by Rina Gray
Her long and slim fingers tapped against the file. “Oh, I don’t know, Nathaniel. I’m not really looking for a man.”
“Then why were you out with that guy?”
Tiana crossed her legs. “I was … just curious. I guess I wanted to dip my toes into the New York dating pool.”
More dates? His stomach clenched. “And is your curiosity sated? Are you going out with that guy again?”
She laughed, but the sound was slow and sarcastic. “He’s good on paper. Good-looking, well-employed, and intelligent. But there wasn’t any … ” She tapped her fingers against her chin.
“Chemistry?” he supplied.
She shook her head. “None at all.”
“What else? Tell me your dream-man list.”
Rolling her eyes, she turned back toward her desk. “There is no such thing as a dream man. Trust me.”
“Fine, then what do you like in a man?”
“Honesty,” she whispered, still facing the computer. “Someone who loves God and family. Someone who is driven and smart and … and loyal.”
“That’s a good list, Peaches. I know plenty of guys who fit that description.”
Like me.
“Like who?” She cocked her head in his direction. “Maybe you should introduce me to these men.”
“They’re taken,” he snapped. He took a deep breath, determined to erase the jealousy from his voice. “And who knows … maybe you already met him.”
Chapter Six
Staring at the mirror, Tiana blotted at the sheen covering her face. Only two hundred feet away from the Fiete meeting. The meeting to determine if she could become a director before turning thirty. Her heart pumped and rattled against her chest. Taking a deep breath, she smiled at her reflection. It’s show time.
A bathroom stall door yanked open, and her gangly intern Julia rushed to the sink. “Five minutes,” she said, staring at Tiana in the mirror. “Are you ready?”
“I think so. But it doesn’t matter because, at the end of the day, the client will come away with two fantastic proposals that make the agency look good. That’s what matters the most.”
Tiana nearly gagged at her own do-gooder speech. She wanted to win, bitch slap Nathaniel with her victory, and bathe in the blood of her enemy. Ewww. I need to lay off on the Game of Thrones marathons.
The intern nodded, but her scrunched-up nose told another story. “Right. O-okay. Well, my money is on you.” She washed her hands and started the hand dryer.
Tiana smiled again. Unable to dish out another lie about team spirit, she stalked out of the bathroom and pushed open the conference room door. This was it. Moment of truth. Mano a womano. Nathaniel was going down.
• • •
Nathaniel didn’t go down, but neither did Tiana. Fiete, much like the agency owners, couldn’t decide what they wanted. So they decided to make YouTube videos of each concept and test their popularity over the course of ninety days. The winning proposal would launch a full-scale international campaign. The results would come in right after the New Year.
Tiana was pissed. Of course the funny videos would become viral, but her concept had the staying power. Rolling her shoulders, she stormed out of the meeting. No congratulatory shakes for this woman. Like she’d told Julia, it was a victory for the agency. Even if there was no clear win for Tiana or Nathaniel.
The first to arrive in their shared office, she shut, locked, and leaned against the door. A minute later, a jiggled knob then loud knock announced her enemy.
“Open the damn door, Tiana.” Nathaniel’s irritation was on full display.
Pushing off, she clicked the lock and backed into the office.
Nathaniel strode in, unbuttoning his jacket and tossing it on his chair. “So that was disappointing.” He immediately addressed the elephant in the room.
Tiana, now behind her desk, leaned over and spread her hands on the top. “I was so looking forward to you being my slave,” she agreed lightly and sat down. “Guess we’ll have wait until your videos bomb.”
Chuckling, he moved closer to her desk. “Oh no, Peaches. We need a tiebreaker.”
Tiana shook her head. “There’s no way to do a tiebreaker. Not unless we went around the office and asked people to vote for their favorite concept. And asking people their opinions seems childish.”
“We don’t have to go around and ask. I’d actually planned on sending out a survey to our creative and marketing team to get feedback on how to make my ideas stronger. Why don’t we send out an anonymous survey and ask them to rate the ideas on a scale from one to ten. We’ll leave a blank section where they can also provide open-ended feedback. That way we can kill two birds with one stone.”
Tiana nodded. Not a bad idea. And damn it, I want to win! “I accept your proposal.”
“Good. I’ll modify my survey to include your ideas and add your email so you can have admin rights.”
“Excellent, but I’d like to see a draft before you send it to the group.”
Docking his laptop to its station, he sat down and went to work. “Fine. I plan on sending the survey today. We’ll give them an end-of-day-tomorrow deadline.”
• • •
Nathan scanned the dashboard for the survey results. A slow grin spread across his face. Well damn, he’d actually done it. He’d spanked that ass and won fair and square. Albeit it was only a zero-point-five higher rating, but a win was a win, and a bet was a bet.
He stood, walked toward Tiana, and leaned casually against her desk.
She folded her arms. “Yes, Nathaniel?” Her hazel eyes burned with all nine fires of Hell.
“As we stipulated yesterday, the person with the highest average is the winner. I’m not sure if you’ve had the chance to check the results, but—”
“I’ve seen the damn dashboard. I know you won.” She shrugged. “Barely,” she mumbled under her breath.
“Doesn’t matter. I won. You have to do the things I want.”
Tiana curled her fist. “Speaking of which, you’ve given zero direction as to what I’ll be doing.”
“Aww, you don’t trust me, Peaches?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Trust is earned, not given, and you certainly haven’t done anything to gain my trust.”
Nathan nearly snorted at her answer. Says the woman who bogarted my ideas. Between Tiana’s treachery and his mother, he actually understood that sentiment more than she knew. Now isn’t the time for a heart-to-heart. Keep it light, Lawson.
Clutching his chest, he winced. “You’re breaking my heart, Peaches! And I’m a pretty straightforward guy. I can’t think of a time when—”
Tiana folded her arms and rolled her eyes. “You stole my highlighters and notes in grad school. Then you left a ransom note stating that it was in the pants of the most handsome guy in class. You somehow read my essay about my fear of…of—” She turned away from him. “You know what.”
“Clowns, Tiana. C-L-O-W-N-S. If you say it out loud, they have less power over you.”
“Yes,” she whispered-hissed. “Clowns. Whatever. So, all of that is to say ‘I don’t trust you.’” Narrowing her eyes, she swiveled her attention to her computer screen.
“In that entire rant and the history of our … whatever it is or was, when have I lied? When I borrowed your notes and highlighters, I left a note to let you know who had them. And as a friend, I wanted you to get over your fear of clow—”
Tiana swatted his leg. “At least get off my desk before you lie. You did that to humiliate me. Ha ha. Tiana Holliday, top of her class, brought down by her fear of clowns.”
Nathaniel sighed and leaned closer, but he needed to move away. A waft of her delicious scent permeated the air, clouding his thoughts. Her fitted red skirt, stretched across her luscious thighs, begged to be gripped.
Instead of touching her thighs, he settled for a comprise and reached out to caress her cheek. Fire ignited his fingertips.
She sucked in a breath, looked away, and clea
red her throat.
She may hate me, but her body doesn’t. He smirked. Another victory for him. And more to come.
“I never lied to you. The first time we partnered on the business case project, what did I say to you?”
Tiana attempted to slide away, but he moved in closer, eyes focused on her.
“What did I say?” He gentled his tone, hoping to coax out an answer.
She looked up and away, as if scrolling through her memories.
I remember. An unseasonably hot day in October. Her clothes had clung to her like a child unwilling to leave their mother. She hadn’t hidden the fact that she was mildly pissed they were partners. He’d overheard her talking to a fellow classmate, a mousy girl who told Tiana she was sorry that they had ended up paired together.
He knew they’d assumed things about him, something he’d faced all his life. Somewhat smart, very charming, and extremely good-looking. And like the jocks and pretty boys that had used them in high school and college, Tiana and Mousy Girl had assumed that she would end up doing all the work. She’d misjudged him, and he wasn’t afraid to prove her wrong and let her know it. It still pissed him off, because even today his coworkers assumed the same thing. But when I get this promotion, I’ll prove them all wrong.
“Tiana … ” He refocused on the matter at hand. “What did I say?”
“That I was prissy and cold and needed to remove the stick from my ass and enjoy life.”
“That’s right,” he said as if praising a student. He imagined her in a short plaid skirt, a ponytail, and knee socks. Focus, man!
“To recap … ” He finally removed his blazing fingers from her warm skin. “I never lied to you, and you did need to remove that stick from your ass. I thought that back in grad school I’d at least loosened the stick, but something must have happened because it’s lodged right back in there.”
Moving away, she shot him the bird. “Stop referring to my ass and sticks.”
“If the stick fits,” he replied and ducked when she threw a Post-it pad at his head. “Secondly,” he returned to the conversation, “you need to loosen up and have fun. And now that I’ve won the bet, I’ll make sure when we aren’t working our asses off that we’re having a good time.”
“But we—”
“Nope. No excuses.” He sliced his hand in the air. “You trusted me enough to agree to my terms, and on Saturday, we begin.” He slowly surveyed her. “Wear something comfortable.”
Chapter Seven
A shoe with no heel. Tiana examined the pair of blue-jean-colored flats Mel had thrust into her hands. What a weird and curious notion. Sure, she’d worn tennis shoes when running, which wasn’t often. A girly-girl through and through, one of her life rules was to never buy shoes lower than three inches in heel height.
But here she was, bent over and seated on the living room sofa, tying these shoes. Tiana attempted to bunny ear the laces the way she’d taught her twin brother and sister nearly fifteen years ago before her bestie slapped her hands away.
Mel snorted and chuckled. “You don’t tie this type of shoe, missy.” She bent over to untie Tiana’s hard-won knot.
“Then how in the hell am I’m supposed to not trip on my laces, fall on my face, and die?”
Mel threw her head back and laughed, curls sliding to her shoulders. “Oh, how the tables have turned. Do you remember when you forced me to wear stilettos when I moved to New York? How I told you I could trip and get run over by a crazy cabbie? What did you say to me, dearest Tiana?”
Tiana wanted to chuck the shoes at her friend. And what was up with people reminding her of the past? The past should stay in the past.
Melanie took a deep breath. “You said—”
“I said if you did, at least you’d die in style. And I stand behind my earlier statement. However, these … ” She waved down at the flats. “Although expensive, are no kind of cute. Onlookers who witness my demise would take one look at these and think, aww does the poor single lady with sensible footwear have a boyfriend? And someone would say, ‘No, but she probably has a cat.’”
“Ha ha!” Mel jerked Tiana’s feet to her lap, pulled the strings too tight for comfort, and tucked the laces in. “Yet the owner of these cat-lady shoes has a fiancé who loves her to pieces.”
“Touché.”
“Right.” Mel pushed Tiana’s feet off her lap. “Now that we’ve got the shoe thing settled, tell me more about your date.”
“It’s not a date. It’s following through on a wager.” Groaning, Tiana titled her head toward the ceiling.
“What’s wrong?”
She threw up her hands. “The maggot won’t tell me where we’re going or what we’re doing. He just told me to dress comfortably and be prepared for … ” She dropped her voice to mimic his baritone voice. “Fun.”
“That sounds like … ” Mel dropped her voice to match Tiana/Nathaniel’s voice. “Fun.” She laughed. “We sound like those insurance commercials. You know, the ones with that guy who tried to hook up with Whitney in “Waiting to Exhale” but was already married?”
“Yeah. The Allstate commercials.” Tiana stood, stretched her arms, and walked toward her room. “Well, I better go touch up my face. Nathaniel will be here shortly.”
“Waiiittt a minute. He’s coming to pick you up?” Mel’s voice took on an irritating bird-in-the-morning chirp.
“Yet another one of his requirements for our day of fun. He said if he gave me the address, it would spoil the surprise.”
A loud buzz from the intercom near the door startled her. She looked at Mel, and her roommate squinted back.
She wouldn’t dare.
She dared. Mel jumped from the sofa. Tiana tried to tackle her, but Mel was too fast.
Pressing the intercom, Melanie, in an out-of-breath voice, said, “Tiana and Melanie’s house of pleasure. You tell us the fantasy, and we’ll give you the—”
Tiana slapped her roomie’s finger off the intercom. “Oh. Em. Gee. Stop it!”
A smooth rumbly laugh drifted from the intercom and filled the room. Tiana clenched her legs together, and Mel mouthed, “Hot!”
“Well, isn’t that a coincidence, because I’m in the fantasy industry, too. But since you’re asking, I’m—”
“Nathaniel.” Tiana served up her frostiest, imperial tone. “I’ll be down in a moment.”
“Guess I’ll have to loosen that stick again,” he mumbled.
• • •
Nathan smothered a laugh as he looked at his increasingly nervous coworker beside him, fidgeting with her purse strap. He pointed toward the fluorescent blue-and-pink Ferris wheel “We’re gonna do that first.”
Shaking her head, Tiana dug her heels deeper into the sandy ground. “Sorry you wasted money on tickets. But as I told you when you dragged me from the car to the ticket stand and through the gates, I don’t do carnivals.”
He looked down at her and sighed. Jesus, that stick has to be lodged in her throat by now. “And why don’t you like carnivals?”
“Kids. Germs. Crowds. Germs. Germs are worth repeating again.” She shrugged. “Need I say more?”
A breeze teased and tossed her hair. Desire slowly burned in his chest.
Normally, that would’ve been one of many things to remember and stow away, but the first reason she didn’t do fairs had him frozen cold in place.
She didn’t like kids. Just like Renita.
“I take it you don’t do kids, either.” His voice was as cold as he felt on the outside, and he didn’t give a damn. He shouldn’t give a damn about Tiana’s likes and dislikes, but he did.
Blinking slowly, she tucked hair behind her ears. “No, I—”
“No, you don’t like kids?” Nathan interrupted.
“Yes, I mean no.” She huffed and placed a hand on her hip. “I mean, geez, Nathaniel, yes I like kids just fine! I just don’t like them at the fair. I remember when Mel and I took my twin brother and sister. They were normally sweet, nice, and respectf
ul children. But at the fair, they were monsters. Sticky fingers. Death-trap rides they had no business on. And candy. Oh my God, it’s like giving Gremlins food after midnight!” She shuddered, and Nathan relaxed his tense shoulders.
“I didn’t know you had brothers and sisters. How many?”
“Just those two. They’re twenty-one, and I practically raised them.”
Nathan took her hand and, surprisingly, she didn’t pull back. “Wow, really? What about your parents?”
“My dad died before I was born, and Katherine wasn’t … isn’t mother material. I heard she kind of lost it after my father died. Anyway, she kind of marches to the beat of her own drum. Doesn’t really like being bogged down. But hey, she had me, and I persuaded her to keep Courtney and Casey.” Tiana laughed but sounded embarrassed. Looking down at their interlocked hands, she pulled away.
“Well, anyway, let’s go on a ride.” She clasped her hands behind her back. “The Ferris wheel, right?”
He smothered the laughter that bubbled. She’d rather get on a death trap than talk about her past and hold his hand. “Yeah, the Ferris wheel.” He grabbed her hand again, winked, and walked them to the ride.
• • •
Big, tacky, and loud. An oversized lime-green teddy bear. Tiana wanted it. She tried to pass by the games without giving away the fact that she’d never owned a stuffed animal. But Nathaniel, always observant, must’ve seen her look at the bear more than once because he grabbed her hand and then dragged her to the game.
Slamming down a twenty, he motioned to the young, bored operator with overly gelled hair. The teen whipped his head to fling long bangs from his eyes. “Five dollars a game. Get the ball in the hoop and win.”
She’d seen too many suckers waste money on the rigged games. “That’s only four chances. Don’t waste your money on this.”
“I got this.” He clapped and spread his hands toward the teenager. “Ball.”
The young man passed it to Nathaniel, and he immediately released it. The ball sailed and swished into the basket. Same thing three more times.
She clapped and jumped up and down. “You’re … amazing!”