“I owe you for missing last week. I know…” Preston stood up and walked over to his desk, looking through the stack of papers on the top. “I’ve just been insanely busy this week. I know we have to go look at another location on Monday. The real estate agent sent over some paperwork and some photos of the place I wanted to show you, and I was thinking we could go get dinner together afterwards. My treat again. I just wanted to apologize for missing our standing appointment.” He pulled out a folder, and Charlotte moved over to his side to look over the things in his hand. It was pretty standard fare — photos and floor plans along with information about the location. She took one of the pieces of paper from him, looking over the floor plan of the potential location.
“Sounds like a date then, Preston.” Her focus went back to the piece of paper in front of her. This location looked like a better fit than anything they’d looked at before. It was already outfitted as a cafe, and was only going to need a few changes to make it fit exactly what they needed. She glanced at the address, and it wasn’t far from here, which meant it was close to her apartment, and she knew the neighborhood was good for the type of business she was planning to open. “This place looks amazing, by the way. Why haven’t we seen it before?”
“Because the owners were planning to renovate and reopen it, but they recently changed their minds. It’s not even officially on the market yet, but our agent got us a first look at it.”
“I hope you know you’re absolutely amazing for that. I wouldn’t have even known how to go about looking for the right kind of place without you.” She meant exactly what she was saying. It wasn’t just about the money. She was starting to rely on him for making sure that she was headed in the right direction. Charlotte could bake for the rest of her life, but shopping for real estate and dealing with getting a business license and figuring out suppliers was beyond anything she’d ever had to do with her life. Preston had been amazing since the two of them had begun working together.
“You’d have done alright without me.” Charlotte shook her head, leaning into the man on her right side. He moved away and turned to look out the window. He’d been looking out that window on the night the two of them had really been introduced to each other.
“No… I wouldn’t have.” Charlotte moved to put a hand on his shoulder. He didn’t turn around until she asked the question she’d been thinking about for weeks, but hadn’t had the courage to say out loud until now. “You didn’t have to do any of this for me. You didn’t have to put in any time or money or effort into the girl who runs the bakery cart down on the first floor of your building. You didn’t even have to acknowledge my presence. So, why me, Preston?” It was something she’d been wondering since he’d agreed to fund her business, but she was ready for the response that it got.
Preston turned around to face her, but instead of speaking he pushed her back into the edge of the desk as he moved to pull her into his arms in the same moment. She was absolutely lost in the moment that his lips met hers. Charlotte had no idea what she was thinking, except that she wasn’t. She was just giving in to the moment that was happening between the two of them. Her hands moved with a mind of their own until her fingers were twining into the dark hair that was only just beginning to go gray at the temples.
The kiss took her breath away, and returning it was pure instinct. Preston appeared to be just as taken by what was going on between the two of them as Charlotte was. She had no idea where this had come from. She didn’t even know he thought about her that way, and she had no idea her body was going to have this kind of response to his. She was inexperienced. It had been a long time since she’d been kissed, and it was never anything like this.
These weren’t the stupid fumbling kisses that came from the few teenaged boys who’d managed to get this far with her. Preston was a man, a much older man, and far more experienced than she was at this point in her life. This was the kiss of a man that new exactly what he wanted and wasn’t afraid to take it. His tongue dipped into her mouth and massaged her own. His breath was warm with the remnants of the scotch still lingering. His hand slipped behind the nape of her neck as his lips danced over hers.
She’d been kissed, but in all actuality, she’d never been with anyone. Virginity wasn’t something that had ever bothered Charlotte, but right now it made her feel absolutely in over her head, especially when Preston moved to lift her up onto the desk and her thighs parted to make way for him.
In the same motion, her skirt rode up her thighs, exposing her skin to the cool air of the air conditioned office. It was that shock in the change of temperature that brought her back to her senses. She’d asked Preston why he’d chosen to invest in her, and his answer had been to pull her into a kiss. Was that what he’d wanted all along? Was the only thing he’d ever seen in her was a girl he was just going to splay out across his desk and have his way with?
She broke away, each breath heavy as she pushed him away and moved herself off the desk, tugging the skirt back down over her knees. She hadn’t known what she was thinking putting herself in a situation like this. She should have known better than to think she had anything that was interesting to a man like Preston Pierce other than sex. Her little business was nothing, a drop in the bucket compared to what he usually did. He was just amusing himself with her. That much had become abundantly clear.
Half of her wanted to slap him and tell him off for putting her in this situation, for making her care about him and giving her hope about her business only to use it as a way to string her along. The other half of her just wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible. It was that half that won out.
She didn’t say a single word, moving to grab her bag and make a straight path for the elevators. They couldn’t come fast enough, and she prayed that Preston wasn’t going to come after her. But when she heard her name from the office door just as the elevator doors opened in front of her, she didn’t even look back, just launching herself into the elevator and jamming her finger into the button for the lobby. It wasn’t until the doors closed, sealing her inside alone, that she let herself dissolve into a flood of tears.
Charlotte leaned back against the stainless steel wall of the elevator until even that couldn’t hold her up anymore and she sank down until she was sitting in the corner of the elevator hugging her knees against her chest. She should have known better than to think that anyone would ever take her seriously. She was stupid and naive, and her business plan, well, that was probably just as stupid. Preston Pierce wanted one thing and one thing only, at least she’d seen through the ruse before she’d lost her mind and things had gone too far. She was still going to be stuck with an aching heart until she got over all of this. Of course the first person here she’d decided to put any trust in had turned out to be using it against her.
Charlotte kicked herself in her own thoughts all the way out to the car. She ignored the fact that her phone was vibrating in her purse with a phone call, and she ignored the voice mail message that popped up on the screen when it fell out of her bag as she got into her car. Instead, she focused on just getting herself home. She wanted nothing more than her bed and her cat and to forget the rest of the world existed for a day or two.
She wanted to cry, but she needed to focus on driving. Charlotte wiped the tears from her face, took a deep breath, and put the car in gear. The more space she put between her and Preston the more she convinced herself that all of this had been a giant mistake. By the time that she arrived back at her apartment, she didn’t even bother getting out of the clothes she’d worn to work before she sank into her bed and let out another sob.
Andy came and curled himself around her knee, pushing into her and letting out a gentle purr. Charlotte reached out, stroking her fingers through his fur before she pulled him into her lap with a sigh.
“How did I get so stupid, Andy?”
Chapter 10
Preston was already kicking himself for losing his mind before Charlotte made it out of the door. H
e hadn’t known what he was doing when he turned around and pulled her into his arms. The urges he’d been able to keep at bay came roaring to the surface the moment she’d laid her hand on his shoulder. And the question that she’d asked him had been one that he’d been asking himself since he’d agreed to all of this.
The business part of the deal was smart. She was smart. She could bake. It just made sense to give her the chance to prove herself. He would have invested in her with or without the fact that he was attracted to her. The attraction had been a distraction, something he hadn’t wanted and was fighting against. He wasn’t the type of person to use his money and influence to get women, but she was going to think that now. Because instead of telling her that she was smart and capable and the most amazing woman her age he’d ever met, he went and did something stupid like pull her in for a kiss.
She hadn’t stopped him though, at least not until he’d pushed her up on the desk. It had made things more serious. He had no way of knowing her feelings about that, but when she’d returned his kiss, it had just added more fuel to the fire that was burning inside him. The moment that the two of them had spent in each other’s arms was the thing he’d been aching for since the first time she’d wandered into his office. All of the time the two of them had spent together had just made it worse and worse until it boiled over.
He wanted to go after her, but she’d gotten the head start while Preston stood there stupefied at what he’d just done. He’d gone and ruined the one good thing that he had going in his life in one stupid moment, and then he’d let her run out of here and get into the elevator before he’d come to his senses enough to go after her.
Preston wouldn’t have blamed Charlotte if she never wanted to talk to him again, but he couldn’t just let her go without apologizing. He needed her to know that there was so much more to her than that. By the time he got an elevator and got down to the lobby, she was nowhere in sight. He knew her car would be in the garage, but chasing her out there was probably the worst thing he could do right now. It was just going to scare her and make everything worse.
Preston had never been to her apartment, but he did know her address. It had gone on most of the paperwork they’d already filled out upstairs, and it was sitting in his phone as well. He wanted to give her some time to cool off before he went chasing after her, but there was no way he was going to wait until the morning to tell her everything that was running through his mind. He needed to apologize. He wanted to keep the partnership between them going, and he was going to do everything in his power to keep things between them professional from now on. Having her as a business partner and a friend was infinitely preferable to losing her entirely.
She was the best part of his life, and the only good thing he had going. If keeping her in his life meant that he was going to have to mind his manners from here on out, then she was worth every bit of effort it was going to take to keep his attraction for her under control.
Preston dialed the number for his car service, telling the driver to meet him out front of the building in half an hour. He considered stopping to get her flowers, but he didn’t know where he was going to find them this time of night and he didn’t want to give her the wrong impression. Flowers made it seem too much like they were dating and had had a fight. It would have been the kind of thing someone who was trying to use their money to impress a girl would have done. That was the last impression he wanted to give her. He tried calling her, but she didn’t answer the phone and when it went straight to her voice mail he left a quick apology.
“Listen Charlotte, I’m sorry. I was a damned fool. Just call me back and let me apologize. I don’t want you to go off thinking the worst of me.”
What he really wanted her to know was how sorry he was for everything that had happened between the two of them tonight. He had missed her more than he’d intended to while he’d been in Chicago. Staying apart from her had been harder than he had ever imagined it was going to be. He was starting to crave being in her presence. He’d kept himself from calling or texting her during the rest of the week to try and get it out of his system. All it had done was make the craving that much stronger when she actually walked into the room. He hadn’t been prepared for it, but he’d needed the scotch he’d poured into his glass to keep himself steadied.
Even that hadn’t been enough when she’d been standing there, putting her hand on his shoulder, dressed the way that she always was. It had all gotten the better of him and the scotch had quickly become a liability. It had given him the courage to just go in for the kiss that he’d been wanting since the minute she brought the first glass of liquor she’d been given to those perfect, pink lips.
He waited around in the empty lobby, staring at the rain that began to pour outside and streaked down the freshly cleaned glass windows. The weather was starting to mirror his mood and by the time the driver called to let him know that he was waiting out front, the rain was so heavy he could barely hear his feet on the pavement when he dashed for the curb. He hadn’t bothered with an umbrella. It didn’t matter if his suit got wet. He had dozens of them at home. All that he really cared about was making sure that Charlotte wasn’t going to hold this against him for the rest of their lives. That was the one outcome he wasn’t going to be able to handle.
The ride seemed longer than he’d expected. He knew the neighborhood she lived in. He was familiar enough with the city to know that much, and it wasn’t far from the office building. The drive there still seemed like it took an hour. In reality, it was probably only about fifteen minutes.
Her apartment building was just plain and average, the kind of place you’d expect a girl in her twenties who’d just moved into a new city to live. It wasn’t in a bad neighborhood, and it wasn’t in a great one either, just something in between, and there was nothing about it that would tell you that someone who was going to be as important to Preston as Charlotte had become was living there. One of the tenants was leaving as he approached the bottom floor and no one was going to think twice about letting a well dressed man in his thirties into an apartment building in this part of the city. It kept him from having to ring up to her apartment to get her to let him in.
Her apartment was on the third floor, and there was no elevator. That meant he was out of breath by the time he’d gotten to the top floor. Maybe he wasn’t in as good of shape as he liked to think he was. He stopped to catch his breath outside of her front door, doubting himself every time he moved to knock on the wooden door. Finally he just steeled himself and rapped his knuckles against the smooth, cool surface and waited.
He could hear the sound of movement beyond the door, so he knew someone was home. It occurred to Preston at that moment that he had no idea whether she lived alone or with someone. He hadn’t even asked if she was single. He’d just assumed that she was because she was free to spend her Friday nights in his office working on a business plan. He didn’t know if she had a roommate or lived with family. Nothing. He just knew her address from the paperwork.
He didn’t know much of anything about her to be honest. She’d been as closeted with her secrets as he had been with his. He was preparing himself for anything when Charlotte finally opened the door, a gray cat curling himself around her ankles as she stood there. Her eyes were rimmed with red and puffy. She’d clearly been crying. He was the reason for it. He never should have given in to his urges. Preston knew he was going to have to do a better job of governing himself and his behavior around Charlotte if he intended to keep her in his life, and not having her in his life was not an option.
She almost moved to slam the door in his face when she saw who was there, but he caught it before she could completely shut it.
“Charlotte, please listen to me.”
“What do you want?” The strain showed in her voice, and he wouldn’t have blamed her for telling him to leave then and there.
“I want to apologize. I shouldn’t have done that. I don’t know what came over me.”
“It’s obvious what came over you. I’m just another conquest to you, Preston. I’ve just been a fool not to notice it and you don’t have to apologize. You did a great job of teaching me a lesson here. I can promise I won’t make the same mistake again.”
Preston knit his brows together. He shouldn’t have cared what this young woman thought of him, but he did. He cared, more than he even wanted to admit to himself. For anyone else, he would have walked away. Who was he kidding? For anyone else, he wouldn’t have even come here. He was a billionaire. Her business idea was small peanuts compared to everything else he had going on, but he wanted her to succeed. He needed her in his life and he didn’t know how to fix it now that he’d screwed everything up. Maybe being completely honest was going to be the best track to take with her now.
“I’m not going to lie, I’m attracted to you. I’ve been trying to deny it for weeks because I didn’t want to scare you, but all of that went out the window when I lost control and kissed you tonight. You’re probably not going to believe me, but all of that had nothing to do with why I decided to help you. I think you have potential…I know you do! You remind me of myself at your age and I know you have a great head on your shoulders and an eye for business. I believe in you and I believe in the bakery. I wasn’t using it to get to you physically. I take business far too seriously to just use it as a way to get a girl.”
She frowned, her fingers curling around the edge of the door as she clearly debated whether or not to slam it in his face. He wouldn’t have blamed her for just walking away and never talking to him again. When she opened her mouth, he was pretty sure it was just going to be an outright rejection.
Sweet Temptation: A Billionaire Virgin Romance Page 6
