His head tilted. He looked deep in thought, as if calculating in his head. "You were working last Saturday but had last night off. Do you usually work Saturdays?"
"Yes, I switched a shift with someone because my friend wanted me to go to the party with her last night. I have Sundays and Monday nights off." She threw her arms up. "None of this even matters," she said, in exasperation. "Not how many hours I work. Not my days off. Because in all likelihood, we'll never see each other again." She walk to the front door and opened it.
Then in a serious tone she said, "I do want to thank you for last night. If it weren't for you, that could have ...." She swallowed past the lump that formed at the thought of what could have happened to her. She didn't want to think about the consequences of what would have happened, if not for Jack. The images were too horrifying. She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "Let's just say, what could have happened would be something I would have had a hard time living with. Thank you for stopping it."
Jack walked to her by the open door, leaned in, and kissed her lightly on the forehead. "No need to thank me. I'm just glad I was there." He looked deeply into her eyes. "You are wrong about one thing, though."
Alexis was still recovering from the forehead kiss. She mentally pulled herself together before replying cheekily, "Oh yeah, what's that?"
"I will see you again."
She watched him walk down the breezeway and down the stairs until he was out of sight. He looked almost as good going as he did coming. She mentally kicked herself. The last thing she needed was the image of Jack's ass floating through her head.
Alexis laid back down on the couch and tried to read, but after rereading the same paragraph for the fourth time and still not comprehending it, she gave up and let her mind do what it wanted, think about Jack. She replayed his visit repeatedly until disgusted with herself, she got up and made something to eat. After doing the dishes, she decided to get to bed early. She still felt a little weird and tired and knew she had to get up early for work the next day.
She took her phone with her into the bedroom to try Steph once more. She wouldn't be able to sleep until she talked to her. Steph picked up after the third ring.
"Why didn't you call me back?" Alexis asked, clearly annoyed.
"I know. I know. I'm sorry, but I just got home. I haven't even had a chance to shower yet," Steph said, speaking fast.
"You can shower in a minute. First you have to tell me why you're just now getting home."
"Well, after the party broke up, I ran into that really cute waiter and went home with him."
"The really young one?"
Steph laughed, "Yep. And let me tell you, that boy's got stamina. I can barely walk today."
"Oh my God, gross, TMI Steph."
Steph laughed then turned serious. "I heard what happened to you last night. Are you okay?"
"What? How did you hear about it?"
"I tried texting you last night to find out where you were. Jackson Cole called me back from your phone and explained what was going on. And let me tell you, I freaked right the fuck out. I mean, Jackson Cole, calling me. The Jackson Cole!" Alexis heard her take a big breath. "So anyway, I knew you were in safe hands."
Steph kept chattering away, but Alexis stopped paying attention. She was still trying to recover from the news. Her Jack was Jackson Cole, the owner of Allure. He wasn't just a guy in management. He was management. Wow. Now, she was doubly glad she turned him away. He wasn't just wealthy. He was insanely wealthy. He was also a hard-core playboy. Never attached to one woman, but he always had a woman on his arm. And, he was so far out of her league it wasn't funny. She was just a nobody from nowhere with no experience with men like him. Hell, who was she kidding, she barely had any experience with men, period. Her small hope of something becoming of her and Jack died.
"Alexis! Are you listening to me?"
"Um ..."
"I said, I want all the juicy details about Mr. Hottie. Please tell me, you let him fuck you."
"Of course, I didn't sleep with him. Are you insane? I was drugged remember? I passed out. I woke up this morning alone. Then I came home, alone. End of story. No juicy anything." Okay, so that was a tiny lie. There were a few juicy bits but seeing as she was never (never, never) going to see Jack again, there was really no reason to share anything. It would just give Steph fuel to flame a fire, that was in reality, only smoke.
"Wow, I think you're the only woman on the planet that he hasn't had sex with, and you had the perfect opportunity."
"And that, right there, is the reason why I would never sleep with him. Come on, you know me. I would never sleep with someone like that."
"Someone like that is exactly who you should sleep with."
"How do you figure that?"
"Just think about all the experience he has. He's got to be like a god in bed. Don't you want your first time to be with a god?"
Alexis couldn't help it, she laughed.
"What's so funny?"
"Would you listen to yourself. Jackson Cole is not a god. He's a man. And no, I don't want my first time to be with someone like that. I want it to be with someone I care about and who cares about me. I don't need to know if the relationship is going to last forever, but I do want to know it's going to last more than just one night."
"You're a hopeless romantic, Alexis."
"A romantic? Maybe. But hopeless? Never. I will always have hope."
CHAPTER FIVE
As soon as Alexis hung up the phone, it rang again. Thinking it was Steph, forgetting to tell her something, she answered without looking at the screen. "What did you forget now?" Alexis asked, with a laugh. Silence greeted her, and she thought she dropped the call. "Steph?"
"I'm relieved to know you were talking to a woman and not a man."
"Who is this?" Alexis asked, though she knew exactly who it was.
"I liked the sound of that. I've never heard it before."
"What?" Alexis's hand tightened on the phone, and her heart rate picked up speed at the sound of his gravelly voice.
"Your laugh."
She sighed into the phone. "Why are you calling me, Jack?"
"I'm calling to see if you've changed your mind about dinner."
"I've already eaten."
"How about tomorrow?"
"I'm working."
"Not tomorrow night."
"How do you know that?"
"You told me, remember. I'll pick you up at seven."
"I don't even get home until six-thirty. I can't be ready by then." Oh God, what did she just say? Did she just agree to a date?
Jack chuckled, noting her slip. "Eight then. Dress casual."
He hung up before she could respond. She went into her call log to call him back, tell him she wouldn't go out with him, but the last call that came through was a blocked number. She threw her phone down on the bed and laid down snuggling into her pillow. Just one date. That's all he would get. Then her life could go back to normal. Work. Eat. Sleep. Boring but safe. Her head and her heart agreed. Boring but safe was best.
Jack stood in front of Alexis's door at exactly eight o'clock the following night. Wow, he was gorgeous, she thought as she admired him from her doorway. He wore dark jeans with a black button-up shirt, untucked with the sleeves rolled up, and black boots. His light-brown hair fell in unruly waves around his face that bore a five o'clock shadow and a rakish grin.
"You look ... exquisite." His green eyes devoured her from head to toe.
Alexis liked the outfit she decided on, dark pink skinny jeans with a short sleeve black sweater and
open-toed black pumps. She'd wrangled her curls into a messy bun, leaving a few to hang around her face and neck. She added some blush and mascara to her standard red lipstick (not that she was trying to impress anyone) and called herself done.
She felt her cheeks grow warm at his intense stare. "Thank you. You look," Alexis waved her arm up and down to indicate his whole body, "beautiful as always."
Jack raised both brows in surprise. "No one's called me beautiful before."
Alexis felt her face growing warmer. God, she felt like an idiot. She tried to explain herself. "Handsome didn't seem a strong enough word."
Jack leaned in close, brushing his lips lightly across her cheek. He took her keys from her hand, shut her door, and locked it before returning them to her. He took her by the elbow. "Come on, let's go eat," he said, leading her to his car.
They reached the parking lot, and Jack angled them to a black Range Rover parked in the corner. Her step faltered then slowed. She expected him to drive some flashy sports car. She was pleasantly surprised that he didn't.
"What?" Jack asked, when he noticed her hesitancy.
Alexis shook her head. "Nothing really, I'm just surprised. I was expecting some over priced, ego inducing sports car. You know the kind that can go about a million m.p.h. which is a total waste, seeing as, on average, you can only go about thirty down the strip."
Jack tipped his head back and laughed. Alexis enjoyed the view. He righted his head and looked at her with eyes still sparking with merriment. "So, I take it, you like my ride?"
Alexis shrugged. "What's not to like? It's a Range Rover." She turned to smile up at him. "Please tell me you at least take it off-roading."
"In my free time, it's one of my favorite things to do." He helped her into the SUV then leaned across her to buckle her seat belt.
Her breathing stopped, and her heart rate picked up as his arm lightly brushed the tips of her breasts. "I could have done that," she whispered.
Jack stood and gave her an evil grin. "Where's the fun in that?" He slammed her door, rounded the hood, then hopped in the driver's side before slamming his door, and starting the ignition.
Alexis watched him snap his seat belt before she asked, "What else do you like to do in your free time?"
He put the car in reverse, moved his arm behind her headrest, and turned his upper body to look out the back window before backing up. She could feel the heat from his arm and, that alone, sent goose bumps up her arms. She was in big trouble if just his arm could do that to her. He braked, giving her his evil grin (again!) before responding. "I assume, you mean besides the obvious."
Alexis felt her cheeks heat. She really needed to suck it up and stop blushing so much.
He put the car in drive and got on the road before answering. "I like sports. I try to play basketball at least once a week with some buddies of mine. I also work out, in the gym at the hotel, a few times a week."
"Is that how you stay in such good shape?" Oh God, she didn't mean to say that out loud.
He gave her a sly look. "I'm glad you noticed."
Of course, she noticed. How could she not? He looked incredible in anything he wore. She'd had her hands on his arms just yesterday. His biceps were hard and solid, and her hands barely spanned the width of them. She decided not to comment.
Jack gave her a knowing smirk before asking, "What do you do in your free time?"
"I read."
When she didn't continue, he asked, "That's it?"
Alexis looked down at her hands. She noticed a hangnail on her thumb and started picking at it. Jack's hand reached over and covered hers to stop her fidgeting. Alexis looked up at him. They were stopped at a red light. His gaze was on her and something worked behind his eyes. As if, he were trying to figure her out. She didn't want to be figured out.
She cleared her throat, put a smile on her face, and said with forced cheerfulness, "I work two jobs. Most of my free time is spent sleeping." Her smile faded when he didn't laugh at her joke and vanished completely, when he didn't even crack a grin.
He continued to look at her until a horn honked behind them. Alexis broke eye contact to look out the front window. "Light's green," she said. The car picked up speed and she kept staring out the window.
Jack took her to Engage, a trendy restaurant, located a few blocks off the strip in a commercial area that had several shopping and entertainment locales. The restaurant had a rocker theme. Album covers of various rock bands from the last three decades, covered the walls. Rock memorabilia littered every surface. Countless guitars of every shape, size, and color overlaid the ceiling. Visually, it was almost too much to take in. She'd heard somewhere that the lead singer of the band, Engage, opened the place about a year ago.
Jack firmly held Alexis's hand as he made his way to the hostess and whispered something in her ear. She smiled, grabbed two menus, and motioned for them to follow.
As they made their way to the table, Jack leaned over near Alexis. "I didn't realize this place would be so busy or so loud. Not exactly what I had in mind for our first date." Alexis didn't think it would be wise to mention that it was going to be their only date. "I've never been here before. Have you?"
She shook her head. "I've heard of it but have never been here. Doesn't some rock star own the place?" The waitress seated them at a back corner, semiprivate booth. She handed them menus before informing them that their waitress would be with them shortly.
"Yeah, Gage Hunter, he's a friend of mine. I've promised him, for a while now, that I would come and check the place out, but I've never had anyone that I've wanted to bring with me," Jack opened his menu and looked over the top of it, at Alexis, "Until now."
The waitress came up to their table. She wore an uniform of black, short shorts and a tight, white T-shirt that had Engage written across the front in big, black, cursive letters. She had straight, blond hair up in a high pony tail, blue eyes, a pert, little nose, and a dazzling smile which she directed exclusively at Jack. "Do you guys know what you want to order?" she asked, holding her order pad at the ready. She was asking them both the question, but her eyes never strayed from Jack.
He was still looking at the menu. "I don't think we're ready to order yet, but I'll have a beer." He lowered his menu and smiled at Alexis. "What would you like to drink?"
"I'll have an iced tea."
After the waitress left, Jack set his menu on the table. "Do you know what you want?"
Alexis closed her menu and put it to the side. "I think I'll have the California burger with onion rings, instead of fries."
Jack smiled.
"What?"
"Most women would've ordered a salad."
Alexis shrugged. "I like guacamole."
The waitress came back with their drinks, took their order (still not looking Alexis in the eye, whatever), and left. Alexis played with the rim of her glass as she said, "I know who you are."
Jack leaned back in the booth. He splayed his arm along the back of it and waited for her to continue.
"My friend told me who you were last night. She said you called her."
"Ah, the excitable Steph."
Alexis giggled. "Yes, I can well imagine how that conversation went." She grew serious again. "I didn't know who you were before that. I didn't know you were, Jackson Cole. After our conversation yesterday, I figured you were in upper management and that was bad enough but now, this is impossible."
Jack sat up straight. "Impossible? Explain."
"Jack, you own the hotel I work for. We can't date."
"I hate to tell you this, but we already are."
She shook her head. "This will be the one
and only time."
Jack leaned forward, placed his elbows on the table, and rested his chin on his entwined hands, studying her. His stare made her nervous. She had the urge to fidget but commanded her body to remain still. She would not back down no matter how captivating he was. He was no good for her, and she knew it. This had disaster written all over it. She had to make him understand. She wasn't the kind of girl he was used to. She wasn't a girl who put-out on the first date nor the second or even the third. He would get tired of waiting. Then, when her heart was involved (and she knew it would be), he would leave. Or, if she did give in to him, let him sleep with her, he would eventually grow tired of her (why wouldn't he? He could have anyone he wanted), and then he would leave. Anyway she looked at it, he was leaving. To protect herself, she needed to stop this now.
* * * * *
Jack stared, fascinated by the play of emotions crossing Alexis's face. She was breathtakingly beautiful, inside and out, and he was completely enchanted by her. His fingers itched to trace the exquisite contour of her face, the delicate shell of her ear, the slim line of her neck. He stared into her eyes fully entrapped by their dark whiskey color and her long thick lashes under finely sculpted brows. Everything about her screamed in his head, mine ... mine ... mine .... And he would do anything to make it so.
"Tell me what I can do to change your mind."
"There's nothing you can do to change my mind."
The waitress arrived with their food, pausing their conversation. She set the plates of burgers in front of them before asking, "Anything else I can get for you?"
Jack's attention was solely focused on Alexis. "We're good. Thank you," she said, then watch the waitress walk away. She picked up her knife and stared to cut her burger into fourths.
"Alexis look at me." She sighed and put down her knife before giving him her eyes. "This is going to happen."
"You can't force me to date you, Jack." Her eyes squinted in annoyance. She was getting angry. Good.
He took a large bite of his burger, chewed, swallowed, then wiped his mouth with his napkin before responding, "I won't be forcing you." He moved his plate aside and leaned forward across the table lowering his voice as he said, "I won't need to force you. By the time I'm done with you, you'll be begging me."
Alluring Page 4