“Good evening,” she greeted the driver with a smile.
“Good evening, Miss McConnell,” he replied.
He stood off to the side so she could walk out ahead of him. She walked at a slower pace being careful to master her graceful yet confidently sexy walk in her tall pumps that shimmered as the lights of the hallway hit them. She felt classy and attractive without being too over the top. Whether they went somewhere more casual or a bit more on the elegant side, she looked lovely and that was all thanks to Jessica.
Her friend also succeeded in calming Alyssa down, at least a little bit. Although she was definitely more nervous than usual when heading to a first date she felt a little more calm than she had before. If she was going to go out with Philip, even if it only ended up being the one time, she wanted to be herself.
There was no point in creating a persona to mask who she truly was. Like Jessica had pointed out, there was absolutely nothing wrong with who Alyssa was so there was nothing to hide anyway.
The driver pulled open the back door on the passenger’s side and Alyssa slid in, buckling her seat belt as he walked around front. He put up the privacy partition. She heard smooth jazz pumping from the speakers as he drove her toward downtown.
It wasn’t long before they arrived at the city’s main civic center, in the middle of which stood a tall building full of government offices. Alyssa felt confused when the driver pulled around to the front of it and stopped the car. He opened the door and she stepped out. Just as she was about to ask if he was sure he’d gone to the correct place she saw Philip step out from the main lobby of the building.
He was wearing a slate grey suit with a black shirt and tie. His hair was swept back, just as it was at the gala, and his smile made her knees feel wobbly. He walked straight up to her, smile still in place, “Good evening, Alyssa.” He turned and stood right beside her as he offered his arm.
Cautiously, she placed her hand on it and tried to steady herself. She took slow, deep breaths and remembered the words Jessica had used to help calm her down. They stared walking toward the doors of the building and Alyssa slowed down while turning to look at him.
“Why are we going into an office building?”
He chuckled. “I know, it does seem a bit odd, doesn’t it? But I promise you the restaurant at the top floor has delicious food and spectacular views.”
As they continued to walk toward the elevators Alyssa didn’t want to mention she never even knew there was a restaurant in the building. She wondered if that was common knowledge or if it was the sort of place that was only frequented by people of Philip’s status.
The elevator took them straight up to the top floor and opened up to a small welcome room where a man stood at a podium, a closed book in front of him next to a pen. He peered up at them and his expression immediately turned to one that was over the top. He was practically fawning over Philip. Then Alyssa realized she had done something similar up until Jessica calmed her down a bit. Was it just a reaction he brought out in people or was it because of his name?
“Good evening, Mr. Walton. It is always a pleasure to see you,” the man said in a greasy voice that was begging for approval.
He turned to Alyssa and she noticed a slight shift in his expression. He had judgment written all over his face. She could tell he was only going to be extremely cordial with her to look good in front of Philip.
“Good evening, Miss.” He turned back to Philip and smiled before opening the book and checking for the reservation. “Excellent, I shall alert the host you have arrived to escort you to the table.” He smiled again and bowed his head before disappearing behind a door right next to the podium.
Alyssa held back a chuckle at the thought the man was basically a fancy bouncer. She wondered what it was like to stand there all day and be overly polite to the people who visited the restaurant. The man returned with a young woman trailing behind him. She was quite stunning and she looked at Philip as if they knew each other, which made Alyssa feel a little uncomfortable.
It wasn’t that she was jealous or already getting possessive of him, it was just awkward. She saw the way the young woman looked at Philip and she couldn’t help but wonder if anything had ever happened between them. She couldn’t blame the young woman for having an interest in a man like him and she couldn’t blame Philip for finding the her attractive.
With her large and perfectly round breasts, tanned skin, sparkling blue eyes and flowing natural red hair she was a complete knockout. Alyssa tried to look at Philip’s eyes to see if he looked at her in any way other than friendliness, but she couldn’t without being obvious.
“Mr. Walton,” the young woman said in a sultry voice. It was the type of voice you could tell naturally sounded that way, even if she wasn’t trying to be sexy. She smiled at him, two little dimples forming near the corners of her full lips, as she walked up to them.
She got a bit closer to Philip than Alyssa would have expected. Alyssa shifted her weight uncomfortably to her other leg, standing further away from them. Philip turned to look at Alyssa and she could have sworn she detected amusement in his eyes.
“Cassandra,” he said as he returned her smile and then took a step sideways to stand closer to Alyssa. “This is Alyssa, my date for the night.”
Cassandra turned to look at Alyssa and smiled. It looked genuine, but Alyssa was too busy making up scenarios in which the young woman secretly hated her to fully realize it. She returned a tight-lipped smile and automatically stuck her hand out for a shake. Cassandra rather awkwardly took it and shook her hand before turning around and leading them to the best table in the place.
It was a table for two, slightly removed from the rest of the room and offered a stunning panoramic view of the city. As the sun had already set the lights were on, casting a glittery visage over everything. Cassandra excused herself, but not before gently pressing her hand to the table right near Philip. Alyssa caught it. It was the professional equivalent of her pressing her hand to his arm. She gulped and looked out the window some more as she tried to push away her negative thoughts and feelings.
“You don’t much like Cassandra, do you?” Philip asked bluntly. His eyes locked onto her face as he studied her reaction.
Alyssa turned to look at him with wide eyes. She didn’t think many people would have gone straight for asking such a direct question and confronting her about it. Only it didn’t sound like a scathing accusation by any measure. He just sounded curious. It was clear he had simply made an observation and was now asking her about it.
“I can’t say I dislike her,” Alyssa answered truthfully while trying to avoid the fact that she felt awkward. She was usually very laid-back and confident. But there was something about Philip that set off reactions in her she didn’t know what to make of. She was quickly growing tired of it. Even with Jessica having calmed her down before she left, new worries kept arising and her mind. And the more she focused on needing to calm down, the more she nervous she got.
Philip looked at her for a few moments as if he were trying to sum up her answer and catch something else through her facial expression. Just then, the waiter came and introduced himself. Philip ordered a bottle of wine. Alyssa couldn’t believe its cost when she saw the name on the wine list. When it arrived she sipped it politely and enjoyed the flavor, but still was at a loss. Yet again, she started to feel out of place. It seemed to be a recurring theme in her life as of late. She let out a deep sigh as she stared out the window.
“Everything alright?” Philip asked as he closed his menu and set it down on the table.
Alyssa looked over the edge of her menu with a raised eyebrow and then softened her expression. She nodded before perusing the menu. As she glossed over the chicken selection she wondered what Philip must have been thinking of her. In an effort not to panic, she focused her attention entirely on the steak selection and ended up deciding what to have. After she ordered her dinner she turned to see Philip looking at her with the expression of
someone who was just pleasantly surprised.
“What's that look for?”
“You ordered a steak dinner,” he responded flatly. Alyssa stared at him, unsure why that was important. As it slowly started to dawn on her he said, “It's quite delicious, what you ordered.”
“And unexpected because I'm a woman?”
“Well, considering the reputation of most women eating only a quarter salad on a first date,” he responded bluntly.
He spoke as if it were obvious, but there was something else to his words and tone of voice. None of what he was saying was coming from a negative place. He looked pleasantly surprised, not affronted. He didn’t seem to believe that was how women should order, but was rather glad to be out with a woman who didn’t fall into that stereotype. Alyssa reached for the bottle of wine as her head started to spin a bit. Drinking more wine probably wouldn’t help, but she wanted more anyway.
Swiftly, he took the bottle from her and poured wine into her glass. He looked at her with a sly smile before pouring more into his own glass and setting the bottle back down. As they waited for their salad to be brought out, he told her a bit of trivia on the restaurant. Although he ended the speech claiming it was something a lot of people found boring, she told him she had found it quite interesting.
It wasn’t until their salads had been brought out that he finally asked, “Why did you accept the date?”
He was staring straight at her with his bright blue eyes. Alyssa felt herself freeze. He had a penetrating stare that made her unsure of what to do or say. It threw her off each time he was so forward. Even though his forwardness was something she was starting to like about him she was still taken by surprise. It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing one got used to right away.
It was especially interesting coming from him since he was so naturally charming and of such elevated status that one would have expected him to be a bit more reserved. Perhaps it was this type of charm that had given him such appeal with others. He had a sort of direct attitude, something Alyssa was sure had helped him through life.
“I don’t know,” she said in a hollow voice. No sooner had the words left her mouth than she felt incredibly stupid.
“You don’t know why you agreed to have dinner with me?”
Hearing him repeat it made her feel even stupider and it took every ounce of self-control not to set her fork down in favor of burying her face in her hands. She had never experienced the feeling of wanting the Earth to swallow her whole as much as she was feeling it at that moment.
In the interest of being honest and forward like him, she gave him a short explanation about how uncertain she had been, but then decided for it because she was intrigued by him and, like her friend said, she really didn’t have anything to lose.
Philip looked happy and flattered when she mentioned he was intriguing. There was always an air of satisfaction to him as if everything she said and did was exactly what he wanted. Alyssa wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Part of her felt like she should find it crude or offensive but, for some reason, she didn’t.
As she sat across from Philip throughout dinner and got to know more about him, little by little she came to the conclusion he was the type of person who would always confuse her. Her usual feelings toward certain topics and reactions to certain statements were different with Philip. She wasn’t quite sure why or what it was about him, but it happened every time. She tired of analyzing everything he said.
After she excused herself to the restroom, she stood in front of the mirrors in the makeup room and stared at her reflection. She wasn’t really on a date with Philip. The entire evening she hadn’t been enjoying a date with a man she found attractive and intriguing.
Instead she was seated at the same table as him and picking every single little thing apart in her mind. There was no room for enjoyment there. As she stood in front of the mirror in the makeup room she decided it needed to stop. If she was so knit picky he would throw her off course every time, she just needed take a deep breath and go with the flow.
“I want to enjoy this,” she said aloud to her own reflection. And something about actually saying it out loud while looking into her own eyes struck her. It made the sentiment behind the statement real.
She walked back to the dinner table to find the entrées had been removed.
“Dessert is on its way,” Philip told her. Alyssa looked at him. She didn’t recall ordering dessert.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of ordering the dessert. It’s a specialty here and would really like you to try it.” He brushed his thumb and index finger over his upper lip and she saw a small amount of concern in his eyes. “Of course, you’re free to let me know otherwise and order something else if you’d like.”
“Oh no,” she responded quickly. “It’s okay.”
She gave him a soft smile and, for the first time that evening, it felt genuine. It was Cassandra who brought their dessert over. Alyssa felt the awkwardness crawl back over her skin, but she tried to play it off by turning to look at Cassandra directly in the eye and smiling widely.
“Thank you!” Alyssa exclaimed before turning back to Philip, who was watching her rather closely. Cassandra excused herself and Alyssa looked down at her dessert quickly before meeting Philip’s gaze again.
“This looks delicious.”
“It tastes even more amazing than it looks,” he responded. Alyssa shuddered and inadvertently squeezed her thighs together. There had been something about the way he was looking at her and the way he spoke that turned her on.
She had the distinct feeling he had done it on purpose. Philip leaned forward and took his fork to pierce the velvety surface of the cake. His eyes were still fixed on Alyssa as he split a piece away from the tip of the cake slowly. There was a sparkle in his bright blue eyes that hadn’t been there before.
Alyssa gulped.
She wanted to take her own fork and taste the cake, but was transfixed. She couldn’t take her eyes off Philip’s. Finally, he finished cutting a piece and he picked it up carefully with his fork. She watched the perfectly sliced piece move up toward his lips, but just as he was about to take the bite, he paused. Alyssa waited on baited breath. Never had watching someone cut and eat cake been so incredibly mesmerizing. Then she saw him move the fork slowly toward her.
“I think you should have the first taste,” he said in a low, deep voice. It was dripping with sexual suggestion as she squeezed her thighs against each other again. She gulped and nodded, but didn’t open her mouth, not even as the fork got closer to her lips.
“Alyssa,” he practically whispered, “Open your mouth.” His voice oozed soft and sexy and the way he was staring into her eyes made her feel something she had not felt in a very, very long time. Only she couldn’t remember ever feeling it so intensely.
Slowly, she opened her mouth as he slipped the cool fork into it, mouth closing around the cake with a smile. He drew the fork back as he smiled and licked his lips. She watched his tongue glide from one corner of his mouth to the other before remembering to chew.
“This is amazing,” she said after swallowing the bite.
“Isn’t it just?” Philip asked rather intensely.
She had the feeling he wasn’t exactly talking about the cake, but was playing along with her choice of words. Never had she experienced such a seduction technique. She felt her cheeks grow hot and was sure they were flushed red. When he leaned forward and reached out to brush his thumb over the top of her cheek she knew she must be fire engine red.
“Why are you blushing?” he teased. Alyssa felt her face grow hotter. He leaned in even closer, minding not to get cake on his coat, and whispered, “You look even prettier with your cheeks all red like that, did you know?”
Alyssa’s breath caught in her throat. She felt like everything was suddenly going quiet and she could only hear the sound of her heart racing. Could he hear it too? He removed his hand and sat back on his chair, nodding toward her cake.
“All yours,” he told her. Alyssa nodded slowly and came back down to reality.
Finally, she managed to pick up her fork and cut a piece of her own. He started to make conversation once again as she ate her slice of cake. Every question he asked was well thought out and interesting. He had the grace of being able to keep conversation flowing naturally and it made things easy for Alyssa.
There wasn’t a single moment of awkwardness. What she didn’t notice was that he kept the conversation centered on her and had continued to use a subtly seductive tone of voice. It was part of his seduction technique.
Does it still count as falling for it if I know what he’s doing? I just like it, she thought.
It didn’t matter what it counted as, what mattered was that it was working. She was more attracted to him than ever and by the time they had finished dessert, he was holding her hand as they walked out of the restaurant.
Hard Love: A Bad Boy Fighter Romance Page 12