“Then I suggest that you try shifting your attention elsewhere.”
“I doubt if that will work. I want you.”
Jessica went numb. She’d never met a man who expressed his interest in her so blatantly.
“I hope my directness didn’t shock you.”
She met his gaze. Yes, it had shocked her. Her heart was flip-flopping in her chest, not to mention the heat that had settled in the pit of her stomach. In California, men enjoyed playing games and you rarely knew what they were thinking, where you stood or what their intent was. “You’re an attractive man, Chase, and I’m sure you date,” she decided to say.
He smiled. “Not much and especially not a lot in the past six months.” When she opened her mouth to continue, he pressed two fingers across her lips. “I’m not asking you to marry me, Jessica. I just want us to get to know each other. You’re new in town and I’d like to show you around, introduce you to people, and spend time with you.”
“You’re a man. You’ll eventually want more than that.”
“Will I?”
“Yes.” Panic gripped her. Never before had a man made her lose all sense of logic. Chase Westmoreland was powerful, dangerous and all male, and those three things had her worried.
Chase knew to tell her that she was wrong, that he wouldn’t eventually want more, would be an outright lie. He glanced over at the bag sitting on her counter. “Go ahead and enjoy your food.” Then, without missing a beat, he asked, “How about a movie tomorrow night?”
She blinked then stared into his eyes. He was smoothly changing the subject and they both knew it. “A movie tomorrow night?”
“Yes, a movie,” he whispered, and the deep sensuous tone of his voice vibrated her nerve endings. “I’ll pick you up around seven.”
Her senses told her the last thing she needed to do was to begin dating a Westmoreland, but he might have some of the answers she needed. She couldn’t overlook that fact. “A movie sounds nice. I’ll be ready at seven.” She then reached for the doorknob. “Now you can leave.”
She pushed a wayward curl back from her face, inhaled and waited. His gaze was locked on hers, arousing her, making her nipples harden against her blouse. She wondered if he was aware of her body’s response to him. His scent made her want to nuzzle her face into his neck and…
She closed her eyes, refusing to go there. When she slowly opened her eyes, he was there, his lips mere inches from hers. She inhaled sharply. The stir of sensual need suddenly overwhelmed her.
“You feel it like I do, Jessica,” he whispered. “Don’t ask me why it’s happening because I don’t know, but it’s as if this place, this time, these moments between us were meant to be and we don’t have any control over anything.”
Jessica tipped her head back, refusing to look at things that way. But when he raised his fingertips to her lips, she instinctively parted them. He was right. It was as if neither of them had control over the moment. She didn’t want to get romantically involved with him but a need to kiss him again was sending sensual charges all through her body. And from the way he was looking at her, she could tell he felt them.
She struggled to push down this passionate side she hadn’t been aware she had. She was an ace at confrontation as an attorney, but Jessica was a novice when it came to the kind of deep-in-the-gut sensations that had her lips quivering.
“Please let me kiss you, Jessica.”
With the sound of his voice, deep, husky and sexy, he didn’t have to ask twice and she tilted her lips up to him. The moment their mouths connected, she swallowed a groan and let his tongue do all kinds of naughty things, pushing her pulse into overdrive and causing tingles to erupt inside her stomach. This kiss was based on more than mutual attraction and gratification. There were elements taking over that scared her to death. He was a fantastic kisser and knew he would be a great lover…but she didn’t intend to sleep with him. Ever.
If only she really meant it.
She pulled back. He needed to leave. Now. “Goodbye, Chase.”
He smiled. “Goodbye. I’ll see you tomorrow night at seven.”
And then he was gone.
The following evening Jessica breathed deeply as she crossed the room to open the door. It was exactly seven o’clock and, not surprisingly, Chase was punctual. She glanced down at herself. She had dressed casually in a pair of jeans and pullover sweater.
Jessica felt her pulse shudder when she unlocked the door to find Chase standing there. As expected, he was looking tall, dark and gorgeous. She wondered if he had any idea how he had disrupted her sleep the past two nights. “Chase.”
“Jessica.”
“Would you like anything to drink before we leave?” She felt another shudder pass through her when she noticed how his gaze was lingering on her mouth. A part of her wished more than anything she was immune to his robust masculinity but unfortunately she wasn’t.
“No. Do you have any chocolate chip cookies left from today?”
Jessica couldn’t help but smile. He sounded just like a little kid being set loose in the toy section of a department store. “Yes, I do and I remembered that they are your favorite. I’ve boxed them up already. You can have them when we get back.”
“Oh, really…” he said as a smile spread over his face.
Jessica grinned. “Yes, really. Now are we ready to leave?”
“Let’s go.”
“Are you hungry?”
Jessica glanced up at Chase as they walked out of the theater. She couldn’t help but chuckle. “Are you kid ding? I’m the one who ate most of the popcorn, at least two hot dogs, not to mention a super-size drink and a box of gummy worms.”
A corner of Chase’s mouth tilted in a smile as he took her hand in his. “It’s okay. I’m not a big fan of junk food.”
“Umm, I can imagine. Who comes up with the menu for Chase’s Place?”
“Usually I do, but Kevin gives his input.”
“Kevin?”
“He’s my cook but every once in a while if he’s out, I do the cooking. Kevin and I are the only ones who know the Westmoreland family recipes and he’s bound by a legal contract never to divulge our secrets. I had to take such measures after what happened to my grandfather years ago. He got burned putting too much trust in his partner.”
Jessica swallowed the thick lump in her throat. She already knew the story, at least her grandmother’s version. Now she wanted to hear Chase’s. “What happened?”
“Years ago, a man by the name of Carlton Graham did most of the cooking while my grandfather handled the administrative duties. The two worked together for years and then had a dispute over something and parted ways. A few weeks later Granddad found out that Carlton had sold the secrets of a few of the Westmorelands’ prize-winning recipes to a rival restaurant. Needless to say my grandfather never got over the betrayal. Those stolen recipes had been in the Westmoreland family for generations.”
Jessica had to bite down on her lips to stop from coming to her grandfather’s defense as she’d done with Mrs. Stewart. “And how did your grandfather know who stole the recipes?” she asked, trying not to give Chase a reason to question her interest.
By now they had reached Chase’s car and he opened the door for her. “Because nobody else knew the ingredients. Also, my grandfather kept his recipe book under lock and key and no one else besides Carlton had access to it.”
So of course he blamed my grandfather, she thought as she slid into the leather seat of Chase’s sports car. “What about other people who worked at your grandfather’s restaurant?”
Chase shrugged. “As far as I can remember—I was only fifteen or sixteen at the time—the only other people who worked there were two waitresses, Miss Paula and Miss Darcy, and neither knew the recipes. Their job was to wait tables and take care of the customers.”
Jessica nodded, thinking she had asked enough questions. The last thing she needed was for him to become suspicious.
She wished she could l
evel with him and tell him that she was Carton Graham’s granddaughter, but to do so would be a mistake until she could prove her grandfather’s innocence.
Chase closed the door and walked around the car to get inside. He turned to her before starting the ignition. “You never said if you were hungry.”
She shook her head and met his gaze. “No, I’m not hungry but if you are then we can stop and get you something.”
He smiled. “I have an even better idea. How about if we go back to your place so I can dig into those cookies? And it would be wonderful if you have some milk. There’s nothing like a big, cold glass of milk with choc o late chip cookies.”
Just for a second Jessica wondered if taking Chase back to her place and inviting him inside was a good thing. But they had said they wanted to get to know each other better and she had found out some information from him tonight. On Monday she would ask Mrs. Stewart about the waitresses who used to work for Chase’s grandfather to see if they were still around. Maybe she could talk to them as well.
“Yes, I have milk and after such a wonderful evening the least I can do is take you back to my place and let you indulge your taste buds a little.”
A corner of Chase’s mouth tilted into a smile as he started the car. “Umm, indulge my taste buds? Now that’s certainly one way of looking at it.”
Four
“I don’t think you really know how delicious these cookies are, Jessica.”
Jessica leaned back in her chair and smiled, pleased with Chase’s compliment. “I bet you say that to all the girls.”
After taking a huge swallow of milk Chase licked his lips and smiled. “No, honestly, I don’t. In fact most of the women I’ve dated couldn’t cook worth a damn, which is probably the reason I was such an asset to them. If nothing else, I was able to feed them.”
She grinned and wished she wasn’t so affected by that smile of his. He had been at her place for over an hour, and during that time she had sipped her coffee while listening to him tell her about his family. She could actually feel the love he had for his siblings although he tried convincing her that his four brothers were nothing but pains.
However, he had spoken fondly about his baby sister Delaney, who would be flying into town tomorrow from the Middle East with her husband and son. A christening was planned on Sunday for his brother Storm’s twin baby girls. And a christening dinner party would be held after the church service at Chase’s Place.
“You’ve let me do a lot of talking, now it’s your turn,” Chase said, interrupting her thoughts.
She lifted a brow. “It’s my turn?”
“Yes, tell me about yourself, Jessica.”
For just a second she pressed her lips, together wondering what she could say that wouldn’t lead him to make a connection to her and Carlton Graham. And if he remembered her grandfather then there was a strong possibility he would remember her grandmother as well.
She leaned forward, knowing she would have to be careful about what she said. She didn’t want to deceive him but, for now, the less he knew the better. “I was born in Sacramento, California, but went to law school at UCLA and—”
“Law school? You’re an attorney?”
She heard deep surprise in his voice and smiled. “I was and I guess legally I still am since I’m still licensed there. I worked for a huge corporation and was hired right out of law school. But over the years I saw just how much integrity the company lacked and often had to defend a lot of their practices that I knew were wrong.”
She took a sip of her coffee, remembering those times. “I probably would have still been there if it hadn’t been for my grandmother. She died and left me an inheritance that I used to open Delicious Cravings.”
Chase bit into another cookie. “What about your parents?”
“My mom was a single parent,” she said quietly. “For fifteen years she believed my father would marry her, only to find out that he’d strung her along. He couldn’t marry her because he was already married with a family living in Philadelphia.”
She watched Chase go still. Saw the anger that came into his eyes and studied the frown that bunched his forehead. “How in the hell was he able to pull that off?” he asked.
Jessica sighed. “He was a salesman and traveled a lot. His home base was in Pennsylvania but he dropped in and paid us a visit whenever he was in town. He was able to pull off his duplicity for fifteen years because my mother never questioned his comings and goings.”
She took another sip of her coffee then added, “I hated him the most when he would show up unexpectedly. My mother was a different person around him. She became weak, vulnerable and dependent. If he said jump she would purr, How high?”
Chase nodded. Although he had known Jessica only for a few days he knew she did not take after her mother. He couldn’t picture any man dominating her that way. More than likely she had seen her mother live that kind of life and refused to live it herself. “How did your mom find out the truth?”
A part of Jessica wondered why she was telling him any of this, but she knew the reason. She had discovered earlier that she felt comfortable with him. “She didn’t find out. My granddad did. It had always bothered him that my father never married my mother and I guess he thought fifteen years was long enough. He also got suspicious of my father’s drop-in visits and hired a private investigator who ferreted out the truth.”
Chase wiped his mouth, then tossed his balled-up napkin into the garbage can that sat across the room. “How did your mother handle it when she found out the truth?” he asked, turning his attention back to her.
A shudder went through Jessica when she remembered that time. “She didn’t handle it. In fact she was so devastated, so humiliated, that she overdosed on sleeping pills.”
“I’m so sorry,” Chase whispered and reached across the table, taking her hand in his. “That must have been awful for you.”
Jessica’s heart began beating wildly when Chase’s hand enclosed hers. She studied his hands for a moment. They were large, strong and comforting. “It was,” she said quietly. “I was fifteen and all alone except for my grandparents. I went to live with them after that. They were super and helped me through a very difficult time. Jennifer was also there for me.”
“Jennifer?”
“Yes, Jennifer Claiborne, my father’s legal wife. She divorced him after she found out what he’d done. Being the warm, loving and caring person that she is, she opened her arms and heart to me. She sent for me every summer so I could get to know my brother and sister and she became my second mom. She also demanded in the divorce decree that my father establish a college fund for me like he had for my sister and brother.”
Chase smiled. “She sounds like one hell of a tough lady.”
“She is and I know I can call on her if I ever need anything. She’s always been supportive, and considering the circumstances, I think that’s admirable. A lot of women would not have done all the things she did to help me put my life together after Mom died.”
“What about your father?” he asked, leaning forward. Jessica’s nostrils couldn’t help but absorb his aftershave, which mingled with his masculine scent and was making her pulse rate escalate.
“After the divorce my father sort of dropped out of everyone’s life. Last I heard he was living somewhere in New York.”
“The bastard,” Chase said, anger and disgust evident in his voice. “What made you decide to move to Atlanta?”
Jessica paused at his question. She couldn’t tell him the real reason she had chosen Atlanta. “Mainly the cost of living. Compared to other progressive areas in the country, Atlanta gave me more for my buck and when the real estate agent located this building and said it included an apartment on top, I knew it was perfect.”
She slowly pulled her hands out of his and leaned back in her chair. “I think you’ve eaten enough sweets for one night, Mr. Westmoreland.” She glanced at her watch. “Besides that, I can sleep in late on Saturdays, but you can’
t.”
Chase grinned. “True, but you’ll need breakfast, too, so how about joining me tomorrow? Kevin can throw down with grits and eggs.”
She cocked her head and studied him. “Is that an invitation?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what it is. Then if you aren’t too busy you can go to a game with me around noon.”
She lifted a brow? “A game?”
“Yes, I coach a basketball team of teens at the community center in College Park, and there’s a game tomorrow. Chase’s Crusaders against Willie’s Warriors.”
Jessica shook her head grinning. “Hey, I thought this was football season.”
“To some people it is, but to parents who want their sons to become the Michael Jordan of tomorrow, every season is basketball season. So will you go with me?”
Jessica smiled. Although she knew she should turn him down, she said, “Basketball in October, how can I resist? By the way, who’s Willie?”
Chase chuckled. “He’s the coach for the other team and owns a video franchise a few blocks away. He played professionally for the Pistons a few years ago. We went to high school together and have remained good friends.”
Jessica nodded. Of all the things they had talked about tonight, he hadn’t mentioned anything about his dream to play for the pros. She watched him as he stood.
“Will you walk me to the door?”
“Of course.”
He strolled across the room to check out her cooking pots as well as the molds that were sitting on the candy-making table. “One day you’re going have to let me watch you make a batch of chocolate candy.”
“Umm, maybe one day I will.” She tried concentrating on what he was saying and not on what he was wearing, but there was something scrumptious about a man with wide shoulders and muscled arms in a black pullover sweater. Add a pair of denim jeans on a well-built body with firm thighs and what you got was one hell of a sexy man.
Claimed for Destiny Page 18
