by Francis Ray
It sounded nice and simple, but simple wasn’t a word she’d associate with a renegade like Tanner. “Are you really dateless on a Saturday night or is some woman going to want my scalp?”
“Your scalp is lovely right where it is,” he said, lightly brushing his fingers through her short curly hair.
“You have a date and you’re just going to dump her and take another woman?” Ayanna asked, her voice incensed.
Tanner studied the outrage on Ayanna’s face on behalf of a woman she didn’t know. Obviously she was someone with principles, another reason not to let her get away. “I don’t have a date, but I’d very much like to take you.”
Resistance melted like snowflakes on a hot stove. Ayanna chalked it up to the beard and the fact that it was the only way out of a difficult situation. “We’re in and out?”
“In and out,” he repeated, having the good sense and manners not to gloat. “Where and what time should I pick you up?”
Ayanna gave him the information and her phone number, just in case he had to cancel.
“Not in this lifetime.” He stood. “I better get back to my table and take care of the bill before my waitress thinks I’m trying to sneak off.”
“Let me take care of it.” Ayanna lifted her hand, then jerked as Tanner’s large one closed around hers. She hoped he didn’t feel her pulse skittering.
“There’s no need for that,” he said. “Until Saturday night.” He kissed her palm.
Ayanna tried to calm herself as he paid his bill, then sent her a smile that upped the temperature in her body fifty degrees. When he left, she slumped back in her chair. What on earth had possessed her to accept a date with a renegade like Tanner Rafferty?
The tingling in her body wasn’t the answer she wanted.
The phone on Ayanna’s nightstand rang seconds after the six-thirty alarm went off Friday morning. She didn’t have to look at her caller ID to know it was Sheri making good on her threat. With a baleful look at the phone, Ayanna debated about whether or not she should let Sheri think she had already left for her morning jog. Deciding to do just that, she bounded out of bed, but couldn’t quite make herself continue to the bathroom. Sheri was a good friend.
Plopping back on the side of the bed, she picked up the phone. “How’s Reginald?”
“Fine. Details,” Sheri said. “And don’t leave out anything.”
Ayanna refused to squirm, even if her conscience was beginning to beat up on her. Sheri had been trying to help. It wasn’t her fault Ayanna didn’t like hurting people’s feelings. “There’s nothing much to tell. It just sort of happened.”
“Ayanna Hardcastle, I can’t believe you’re not giving me anything! My best friend is going out with the yummiest man in town and you act like it’s no big deal.”
“It isn’t. Tomorrow night will be our first date,” Ayanna said slowly, glad that much was true. “It might not lead anywhere.”
“If the way you two were staring at each other is any indication, I have a good idea where it’s going,” Sheri said frankly.
Ayanna chose to ignore that remark. Sheri had never been shy about her sex life with Reginald. They might have recently married, but they had lived together, much to the chagrin of her parents, for the past three years. “Just promise me you won’t try and fix me up with any more blind dates if it doesn’t?”
“I won’t have to because you’re too smart to let a man like Tanner Rafferty get away,” Sheri said with a smile in her voice. “George is a great guy, but not many men could measure up if they were put up against Tanner.”
Ayanna didn’t have to meet George to know Sheri spoke the truth. “I’d better get going or else I’m going to get caught in traffic.”
“That’s your own fault,” her friend said unsympathetically. “With your income you could get a wonderful place here instead of fighting the crazy traffic from Baltimore twice a day.”
Ayanna gave her friend her usual and truthful answer. “I love living in a house with a yard and a garden that I can afford. Now let me go. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
“All right. Everyone will be trying to outdo each other, so wear something that will keep Tanner’s eyes on you.”
“Bye.” Ayanna hung up the phone and headed for the bathroom. She had no intention of dressing to impress Tanner because one date was all they were ever going to have.
Ayanna arrived at Leo’s at nine sharp. Parking her Lexus in her designated spot on the side of the supper club, she grabbed her attaché case and headed inside. Her cousins’ three spots were empty. Since they kept the place going until closing, they didn’t come in until around two in the afternoon. In the meantime, Ayanna had the restaurant to herself, except for the security guard and the maintenance crew. Waving to the cleaning crew, she went directly to her office in the back.
Cozy was the only way to describe the converted closet, but it was functional and chic. She stepped behind her mahogany desk with ball-and-claw feet and sat down with a sigh. Across the room were mahogany file cabinets and bookshelves. On the walls were paintings by her favorite artists to add color. A six-by-three-foot mirror in a heavy ornate frame on the opposite wall added depth. She and her mother had gone searching for the office furniture soon after she’d accepted her cousins’ offer to be their partner/accountant for Leo’s.
Thinking of her mother brought back the present problem. Ayanna loved her, but one look at Tanner and she was going to start thinking of him as a potential son-in-law. Patricia Hardcastle was a level-headed woman. She had to be since she was an elementary school principal to over twelve hundred lucky children, but practicality went out the window when it came to the possibility of her daughter’s marriage.
Ayanna leaned back in her chair, forgetting about the invoices she had planned to pay that day. Her mother had married the day after receiving her Master’s in Education from Howard. Two years later, when she was twenty-four, Ayanna had been born. To her mother’s and Ayanna’s family’s way of thinking, at thirty-three, Ayanna was getting perniciously close to being at an unsafe age for childbearing—if she found a husband—which it didn’t look as if she would.
Perhaps things would have been different if her father had lived. The shock of his sudden death had been hard on everyone. Ayanna hadn’t been dating anyone at the time and it had taken a couple of years to get back into the social swing of things. When she had, she’d found it increasingly difficult to be the same carefree woman she had once been. She didn’t believe in forever so trustingly anymore.
She’d spoken to her father the morning he died. He and her mother had planned on coming to her apartment for dinner, but he never made it. It was then she discovered that the next hour wasn’t promised, let alone the next day. As a result she’d guarded her emotions, perhaps too well. She hadn’t dated seriously since.
Occasionally she’d feel a twinge of remorse that she wasn’t married, didn’t have children, but not enough to worry about it. Despite what her family thought, she had time. Tanner certainly hadn’t thought she was past her prime.
Ayanna dropped her forehead into the palms of her hands. Her mother wouldn’t be the only one thinking about Tanner for Ayanna. Like the gooey candy her parents had forbidden her to eat as a child because it was bad for her teeth, but which she had craved and frequently eaten anyway, Tanner was just as tempting. But he could be a lot more hazardous to her well-being.
THREE
It was nine A. M. Saturday morning and Tanner had already been up for three hours. After his routine morning workout and a twomile swim, he’d gone to his hotel, an impressive twelve-story structure of rose marble. Many hotels were going modern with lots of black and chrome; he planned to stay with elegance and sophistication. Guests of The Rafferty Grand would be treated to the genteel refinement of the South in the most stylish setting imaginable.
Arms folded, Tanner stared across the street at his hotel. He noted the twenty-foot palms in rose-colored ceramic pots, the graceful curve of the decora
tive ironwork of each balcony. He could envision the uniformed doorman, the bellmen whisking luggage and harried travelers into the cool serenity of the atrium lobby.
Crystal bowls of miniature wrapped Belgian chocolate with The Rafferty Grand in gold letters would be at each check-in station. Once the guest had registered they’d receive a key to activate the oak-paneled elevator, which would take them swiftly to their floor. In their room they’d find complimentary chilled bottled water next to a mouth-watering picture of the cuisine they’d be tempted to order through room service or by dining downstairs.
Thoughts of dining brought Tanner’s mind back to Ayanna. Twin lines radiated across his brow as he jaywalked across the busy street. He’d spent more time than he cared to admit thinking about her since Thursday night. Women usually didn’t occupy so much of his attention.
Opening the heavy glass door, he was greeted by the sounds of workers and machinery and pushed Ayanna from his mind. After more than ten months, the outer structure was complete. Now they were putting the finishing touches on what would make The Rafferty Grand unique. He sidestepped two men rolling carpet, another three carrying one of the specially commissioned mirrors that would be hung off the main lobby, then stopped to check with the project manager before heading for the curving stairs and his office on the second floor.
On the landing he glanced back, satisfaction swelling within him. Everything was on schedule. The confirmed guest list was a who’s who of the business, political, and entertainment worlds. He wanted their first impressions to be of a well-run hotel committed to excellence. He planned to start by giving them an event to remember, and by opening on time.
As he opened the door to his outer office he caught a flash of red out of the corner of his eye. It took only a second for him to realize that the woman coming into the hotel was a worker in a red shirt and not Ayanna. He accepted his disappointment and the undeniable fact that she wasn’t going to be as easily forgotten as other women in his past. Not sure how he felt about that, he entered the office and closed the door.
Right up until thirty minutes before Tanner was due to pick her up, Ayanna had told herself she wasn’t going to dress to impress. She then looked at herself in the mauve floor-length gown that had been a great buy but did nothing for her and quickly whipped it off.
With almost desperate haste she hurried to her closet and began shoving aside the padded hangers until she found what she was looking for, then quickly took out a long-sleeved black dress of clinging jersey and laid it on the bed. She exchanged the flesh-toned hose she was wearing for sheer black, took off her bra, then slipped the ankle-length gown over her head. The fit was perfect and totally provocative—the neck high and innocent, the back completely bare, stopping a scant inch above her hips. She’d bought the dress on a whim when she and Sheri were shopping for her wedding gown and had never worn it.
Looking over her shoulder at the cheval mirror in the corner of her bedroom, she admitted she’d never had the nerve. So why was she wearing it now?
The ringing doorbell was her answer. No matter how much she’d tried to deny it, she’d enjoyed Tanner’s attention, enjoyed the little zip his touch caused, enjoyed being with him. He had a keen wit and he made her smile. He wasn’t looking for anything long term, so there was no need for her to guard her heart. Why not just enjoy herself for the evening? In the process she’d show her family that she still had what it took to attract one of the most sought-after bachelors in the country. And she’d show Sheri she didn’t need any help getting a date. Afterwards she could go back into hibernation.
Picking up a large wicker gift basket wrapped in iridescent paper with one hand, she stuck her small black beaded clutch under her arm with the other, then went to the front door and opened it. Tanner stood bathed in the soft yellow glow from the wrought-iron lantern on the porch, smiling down at her. Ayanna couldn’t prevent the leap of her heart. Tanner in a black tux, bib-front white shirt, and black bow tie was even more devastating than he had been in a business suit.
“Hello, Ayanna. You look beautiful.”
“Hello, and thank you,” she said, pleased that her voice sounded normal.
“Let me take that for you.” He lifted the basket filled with chocolate goodies and a bottle of wine. “The judge is going to be a happy man.”
“He loves chocolate-covered nuts and Sweet Temptation has the best in the city.” Stepping over the threshold, she turned to pull the door closed.
“Ayanna!”
She froze. There was as much reverence as admiration in the way he uttered her name. Slowly she turned to face him.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispered.
“I think you already said that,” she said, inordinately pleased.
“Certain things bear repeating.” Taking her by the elbow, he led her to the black limousine waiting by the curb. “I hope there’ll be dancing tonight.”
She glanced up at him. “You like to dance?”
“Sometimes.” He waved the driver away and opened the door. After helping her inside, he placed the basket on the seat across from them and slid in beside Ayanna. “Do you think we might get in a few turns around the floor before we leave? I have a feeling we’d both enjoy it immensely.”
Ayanna moistened her lips as the driver pulled smoothly away from the curb. She didn’t have a doubt that Tanner knew just how to hold a woman, stroke her, make her burn. “I don’t think we’ll have time.”
“Pity,” he said, watching her with hooded eyes.
Ayanna felt like a baby chick in the henhouse with a sharp-toothed fox. She had forgotten one important thing: Tanner was a renegade. He made his own rules. What he wanted took precedence over the desires or plans of others. And he wanted her, a thought that both chilled and excited her. She glanced out the tinted window as the car headed up the ramp to the freeway into D.C. and tried hard not to think about how much she wanted him.
“How have things been at work?” he asked, breaking the silence.
She glanced over at him. “Routine,” she said, omitting to tell him that she hadn’t been able to get him off her mind. “How are things going at The Rafferty Grand?”
“We’re right on schedule,” he said simply. “What made you want to be an accountant?”
No man had ever asked her that before. She got the distinct impression that Tanner wasn’t just being nice or needing to fill the silence; he genuinely wanted to know. “One of my father’s second jobs was doing income taxes. I used to help him and found I had a skill for mathematical computations.”
“What did he do?”
“He was a policeman, a very good one,” she said with pride in her voice. “He’d tried to get work as an off-duty policeman in security because it would have been steadier and paid more, but very few of those jobs were given to minority police officers. Eventually the system changed and he was able to get the recognition and respect he deserved. At the time of his death he was the chief of police.”
Tanner’s hand closed gently over hers. “Our forefathers went through a lot, but I think it made us stronger, more resilient. You might not have known where your talent lay if not for your father’s other job. Because of what he went through, he certainly understood those coming after him.”
“That’s what he always said.”
“Sounds as if he was a wonderful man.”
“He was.”
“From what I’ve seen so far, so is his daughter.”
Warmth curled though Ayanna. She forgot caution and let Tanner continue to hold her hand. A moment or two longer wouldn’t hurt.
Traffic was backed up two blocks away from the Hyatt. Cars, limos, and taxis jockeyed to get to the door and drop off passengers. Tanner had attended enough social events in D.C. to expect the snarled nightmare. “I see it’s business as usual tonight. Parking will be at a premium.”
Ayanna smiled at Tanner. “One of the reasons I live outside of the city. Even on the one-way street in front of Leo’s accidents h
ave occurred. They’ve tied up traffic for hours and drastically cut into business.”
“One of the requirements for the location of The Rafferty Grand was easy accessibility,” he said thoughtfully. “The owners of Leo’s would do well to think about the traffic situation. You never want to be vulnerable.”
“I agree,” she said, crossing her long legs and drawing Tanner’s attention. “The building behind Leo’s is for sale, but it’s overpriced, even in D.C.’s inflated market.”
Tanner withdrew his gaze from her trim ankle. “The owner has a problem, then.”
“Owners,” she corrected casually, then added, “But not an insurmountable one for us.”
His brows bunched in shock. “You own part of Leo’s?”
Her smile made him want to kiss her breathless. “Full partner with my other three male cousins. Leo’s is named after their father.”
He laughed, shaking his head. “Why am I not surprised? You continue to amaze me, Ayanna. You have quite an establishment there, but I guess you already know that.”
“Yes, but it’s always nice to hear it, especially from a man of your reputation,” Ayanna said.
“Don’t believe everything you read about me,” Tanner cautioned, his knuckles brushing across her cheek.
Her breath stalled and she eased back in the seat, glancing out the window, desperately trying to calm her racing heart. “The driver may run out of gas before we get to the hotel.”
Tanner allowed her escape. For now. “Pete has been my driver for six years. He knows his business.”
Ayanna glanced toward the front of the limo. “You have him full time?”
“He’s not a frivolous luxury. I don’t have time to waste waiting for taxis, locating an address, or returning rentals. Besides, while I’m in transit, I can return phone calls or work on the laptop.”