replied with a nod.
Rose’s eyes swung to Riley and I swore I saw a bit of panic in them. I wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or bad. I decided to go with good.
“Mr. Daniels stopped by today to talk about his event and he thinks, going forward, he would prefer if you handled the account.”
Riley said the words with a grimace, as though she were afraid of how Rose may react.
Rose was silent for a moment, her gaze locked on mine.
“Riley, why don’t you give Mr. Daniels and I a minute to discuss the situation.”
“Gladly,” Riley said with a sigh before she slipped from the room.
“What’s this really about?” Rose asked as soon as the door was closed.
“What do you mean?” I wasn’t very good at playing dumb.
“I mean, there’s no way you think I’d do a better job than Riley. She’s amazing. She can do anything I can, and you already have an established relationship with her. So, what’s this really about?”
I held back on the urge to tell her exactly what kind of relationship I wanted to have with her and continued down the bullshit road she knew I was paving.
“I liked what you had to say about the event and I think our personalities work well together. Riley is a people pleaser and she’ll do a great job, but you’ll do a fantastic job. If only to prove to me that you can.”
“I’m a busy woman.” She planted her fantastic ass on the corner of her mahogany desk. I’d never wanted to be a piece of furniture more in my life.
“And I’m a busy man. I’m not asking for much, just the best of the best. And I believe that’s you.” I took a few steps toward her and watched her eyes light up. Excitement and what I thought was lust flashed through them before she could get a handle on her emotions. I smirked at her and took a few more steps until there was enough space between us to still look like we were having a professional conversation, but enough tension between us so that we both knew that was bullshit.
“When’s our first meeting, Rose?”
She groaned and crossed her arms over her chest, which only made my eyes wander there. Her professional attire kept everything properly covered, but my imagination was on fire when it came to her, so I had no problem picturing what was underneath her blouse.
Nope. No problem at all.
“If you insist on this, I can meet with you next week. Tuesday.”
“A lunch meeting.”
“Just a regular meeting.”
“A lunch meeting. I’ll pick you up, here, at noon.”
“Aiden,” she warned.
I really liked the way my name sounded coming from her lips. She had the prettiest mouth I’d ever seen. Pink and full. Tempting. Frustratingly sexy.
I’d gotten what I came for and thought I’d better leave before I overstepped my boundaries.
“Noon. Tuesday.” I flashed her a smile before turning toward the door, noticing almost every eye in the office was fixed on us.
Seemed as though maybe Rose didn’t have men in her office very often and that thought made me very happy.
Chapter Seven
Rose
“O
uch. Shit.” I brought my fingertip to my mouth, trying to soothe the nail I’d just broken on the elevator button. Apparently, the contraption couldn’t handle the wrath I was flinging around.
I’d been moody all day since Aiden left my office. I watched as every one of my employees simultaneously pretended as though they hadn’t been watching us, and went back to work.
I just knew we’d been the talk of the office for the rest of the day and probably for the next few weeks to come. I didn’t need my office gossiping about me.
And damn Aiden, coming in all burly and sexy, towering over everyone, filling up a room even with his silence.
It had been hard to breathe around him, and I wasn’t sure if it was because I’d admitted to myself I was attracted to him, or because I’d convinced myself there was nothing to be done about it.
There was a poetic torture involved in wanting someone, but not knowing what it is exactly that you want, but still denying yourself anyway.
Clearly, I was a mess. And I was taking my aggression out on the elevator buttons. They fought back, though, breaking my nail.
Bastards.
I’d stayed at the office as long as it took to be the last one out. I didn’t want to give anyone the opportunity to talk about me while I wasn’t there, so I stayed and worked until there was nothing else to do, really. Not that I’d had any pressing reason to leave any earlier. The salad and Netflix would still be there waiting for me no matter what time I came home.
The elevator door opened on my floor and I exited, turning right and heading for my door. At the end of the hall, from around the corner, my imagination played a very dirty trick on me. Aiden turned the corner, giving me a wicked smile, eyes gleaming with mischief.
As he came closer to me, I suddenly realized I wasn’t hallucinating and he was,
in fact, in my building. On my floor, no less.
Before I could even open my mouth to question him, he spoke first.
“You stalking me, Rose?”
“Excuse me?”
“Are you stalking me? Why else would you be in my building? Didn’t say everything you wanted to say in your office?”
“Your building? This is my building.”
“Oh, sweetheart,” he said as he rocked back on his heels and shoved his hands in his pockets. “This is gonna be fun.”
“What’s going to be fun?”
“Being neighbors.”
“We’re not neighbors,” I insisted. We couldn’t be neighbors.
“Well, if you live on this floor, and I live on this floor, that would make us neighbors.”
“Don’t you live in the boonies somewhere?”
“Boonies? You mean the peaceful surroundings of nature?”
“Right. BFE. Don’t you live out there somewhere?” I said, swinging an arm around wildly.
“The Belmont Estate was a big job, and it’s close in. So, I rented a unit here for the last few months. I do have a house in BFE,” he said, using his hands to make quotations, “but it’s an inconvenient drive when you’re spending sixty hours a week an hour away.”
“You’ve lived here for a few months?” How had I never seen him?
“We both work really long days. I don’t spend a lot of time here.”
“This is crazy,” I said on a breath, mainly to myself, but I was sure he’d heard me.
“This’ll make everything a little easier.”
“Make what easier?” I sassed, hand immediately coming to my hip.
“Planning my event. What did you think I was referring to?” The side of his mouth tipped up, smirking even harder, which I didn’t think was possible, and I swear a laugh escaped him.
I tried to ignore what the sound of a sexy chuckle coming from him did to my body.
I would not let him get to me.
“I only conduct business in my office.”
“Call it whatever you want, sweetheart.”
“Don’t call me that,” I choked, trying to both make the words believable and hide the way the endearment made me melt a little on the inside.
“What would you prefer I call you?” His head tipped to the side just slightly as he asked the question.
“This doesn’t change anything,” I quipped, not sure who I was trying to convince—him or me.
“Oh, it changes everything.” His voice was smooth and low, hitting every tingling part of me and making them light up.
“How?” I rasped, suddenly unable to contain my reaction to not only his words, but the way he said them. Reacting to the way he looked at me, how his gaze traveled slowly all the way down my body and then back up again, the way I could see appreciation in his expression, the way his eyes heated, and his tongue darted out to wet his bottom lip. It was all too much.
“Well, now I have instant access.”
“I have to go,” I mumbled quickly, walking the rest of the way to my door. As I moved past him he slid to the side just enough so our arms brushed against each other, the contact stopping me in my tracks.
“See you later, sweetheart.”
My breath halted in my chest, but I managed to take the last few steps to my condo, completely aware of the fact that he watched me unlock my door and disappear inside.
I shut the door and then leaned back against it, wondering how in the hell I was going to hang on to my sanity now that I knew he lived in my building.
What in the world were the odds of that?
I took in a deep breath and pushed it out slowly, trying to calm my racing heart.
I jumped when there was a knock at the door.
Turning, I opened it, surprised but also not to find Aiden standing on the other side.
“Have you had dinner yet?”
“No,” I croaked, causing him to smile again.
“Come have dinner with me.”
“I have a salad in the fridge.”
“As appealing as that sounds, I need more than rabbit food for a meal.”
“I wasn’t inviting you,” I said, exasperated.
“But I’m inviting you. There’s a great pizza place open we can walk to. They have salads too. My treat. Come on. I promise I won’t bite.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“This isn’t a date,” I said as I stepped back into the hallway, questioning my own decision-making skills. It was clear I had no regard for my own emotional well-being.
Neither one of us spoke as we rode the elevator down to the ground floor again. I couldn’t decide if it was better we were quiet, or if we needed to talk more to make the tension seem less palpable.
Because it was thick.
Walking next to him was almost like walking through New York City in the middle of summer when it was muggy and humid. Everything was hot.
It definitely wasn’t because of the mid-fifties temperatures we were currently having in Portland, but I was thankful for the cool air that washed over my face as we exited the building.
“Have you ever been to Bambino’s?” Aiden asked after we’d been walking for a few blocks.
“No, I’ve never heard of it.”
“When I went to the University of Portland I worked there on the weekends. It’s a family owned pizzeria right in the middle of the city. Been there forty years now. But it looks like a hole in the wall.”
Portland was a big city, but not so big that you couldn’t walk a few blocks and go from new corporate office buildings to old historical landmarks. So, when he stopped in front of a building I’d never given more than a passing glance to, I wasn’t necessarily surprised I’d never noticed it. The establishment definitely blended in with the atmosphere and looked, indeed, like a hole in the wall.
Aiden held the door open for me and I wondered if I had any hand sanitizer in my purse. But when I walked in I was greeted by the sounds of happy people laughing and talking and the most wonderful smell I’d ever encountered.
“What you’re smelling right now is their famous pizza recipe. There’s a brick oven back there. They hand-toss all the dough and make the sauce from scratch.”
I’d already consumed all my carbs for the day, but the aroma in the restaurant was undeniably delicious.
His hand touched the small of my back and I hated how wonderful it felt there. Something about Aiden was different than any other man I’d ever spent time with. Never had my body reacted like that to just a touch on the back, or a brush of a shoulder. I had a tendency to tense up, not melt into someone like I did with him.
“Aiden, ciao!” A decidedly Italian man who looked to be in his late-thirties approached us, giving Aiden the patented man-hug/back slap that was universal man language for “Hey man, good to see you.”
“Marco,” Aiden said with enthusiasm. “How’ve you been? It’s been a while since I’ve seen you in here. The last time I was in I didn’t recognize anyone.”
“Been good. Gia had a new baby a few weeks back, so I was gone for a while. That could have explained my absence. God knows I’m here most of the time.”
“Congrats, man. How’s the baby doing? And Gia? What’s that? Number four?”
“Four girls, man. I’m totally outnumbered, but we’re gonna keep going until we get that boy.”
“You’re a brave man.” Aiden looked down at me and smiled. “Marco, this is Rose. I told her I knew the best pizza place in town. Rose, this is Marco. He and I worked together when I was in college. He’d just taken over for his old man.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” I said with a smile, holding my hand out to him.
“Nah, Rose, we don’t shake hands here,” he warned me just before he pulled me into a hug. “If you’re here with Aiden, you’re family already,” he said as he squeezed me against him.
I was frozen at first, surprised by the gesture, but after a short moment I brought my hands up and gave him the
obligatory pat.
“You guys want a table or a booth?” Marco asked after he’d released me.
“Booth,” Aiden replied immediately.
“Right this way.”
Marco led us to a booth in the far corner of the restaurant. My eyes wandered over the décor as we made our way and it looked as though Italy had exploded all over the walls. They were obviously very proud of their heritage and took every opportunity to promote their culture.
I slid into the booth when we arrived and then scrambled over farther when Aiden sat his giant self down next to me.
“Allison will be with you guys shortly. Enjoy your meal. I’ll be back in a bit to check on you.” Marco left our menus and walked away, giving me the perfect opportunity to glare at Aiden.
“What are you doing?” I asked, irritated with his proximity.
“Sitting down.”
“There’s a whole other side of the table,” I said, motioning toward the empty bench across from us. “There are two sides. One for you and one for me. For someone who worked in a restaurant, you sure don’t understand how table etiquette works.”
“But this is better,” he said, draping his big arm on the top of the booth behind my head and turning his body toward me, caging me in. “We can have a conversation.”
Huffing, I crossed my arms over my chest. “What do you want to talk about? And why do we have to be sitting in each other’s laps to talk about it?”
He laughed, his fingers playing with a lock of my hair. I wanted to be irritated by it, but I wasn’t. The idea of his fingers trailing through my tresses did stupid things to my belly, making it flip and flutter.
“I want to talk about why you’re so intent on fighting your attraction to me.”
Well, at least the man wasn’t going to beat around the bush.
If he was going to be direct, I was going to return the favor.
“I’m not fighting my attraction. I’m simply not interested.”
“Oh, sweetheart, we both know that’s a lie. You’re attracted to me and you don’t know what to do about it.”
“Only because I don’t want to do anything about it.”
Coming Up Roses Page 6
