by Natalie Ann
She narrowed her eyes at him and followed him into the elevator. She was sure she resembled a wet dog right now for him to make that comment.
“You don’t have to buy everything, you know.”
“Maybe I want to.”
“And I don’t want you to. I’m not a charity case.”
His shoulders dropped. “Sorry. I’m not thinking that way. Maybe I’m just old-fashioned and think I should take care of the dates.”
They stepped out of the elevator and she slid her sneakers off. She was glad she’d changed into shorts and a T-shirt after work so she could run faster out of the rain.
“Or maybe you dated women that wanted that from you. That wanted you to take care of them. I don’t want or need that.”
She could only imagine the type of women he dated and she knew they couldn’t have been anything like her, just making her wonder even more how the two of them could possibly make anything work.
“That’s very true.” He set the bags on the counter and helped her unload them. “Stuffed chicken, pasta, and broccoli. I can handle that.”
“Can you grab a pan for me to put the chicken on and I’ll throw it in the oven now. The pasta will only take a few minutes and I’ll dress it with olive oil and some herbs. Broccoli is quick too and I know you like it. I thought we could start with the salad. I know I’m starving.”
He walked over and got her the pan, then pulled out some bowls and silverware. She was going to comment on how homey this all felt but decided not to. No use fabricating any fanciful thoughts in her mind.
Once the chicken was in the oven, she and Jace were sitting at his island and eating the salad. “Tell me about your day,” he said to her.
“I don’t want to talk about work,” she said. “And you know about my day. You met with me this morning.”
“But that was only for an hour. What did you do the rest of the day?”
She shook her head and grinned at him, then tried to push her damp hair behind her ears. “I ran a bunch of numbers and reports. How about you?”
“I talked to some franchise owners and set up a few meetings.”
“Oh. What about?” she asked, pausing in the act of putting a cucumber slice in her mouth.
“You didn’t want to talk about work. So how about we talk about the weather. Do you think it will rain all night?”
She reached over and flicked her finger on his arm, then scrunched up her nose causing him to laugh. “I hope it doesn’t rain all night. Unlike you, I don’t have a garage to pull my car into so I’ll get wet again.”
“You can stay,” he said.
“Stay?” she asked.
“The night.”
She wasn’t sure if this would come up. She wanted to say yes but was hesitant.
One date, that was all they’d had. They were in the process of the second. He’d showed no signs that he wouldn’t keep his word if she said no, that he would be bothered by it.
Did she want to say no though?
She didn’t but wasn’t sure it was wise tonight.
“I’ve got to work tomorrow,” she said. “And have no change of clothes.”
He angled his head. “I’ll let that reason go if you want me to.”
“Maybe another night?” she asked instead.
“I’ve got to go out of town tomorrow afternoon and I’ll be back in the office on Friday morning. Then I’ve got a meeting planned with one of the franchise owners in Connecticut at two on Friday. I was going to see what your schedule was like and if you could go along with me. He offered to have some of his finance staff on hand for you to meet with during my meeting.”
“I can do that,” she said, wondering why they were talking about work when she just said she’d like to stay the night another time.
“Then maybe we can stay there for the night. Out of town and away from people.”
Now she knew and she appreciated that he was offering that. As nervous as she was about this, she really didn’t want to run the risk of anyone seeing her leaving his place in the morning.
“That works.”
He reached his hand over and laid it on hers, his thumb caressing her palm, shivers running all through her body and images of his hands in other places heating her up good and steamy.
“If you change your mind about staying with me for the night, we’ll come back. I’ll understand. You can change it at any point.”
“I believe you. But I won’t change my mind.”
“Then we won’t talk about it anymore. And we won’t talk about work.”
“What should we talk about?” she asked.
“Movies, music, TV, college, friends. Not politics. I just hate talking politics. You pick a topic and let’s just go with it.”
“I can do that while I finish cooking. And since we both end up at work early every day, we should make this an early night.”
“Do I at least get to kiss you again?”
She liked the playfulness of him. Lauren didn’t see it often, but then again she wouldn’t want to see it in the office either.
She pushed back from the chair at the island and stood between his legs, wrapped her arms around his neck, and put her lips on his. “I’ll make the first move this time.”
Great Lengths
“Katy, we’ll be back in the office on Monday.”
It was Friday morning and Jace and Lauren were getting ready to leave for Connecticut for a meeting. She was slightly nervous for multiple reasons.
First off, this was a chance to show her worth to Jace in front of others. He would have an idea that she knew what she was doing. Not that he ever said he didn’t believe in her or what she did, but it’d be nice if others saw it.
Second of all, she was still planning on spending the night with him. She had a bag at her apartment and they were detouring there first to get it. There was no chance in hell she was bringing it with her to work or having anyone see her pulling it out of her car.
As much as she was looking forward to this, she wasn’t looking forward to anyone knowing about it at work and was going to great lengths to prevent it.
“Can I call you if there is an emergency?” Katy asked Jace.
She hated the look being sent her way by Katy. One of jealousy and contempt. She wished she’d met Jace anywhere other than his office. Rushing down here showed her eagerness more than it should have.
“You know you can call me anytime there is an emergency,” Jace said, his tone not all that friendly. She didn’t see him like that often, but he had been short this morning at another time and she was wondering if maybe he was regretting their pending time together.
“Okay. Well, earlier you told me not to bother you today, so I wanted to double check.”
Lauren was shocked that Katy seemed to be arguing with Jace right now.
“That’s because I was trying to get everything ready for this meeting and had to catch up on a few things.” He waved his hand. “Emergencies are different.” He turned to her now. “Are you ready to go, Lauren? I see you’ve got your laptop.”
“I’m all set.”
The two of them rode down the elevator in silence, then made their way to the parking lot. She was going to get in his car and stopped. “I should bring my car home,” she said suddenly.
“Why?”
“Otherwise it’s going to be here all night. Someone might realize I never came back to get it. They could put it together that I was with you all night.”
He sighed. “I doubt anyone would put that together, but fine. I’ll follow you.”
She put her laptop in his car and then walked over to hers. He was taking his time pulling out, waiting for her indeed.
“I’ll be right back,” she said when he pulled behind her car in the parking lot of her apartment.
“You’re not going to let me come up?” he asked, looking around the apartment buildings where she lived.
“You can if you want. I just figured you’d be in a hurry.”
“It’s nothing fancy,” she told him when she went to the stairwell. “I’m on the second floor. No elevators here like your place.”
He wasn’t saying much and she was desperately trying to figure out what was wrong with him.
When she ascended the stairwell, she turned down the hall to her door and pulled her key out. Her bag was sitting by the door and she went to pick it up, but he said, “Aren’t you going to show me around?”
“There’s not much to see. Living room, kitchen. The bedroom is down that hall and a bath. I’ll show you if you want.”
He grinned at her. “I do want to see it.”
“There,” she said, opening her door to her bedroom that took seconds to reach. “Not much to see.”
“That’s not a very big bed.”
“It’s a double. I don’t need anything bigger.”
“Good thing I’ve got a king at my place.”
He seemed like he was in a better mood. “Are you ready to go now?”
“Yep.” He took the bag out of her hand and carried it to his car, then put it in the backseat next to what she was assuming were his overnight things.
***
They were in the car about ten minutes when he finally said, “You’re awfully quiet. Is there a problem?”
He had been trying to figure out if Lauren was going to change her mind or not. It’d been a few days of hell waiting for her to decide if she’d rather not spend the night with him.
He’d been keeping in touch with her. Not only for work purposes but after hours too. He had no intention of letting her think he wasn’t taking this seriously. That he was just looking for a quick lay like he was pretty sure she was assuming.
It didn’t seem to matter how many times he told her he wasn’t. He guessed actions were going to speak louder. He had all his actions planned out well.
“No problem.”
“Could have fooled me.”
She didn’t say anything else. “Just nervous about the meeting. I want to represent you well. I want to make a good impression.”
He laughed. “I’m not worried in the least and you shouldn’t be either. Hell, you’re dressed up a lot nicer than I am.”
She was wearing a black pantsuit today. He had on jeans and a button-down shirt and shoes. “Why aren’t you wearing a tie?”
“I’ll put one on before we get there, but I can’t stand wearing one. This was my compromise. It’s Friday. I didn’t even want to be wearing shoes, but didn’t want to be disrespectful and walk in too casual.”
“I look like a dull accountant, don’t I?”
“Yes, you do. I bet you the other ones you meet with will too.”
She laughed. “Probably. Lawyers, bankers, and accountants all wear suits. Not sure why. But we were lectured on that enough in college.”
“I like the more laid back vibe. There is no reason for you to dress up as much as you do, but if you like it, that’s fine. I’d like it more if you wore that pretty little sundress now and again to work though.”
“I thought that could be something just for the two of us.”
Now that was more like it. “It could be.” He paused for a minute. “I’m sorry about Katy.”
“What about her?”
“I didn’t miss her look at you when you were waiting for me outside my office. I see it a lot when anyone comes to talk to me. More so women. There’s nothing going on there, I hope you know that.”
“I figured as much.”
“But you noticed that she seems to have an attitude toward you?” he asked.
He was trying to figure out how to nip it in the bud without drawing attention to Lauren and was finding it difficult. Katy wasn’t being outright mean or nasty, just petty with her snooty glances and tone of voice.
“I’m not taking offense to it. I just keep my distance. From day one she wanted to come in and gossip. I just don’t want to get in the middle of it, so I think that set her off. I’m not there to make friends. I’ve got a job to do.”
“What about to get a boyfriend?”
Did he just say that out loud? Holy crap, what the heck was wrong with him? Relief, that was what it was. The fact that she had no problem getting her bag and coming with him. He’d been worrying over nothing for days.
When was the last time he’d stressed about a woman wanting to spend time with him? Probably never because if someone turned him down, which very few did, then he just moved on to the next.
He held his breath and she finally said, “Is that what you are?”
“I don’t know. What do you think? What do you want?”
“Well, when I sleep with someone I’m exclusive. I probably should have brought this up before I put my overnight bag in the back.”
“I don’t mess around with other women when I’m dating someone else.”
“Dating,” she said. “But what about a relationship? You brought up the word boyfriend, not me.”
He had. “You aren’t like anyone else I’ve dated before. I guess it’s time for me to take things seriously now.”
“You guess?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.
“I know,” he corrected. “So, is this a casual thing that you want, or something more?” He decided it was best to leave it in her hands.
“I don’t want to put any kind of pressure on you or what we’ve got.”
“I can appreciate that. How about I rephrase it. Are you open to this being more than casual?”
“Yes.”
“Me too.”
Worth the Risk
The meeting went well and Lauren could breathe a sigh of relief. She shouldn’t have been nervous, but it was her first big meeting outside of work.
“So did you learn anything?” she asked Jace when they were back in his car and heading to the hotel.
“I did. He had some good feedback for me. What about you?”
“It’s all on my laptop. They were very helpful and gave me a few ideas of what to look for specifically at certain times of the year. I’ve got a twelve-month chart with percentages that I can refer back to and they said they’d send me a new one each month so we could stay current with the trends.”
“Frank was nice. He offered the same thing. I wasn’t sure what to expect. He’s closer to my father’s age.”
She grinned. “And you expected someone to not be up to date with the times and technology? Your father was right on point with a lot of those things.”
“That wasn’t my concern. There is a certain level we have to maintain with the franchise. I think part of the previous owner’s issues were they went overboard when they overhauled the stores a few years ago. I think they did too much too soon.”
“Probably. Or they should have cut expenses and didn’t.”
Jace nodded and then turned to look at her. “Can we stop talking about work now and talk about us?”
Here come the nerves again. “We can.”
“You still want to go back to the hotel or am I driving back to Albany?”
“The hotel is good,” she said, trying to sound more confident than she was feeling. She was looking forward to tonight, but it was hard to push all her doubts to the back of her mind about their relationship too.
He’d been gone for a few days and though they talked each night, not seeing much of each other made her nervous. That was part of the reason she went to his office first thing this morning when no one else was around. He’d texted her that he’d be in around seven.
She was watching the clock on her computer and at seven she went to walk to his office, only to meet him coming off the elevator. He laughed and said, “You couldn’t wait to see me?”
She’d looked around and didn’t see any
one. “No. Sorry. Guess I’ve missed you.”
“The feeling is mutual. Just a few more hours,” he said, winking at her, then she’d turned to go back to her office and he did the same.
“Okay,” Jace said right now. “We’ll check in and then grab an early dinner if you want.”
“That sounds good.” If she could get food in her stomach with all her nerves.
It didn’t take long before they turned into a hotel. An extravagant hotel, not some run of the mill one that businessmen stayed at for a night or for families passing through town and wanting to rest.
“What’s wrong now?” he asked her.
“You went a little bit overboard here.” She should have suspected that when he said he was going to get a hotel in Greenwich.
“Wait until you see the room if you think that by just pulling into the parking lot,” he said, grinning.
“I’m not sure I want to know.” She was right. They checked in and made their way to a suite overlooking the harbor. “Jace! This is almost as big as my apartment. We’re only here for one night.”
“About that,” he said. “I actually booked two nights and a spa package for us too. I thought maybe you wouldn’t mind a little bit of pampering. We’ve both been working hard and could use the time away.”
“I only have clothes for one night,” she argued. She wished she’d known he was going to do that. “Not only that, what if I changed my mind? You’d have been out a lot of money.”
He just laughed at her. “Oh well. It was worth the risk. We’ll go shopping tomorrow and get you something to wear for the drive home on Sunday. No worries.”
As much as she wanted to argue, she didn’t. She couldn’t remember the last time anyone went to this kind of effort for her. Well, no one she knew could afford this, but it was the thought that counted in her mind.
“I should be telling you no, but it was just so thoughtful of you.”
He reached for her hand. “I wanted this weekend to be about us. I know you’re nervous. I know you have your doubts. I was hoping this would help a little with them.”
“It does.”