Year of Living Blonde (Sweet Life in Seattle, Book 1)

by Simonne, Andrea

  Their eyes meet and a flicker of something passes between them.

  “There was no need to sit in on my entire lecture,” Anthony says. “You could have just met me after class.”

  Her face grows warm. He probably knows I’ve been drowning in his sex appeal for an hour.

  Anthony pulls his leather satchel off and hangs it on his office chair. “So, I take it you came here to apologize to me again?”

  Natalie tries to appear contrite. “How did you know? I would have come sooner, but things were busy with the holidays.”

  “So what’s in the package?”

  She walks closer to his desk until she’s standing on the other side. His hands are resting on the cold pack and her eyes linger on them. They’re tan and well-shaped with long fingers. She remembers wondering how it would feel if they touched her.

  “Open it and see.”

  He finds the side zipper and then, after peering into the pack, reaches inside and pulls out the container.

  “It’s a tiramisu,” he says in surprise.

  “You mentioned once that it’s one of your favorite desserts.”

  “You made this?”

  “I did. I hope you like it. I tried to make it as authentic as possible.”

  Anthony nods slowly. “Thanks.”

  Natalie shifts awkwardly from one foot to another. “Well, I’d better get going. I don’t want to take up too much of your time. I know you’re busy.” She thinks of all the young women clamoring for his attention.

  “Wait a second, I thought you came to apologize.”

  “I did.”

  “So where’s my apology?”

  Natalie gives him a funny look. “It’s sitting on your desk right in front of you.”

  “So it doesn’t include the actual words, I’m sorry?”

  “Would you like me to say the actual words?”

  “Yes.” Anthony crosses his arms. “I would. Face-to-face.”

  Natalie tries not to let her annoyance show. She wants to leave. Her feet are killing her and she’ll probably be crippled by the time she makes it back to her car. “Fine,” Natalie says. “I’m sorry.”

  Anthony frowns. “I don’t think so. Try again.”

  “I’m very sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “For being rude to you.”

  “Is that it? You can do better than that.”

  “Are you kidding me? I did do better than that.” She points to her cake. “I baked you the best tiramisu you’ll ever eat in your entire life!”

  “We’ll see if that’s true. I’d still like a real apology, though.” A smile plays around the edges of his mouth. “Come on, Natalie. You can do it.”

  She leans into the desk, trying to ease the pressure on her feet. “I’m very sorry I called you a dick,” she says enunciating slowly. “That was rude of me.”

  Anthony chuckles and uncrosses his arms. “Damn, you’re stubborn.”

  Natalie tries not to smile, but can’t help herself. “I may have heard that once or twice.”

  “I’ll accept your apology on one condition.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You stay and have a piece of tiramisu with me.”

  “So you can make me grovel some more?”

  “Hey, you’re the one having difficulty with a simple apology.” He motions for her to take a seat. “Grab a chair, I’ll be right back. I’m going to get us a couple of forks.”

  “Fine,” she mutters and then hobbles over to sit down. “The truth is you had me at the word chair.”

  He leaves the office and she reaches down to unzip her boots. Pulling them off, she sighs with nearly orgasmic bliss as she wiggles her toes around. She glares down at the pile of high-heeled leather on the floor. Devil boots. It figures something from Lena would cause her so much pain.

  While Anthony is gone, Natalie takes in her surroundings.

  Anthony’s desk is really cluttered. She wouldn’t have pictured him being so messy. There are papers and books stacked everywhere. There are a couple of cartoons pinned to the wall and she gets up to take a closer look. Astronomy humor. After reading them twice, she still doesn’t get either joke. She sees a Yoda doll still in its case on the bookshelf and picks it up. “Cool,” she murmurs. There’s an X-wing fighter, too, though it’s not in the box anymore. He really does like Star Wars. There are all sorts of small objects sitting on a nearby shelf that on closer inspection she realizes are puzzles. There’s a Rubik’s Cube—solved, naturally—and some other wooden puzzles.

  Natalie notices a couple of coffee mugs. One has the inscription “Astronomers Do It Better in The Dark,” which makes her smile. She can think of a few things she wouldn’t mind doing with Anthony in the dark.

  But then she stops herself. I wouldn’t do anything in the dark with him. Even if he begged me, which, let’s face it, would be a miracle. A fantasy comes to her where Anthony’s hands are on her hips. He’s pulling her close, whispering in her ear, begging . . .

  She takes a deep breath and wonders how any woman can be around him without losing her mind.

  There’s another coffee mug and she picks it up, surprised to see the words “World’s Greatest Dad.”

  Is Anthony a dad? She stares at the mug, trying to make sense of it. He’s never mentioned having a child, but then she barely knows him.

  Suddenly, she hears his voice coming down the hall and quickly puts the mug down and takes a seat again. He’s talking to a pretty young woman who follows him into the office. She has a flirtatious smile on her face until she sees Natalie.

  “I’m actually in the middle of something right now,” Anthony explains to the woman. “If you want to send me an email, we could set up a time to go over your final.”

  “Sure.” The young woman glances at Natalie with frustration. “I guess I can do that.”

  After she’s gone, Anthony sets down a couple of paper plates, along with two forks and a knife.

  Natalie motions toward the door. “One of your many fans, I see.”

  “It never ends,” he says cheerfully, though there’s an edge to his voice.

  She watches him pull the cover off the tiramisu and quickly cut a piece for each of them.

  “This better be as good you say it is.” His brown eyes meet hers. “I don’t like to be disappointed.”

  Natalie feels a nervous tingle run through her. “You won’t be.”

  Anthony picks up his plate and takes a bite. She watches the fork slide from his lips, waiting for his reaction.

  He chews slowly and seems to be thinking it over. “Not bad,” he finally says.

  Natalie’s mouth opens. She worked on this recipe for days and knows for a fact it’s a masterpiece. “Oh, I think you can do better than that,” she mimics him. “Try again.”

  Anthony laughs. “All right, I’ll admit it’s delicious.”

  “Do you really think so?” Despite her confidence, she discovers that she cares what he thinks.

  He takes another bite and closes his eyes while he chews.

  It’s hard not to stare at him. No one should be this good looking. It isn’t natural.

  When he opens them again he nods. “You were right. It’s the best tiramisu I’ve ever tasted.”

  “It’s not too sweet?”

  “No, it’s perfect.”

  She smiles. “Thank you. So I don’t have to grovel anymore?”

  Anthony’s eyes flicker from her face to her body, lingering briefly on her breasts. He’s wearing an expression she can’t quite place and when he speaks his voice is slightly husky. “No more groveling required.”

  Natalie picks up her own cake, but puts it down again when she hears her phone chirp. She gets it from her purse figuring it’s Blair or Chloe. Unfortunately, it’s a text from Lena.

  We are all children of the universe. Be at peace. Live! Be filled with joy!

  “Not again,” she groans. “I don’t believe this.” It’s been a few weeks since Lena texte
d and Natalie had hoped she’d finally grown tired of the whole thing.

  Anthony, who is eating his cake with enthusiasm, glances over. “What’s wrong?” he asks mid-chew.

  “My husband’s mistress keeps texting me.”

  He raises his eyebrows.

  “Actually, she’s my husband’s fiancée.”

  “Your husband has a fiancée?”

  The comical expression on Anthony’s handsome face forces a laugh out of her. “Actually, he’s my ex-husband now.”

  “I remember you said that you were going through a divorce.”

  “Yes, it’s finally official. Though he got engaged while we were still married. His lunatic fiancée keeps sending me these awful texts.”

  “What do they say?”

  “See for yourself.” She hands him her phone.

  He puts his cake down and reaches for it. His fingers brush hers briefly as he takes the phone and sits back in his chair.

  Anthony chuckles. “Are they all like this?” He thumbs the screen and continues to read. “These are a trip. Wait a minute, she was threatening to charge you with assault and take out a restraining order against you?”

  “It’s a long story. We sort of got into a fight.”

  “What happened?”

  “I slapped her and she jumped me.”

  “An actual girl fight,” he murmurs. “Wish I could have been there.”

  Natalie rolls her eyes. “It was awful, believe me.”

  Anthony hands her phone back. “Who is she? She sounds like a piece of work.”

  Natalie tells him briefly about Lena, leaving out the part about how gorgeous she is, figuring he doesn’t need to know that.

  “I just signed the divorce papers last week though, so that’s it. In fact, I’m going out on my first date in fourteen years tonight.”

  He eats more cake. “Is this part of your try-some-new-things plan?”

  Natalie’s eyes widen. She’d forgotten that she’d told him that. Ironically, he’s the only one she’s mentioned it to. She decided not to tell Lindsay and Blair since they’d have her jumping out of airplanes and scuba diving before you could say the word “adventure.”

  “Yes,” she admits. “I figured it was time to get out there again. Try to move on.”

  “Is that why you colored your hair blonde?”

  Her hand immediately goes up to touch her hair. “I guess so. It’s a change.” She’ll never admit to anyone she was copying Lena. They’d have to torture it out of her and even then she doubts she’d admit it.

  “I like it. Mostly I like your hair down. I’ve never seen it that way before.”

  “I usually wear it pulled back for work.”

  “It looks pretty like this.”

  Natalie’s hand freezes. There’s an odd quivery sensation in her stomach. Self-conscious, she quickly reaches for her untouched cake. “Thanks,” she murmurs, staring at her plate, trying to catch her breath.

  He finishes up the last of his tiramisu. “Have you ever been to a star party?”

  She takes a bite of cake, still in a daze over his compliment about her hair. “With actual movie stars?”

  Anthony laughs. “It’s a party where astronomers get together with their telescopes to stargaze.”

  “No, I’ve never been to anything like that.”

  “Would you like to come with me to one this weekend? A friend of mine is having a star party at his house in Monroe.”

  Natalie is too stunned to speak. Her pulse skyrockets. Is Anthony asking me out on a date? It’s like she’s entered an alternate universe, where the laws of physics have changed and someone like Anthony is attracted to her.

  He grins. “It could be another new thing for you to try.”

  I should tell him no. It would be a mistake. I can’t go out with him, of all people.

  “Okay,” she hears herself say.

  “I’ll text you with the details.”

  Natalie’s head is spinning. She feels giddy with excitement, though she’s trying not to show it.

  Suddenly, there’s a woman’s voice coming from behind her.

  “Knock, Knock! Anybody here?”

  Anthony’s eyes widen. “Justine?”

  Natalie turns in her chair and sees Anthony’s girlfriend. The one she completely forgot existed. Justine with the gold jewelry and the endless giggling is standing before them in living color. Natalie feels as if she’s been slapped in the face.

  I am ten thousand kinds of stupid.

  Justine sweeps into the room, her rich perfume overpowering the small space, and Natalie can’t help but notice that Justine is gorgeous. And to quote Lindsay, she has quite a rack, though Justine’s rack is on a skinny body. As opposed to mine.

  “What are you doing here?” Anthony asks her.

  Justine giggles. “I came to see you, of course!” She suddenly notices Natalie sitting there. At first there’s confusion, but then her expression clears and her brown eyes narrow. “It’s you again.”

  Natalie gets up hastily. “I was just leaving. I need to get back to work.” Embarrassed, she realizes she’s still in her stocking feet and has to put her devil boots back on.

  “I came by to see if you’d like to get some dinner,” Justine tells Anthony. “I made reservations for us downtown.”

  Anthony’s jaw tightens and he looks annoyed. “I don’t know why you did that.”

  “Because you have to eat, silly!” she giggles.

  Natalie finishes with her boots and stands. Her coat is draped over the back of the chair and she grabs it along with her purse. “I should go now and leave you two. I didn’t mean to take up so much of your time!”

  Justine wears a smug smile, but Anthony looks pissed.

  “Don’t go—”

  “I need to get back to work anyway,” Natalie says quickly as she heads for the door. “I’m glad you liked the tiramisu.”

  “I’ll get in touch about this weekend,” Anthony calls after her, but she ignores him.

  I’m so stupid, is all she can think walking down the hall away from his office. And I’m throwing these boots in the garbage.

  “What do you want, Justine?” Anthony says, annoyed. “I thought I made it clear that we are not dating. I’m not interested.”

  Justine moves closer. “I know, but I was in the area and thought I’d drop by and see if we could get a bite to eat.”

  “Right, and you happened to make dinner reservations?”

  She sits down on the corner of his desk near him. Her coat parts and he can see she’s wearing a miniskirt beneath it. There’s a lot of tan skin showing between the top of her boots and the bottom of her skirt. “Don’t be like that.” She catches him gazing at her legs and leans closer, pouting. “I think we’d be good together. You should give it a chance.”

  Anthony looks into her perfectly made-up face. He used to date women like Justine. They know all the right moves, all the right things to say to get a man’s attention.

  But he’s done with that and has been for a while now.

  “It’s just dinner, Anthony.” She tilts her head and smiles with very white teeth. “I really like you.” She giggles.

  “I understand, and I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but like I said, I’m not interested.” He already regrets meeting her for coffee at La Dolce Vita. Clearly that was a mistake, because now he can’t shake her loose.

  “I don’t believe that.” She gives him a sexy smile.

  “Believe it. In fact, I’d like you to leave now. I’m busy.”

  “Come on, Anthony.” She’s still smiling, but then something occurs to her and Justine’s lips turn down with displeasure. “Is there . . . someone else?”

  Anthony is about to tell her no, but then gets a sudden inspiration. “Yeah, there is actually.”

  “Who?”

  “You just met her.”

  “Her?” Justine takes this in and gets a bitchy expression on her face. “That baker? You can’t be serious.”
/>
  “Why not?”

  “Because she’s . . . fat.”

  Anthony raises his eyebrows and then chuckles. “I wouldn’t describe her that way.”

  Natalie flashes through his mind. It was a shock seeing her after class. He had no idea that’s what she looked like without those baggy black clothes. She’s a knockout. It was alarming to discover he’d been so wrong. He’s seldom wrong about anything, especially women. She isn’t a plain matron type at all, but more like an old fashioned pin-up girl. She seems unaware of it, too. The way those guys were checking her out after class, and how she’d smiled so innocently, she didn’t know what they were thinking, but Anthony knew. And he didn’t like it.

  “She’s chunky,” Justine says, pouting.

  Anthony suddenly has a vision of Natalie sprawled across his sheets. Nothing but lush curves, full breasts, and a plump ass. And that sexy mouth. She’d be a handful in every way.

  Damn.

  But then he comes to his senses.

  I can’t get involved with Natalie.

  There are too many reasons to name. She’s extremely stubborn and he suspects she still thinks he’s a dick despite all her endless apologies. Plus she’s newly divorced. And finally, she’s his unhappy tenant.

  I don’t want to go there.

  He realizes he asked her to that star party without thinking it through.

  “Are we still going out to eat?” Justine asks, as if dinner had been his idea. “Because we’re going to be late for our reservation.”

  “No, we’re not. And I’ve still got papers to grade, so it would be good if you left now.” He stares pointedly toward the door. He doesn’t want to be an asshole, but with some women that’s what it takes.

  She stands up. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

  “I’ll take that chance.”

  “HOW WAS YOUR date last night?” Anthony glances around the bakery’s busy back kitchen. The smell of fresh pastries is making him hungry.

  Natalie turns to him in surprise. She’s standing in front of a mixing bowl that’s as big as a bathtub while a huge paddle mixes chocolate batter.

  There’s flour dusted in her hair and chocolate smeared on her cheek. She’s sweaty and disheveled, but Anthony’s first thought is that he wouldn’t mind seeing her sweaty and disheveled more often. Sweaty and disheveled in his bed would be a good start.