by Amy Brent
I shook my head as I went to the kitchen. How had one woman so completely broken through my defenses? I had spent years being disappointed and untrusting of humanity, yet she had come in and literally danced her way into my walls.
I suppose that was something I could puzzle over another time. For now, all I had to worry about was cooking her a delicious meal. I figured quite a bit of protein considering all the strenuous activities we had gotten up to last night, and then just a hint of sweet with some banana nut pancakes.
I knew that plenty of my past flings had been surprised that I was so comfortable in the kitchen, but every grown man should know how to cook for themselves. It just made sense. Not to mention that I had to be able to make sure that Dom was eating healthily so he could grow up into the brilliant man that I knew he would be.
It didn’t take long for things to really get to sizzling, and soon I heard a yawn and feet shuffling towards me. I turned around, unsurprised to see McKenna standing on the other side of the kitchen island that separated it from the rest of the flat.
But what I didn’t expect to see was that she was wearing my shirt from the previous day. It was big on her in some places, considering how much taller than her I was and how broad my shoulders were compared to hers, but it was definitely tight across her bust and hips. She looked like a damn vision and once more I was reminded of just how perfect she was.
“What’s this? You cooked?”
I sent her a smirk and proceeded to whisk the eggs, so they blended with the milk, butter and spices. “Why does everyone always seem so surprised at that fact?”
“Well, you’re a macho CEO with all the money in the world to spare. I sort of imagined that you would have some sort of robo-butler to feed you all of your meals.”
“McKenna, you spent an entire day here with Dom. I think you would have noticed a robotic butler or maid.”
She sat on one of the high stools at the island, resting her chin in her hand. “Maybe, you stashed it in a hidey-hole somewhere. We ordered food, after all.”
I just laughed as I shook my head. “You really are something else, you know that?” I finished the eggs and started loading all of the food onto a plate for her. Placing a couple of utensils by her, I slide her the dish and made my own.
“Why? Because I’ve got a bit of a science-fiction boner for automated help?”
I sat down across from her, taking in her beautiful face, her kind eyes, her sweet smile. I had never felt like I could be this relaxed with someone besides my son before. “No, because you deserve the entire world. You’re strong, kind, relentless. If I could wrap up this entire globe and hand it over to you, I would, because you’ve earned it ten times over.”
Her mouth opened in surprise as her cheeks flushed red, then it closed, then it opened again. “W-what do you mean?” She stuttered, clearly too surprised and her brain still waking up after sleeping so soundly.
“Exactly what I said.” I put my fork down. This wasn’t the sort of confession you made with your mouth full of food. “You are the most amazing woman I have ever met. I know it, Dom knows it, I think even my ex knows it, and that’s why she’s been especially obnoxious lately. I know that we didn’t exactly get started on the right foot, but I will be eternally happy that you came into our lives.”
The blush in her face just grew more vibrant, and she raised one of her perfectly plucked eyebrows. “Huh, do you always sweettalk your girls over a meal? Because you already got me into bed; you don’t have to honey the trap anymore.”
Heh, she always was so quick with a comeback. Humor was probably the only way she had managed to survive for so long with her sanity intact. “Who says I won’t want you in my bed again.”
She laughed lightly at that and finally picked up her own utensil, ladling food onto it. “Keep it up and that just might happen.”
I chuckled at that and then we both dug in. The meal was great, if only because she was there. I had never known how much of a difference it made to have a guest for breakfast, but maybe that was because I didn’t realize just how lonely I was.
I had been lonely. When Dominic was around my life was pretty much complete, but when he was gone, all I had was my work to occupy me. That was no way to live; why had I been so satisfied to live with a cup half full for so long?
I didn’t know, but that was going to change.
“Your food is already dead, you don’t have to glare at it.”
I looked up from my plate, realizing that I had zoned out for a second. “A good hunter knows that intimidation is just a useful a weapon as anything else.”
“Oh, so you’re a hunter now?” She countered, her tone playful. “That plus CEO and Chef almost puts you at being able to put on your own rendition of the YMCA theme song.”
“Eh, I don’t think you’ll have much luck there. Although I did invest in a sexy police officer uniform in college for Halloween once.”
Now her ginger eyebrows shot up practically to her hairline. “You’re kidding me?! Sexy cop?”
“Is that so hard to believe?”
“Yes! I mean, no. I, uh…” She just shook her head more, laughing outright. “It’s just so hard to think of you as anything other than this intimidating CEO. Like you popped out of the womb in a business suit or something!”
I leaned over the counter, my height allowing me to almost reach her. She looked up at me with huge eyes and I gave her a stern look. “Are you saying that I’m intimidating?”
She swallowed harshly, and I could see her thoughts spinning behind her eyes. “Sometimes.”
“Good,” I said, standing up with a cheery grin on my face. “That comes in handy in the business worth.”
She let out a long breath and tried to reach across the kitchen island to josh my arm. She missed, and I started loading our empty plates into the dishwasher. “You literally almost gave me a heart attack.”
“I doubt I literally did anything of the sort,” I shot back, downing my water. “So, what next?”
She looked past me to the oven and her smile faltered ever so slightly. “Wow, it’s past noon. I guess we really slept in.”
“I think we earned it,” I said, confirming that it was indeed almost one o’clock.
“True, but I should go home and start to get ready for work.”
Oh, right. It was going to be Sunday night, which meant that McKenna had to go in and do the Monday prep work for the coming week. “You could always not go in. I would make sure that HR didn’t give you any absence points.”
But she just shook her head. “I don’t want to take advantage of the situation and getting extra days off for sleeping with you definitely seems like taking advantage. Besides, my coworkers are my only friends and I enjoy hanging out with them.”
“Fair enough.” I got the feeling that I would never have to worry about McKenna being into me for my money or power. “I guess we’ll both get dressed then.”
“Yeah… I guess.”
Neither of us seemed very happy about it, but I respected her decision. While I chose a new outfit that was pretty much just lounge wear, McKenna had to put back on yesterday’s clothes. She didn’t seem to mind, however, and far too soon it was time for her to go.
We stood in front of my door, just looking at each other. Neither of us seemed willing to move, as we could suddenly break the spell between us.
“Well, I should get home.”
“Can I get you a cab?”
She considered it for a moment then shook her head. “You know what? It’s a beautiful day. I think I’d like to walk.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. Considering everything she had been through, I figured that she wouldn’t want to be alone again for quite a long time.
“Yeah, I think I am.”
I couldn’t let her leave just yet. I had too much I wanted to say, too much she needed to her. I reached out for her, my arm wrapping around her waist and pulling her to me.
Our lips met with no hesitance, a
nd we stood in that moment, kissing tenderly for several long beats. When we finally parted, her face was flushed again, and her eyes were half hooded.
“McKenna,” I said, voice low.
“Yes?” She was just as quiet.
“I don’t want this to be a one-time thing. Or a second-time thing. And I don’t want you to just come by for Dom. So, what I would like to do, is ask you if you’d be comfortable with me proposing that we start…seeing each other. Officially, that is.”
A wide grin broke out on her face and her cheeks grew that much rosier. “Yes, Rafael. I’d like that quite a lot.” She stood on tiptoe once more to place a single kiss on my cheek, then headed out.
Chapter Twenty-Five
~McKenna~
After so much bad luck, it seemed like all of that had finally changed. My work life was great, I was starting to be able to invest more into my apartment, and dating Rafael was like a dream come true.
For someone so intense and powerful, he never tried to make me afraid of him, or put me in my place. In fact, he seemed to enjoy my snarky humor, and I found myself growing more and more saucy by the day.
But today… today was something special. It was our first date out on the town as an official pair. It had been a couple of weeks since my first night over at his place and we hadn’t had a ton of time together. I was very insistent on going to work each day and often he was getting ready to go into the office as I was leaving, which pretty much only left us weekends.
Unfortunately, the first weekend had fallen during an important conference, so had to go for that, and the next I had my period and felt too sick to leave my apartment.
But finally, finally, it was our time to enjoy ourselves, and we definitely would.
“Are you sure you took care of HR?” I asked on the phone as I waited for the cab to take me to Rafael’s place.
“Yes, I’m sure. You signed the agreement yourself.”
Oh. Right. Rafael’s company had a pretty strict no-fraternization policy, so both him and I had to sign a statement with HR disclosing that we were dating and a whole other long list of things that made my eyes cross. But it was necessary. If we tried to sneak around, I knew it would all go wrong, so I much preferred to do things the right way -even if it was a whole lot more inconvenient.
“I know, I know. I’m just paranoid. Can you blame me?”
I could hear him laugh through the phone and it filled me with relief. Strange how a single sound could influence my mood so completely, but there was no denying that it did. “No, I guess I can’t. The cab should be there soon; I need to finish getting ready.”
“Oh, gonna paint your face and make yourself look pretty?”
“You betcha. Got a new pair of heels to make myself feel pretty too,”
“I see how it is, you’re trying to outshine me now, are you?”
“Physically impossible. I could hire all the plastic surgeons on Earth and still not be as beautiful as you.”
Whoa. That was a compliment in a half. I was grateful that he wasn’t there for a moment to see my blush. “Oh! I think I spotted it now. I’ll talk to you soon, Rafael.”
“Talk to you soon,” he answered before disconnecting the line.
Normally I would insist on taking public transport instead of expensive cabs, but I didn’t want to lose what precious little time we had together, and Rafael was paying anyways.
I frowned at that thought as I slipped into the cab. I wasn’t… using him, was I? The idea made me sick to my stomach. Sure, I didn’t have the greatest life, but I always worked hard to get what I had. Despite everything, I had graduated with a BA. Despite everything, I’d managed to stay sane and find jobs wherever I fled to. Despite everything, when my ex had showed up again I had told him no.
I guessed Rafael’s strength was rubbing off on me before I even knew it.
That comforted me, and when I arrived at his place I was all smiles. Sure enough, he was already waiting for me at the front, dressed in a black and silver suit with green accents. God, he was scrumptious! His dark hair was brushed back from his handsome face, his smoldering gaze already making me weak at the knees. Did he have any idea the effect he had on me?
Well…probably. I was pretty vocal about it every time he sent me toppling over that sharp edge of pleasure.
“You look beautiful tonight,” he said, offering a hand to me after he opened the cab door.
“Oh, this ol’ thing?” I said coquettishly, batting my lashes at him. I had actually used some of my funds to buy myself a new dress. It was a red bodycon, with ruching along the sides that really accentuated my curves. Ever since I was born, people had been telling me that gingers should never wear red, but clearly, all of them were wrong because I felt like an outright sex bomb in my little number. “It was just lying around.”
“Naturally,” he said with a laugh. “I’m glad I didn’t inconvenience you with stressing over your outfit.”
If only he knew how long I had spent in the store trying on dress after dress after dress until I found the perfect one. Thankfully, only me and the saleslady knew that little factoid.
He offered his arm and I took it, letting him lead me to his car that was waiting at the valet service. After making sure that I got in, he closed the passenger door and walked around to the driver’s side. Again, I was struck by how confident he looked as he strode across the headlights. If I had that kind of aura I bet I would never have to worry about my ex -or any other man- trying to abuse me again.
“You ready?” He asked once he was in, shooting me that smile that made my whole body rush with electricity.
“I think so!” I answered, smiling brightly at him despite the butterflies in my stomach.
“Good. I’ve been looking forward to this all week.” And then we were taking off, zipping down the streets like we owned them. And who knew, maybe he did. I had no idea how far Rafael’s wealth went, but from what I had seen, it was borderline unlimited from my perspective.
The streets whipped by and I had absolutely no idea where we were beyond the uptown part of the city that I rarely went to. Well, I supposed that I couldn’t really say that anymore considering that I was going to try to spend the night with Rafael at least once a week. Especially once we explained to Dom what was going.
What a strange world I had hopped into. It still seemed a bit surreal that I would never have to worry about my ex again. The weight that had been hanging so heavily on my chest for so long was now gone, leaving me to look at the world with a new sense of wonder.
We arrived at a sort of low key restaurant, much less glitzy on the outside than the Greek restaurant had been, but the valet line spoke otherwise to its popularity.
I was almost bouncing in my seat as we waited. I had found that I had so much more energy lately, probably due to not having to look over my shoulder all the time, and I was still getting used to it. If Rafael noticed my shifting, he didn’t comment on me, just sending me an amused look as he finally pulled up to the front of the line.
Just like before, he came up to the side of the car and offered his hand to help me out. I had never dated someone so gentlemanly, and it kind of made me feel like royalty to be so doted on.
We walked in and its interior was much different than the nonchalant exterior. The walls were all a marbled sort of cobblestone, giving it an older, dignified sort of presence but with a modern twist. The lighting was low, but no so dark that I had to worry about bumping into anything, and the furniture was all either polished wood or thick, luxurious booths. All in all, I was definitely impressed.
We strode right up to the hostess podium, Rafael fitting in as if he belonged. “Reservation for Barbos,” he said smoothly.
“Welcome back, Mr. Barbos. We haven’t seen you in quite a while!”
“I’ve been busy,” he answered with only the slightest hint of a smile. I guessed I understood why other people found him so intimidating, but to me he was just all about subtlety.
“Of course, I imagine there’s always something to do when you own a company.” The woman smiled and lead us into the restaurant. At first, I was concerned that she didn’t have any menus, but I figured she knew what she was doing.
We slid into a booth that was far too large for us and the hostess gave us a winning grin. “Your server today will be Anastasia. She will be able to tell you all of the chef specials and guide your experience tonight. Do you two need anything before I turn you over to her?”
“We’re fine.”
She nodded. “Then you two have a wonderful night!”
She walked back to her podium, already helping the next person, but by the time I turned back to face Rafael, the waitress was already approaching us.
“Good evening,” she said, just as friendly as the hostess. It wasn’t the overly fake, cloying kind though, just a comfortable, inviting sort of niceness. I hoped that meant that this place was kind to their workers, instead of treating them as expendable livestock like so many companies did. “My name is Anastasia and I will be your server tonight. Our specials are a porterhouse steak served over a bed of Portobello mushrooms, served with a compound butter garnish and a side of radish and corn salad. Or, our cedar-smoked salmon served on a bed of grilled asparagus and roasted potatoes.”
