He laughed a little. “No, I have a sister. But I sponsor a child through the Big Brother program. Bring him to sporting events and stuff. He loves the Bulls and idolizes Michael Jordan.”
Well, crap. His attractiveness multiplied by a thousand…again.
“Still, I should do more.” He smiled at her. “Thank you for reminding me. I plan on coming back next week to help some more.”
She swallowed. “Me too.”
“Maybe I’ll see you here, then?”
She shrugged.
“It could be our thing.”
She swallowed. Did he want a thing with her?
“What does Lisa want you to think about?” he asked as they walked, arm in arm, their steps matching perfectly.
“She said I should bring you home with me tonight,” she blurted out before she could change her mind and lie. “I told her it wasn’t gonna happen.”
He slowed his steps. “What? Why?”
“Why would I want to bring you home?” she asked in a rush, tightening her grip on her toolbox. “Or why won’t I?”
Frowning, he stopped walking and searched her face for…something. She wasn’t sure what, but hopefully he found it. “The second one.”
“Because this isn’t a real date. It’s an obligation.”
He let go of his hold on her arm, caught her chin, and tipped her face up to his. His fingers burned on her bare skin. There was no other word for it. “This feels pretty damn real to me.”
Her breath caught in her throat. “I think we both know it’s not.”
“Then let’s make it real.”
She shook her head, legs trembling. “Taylor—”
“I like you, Sam. A lot.”
A short laugh escaped her. She couldn’t help it. She was just too darn cynical for her own good. “You don’t even know me.”
“But I want to, and that’s huge for me. Really huge.” He stepped closer, and her breath shortened, as if she were sprinting. “Go out with me on a real date tonight. Dinner. Your choice of restaurant. It can be as fancy or cheap as you’d like. Puerto’s. Curry’s. Applebee’s. McDonald’s. I don’t give a damn, as long as you say yes.”
The world spun around her because he was asking her out on an actual date, and the way he studied her…it was like he saw all her secrets, all her shame, and didn’t care. That was impossible, of course, but still. For the first time in years, she wanted to ignore all the reasons she should say no, stop playing it safe, and spend a night in a rich, attractive, charming, charismatic man’s arms—screw the consequences. She bit her tongue. Saying yes, was horrible, stupid, foolish, selfish, idiotic—
“Yes. I’ll go out with you.”
Well, crap.
Chapter Six
You’re striking out, dumbass.
Taylor had taken a lot of women out, and he always knew just what to do. Flash his money at them. Buy them whatever they wanted.
But with this woman, none of that impressed her.
He’d never been an indecisive man, but with Sam…
It was an unsettling confusion. He prided himself on never losing his way, acting impulsively, or losing control. At a young age, he’d learned to hide his emotions. Life as the kid of the poorest single mom in an impoverished town had put a target on his back, and before he’d learned to control his temper, he had let some bratty kid get the best of him.
He didn’t give a damn what they said about him, but the second that little fucker turned his insults toward his mother? It had been game fucking on. Taylor had unleashed the fires of hell on his enemy and broken his nose. He’d been pretty proud of it, too, until his mother had sobbed in the principal’s office and he’d realized that his actions had only made things harder.
At that moment, he swore to never lose control again or make her cry. He’d been nine at the time. He had yet to break that promise.
But Sam threw him off.
He wasn’t sure why…but she did.
She rubbed her bare arms, stepping into the darkness outside the soup kitchen. They’d been serving food for three hours now and had finally cleared the room of all hungry occupants. The sun had set, and there was a chill to the air that hadn’t been there when they arrived.
Shrugging out of his flannel, he took a deep breath before sliding it over her shoulders.
Her mouth parted in surprise.
“You shivered,” he said.
A small smile teased at her lips. “I’m cold.”
“Hopefully not anymore.”
She hugged the flannel close, taking a deep breath. “I’m a little better.”
“Hungry?” he asked awkwardly.
She cocked her head adorably. “Starving, actually.”
“Me too,” he breathed, staring at her mouth.
She cleared her throat, hugging herself, and took a step back. Was it just him, or did she tremble? “Wh-Where do you want to go?”
“Would you rather decide?”
Shaking her head, she bit her lip. “You pick.”
Fuck. “Okay.” He opened the car door for her, smiling nervously. “I know the perfect place.” Liar. “Not too fancy, not too plain.”
Sliding into the seat, she smiled back at him. “Can’t wait.”
Where the fuck was he going to take her that wasn’t too fancy or plain? As he opened his door, he remembered a place he went after work one night with his coworkers. It had thrown off his whole food schedule, but it had been worth it.
Grinning for real this time, he settled behind the wheel with a newfound confidence. It was about damn time. “Do you like whiskey?”
She blinked. “Not really.”
“Irish beer?”
She shrugged. “I’m a sucker for a good Irish cider.”
“Then you’ll love where I’m taking you.”
After buckling up, she glanced at her outfit. “Mind if we stop by my place first? I’d like to freshen up.”
He swallowed hard. He’d offered to bring her earlier, but she’d refused. “Of course. It’s on the way to my place, actually.”
“Perfect.” She fidgeted with the seat belt. “I’m sorry.”
He side-eyed her and pulled onto the road. Traffic was surprisingly light. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. I don’t mind stopping.”
“No, not for that. I’m sorry for misjudging you.” Her fingers ran over the belt faster. “I had it in my head that you were an asshole, and I treated you like one when we first met.”
“In all fairness, I’m an asshole most of the time.”
“But not now?”
“Not when I’m with you,” he stated easily.
Rolling her eyes, she let out a small laugh. There was something about that combination that thrilled him and made him even more determined to win her over. No one ever rolled their eyes at him anymore—they were too worried about offending him. “Wow. That was cheesy.”
“I’ve got more where that came from.”
She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “I bet they work on all the ladies, don’t they?”
“I don’t know. I don’t normally have to work this hard.” He shot her a teasing wink. “I feel like I’ve run twenty miles today.”
She snorted. “Let me guess? Normally you wave money at women who catch your eye, and they collapse at your feet.”
“Pretty much.” He hesitated. “Though, sometimes I catch them before they hit the ground, if I’m feeling magnanimous.”
She face-palmed. “Oh. My. God.”
“Nope, just me.” He pulled into her parking lot, not wanting to drop this fun, lighthearted tone they had going on. “You know, I just thought of something. The date is officially over once I bring you home.”
She stared at the apartment. “At the end of the night.”
“It didn’t say that, it just said it was over after I brought you home.” He slid the car into park. “I’m guessing it was to make it perfectly clear that if anything happened inside someone’s door, it wasn�
�t because of the auction.”
“You don’t think they wanted to prostitute the men?” she asked.
“Probably not. I mean, if so, they would have charged a hell of a lot more for me.”
Closing her eyes, she shook her head. “Jesus.”
“Nope, still just me,” he quipped.
She dropped her head back against the seat, shaking it slowly.
He leaned closer, staring at her with a hint of a frown. “But, you see, I don’t do second dates.”
She nibbled on her lip. “Me either.”
“Really?” he asked, surprised.
“Yep, I’m a one-and-done kind of girl.”
He whistled through his teeth. “Nice.” She was beautiful, kind, and charitable, but she didn’t date. Why?
“So what are we supposed to do?” She pretended to think, tapping her chin and squinting. “If I go in, the date is over, but we didn’t eat yet.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t go in,” he stage-whispered. “As long as you don’t go home, we’re still on our first date, right?”
She turned to him, her eyes shining with…mischief? Or was that excitement? He had no idea, but damn it, he wanted to find out. He wanted to find out everything he could about Sam…and then some. “Pull back out onto the road before it’s too late.”
For a second, guilt hit his gut. But he’d meant what he said. He didn’t do second dates. “But your clothes—”
“Are fine,” she said, grinning. “Right?”
“You look absolutely perfect to me,” he said with 100 percent honesty.
She snorted. “Don’t lay it on too thick, charmer. You got the yes, so drive.”
There she went again, shooting down his usual attempts at charming her, and making him want her even more. “Yes, ma’am.” He buckled up and added, “Safety first.”
“Of course,” she said, bowing at him.
He bowed back as best he could while sitting. “My lady.”
“Drive,” she commanded frostily, sticking her nose up.
He, the guy who’d been voted most likely to be a Grinch by his colleagues at last year’s Christmas party, was pretending to be a chauffeur and trying his best to make her forget that he was the very thing she didn’t want him to be.
“Tell me something no one knows about you,” he said, pulling out onto Broad Street.
“No one?” she squeaked.
“Or at least, not most people.”
She fidgeted with her seat belt again. “Uh…let’s see. I once had money. A lot of it.”
“Had?” he asked carefully.
“Yes, had.” She stared down at her lap. “Now I don’t.”
He didn’t press. “My mom, as you know, was the opposite. She worked two jobs to raise me and almost killed herself in the process. There were weeks where we lived off spaghetti and ramen noodles.”
She winced. “I hate ramen.”
“I love it. I still eat it sometimes.”
Shaking her head, she smiled wistfully. “And your dad?”
“Dead.”
“I’m sorry,” she breathed.
He hesitated. “My mom says he was nice, but he was probably a bigger asshole than me—after all, I had to have gotten it from somewhere, right?”
“I don’t think you’re an asshole.”
“Give it time,” he said, trying to keep his tone light. “By the end of the date, you’ll be back to your original assessment of me.”
She struggled with her response.
“True. Like, what kind of a jerk stares at his phone while he is being auctioned off?”
Well, shit. “You got me.”
“Of course, I’m the jerk who was too busy emailing Habitat for Humanity to realize the guy I was supposed to bid on had already come and gone, so I guess we’re both guilty.”
“Yeah, maybe.” He hesitated. “I was closing a deal.”
She let out a breath. “Make a lot of money off it?”
“A good amount,” he answered honestly.
She tapped her finger on her thigh. “Where’s your mom now?”
“Uh…” He blinked at the abrupt change of topic. Clearly, she didn’t want to talk about his line of work. Made sense, considering her own. “I suspect she’s in her house on Park Drive.”
She whistled through her teeth, acknowledging the costs of homes in that area. “Did you grow up in Chicago?”
“No, I actually grew up in Georgia.”
She swiveled toward him, eyes wide. “Wait, what?”
“It’s true. I’m a Southern boy, through and through.”
“No way,” she exclaimed, smacking his arm. “I’m from Savannah.”
“No shit,” he said, grinning.
“Dead serious.”
“Why’d you come up here?” he asked.
The smile melted away at his question, and he immediately wanted to take it back. His lady clearly had secrets, and she had no desire to talk about them. “To get away.”
He wisely didn’t ask her what she ran from, even though he really wanted to. If he pushed too hard for information, she would walk away.
“I came here for a job. Once I got a salary and a bank account, I found a place for my mom, flew down, hauled her up north.”
She swallowed. “You bought her a house on Park Drive?”
“Seemed like the least I could do for a woman who gave up her whole life to take care of me,” he said, shrugging. “Anyone who thinks otherwise is even more of an asshole than me.”
She shook her head. “Wow.”
“She likes it here, especially the winters. We never had much snow in Georgia.”
“What part?” she asked, watching him as he pulled into the parking garage closest to Fado Irish Pub.
“Rochester.”
She winced.
“Yeah, not exactly the best area.”
That rock hit his stomach every time he remembered his childhood home. It had been a hard life, and they’d survived. He’d made sure his mom never had to worry about money again.
“Every area is nice in its own way,” she said, but she was being kind.
“Not where we lived.” He shook his head.
“Let me guess. Now, you live near your mom in a penthouse?”
He turned left, heading toward a parking garage. Some asshole in a red Corvette cut him off, so he slammed his foot on the brake. “Maaaybe.”
Laughing, she shook her head. She did that a lot when it came to him. He liked it. “With a fireplace, and a loft, and really fancy woodwork?”
“Are you spying on me?”
“I don’t need to,” she argued, wagging a finger at him. “You’re so predictable.”
“I’m not—”
“Uh-uh.” She wagged the finger even more. “Don’t even try to deny it. You probably wake up, hit the gym, shower, go to work, skip lunch, eat dinner over your desk, leave after eight, go home, work a little more, and hit the sheets by eleven every night during the week.”
Well, damn.
“And the weekends?” he asked drily.
“You find a pretty girl, take her out, woo her with your fancy car and money, bring her back, turn on your fireplace, and take her to bed.”
Again. Not far off. He rolled down the window, took a parking ticket, and pulled forward. “And after I get her in bed?”
“Then…” She swallowed. “Then when you’re finished with her, you tell her you should do some more work, and she leaves—while giving you her number, which you’ll never use—and you sleep in your bed, alone. Always alone.”
Well, hell. She was right.
Somewhere between trying to make a name for himself and trying to succeed, he’d become something worse than an asshole—a predictable asshole. Worse than that, he’d forgotten how to have fun. He did the same exact thing, every damn day, on a perfect schedule, and he never deviated from the pattern.
When did he become so goddamn boring?
Chapter Seven
Going home
with Taylor Jennings was a horrible idea. The worst. And yet, here she was, a few hours later, following through on the impulsive urge to make the most of this date. He pulled into a parking spot, his car much more at home here among the other Jaguars, Alfa Romeos, and Bentleys than it had in her parking lot with the Hondas and Toyotas.
It had been his suggestion to continue their date at his place because the contract said nothing about it ending if they went back to his place. So here they were.
Now what?
After giving her his flannel shirt, he’d only been wearing a white undershirt. That chest was nice, and she had an urge, one she’d been wholeheartedly denying, to touch it.
You only live once.
Maybe it was good to stop overthinking everything every once in a while, and just…
Do.
He wasn’t her type at all. But it wasn’t like she was gonna marry the guy or anything. She just wanted to see him naked. They had been very clear on their one-date-only policy, so after tonight, she’d never see him—naked or otherwise—again.
He opened his car door, sliding out gracefully, and hurried over to open hers like a gentleman. She could have easily beaten him to it again, but this time she let him have his way.
Opening her door, he shot her a playful yet oh-so-sexy grin. “Having second thoughts already?”
What had been nothing more than revenge on some rich jerk she’d met at an event had turned into a magical evening with an attractive man who, for all intents and purposes, seemed to actually like her. Even more surprising, she liked him.
She didn’t want to let go of that magic yet.
“Sam?” he asked, studying her closely. “Would you like me to take you home?”
That would be the smart thing to do.
The sensible choice.
She undid her seat belt with steady hands. “No, I want that champagne in front of the fireplace. Please tell me there’s a fur rug where you seduce women.”
Just like that, his grin returned as he offered her his help. “You’ve got me all figured out, huh?”
“Oh, yeah.” She slid her fingers against his palm, electric tingles teasing her skin. “Definitely,” she added a bit breathlessly.
But who could blame her? Look at him.
Dark hair. Bright eyes. Hard jaw. And a voice so deep it sent shivers down her spine. More important than all that, he’d made her laugh all night long.
An Accidental Date with a Billionaire Page 4