“Girl, please, that’s all types of interesting. The fact that you agreed to go on a date with him is big. There must be something about him that made you say yes, because if any other guy would’ve asked you, I promise you wouldn’t have said yes.”
She grabs my cheeks and starts making kissy faces with me.
“My baby is going on a date.”
Laughing, I knock her hands away from my face. “Stop it. You act like I haven’t been on a date before.”
She busts out laughing, knowing that I hate whenever she grabs my cheeks like that.
I check the time, noticing I only have a couple of hours to get ready before Aiden’s at my house.
“What’s wrong?” Nancy looks at me with concern.
“How about this; you come back to my house with me and help me get ready for my date tonight—” I grab my bag and turn around, walking backwards to my car while talking to her—“and I’ll answer all your questions before he picks me up tonight at seven. Deal?”
I stand by my car, waiting for her to answer me.
“Wait, your date is tonight? How in the world am I supposed to get you ready at the last minute?” She jumps up from the bench to catch up with me. “You know I need time to get a cute outfit together, and you don’t own too many cute outfits. I would have to go shopping for you.”
“Well, I was hoping to borrow something from your closet.” Unlocking my car, I hop in and open Nancy’s side.
When I turn back around to shut my door, she’s standing there, glaring at me.
“I really do wish you would have told me this sooner, Edith.”
I put my hands together and poke out my bottom lip, looking as sad and desperate as possible. I haven’t gone on a date in a while, and I want to look good for tonight. The only one who can help with that is Nancy.
“You know you’re doing the most right now,” she groans, giving into my deal like I knew she would. “You so owe me for helping you last minute.”
A memory pops up in my mind, reminding me when Nancy poured a bucket of cold water on my head to wake me up.
“Actually, no, I don’t owe you anything. Remember graduation day, the day you woke me up with cold water?” I say, smirking at her. She makes an ‘oops’ face as she tries to come up with something to say back, but I wave her off. “Yeah, this is more like you owe me one.”
“Hold still, dang it.” Nancy pulls on my hair, trying to get all of it into a bun. “It’s not my fault you waited until the last minute to ask me to help you get dressed. So, sit there and take it.”
Wincing, I grab onto the part that she’s pulling to get the pain to stop. “I can’t help it; you’re pulling on my hair, which causes me to move.”
She’s been doing my hair since I got out of the shower. I look down at the time and notice that I only have about twenty minutes left before Aiden arrives, and I still don’t have my clothes or make-up on.
“I’m almost finished, and then you can hurry off and get dressed. You can do your make-up after,” she instructs, putting the finishing touches on my hair.
Rushing over to my closet, I slip on my dress, shoes, and accessories. I quickly add on a little bit of make-up, but not too much—I want to stay natural.
Someone knocks on my front door, and Nancy goes to answer it, giving me a few more minutes. I walk over to the mirror in my closet to look at myself. I’m wearing one of Nancy’s black dresses that hugs my body showing off all my curves. The front of my dress is one of those high-slit party dresses that’s elegant and sexy at the same time. The front is a little low cut on my cleavage, but it still leaves a bit of mystery, not showing to much. For my shoes, I have on my favorite heels. I bought them last summer and only wore them one time. They are black stiletto heels with an open toe lace-up strappy sandal, giving me that charming, classy, and sexy feel. My hair is up in a bun so that my earrings stand out from the jump. I twirl in a circle, making sure everything looks good, then snatch my purse off my bed to join Aiden and Nancy in the living room.
When I walk into the room, both look over at me. Nancy comes and walks around me, snapping her fingers.
“Well, well, well, if I do say so myself.” She stops circling me, putting her hand on her hip, and flipping her hair back. “I did a damn good job getting you ready tonight. I should have made this my profession.”
I look over at Aiden. The last time I saw him, I didn’t take the chance to look at him because we surprised each other by running into one another. Having him standing here before me, I take full advantage of my opportunity to look him over. He’s an attractive man, who probably could have gone into modeling as a career. His jet-black hair is cut short so that you can clearly see his face, with a neatly-trimmed beard and those beautiful greenish-blue eyes that I love so much. He’s wearing a black dress shirt that reveals his chest and shows off his muscles.
A slow side-smile appears on his face as he catches me checking him out. There’s no doubt in my mind that this man knows the effect he has on women from the way that he looks. Confidence rolls off him as he stands there with his hands in his pockets, watching me.
Now it’s his turn to do what I did to him, even though he already had his turn back at Delfino’s.
Instead of going from head to toe, he starts from the bottom and works his way up my legs. Lingering there a little longer than he should, he then continues to work his way up further, his eyes burning with desire. It feels like the air in the room has shifted, getting warmer the longer he gazes at me.
I swallow and try to calm down my nerves. This man is too intense.
He walks towards me, holding a single red rose in his hand. He holds it out for me to take, and with a shaky hand, I reach for it. I use the rose as a distraction from having to continue to look into his eyes.
“You look beautiful.”
My cheeks warm from hearing his sweet comment. I look up at him, shyly giving him a small smile.
Sweat forms on my hands, and I quickly wipe them. “Thank you,” I say softly.
Nancy, being Nancy, starts fanning herself, pretending that it’s hot in here. “Man, that was hot. I wish I had a man to look at me like that.”
I throw my hands up in the air. “You do have a man who looks at you like that.”
“Oh, right, I forgot.” She winks at me giving, me a teasing smile.
It takes me a minute, but I realize that she only did that to help me break the ice. She could tell that I was getting nervous.
I’ll have to thank her when I get a chance.
I catch Aiden from the corner of my eye, trying to keep a straight face as he listens to our whole exchange.
“Shall we get going?” I lift my hand, directing him towards the door.
Aiden nods and goes over to open it.
“You guys have fun now, and Edith, you better call me when you get home. If I don’t hear from you tonight, I’m blowing up your phone all night. Don’t play with me.”
“Yes, Mom,” I say sarcastically, getting into the car.
Aiden shuts my door and circles around to his side.
“You seem like a very important man. So, I have to ask. No security tonight?” I ask, shifting in my seat to get comfortable.
He laughs as he backs out of my driveway. “What makes you think I don’t have security with me right now? Just because you don’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t around.” He smirks while keeping his eyes on the road.
I turn and look around, trying to spot any cars that might look like they are following us. I hear him laughing behind me and turn back around to face him.
“What, did I miss something?”
He shakes his head before he starts speaking. “No, it was just cute watching you try to find my security team.” He turns onto the highway, checking to make sure he can get over before he begins to pick up speed. He looks over at me, then back at the road, smiling. “I don’t have my security detail with me. I told them to have a night off. I didn’t think for our first da
te you would have felt comfortable having all of them around us tonight.”
“Oh, you didn’t have to do that for me. I wouldn’t have minded,” I reply.
He touches a screen in front of us and types in an address in the navigation system. I can’t really get a good look at the place’s name, but the GPS tells us that it’s almost twenty-five minutes away.
It seems like wherever we are going, it’s pretty close to my house, which works out for me. I won’t get home too late tonight.
“No, I wanted to be alone with you. When we go on other dates, they’ll be with us.”
“You sound sure of yourself that we’ll be going on other dates in the future,” I tease, laughing at his face.
He fakes like he’s taken back by what I said before giving me a smirk. “Oh, don’t worry, there will be other dates to come. I’m sure of it.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of yourself. We haven’t made it through this date first, and if this one doesn’t go well, I can’t see us going on another in the future.”
“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” he laughs. Rolling my eyes, I fight to keep a straight face as I rest my head on the seat.
AIDEN PULLS UP TO A tall building. After rolling down his window, he punches in a code, and the garage door opens. Driving in, he goes up a couple of levels before finally parking in a spot that reads reserved. He gets out and comes around to open my door, offering me his hand.
“Where are we?” I look around and notice that there are no cars on this level. All you can hear are our footsteps as we walk towards the elevator.
He swipes a card and pushes the top floor number. “This is one of the buildings that I own. I haven’t been here in a long time. I thought you would like to have an intimate dinner with me on the rooftop. This building has a great view of the city.”
Wow, he really went all out for our date.
As the elevator soars up, Aiden steps closer to me and gently wraps his arm around my waist. I was expecting to lock up on him and push him away. But I surprise myself by stepping in a little closer to him. I can feel his eyes on me, but I continue to look forward, pretending like I don’t know that he’s looking at me.
The elevator dings, letting us know we’ve reached the top floor.
What I see blows my mind, and I’m stunned silent.
I leave Aiden’s arms, walking forward to look around at everything.
The rooftop has a beautiful garden with tall trees and rose bushes everywhere. The smell of the roses fills the air and makes me smile. Soft music plays in the background as I walk up to look at the trees. Everywhere I turn, I see rose petals on the ground and lit candles. When he said the top floor, I thought we would be outside on the city’s rooftop, but no. When I look up, I see that the whole ceiling is made of glass so that you can see the stars in the sky. Of course, living in the city, we don’t see the stars that much. But I have a clear view of the moon that is shining so bright. Following the rose petals, I find a table in the center of the garden with a waiter standing by, smiling at us.
Aiden comes up behind me.
“So, what do you think? Do you like it?” He turns and looks at everything, then nods at the waiter.
He’s asking me if I liked it?
He has to be kidding right now. I mean, look at this place—what’s not to like about it?
“No, I don’t just like it. I love it. I can’t believe you did all this for me.” I look around one more time, taking it all in because I still can’t believe this is real.
I feel like someone needs to pinch me right now.
He walks over to the waiter, whispering in his ear, and the waiter walks off, leaving us alone.
“Come and sit.”
Aiden pulls out my chair, helping me into it. He pushes it in and walks over to his seat.
“You’ve blown me away. Everything is so gorgeous. I can see the moon from up here. I love everything. Thank you again,” I gush.
“Once we’re done with dinner, we can go out on the balcony and look at the city.”
“Yes, please, I would love that.”
Our waiter comes back with a bottle of wine and two glasses. He opens the bottle and pours some wine into our glasses. While he’s doing that, I look over at Aiden and catch him staring at me. He looks down at my lips and back up to my eyes; I blush, not knowing what I should do.
After our waiter finishes pouring the wine, he tells us that dinner will be served in a few minutes.
Aiden takes his napkin, unfolding it, and places it on his lap. “I hope you don’t mind; I gave my chef the menu for us tonight. I thought you might like the selections I choose.”
A man that takes charge, I think I might like that.
“No, it’s fine.” Mimicking him, I place my napkin in my lap too. “So, you have your own personal chef? What do you do that allows you to have all this?”
“I see we’re getting right down to it,” he responds, taking a sip of his drink.
“Wait, no, I’m sorry. I was just making conversation trying to get to know you. I didn’t mean to—”
He holds up his hand shaking his head. “Stop, stop, you’re fine.” I sit back in my seat, waiting for him to go on. “I didn’t think you would ask me that question first. But I can see why you would, from everything you’ve seen. Ask your questions, and I will try my best to answer them, okay?”
For a couple of minutes, I think about asking him another question, but I just let it go and ask him what I’ve been dying to know.
“So, what do you do? From what I saw at Delfino’s, you seem to be a very important man.” He leans back in his seat, smirking at me as he listens. “It’s pretty obvious you’re wealthy and some kind of businessman.”
I try to think about what he may do that requires him to have protection, but my mind comes up blank.
“Yes, I am a businessman. I own a couple of places, one being Delfino’s and Dungeon.”
I should have guessed that he was the owner.
“So, you were only there for opening night?” Well, that would explain all the security he had around him that night; he’s the owner of the whole place.
“Yes, that’s part of the reason, but not the main one. I was mostly there because I had a meeting to attend, too,” he says. “That’s why I had to leave you when we ran into each other; my security team notified me that my meeting was beginning.”
Hm, now I’m starting to understand.
He continues, “I also own the biggest security company called Crypto. I help protect the identities of people who own top-of-the-line businesses today, which is why you wouldn’t have heard of me. I protect my identity so that no one can find me, since so many people rely on me, and other reasons.”
Did he say he owns Crypto? The top-of-the-line security company that I currently work at?
“Um, you’re the one who owns Crypto?” He gives me a funny look and nods his head. “Wow, you’re my boss.”
He sits there looking at me with confusion written on his face, and before he can say anything to me, our waiter comes out with our meals. Also, the chef who made our dinner comes out carrying a plate.
“Mr. Delfino, it’s so good to see you.” The chef puts Aiden’s plate in front of him.
Aiden stands up to shake the cook’s hand. “You know it’s always good to see you, Lance.” Aiden turns to me. “Lance, this is Edith. Edith, this is Lance, my chef that I sometimes fly here to make his famous meals.”
I put out my hand to shake, but Lance ignores it and goes to hug me instead.
“It is so nice to meet you, Miss. Mr. Delfino has never flown me in to cook for one of his dates before, so you must be someone special,” he points out.
Aiden clears his throat, and Lance quickly backs up, apologizing to Aiden and me. He then goes over to our waiter, takes the plates from him, sends him on his way, and places them in front of us.
“Will you guys be having dessert tonight?” Lance looks at Aiden when he asks the question. Aiden l
ooks at him, then me, giving me a questioning look.
He wants me to answer if we’re having dessert or not.
“Yes, we’ll have dessert,” I say politely.
He bows his head to me. “Great, I’ll get started right away. You both enjoy.”
Tonight, we’re eating filet mignon steak with grilled asparagus and mashed potatoes. Everything looks so good to eat; I don’t know where to start.
“All of this looks good,” I say, cutting into my steak and popping a piece into my mouth. It only takes one bite to make me feel like I’m in heaven. The steak is seasoned so well that I have to stop myself from eating it so that I can taste the mashed potatoes and asparagus, too.
I hear someone laughing at me and look up to see Aiden sitting there watching me eat. He hasn’t even touched his food.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” I pull back on eating, feeling embarrassed for diving in; I probably looked crazy.
He picks up his fork and knife, cutting into his steak. “I’ve never been with someone who eats like you. You just dive right in, not worrying about what you look like eating.”
Grabbing my napkin, I wipe my mouth. “How am I supposed to eat with food tasting this good? I’m not stuffing my mouth or anything, just digging in.”
What kind of women does he dine with? There is no right or wrong way to eat food that tastes this good. You just eat it, and that’s it.
“I’m not trying to offend you or anything. It’s just refreshing to be around someone who isn’t trying to impress me.” He shrugs his shoulders and continues eating. “I love how comfortable you are with me that you don’t care about how you eat, I like that.”
My cheeks burn once more.
We keep up our conversation, asking each other questions. He tells me how he started his own business at a young age, and from there expanded beginning other projects. He also runs the family business while still working on his side projects, too. I tell him about graduating from college and starting my dream job in marketing at Crypto.
Roses Are Red (Edith's Fatal Love Trilogy Book 1) Page 5
