by Ashlee Price
There was no stopping me when I got down to the museum, even though I had to let a few people know who I was to get them to see if she was in house. When I found out that she was, I didn’t wait for the third receptionist to call her. Instead I just went on down to the office that I had seen her go in before. I knew that it was hers because of all of the small pictures of her and an older man that adorned the wall. I had known her father in passing and he seemed like a nice enough guy. When I had heard the story of Erin from the ever-helpful Bishop, there was a moment that I had felt bad about what I was doing.
It hadn’t lasted long, though. It was more interesting to see how everything would turn out. I had thought of Erin in one way, and she had exceeded my expectations with the way she looked. She had looked the part, but what I hadn’t been expecting was the way I felt being around her innocence. She was demure, and even from a distance she was something to really take notice of.
When I knocked quickly and didn’t hear her say anything, I opened the door and walked in a little ways. I knew that she was there because the brunette at the front had finally said so. I got a startled look on Erin’s face, and it made the whole trip downtown worth it. I had just wanted to see her, and it was like my heart was automatically going a little slower now that she was in my sights. It was amazing. I smiled at her, waiting for the tell-tale sign of interest that I was so used to seeing.
Instead I got another shy look when she had recovered from the shock of me barging in and taking a seat across from her. I had purposely left the door open so that she would not feel trapped, but it didn’t seem to help as her eyes darted towards the entrance. She really was acting like a scared little bird, and I couldn’t help but find it endearing. It slowed me down some, and I took a breath before I said what was really on my mind. The fact of the matter was that it was going to be a little slower going than I had thought, and I was going to come at her from a different angle.
“It is nice to finally meet you, Erin.”
“Do I know you?”
I shook my head that she didn’t, but I knew that she recognized me from the last time I was there and from the glances we’d exchanged at the exhibit of Rose Wood’s art. Like then, there was almost no way to get her to look into my eyes. She just wouldn’t, and I wasn’t sure why that was. How could a grown woman as beautiful as her not realize that everyone who saw her would want her? She seemed to be surprised that I was looking at her so intently. A gentleman would have toned it down, or at least made an effort to do so. But I never was a gentleman, and even if I had been, I was not really sure that I could be one with her.
“I have been trying to coordinate with Bishop for several days to get a time to meet with you. I must say that, for a curator, you sure are one hard woman to get in to see.”
Her face changed when she put it all together. She took the hand that I offered, and for a moment I let the tingling sensation run through me as we touched. It was that spark that I’d known I would feel, and she didn’t disappoint me at all. All I could do was let go when she started to pull away. I was lost in her pale blue eyes even as they tried hard to avoid my gaze. Could she really see what I wanted to do with her? She was beautiful today, even without the tight dress and the hair flowing down her shoulders. There was still something about Erin that was slowly driving me crazy.
She blushed prettily and then finally met my eyes. “Sorry about that, sir. I have just been busy with everything that is going on. I just found out about all of this on Sunday, so I am just trying to wrap my head around what it is going to take to get everything ready for the shutdown.”
I could tell that it was upsetting her, and I knew that she had a legitimate reason to feel that way. If it wasn’t in such a great spot and if I hadn’t already made up my mind, the way she looked in that moment would have been enough to change my plans. But the clock was already running on all of these things and there really wasn’t anything that I could do. I mean, there was, but the business side of me knew that the last thing I wanted to do was back out of the deal. I didn’t want to be known for that, so one way or another, the museum was mine, just like I wanted her to be mine.
“It’s okay, Erin. It is good to finally get to meet you. I tried to say hello to you the other day at the art gallery, but when I came back from the bathroom you were gone.”
She looked guilty then, and I realized that it hadn’t been an accident. She had been avoiding me. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Why was she so bound and determined to stay away from me when all I wanted to do was be around her?
Erin didn’t answer me, and I realized that she wasn’t going to. She was going to pretend like she didn’t know what I was talking about. I guess she may not have. How was she supposed to know that I had been burning for her on the other side of the room? Did she know that I couldn’t think of anything else but kissing her and making her mine? It was an urge that I felt was impossible to ignore.
“So I take it that you have heard the news about the buyout?”
I didn’t know what to say and I was grasping at straws. I had been so confident in the beginning, but seeing her and finally being that close to her, Erin seemed to affect me even more than before. The fall of her face when I brought that up showed me that I’d put a foot in my own mouth. I couldn’t believe that I had been so stupid as to say something like that. What in the world was I thinking? For a man who was always thought of as smooth, I didn’t feel very smooth at all.
“Yes, as I said, I was just told about it a few days ago, on Sunday. That is why it has been so crazy around here. I didn’t mean to ignore you. I told Bishop this morning that I was going to try to work something out.”
“Well, I am here now. Why don’t we have a little chat now? I am sure that you have a minute.”
She looked at the clock on the wall and then shook her head as if she actually didn’t have the time. I wasn’t sure if she was trying to ignore me or if she really had something to do. Her blue eyes went from the clock, to me and then down to her calendar that took up half of the space left on her desk. She was a woman who was married to her work and her desk was an indicator of that.
After some time trying to find a reason why she couldn’t wait around, Erin finally got up and told me that she had a meeting that was going to start downstairs in ten minutes. I think she thought that it would make me back off, but she was wrong.
“Would you like for me to go with you? I don’t mind, really.”
Her face puckered a little, and I don’t know why, but I liked the way she looked just then. There was something about her, even though she was trying her hardest to get out of spending any kind of time with me.
“There isn’t supposed to be anyone that doesn’t work here at the meeting, so I am sorry, but I will not be able to bring you along. They are rather boring anyways, Drake, so I assure you that you are not going to be missing much.”
She smiled at me, and it finally looked genuine. If only she knew that I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. I didn’t care how much she believed that I was just going to let it go. I wasn’t. “That is fine, Erin. I will stay here and wait for you. I made sure that I cleared my schedule before I came down here. I didn’t want any interruptions.”
“Okay, that sounds good.”
It sounded anything but good to her. Her face was one that didn’t seem able to hold all of the emotions in, and it was hard for me to press her. She didn’t want me there, that much was clear, but I wasn’t going to let her bow out gracefully. I couldn’t, if that meant that I wasn’t going to get her.
Chapter 5 – Erin
I walked out of the office without looking back. I didn’t know why he was there, and to find out that he was the same man who I had been avoiding the last couple of times that I had run into him was too much. He had looked at me as if I was a meal to eat, and the feeling was hard to shake. I didn’t know what to do or what I was supposed to do, but it was clear that he was not leaving. So however long the meeting
was going to be, I knew that I was going to have to figure out something to deal with Drake.
It didn’t occur to me until I got to the conference room that he was going to be alone in my office, doing God only knows what in there. I was torn between hurrying it along, so that he wouldn’t have that much time in there alone, or just taking my time and hoping that he left. He was a billionaire, from what I had heard, so I knew that there had to be something that he had to do. He would get bored with waiting and then he would be gone when I got back.
That was what I was hoping for as I made my way to the front of the room and sat down. There was a bunch of notes of things that we had to go over, but they were all blurring in front of me. I wasn’t worried about the agenda or what had to be done to end my job. I was much more worried about the man who was alone in my office.
Had he known who I was that night at the art gallery? He had said that he was going to talk to me before I left, but what he didn’t say was why. Had he found out who I was and decided to follow me or what? It didn’t make sense, and I started to realize that nothing seemed to make sense when he was around.
The meeting got started without me. I was glad that everyone was there and was ready to start. I kind of just sat back and let them have it out. I was supposed to be supervising it, but the whole week I had been dropping the ball in that respect and today was no different. My mind was too worried about what would happen after we closed down the museum. This time around, though, my mind was on the handsome man who was waiting for me in my office. I still hadn’t figured out what I was going to do if he was actually still there when I got back.
I didn’t have long to think about it, because before I knew it, my assistant Justine was calling it a day. I watched helplessly as the people around me started to get their things together and leave. I was the last one in there save for Justine, and she was looking at me a little queerly.
“Are you okay, Erin?”
I kind of shrugged. “Yeah, I am fine, why?”
“Well, because you didn’t say a word for like an hour. I don’t think you have ever been this quiet. I thought we were going to talk about the severance packages today?”
I could feel my cheeks getting red. I had let the meeting stop and there still wasn’t any resolution to half of the problems that we had. Everyone had been worried about what was going to happen when we all lost our jobs. I was supposed to make it better and let them know that we were thinking of them and that I was making sure that Bishop was going to help them through the transition. He had offered each employee a very tidy sum for every year that they had been at the museum. It was part of the meeting that I had been looking forward to, and at the end of it I hadn’t been able to even think straight enough to bring it up.
Walking back to the office, I almost forgot about Drake for a moment, but as soon as I walked in the room I saw he was still there.
“You are still here.” I didn’t say it as a question. It was more a statement, and I was sure that he could tell by my tone that I wasn’t necessarily too happy about it.
“Did you really think that I wouldn’t be?”
I kind of sighed under my breath, more tired than affected by his close proximity. There was something in me that just didn’t want to talk about anything with him. He was the enemy in many ways, and I didn’t get why he was trying to play nice. There was a part of me that didn’t want to be nice, but there was a bigger part of me, the one that was raised by a gentleman, that told me that I had to at least be cordial. It wasn’t hard to do with such a devastatingly handsome man.
“No, I figured you had more important things to do, like conquering the world. I searched you on the internet last night, and I wonder why someone like yourself is so keen to take over a museum.”
“You didn’t read that it was for my new club?”
I told him that I had heard about it. “Don’t you think we have enough clubs and things of that nature in the city already? What we need is more culture, and taking away the museum is going to take away something that this city really needs.”
I was overdoing it, I knew I was. We weren’t the only museum in town, not by a long shot, but I liked to think that we had something special to offer. Many of our collections were hand-picked by me. Each piece was something that I thought would be a benefit to everyone in New York, and I hated to see it all go away. Soon every single piece that had been found and acquired with care was going to be sold in an auction, and there was no telling where it was all going to go. I know I wasn’t supposed to care, but I did. There was too much of me and too much of my father in every nook and cranny of the place. I couldn’t play nice.
“I didn’t know that you were so passionate about this, Erin. Are you that sure that New York needs this little museum?”
“It does. I know that it doesn’t mean much to you, but it is a big part of the neighborhood, and I know that if you just talked to some of the people who come in, you would see that.”
“Do you really think that you could change my mind?”
I knew that I couldn’t change his mind. It was like looking at Bishop. He had been so ready to move on, and nothing that I could have said would have made him change his course of action. Drake was looking at me in the exact same way. I didn’t know what to say.
“No, I guess I won’t change your mind. So I don’t really know why you are here. I mean, you are buying the building, not the museum, so why do you keep popping up?”
“When I came here the first time to look at the building, I couldn’t stop looking at you. Then I was there to see Rose Woods about some PR for my club.”
“And now?”
“And now I am here because I want to take you out. Ever since I saw you I have wanted to get to know you better, outside of work.”
That was not at all what I was expecting. I finally met the dark gaze that was centered on me. “Are you asking me out?” I couldn’t believe the audacity of him.
“Yes. Come out with me and have a drink.”
“I don’t think that is such a good idea, Drake. Do you really think that it would be wise, considering the circumstances?”
He straightened up and nodded his head. “Well, I just know that I want to go out with you. Your circumstances can be changed, and I am the one that can change them.”
I didn’t like where this was going. I was sure that I had seen a movie about this very thing. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, come out with me, Erin, just one time, and I will keep the museum going.”
Drake stood up and smiled at the shock on my face. I couldn’t help but respond to the boyish grin with one of my own. I couldn’t help it, and I think he knew that as well. He handed me a card and I didn’t even look down at it. Instead I was feeling his hot hand and fingers against mine and trying desperately to breathe. I just needed to breathe. Why was it so hot in here, and why was the oxygen becoming so thin?
“Just think about it, Erin. But don’t think for too long. I am not going to wait forever.”
I just nodded like I didn’t have any sense. When he looked at me I really didn’t, so there wasn’t much to act. He was gone before my mind was working well enough to do anything anyways. I was sure that I had looked like an idiot, but could what he said really be true? Could it really be that easy? All I had to do was go out on one date? I wondered what that would entail, and if he would even stick to his side of the bargain. Could I really trust a man like him? I turned the card in my hand and wondered.
To be continued…
THE PRICELESS ONE
A Billionaire Romance
(Contemporary Romance Novels)
LOST
Book 2
Description
Drake isn’t usually the type to get attached. He’s had a slew of one-night stands that didn’t turn into anything more, but things are different now. Now he has met Erin, and when he finally talks her into really giving him a chance, Drake wants everything to be perfect. By the time he tries again
, they are both so ready that it all happens in a flash.
No longer is he worried about finding something new to keep his attention. His focus is on the museum curator who is just too beautiful for her own good. She isn’t his type, but maybe that is why she is so unforgettable. He has to work for her affection, work for the lust that he wants so desperately to see in her eyes.
Erin is perfect, except that she is almost like an addiction. He cannot get enough, and before long it is hard for Drake to think of anything else. He seems to have forgotten altogether that he had made promises to Erin – promises that he was not going to be able to keep. What would she think of him then?
Chapter 1 – Drake
I was waiting for her to call. I knew she was going to. She had to. How could she not? I was willing to fix everything how she wanted. I still wasn’t sure if I was just lying about it all. I think I was. I hadn’t meant to say it, but it had come out and there was no way that I was going to back down now. It was the first time when we were talking that she’d seemed able to consider having anything to do with me. Before I made the offer to keep the museum going, I knew that there would have been no way for her to say yes. After a couple of days, I started to wonder if she was going to take the bait or not.
When the phone rang I jumped a little. I had been waiting for the phone call for some time, and when I finally heard her quiet and breathy voice, there was nothing I could do but relax. She was finally falling into my web. I hated how long it had taken, but I was okay with it if she was mine now.