by Marni Mann
I’d paused too long, and Anna picked up on it. “Hold your horses, missy. Why do I get the feeling Mr. Block is a rather attractive gentleman?”
A rush of heat spread over my cheeks. “He is…but Anna, he’s not my type at all.”
“Maybe that’s what you need: someone who isn’t your type?”
She was trying to get me to step out of the box I had built around myself. Brea tried to get me to do the same thing all the time. But my box was a comfortable place to be. When I stayed within its boundaries, I knew what to expect, and I wasn’t plagued with insecurities like the ones that arose when I thought about Derek. From a single meeting, he had taken instant control over my mind and had caused a strong reaction from my body.
I just shook my head. “For now, I need to focus on work.”
She set her plate on the table with half a donut left on it. “Don’t you think it’s time?”
“Time for what?”
“Frankie, it’s been a year since you ended things with Reed.” I hadn’t realized I’d been rubbing small circles over my navel. When I saw that she was staring at my hands, I stopped. “It’s time to start dating again.”
I popped the other half of her donut into my mouth. “I’ve been dating.” I’d have to run an extra mile in the morning to compensate for all the sweets I’d been eating lately.
“Have you let any of these gentlemen take you out for a second date?”
“I don’t have time for a second date,” I said. “I work too much.”
Her brows rose. “But you have time for another first date, is that right?”
She caught me.
“So maybe I have the time…or could find the time.” What I couldn’t find in any of those guys was a connection—no tingle in my lower body, no tickling inside my chest, no warmth in the back of my throat.
Nothing like what I felt when I locked eyes with Derek Block for the first time.
“Will you at least be open to it?” she asked.
She only wanted the best for me and she didn’t ask for much. “Yes, Anna. I’ll be open to it, but…”
“Oh no, I feel a condition galloping over the horizon.”
I smiled. “There is…and it’s a big one.”
“Shoot.”
“If I have to be open to dating, you have to be open to it, too,” I told her. “I know Alston from apartment 4C is dying to take you to dinner. He asks about you every time I see him in the lobby. Why not go?”
She slapped the air like she was swatting a fly. “Don’t be silly. I’m seventy-eight years old. My dating days passed a long time ago.”
“I don’t think you’ve dated anyone in the time that I’ve known you.”
“Sure I did,” she said guardedly. “There was a special someone once, but that’s long passed, too.”
“Well, if your dating years are over, so are mine.”
She made her best angry face, though it wasn’t very convincing. “Frankie, don’t make me get stern with you.”
“Anna, it’s only fair.”
She sighed. “All right, all right, but now I have a condition. I’ll only consider having dinner with Alston after you go out on a date.”
“It’s a deal.” I reached across the coffee table for her hand and held it gently, hoping she could feel the love pass through my fingers. “Does that mean we need to go shopping?”
“Oh child, for what?”
“Something for both of us to wear on our dates.”
“Absolutely not.” She shook her head emphatically. “No new clothes, no kissing, and no early bird special for me. You can tell Alston that, too.”
I laughed. “Now, if we could only find a man for my date.”
She grasped my wrist with her delicate grip. “Whoever he is,” she said, “he’s going to be a lucky guy to have you.”
SIX.
DEREK
I WASN’T PAYING ATTENTION to any of the noise that poured from Julia Hayes’ mouth. I’d stopped listening shortly after I had joined her. I had been running a few minutes late, which meant she was already at the restaurant when I got there and seated at our table. Her eyes had covered me before I had a chance to sit down. Then she licked the corners of her mouth, making sure I saw how her tongue curved and flicked. She then did it again. And again. Subtle? She wasn’t even fucking close. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have injected her lips until they’d become the same width as the head of her spoon…the spoon she was sucking on.
She was the third agent I had interviewed, and she was the last. The broker I’d met with that morning had more experience than Julia, and a personality dryer than the bread I was chewing on. He was an over-tanned, beefed-up muscle-head. A narcissistic vanity case. I had listened to five minutes of his pitch before I wrote him off. His plea was rehearsed and lame. I needed substance and understated intelligence. He had neither.
Julia wasn’t right for the job, either. I couldn’t work with someone who so blatantly wanted my dick more than the contract on my building. By the way her tongue teased the tip of that spoon, I knew her mouth had sucked its way into a fair share of deals. Not that I could blame the poor bastards who had caved to her. With lips as enticing as hers, it would be easy. Prices and terms would be negotiated before she even swallowed. She’d probably lick the cum off her fingers, too.
Compared to Frankie Jordan, she was a scrap of pine. Common and base, easily had.
And I’d had scraps like her before.
I wanted pink ivory, something rare and special and exclusive. Not just as the agent in my building. I wanted to run my hands over her, taste her, feel my tip open her up and let me inside her wet snugness.
“Tell me about the tower,” she said, her eyes lingering on my chest before slowly moving down to my hands. “I haven’t seen the rendering. Is it as long and luscious as I think it is?”
My phone vibrated from my back pocket. Usually, I would have ignored it, but after she had purred that description of my tower, I was looking for any excuse to bail. A text from Hayden appeared on the screen:
If Randy’s Hull deal goes through, I’ll be shocked.
“Excuse me a minute,” I said, standing from the table, then moving into the lobby of the restaurant.
Instead of texting Hayden back, I called her.
“I only have a second,” she said when she picked up. “I’m due in court, and I’m running late.”
“Did you find something?”
“Just did a quick search. The property isn’t worth what the seller wants. Rumor has it he won’t take any less. Randy’s investors will pull their line of credit when they see the comps.”
Randy didn’t have the cash to back his own projects. That left him with only one other option. “Maybe he’s getting traditional financing?” A crowd of diners came in. I walked around the hostess to get out of their way and stood at the other side of the entrance.
“I’ll put out some feelers and see what I can find out,” she offered. “If he does, he’ll have to pay off the appraiser.”
I scanned the tables on this side of the dining room. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”
“No, it wouldn’t. But I’ll be damn sure it’s going to be his last.”
My sister’s aggressive side only came out when she discussed her opponents…and the convicted, and her ex-boyfriends. And Randy. If we played this right and uncovered the information we were hoping for, he’d be condemned for life.
I looked at the diners as I considered this, and my eyes fell onto a familiar face.
Frankie.
She sat close to the partitioned half-wall, her profile facing me. It was just enough skin to know it was her, but more than enough to make my dick hard. Tamra couldn’t even get it to twitch…just half a glimpse of Frankie brought an instant response. Her natural lips parted, and a red wine glass came to rest between them. Her head tilted slightly as she swallowed. I wanted to lick that neck all the way up to those lips, to drink the wine out of her mouth. I wanted to make it mi
ne. “Don’t be late to court, Hayden. We’ll talk soon.”
I hung up without waiting for her to speak again.
The waiter dropped off Frankie’s check as I watched. She smiled and handed him her credit card. She was polite, appreciative. I wondered if she’d worn the same grin when she’d emailed me after our meeting, not that I’d replied to it. I didn’t see the need. It wouldn’t be long before I’d be offering her the job, regardless of what her follow-up said.
She smiled again, laughed even, this time at the girl sitting across from her. I imagined a much different sound coming from her throat. It made me want to tease her clit, to pull it in between my lips and suck it until she moaned, until her feet kicked the bed and her nails dug into my shoulder—until the pleasure I caused her made my flesh bleed.
I needed more. I needed to see her, and for her to see me.
My plan had been to end the meeting with Julia as soon as I got back to the table. But Frankie would have to pass us on her way out of the restaurant, and it looked like she’d be doing that soon.
The plan had changed.
Slipping my phone back into my pocket, I headed toward the other side of the dining room and rejoined Julia.
“Look at that smile,” she said. “It looks like the person on the other end of that call really knows how to make you happy.”
She paused, waiting for me to answer. I thought about what Will had said the other day, how Hayden was the only woman who made me smile. Seeing Frankie again, I wasn’t sure if that was still true.
“So…” Julia searched my face. Still, I didn’t reply. “What were we talking about before you got up?” She rolled her lips together, spreading the color. It looked like she had put more makeup on while I was gone.
I gave my eyes a break from Julia’s attempt at seducing me and checked out the menu, my eyes drifting over the choices but never settling on anything. I was sure it was all delicious… then I thought of Frankie again, swallowing her wine, and I knew exactly what I wanted to eat. It may have been in the restaurant, but it wasn’t on the menu. I wondered how soon it would be.
“Oh yes, your tower,” Julia chimed. “You must tell me all about it. I like knowing what I’m getting before it’s given to me…”
Suddenly, my appetite was gone.
SEVEN.
FRANKIE
IT WAS the third morning in a row I’d woken up from a sex dream. Two fingers and a hot shower had barely dulled the ache. I needed a stiff drink, something that would take away the feeling that throbbed between my legs, and erase the face that haunted me—Derek’s face…the one that was too rough and animalistic for my liking and much more alluring than it should have been.
It was rare that I had nothing on my calendar for the day—no showings, meetings or closings. So I dragged Brea out to lunch. I hadn’t planned on sharing two bottles of wine with her, but that’s exactly what happened.
Salad and wine. All thoughts of Derek Block, blocked.
“I could really get used to this,” I said.
“Meeee toooo.” She took the last sip from her glass. “The amount of work waiting for me at the office is frightening.”
And just like that, Derek was back, drifting through my head and descending through my body. This time it was his tongue, touching me the way he had in my dream. More than touching…flicking, sucking. Probing and slithering. Lapping and licking until I’d screamed.
I needed more wine, though that might have been part of the problem now.
Brea had to get back to work anyway, and I had to get home. My father would have been so disappointed if he knew I was drinking at lunch with my assistant. That kind of allowance was only acceptable when we were eating with a client—and even then, they had to be the ones to request it. I didn’t necessarily disagree. Either way, the less my father knew, the better. He wouldn’t approve of my friendship with Brea. She was the person I spent the majority of my time with, so it was only natural that a bond had developed. My father would never have spent time with his underlings like I did, on a peer level. We definitely had different management styles—and maybe different everything styles—but that didn’t mean I wasn’t capable of running his company.
I brought the glass to my lips, stealing a glance at my fingers. They reminded me of what I’d done that morning in the shower. I blushed at the memory.
Why was Derek showing up in my dreams? What was this effect he was having on me?
My obsession was so out of character…
“Frankie?”
I shook my head. “Yes. Sorry. What were you saying?”
“Has Mr. Block sent you the floor plans for Timber Towers?”
He was my fantasy, my reality. The topic of my lunch date conversation. I couldn’t escape him. “No,” I said. “He hasn’t sent me anything.” Not even a reply to the follow-up email I’d sent him thanking him for taking the time to meet with me.
Brea reached across the table and took a roll from the breadbasket. “I bet you’ll hear from him tomorrow. I mean, there isn’t anyone else he can hire who’ll do the job you will. Julia Hayes is the only other agent whose sales even come close to yours, but she does her best work on her back, not her feet.” She laughed as she swallowed, though it sounded more like a snort. “He’s not stupid enough to hire a slut like her.”
Brea really was my perfect other half in this business. I’d become so much stronger since she’d joined my team. She said things I wasn’t able to, on both a professional level, and a personal one, though I would have loved to. “Honestly, I couldn’t tell you what he’s looking for. He’s impossible to read. I would certainly hope it’s not Julia, but...” The thought of her lying underneath him infuriated me. Julia sleeping her way to the top of the sales charts wasn’t just a rumor; it was a known business method for her. Not long ago I’d walked into a model penthouse of a newly renovated high-rise and she was riding the developer on the kitchen table. She didn’t even stop when I entered. She didn’t slow down either, or cover herself up. She seemed to like having an audience.
She was much more daring than me.
“Maybe we should send him something,” she said. “Like tickets to the Red Sox, or a Versace tie.” She held her glass to her mouth again, waiting for the only drop that was left to fall to her lips. “Or a golf membership.”
“He doesn’t look like a golfer.” Golf wasn’t rugged or rigorous enough for him. He needed a sport that allowed him to be aggressive and cunning—something like hunting, where he could dominate his prey. The thought of that made me even hotter. “I do know Versace is definitely not his style.”
She winked. “Hiking boots from L.L. Bean, then?”
“Let’s not send him anything.” Our waiter had already returned my credit card and receipt. I gave him a generous tip, signed my name across the bottom, and slipped my copy into my purse. “If we earn his business, it should be because he believes in us, not because we know how to buy him.” Brea pushed a tight blonde curl behind her ear and grinned, her misty blue eyes twinkling. “I sound like my father, don’t I?”
“A little,” she said, “which is why I’m so good for you. In this case, the more I think about it, the more I agree. From the little I’ve been able to find out about him, Mr. Block isn’t like the other clients we’ve represented—not the wine-and-dine type. There has to be something we can do to get his attention, though.”
I stood from the table, hooking my bag over my shoulder. “I have a feeling he’s going to make a decision really soon.”
“I’ll dig a bit more and see what I can find…and I’ll hurry.” Brea may have only been twenty-three, but she had connections all over town, including journalists who covered the real estate market and editors at some of Boston’s leading magazines. The insider tips she received had helped my business tremendously. I had no doubt they would again. “But I’m going to do that research from my apartment.” She wasn’t wobbling on her heels from the wine, but she was close.
So was I.
“I think that’s a good idea. I’m actually heading home, too.”
We weren’t halfway out of the restaurant before she said, “That guy at the table up ahead is staring at us—I mean really staring. And he’s hot. Wow…like seriously hot.” I had felt the heat from a glaring gaze, but figured it was just the buzz intensifying now that I was on my feet. I hadn’t considered it might be coming from a man. “Oh God…” She reached for my arm, her fingers wrapping around it. “The hottie is eating with Julia.”
I’d kept my focus on the floor so I wouldn’t trip. I was intrigued now, scanning the front of the restaurant until I found them. The fluttering in my chest that had finally stilled suddenly returned. Then the throbbing between my legs did, too.
Derek.
“I can see her flirting with him all the way from here,” she said. “Julia’s even more of a slut than I thought.”
“Brea…” It was difficult to speak. “That’s Derek Block she’s with.”
“What?” It came out as a shriek, much louder than it should have. “But he looks nothing like his pictures. Nothing. I mean, he was attractive in the pictures, but he’s—”
“We need to go say hello,” I told her.
“Are you crazy? We’ve just finished two bottles of wine on mostly empty stomachs. My lips are way too loose right now. I can’t be responsible for anything that might come out of them.”
She was right; we’d had far too much to drink. But we’d been spotted. Leaving the restaurant without at least saying something to him wouldn’t be professional. “It’s just a hello. We’ll be fine.” I clamped my hand around hers, which still clung to my arm. “Just hold on tight so neither of us falls.”
I felt her eyes on me while I lead her toward the table. Then they moved to Derek, and back to me. “I’m pretty sure I just figured out what’ll get his attention.”
“What would that be?” I whispered. I could feel my nipples deceiving me, hardening under his gaze and poking through the thin silk shirt that covered them.