by Katie Dowe
“What do you want?” she asked pulling the door open.
“Can it,” he said rudely as he pushed past her.
“My, are we in a sour mood tonight,” she said sweetly behind his back. He turned to face her and she shrank back against the door at the expression on his face.
“I sat in my very empty and lonely apartment and do you know what I thought?” He did not wait for her to answer but continued. “I thought to myself that I should not call her, I am the one who has been doing all the chasing and she has given me no encouragement no matter the fact that we are very good together and you know what I thought? I thought again to myself that I was not going to call her, I was going to let her stew and let her know that if she wants me she can bloody well pick up the phone and call me.” He had come closer and she felt herself trembling at the look on his face. “But you would not call, would you? Because you have a stick so far up your ass that it is going to need surgery to get it out.”
“You don’t get to talk to me that way-”
“I am crazy about you!” he shouted, slamming his open palms against her head on the door. He topped her by a foot and without her boots she did not reach his shoulder. “I am twisted up in knots over you and you don’t seem to give a damn! How do I get through to you, Jasmine? Tell me? Because believe me I would love to know.” He did not wait for her to answer but took her lips in a savage kiss that had her clinging to him. His tongue touched hers and it was like something exploded between them! She clawed at the sweater he was wearing and he tore the soft wool dress she was wearing right down the middle. He tore at her bra and bending his head he took a nipple into his mouth, sucking on it with bruising force. He lifted her up and carried her into the bedroom where he dumped her onto the bed none too gently. He tore off his torn sweater and finished undressing her. He stayed there suspended above her for a minute before he entered her. He took her feet and placed them onto his shoulders, pulling her up against him until he was in deep. He started moving and so did she, her hands bunched into the sheets as she felt the pleasure and pain of this new position he was introducing her to!
They mated like animals, their harsh breathing and the sounds spilling from their mouths echoing inside the room. He emptied himself inside her and as soon as he was able to he got off her and went to get his clothes. He dressed in silence while she lay there curled on her side, her body ravaged and trembling from the lovemaking. He stood there looking down at her for a minute, his green eyes roving over her exquisite body before he turned and left. Jasmine heard the door opened and closed and she pulled the sheets over her naked body. She turned her head into the pillows and sobbed like she had never done since she was a child!
*****
“Do you want cream in that?” the woman asked her politely.
“No thanks,” Jasmine said as she wrapped her hands around her coffee mug. She had gotten out of her apartment as soon as it was light and had headed to the nearest café. She had not slept well last night and had hoped he would call but he had not. He had told her he was crazy about her! What the hell did that mean? He came from a moneyed background with a normal family. She did not know who her father was and her mother had been a drug addict. He had no idea who she was, he did not know her so how could he be crazy about her?
She sipped her coffee and looked around. The place was scanty at that early in the morning and she was happy for that. She wanted to think and he was too much in her apartment for her to do so. She did not have any outings today but wanted to pop by the magazine to put some work in. She sipped the coffee and felt the tears blur her vision. Damn him!
Chapter 7
“Jasmine?” Phil voice broke through the fog that was her brain. She had almost called and cancelled on lunch but she had promised and she did not like to break those. Besides she had thought it would get her mind off things – off him! He had not called her. It was now almost one and since he had left her apartment last night he had not called her and she was certainly not going to call him!
“What?” She looked up from the fruit drink she had been sipping without much interest.
“You have not heard a word I said since the past few minutes. Am I boring you?” Phil’s voice sounded a little hurt.
“No.” She shook herself and forced a smile. “Work stuff. What’s up?”
“I have been wanting to tell you this for a very long time-”
“Don’t say it.” The alarm bells sounded inside her head and she could not ignore them. “Don’t say the words that are going to put me in a position that I don’t want to be in. I told you the deal from the start, Phil. Friends and that’s it. You have no right to change the rules.”
He stared at her in frustration. He figured that he should make his move before someone else did, but he had a feeling he was too late!
“Who is he?”
“What are you talking about?” she asked him impatiently, pushing away her plate of lasagna.
“There is someone, Jasmine. I happen to know you. I have never seen you so spaced out over work. You are excellent at your job and usually nothing fazes you! You are tough and you have always been able to box away everything and go on your way but not this time! You are zoned out, you look tired and you also look like you have been crying. Who is this jerk who you have chosen over me? I would never make you cry!”
“Listen to me because I am just going to say it once,” she said leaning forward against the table. “I belong to me!” She pointed to her chest. “I have not ‘chosen’ anyone as you put it over you. I am not interested in a relationship with you or with anyone else. I do better by myself. You know my past and how I came up that’s one of the reasons I am friends with you, but I don’t want a freaking man in my life! Got that!” Her eyes blazed and she got to her feet so hastily that she almost toppled the chair! She reached into her pockets and pulled out a couple bills. “That’s my half. See you around.” And before he could say anything to her she walked out of the restaurant with her long looping strides leaving him defeated and reeling from her words!
*****
“I have secured you an invite,” the editor told her as she came into her small cramped office. She had been offered a much bigger one but she had declined on the basis that she was not really here so why bother?
Jasmine took the embossed gold invitation and lifted her tapered brows. “Takahashi’s is already established; they don’t need a review,” she pointed out. She had come back from lunch with Phil steaming and had buried herself in work. If it was not that she was looking out for Bubba she would have gone somewhere far!
“They are opening a new restaurant downtown but it is the wife this time. Kelly, former international model.”
“I know who she is. So it is still a Takahashi brand and they are well known for their excellent food and service.”
“This one is different. She is introducing banquet style dining and mingling. Kind of like a social club with food. Check it out and see if it works.”
Jasmine looked at the invitation and saw that it was Saturday. She had promised Bubba she was going to that thing on Friday with him. She was kind of getting sick of food!
“You are required to dress up.” The woman eyed Jasmine’s black and red sweater a little dubiously.
“Are you afraid that I have nothing in my wardrobe to rub elbows with the rich and famous?” Jasmine asked in amusement.
“Do you? The ‘wives’ as they are referred to are going to be there in support of one of them and I want you to blend in.”
“I don’t blend. I stand out. But don’t worry I will find something.”
“Good.” She nodded. “And FYI. You look like hell.”
“Thanks.”
*****
He wanted to call her. He told himself that he should not have gone over there feeling the way he had and now he was regretting how he had gone about it. He had driven to the club and had drank enough whiskey and scotch to enable him useless and drunk. He had still managed to
drive himself to his apartment where he had slept on the couch in the living room waking up this morning with a throbbing headache. He had thought about her all night, so much for trying to forget! Now he was inside his office, drained and miserable, something he was not used to being! His phone rang and he answered it. “Yes?”
“You sound like a bear with a sore head,” the sultry voice said with a laugh. “Darling, who is she?”
“Does it have to be a woman?” he growled.
“Of course,” Leesa Wellington said silkily. “Who has the power to render the male species absolutely miserable?”
“You don’t know her.” He smiled slightly. “How are you and the children?”
“I am fine but they are grown and I am feeling a little lonely.”
“You lonely? That would be the day.”
“Brad said the same thing. Did you get the invitation?”
“To the restaurant thing? I am not sure I can make it.”
“You are coming, Lucas Henderson,” she said firmly. “We are all supporting Kelly in her time of need.”
“Okay, you twisted my arm. It starts at eight.”
“Yes, and bring that woman who has you twisted up in knots.”
“She does not want to go out with me.”
“Darling, you never let that stop you before. See you on Saturday.”
Lucas toyed with the phone and looked out the window pensively. The sun was trying to make its appearance but was fighting a losing battle with the dark heavy clouds hanging down low. It was predicted that there would be snow for the entire week. It was now only Tuesday and they had had snow since Sunday and it looked as if the prediction held water. He looked up as his secretary peeked in. “They are ready for you.”
“I will be right there.”
He sat there for a few minutes and then got up to go to his meeting.
*****
“What do you think?” Bubba asked her anxiously as she chewed on the succulent golden brown fired chicken.
“Bubba, stop crowding me,” she chided mildly as she continued to eat. The place was filling up slowly and the crowd looked more like retired cops and old timers. There was a general air of good cheer and laughter around the cheerfully decorated room.
“Well?” he asked her again impatiently. Clive had come to greet them and had given them a table in the corner.
“Okay, fine!” She wiped her fingers on the napkin. “You were right. It is not only good, it is over the top good and the juices are delicious!”
“What did I tell you?” he said with a pleased look as he sat back against his seat. “So he should be recommended to open another one?”
“No.”
Bubba looked at her in surprise. “I thought you said the food was good. What’s going on, girl?”
“This place is like a home away from home. It is cozy, friendly, and no flash or pretenses. Good food, good company, and a chance to relax and get rid of the stress of the day. It is a chance to meet up with friends and enjoy all this.” She gestured around the room vaguely. “Opening another one of this will water it down. This is original and it should stay that way.”
Bubba gazed at her for a moment and shook his salt and pepper head. “You are good.”
“I am,” she said smugly as she leaned back and enjoyed her delicious apple cider. “I am very good.”
“And modest too,” he said dryly.
“That I am not,” she said with a grin. “If you want to go and hang out with your buddies, I don’t mind.”
“I prefer to hang out with you. I see them all the time. You once in a while unless you are checking up on me.”
“Not true. I actually pop over to see you.”
He shook his head at her and finished eating his chicken. “I remember Grandma Eloise, my maternal grandmother, used to make chicken like this at Thanksgiving and Christmas,” he said with a sigh. “I missed those days of getting together with family.” He looked at her. “I want to see the day when you find a good man who is worthy of you and you get married.”
“Maybe that’s not for me,” she said with a careless shrug as she finished her drink.
“Stop talking nonsense,” he said sharply as he looked at the coolly beautiful woman opposite him. “You are an amazingly beautiful young woman with a lot of potential and passion inside you for a man who will see you for who you are.”
“You sound like a dating service, Bubba,” she said in amusement.
“That man is not Phil,” he added ignoring her comment. “He is not man enough for you. You are too headstrong; you need someone who can deal with that.”
“You make me sound like a difficult child.”
“You butt heads with me too many times for me to count,” Bubba reminded her. “Remember when I forbade you to go to the school dance?”
“The one where I snuck out the window and went anyway? You were waiting for me in the living room complete in your uniform with your gun on your hip as if you were waiting for a battle,” Jasmine said with a laugh.
“And you were defiant to the end telling me that you had fun and I can go ahead and ground you.”
“You grounded me for three weeks! That was pretty harsh.”
“It was for your own good.”
“I did not see it that way. I tried to run away again and you caught me at the train station and paddled my backside so hard I could not sit for a couple of days,” Jasmine said with a rueful shake of her head.
“You scared me,” Bubba muttered breaking off a piece of fry and nibbling at it as he remembered that day. “I thought I had lost you and I know I would not have been able to survive losing you. You had grown on me.”
“I told you I hated you and that you were no better than my mother,” she said with a grimace.
“And it hurt then. I went into my room and agonized over whether or not I could really be a good parent for you or if I should let some nice couple adopt you.”
Jasmine leaned over and captured his hands. “I am so happy you did not,” she said softly. “I spent the night in my room afraid that you were going to tell me to leave and decided there and then that if you did not, I would be the best little girl in the world.”
“The next morning I woke up to the smell of pancakes and bacon and coffee. And that behavior lasted a full week before you went back to being the girl you were,” he said with a laugh.
”I figured I had cemented my way into your heart so I could stop behaving like a cowed housewife,” she said with a grin.
“I would never have let you go, Jas,” he told her quietly.
“I know.” She squeezed his hands before letting go. They stayed until late and then she took him home making sure he took his medication before going home. That night she slept on the sofa as the bed held too many memories of him!
*****
She wore a cobalt blue body suit that made it look as she had been poured into it! She still had not heard from Lucas and she had decided to hell with it! She was not only going to this swanky restaurant to work but she was also going to enjoy herself as well. If Phil had not behaved like a total toad and spoiled what they had she would have invited him for company. There was a deep dip in the cleavage and showed glimpses of her pert breasts. Her hair was loose around her shoulders and her makeup was flawless. Her lobes glittered with two colored stones: red and blue and then glittering blue stones dangled to her shoulders. She had on a gold necklace that Bubba had given her for her seventeenth birthday with a heart shaped pendant that nestled comfortably in her cleavage. She had swapped her usual boots for impossibly high strappy black sandals and her makeup was flawless. She pulled a black cashmere jacket from her closet and was ready to go. It was a quarter of seven, but it was a long drive there. She had every intention of enjoying the view as she made her way to that upscale area!
*****
“I am no longer mad at you, Lucas,” Sherona purred as she linked her hand through his. “I want to make amends. I know you said you have met someon
e else and I respect that but surely we can still be friends?”
“We can.” He smiled down at her. She looked seductively beautiful in a strawberry gown that showed off her blondeness.
“Good,” she said with a smile as she snuggled against him. That was how Jasmine saw them when she entered the large crowded restaurant. She handed her jacket to the eager young man and ignored his admiring look as she made her way in. She stopped short as she saw him, with the beautiful blonde cuddled up to him. So much for him being crazy over her, she thought bitterly. He looked up as if he felt her eyes on him and stiffened, his green eyes raking her stunning beauty! Christ! She was easily the most beautiful woman in the room barring none. The ‘wives’ as they were called were well known for their beauty and style but there was something about Jasmine that stood out even in this crowd. She shook back her head and headed in the opposite direction as if she had not seen him! He was hemmed in for a moment by acquaintances of his and with Sherona clinging to his arm. By the time he had managed to get away she was surrounded by admiring males and making conversation. With a determined smile on his lips he made his way over to them. “Would you excuse us for a moment?” he asked politely. The men looked at her for confirmation and he bristled as she took her time.
“Just a few minutes, fellows,” she said smiling at them. She dropped the smile when they left. “What do you want?” she asked coldly plucking a flute of champagne from a passing waiter.
“What are you doing here?”
She lifted her brows at him and did not respond.
“You could have told me you were coming.”
“What? Are we on speaking terms now?”
“Look, Jasmine,” he gritted. “You have me tied up in knots and I had no idea what to do-”
“Your blonde is looking for you,” she interrupted him.
“She is not my blonde,” he said testily. “Dammit, can we talk?”
“I don’t know. Can we?”
“Darling, Daddy is looking for you,” Sherona chirped her blue eyes looking over the stunning black girl with malice. “Who is this?”
