Completely Captivated

by A. D. Justice

  His lips curled into a slow, sensual smile. He intentionally misinterpreted her offer and his playful eyes danced with mischief. “I wasn’t aware that was a menu choice.”

  When she realized her choice of words, he watched with amusement as the red crept up her neck and face.

  “Your coffee,” she clarified with a laugh, thankful that his date was on the phone and completely oblivious to their conversation.

  “I’m good,” he responded, lifting one eyebrow and deliberately leaving his response open to interpretation. Christa’s face suddenly looked like she had a sunburn, and he was completely enamored with her. “Keep blushing like that, and I might start to think you like me.”

  She laughed nervously and straightened imaginary wrinkles from her clothes. “We can’t have you thinking that, can we?”

  The next day, Aaron showed up with a different girl—same build, same attitude, but his attention was transfixed on Christa. They continued their playful banter, with Aaron making comments to ensure Christa knew he was more than interested in her. Her natural shyness around men was evident, but that was part of his intense attraction to her and the foremost reason why he tamed his approach. She wasn’t seeking attention, fame, or fortune. She was genuinely a beautiful person, inside and out, and he wanted to get to know her and see where their mutual attraction took them.

  “Hi, Christa. Did you save any of your delicious, mouthwatering croissants for me?” Aaron asked in his smooth as silk, sexy bedroom voice as he strolled up to the counter.

  Christa smiled through her awkwardness. “I might have one or two left.”

  “Feel free to save me one every day. I’ll have to add some extra time to my work-out schedule to make up for it, but it’s so worth it,” he joked, patting his already muscular stomach.

  Over the following week, Aaron came in alone and ordered his usual. Their witty dialogue increased daily along with their comfort level. When he couldn’t wait any longer, he decided to make his move when Christa delivered his order to his table. He put on his best smile and held out his hand. “I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Aaron Rivers.”

  “Christa Lanes,” she replied as she accepted his hand.

  “I’d really like to have breakfast with you, Christa.”

  Confusion shrouded her face. “Umm, right now?”

  He nodded, his genuine smile covering his face, and gestured to the empty chair. “Right now would be perfect.”

  Christa looked around her café and decided Allie had everything under control. “One minute.” She scurried behind the counter and grabbed her cup of coffee and a caramel croissant, a brand-new menu item she had just perfected the night before. She hurried back to his table and slid into the chair across from him.

  His eyes bugged out at the sight of Christa’s pastry. She giggled as he looked back and forth at their plates, trying to figure out the difference between the flaky pastries.

  “What is that?” he asked spiritedly, while never taking his eyes off the deliciousness on her plate.

  “It’s something new I’m trying out to see how customers like it. It’s a caramel croissant. My own concoction.” She finished speaking as she raised her fork to cut off a bite. Before the tines touched her pastry, Aaron snatched her plate away and replaced it with his own.

  “Let me be your guinea pig.” He vigorously dove into the baked bliss, licking his lips while never taking his eyes off it. Christa watched his facial expressions for his reaction, her teeth leaving their imprint on her bottom lip in anticipation. She didn’t have to wait long to know exactly what he thought about it.

  “Fuck. This is incredible, Christa. This is the best thing I’ve ever eaten. It almost tastes better than sex feels.” Then, as if it suddenly hit him, his expression turned serious as he continued. “I can’t believe you gave me the plain one and took the caramel one for yourself.”

  She laughed heartily as she explained her duplicity. “Honestly, I had a feeling you’d take this one away from me as soon as I brought it out. It actually took you a little longer than I thought it would. I almost got a bite of it. You were a little slow on the uptake. Maybe I gave you too much credit, after all.”

  They settled into a playful banter, enjoying the company throughout the rest of their breakfast. With the pair feeling at ease with each other, their conversation moved easily from one topic to another, questions and answers freely shared as they became better acquainted. When the coffee and croissants were finished, Aaron reluctantly rose from the table.

  “I have to get to work now. Can we do this again tomorrow morning?”

  Christa was in awe of his confidence. He was so sure of himself, and he had no fear of rejection. Then again, she thought, why would he? He was beautiful, and she was…well, she didn’t feel like she was in his league. But he made it a point to come into her establishment, ask to have breakfast with her, and he wanted to do it again. Those had to be positive signs.

  Christa rose from the table and smiled as she nodded. “I’d like that.”

  She watched him leave while she picked up their plates and began preparing for the lunch crowd. Allie slid up beside her, smiling broadly while she watched Christa watching Aaron.

  “You like him.”

  “He’s funny. But I’m definitely not his type.” Christa sighed to herself, refusing to get caught up in the “I wish” world she could easily lose herself in. She’d wished her childhood away. That sentiment had gotten her nowhere. Her new focus was “I will,” and she only focused on the goals she knew she could attain.

  Aaron Rivers wasn’t one of those attainable goals.

  “He may be funny, but he’s not the only one. You’re funny if you think I can’t see through you, Christa Lanes. You definitely like him, and he seems to be into you too. Now, if you’d just let him get into you…if you know what I mean.”

  Christa lowered her head and covered her forehead with her hand. She shook her head and chuckled at her best friend. “Did you defrost the meat for lunch like I asked you to?”

  “You know, C, you should’ve asked that hunk about lunch meat before he left.”

  “This is why I can’t have anything nice.”

  Take A Chance

  May

  “I really hate my job.” Aaron checked his calendar for the day and instantly wanted to throw his laptop out the high-rise window. A meeting with his brother and a potential client covered most of his day. Since the client was a major player in the fashion industry, Lance would be even more overbearing and demanding than usual.

  Every attempt to concentrate on the headshots in front of him resulted in more frustration. None of them met his expectations. The problem, he realized, was he couldn’t focus on anything remotely work related. His mind was on a certain beautiful young lady who’d captured his eye and wouldn’t get out of his mind.

  Over the past four weeks, he’d spent every weekday morning and evening in The Sweet Spot, working his way into her life before he officially asked her for a date. She’d greeted him with a welcoming smile every time he walked through the door. Their flirty banter increased with every visit, giving him hope she wouldn’t turn him down flat.

  That morning, he’d arrived earlier than usual and stayed longer than he should have.

  “Here, take this with you.” She’d approached him with a large coffee in a to-go cup. “You look like you could use an extra dose of energy this morning.”

  “Thank you, gorgeous. More energy would be great, but I’d love it even more if you’d find a way to get me out of work today. Care to play hooky with me?”

  “So tempting.”

  “Say the word, and I’m all yours.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Just like that.”

  She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, trying to hide the smile threatening to claim her face. “While I’d love to play hooky with you, I have a lot of work to do today myself. Rain check?”

  “Rain check. Sunny day check. Cloudy d
ay check. Twenty-four-hour check. Whatever you want.” He opened the door and took a step outside the shop before turning back to her. “I’ll be back for more energy later this evening,”

  “You know where to find me.”

  His only thought as he left, already running late for work, was she was worth the time, the shit his brother would give him, and anything else he had to endure. Those few minutes with her had become the highlight of his days.

  She was a breath of fresh, genuine air in his world of fake, plastic cover models. When he first became an agent, he was all about wining and dining the “hopeful ones,” as he’d dubbed them. The women who were encouraged by family and friends to take that leap into the big world of professional modeling, but when compared with a real model, they had no chance of ever gracing the cover of anything.

  But giving them just a glimmer of hope made them more pliable, like putty in his hands, and he could do whatever he wanted with them. They were all too willing to use sex to get ahead, and he was all too willing to oblige them. With the sex, that is—not with getting ahead in the modeling world. He had his own reputation to uphold. He brought the best talent to the table, and that skill earned his company more contracts and more money.

  His ladykiller reputation preceded him, and he’d made no attempts to hide it. By this way of thinking, the “hopeful ones” knew what they were getting into and knew the gamble they were taking. As with any risk, there were winners, and there were losers. He had been one of the definite winners in that industry, hustling to make his business name one that was instantly recognized.

  But Christa was completely different from any of the women he’d ever been around. Spending time with her had been the most fun he’d had with a woman in many years, and he hated to end it. He thoroughly enjoyed their conversations and how well they got along. Just the thought of being stuck in his office all day turned his stomach.

  Being a multimillionaire had once been his ultimate life goal. He’d attained that and so much more. But, he started questioning whether one could have a midlife crisis at the ripe old age of twenty-seven.

  Working with his older brother, four years his senior, was wise financially, but had turned out to be a terrible decision on a personal level. Aaron’s every move was closely scrutinized. Lance criticized him every chance he got, especially about all the models he’d slept with, and how Aaron was going to screw up one day and get one of them pregnant. Aaron felt trapped in a world he was no longer interested in—dating and representing models, working with his brother, and doing the nine-to-five grind. He’d gained nothing from it but a terrible reputation, a long line of “hopeful ones” he had no interest in, and the uneasy feeling that the light at the end of the tunnel was actually a speeding locomotive bearing down on him.

  The buzzing of his phone signaled yet another meeting he had to attend, another client in which he had no interest in helping. A meeting with yet another account that needed a specific look, a specific body type, and a specific edge to make the marketing ads stand out from the rest of the industry. They’d expect his undivided attention, just like every other client did. He’d personally sort through hundreds of headshots to find that exquisite needle in a haystack. It didn’t matter who this meeting was with, how much they paid, or what they were looking for—every damn meeting was the same.

  “Aaron, Lance wanted me to remind you that you have an eleven o’clock meeting in his office,” Barbara, Lance’s secretary, said over Aaron’s office intercom.

  It wasn’t Barbara’s fault that Lance was such an asshole. Aaron tempered his reply so he didn’t come across curt with her.

  “Thanks for the reminder, Barbara. On my way now.” Aaron stood from behind his desk and grabbed his jacket from the back of his leather chair.

  He arrived in Lance’s office at 11:01 and was considered late by his brother. He could see the disdain on Lance’s face the second he stepped into the room.

  “I apologize for my tardiness. I had an urgent matter that couldn’t wait, but I am all yours now.” Aaron smoothly eased any tension in the room. The ad executives around the table nodded in understanding, and Aaron started his sales pitch.

  After three hours of giving the same spiel he’d given countless times, and the same sleazy smiles to entice and cajole, the client was clearly impressed and wanted to sign Rivers Forte to handle their talent acquisition needs. Lance was ecstatic because it obviously meant a lot more money to line their pockets. Aaron kept his business face in place, but he felt himself die a little more inside with every deal. He also knew as soon as that meeting was over, he’d be locked in another fight with his damn overbearing brother over something asinine and unimportant.

  Taking the only chance he could hope to have, he offered to escort their clients out of the building, and they graciously accepted. Aaron’s actions were transparent, and he knew Lance saw right through him, but he didn’t give a shit what Lance thought. After he parted with their new client, Aaron made his quick exit to his car and didn’t even pretend not to know exactly where he was going.

  To The Sweet Spot.

  To Christa.

  Changed into his well-worn jeans and a formfitting Polo shirt, Aaron parked outside Christa’s café and watched her through the large picture window for several minutes. The café was unusually busy for this time of the late afternoon, but she moved with ease from table to table, checking on her patrons with her easygoing smile and mannerisms. Aaron realized a permanent smile had been plastered on his face the entire time he’d been watching her.

  He grabbed the bundle on the seat next to him and slid out of his sleek, dark silver Jaguar F-Type R coupe with his natural ease and prowess. He was a confident man, and his gait demonstrated his self-confidence as he swaggered toward the door. The same self-confidence had bled over into his business life and helped make him and his brother übersuccessful in their endeavors.

  But right then, at that very moment, he wasn’t as cocky as he normally portrayed. Inside, if he admitted it, he was afraid the petite, beautiful woman who’d invaded his mind would reject him for no other reason than he wasn’t good enough for her. He knew he wasn’t. He knew so much of his past was not one to be proud of by any means—the models, the rumors, that one incident that forever changed him. None of that stopped his fascination with her, though.

  Aaron froze midstep when Christa glanced up and saw him through the front window of her café. Shock and surprise registered on her face first, then her cheeks rose, and Aaron was rewarded with her gorgeous smile. It was warm, inviting, and showed she was genuinely glad to see him. For just a second, she stood still, watching him as his smile matched hers.

  He regained his stride and moved to open the door as Christa met him there. “Hi, Aaron. You must’ve played hooky, after all. I’ve never seen you in casual clothes on a workday before.”

  He produced the bundle from behind his back and was instantly thankful for the hours of chick-flick torture he’d endured at the hands of his dates. Her eyes held a look of pure adoration at first then a quick flash of insecurity.

  “Are these…for me?” she asked tentatively, and she reached to take the huge bouquet of beautiful flowers from him.

  Accustomed to reading people from his numerous interactions as an agent and, ultimately, a salesman dealing in the commodity of people, faces, and beauty, he surmised attention wasn’t something she was comfortable with. From her unsure tone, he didn’t need a degree in psychology to deduce she lacked confidence in herself, in her overall worth, and in her striking beauty. The very fact that she questioned the gift, when the flowers were presented directly to her by his own hand, told him others had often taken her for granted or taken advantage of her good nature.

  He stared at her, in awe of the natural radiant beauty that rivaled the sun’s brilliance. A thousand different emotions flooded him, and without warning, he became the unsure one. If she doubted herself, what right did he have to be confident at all?

  When he
looked at the petite, beautiful young woman before him, he saw an innate genuineness in her that others in his life lacked. He saw someone who was truly happy with the person she was. She wasn’t focused on what she wanted the world to think she was. If she agreed to go out with him, it would be because she wanted to be with him, not his persona or what she could gain from him.

  The most prevalent emotion he locked on to during his unexpected inner montage was the dire, carnal need to shelter and protect her. Aaron, immediately intrigued, vowed to be the one to remove that uncertainty from her. In their few encounters, she’d taken root in his mind, and he was surprised to find he liked having her there.

  He consciously avoided using his “close-the-deal smile,” while lowering his voice. He stepped in closer to deliver his personal message with all the sincerity he could muster.

  “Yes, these are for you, Christa. I thought they were beautiful when I first saw them, and they reminded me of you. But I was so wrong. Compared to you, they’re just…plain.”

  The pink tinge started at her neckline and worked its way up to color her cheeks. She looked down sheepishly, burying her nose in the flowers and inhaling deeply.

  “You shouldn’t tease like that, Aaron,” she replied softly. She lifted her gaze to meet his and pulled the flowers into her chest. “They’re gorgeous. I don’t know what to say. Thank you so much. How did you know Stargazer lilies are my favorite flower?”

  Aaron casually chuckled. “I didn’t, but thanks for the tip. I just thought that roses were…too common…to fit you.”

  The heat in her cheeks escalated to scorching, and she fidgeted nervously. She inwardly cursed her lack of experience with men. She wasn’t sure how to accept a compliment gracefully. She gave her standard, go-to response, which was a simple, “Thank you,” but she wanted to say so much more.

  His small gestures had made her feel better about herself than anyone in her life had before, and the desire to tell him burned in her chest. She wanted to share how their limited encounters had been the social highlights of her year. But, of course, she’d never say those things. First, it sounded pathetic even in her own mind. And secondly, she pictured him running from the building at the first sign of some desperate woman who was obviously needy and clingy.