by Katie Dowe
How dared he. She thought, pacing the length of the floor. He had no right to psycho analyze her. He did not even know her, what gave him the right to think that he knew what she was and what she was going through?
She felt the unbidden tears come to her eyes and she blinked them back furiously.Two years after her father had left, she had tried to live a normal life and had decided to start dating. He had been a young man she had met in college and he had been trying to get her to go out with him ever since they had been attending but she had always turned him down. He had given her his number and she decided to call him up one day and they had started talking. He had started teaching at the local high school and had seemed genuinely pleased that she had called him.
The first couple of dates had gone well enough because they had gone for coffee and the next time they had met up for dinner at a local restaurant. It was the third date that had been the clincher. They had gone out to dinner and after that he had taken her home and had tried to kiss her. She had gone ballistic and had slapped him so hard that the imprint of her hand had been left on his cheek.
They had stood there staring at each other and it was Leonie who reacted first. She had fled inside the house and locked the door, her heart racing. He had tried calling her but she had refused to take his calls. She had not told her mother what had happened and kept it locked up inside her, until now. She didn't want to go out with anyone again.
“Damn him!” she muttered furiously, stamping her feet in rage. “Damn him.”
*****
“Darling, I have invited Lucas over for dinner tomorrow night. I hope you do not plan on working late.” Asami told him as soon as he entered through the doorway. It was Thursday evening and it had been several days since he had managed to get on Leonie’s wrong side and he had been thinking about her constantly since then.
“I have meetings until late mother; I do wish you would consult me before you make these arrangements.” John shrugged out of his dark blue suit jacket and folded it over his arm. He nodded to the housekeeper and handed her his jacket and came to sit beside his mother who was arranging some dahlias in a vase to put it on the mantelpiece.
“I called your secretary and she told me you were clear for five o’clock,” she turned to look at her son. “When did this meeting come about?”
“Just now when I was driving home.” He told her, flexing his tired muscles.
“Okay love, I will just reschedule.” She decided.
“No mother, go ahead and I will join you as soon as I finish.” He told her.
“That’s a good idea my dear.” Asami beamed in approval. “I am so glad you like him John,” she came over and linked her hand inside his arm. “It makes it so much easier.”
“I am glad I like him too,” he told her gently, kissing the top of her head. “I had a late dinner so I will just go up and read for a little bit before I turn in. Goodnight mother.” He squeezed her arm lightly before going to his suite.
He loosened his tie the minute he got inside his bedroom. His suite was immaculate and although he hated clutter, his furniture was placed strategically around the room to ensure efficiency, the king sized bed dominated the room. The household helpers always made sure that they put his clothes neatly in the huge closet so that he could get dressed in a hurry if he wanted to. He traveled a lot for business so there was always a bag packed ready for him to take with him.
He undressed and put on the robe that was hanging on the bedpost and then went to pour himself a glass of wine before going into his den. He had some details to go over but his mind, for the first time since he had taken over the company, was not on work. He was thinking about her. She was a very beautiful woman and she carried herself well. What the hell happened to make her so unapproachable?
He knew her mother had left her the company and had married and gone off to live in Italy with her new husband. Her former husband had left her some time ago and she had formed the company soon after. Was that why Leonie was the way she was? Was she still hung up about her father leaving? What was it going to take to get through to her?
He downed the liquid in one gulp, grimacing at what his mother would say to him treating a well preserved bottle of wine that way.
He had to find a way to get her to go out with him.
*****
He decided on his next move and he smiled grimly as he thought about what she was going to tell him but he knew exactly what he was doing.
He made the call himself and asked for her assistant. “This is Simoniel, how may I help you?”
“Simoniel this is John Masaki, I need your help.”
“Mr. Masaki!” Simoniel’s tone was startled. “How may I help you sir?”
“I need to sign up with your matchmaking service. I have seen what you have done for my mother and I need you to find someone for me, not necessarily something that will lead up to marriage but friendship and compatibility is a start.”
The silence on the other end was profound and John realized he had shocked the woman into silence.
“We don’t-“ she began. “We tend to deal with fifties and over and I am sure you have no problem finding someone to go out with Mr. Masaki,” she said slowly.
“Normally I do not but I don’t have the time to weed out the ones I don’t want to be with. I am willing to pay extra.” He added.
“I will have to discuss this with Leonie and then get back to you sir.” She answered, still in shock.
“Of course. I will give you my personal number so you can get in touch with me.” He told her smoothly.
*****
“Absolutely not!” Leonie said immediately. What did he think he was doing? She thought furiously.
“Don’t bite my head off. I told him I had to speak to you about it first!” Simoniel said offensively. “He is willing to pay extra.” She ventured tentatively. She had never seen her friend so fired up about anything. She was practically salivating.
“I don’t care!” Leonie tried to calm down knowing that her friend was looking at her strangely thinking she was overreacting and she probably was. What kind of game was he playing?
“What do I tell him?”
“Tell him to-“ she stopped just in time and then turning around she closed her eyes and took a very deep breath. “I’ll call him.” She said quietly reaching for the number. “Close the door on your way out.”
Simoniel hesitated briefly, eyeing her friend and then she left.
Leonie stared at the number until she was cross eyed trying to work up the calmness required to make the call.
She called eventually and he answered on the first ring as if he had been expecting the call. “Simoniel I did not expect you to call back so quickly,” he said in a smooth voice.
“You know very well it’s not Simoniel,” she said furiously. “What are playing at?”
“Ah Ms. Williams, she did say she had to clear it with you first.” His voice was amused and she wanted to hit him with something. “Don’t tell me you have found someone for me so quickly? You are that good?”
“We don’t do that for people in your age group and you know that,” she told him tightly, feeling the headache coming on again. It had started when she met him.
“Oh but you do.” He said softly. “To three people last year. Their exact ages were Twenty-six, Twenty-four and Twenty-five. I am actually twenty-seven so I guess I qualify. Don’t you think.”
“You're checking into my company?” her voice had risen an octave and she forced herself to calm down.
“I have. I wanted to see if there was some hope for me and there it was.” He told her.
“The answer is no,” she told him bluntly.
“How is it going to look when you turn away my business and accepted those others?” he asked her, his voice turning cool. “Is there something wrong with my money Ms. Williams?”
“Why are you doing this?” she asked him in frustration knowing she was backed into a corner.
�
��Why? Because I need to find love as well. What do you think?” he asked her musingly.
“I need to get a profile of you and I will see what I can do.” She said between her teeth.
“I will bring one over first thing tomorrow.” He told her softly. “Looking forward to working with you Ms. Williams.”
She hung up the phone without responding; not caring if it appeared that she had been rude.
*****
John replaced his cell phone on his desk with a smile. He had no intention of finding favor with anyone she chose but she was not going to know that, not until he allowed her to. He wished he had been there to see her magnificent eyes flashing in anger. But he had a feeling if he had been there she would have decked him or thrown something from her desk at him. He found her fascinating, he was growing attracted to her by the minute and he had no intention of giving up on her. There was something there and he intends to find out what it was.
*****
Leonie cursed the day she had taken over the company. She cursed the day she had agreed to go outside of what they advertised and had found suitable mates for those three women and three men but Simoniel had said that it was just a onetime thing and they might as well do it. He was up to something and she was not sure what it was.
Chapter 4
She did not find anyone suitable enough to match him with and she had a feeling that he already knew that. She ran a fifty and over matchmaking service and that time had been something she had done as a favor for some people who had asked her to; she had no intention of doing so again. She was going to tell him but she had to dredge up the courage to do so.
It had been a couple of days since he had called her and she had been looking. Simoniel had asked her about it and she had told her she was handling it.
She decided to do it after work hours so she waited until the staff had left for the day including Simoniel who had dinner plans with her husband.
Leonie sat there in her office staring at the number in front of her. She had no special plans and when she didn’t; she usually stayed late in the office and familiarized herself with any new clients and got ready for the next day. It was already Thursday and she was surprised at how quickly the time had flown.
She picked up the phone and dialed the number before she could change her mind.
“Ms. Williams found someone for me already? I am impressed.” He answered her on the first ring.
“I have not found anyone Mr. Masaki and as I told you before we do not carry clients in your age group.” She told him coolly almost feeling satisfied that she was letting him down.
“Ah such a pity,” he did not sound in the least bit regretful. “I am nearby you so I will just swing by and you can tell me your plan B.”
He hung up before she could tell him anything and Leonie sat there fuming. Why on earth was he doing all this? With his looks and money, he certainly did not need help finding someone suitable, did he?
It was not quite ten minutes when she heard the doorbell rang and heard when Marcus the security for the building greeted him and told him where she was. She deliberately did not get up and after a discreet knock on the door he came into the office. He had taken off his jacket and his tie and had unbuttoned the two top buttons of his pale peach shirt. He came forward immediately and without being invited, he sat on the chair facing her.
“Please take a seat,” she said dryly causing a smile to crease his lips.
“Thank you,” he said his eyes glinting in amusement. “Now what can you tell me?”
“If you had not hung up the phone before I finished speaking to you, I would have been able to tell you that I do not have a plan B and I really cannot help you.”
“I am not going to accept that I am afraid,” his voice was deceptively solicitous and Leonie felt her frustration starting to rise.
“What do you want from me Mr. Masaki?” she asked him, her voice rising slightly.
“Isn’t it obvious?” his voice had softened and he leaned closer to her desk. “I want you.”
Leonie had always been able to keep people from seeing what she was thinking and what she was feeling but this was different; it was as if he had told her that there was a bomb inside her office, more specifically underneath her chair. She stared at him, her dark brown eyes wide and uncertain. No one had ever spoken to her like that before, no one had ever dared. Until now.
“I would like you to leave,” she said finally in a strangled voice that she strove to control.
“Why?” he asked her baldly, not budging an inch.
“Why?” Leonie forced her hands to stop trembling. “Because this is my office and I would like you to leave right now.”
“Why are you so afraid?” he had stood up and to her utter consternation he was walking around the side of the desk. He spun the chair around and crouched down in front of her, holding it steady with both hands. Leonie had worn a blush red skirt suit that reached just above her knees and her legs were bare because it had been too hot to wear stockings this morning.
“What are you doing?” her voice had dropped and she wished she could get up without touching him.
“I want to know what makes you tick,” he surprised her by getting up in one fluid movement and pulling her up with him.
Her heart skittered inside her breasts. He was too near to her; she thought panicking. She took a deep breath to keep from hyperventilating.
“You are very beautiful and you pretend to be cold but you are not, are you?” his hand had drifted up to feather along her cheek and then grazed her lips.
“Mr. Masaki-“ she began.
“It’s John,” he told her thickly before bending his head and reaching for her lips.
She should have resisted and she did not know why she did not, even days after she was reliving the moment, she did not know why she had not told him no but she could not, she did not want to.
His mouth took hers tentatively at first and when hers opened beneath his he pulled her closer into his arms, deepening the kiss. Her hands curled into fists on his chest and she felt the beating of his heart increased beneath her skin. His tongue met hers in an explosion of feelings and Leonie felt the trembling starting from deep inside her. She sagged against him and he caught and held her, his mouth demanding and seeking, drawing from her what she had never given another man before. He was the one who broke off the kiss and to her utter humiliation he had to hold up her trembling body to stop her from falling into a liquid heap to the floor.
She backed away from him and willed herself to stop the shaking and the melting desire going through her. “I would like you to leave now.” She forced herself to look at him and wished she hadn’t. His shirt was creased where she had held on to him and his eyes were slumberous and quizzical as if he was seeing right through her.
“Are you sure?” he asked her softly.
“Yes dammit!” she practically shouted.
He stood there staring at her, seeing the passion she was trying so hard to hide and the slight trembling of her body indicated how much she was affected by their being together and he realized he had been right. There was fire beneath that supposedly cold layer and he was going to enjoying stripping it away, one layer at a time.
“You are not fooling me Leonie,” he told her softly. “I want you and you want me too but you are afraid of exploring that aspect of it. I am not going to force you but I am not going to leave you alone either. I don’t want to be fixed up with anyone except you, please bear that in mind.” He strode off leaving her staring after him as he closed the door behind him.
*****
John did not leave right away. He sat back on the soft leather of his car and leaned back against the headrest and closed his eyes. She had not been the only one affected by what had happened. He had not expected the rush of passion that had invaded his body. He had found himself hardening to alarming proportion the minute she had opened her mouth underneath his.
He had felt her body and he knew that
what he felt for her was more than physical attraction. It had started out that way before and now it had become so much more than that.
*****
Leonie did not go straight home. She did not want to be alone in her apartment in this frame of mind. She was confused and had no idea what was going on with her body; it had betrayed her. She did not know what to think or how to interpret what she had experienced in the office. She had not fought him off like she had done before, so long ago, as a matter of fact she had wanted what he had been offering and she was confused by it.
She parked the car and handed the key to the smiling and pleasant valet and went inside the private bar of the hotel. She and the woman who ran the bar were friends of a sort ever since she had set her up with a local restaurateur two years ago. They had gotten married last year and were always telling her they owed her their love.
She waved to the well preserved blonde behind the bar and the woman waved her over. Leonie went by the bar reluctantly because she had wanted to be alone. “Hi Marcie,” she greeted her as the woman immediately started mixing her special fruit cocktail.
“Hi yourself. What are you doing around here?” Marcie slid a cold drink to a regular and returned to her.
“I am just leaving the office and I did not want to go straight home.” She told the friendly attractive woman with a smile sipping the cold drink appreciatively.
“I told you to get yourself a man to go home to just like you have done for me and so many other grateful others.” The woman said shaking her head.
“I am not ready for that yet,” Leonie told her as she had done countless times.
“Nonsense girl!” Marcie served two more orders of gin and tonic and then sat on the stool facing her. “I was married for ten years before that cheating bastard ran out on me and took all I had saved up to run this place and what did I do?” she did not wait for Leonie to answer. “I got right up and dust my ass off and went out and joined up with your services and look where I am now! My Barry is the sweetest man ever and he is such a romantic. What would have happened if I had stayed on the ground?”