by Sophia Gray
“Okay,” she said simply, her arms falling to her sides and abandoning the defensive stance.
“Okay?” Vance asked, puzzled. He looked completely clueless.
“We can go on one date. Only one.” She marked her words very clearly. “If that one goes well, then I’ll decide if I can break my rule for you.” She winked at him, and a soft smile came to her lips. Vance looked at her in disbelief, but couldn’t help mirror her smile. Teresa’s heart skipped a beat when she saw him smiling so wholeheartedly.
“Just tell me when and I’ll pick you up,” he said, his voice full of hope.
“Tomorrow is my day off,” she said. Now that she had made up her mind, why waste any time?
“I’ll be at your place at eight, then.”
Teresa smiled at him again and left the Silver Spoons for Charity, closing the door behind her and leaving a very confused, yet very excited, Vance behind.
Chapter Four
Vance
“So, do you want to grab some coffee with me now, or should I meet you there by chance?”
Vance had been working with Teresa for several weeks by then. They had spent a lot of time together at the charity, and he had managed to show up everywhere she was: her coffee shop, the bookstore, even at her other job. Vance could feel she was warming up to him, and today he had decided to give it another try. He did not expect her outburst though.
She was leaving the kitchen when he asked her, and she turned back, looking furious. She yelled at him, walking closer, but through his shock, he subconsciously took a step back.
Vance opened his mouth to talk, but she interrupted him and went on with her accusations. All of them true, of course.
“I told you this before. I don’t date my co-workers. So get that through your thick skull and stop fooling around, or I will make damn sure you understand.”
Well, she is definitely related to the boss, Vance thought. She is just as fucking scary as him.
Teresa crossed her arms in front of her chest, and Vance paused before opening his mouth.
“I am so sorry,” he said, feigning embarrassment. He looked at the floor instead of her. On the one hand, he was cross that she had seen right through him, and on the other, he did not think he could handle the anger and accusation in her eyes. “I know you said you didn’t date co-workers, and I know it is creepy as hell what I’ve been doing, but Teresa... I just couldn’t help it,” he apologized. He looked back at her and tried to convince her that he was sorry.
“The first moment I saw you, I thought you were the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. I know that sounds so cliché but I mean it, Tess,” he confessed, and that part felt natural. It was the complete and utter truth. She bit her lip, and his heart skipped a beat.
“And I really wanted for us to be friends, but the more I got to know you, the more I fell for you... You are the most amazing woman I have ever met. I can’t talk to anyone else the way I can talk to you; it just comes so easily. I just wanted to see you more, and I knew you didn’t want to date, but next thing I know I just look like some creep that follows you around. I just wanted to know you and be around you, and I wanted you to get to know me, too. I just... I don’t know. I’m sorry, Tess.”
He said all that in a rush, and suddenly he realized there was more truth in his words that he had expected. Of course, she was beautiful, and he was trying to win her over, but that was just because of his boss’ orders, right?
Or was it? He could not deny that his determination to make her fall for him had grown stronger when she turned him down: no woman had ever done that, and Teresa proved to be more challenging than he thought. But he didn’t mind that; it was a test he was sure he could pass eventually.
What he had not expected was to actually like hanging out with her. He was trying his best to win her heart, but there was something more than just his mission or his pride. He couldn’t help but feel that a part of him really wanted her to accept him, date him, maybe even love him?
He dismissed that thought and stood by, his heartbeat going crazy as he waited for her reply.
“Okay,” she said simply, her arms falling to her side.
“Okay?” Vance asked, taken aback. Is she messing with me or what?
“We can go on one date. Only one.” She marked her words very clearly. “If that one goes well, then I’ll decide if I can break my rule for you.” She winked at him. Vance looked at her in disbelief, but couldn’t help but smile. Had he gotten his chance, finally?
“Just tell me when and I’ll pick you up,” he said, grinning.
“Tomorrow is my day off,” Teresa pointed out. That was quick.
“I’ll be at your place at eight, then.” He did not leave her room for any change. Teresa smiled at him again, and his heart skipped a bit – again. Nasty habit of the heart, he thought. Then she turned around, her loose hair flowing behind her, and he was left standing in the middle of the kitchen with a smile on his face, thinking about Teresa and everything he had discovered about her.
During the last few days – or rather, the last few weeks – he had spent almost all the time he could with her, and Vance was afraid that too much of what he had told Teresa to convince her to date him was true.
At first, the fact that she refused to date him not only puzzled him but also hurt his pride. No one had ever rejected him. That made Teresa not just a mission but also a challenge, and that was why he had tripled his efforts to conquer her. In spite of this, he had found himself thinking about her more and more.
He genuinely enjoyed spending time with her. Teresa had taught him a lot about the charity during their shifts together, and by following her to her favorite spots in the city, he had also learned a lot about her.
For example, he knew that: she liked her coffee with milk and a touch of cinnamon; in the mornings she always had a blueberry muffin for breakfast (at least when she had breakfast outside her home, which was usually on the weekends); she loved reading, and her favorite books were thrillers and detective novels (he even went back to that bookstore where they first met and bought several thrillers to read. Maybe that way he had something more to talk about with Teresa than just the charity); she enjoyed going to the cinema once a week with her friends; and would love to go back to school and get out of the nightclub where she worked, but she did not think she was brave enough or smart enough to actually do it.
He had learned all that during the past few weeks when they’d ran into each other “accidentally.” Teresa was open and talkative with him, and he had noticed that she was not that way with many people.
Maybe he had already made progress, and he just hadn’t noticed it until then. And maybe he was thinking too much about her... just maybe. He needed to focus on the mission.
“Vance, didn’t you finish your shift already?” A voice from behind him made Vance jump in alarm. He turned around to see Peter laughing lightly at his jumpy reaction, and he cursed himself silently. Since when was a member of a motorcycle gang all jumpy and scared of someone sneaking up on him?
“Sorry, Peter. Yes, I was getting ready to head out,” Vance said, cursing himself for getting all worked up over nothing. “I spaced out for a moment.”
That, he had. He had not realized that he was still standing there, like an idiot, in the middle of the damn soup kitchen, smiling at the door as if Teresa was still there. He felt mortified.
“I can’t imagine why.” Peter snorted. Vance looked at him, frowning. His boss was usually a very kind man, but he also liked to make fun of his employees. Or at least Vance – something Vance would have never allowed if he was not playing the “nice and kind boy” charade for Teresa and everyone else.
“What do you mean?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest in a defensive stance.
“Come on, Vance. I’ve seen the way you look at Teresa. We all have. It’s pretty obvious, man,” Peter said, raising an eyebrow. Seeing the defensive look on his face, Peter chuckled and raised his hands in a uni
versal gesture of peace. “But hey, it’s none of my business, kid. See you tomorrow!”
Peter went back to his office, and Vance was left standing there, again, in the middle of the room. With an angry snort, he left and entered the streets, thinking about what Peter had said. That he looked at Teresa how? In what way? Sure, he found her fascinating and funny, and he wasn’t an idiot to deny that she was beautiful, but he sure as hell wasn’t swooning over her when nobody was looking.
He only eyed her during their shifts, but that just was because he needed to learn as much as he could about her to conquer her. He needed to be in her line of sight as much as possible so she’d think about him. As they say, out of sight, out of mind. If the others in that damn kitchen thought they had seen something, anything, it was their bloody imagination. He was only paying Teresa that much attention because he had to. For the mission. He had orders.
“Bloody hell,” Vance muttered. The damn mission was the only thing he cared about, right? He just didn’t want to fail at his first solo project specifically requested by the boss.
He headed home the long way, trying to bury his thoughts by walking. He looked around at the bustling city. It was a small city, nothing like back home, and it was always full of life and joy. Again, it looked nothing like his home – or maybe he had never seen that side of his city, as he always frequented dangerous areas and was usually out at night.
Vance looked at the families and the children going in and out of the shops, and the couples walking around holding hands. Suddenly he pictured himself with Teresa: the two of them going grocery shopping, side by side, her hand tightly interlaced with his, dating like normal couples did – going to the cinema or taking a stroll through the park, getting married and having children.
His goal was to marry her, but their future looked nothing like what he saw in the families and couples he was seeing. If he married her, he would have to drag her back home and force her to return to the life she had run away from...
Would she be happy then? But why the hell did he care? This was just a job. He had no feelings for Teresa, beyond lust and curiosity. He had to fulfill his boss’ orders and marry her, bring her home, and inherit the club. The mission was the only thing that mattered.
Suddenly, a small corner shop caught his attention. It was a small bookstore and had some kind of sale going on. Many people crowded the entrance, going in and out of the shop. It looked like there was a presentation going on, but he could not care less.
He stopped to have a look at a basket of books that sat unwatched at the door of the shop, with a sign that read Secondhand.
There were all kinds of novels, and Vance shifted through them until he saw a bunch of old thrillers. He didn’t know what made him buy them, or even if Teresa had already read them or not, but fifteen minutes later he was walking out of the store with three novels in a bag. They had not been very expensive, and the owner seemed grateful that, finally, someone was paying attention to the secondhand books he was dying to get rid of.
Vance wondered if Teresa would like the gift and her smile appeared in his head. He could not get her out of his mind. But he knew that even if he managed to make her fall in love with him, they would never experience the kind of joy he was seeing around him. Teresa would never forgive him for deceiving her that way and bringing her home to her dad. They would never be happy together.
What the hell? he thought. Why do I even care?
He grunted again and headed back home at a fast pace, angry with himself. The thought of Teresa hating him made him uneasy, but he chalked it up to the fact that he would have to deal with it for years to come. He didn’t want to think about it anymore, so he pushed the feeling to the back of his head and focused on what he had ahead of him: the first date.
Chapter Five
Teresa
“Remind me why I said yes.” Teresa sighed, looking at her open wardrobe.
“Because you actually like the guy and honestly had no real reason to refuse him,” Anna replied, looking amusingly at her from the bed. Anna, her best friend, had come to lend her a hand at picking an outfit. She also had the difficult job of convincing her that dating Vance was a good idea, despite her qualms. Luckily, she had not brought the other three girls with her, or Teresa would go crazy before the night had even started.
“I do not like him!” Teresa snapped back at her and Anna laughed, holding her hands up in the air, calling for peace.
“Okay, okay, whatever you say, Tess.” Anna laughed over mockingly using the nickname that Vance had given Teresa. Since Teresa had told her friends that he usually called her Tess, they had been calling her that non-stop. “But I really don’t understand why you never date! You’re young, beautiful, and single – are you secretly married or something?” Anna wondered with a fake gasp.
Teresa rolled her eyes and chuckled. She trusted Anna, but she had never told her where she came from or that she had been the rogue princess in a motorcycle gang. And she definitely had never told her about her abusive father and her distrust of men because of him. She didn’t want Anna to pity her – or worse, fear her because of her past.
“I just don’t trust men, that’s all,” Teresa replied nonchalantly. “But I suppose one date won’t hurt. It’s not like it’s serious, or anything. And Vance does seem like a decent guy, even though he is a slight nutter,” she muttered.
“And he’s handsome as hell,” Anna said, laughing. She had only seen Vance once when she’d stopped by Silver Spoons for Charity one morning to drop off a couple of things she had borrowed from Teresa. “Although he did follow you everywhere,” Anna added with a small frown. “Can’t decide if that’s cute or creepy.”
Teresa bit her lip. “Do you want me to date him or not?” she snapped, pacing back and forth in her room. She had not forgotten that, and she definitely did not need her friend reminding her that the guy had behaved like a total creep prior to the date.
“Sorry, sorry!” Anna laughed again. “From what you told me, he seems nice, and you guys get along really well. It’s a good thing that you decided to give him a chance, at least. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s the sexiest guy we’ve all laid our eyes on.” She sighed and fluttered her eyelashes in jest. Teresa laughed at her behavior: Anna had really been charmed when she first saw Vance Tate.
Teresa knew that her distrust of men was out of proportion and that she really should get over her dad one day. She knew not all men were like him, but she simply had not met a guy who proved to be nothing like what she hated.
But maybe Vance was really one of the good ones. He acted nothing like her dad. In fact, he was everything her dad would hate: kind, caring, intelligent, fun, and sweet. And really, really handsome.
“You are daydreaming about him again!” Anna hummed. Teresa realized that she had been standing there for three minutes, probably smiling like a teenage girl in love.
“Shut up!” Teresa blushed to her ears and turned around to face the wardrobe dilemma again. She didn’t know what to wear, and it was getting closer to eight every minute. She was wasting precious time by fooling around with Anna.
She had already showered, dried her hair, and put in curlers she was about to take out. Now she only had to pick an outfit and put on some makeup. Jesus Christ, it had been so long since she went on a date that she had forgotten how much she hated this part.
“Help me out or get out, Anna,” Teresa warned her friend, who was more than used to her blunt language. Anna got up from the bed, went into Teresa’s wardrobe, and after fumbling around for a bit, picked an outfit for her friend.
“Hurry and try it on! Or he’ll catch you still in your towel,” she warned Teresa, handing her the clothes.
Teresa put on the dress and the shoes Anna had selected for her. It was a sleeveless, sky blue dress with small flowers at the bottom of the skirt, which ended just above the knees. It was not too formal, but it she hoped it would fit with wherever Vance was planning on taking her. And she had to ad
mit that she looked really good in it.
“I don’t know why I don’t wear this dress more often,” she mused aloud, going to the bathroom to finish getting ready. She decided to put on a light touch of makeup and started applying a silvery blue eyeshadow that matched her dress.
“Because that dress screams ‘date me’ and you don’t date, remember?” Anna mocked her. Teresa threw a shoe at her from the bathroom but missed. It hit the opposite wall, and Anna started laughing even louder.
At a quarter to eight, Teresa was ready, and Anna had left the loft, urging her friend to tell her every detail after the date was over. Teresa barely had time to grab her purse and a light jacket for the night when the doorbell rang. Standing on her doorstep with a small plastic bag hanging from one arm and a bouquet of flowers in the other hand was Vance, as charming as ever.
“Hey! Good evening,” he said with a smile. “You look wonderful.”
“Hi, Vance. Thank you. Come in,” she replied, taking a step back to let him in.
“These are for you,” Vance said, holding the flowers out in front of him. It was a simple bouquet of daisies, and she accepted them gratefully. “I didn’t know which flowers you liked, sorry. But I didn’t picture you as a rose type of woman.”
Teresa laughed lightly. “Nothing to worry about. You’re right; roses aren’t really my thing. I love these, thank you,” she said, smelling the bouquet. They gave off a nice, spring-like aroma that was really refreshing. “They’re lovely,” she added, heading into the kitchen to find a vase. “You really didn’t have to.”
She arranged them and left them in the vase on the counter. Vance was still in the hall, standing sheepishly, looking around.
Teresa couldn’t help but look him over now that the flowers were out of the way. He was dressed casually in dark, slim-fitting jeans that suited him perfectly and a white button-down. She looked at him, and he was smiling at her. The glow in his eyes made her heart jump.
