“Sounds like a mighty fine idea. I’m game.”
An hour later, they were on the bridge after making the half-hour toll-free drive into Sausalito in Damian’s Tesla. There wasn’t much street parking, but they found a paid lot just off the bridge.
“Is it warmer here?” Damian asked when he opened Jada’s door. He removed his sweater and tossed it into the car. Now he was wearing only trousers and a button-down shirt, while Jada had opted for a simple shirtdress with a belt and some espadrilles.
“No, I just think it feels that way when you’re away from the San Francisco smog. C’mon, let me show you the place.”
Damian grasped her hand, and he and Jada meandered through boutiques and shops. Jada purchased a few odds and ends while Damian seemed to be content with just watching her, which was disconcerting. When they stopped at one of the many art galleries, he became more engaged and they had a lively discussion about the artist’s vision. Eventually, they stopped at a side-street café and sat outside to eat, drink wine, and enjoy the sophisticated charm of the beautiful bayside community.
After their bellies were full, they found a houseboat community and walked the planks to tour it. There were a few battered survivors from the old era of improvised houseboats. But there were also some new, well-maintained floating homes with docks lined with flowers that some owners used as their front yard.
By the time the sun set, Damian and Jada were back in the car and on their way back into San Francisco. “I really enjoyed spending the day with you,” Damian commented.
“You sound surprised.”
He shook his head. “Not by your company, but the easy rapport we share. I feel like I can be myself with you. It’s refreshing is all.”
His honesty was immensely appealing, and Jada couldn’t resist smiling. She just wished he could see that they could be more to each other than just bedmates. She was slowly starting to make her way around the wall he’d erected around himself. And she understood. She’d done the same. She hadn’t had a close relationship with another man since Joshua, but the difference was that she was willing to take a risk again. It was scary. She could get hurt, but perhaps they both needed to stop playing it safe and venture out of their comfort zone.
Suddenly, her phone began to ring. It was Bree.
Jada’s heart lurched, and she turned to look at Damian, whose mouth had pinched into a frown. “Bree? Is everything OK? Is it the baby?”
“Slow down, baby girl,” Bree said on the other end of the phone. “We’re both fine. I just called to see if you heard the news?”
“What news?”
“Mama and Daddy are getting remarried!”
“What?” Jada nearly dropped the phone at hearing the best family news in nearly two decades. “Are you sure? You’re not punking me or something?”
“I would never do that on something as important and momentous as this. It’s true. Our parents are getting hitched.”
“Where? When? And why didn’t they call me?” Jada could hardly contain her excitement. They’d been waiting for this day for so long. It hardly seemed real.
“They were going to tell you, but I think I beat them to the punch. Anyway, they’re getting married in a month.”
“A month?” Jada looked at Damian. He took his eyes off the road for a second and raised his brow. “How are we supposed to arrange a wedding in that time frame?”
“You know Mama. She doesn’t want anything big. Just wants to get married at the ranch surrounded by family and friends.”
Jada sighed. It was signature Abigail Hart not to want to make a fuss, but her daughters wouldn’t let their parents slink away into the night. “I’m flying in next weekend to help.”
“You have a job in San Fran. And you were just here for me. Take the time for the wedding, nothing more.”
“I dunno.”
“Trust your big sis. I’ve never led you wrong, have I?”
“Well, no, you haven’t. But I’m still calling my planner, Deborah Kenney. She can help Mama plan something small, yet elegant.”
“Alright, but don’t go overboard. You know Mama.”
“Will do.” Jada ended the call just as Damian arrived to her condominium. “My place?”
“Didn’t you say we needed to get to know each other? We can’t spend all our time at my place, and I want to see how you live.”
“But what about my things?”
“I had my maid pack them up and drop them off to your doorman.”
Jada smiled. What was going on? First her parents’ sudden marriage and now Damian was acting like a real boyfriend by coming to her condo. “That sounds great.”
As arranged, Jada’s bag was indeed with the doorman. They grabbed it on the way up to her place. It was strange opening the door. She usually never had men over, choosing to stay at their place instead, but having Damian in her domain was significant.
“Here we are.” Jada swept her arm around the room in a flourish after they entered the open-concept condo. Damian walked around, and she noticed he stopped in the living room and fingered the many family pictures on her mantel. Her parents. Her sisters Bree and London with their husbands. London’s child. A group picture of the Arizona Harts. Uncle Isaac, Aunt Madelyn, and their kids with their spouses at their Golden Oaks dude ranch in Tucson. Noah and Chynna Hart. Rylee and Amar al’ Mahmud. Caleb and Addison Hart along with Chynna’s sister, Kenya, and her husband, Lucas Kingston, who’d been adopted into the family.
“You have a large family. I forgot that Chynna and Kenya Hart are part of your expansive group. What’s it like having a wildly popular singer and Oscar-winning actress in the family?”
“Daunting. But I expect they’ll all be at the wedding.”
“It must be nice,” he said wistfully before moving over to the kitchen. It wasn’t spacious, but it suited Jada’s needs and held the most important appliance: a coffeemaker.
“How long have you owned your place?” he asked.
“Several years,” Jada said as she followed him. “When I first moved to San Fran, I lived it up in a hotel for months enjoying room service and never having to make my bed. But it got old not having a place to call my own, not being able to just unwind without having to worry about how I looked walking through the lobby.”
“The kitchen is great.” He’d noticed the Sub-Zero appliances. “But I doubt this gets used much.”
“Ha-ha.” Jada laughed. “I told you I don’t cook, but …” Her sentence trailed off as she strolled over to a cabinet and pulled the lever on one of the drawers. She grabbed a fistful of flyers. She picked up where she left off. “I can order great takeout. So which would you like? I have Thai, Chinese, Korean, Italian, Indian. What floats your boat?”
“You,” Damian said as he circled his arms around her hips and hauled her into a notch near him where she always seemed to fit properly.
“Maybe later,” Jada said as she moved away. Besides jumping into bed, they also had to be able to hold a conversation—she was going to see to that. “So, which one?” She held up the menu.
He snatched her favorite Thai-spot menu out of her hand. “This one.”
“Excellent choice.” Within minutes, she made their delivery order and they retired to her couch. Jada’s legs were slung over Damian’s while he fiddled with the remote control to find something on TV. A thought occurred to Jada, and she decided to test just how into her Damian was. “So, I was thinking—”
“Yes?”
“If you’re not doing anything at the end of the month …,” she paused, “that you might like to come with me to the wedding.”
Suddenly, Damian turned to her. She’d clearly stunned him with her offer because his dark eyes were searching her. But he was silent.
“Well?”
“You want me to come as your date to your parents’ wedding, wh
ere your entire family will be in attendance?”
Jada’s heart sunk. She didn’t like the ominous tone that accompanied that statement. “It’s OK.” She shrugged. “It was a stupid idea.”
He reached for her hand. “It wasn’t stupid, Jada. It’s just if I come as your date, it might give your family the wrong idea.”
“And what idea might that be? That we might last and be more than a casual fling? Heaven forbid!” Jada rolled her eyes and pushed his hand away to sit upright. “I wouldn’t want to push you into doing anything you don’t want other than having me flat on my back.”
“That’s not fair, Jada. We spent a great day together—a day I immensely enjoyed because I spent it with you. I just don’t want to confuse things between us or your folks that I’m capable of offering more than what is on the table.”
Jada wanted to throw up. She swallowed back the bile rising in her throat even though his words destroyed the tiniest shred of hope she’d thought they’d gained by today’s outing. All she could do was nod.
He must have seen how downcast she was, because he said, “But I can see how much this means to you, so I’ll come if you still want me to.”
She didn’t want him to come because he’d been guilted into it. Jada wanted him to attend because he wanted to be with her. There was a difference. “It’s fine. I’ll go stag.”
“Jada—”
“It’s fine.” The doorbell chimed. “It’s our food. I’ll get it.” She needed to do something before she dissolved into a puddle at his feet. It was clear that she was starting to care more for him, but the feeling wasn’t reciprocated.
After signing the receipt and tipping the driver, Jada returned with brown paper bags and brought them into the kitchen. Damian was quiet as he joined her. The mood had quickly shifted from fun to tense. Jada ignored him even though he was a few feet from her and busied herself with finding plates and cutlery. But eventually, she had to turn around to face him.
Damian was staring at her intently.
“Aren’t you ready to eat?” she asked.
“I can’t eat with this tension between us.”
Jada turned around and began opening the bags and pulling out cartons of Thai food. When she reached her pan-seared dumplings, she couldn’t resist snatching one and having a nibble. She had to do something to stop the tears that welled in her eyes.
Why did it matter to her one way or the other if he came with her or not? It’s not like she hadn’t been home alone before on her own. She just supposed that now that her cousins and siblings were coupled up, it was going to be incredibly difficult going stag. Maybe if she just focused on her parents’ happiness she wouldn’t notice how lonely she was.
“So, you’re not even going to look at me?”
She heard him but didn’t dare look his way.
Damian grasped her shoulders and swung her around. His eyes were cloudy and unreadable as he peered into hers. “Jada, I’m sorry. You asked me to attend something very personal and momentous with you, and like a new puppy, I kind of pissed all over it.”
Tears slipped down her cheeks, and Jada felt silly for letting Damian see how he’d affected her; but she appreciated the analogy.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized again. “You were so happy before about hearing of your parents’ impending marriage. Please don’t let me being a Neanderthal ruin that. I want to come with you to Texas, if you’ll still have me.”
“You don’t have to—” She never got another word out because Damian lowered his head and planted a soft kiss on hers. It was his usual toe-curling-type kiss, but maybe that’s what made it all the more potent. When he lifted his head, she said, “Alright, I’d like that.”
Later that evening, after marathoning episodes of Law and Order, they adjourned to her bedroom, where after stripping each other of clothing, they tumbled onto the bed. Then they made love. Sometimes, it was hot and frenzied; other times, it was slow and sweet. Jada felt as if he were trying to pay penance for the embarrassing way he’d handled her request to come to Texas. To be honest, she didn’t care because what their argument had shown Jada was that she wasn’t falling for Damian. She was already there. She was in love with him.
Chapter 19
Damian sat back in his executive chair at the McKnight Media offices and thought about the last several weeks that had passed. He and Jada had been spending a great deal of time together. His lust for her had no bounds. Sometimes, he would make up excuses to go to the station or to her apartment. When he did, he found Jada was more than willing to participate and it would have been a crime against nature not to take advantage. Just the other day, they’d found a storage closet at the station, where he’d backed her against the door.
Within minutes, he’d moved their clothes around just enough so his ravenous mouth could find hers in the dark before he entered her. He’d buried himself deep inside her, and Jada had loved every minute of it, riding the wave after their climaxes struck them long and hard. Somehow, they’d managed to exit the closet with no one being the wiser. And when they weren’t together, they were texting each other throughout the day. Damian never thought he’d get excited to see the tiniest of sentences from Jada or wait with anticipation for her responses. It was the highlight of his day.
Last night, she’d even gotten him to dance even though he’d yet to have a drink. It had been a long day at the office, and she’d told him he needed to let loose and have some fun. Fun wasn’t usually in his playbook, but when she’d turned on the sound system in his entertainment center that he hardly ever used, some old school Bell Biv DeVoe Poison had come blasting through the speakers. So, he’d gotten turned up. He believed that was the lingo young folks used today.
Jada had moved her amazing body and zigzagged her torso in time to the beat. Damian couldn’t help but grin at her energy, exuberance, and carefreeness. Her hair was flying, and her hips were gyrating as if she didn’t have a care in the world. When she dared him to join her, he had. Although his movements were more like someone suffering from an epileptic seizure rather than just simply dancing, he’d enjoyed stomping and moving his arms. Soon, his arms had encompassed her waist and he and Jada had begun a slow dance. Damian couldn’t recall the last time he slow danced with anyone. Usually, he just went straight to the bedroom, but Jada brought out a romantic side of him that had previously gone untapped.
What’s happening to me?
He supposed it started the night at Jada’s place when he hurt her feelings by not agreeing to accompany her to her parents’ wedding. He’d royally stuck his foot in his mouth on that one. He hadn’t thought he’d be able to get out of the muck, but somehow she’d forgiven him and agreed to let him come. Damian knew he didn’t deserve it. Underneath it all, Jada was a good girl—a Southern girl who’d once aspired to be a wife and mother before life had handled her a crummy deal.
But she had reinvented herself, and Damian respected that about her because he’d done the same. Poor, orphaned boy from a substance-addicted mother was a cliché if ever there was one, but he was determined not to be judged by his past. He wanted to be the man that the Locketts had seen in him. And he’d done that by achieving the highest levels of success in his media empire; but he’d done it without anyone to share his life with. And for the first time, he wasn’t alone. He had Jada. To listen. To talk to. To make love to. And although the sex between them was off the charts, she was so much more to him than just her body, which is why going with her to Texas scared the living daylights out of him.
If he thought they’d been on display at the hospital and the ranch on the previous trip, it would be much worse with the entire Hart clan in attendance this time. He didn’t know if he could handle that. What would it be like to feel like part of a family like Jada’s for the weekend?
He would find out next week.
Jada couldn’t believe how great life was going. She’
d always known she had what it took to anchor the news, and every Friday she was doing just that … thanks to Damian. He’d recognized her talent even when he’d wanted to paddle her over his knee. She just wished it didn’t come at Kyler’s expense. Her dear friend had been down in the dumps for weeks now.
As a pick-me up, Jada was treating Kyler to an exclusive day spa on Saturday morning. Damian was working, so Jada had plenty of free time.
“Thank you so much for this,” Kyler said as she leaned back on the plush reclining seat with her feet in the fragrant water. Kyler had arrived earlier that morning to pick Jada up from her condo. Jada had tried to say no, but Kyler had insisted, saying it was the least she could do since Jada was treating. “I need something like this since McKnight has essentially benched me.”
“You’re absolutely welcome,” Jada responded, but thinking about Damian made her feel guilty. Although it wasn’t Jada’s fault, she felt partly responsible that maybe their relationship was clouding Damian’s judgment in seeing Kyler’s potential. She needed to change the subject. “I know I’ve been busy the last few weeks and we haven’t had a chance to hang out. This is my apology.”
Kyler gave her a suspicious look. “You have been rather secretive lately. Are you still seeing the same man you mentioned a few weeks ago?”
Jada stalled. “Um, yeah. I am.”
“Well? Are you going to tell me more about him? What’s he like? What does he do for a living? Knowing you, I’m sure he’s absolutely gorgeous and has a hot body.”
Jada smiled. “Yes. And yes.” She thought about what details she could give without lying to her friend. “He’s a business owner, and he’s a very private person.”
Kyler frowned as the nail technician lifted her leg to scrub her foot with a pumice stone. “Are you absolutely sure he’s not married, Jada? The fact you’re still not revealing very much about him is very telling. You’re usually always so open.”
Captivated Hearts Page 18
