by Quinn, Taryn
“No ring,” I said casually—or so I hoped. I’d had plenty of time to see his hand as it came closer to my mouth. “You’re single?”
“Very. The kind of single that means I’m alone on New Year’s Eve, just as you are.” He lifted his thumb to his lips and licked off a stray crumb from the piece he’d just fed me. The movement was far more sensual than it had any right to be. “You are alone tonight, aren’t you, Hannah?”
Something about the question and his use of my name made my throat tighten to the point that if I hadn’t gulped more champagne, I might’ve choked. This time, I didn’t mind the floaty feeling that overtook my body, or the resulting wave of warmth.
“I’m alone far too much these days. But right now? No. Neither of us is alone.”
He nodded, lowering his head for an instant while his jaw locked. He finally took a few sips of coffee before he met my gaze once again. “I have a room upstairs. Just for tonight.”
Questions flitted through my mind.
Who are you, Asher?
Why did you pick me to talk to?
Was it just that I looked lonely, so I must be an easy target for sexual advances?
In the end, I didn’t really care. We were both alone, and no one was waiting for me at home. What did it matter if I chose this handsome man to spend the evening with? No one would be hurt. And I would finally be able to cross one thing off my bucket list.
Sex with a gorgeous man, check.
Sex, period.
But that didn’t mean I’d make it easy on him.
“Who were the flowers for?” I stroked the downy soft petals of the pink tulip on top of the bouquet in my lap.
“My grandmother.” He smiled wryly. “She thinks I need to get out more, so she’ll approve that I gave them to the most beautiful woman I’ve seen since…” He trailed off, looking uncharacteristically unsure. Even with only knowing him a very short while, I was quite certain Asher rarely faltered. “Ever.”
“I believe you don’t get out much after that statement.” I rested my cheek on my fist. “My hair isn’t really blond, by the way. I put in a rinse today. Truth in advertising and all that.”
“It doesn’t look blond. Not exactly. More like the color of honey.” His voice deepened. “Rich and luxurious.”
“Glorious Tones hair color thanks you.” I toyed with the stem of my now nearly empty champagne glass. “When is the last time you approached a woman with that line about your room upstairs?”
“Never. I’ve never had a room upstairs here before.” His lips twitched. “And to be honest, I don’t have one now. I wasn’t planning on staying until I saw you. Writing so furiously in that.” He nodded to my abandoned journal. “What were you writing?”
“Where were you going after this?” I countered.
“To my grandmother’s. She was going to be who I counted down to midnight with.” He finally reached for his champagne and took a single sip. Easing back in his chair, he licked his lips, slowly and surely. “I’d much rather kiss you once the ball drops.”
“Which balls are we referring to?”
I didn’t know if he’d find me funny or crude. It was usually half and half, depending on my company. But his laughter was quick and appreciative. “You’re different than I expected.”
“Oh, really? What did you expect? A meek little mouse who’d trot after you and hop right into bed?” Okay, this had to be the champagne talking, because this was next level, even for me.
“No. I wasn’t even thinking about bed when I came over here. I just wanted to hear your voice. To see if you ever smiled. You still haven’t, you know. Not at me.”
“Smiles are earned. Keep trying. You might get there.”
“Luckily, I don’t give up easily. Why are you alone tonight? No family?”
“No.” The lie came easily, and sometimes seemed far too true when my sisters were busy with school and out of touch. My family was a fraction of what it had once been. “Let’s just say I live an isolated existence.”
It wasn’t that far from reality. I was alone too often.
I couldn’t stand another moment of it.
“No lover.” The word dripped off his tongue, laced with a sensuality that was far beyond my realm of experience.
“No.” I tilted my head. “So, what’s your story?”
His lips lifted on one side. “I’m a man who works far too much and spends New Year’s Eve with his grandmother. What more do you need to know?”
Indeed.
I nodded at the bottle of champagne. “Think we can get that to go?”
Two
Coming over to Hannah’s table hadn’t been in my plans.
I was supposed to eat dinner, read through the dry paperwork I’d brought to keep me company, and go spend the evening with my grandmother. That was all true.
What I hadn’t mentioned was the other reason I was headed to Gran’s. She was babysitting my daughter, Lily, who was just celebrating her six-month birthday and didn’t have a clue that her father was a workaholic. Thank God.
Her new father. I wasn’t her biological father. Technically, I was her godfather, the one who’d taken on an honorary role in her life thanks to my best friend. I was never supposed to be called into service.
And Billy wasn’t supposed to die two months ago with no other relatives, leaving me the sole support for his little girl.
Hannah also didn’t know that I was a single parent. Why hadn’t I told her? Maybe she wasn’t the only one who wanted to be someone else tonight. I didn’t doubt for a second she was lying about the no family thing. But sometimes even good people needed a respite from their lives.
I cared a lot about Lily. But tonight, I wanted to be someone other than Asher Wainwright, publisher and CEO of the struggling Wainwright Publishing Inc. Another man other than the equally struggling single father of the cutest baby girl ever.
Even if I didn’t quite know what to do with her.
At least where work was concerned, I’d once felt competent. Now I was drowning on both the professional and personal fronts, and I wanted a win.
Needed one.
For tonight, I would be the man Hannah perceived me to be while her big blue eyes ate me up as if she was equally unnerved and fascinated.
She wasn’t the only one.
Something about her utter solitude as she ate her soup and scribbled in her worn book had called to me in a way I didn’t quite understand. I hadn’t dated in a long time. Not all that long ago in the scheme of things, but a lifetime when considering how many nights I’d gone to sleep with only paperwork for company.
I was married to my job. Trying to save the company my grandfather had built from nothing took almost all of my time. What was left I gave to Lily and my grandmother.
Not enough was left, to be honest, and it was probably irresponsible of me to even consider taking this night for myself.
For myself and for Hannah, who seemed just as desperate for a night away from reality as I was.
Gran would understand. She always encouraged me to try those dating apps or hell, even to just go to a bar and see what happened. Her mindset was much more freewheeling than my own. The idea of meeting a stranger at a bar was beyond my scope.
What do you think this is? You think meeting her in the restaurant of a bed and breakfast makes it much different?
Not hardly.
Hannah was still staring at me, not moving, waiting for me to reply to her statement about getting the champagne to go.
Fuck, did I even have any condoms in my wallet? I wasn’t prepared for this.
For her.
“We can get a bottle sent to our room.” I cleared my throat. “They have gorgeous ones here—”
“They may be booked. It’s a holiday, and this isn’t exactly a by-the-hour motel.” She spoke directly, without the hint of a blush tingeing her features.
I liked that about her. She didn’t beat around the bush. So to speak.
Jesus, I was so out of my dept
h here.
Shrewd, clever, driven Asher Wainwright never made a misstep. If he fucked up, he damn well never admitted defeat. But that was just one side of me. My public persona. The guy underneath, who was still flailing at becoming a parent without going through the steps to get there, who had to figure out a whole new life as well as be responsible for one—that Asher was a few drinks away from getting so blitzed he didn’t get up for a day. Or a week.
A month.
So, I couldn’t let myself take that tumble. The only one I was allowed was this brief slice of time with beautiful, straightforward Hannah.
“I’ll speak to Sage.” I was already removing my wallet. I gripped the platinum American Express card as Hannah reached out to still my hand.
“She’ll know. This isn’t a booty call sort of place.”
I had to smile. The term was ridiculous when it came to me and my lifestyle. “We don’t have to do anything but talk.” Even as I said it, I watched the furrow of her brows and the way her lips tightened in lieu of a smile.
I was still working on earning one. I hadn’t gotten there yet.
She released my hand and sat back, crossing her arms over the soft swell of her belly. She was curvy in all the right places, and her deep green dress had a V-neck that drew my eyes right to her breasts. I’d tried repeatedly to keep my gaze above her neck, but she was seriously stacked. Her little cardigan covered her arms and not much else, only serving to draw more attention to her cleavage.
Talk? She nearly rendered me fucking speechless.
“Do you live nearby?” She shifted to unhook her bag from the back of her chair. “Perhaps that is more—”
“No.” My voice came out sharper than I’d intended. “Visiting my grandmother, remember? I live in Syracuse.”
It was sterling truth. My grandmother wouldn’t mind if I brought Hannah over. In fact, she’d probably be pleased as could be if we got naked right there on the living room floor. She worried far too much about my lack of a social life.
But Lily was also there, and I didn’t want to explain. Especially not to someone who was just passing through. It wasn’t as if Hannah and I would be anything to each other after tonight. I had no time for a woman. My days were filled with work, and my nights were full of Lily.
And figuring out how to bathe a baby without blinding her with harsh soaps or scarring her with water that wasn’t the proper mix of warm and cool. And choosing a formula that didn’t upset her delicate stomach. And on and on.
Father failure for five hundred, Alex.
Hannah nodded. “Let’s see about the room here then.” Surprising the hell out of me, she motioned for Sage, who beamed so brightly at us that she was in competition with the candle.
“All set with dessert? Do you need a refill? Or perhaps—”
“We need the check, please.”
Sage nodded and clasped her hands against her chest. “Was your meal satisfactory?”
“It was delicious. Your lemon bars are almost as good as mine, and that’s saying something. But now we need to go.”
I cleared my throat. “About that—”
“We’re all set,” she said to Sage, covering my hand with her own to shut me up.
Sage put down the folder that contained the bill and left discreetly. As discreetly as one could while still waggling her brows and watching us over her shoulder.
I leaned forward. “What happened to asking about the room?”
“I didn’t say I’d ask. I said let’s see about the room here.” I was so busy staring at her that she had time to sign for the check with a flourish and put down her own credit card. “Which I don’t have to ask for, since I already have one and am presently checked in.” She closed the bill book and handed it to Sage, who managed to sweep by our table at the exact right instant.
“So you were dicking around with me?”
“No, I was just making sure you didn’t get a guilty conscience and confess about your wife. That usually slows someone’s roll right down. But no ring,” she said again, looking at my hand. “No tan line either. And you didn’t so much as blink when saying you didn’t live close by. Not that Syracuse is that far.”
I slid my credit card back into my wallet and said nothing. I couldn’t decide if I admired the way she was taking charge or if it pissed me off.
“I’m sorry, did your sweet, unassuming lay just change into something more challenging? Having second thoughts?”
“Hell, no. But you’re not the only one who isn’t sweet all the time.” I didn’t have to fake the growl in my voice.
Clearly, she had more levels than were readily apparent just below the surface. She wasn’t the only one.
“Glad to hear it. Because Tinder dates really aren’t doing it for me.”
The growl was back again, although this time it never left my chest. The sound rumbled there as if I was a disgruntled bear. “You use those apps?”
She gave a dainty shrug. “Hard to meet suitable men nowadays. I never felt comfortable enough to just sit down at someone’s table.” She tilted her head.
For a second, I was sure she was going to smile. And denied.
“If you want something, you need to go out and get it. That’s my life motto.”
Or it was, before my business started to crumble thanks to new technologies and changing times. Also before a beautiful brown-eyed baby with red curls fell into my lap.
Literally.
“Time goes by too fast to deal with regrets.” I was thinking of Billy now, and how quickly—and unexpectedly—he’d lost his life. He’d had so much ahead of him. So many years to spend with his little girl.
Now I was tasked with standing in for him, and somehow making him proud. That mantle weighed heavy on my shoulders, even heavier than keeping the business afloat. At least with the business I had some idea what I was doing, even amidst the changes in the industry.
With Lily? Clue-fucking-less.
“And I’m something you wanted?” Hannah asked quietly.
“Isn’t that obvious?”
“I didn’t even see you looking my way.”
“You were to wrapped up in that book.” I tapped the cover with my thumb. “Diary, is it?”
Smoothly, she tucked it into her bag. “More like an agenda. Some journal aspects too, you could say.”
“So, your life is busy enough you need to keep a running to do list.”
Her pale brown eyebrows lifted. “You, sir, are asking far too many questions for a random hookup.”
“Keep calling me sir and maybe you’ll distract me into forgetting them.”
Her lips parted a fraction, and I swore I could hear her rush of breath despite the conversation all around us.
“Here’s your credit card, Hannah.” Sage set down the bill folder. “Hope you two have a nice night. Don’t be a stranger, Asher.” She wiggled her fingers in a wave and moved on to the next table.
Hannah took back her credit card, slipping it into her wallet. “The nice thing about Sage knowing you is it gives me some comfort you may not be a serial killer.”
“She only knows me to say hello and goodbye when I have dinner. We aren’t buddies. And remember, even she mentioned Ted Bundy earlier.”
“Thank you for allaying my fears.”
“You take far more chances on those apps.”
“I cancelled my last date with Joe Blow. Let’s go.”
Arching a brow, I rose and moved around the table to help her out of her chair. She did not wait for my assistance and was soon halfway across the room.
I followed her out, my gaze firmly on her swaying hips in her clingy dress.
Goddamn, she was gorgeous.
I came up behind her in the foyer when she stopped at the base of the sweeping staircase that led to the second floor. She turned toward me and shocked the hell out of me by placing the room key in my hand. Then she leaned up on her tiptoes and spoke near my ear—which was pretty damn close, since she seemed on the high side
of average height and her heels gave her just enough of a boost. Her breath smelled sweet and fruity, a cross between the lemon tarts we’d shared and the champagne.
“You probably prefer to be in charge. So, let’s pretend the room is yours.”
I caught her wrist before she eased back. “Let’s get one reality straight.”
Blue eyes huge, she nodded.
“For tonight, you’re mine.”
She wetted her lips. “Same goes, Asher.”
Just her saying my name had me going harder than the beams that held up the damn ceiling.
“All night.”
Again, she nodded.
Christ, it burned me to acknowledge that all too soon, she would no longer be in my sphere. And that was crazy. “I won’t go further than you want me to, but now’s your chance to say no.”
She’d have a million other chances to say no, but of course I hoped she wouldn’t want to. I wasn’t trying to scare her, just figure out what her limits were.
Even what mine were when it came to her. Right now? It didn’t feel like I had many left. She’d tested my boundaries in ways I’d never expected, simply by being herself.
Unless even her personality was a game, just like her mysterious persona. If that was true, I didn’t want to know.
I wanted the fantasy every bit as much as she did.
“Yes is the only word I plan on saying tonight.” She jogged up the stairs, weaving around a couple who was coming down.
Swallowing hard, I followed her to the room. She waited while I unlocked the door, then stood aside to allow me to enter first.
She went right to a small vase by the door and shifted the fresh flowers over to make room for the tulips I’d given her, fussing with them for a moment before stepping back.
The lights were off, but the fireplace was burning. Whether Hannah had left it that way, or it was one of the features provided by the staff, the flickering firelight added a warm glow to the rich furnishings in the room. Even in the low light, opulent touches seemed to be mixed in with the rustic decor. A four-poster bed in knotty pine was paired with what appeared to be a handmade quilt. An Aubusson rug in jewel tones drew the eye to the large fireplace with its wide mantel still decorated for the holidays.