BIG DADDY SINATRA 2: IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU, Book 2

by Mallory Monroe

  It was so mind blowing that he was shaking his head as he looked at her. “Golden pussy,” he said. “You’ve got the golden pussy.”

  And then he rolled off of her, fell onto his back in pure exhaustion and satisfaction, and then he smiled.

  Jenay looked at the TV monitor again, saw that their baby was still fast asleep, and smiled too. Having a man who genuinely loved her was a wonderful thing. Having a man she could please in bed unlike any other woman ever could, was priceless.

  She looked over at him, as he continued to control his breathing and lay on his back, and she exhaled. When she made the decision to come to Jericho and give their relationship a chance, she was scared to death that she was making the absolute wrong decision. But now she knew she had gotten it right. For once in her life she had finally, completely, absolutely gotten it right.

  And right here, right now, life was good.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “He’s back,” Stephie said as she entered the kitchen to check on her latest order.

  Denise was on break sitting at the small table, drinking a Coke and munching on a bagel. She almost asked who was back, but then she realized who. And her heart leapt at the prospect of seeing him again, especially since she hadn’t seen him all week.

  Stephie looked at her. “You heard me right?”

  “He’s back. I heard you.”

  “Cheeseburger Special up,” Norm said as he tossed a plate filled with French fries and a thick burger onto the warming counter. He tossed the plate so hard that the burger bounced.

  “You don’t even care, do you?” Stephie said to Denise as she grabbed the plate.

  Denise munched on her bagel and looked at her coworker.

  Stephie smiled. “Lucky dog. I’d give my right arm to have Brent Sinatra chasing after me, and you don’t even care!”

  “He’s not chasing me,” Denise said. “He’s not the chasing type.”

  Stephie looked at her sidelong. “Oh, really now? So you know him like that, do you?”

  Denise laughed. “Girl, bye,” she said. “I’m on break. You aren’t. Don’t you have customers to serve?”

  “This conversation is not over,” Stephie warned, and hurried out of the kitchen.

  When she left, Denise took another bite of her bagel, stood from the break table, and walked over to the pickup counter. She looked across the café. First, she checked to see if Kerstin and her posse were in attendance. They weren’t, thankfully. She didn’t want any drama with that foolish girl.

  But then her eyes roamed further. When she saw Brent, she smiled. She actually missed him! Jericho wasn’t the friendliest town, especially not to strangers, but she could always rely on Brent to smile at her whenever she took his order, and to laugh at comments she didn’t mean to be funny.

  “You’re considering it, aren’t you?” Norm asked as he came up to her and wiped his hands on his apron.

  On any other day, Denise would have denied it up and down. But on this day, on this boring Friday night in this boring-ass town, she didn’t bother. “Why not?” she asked.

  “He’s Jenay’s stepson,” Norm said. “That should be a big no.”

  “Oh, come on. Jenay is practically the same age as Brent. It’s not like he’s some kid I’m exploiting. He’s older than I am! And he’s interested.”

  “From what I heard, Brent Sinatra and his brothers are interested in every girl in town period. Don’t get it confused. It’s not about you. It’s about what you have to offer.”

  Denise already knew that. If she were to hook up with Brent, it wouldn’t be about him either. “But things are going nowhere for me, Norm. Jenay invited me to Maine and gave me a roof over my head and a job to tie me over until I decided what it was I really wanted to do. But I haven’t decided a damn thing.”

  “You have a certificate in Hotel Administration. Jenay is willing to hire you as her assistant. But you’re so stuck in the clouds worrying about Mark that you can’t take advantage of anything.”

  He was right. Denise was still texting Mark, although he wasn’t texting her back. She was still calling their mutual friends back in Boston to see what he was up to. She still had Mark on her brain! Making a decision about her future wasn’t something she felt equipped to do right now. Unlike becoming Jenay’s assistant, where she had to keep up with schedules and appointments and everything else that was thrown her way, waitressing was simple. And right now, until she could make more permanent decisions, all she could handle was simple.

  But that itch was still there. And it was growing stronger and stronger with each passing day. And hunky Brent Sinatra was back, the man she was willing to bet had a huge dick. And that was what she needed. Big. And he was great looking too, and his father was rich? Maybe he could give her what she needed. Mark certainly wasn’t giving her a damn thing. He wouldn’t even return her text messages! Her itch would never get scratched if she left it up to him!

  But if Brent Sinatra scratched that itch, it would be commitment-free. He certainly wouldn’t put any emotion into it, she could see that right off. Not a player like him. He certainly would understand the parameters. His brother Tony would have too, she knew, but Tony would also get emotional about it. His jokes and playing around act wasn’t fooling her. Tony took things to heart.

  But Brent would be different. In a lot of ways, he would be the best man for the job. She knew he was only interested in her for her body. Norm was right about that. But she was only interested in him for his. It seemed like the perfect match. And she decided, looking at him through the comfort of the kitchen, that she was going to light that match.

  After her break was over, and Norm was back at work, she headed out of the kitchen. Brent was still sitting at one of her tables, but Stephie was taking his order. As soon as Stephie left to place the order, Denise made her way over to him.

  He smiled when she came. He dearly missed seeing that expressive face of hers. “How are you?” he asked.

  “I’m good. How are you?”

  “Hanging in there. I didn’t see you around. Stephie already took my order. She said you were on break.”

  “I was. Yep. I was. But thanks for noticing.”

  Brent stared at her. She was behaving differently. “No need to thank me,” he said.

  Then she just stood there, smiling, as if she was trying to think of more conversation to make. She was hoping he’d ask her out again, and was ready with her answer. But he didn’t. The question never came. She began to feel kind of foolish. Maybe he was over it now and had come back today, not for her, but for the food. “I’ll see what’s keeping Stephie,” she said, and began to head back. That was the story of her life. She’d hesitate and hesitate, and then, when she was ready to jump into the pool and finally take the plunge, all of the water would be dried up.

  But then he reached out, and took her by the hand.

  She felt his touch, and was pleased by it, but she kept her cool as she turned toward him.

  When she turned his way and he saw those big, creamy-chocolate eyes, he felt a thump in his heart. It was such an odd, emotional thump that it surprised him.

  “Yes?” she asked when she turned. She was not completely hopeful yet, but she was getting there.

  “What time do you knock off?”

  She inwardly smiled. Her hope was restored. “Six.”

  “You don’t have to close?”

  “Not tonight, no.”

  He still held her hand. It felt so small in his. “You have a room at the B & B right?”

  “Right.”

  “Why don’t I pick you up and we go out somewhere?”

  She still hesitated, but then she thought about that darn pool, and acted. “Sounds good,” she said.

  Brent was inwardly delighted. But he had to make sure. “I thought you said the two of us hooking up wasn’t a good idea.”

  “It’s not.”

  “But?”

  Denise smiled. “Needful,” she said.

 
Brent laughed. “Double that,” he said. Then he looked into those sad eyes of hers again. “I’ll be here around, say, eight?”

  “I’ll see you then,” she said, trying to keep her emotions under wraps too, and then she headed back to the kitchen. She could feel his eyes all over her ass as she walked. But she didn’t care. She was pleased. She was going out. She was going out with Brent Sinatra! And by night’s end, she was going to make it her business to get laid. To finally get some serious relief once and for all!

  This boring-ass town, she thought as she walked, just got a lot more interesting.

  Jenay parked her Mercedes on the street in front of the Ackerman’s home, grabbed the cake she had baked and her Dior bag, and made her way toward the entrance. By the look of the cars already there, she was one of the last to arrive. Which was fine by her. She really didn’t want to be there anyway. But Charles felt he had a duty to keep tabs on these people, so she took on that duty too. Although she could think of a zillion other things she could spend her Friday night doing.

  She rang the bell. The door was opened, not by Pat or one of the other ladies on the steering committee, but Stoke Ackerman, Pat’s husband. He owned a boat ramp company that had been in his family for three generations. Jenay knew it could not possibly sit well with him that Charles’s boating business, a company he started less than ten years ago, surpassed him in sales each and every year. But like so many of the blue bloods around town, they knew how to smile and hide their contempt.

  “Well hello there, little lady,” Stoke said as he opened the door wider. “Come on in! They’re waiting for you.”

  Jenay entered the palatial home, made her way down a narrow hall, and then entered the living area where Pat Ackerman and a group of about eight other ladies were sitting.

  “Jenay, come on in!” Pat said jovially. She was a middle-aged petite white woman with a beautiful face and smile. “We were hoping you didn’t back out.”

  “Why would I back out?” Jenay asked, as she entered Pat’s lair.

  Some of the other ladies glanced at each other, as if they couldn’t believe how ridiculous she was to ask such a question.

  “It was just a figure of speech,” Pat said. “Before Charles turned on Paige, she used to represent him at all of the steering committee meetings. She would back out of attending often. She always had some excuse. That’s why I asked it.” Then Pat stood and accepted the cake. “And you bought cake,” she said. “How sweet.”

  “Did you make it yourself?” Karen, another businessman’s wife attending the meeting, asked Jenay.

  “I did, yes,” Jenay responded.

  Karen quickly stood up. “I’ll take it to the table,” she said, and took the cake from Pat.

  Once everybody had settled down, they began the meeting in earnest. And it went fine. They talked about the upcoming Founders Day parade and other smaller upcoming town events. Nothing untoward in Jenay’s eyes. It was, in fact, a wonderfully uneventful night.

  Until much later, after the main meeting was over and everyone was talking and eating the smorgasbord of potluck food they had brought with them. Jenay noticed that her cake remained untouched, but she didn’t think much of it. Some of the other dishes remained untouched also. But Stoke Ackerman, who reappeared after the meeting and was chatting it up with the ladies in the dining room, noticed it too. By the time Jenay had said her goodbyes and was back in the living room gathering up her purse and jacket to leave, Stoke had gathered up her cake and was bringing it to her. “You may as well take this with you,” he said.

  “No, no,” Jenay said with a smile. She was actually feeling comfortable now. “Somebody may want a bite later.”

  “I doubt that,” Stoke said with a grin so fake and phony that Jenay suddenly realized who she was dealing with. What was she thinking? Charles had warned her about their smiling faces!

  “I’ll take it then,” she said, and accepted her untouched cake.

  “Nobody’s eating that thing,” Stoke said, his grin gone. “We’d rather eat poison of the most lethal order than to eat anything baked by Charles Sinatra’s wife.”

  All of the ladies heard him, and she could see them smiling and looking all triumphant as if they could not have said it better. But she wasn’t thinking about those rude people. She took her cake, and herself, and left.

  “I thought we’d go to the movies at the mall,” Denise said as she plopped down into Brent’s sports car.

  Brent looked at her. “Excuse me?”

  She looked at him. “I thought we’d go to the movies at the mall,” she said.

  He couldn’t believe it. “First off,” he said. But before he could lash into her, the way he had started, he noticed her. Those big eyes and drooping eyelashes. That smooth black skin. How simply gorgeous she looked. “You look beautiful,” he said.

  Denise smiled. She hadn’t expected that. “Thanks.”

  “Second off,” he said, getting back on point, “you don’t get into a man’s car after agreeing to go out with him, and then proceed to tell him where to take you. That’s not your call.”

  Denise didn’t quite know how to respond to that. She wasn’t accustomed to a man putting her in her place so decisively. Especially since she didn’t see where she should have some predefined place. “So are you saying I can’t have a suggestion?”

  “I’m saying it’s not your call. If you disagree with my suggestion then yes, of course we’ll entertain yours. But right now you’re out of order.”

  Denise smiled. “Out of order?”

  He continued to stare at her. And then she got it. He was accustomed to girls so happy to go out with him that anything he suggested was all right with them. “So what’s your suggestion?” she asked.

  Brent smiled. “You don’t think you’re out of order at all, do you?”

  “No. But what’s your suggestion?”

  Any man who ended up with her, Brent thought, was going to have a wildcat on their hands. He was only glad that man wasn’t going to be him. “Unless you’ve already had one,” he said, “I thought I’d give you a guided tour of Jericho.”

  At first she laughed. She couldn’t help it. Was this yahoo serious? But when she realized he was dead serious, she got serious too. “Okay,” she said.

  “So what,” Brent asked, “you figure your mall idea is better?”

  “Movie at the mall. It wasn’t a mall idea, it was a movie idea. And I didn’t say it was better. I’ll go along with whatever. I’ll be happy to tour Jericho.”

  “Look, I know you’re from away,” he said.

  Denise smiled. “From away?”

  “Not from around here. That’s just how we put it. And I know Jericho is no Boston, I realize that. But Jericho is a beautiful place. I’m not sure if you’ve seen much of it. Especially the coastline.”

  “I haven’t, no,” Denise admitted.

  “I think you should see it. You’ll like what you see, I can promise you that.”

  “Then let’s do it.”

  Brent smiled. “You’re game?”

  Denise smiled back. “Yes, Brenton, I’m game.”

  So he took her on the tour, driving around the downtown first, but then further out, along the coastline, where the lighthouses across the waterways, and the cottages across the plains, made for breathtaking views. Denise, in truth, never imagined a place more beautiful. It seemed like a postcard. And when Brent parked along the coastline, and they got out and stood by the bay, the serenity was unreal.

  “So tranquil,” she said.

  Brent picked up a rock and skipped it onto the water. “Yeah. I love it here.”

  “Is this why you came back? After college, I mean?”

  “My family first,” he said, “and this, yeah. The big cities are nice, but they can’t touch my world.”

  Denise found herself agreeing. “I see how you could think that.”

  Brent looked at her. “What about you? What does the future hold for you?”

  S
he hunched her shoulders. “Don’t know,” she said.

  “Kind of high time you knew, don’t you think?” he asked, although he was glancing down at her breasts when he asked it.

  “It is, yeah. But I have . . . unresolved issues still.”

  He looked at her. “Well, I promise not to burden you by harping on your future. Let’s just enjoy the present.”

  Denise smiled. “Here, here,” she said. “But no, I used to dream big. I remember when I planned to get a degree in Archaeology.”

  “Yeah, that was ambitious.”

  “I know. But that’s what I wanted. I wanted to uncover different cultures and learn from them. Because the past can be the most instructive teacher of all. I wanted to travel the world on exciting archaeological digs, and never stay in one place too long. I wanted to go into the deepest, most exotic places in the world and excavate, and study, and learn.”

  For some odd reason, Brent’s heart pounded. “Exotic places?” he asked. “You mean like war-torn, practically inaccessible places?”

  She smiled. “Of course! That was going to be the fun part. I was going to visit places most people never even heard of before.”

  “But those places tend to also be very dangerous, Denise.”

  Denise nodded. “I know there was going to be risks. But it was worth it to me.”

  “So what happened? How did you end up at Boston Hospitality Institute instead?”

  “I got sidetracked,” Denise said.

  “By a man?” Brent asked.

  “What else? Man is my middle name.”

  Brent laughed. “Woman is probably mine.”

  Denise laughed. She liked Brent. “So what about you? Your father, I have discovered, owns a hotel, a bank, a car dealership, and on and on and on. Yet you become a cop.”

  Brent looked at her. “What, Denise, that’s not your idea of a worthy profession either?”

  “It’s a worthy profession,” she said. “Very worthy. And you’re certainly bossy enough to be the top cop. But I just would have thought. . .”