by Marni Mann
I hadn’t either.
I clinked against his glass and took a sip, the sides of my tongue bursting from all the different notes in the wine.
Once his hands were free, he said, “I take it, you don’t accept my apology?”
I almost laughed. “What apology? You mean, the I’m sorry you sent in the text? Do me a favor and remind me never to fight with you because, if that’s what you consider heartfelt, then I’ll live in a constant state of disappointment.”
“Samantha—”
“Can I start you with any appetizers?” the waiter said.
I hadn’t even seen him come back to the table.
Jack looked at me for an answer, but my menu was still resting on the charger. Unopened.
“How about you bring us some calamari and a caprese salad?” Jack said.
“I’ll put those right in,” he replied.
Jack waited until we were alone again before he said, “Listen to me, I didn’t want things between us to end that way, but I knew, if I called you and heard your voice, I would have changed my mind, and I would have been on the next flight to Miami. That wouldn’t have been good for either of us.”
“Why?”
“I was twenty-three years old. I didn’t know how to treat a woman properly or how to be in a relationship, especially one that would have been bicoastal. Back then, I was in no position to go to Shawn and tell him how much I liked you. I had just become an agent. Your brother was one of the first clients I’d signed, and he trusted me with his career. He needed all of my focus. What he didn’t need was to worry that I was spending more time thinking about his sister than him.” He shook his head, looking at the table for just a second. “I never wanted him to question my integrity or my ambition. I had a lot to prove and a lot to learn. And I’ve done both.”
“That doesn’t make it right.”
“No, it doesn’t. I’m ashamed of the way I treated you. You didn’t deserve that, and I wish I could take it back. I understand why you’re upset with me.”
He understood nothing.
“So, the first time you see me after all these years, you decide you want to start spending time with me? It’s a little late, isn’t it?”
“Late?” The heaviness on his face started to lift, and the playfulness I’d seen eight years ago was hinting its way back. “No, I don’t think it’s too late. I asked you to have dinner with me. You came. Now, we have a lot to catch up on, and I want to hear it all.” He took a drink of his wine. “Fill me in.”
“I graduated from the University of Miami, I interned, and I worked for a local design company until I went off on my own. That pretty much sums it up.”
“I know you didn’t use your brother to get through any doors. Hell, you even changed your last name, so that tells me you did it all on your own. And, now, you have clients like James Ryne, one of the highest-paid actresses in the world. You’re twenty-seven years old, Samantha. That’s some impressive shit.”
His compliments made me feel a little emotional. I wasn’t sure why. “It’s been a journey.”
“Sounds like it.”
It was one I’d done without any financial help from my brother. Besides some free babysitting from my parents and sisters—before I could actually afford a sitter—that was about as much assistance as I’d allowed my family to give me.
I wanted to build a good life for Lucy and me.
And I was determined to do it on my own.
“You’ve done so well for yourself.” His smile returned. “It’s really good to see.”
“I can say the same about you.”
The waiter came back with the appetizers and set them between us. “Are you ready to order your main course?”
“I think we need a few minutes. She hasn’t had a chance to look yet,” Jack said.
“No, I’m ready.” I handed my menu to the waiter. “I’ll have the eggplant parmesan with a side of penne.”
“And for you, sir?”
Jack’s smile grew as he looked at me. “Veal parmesan with a side of penne.”
“I’ll put those right in.” He topped off each of our wine glasses before he left.
“How many times have you had their eggplant?” Jack asked me.
“I’ve never eaten anything else here.” Since I hadn’t seen him open his menu either, I guessed his answer. “Same with the veal?”
“Once I find something I love, it’s over.”
That was an interesting choice of words, but I agreed with him.
I used my fork to swipe a ring of calamari, and I popped it into my mouth.
“Will you have dinner with me again when I get back from Nashville?”
I put my hand over my lips while I was still chewing. “Jack, we haven’t even finished this dinner yet.”
“I’m already thinking about the next time I’m going to see you.”
I set my fork down and swallowed. “I don’t know.”
“Why the hesitation?” He moved his legs underneath the table, and his toes briefly touched mine. “Because, if we’re just talking about food, then there’s no reason you can’t eat with me.”
“We both know this isn’t about food.”
The crinkles around his eyes deepened, same with the ones in his forehead. “You’re the one who got away.”
“You let me.”
“I want you back.”
I reached for my wine and took several sips, hoping it would kick in quickly. I had known this conversation was going to happen; I just hadn’t known that it was going to affect me this hard. “That isn’t up to you.”
“That’s why we’re only starting with dinner, and that decision is up to you.”
“Why is this time so different?”
“I told you, Samantha, I’m not the twenty-three-year-old you met in New York. I’ve had eight years to grow up. To learn what I want. To put my priorities together and figure out how to be a man you’d want to be with.” While he paused, I tried to process what he was saying, tried to look past the blue of his eyes that were practically mesmerizing me. “Another reason this time will be different is that I’ll talk to your brother about it while I’m in Nashville. If I’m going to take you out, I want to come clean, and I want to get his approval.”
I felt my back shoot up straight, panic immediately plunging into my chest. “You mean, you’re going to tell him about New York?”
“Fuck no. I’m going to tell him I like you, and I want to spend time with you.” His finger grazed mine, and that was when I realized I was still holding my wine glass. I felt his touch all the way down in my toes. “I don’t want to have to hide my feelings or keep them a secret.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
My head felt like it was going to explode.
My heart wasn’t too far behind it.
“Say something,” he demanded.
His big, beautiful eyes were still staring at me, urging my feelings forward.
Eyes that I’d never forgotten.
Eyes that I couldn’t forget.
“I don’t know, Jack.”
I couldn’t just let him right back in my life.
He’d crushed me. That didn’t mean he deserved a second chance the minute he resurfaced and told me he’d changed.
But I could picture us eating together a second time. I could also imagine the hurt I would feel if I left this restaurant and never saw him again.
“Dinner,” I said. “That’s all I’m agreeing to right now.”
“I’m not asking for more.”
But, if more was in our future, then his entire world was about to change.
Because it wasn’t just me anymore.
I was a mother, and Lucy would always come first.
She was my entire world.
A world I wasn’t ready to tell him about just yet.
13
Jack
With my hand lightly touching Samantha’s lower back, I walked her to the front of the restaurant
and handed the valet the ticket for my car. Since she made no effort to do the same, I assumed she hadn’t used valet and said, “Where’d you park?”
“I didn’t. I got dropped off.” She reached into her small bag and pulled out her phone. “I’m going to just use my app to get a car to take me home.”
I put my hand on her arm to stop her from typing. “I’ll give you a ride.”
I had no idea where she lived, but I’d drive to fucking Orlando if that meant I could spend more time with her.
“No, don’t worry; it’ll take me only two seconds to get a car.”
“Samantha, let me do it.”
I saw the hesitation in her eyes.
It wasn’t any different than how she’d looked when she first sat down at the table or when I’d asked her to go to dinner with me again.
She was being cautious.
I respected that.
The driver pulled my car up to the curb, got out, and stood next to the open door.
I gazed at Samantha, waiting for her decision. “Are you coming with me?” I asked when she still hadn’t said anything but was no longer typing on her screen.
“I guess so.”
I went to the passenger door and opened it for her. Once she got settled, I shut it and went to my side of the car, shifting into first gear before driving off.
“Where do you live?”
“I’m on Biscayne Boulevard, right past the corner of northeast Tenth Street.”
“Ah, that’s easy.”
And it was close by.
What she didn’t know was that she lived by me as well.
I wouldn’t tell her that. I’d given her enough information tonight to process.
When I stopped at the first light, she asked, “What time is your flight tomorrow?”
“I have to check, but I think my assistant scheduled the pilots for eight in the morning.” I glanced at her. “You should come. You can hang out with your brother when I’m not meeting with him. There’s plenty of room on the plane.”
The thought of having her on The Agency’s private jet made my dick start to harden. That delicious body, over thirty thousand feet in the air, with a back bedroom that would be so perfect to fuck her in.
She shook her head. “I have way too much work to do.”
Samantha’s dedication to her job was sexy as hell, and it made me think my schedule wouldn’t bother her at all. There weren’t many girls like that. All the ones I’d met did nothing but bitch about how often I traveled.
“When do you come back?”
The light turned green, and I stepped on the gas. “I’ll be gone for only two nights.” As I shifted into second, I stole a glance at her. “Why? Are you going to miss me?”
“You’re relentless.”
“Nah. I just want you.”
I knew it wasn’t a reflection from the brake lights ahead of us that caused her face to redden. It was from my words, and I fucking loved seeing her react that way to me.
I weaved through a back street that brought me to the side of Brett’s place, and then I took my final turn, knowing she was just a few buildings down.
“That one,” she said, pointing at the white stucco.
Instead of driving up to the front, I parked several car lengths away in a spot that wasn’t under a streetlight and shifted into neutral before I turned off the car. “I’ll let you pick the restaurant next time.”
With one hand on her seat belt and another on the handle of the door, she turned her face toward me. “I would have chosen Pappardelle.”
“We can go back there.”
“It’s okay; we’ll save it for another time.”
I reached forward and cupped her cheek. I could tell the gesture surprised her, but I couldn’t help myself. I needed to touch her. “So, you’re saying the next dinner won’t be our last?”
She smiled even though it was subtle. “I make no promises.”
Her body was telling me a much different story.
Her chest was rising and falling much faster than it needed to. Her legs were swishing back and forth, like she was trying to rub out the tension.
I was sure she didn’t even realize she was doing it.
But I did.
And between those thighs was the only place I wanted to be right now.
“Can I make you a promise, Samantha?”
“Yes.”
“Before you get out of this car, you’re going to come.” I held her tighter, so she knew I was serious.
“Jack…”
I moved my face toward her and stopped when I was inches away. “I want you to kiss me.” She took a breath, and I could almost taste the nervousness when she exhaled. “I meant what I said in the restaurant; I want you back. So, stop thinking, listen to what your body wants, and let me take care of it for you.”
She quickly looked out the windshield and then through the passenger window. “We’re in your car. Are you just going to—”
“Kiss me.”
“What if someone walks by and sees us?”
“The glass is tinted. No one can see anything.”
I felt the war that was raging inside her head, the one where she was fighting with herself over what she wanted and what she felt was right.
My hands were what she wanted.
But taking this slow was what she felt was right.
Before she said anything, she had to know this, “You can trust me.”
While I waited for her lips, I dipped mine into her neck, on the spot right underneath her jaw. I remembered that being a sensitive place on her body. I’d remembered correctly because, the second I pressed down, she let out the softest moan. And she did once again when I moved closer to her throat.
My dick was hard long before my mouth had gotten anywhere near her. Now, it was fucking throbbing, the tip grinding into my zipper, my balls begging for a release.
“Samantha,” I groaned.
With my free hand, I released her seat belt. Then, I gently touched the other side of her neck, keeping my fingers loose, so I could run them down her body. She felt amazing in this dress, her tits pushed together by the tight fabric, her thin waist and the dip of her hips outlined underneath the material.
I needed more of her.
I dropped down to her shoulder and gradually to her side, sliding across her thigh and coming to a stop in the middle of it, halfway from her pussy and knee.
“Jack,” she moaned, my mouth now on her cheek.
“Kiss me.”
She turned her face. Her lips were right in front of mine, parted. Her eyes were so goddamn hungry.
I needed to know she wanted this.
“Kiss me,” I repeated.
She looked at my mouth and seemed to take it in before she closed the distance between us. My tongue glided through, circling the tip of hers, our lips intertwined.
Fuck, she tasted good.
Now, I needed to know how she felt.
The edge of her dress sat just above her knees. I slipped my fingers underneath it, pushing her legs apart as I moved my way up to her pussy. A piece of lace fabric was the only thing that kept me from diving into her warmth. Just as I slid it to the side, she gripped my wrist.
“Do you want me to stop?”
“No.” She breathed. “I want to feel your fingers.”
I didn’t think my cock could get harder than it already was.
I was so fucking wrong.
With her still holding my hand, knowing she could now feel my movements from both sides, I went underneath the fabric.
It wasn’t just heat that met my fingers.
“Samantha,” I hissed, “you’re so wet.”
Her head tilted back, and I kissed her throat as I rubbed up and down, spreading the wetness, letting her get used to my touch again.
I missed this fucking pussy.
The tightness of it.
The softness of her skin.
The way those two perfect lips surrounded the present
I wanted to swipe with my tongue.
Each time I lowered, she would squeeze my wrist. Her need to come was building, the longer I held her off.
“Ahhh,” she moaned when I wedged my fingers between her lips and gave just a little more pressure to that sensitive spot at the very top. “Jack…”
The sound of my name coming from her mouth was my undoing.
I slipped inside her, going up to both knuckles, and I put my thumb on her clit.
“Oh my God,” she groaned, the words vibrating through her throat. “Your hands.”
I plunged into her pussy, using the same speed as I ground into the top. She was still leaning into the headrest, her throat fully exposed, so I kissed up and down her neck, sucking a little harder in some spots, just not enough to leave a mark.
I knew she was close.
Her sounds were filling my car.
Her wetness was coating my skin.
Her nails were digging into me.
When I felt her clench, I took my thumb and shifted it back and forth as fast as I could, my two fingers staying buried to grind out her orgasm.
She bucked her hips forward, her back pushing into the seat, her hand holding my wrist like I was going to stop.
But there was no way I could.
As good as I was making her feel, she was making me feel even better.
“Jack,” she moaned one last time.
Her pussy tightened around me until I felt her shudder, a series of ripples that started inside her cunt and worked through her navel.
It was the hottest fucking thing I’d ever seen.
“Kiss me,” I demanded one final time.
She gave me her lips, and I devoured them until her body stilled, my fingers gently sliding out, my hand lifting from beneath her dress.
She released my wrist but kept her eyes on it.
Even though it was dark in my car, I could still see the glistening on my skin. Knowing she was watching me, I brought my hand up to my mouth, and I licked every spot that had been inside her. “I’ve been waiting a long time to do that.”
And to kiss every inch of her skin.
And to eat her pussy.
And to fuck her.
I hoped I would get the chance soon.