It wasn’t a feeling he was used to, and he was pretty certain she was going to shove him right out of her life if she found out the way he felt about her, whether he invested in her business or not. He swallowed it down again and returned his attention to his dinner and his dinner companion, keeping the focus on business for the rest of the meal, no matter how curious he might have been about her personal life.
Chapter 7
The next few months went by faster than Charlotte even realized until she sat down to think about it all. She’d known there was going to be a lot of work to do to get a bakery off the ground while still running a cart in the first floor of the Pierce Building, but she hadn’t realized how hard it was going to be to find the right location and get it renovated exactly to Preston’s specifications.
There were a lot of places she would have been able to make work with little to no adjustment, but he wanted to have it right. He was a perfectionist. She saw it in him with every piece of commercial real estate they visited with the agent he hired to scout out locations. She could have used her controlling share in the business to override him, but to be honest, she trusted his experience far more than she trusted her own.
They still spent every Friday night together in his office, talking over business plans and getting together the details for the opening. They’d picked out ovens, tables, signs, logos, menus, tablecloths, to go boxes, just about everything she could imagine would be needed to get the business off the ground. He left the actual menu up to her, even though she asked for his input on it. She’d brought a new item for him to sample nearly every week since this had started. It didn’t go on the menu without his approval. It might have been her business, but she was taking his input on all of it seriously. She needed this to be successful, and he knew how to make a successful business, even if he’d never opened a bakery before either.
Charlotte found herself looking forward to Friday evenings all week. Not because it meant the end of the work week, but because it meant she was going to get to spend the evening with Preston. She hadn’t made many friends during her time here, and while seeing her aunt and uncle on the weekends was nice, it just wasn’t the same as spending time with the family she’d left behind in Iowa.
She hadn’t realized just how much she enjoyed spending time with him until the Friday he finally had to cancel. Preston had business in Chicago that was going to take longer than a week to settle. He’d texted her and sent his apologies, but her heart had still fallen at the message as much as she understood the reasoning.
Why did she enjoy spending so much time with a man who was nearly old enough to be her father? I mean fifteen years put them in entirely different generations, though Charlotte had never been one to stick to having friends her own age. That’s what she had come to think of him as — a friend. He was in fact, her only friend here in Denver. In the entire time she’d lived here, she’d gotten to know her customers fairly well, but not one of them had bothered to get to know her the way that Preston had.
Their weekly sessions had gotten to be the highlight of her week. It was a standing appointment with a friend she was getting closer to with every passing week. It didn’t hurt that he was her business partner now as well. The two of them were going to have to work well together. It could only help if they were friendly with each other.
Charlotte hadn’t known what to do with her Friday night now that she was free. For a moment, she’d considered going out to dinner on her own, but she’d thought better of it. Sitting in a cafe on her own reading a book or just staring at the people around her didn’t seem appealing at all. She’d rather spend the evening eating Chinese takeout while Andy curled around her feet and kept trying to plant himself between her and her dinner.
She curled herself up on the couch with a notebook and a glass of wine while she thought over some new recipes for the bakery. There were a few things she wanted Preston to try when he got back from his business trip. She was jotting down notes and sketching a design for a new cupcake when her phone went off. She picked it up from the table next to the couch and grinned when she saw that the text was from Preston.
I’m sorry again I missed our evening. Make it up to you when I get back?
He’d already apologized profusely for missing their standing appointment, but here he was sorry again. It wasn’t his style to miss something, but she knew when he needed to be elsewhere for something more important. There was no way that Charlotte was going to be holding it against him.
Sure thing. I’ll be looking forward to it. How is your business trip going?
She was looking forward to however Preston was planning to make things up to her. There were a million ways he could, but she would have settled with just spending another evening with her friend.
It’s boring, to be honest. I’d much rather be there with you, but this was sort of an emergency. I had to be here.
Charlotte completely understood. She didn’t blame Preston for having to be elsewhere, even if she missed him.
I understand. Just be safe, and I’ll see you when you get back. Okay?
It was only a moment between the time she sent her reply before she got another text notification.
OK. Have a good night.
She smiled and tucked the pen she’d been holding behind her ear as she typed out her final reply.
Goodnight, Preston.
Charlotte glanced at the clock on her phone before putting it back down on the arm of the couch with a sigh. It was later than she’d thought it was and it had been a long week. Maybe she’d better just go to bed and rest to fuel up for the coming week. There was a lot to do to get the business off the ground and there was the food cart she was still going to have to run. Not to mention, she was behind on her blog posts. Rest could only help her out here. She didn’t want to get overwhelmed with everything that was happening, and even with Preston’s friendship and help, this was exhausting.
“Come on, Andy. Let’s go to bed. I’m so tired I can barely think straight.” Scooping Andy up from the place he was curled up on the couch, she cuddled him against her chest before heading off to her bedroom for the night. She missed Preston, but sleep was a good alternative at least for the night. And there was always the make up evening to look forward to.
Chapter 8
Preston was sitting in the middle of his dark hotel room with a glass of scotch, thinking over where he would rather have been this weekend. His normal pastime of spending a Friday evening drinking scotch with Charlotte had been interrupted when it looked like one of the business deals the corporation had been working on was going to fall through, but he’d come out to Chicago to handle the details personally. That was all it had taken. The investors wanted to see his face more than anything else, and now that he was here, things were going a lot more smoothly.
It didn’t really matter that he hadn’t done much of anything since he got here, other than sit in meetings and not offer much advice. At this point, it was his name that made him useful more than his expertise. Things were different back in Denver with Charlotte, though. That was far more a partnership of equals than anything else he’d had going on in his business life.
He may have started out spending time with her for business reasons, but it had become far more than that in the past few weeks. He saw her more often than almost anyone else except Sophie, and that was only because Sophie was in and out of his office every single day and not just on Friday nights. No one else in the building even knew that he and Charlotte had a standing date on Friday evenings.
He didn’t think of them as dates, but that was almost what they had become. The entire time the two of them were together, Preston had to fight off the urge to touch Charlotte. He indulged himself from time to time, letting his fingers brush across her arm or come into contact with hers while he was giving her a glass of scotch or passing a contract across the paper strewn desk. What he really wanted to do was brush all those papers off the desk and onto the floor and replace them
with Charlotte.
There was something absolutely intoxicating about her innocence and naiveté. He didn’t want her to lose that,. He didn’t want to take advantage of her, but there were times when he struggled not to just give in to his desires and let go of the facade he felt like he was building up between the two of them. She was becoming his friend, but there was no denying he wanted far more to their relationship than a simple friendship.
Preston knew how pathetic Sophie would have thought he was, drinking alone in the dark in a hotel suite in Chicago, while he thought about the girl who ran the bakery cart in the lobby of his building, but he really didn’t care. He wanted Charlotte. There was no use in denying it to himself much longer, though he wasn’t going to act on it. At least not unless she gave him some kind of sign that she returned his feelings.
Preston didn’t see that happening any time soon. Charlotte was as light as he was dark, and there was far more to it than just her looks. She was smart, but she was young, and she’d led most of her life sheltered out in the middle of nowhere in Iowa. She knew nothing of the world that Preston lived in on a daily basis, and he liked that about her. When Preston was with her, he could act like he didn’t have to take part in the cutthroat world that he worked in day after day. He could find joy in just starting up a business with this young woman and remembering what it was like to be a young man, just starting out in the world when he still had some optimism left.
He did feel bad about missing tonight, and he hoped she missed him as much as he was missing her right now. It had been far too long since the two of them had spent an evening together. She was his drug and when he didn’t get his weekly fix of spending time with her, he felt a little lost. This was the first time in months he wasn’t spending his Friday night with her, so he was spending it getting drunk instead.
He wasn’t certain what had possessed him when he decided to text her. The two of them communicated by text from time to time, but it was mostly to discuss details about the bakery. They didn’t exactly talk personally in their phone chats. They may have gotten a little personal during the times they’d spent together, but it was still rare. Charlotte was a little reserved about her family and her private life.
He had found out that she was single. In fact, she had been single since long before she’d arrived at the city. She hadn’t dated anyone seriously since she’d been in culinary school to learn to be a pastry chef. She had been formally trained back in Iowa at a fairly good school, but most of her dishes were old family recipes she’d tweaked or things she’d come up with entirely out of her own imagination. She had a lot of potential. She was smart, quick on her feet and a good learner. She was just a little bit naive and a little bit in the dark about everything that was needed to start a new business. It just so happened that was what he found most attractive about her.
He’d been surrounded by people who were in the industry far too long for their own good, but she was a breath of fresh air compared to the rest of them. He looked forward to his Fridays throughout the entire week. Weekends weren’t a thing for Preston. He got a little time to himself during those times when everyone else had left the office, but he was focused on his work no matter what day of the week it was. And then, there was the time he got to spend with Charlotte. That was a vacation compared to most of his time in the office. The two of them might have been working, but it was actually enjoyable. It was due to the company more than anything else.
Preston sighed as he received his goodnight text from Charlotte, pushing up from the chair he’d been sitting in and downing the remainder of the amber liquid in the glass he’d been holding. There was no reason to stay up if she was going to bed for the night, other than to sulk over wanting the one thing he really couldn’t have and he could do that in his sleep well enough.
So many of his dreams were about her these days that sleep was just a further test of his self-control. He would wake up breathless and panting after a restless night filled with thoughts of her in his arms and under his body. The dreams were intoxicating and torturous when he woke, only to have to go back to the way things had been for weeks with the two of them just being friends and business partners. For the time being, it was a stalemate, but only time would tell what was going to come next.
Chapter 9
The following Friday, Preston had been back in the office for four days. Charlotte had seen him in the lobby of the building every single morning, but he hadn’t come by the bakery stand. The two of them hadn’t even spoken since the texts he’d sent her that night apologizing for having to be out of town on business. Maybe he was busy. He certainly looked busy as he buzzed through the lobby of the building into the elevators, heading straight up for the top floor of the building.
She argued with the voice inside her head that told her she’d done something wrong and upset him in some way. The last thing she wanted to do was upset the one person who she could call a friend in this place, much less upset the person who was investing in her dream business. The two of them still hadn’t found the perfect location for this thing, but they had an appointment on Monday after work to see another place with the real estate agent. She hoped this one was going to be just the one.
They could discuss it tonight in his office after work. She assumed they were still on for their weekly get together since she hadn’t heard anything else. Besides, the last time they’d spoken, he said he was going to make it up to her for not being able to make it last week. Tonight was going to be his chance.
She cleaned up the cart, ran the deposit from today’s earnings to the night deposit drop at bank branch in the lobby, but stopped before she headed straight into the elevators, ducking into the bathroom first before she pressed the call button. Charlotte had no idea why she was worried about how she looked, but she ran her fingers through what she thought were the unruly curls that fell around her shoulders, making them more presentable, and adjusted her shirt where it had gone slightly crooked during the working day. She wanted to look her best before she emerged from the elevator on the top floor. It had been almost two weeks since the two of them had spoken in person, and for some reason that thought left her just as nervous as the first time she’d gone into his office.
Charlotte took a deep breath and nodded in the mirror before she made a beeline for the elevator door. The ride up to the top floor seemed to take forever, and with the building empty she was always the only one on the elevator for this ride. But, it gave her a chance to get her nerves under control while she waited for the familiar ding that would open the doors onto the empty offices of Pierce Industries. The only light on was the one coming from between the half opened doors to Preston’s office.
Charlotte headed straight there, pausing to knock gently at the door.
“Preston?” Her voice was questioning and uncertain, she wasn’t even sure he was in the office until she heard his reply.
“Come on in, Charlotte.” The sound of his desk chair squeaking told her he was getting up from his desk to greet her when she came into the room. He was reserved tonight. Usually there would have been more conversation. It did nothing to allay her fears that she was unwelcome in his office this evening.
She slid her hands into her pockets, slipping between the open doors before shutting them behind her. Usually they were the only ones in the office, but occasionally one of the night security people or the janitors wandered through. They both preferred to go undisturbed for the night, and all of the employees here knew better than to barge into Mr. Pierce’s office at night. His day staff might not realize that he slept in the office occasionally, but the night workers here were well aware of it. So was Charlotte by now. She’d seen the small apartment that was adjacent to his office — one room complete with bed and full bath and a small wardrobe with suits in case he was going to be here too late to bother heading home.
“Evening.” She smiled at him as he made his way over to the bar, pouring two glasses of scotch and passed one over to her. Charlotte
wasn’t sure of what else she was supposed to say. His demeanor made her uneasy.
“Have a seat?” He gestured to the upholstered chairs that the two of them frequented during their time here. It was rare that they worked at the desk. Charlotte settled into one of them, resting her glass on the coffee table in front of her. That one glass would usually have been enough to last her for the night, but she’d already taken a deep gulp of it to try to settle her nerves. The scotch burned it’s way down her throat and it took her a moment to clear it before she could speak.
“I hope you enjoyed your trip.” She found herself talking to him as if he were just one of her customers downstairs, instead of the man she’d come to think of as her closest friend here in the city. They might not have known all of the details of each other’s lives, but she spent more time with him than she did with anyone else besides her cat, Andy.
“It’s over. That’s about all I can say for it.” He chuckled softly as he moved into the chair across the table from her. She liked the sound of his laugh. It at least managed to put her more at ease.
“Well, at least it’s over then.” She smiled and took another sip of the scotch, though the large swallow she’d taken as soon as she got the glass was going to her head. She was always bad with liquor. It was the reason she limited herself to one glass when she was up here with Preston every Friday. So far tonight, she was already almost done with a full glass. She’d been up here less than fifteen minutes and already downed her usual night’s worth of drink.
The conversation continued, and Charlotte let Preston refill her drink for the first time since the two of them had begun getting to know each other. The scotch made her feel more relaxed, it made him more personable, and eventually, the two of them were chatting like nothing had ever happened between the two of them. Charlotte felt silly for being nervous or thinking that something was wrong between the two of them. Clearly, he’d just been busy this week and last, and the two of them had tonight to get back to being friendly with each other.
Sweet Temptation: A Billionaire Virgin Romance Page 5
