by Tara Sue Me
The only downside being she’d have to move to Atlanta, and I didn’t want to go there right now.
Our cab pulled up to the hotel. I glanced to the woman at my side. Unlike me, Mia seemed to be energized by the meetings. Her cheeks were flushed and I swore if I touched her, I’d feel an undercurrent of electricity pulse through her.
Had she not bounced out of the cab the second it pulled to a stop, I would have been able to test that theory when I helped her out. As it was, I felt fortunate she didn’t take off and disappear into the hotel before I finished paying our driver.
“Would you like to have dinner with me tonight?” I asked her before she could sprint away from me.
Her eyes automatically went to the restaurant in the lobby. Like I’d take her there. “At the risk of sounding conceited—”
“Too late,” she said, but at least she smiled when she said it. “If you have to say ‘at the risk of,’ you know you are what you’re saying you’re not.” Her forehead wrinkled. “I’m not sure that came out right.”
I didn’t want to try to unravel that sentence. “I made us reservations at a well-known, but out of the way place near the Chattahoochee River. It came highly recommended.”
Her eyebrows raised in interest, but she wasn’t about to give in that easily. “Highly recommended by who?”
Busted.
“By the hotel concierge when I asked for a nice place to eat.” I didn’t add the second part of my request to the concierge. That I also wanted a place that was quiet and on the romantic side. Fortunately for me, the young woman working the desk when I made my request knew exactly what I was going for. She said she knew just the place and in fact, had been there a few weekends ago for a wedding.
“Pretty sure of yourself, Tenor Butler. Aren’t you?” She teased.
“I was until right this second.”
She laughed and I grinned at how much I loved that sound. “I love how you never back down from telling the truth.”
I never backed down from telling the partial truth, but I wasn’t about to admit to that at the moment. Not when I’d almost gotten her to agree to dinner. “Is that a yes?”
She wasn’t ready to give into me just yet. “What time did you make them for?”
“Six,” replied. “Plenty of time for you to shower, change, and for us to get there. And if we’re early, we can walk by the river.”
Her eyes lit up. “We can?”
“Yes, and if we get there and we don’t have time to walk before dinner, there’s plenty of time after.” I wanted to walk either before or after dinner so we could get to know each other better. The fact she wanted to do so as well, made me want to take her in my arms and kiss her.
“Yes. Let’s do it.”
By that time, we’d made it to our rooms. “I’ll knock on your door in an hour.”
“I’ll be ready.”
I could only hope I was, because I had a feeling tonight would change everything.
12
Mia
* * *
I’ll admit I was a bit on the leery side when Tenor asked me to dinner. For a second, I feared he might be asking me out of pity or obligation. But when he’d said he’d gotten a recommendation from the hotel, I knew it was neither of those two. He’d asked me because he wanted to.
Who could turn Tenor Butler down? Especially when he got that smile on his face. Not the plastic smile he’d had before his first cup of coffee. Not the fake smile he’d worn until about ten-thirty this morning. Not even the businessman smile he’d donned during our massive number of meetings. None of those.
No, I was talking about the panty-dropping, I can picture you naked and want to do dirty and nasty and Earth-shaking things to your body that will take all night and half of tomorrow smile.
Yes. Fuck yes. Take me now, hard against the wall yes.
Lucky for me, I made it safely into my room before I could voice my thoughts out loud. Though I’ll admit, I just barely made it. I was desperately aroused when the door closed behind me. Hearing him roughly command, “Lock it, Mia. And I mean it,” didn’t help any at all.
My heart was pounding. I was breathing heavily and I had never felt so empty in my entire life. It wouldn’t take much for me to sail right over the edge. I gave serious thought to taking care of the issue with my own hands or hell, even humping the couch, but in the end I decided not to.
Being aroused, I told myself, would give dinner an edge. Make the entire experience sharper. And when I did finally get some relief, it’d be incredible.
Yeah, I actually convinced myself of that.
Come to find out, that wasn’t only a bad mistake, it was a ridiculously stupid bad mistake. Take it from me, the only thing at dinner that needs an edge is your knife. The only thing that needs to be sharp is your wit. And maybe his.
But I was totally and completely correct about how incredible my release would be.
We didn’t have time to walk by the river before we ate. I’d thought when he’d first brought it up that it’d be highly unlikely we would. Thanks to the Atlanta traffic, as soon as we arrived and checked in, we were told our table was ready.
It didn’t help that I was a little bit late getting ready. Don’t ask me why, but it took forever for me to decide what to wear. Ridiculous, right? I mean, it wasn’t even like I had that much to pick from. I was on a business trip with a suitcase to select from. It wasn’t like I was at home and had an entire closet.
Tenor didn’t say a word when he knocked on my door so we could grab a cab for dinner. I met him in a hotel robe and suggested he wait on the couch for me. He waited in silence, looking far too good in his custom-made suit. No, it was only when I stepped into the room and stood before him, that he broke his silence.
“You look fantastic,” he said with a grin. He stood and held out his arm for me.
I couldn’t help but to compare his actions and behavior to that of Benjamin’s the night before. Granted, with Benjamin, even though things had been off with him from the start, it wasn’t until the very end that it had gone really, really bad.
There was nothing off about Tenor. Nothing at all even gave the hint of being off. As my mind began to process that, any remaining tension left. I knew Tenor would never do anything like Benjamin, no matter what we had been doing. Taking a deep breath, I let the tension out of my back and shoulders, relaxing for what felt like the first time months. The stress and emotional turmoil over mama and the business melted away.
Once in the cab, we made small talk as we travelled to the restaurant. I found it hard to keep my eyes off Tenor. The blue shirt he had on somehow made his eyes seem darker than normal and honestly, every part of him moved with an unmistakable grace that drew me to him.
“I guess we can take a walk after dinner,” Tenor said after we sat down. “I didn’t expect traffic to be that bad.” He chuckled at my raised eyebrow. “Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking either.”
“Probably better that we walk after dinner anyway,” I said looking over the menu. “From the looks of this menu, we’ll need to burn off some calories.” Everything on the menu sounded delicious. Not to mention how delicious it looked after a quick glance around the tables near us. “I’m tempted to order one of everything. The only thing stopping me is those portions I’m seeing aren’t exactly small. There’s no way I could eat all that food and it’d be a sin to throw it out.”
“Don’t tempt me, I just might go ahead and order it all. But you’re right, it wouldn’t be good to waste it. I think I’ll go with the pork tenderloin, instead.” He closed his menu. “What are you thinking?”
“Trying to decide which fish to go with and leaning toward the cod with crawfish.”
The waiter came by shortly thereafter and recommended the cod, so I went with that. After he walked away, I leaned back in my chair.
“Are you happy with the way everything went today?” I asked. I’d been surprised at how much I’d enjoyed both the meetings and working
alongside Tenor. We made a good pair.
He nodded. “I’ve been wanting to expand for a long time and I think the Atlanta location would be a logical next step. I’ve also been thinking about bringing on a partner.”
“Will you stay in Boston or will you move down here?” I was almost afraid to ask, but I feared not knowing more than I was afraid of asking. Maybe if he hired a partner, that person could move to Atlanta.
“I might come down here every once in a while, but I have no desire to move from Boston. I’ll hire someone to run the place here.” He shot me a playful look. “You wouldn’t be interested in moving to Atlanta would you?”
That wasn’t why he’d asked me to come with him on this trip, was it? Surely he didn’t think I’d be interested in moving, did he? A chill washed over me. What if it was?
“It was a joke, Mia,” he said with a grin. “And not a very good one, either based on how pale you just got.”
I sucked air into my lungs. “You don’t want me to move to Atlanta?”
“No, and I’m sorry. I won’t joke like that again.”
I had no reason to doubt him. He’d never lied to me before and I saw no reason why he’d start now. But suddenly I wondered what had been his plan in bringing me on board at Bachelor International. Was there a specific reason or had he only been thinking to eliminate his competition? “Was there another reason you hired me that I don’t know about?” I managed to ask.
“I know how you feel about our questionnaires,” he said. “You’ve made no secret of your dislike of our multiple choice questions.”
He was certainly right about that. I bobbed my head in a slight nod.
“While I would like to do away with that questionnaire and completely redo it, it does have a winning track record and I know my staff would not look kindly on changing to something that in their opinion is unproven.”
I almost stopped him to remind him that it was not totally unproven, but he’d known of my success with it.
“What I would like for you to do, is to try it out with our international division and see how it works. Run some analysis and compare the two methods. If you find it’s significantly better, I’ll have the data I need to implement it company-wide.”
He still wanted me on the international team? I’d picked up early in my time at work that the international part of Bachelor International was different to Tenor and that he held that part of his business separate from the other part. He’d mentioned it when we’d first discussed my role in his company, but up until our trip here, I’d been busy just going over the day-to-day of Bachelor International.
“You look as though that surprises you,” he said.
“I know how important the international division is to you.”
He lifted his wine glass and took a sip. I had to force myself not to stare at his lips. I wondered how they would feel on mine with the slightest hint of wine on them. I was certainly no longer chilly. “It’s very important to me,” he said. “And now you know how important I think you are to the success of my business.”
It warmed me inside to know he valued what I brought to his company and he trusted me with such an important division.
Our entrees arrived at that moment and after we took a bite, neither of us were able to focus on anything other than how delicious our food was. By the time we’d stopped gushing about it, he asked me about baseball and we bonded over our love of the Red Sox.
The sun had just disappeared for the day when we stepped outside. I thought I’d be chilly with the sun down, but it seemed as if I’d underestimated how hot it could still be in the South after dark.
“It’s so peaceful out here,” I said as Tenor led the way to a well-traveled path along the river.
“Hard to believe we’re close to the city, isn’t it?” He had turned ever so slightly to the left and positioned as he was, I had an incredible view of his profile. Everything about him called to me and I’d never wanted a man so much. And of course, because the universe enjoyed screwing with me, he had to be my boss and therefore, completely unattainable.
“Lately it seems everything about my life is hard to believe,” I said.
He turned in surprise, concern marring his features. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t mean it in a bad way,” I hastened to tell him. “Not at all. It’s just…. If you had told me three months ago, I’d be here with you?” I shook my head. “I’d have laughed in your face.”
Even as little as one month ago, I’d thought us to be too different. And though in some ways we were, like our approach to matchmaking and our upbringings, we still seemed to complement the other.
I thought my statement would lighten the mood, but he came to a halt and turned to face me, all serious. “What part of this? The part that you’re working for me or the part that we just had dinner?”
“Any of it,” I whispered, the concern in his eyes nearly gutting me. “I wouldn’t have believed any of it.”
He was silent and wrinkled his forehead in thought. The wind blew an errant strand of hair in my eyes and before I could brush it out of the way, he beat me to it. His fingers felt better than I had imagined and my eyes slid shut at how gentle he could be.
“You're nothing like I thought you would be,” I whispered.
He didn't move away, only shifted his hand so his thumb dropped to my lips and traced their outline. “How did you think I'd be?” he asked and the low sound combined with his touch made me warm and tingly inside.
“Conceited.” I tilted my head. “Kind of like a mix between a used car salesman and a scuzzy lawyer.” He lifted an eyebrow. “You asked.”
“I did, didn't I? I suppose no one has ever accused you of not holding back, have they?”
“I’ve never seen the point in lying about how I feel.” I wanted him closer, but I hesitated to move, afraid he’d back away.
“What do you think of me now?” he whispered and leaned in a bit.
“That you're a dangerous man.”
In truth, we had stopped at a secluded part of the river path. He pushed his thumb against the seam of my mouth and without thinking, I sucked his finger inside. The hiss he gave in response morphed into a moan and I sucked harder.
“You have it all wrong,” he said and his voice was rough. “You're the dangerous one.”
I let his thumb fall from my lips. “Me?”
“Yes.” He took a step closer and in doing so I felt his hardness. “You have me thinking things I should not think about an employee.”
“Funny you should say that. I was thinking you were making me feel things I know better than to feel about my boss.”
And there it was, the knowledge and the wanting that was driving us both to distraction. But there was nothing we could do about it.
“What if…” he started but shook his head. “Nah, forget it.”
“What?”
“I can't. Or closer to the truth, I shouldn’t."
“Tell me.” If he had figured out a way for us to happen, I wanted to know what it was. “Please.”
“I thought we could pretend like when we're here, in Atlanta, that we're just Tenor and Mia. Not employee and employer. But I can't ask you to do that. It really doesn't change anything.”
“I like it.” While we weren’t in Boston, we could pretend to be any ordinary couple.
“My attorney would disagree.”
“Your attorney isn't here. I am. And I want you.” I bumped my hip against him. I wasn't sure where this aggressive side of me had come from. It wasn't like me at all.
Tenor seemed to enjoy my new side. No sooner had I finished my sentence than he roughly took me in his arms. “I can't find it in me to keep coming up with reasons why we shouldn't do this.”
“Good.”
And still he hesitated. Damn it all.
“Would it help if I signed something saying anything we do I give my consent and will never seek to file a complaint?” I asked.
“Doubtful,
" he said. “A good lawyer would only have to say you signed under duress.”
He wasn't going to take us any further. Damn it all.
“What's my name?” I asked, deciding to try something different.
“Mia.”
“And what's your name?”
“Seriously?”
“Humor me.”
“Tenor.”
“Come here often, Tenor?” And then for good measure I batted my eyelashes.
It worked. He laughed.
Apparently, it was what he needed, a good laugh and a ridiculous role play, to break the I’m your boss and we can’t do this mindset he’d been in for way too long. After a few seconds, he wasn’t laughing anymore. His expression grew serious and his eyes darkened.
“God, Mia,” he whispered. “What you do to me, I’ll never be able to explain.”
I ran my hands up his arms, delighting in the muscles under my fingertips. “You don’t have to. I feel the same thing.”
He lowered his head and I held my breath. I could practically feel his kiss and I was desperate to taste him. But right before his lips finally, finally brushed mine, a child’s laughter broke through the quiet bliss of our wonderland, followed by an equally loud, “You’ll never find me.”
We managed to jump apart and to appear as nothing more than a couple out strolling and enjoying the beautiful setting when a pair of elementary school-aged boys ran up behind us.
“Strangers! Strangers!” One of them yelled. “Daddy!”
Tenor looked and me with a raised eyebrow. I shook my head. I didn’t understand either. Surely they didn’t think they would be the only ones out walking.
Within seconds, a couple, the parents I assumed by the way the two boys clung to them, appeared. The dad saw us and shot us both an apologetic look. “Sorry about that.”
“No worries,” Tenor said.