Bistro Bachelor: Working Man Series - Book 2

by Rose, Elizabeth

  He nuzzled his mouth next to her ear and she could smell his aftershave and feel the slight scratchiness of his whiskers already growing in since morning.

  “I like your hair loose,” he whispered into her ear. “I like you, Eden. I’m sorry if I upset you.”

  She licked her lips again and turned in his arms. It was probably not the right thing to do, because now her face was right next to his chest. The open shirt and gold chain that hung around his neck were staring her in the face. He put a gentle finger under her chin and tilted her face up to his. She lowered her eyes and wondered if he was going to kiss her.

  “I was worried about you, Sweetie. Don’t ever do that again.” He talked in a soft, soothing voice instead of being angry, and she believed him.

  She swallowed deeply and looked at his mouth. That must have been the cue he needed, because he leaned forward and pressed his lips gently against hers.

  “You taste wonderful,” he whispered and kissed her again but, this time, a little deeper. She felt herself weakening in his arms. Her fingers opened, dropping the bread to the floor. She didn’t care about food right now. Jack’s kisses sated her hunger. She put her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. Their tongues got acquainted, and Eden’s heart beat faster. She liked Jack, even though he was so wrapped up in his problems and the world of money. Even if he didn’t know where to look for happiness, maybe she could show him.

  Jack’s hands slid up her sides and stopped directly over her breasts. As they kissed, he fondled her, and she felt a stirring within her center. She pulled away. Her eyes closed, and she tried to catch her breath. Everything was happening so fast, and she didn’t have time to talk herself out of this situation. The next thing she knew, Jack was nuzzling his face against her chest.

  She had never wanted a man more than she did right now. She was ready to know how it felt to be with a man. Ready . . . and curious.

  He pushed up her skirt and was running his hands over her bare thighs when she heard a noise and realized Eddie, the deaf mute, was standing in the doorway trying to get their attention. Eden jumped away and smoothed down her skirt, so embarrassed that she was sure her face was beet red.

  “What is it, Eddie?” asked Jack, turning so Eddie could see him talking.

  Eddie used his hands to convey a message, watching Jack’s lips for the answer.

  “Yes, that’s fine. We’ll see you in the morning.”

  Eddie left through the kitchen. Eden found herself unable to move.

  “Now, where were we?” Jack started to put his arms back around her, but Eden slipped away, grabbing her hat and heading through the dining room to the stairs that led to Jack’s apartment.

  “I’m very tired,” she apologized. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Running up the stairs, she hoped Jack wasn’t going to follow. She wasn’t sure what had just happened, but it frightened her to like it so much. Jack frightened her in an exciting sort of way. Eden had never known a man like him and wondered what he wanted from her.

  She remembered that he had called Trixie by name. Was he a regular on the strip? Just how many women had he had? She was confused, and very unsure of his motives. Although she had been enjoying the contact between them, she refused to be just another of his follies.

  She opened the door to the room and closed it quickly behind her. With her back to the door, she tried to catch her breath. Her head spun from her experience with Jack. Maybe she should have stopped him. She was a stranger in this land and starting to feel like a stranger to herself as well. She’d known Jack only for a few days, yet she’d kissed him. It was something she’d never done with any of the men back home. She’d also let him fondle her, and she probably would have gone further if Eddie hadn’t interrupted.

  Locking the door behind her, Eden threw her hat down on the bed. After being on the streets of Chicago all day, she felt dirty and had sand between her toes from the beach. Maybe a nice bath would help clear her head. A good night’s rest was definitely in order.

  Jack tried the handle on the door to the apartment but, to his surprise, Eden had locked him out of his own home. He didn’t understand the girl. She seemed to be enjoying the kiss as much as he was, yet she ran off like a scared cat.

  He’d already decided he’d sleep in the room above the garage but wanted to get a change of clothes and his shaver for the morning. He was about to knock on the door when he heard the bath water running.

  He pictured Eden’s naked body in the tub from when she stood up and gave him a picture perfect view that first night. He was already aroused from the kiss, and this thought didn’t make matters any better. He looked down and noticed the strain on his zipper.

  Raking a hand through his hair, he realized he needed a trim. Pulling a cigarette from his shirt pocket, he lit it and took a deep drag, wondering what to do about Eden. She wanted to go home to Peru yet, deep inside, he wanted her to stay. He was growing fond of her and was even forgetting she was the professor’s daughter.

  He’d never met anyone quite like her. She was real and natural, and not at all like his last girlfriend, Ginny. Eden had so much more to offer.

  That thought surprised him, and he found himself questioning his old way of thinking. Maybe Eden wasn’t that much trouble after all. Perhaps, he should spend a little more time with her and get to know her.

  He flipped off the hall light and let the glow of his cigarette light the way as he headed downstairs and closed down the restaurant for the night. It was so quiet when it was empty that it haunted him. It was nothing like the days when his father was here and the place was buzzing with activity until the wee hours of the morning.

  Now, the place closed at ten o’clock. No one usually came in after nine anyway. But somehow, things were going to change, he was sure of it. His life had already changed so much since Eden was left in his care. He headed out to the garage, eyes to the ground. In the moonlight, he saw the seeds he’d tossed from the apartment window. They had fallen on the rocky slabs of broken stone that once made up a little patio. He kicked them into the dirt and stepped on them, driving them into the soft soil.

  “You crazy old man,” he mumbled, thinking of the professor. “How are seeds going to pay my debts?” He made his way to the room above the garage thinking that Eden was just as crazy as her father.

  Chapter 12

  Jack went up to the studio apartment above the garage, feeling the first sprinkle of rain on his face. He pulled out his key ring and fumbled in the dark, hoping he still had the key to his old apartment. He found it and let himself in just as the sky opened up in a downpour.

  The room didn’t have electricity, and it took his eyes a moment to get accustomed to the dark. The room brought back memories. Memories of his high school days and the times he’d spent partying, playing his guitar, and ditching school. He closed the door behind him, kicked off his boots and made his way to the fireplace on the far wall. There were still logs and kindling in the hearth so he pulled a match from his pocket and lit the fire.

  The room didn’t have heat. It never did. Had he lived there long enough, his father would have eventually installed it. His father had plans for him, wanting him to go to college to become a doctor or a lawyer or something else that sounded prestigious. Jack had other plans. He had the need to get out. All he wanted was to get away from his father and all the man’s plans for his future. Maybe it would have been different had his mother been alive, but she died from cancer not long after he was born. Therefore, he never even had the chance for siblings. His father never remarried but instead stayed lonely. He would travel back and forth to Greece to spend time with his relatives, and always wanted Jack to join him.

  Jack never had a desire to travel abroad, and especially not with his father. Instead, he quit school and bought a motorcycle with the scant money he had managed to save. His hope was to start a band, and that was when he’d hooked up with Nathan.

  Nathan was older than Jack but, at the t
ime, had a lot of the same interests. Music, motorcycles, girls, and drugs. And the best part about it was that Nathan had money. Jack lived with him for years, but Nathan said Jack had potential to do so much more with his life. That’s why he eventually sent Jack back home.

  With nowhere else to go, Jack returned humbly to his father’s doorstep and his father had given him a second chance. He let Jack work in his restaurant, and he never pressured him to go back to school. They’d made amends, and that meant everything to Jack. He had worked with his father for years now, trying to be the man his father wanted him to be. His father had faith in his only son and Jack wanted to make him proud.

  No one else would give Jack the chance his father had given him. He’d built the glass room above the restaurant for Jack, and given him a Mercedes convertible and basically everything money could buy. Still, Jack wasn’t happy. Then last year, Alastair Talon decided to live abroad for a long period of time. He’d put Jack in charge of The Golden Talon. He’d told his son if he liked the way Jack handled things, when he returned he’d give the restaurant to his only child.

  Jack warmed his hands by the fire and noticed his lonely guitar leaning against the bedpost where he’d left it so long ago when he decided to become a businessman. He wondered if he still remembered how to play it. He was hesitant to pick it up, but a dormant longing inside forced him toward it.

  He picked up the guitar and, in the dark, made his way to a wooden chair – the only other piece of furniture in the room, over by the picture window. He pulled open the drapes and plopped down on the chair. With his feet resting on the windowsill, he leaned back on two legs of the chair, tuning his guitar. Then he started plucking a few chords. This had always been his favorite place to sit and play music when he felt troubled.

  He noticed something that hadn’t been there the last time he had lived in the studio. The glass-domed apartment was in full view across the yard. His apartment. The apartment that Eden was now occupying. All the lights were blazing and even though it was raining, he could see into the room perfectly. He could see the glass and rattan table and chairs, and also the large brass bed in front of the windows. He’d moved it there purposely, liking the way it felt, almost as if he were outside with all the windows around it.

  He plucked an old song from memory and kept his eyes fastened on the apartment. Eden’s hat was on the bed. When he looked a little closer, he realized her clothes were there, too. Then the door to the bathroom opened and Eden walked out stark naked, drying her long, dark hair with a towel.

  She walked over to the bed, bent over and, letting her hair touch the ground, she briskly rubbed it dry. Jack almost fell off his chair when he saw her bend over. She was right in front of the window and hadn’t even drawn the drapes. He thanked the stars the room was visible only from the back yard and the alley. The tall trees that bordered either side of his property made a nice barrier from the rest of the city.

  Still, he could see everything about Eden from the hair on her head to the hair down below. He put his chair back on all fours and stood up. Slowly putting his guitar down, he laid his hand against the window.

  He watched her swing back up and the wrapped towel fall to the back of her, holding her hair. She turned toward him, stretching her arms above her head and yawning. This gave Jack a perfect view of her bronzed perky breasts. Maybe he should have turned away, but he couldn’t stop himself from looking. Her dusky nipples were huge and flat, probably nice and warm from her bath. Then he started wondering what would happen to them if he rubbed his hands over them right now, or perhaps his tongue.

  His lusty thoughts were getting him aroused. Eden gave a quick glance toward the windows, then put her foot up on a chair and stretched her shapely legs. This gave him a full view of what lay between her thighs – something he hadn’t seen in a long time now. He took a deep breath and released it, thinking he’d been too damned long without a woman. Since he’d met Eden, he was as horny as he was in his high school days.

  Maybe it was time to visit his old classmate, Trixie, on the street corner. He’d never done it before, but the thought crossed his mind tonight. He throbbed below his belt and his head was telling him to go for the ride. His heart was saying differently. Trixie could take care of his little problem in a hurry, but he didn’t really want her. No, the only woman he wanted right now was Eden. Sadly enough, even after the kisses they’d shared, she’d locked him out of his own apartment.

  Jack swallowed deeply as he watched her make her way back to the bed and pull down the covers. How he wished he was sleeping there tonight with her to warm his bed. Instead, he was staying in an unheated apartment with a cold bed that was lumpy, just like himself. He pulled viciously at the strings on the drapes, closing out the sight of naked Eden from his mind.

  She slept in the nude, he knew that now. She hadn’t bought a nightgown like he’d told her to after all. This was going to drive him crazy. He didn’t know how he was going to survive night after night watching her naked body tease him when she didn’t even know she was doing it.

  He looked over to the fire and realized it had gone out. The cool breeze from the rain was blowing into the room from the open flue, but he didn’t care. He needed something to help him cool down at the moment. He was hotter than hell, and it was for a girl who wouldn’t have him. He’d never had this problem before, as girls were always quite willing to give themselves to Jack Talon. He had the looks, not to mention his father’s money and a flashy car. Women always seemed to be attracted to that. Now, if only he could share that with the girl from Peru.

  He ripped off his shirt and threw it onto the chair. Next, he struggled out of his tight pants and kicked them across the room. He couldn’t go on like this much longer. Slipping between the cold sheets, he hoped they would help him cool down, because he knew it was going to be one hell of a long night.

  Chapter 13

  Jack tried to keep busy all week, hoping it would take his mind off of Eden. He hadn’t opened the drapes in his studio apartment above the garage in days now and didn’t plan on doing it any time soon. It was easier that way, even though he knew all he had to do was open them and he’d get a good view of Eden’s naked body.

  He should have told her to close her drapes but couldn’t bring himself to do it. If he had, she would know he’d been watching her. And if she knew that, she’d be so embarrassed she’d never let him near her again.

  He made small talk with her when he saw her, but she was keeping mainly to her room since Noble’s slandering article about The Golden Talon came out in the paper. Noble didn’t say a word about the perfectly cooked steaks or the bottle of expensive complimentary wine. However, he was sure to mention the stray cat and the fire in the kitchen. And the big emphasis was on the foreign girl from Peru, who didn’t know enough to bring a corkscrew to the table with the wine. He had called her the major flaw of Jack’s restaurant. He’d called the employees incompetent, unlearned and only fit to work at a greasy spoon.

  Eden saw the paper and had taken it personally. Jack told her not to let it bother her and tried to act nonchalant about the whole situation when it was infuriating him inside. He never should have let Noble into the restaurant and, by God, the man would never step foot in there again.

  Jack tried to talk to Eden, but she kept the door locked most of the time. She’d only opened it for him twice this week and that was because Jack told her he’d scare away the customers if he wasn’t allowed to use his own shower. He’d been damned well living in the same clothes all week, and didn’t know how much longer he could go on this way. He’d been dressing in the small bathroom since he didn’t trust himself alone in the room with Eden when all he was wearing was a towel. Every time he looked at her he remembered her naked body on display in front of the open windows. And one thought like that had him so aroused, that a towel around his waist wouldn’t keep his secret.

  When he walked out of the bathroom, fully dressed, he heard a knock at the door. Eden was
doing nothing to answer it, but only staring out the window.

  “It’s probably Ruthie with your food,” he said, putting on his watch and the gold chain around his neck.

  “I’m not hungry.”

  Jack shook his head and went to the door. He didn’t know how to pull Eden out of this depression. He had his own problems eating away at him, and he just didn’t have it in him to try to solve hers as well, whatever they were.

  He pulled open the door, expecting to see Ruthie but instead Missy, Noble’s girlfriend, was standing there in a sexier than hell dress clinging to her curves. Her spiked, studded heels were a bit too much for so early in the morning.

  “What do you want?” asked Jack gruffly. “Did Noble send you over to spy?”

  “I’m here to see Eden,” she said.

  “Eden’s not seeing anyone this morning – or at least not you!”

  “Let her in, Jack.” It was the first time Eden had said more than three words to him all week long.

  Jack stepped aside and let Missy enter. He then went over to the dresser and picked up a hairbrush. Looking in the mirror, he pretended to fuss with his hair, but really wanted to know why Missy came calling.

  “How are you?” asked Eden.

  “I’m fine,” said Missy. “But since Martin’s been so busy with the restaurant, I’ve been a little bored. I was wondering if I could take you to brunch. I’ve just moved here and don’t really have any friends.”

  “Eden doesn’t need friends like you.” Jack looked at Missy in the mirror when he spoke. “And neither you nor Noble are welcome on my property again.”

  He could see Missy’s astonished look and Eden’s scowl.

  “I’d love to go,” said Eden. “I’m bored, too. I don’t have any friends either, so I think we’ll get along just fine.”

  Jack put down the brush and turned to look at Eden. “Eden, what are you saying? This is Noble’s girlfriend. Noble! The man who said all those bad things about us in the paper.”