“Thanks.” Edward did that sometimes. He was super nice to me for some odd reason. We both knew that an office relationship was off limits. I was relieved for that because I didn’t have the heart to hurt his feelings by telling him that I was not attracted to him. I reached for the bottle of water.
“You’re welcome.” His fingers folded over mine and stayed there for a few unnecessary seconds. His tanned skinned looked odd against my brown, dark toffee complexion. I took the bottle, pulling my hand from his, and placed it on the coaster. He sat back down and pressed the button in the center of the table. “Mary?”
“Yes, Mr. Smith.”
“Will you bring Mr. Mavericks in please?”
“Yes, Mr. Smith.”
Last night, I had fallen asleep at my laptop before I could do any research on Mavericks, so I opened the report to the first page and glimpsed over a description of the company. Mavericks Marketing. Advertising industry. Mostly commercial. Relatively young company from the firm’s standpoint, but the net profits spoke volumes about their success. Seems they were a very successful company and part of the Beaudelaire conglomerate. The Beaudelaires were a well-known and affluent family here in New Orleans. I wondered if Mr. Mavericks was blood related or just another firm funded by the wealth of a bigger company.
While looking at the financials, I observed that they had been running at a net profit since they’d been in business. No wonder this owner needed their assistance in going public. Probably seeking more investors and expansion.
“Mr. Mavericks,” Edward greeted when the door opened again.
I put my pen and the report down and glanced up to acknowledge our guest.
When I caught sight of Mr. Mavericks, my breath caught in my throat and my words were lost. He was handsome, cleanly shaven, and freshly dressed. The man was so tall that his head nearly touched the top of the doorframe. His skin was fair, yet slightly tanned.
“Good morning.” His voice was deep, soft, smooth. As he narrowed his glance to peer at all of them, his eyes appeared to be the color of coal, black, and deep set. Not hazel, like mine.
“Good morning, Mr. Mavericks.” Priscilla held out her hands to the seat placed for him. “Have a seat.”
“Thank you.” He placed his suitcase on the floor before removing his blazer and placing it on the back of the chair. The shirt he wore was loose, but still clung to his muscles. He pulled at the tie around his neck a little and took his seat, which was located right in front of me. The riveting and masculine scent of him folded over me like a blanket.
I swallowed, wondering when I would get my voice back. I took a sip of my bottled water.
“And please, call me Mark. I’m glad you took the time out today to meet with me on such short notice. I received a reference about your firm from a business partner of mine. I needed some professional help, and he said that you had some of the finest talent in the Southeast at your firm.”
There was a hint of southern drawl in his voice mixed with some other accent I couldn’t detect. The deep sound of it sent shivers up and down my spine.
His eyes landed on me—lingering on me for a moment. I felt like Lois Lane did when she saw how Clark Kent, Superman, rescued a plane from crashing. And Mr. Mavericks didn’t even have any super powers. None that I knew of anyway. I hoped to God that I didn’t faint right on the spot. I lowered my eyes from his and sat down.
“I’m not one that likes to take care of too much business over the phone. I like to do so up front, close, and personal,” he said, with authority.
“Oh, we understand.” Priscilla giggled. “Can we get you something to drink? Mark.”
“Yes, thank you.”
Mr. Mavericks—no—Mark reached down and retrieved some documents from his briefcase and placed them on the table in front of him as Priscilla got him a bottle of water. When we were all seated and settled, I left it to Edward to speak. I didn’t know if I can put a sentence together by the way I was feeling and I wasn’t about to make a fool of myself or my firm.
“Candace and I will be working with your accounting staff on this audit. I understand that you have some financial statements and reports from your outside accounting firm for us to review?”
“Candace.” He looked up into my eyes as he said my name.
“Yes.” Edward nodded. “I’m Edward. She’s Candace.” Edward passed out the reports that Mark handed him.
I pretended to be interested in reading the reports as Edward rambled on and on about our services. The truth was I kept stealing glances at Mark as he jotted down information on his notepad. I couldn’t remember who told me that you could tell a lot about a man by looking at his hands. They were slightly bigger than average. His fingers where relatively thick and the fingernails looked well groomed and clean. His left hand bore no indication of a wedding ring and there was no evidence that one had been there before. I couldn’t imagine that a handsome man like him wasn’t already tied down to a beautiful woman. Wedding ring or not, he looked too good to be single.
“Candace?”
My head snapped away from Mark’s hands to Edward.
“What do you think? You think that you and I can tackle this one together?”
“Uh… sure, we can certainly assemble a team of auditors to get started on this.” Finally, I was able to put on my professional persona and open my mouth to speak.
“Candace and I work so well together.” Edward laughed. “So much so, that they split us up to mentor others and we’re no longer allowed to work on projects together. This is the first time in two years that Silverman would allow us to work together.”
Edward was telling the truth. He and I had been working for SMG almost the same amount of time. He was promoted to office manager before me. Before we were senior auditors, we were always on the same team. Together we produced quality work for our firm. When Silverman split us up, he realized that we were more of an asset to the firm working separately, turning more accounts and quality audits between us.
Smiling slightly, I ignored Edwards comment. “Do you have a time frame for starting, Mr. Mavericks?”
“As soon as your time permits, Candace.” His smile was priceless.
“Of course, the marketing industry is Edward’s forte. I get some clients in this industry now and again, but Edward here…” I motioned to Edward with my pen. “… is your guy. So, he will be your primary point of contact.”
“Right,” Mark said, though by the expression on his face I could tell he was indifferent to that idea. His gaze kept sweeping over me.
For the next hour, we reviewed reports and financial statements. We discussed scheduling and explained our entire process to Mark. Mark and I had stolen so many glances at each other that I had everything about his handsome face memorized in my brain.
After the meeting, we got up and began gathering our stuff from the tables.
“Mark, I know that it’s a little early…” Edward looked at his watch. “… but, I would like to invite you to lunch. There’s a huge selection of restaurants up the street. That is… if you’re not busy.” It was customary to invite clients out to lunch or dinner.
“No, not busy at all.”
“Great. Priscilla. Candace. Would you like to come along?”
“Yes!” Priscilla batted her eyelashes.
“I would love to”–I started and clutched my planner to my chest— “but unfortunately, I have another phone conference in less than thirty minutes.” I glanced at Mark, expecting his disappointment, but I saw none. I was glad for the excuse. It was the truth. But, this madness… this connection I felt toward him had to stop somewhere.
“Carl and Howard, how ‘bout you two?” Edward was inviting the two junior accountants. They held up their hands and shook their heads saying something about an appointment they needed to go to downtown.
“Well, just give me a chance to unload this paperwork on my desk and I’ll meet you for lunch. Priscilla and I,” Edward said.
�
�Great, I’ll be waiting in the lobby.” Mark shook hands with the two junior accountants. “Nice to meet you.” Then he turned and offered it to me. “Candace, I look forward to working with you.” When I slid mine into his, I confirmed everything I needed to know about this man’s hands. His palm was soft and warm. The instant he pulled me in for the handshake, I felt a connection that I wasn’t expecting to feel. Something drew me to him. Maybe it was the fact that I was just curious about him. Curious or not, this man would be my client. He was hiring our firm to get some work done. Nothing more, nothing less.
“Nice to meet you, too.” Before I pulled my hand away, I smiled at him for the first time. “Mark.” It wasn’t an easy task to pull my hand away. Was it because he had a firm hold on it or because I really didn’t want to let go? It also took everything in my power to walk away.
Back in my office I looked at the Mavericks Marketing report again.
“Oh my God!” I looked up to see Priscilla prancing into my office. “Girl, can you say fine as hell?”
“Who are you talking about?” I knew damn well who she was talking about.
“As if you don’t know.” She looked behind her at the door and then whispered, “Did you see the way he looked at me?”
“No, I didn’t,” I said, nonchalantly.
“Those eyes of his are so mesmerizing.” She did a little shimmy dance. “I checked your calendar this morning, missy. You have at least two hours before that phone conference of yours.”
“This one’s not on the calendar,” I replied, tapping the wireless mouse to end my screensaver.
“Well, it’s nice to know that you’re not interested, ‘cuz I sure am,” Priscilla said. “See you later, babe.”
When she was gone, I couldn’t blame her for being attracted to Mark. He was a handsome rake, with looks most certainly known to stop a woman dead in her tracks. The numbers on the report dubbed him financially secure and a billionaire. But, what else did Mr. Mark Mavericks have to offer? And why did I want to find out so badly? He seemed different from what I was used to. Men I dated in the past either didn’t take a relationship with me serious enough or had some other agenda on their mind. If I went to a party or something, there was a chance that fifty percent of the guys already knew that my brother had money. Word got around fast when your circle of friends or enemies remained the same. While I enjoyed sex as much as men, I knew the value of sex when you actually cared about the person you were enjoying it with. Unfortunately, I had met my share of men who just wanted sex. Sometimes, I was quick enough to identify those men before I made a mistake and agreed to go to bed with them. Others I wasn’t so lucky with.
Then, I had the situation with my brother. My brother meant well, but I can recall a few times where he had been wrong about the men. I have had to remind him too many times that I’m a grown woman and not a child anymore. It was one reason why I was contemplating getting my own place. With at least a year’s worth of salary in my checking account and a hefty stash in another savings account, I knew that I could move out at the drop of a dime. But, I felt that I had to take care of my brother the same way that he was taking care of me. He was the only family I had, and we had stuck together all these years despite what we had been through.
I thought about Mark again. Caucasian, affluent, probably had both parents and possibly had never committed a crime in his life. No, Mark would never understand my situation. He could never understand my brother.
A bell sounded on my laptop, startling me from my memories. It was the alarm on my calendar reminding me that I had a phone conference in five minutes. I gathered the folder from my top file drawer to ready myself for the conference. The loud grumbling in my stomach reminded me that the only thing I had eaten since I got up this morning was a bagel. It was my alert that I would be having lunch soon afterward.
CHAPTER THREE
I settled for lunch in the building’s cafeteria since I was already running slightly behind schedule, courtesy of daydreaming about Mr. Mavericks. The cafe didn’t have the best food, but when I was hungry and on a deadline, it suited me just fine. Most of the lunch rush had settled down, so there wasn’t a line and there was an abundance of tables left unoccupied.
I paid for my pre-made turkey sub and bottled water and took a seat at a table by the windows overlooking the lake outside. I opened a magazine I’d brought from home and began reading the section on sex and intimacy.
“Is this seat taken?” The deep male voice came from behind and above me. I was so startled that I dropped my sandwich and it fell apart on the plastic wrapping.
I looked up. “Mark?”
He looked a little less formal than he did in the meeting this morning. He had removed his jacket. He still sported a tie, but his shirtsleeves were rolled up at the elbows. His demeanor remained professional, yet edgy.
“I hope I haven’t interrupted anything. May I have a seat?” Mark waited with tray in hand for me to respond.
“Sure.” This was all I could manage.
“Thanks.” Mark placed his tray in front of mine. There was a serving of lasagna on one plate and a small bowl of salad on another. I looked from his tray up at him. He chuckled, showing off all of his pearly whites. “You look… disgusted with my meal choice.”
I erased the look off my face. “I thought you ate lunch a couple hours ago with Edward and Priscilla.” I tried to put my sandwich back together.
“I did.”
“I guess you were hungry again,” I said, stealing another glance at him through lowered eyelashes.
“I guess. That and the fact that I wanted to eat lunch with you.” He picked up his fork and sliced off several pieces of lasagna.
“You don’t even know me. What made you want to eat lunch with me?” I didn’t mean to sound so snooty.
He smiled. “That’s what I’m here to find out. Why I wanted to eat lunch with you so badly.”
I watched as he placed the lasagna into his mouth between two sets of full, kissable lips. I tore my eyes away from his lips. “How did you know where I would be?”
“I came back to grab some paperwork from Edward and I saw you walk in here.”
“I see.” Managing to get my sandwich together again, I took another bite. I looked around slowly to see if anyone else was paying attention to this gorgeous man who was also an SMG client coming to sit down and have lunch with me. Of course, no one was paying attention to Candace Montgomery.
“What’s your real astrological sign,” he asked.
“Excuse me?”
He pointed to a page in the magazine that I had opened beside me.
“I’m a Cancer according to my birthdate. July 17.” I closed the magazine before he realized that I had actually been reading the article on sex and intimacy, which was on the opposite page. “What’s yours?”
“I’m a Scorpio. November 19. Do you think we’re compatible?”
I smiled. “You are so forward.”
“I know. Sometimes it gets me in trouble.” He dropped his fork and took a sip of his drink. “How long have you been working for the firm?”
“Four years. I started out as an intern.”
“That’s quite a long time considering… your age.”
“My age?” What was he trying to say?
“Sorry, I’m being forward again, but you look so young. You and Edward are both very young. When I spoke with Mr. Silverman about working with the firm and I set up this appointment I imagined that you were…”
“… a white older man with a mustache,” I interjected.
He laughed. “Not quite. I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t know what to expect. I was just surprised to see… you.”
“You don’t have to keep apologizing, Mark. If I were you, I would think the same thing. I’m a young black woman in an industry dominated by older white men. I’ve been aware of that for quite a long time.”
“What are you? Twenty-three, twenty-four?” He tilted his head and studied me as if trying to
guess my true age.
“You were close. I’m twenty-six.” I took the last bite of the first half of my sandwich and began wrapping the remaining half back in the plastic wrapping. “To tell you the truth, I wasn’t expecting a young white man either. How old are you?”
“Thirty. So, age we have in common. We just need to figure out if we’re compatible.”
“Why does it matter if we’re compatible?” I looked down and realized that he had only taken one bite of his lasagna. Either it was really bad food, or he had his filling at the lunch he shared with Edward and Priscilla.
“It matters to me.”
I shrugged and put the cap back on my water bottle.
“You’re a beautiful, young black woman,” he said.
“Excuse me?” I heard what he said, but those words had never been spoken to me. Not in that way.
He repeated the compliment.
“Thank you.” I placed my magazine in my handbag followed by the half eaten sandwich and water. He watched my every move. “I hope you got what you were expecting by having lunch with me, but I’ve gotta go now.”
“What can I say…?” He shrugged and looked at his watch. “I’m grateful that I got to sit down with you and chat for less than fifteen minutes.” So, he was a sarcastic one. He watched me throw my handbag over my shoulder. “Are you really a busy woman, Candace? Or do I actually repulse you?”
“Yes, I’m a busy woman.”
“I repulse you, too?”
“No.”
“Then go out with me.”
I took in Mark’s demeanor. The way he seemed so confident and sure of himself. The way his smile played at the corner of his lips. The way he studied me with his eyes. He was so not what I was used to. Not my usual type. But I was so tempted to say yes. “You don’t even know me.” I had said that before. I know… I sounded like a broken record. But it was true. He knew nothing about me.
“Is that a no?”
“I’m not what you think.” I got up.
Untamed Obsession (Den of Sin) Page 2