Bistro Bachelor: Working Man Series - Book 2

by Rose, Elizabeth

  “I guess you’ll have to stay here. It’s my place, but I don’t know where else to put you.”

  As she marveled at her surroundings, Jack spoke slow and childlike again trying to make her understand. Gee, was he going to feel stupid when she decided to respond in English.

  “Home. You stay here.” He walked over to the huge bed and patted his hand on the quilted comforter atop. “Bed.” He then walked over to a door and pointed at it. “Bathroom.”

  He was irritating her to no end with his absurd way of talking, but she still kept quiet since she knew it was irritating him more.

  “And take off that damned hat already, will you?”

  When she did nothing to remove it, he walked over and plucked it from her head, throwing it atop a wicker chair next to a glass and rattan dinette table.

  For a brief moment, she froze. She’d never felt so naked in her entire life without the security of her hat. And he’d plucked it from her head effortlessly as if he were plucking a berry from the vine. Her eyes met his and she found herself staring, unable to pull her gaze away. The color of his eyes was now perfectly clear since he’d removed the sunglasses. They were azure blue like the skies that blanketed the mountains of Cuzco. The brilliant color didn’t fit him at all. She figured he’d have cold, stark eyes of ebony with the personality he carried. Instead, they were bright, warm, understanding and forgiving all at the same time.

  His bushy brows danced as he surveyed her face. “Not quite the child I had you pegged for, are you? You’ve got quite a pretty face.”

  She could feel herself blush but refused to look away. If she did, she’d give herself away that she understood what he was saying. Instead, she held her gaze steady, sure she could outstare him if need be.

  “You really shouldn’t hide that pretty face under such an ugly hat.” His gaze traveled down her body next, making her thankful she was well covered at the moment. Still, his sweeping perusal made her feel as if she were standing there stark naked.

  Waiting for his next compliment, she rather enjoyed the fact he didn’t know she understood his language, or he probably would never be saying these things. Still, she liked to hear them.

  “I bet you have quite a figure under all those clothes.”

  The heat rose inside her.

  “I hear those mountain women are built like horses.”

  She blinked as he stepped away, not believing what she’d just heard.

  “Of course,” he added as he headed across the room,” I also hear they have the stamina during sex to keep a man fully pleased.”

  She didn’t dare look at him after that comment. Right about now, she wanted to tell him exactly what she thought of him. If she weren’t so tongue-tied, she probably would have.

  “I’m so glad you can’t understand a word I’m saying,” he commented. “It’s so nice not to have to pretend around a woman.” He came closer to her, sniffed and crinkled his nose. “You smell like . . . llama.” He spit the words off his tongue as if he were disgusted and just stepped in a pile of dung. “How about a bath?”

  Eden bit her tongue and turned around slowly. She’d never in her life met such an arrogant, rude man. When she turned back around, she realized he was already in the bathroom filling the tub with water. She walked over and peered into the room.

  “Bath.” He pronounced the word much too clearly as she stood in the doorway watching.

  “Bath,” she repeated with a stiff upper lip.

  “That’s right,” he said, sounding surprised as well as pleased. “You’re learning fast. A couple of new words a day and we should be able to converse in about a year or two.”

  Jack headed out the door, swearing he heard Eden saying bastard as he left the room. He shook his head, knowing it was impossible. She must have been practicing the word bath and was saying it wrong, that’s all. He’d have to work with her on that one later.

  Chapter 4

  The dinner rush ended, and Jack sat down with his tenth cup of coffee and second pack of cigarettes that day.

  “Where the hell did that rush come from, Ruthie?” he asked his waitress as she sat across from him at the table counting her tips.

  “I told you it was that circus girl you brought in here.” Ruthie talked as she sorted her money. “I don’t know where you dug her up, but it really worked. I haven’t made this much in tips in a long time now.”

  “She’s not a circus girl,” Jack told her, although he wasn’t sure what to call her because the hideous clothes she wore made her an oddity for sure. “I told you, she’s from Peru. She’s the professor’s daughter. She’ll be staying with us for a while.”

  “Professor Starke?” Ruthie’s head snapped up and her hands stilled. “I thought you had it in for him. Doesn’t he owe you lots of money?”

  “He’s dead. His funeral was today.” Jack took a deep drag of the cigarette and blew the smoke in the air.

  “Jack, you really shouldn’t smoke in here,” said Ruthie, waving her paper bills in front of her face. “You know it’s a law and not allowed.”

  “It’s my place and I’ll do what I want,” he growled, balancing his cigarette on the edge of the ashtray. “Besides, I don’t do it around the customers.”

  Ruthie sighed, pushed her money back in a pile and started to recount it. “So what’s his daughter doing here?”

  “I don’t know,” said Jack. “But it seems the old man told her I’d take care of her for some strange reason. What a notion.”

  Ruthie took the gum from her mouth, and stuck it on the opposite edge of the ashtray. “Are you going to send her back to the mountains or what?”

  Jack took another drag of the cigarette and blew it out. “How the hell should I know? I have enough problems to think about for now. Plus, I can’t afford to send her back.”

  “Can’t, or won’t? It seems to me you have a soft spot somewhere in that black heart of yours or you never would have taken her in to begin with.”

  Ruthie was wise and, at times, like a mother to Jack. She always seemed able to see right through him. “You’re full of nonsense, Ruthie. The whole thing just caught me off guard, that’s all.”

  “You used to be a real lover, Jack. Maybe you need a little lady around here to soften you up again. You do realize that no one can stand you since you broke up with Ginny because you’re always so ornery. Maybe you just need a good lay and you’d stop being such a bastard.”

  Jack’s spine stiffened at hearing her words. He cared what others thought of him – too much at times. It surprised him that a woman he considered a good friend was talking to him this way. “Ruthie, anyone but you and I wouldn’t put up with that kind of talk. You’d be outta here on your ass, and you know it.”

  “It seems to me, your ass is the one on the line here with your father coming back soon. Once he sees what’s happened to his restaurant in his absence, he’s going to kill you with that temper of his.”

  “Don’t remind me,” mumbled Jack, shaking his head. “I never should have lent the money to that fluke of a professor. I’ve totally let my father down. Once he finds out I’ve wrecked the family business, I’ll be out on the streets like little Miss Muffet upstairs, with nowhere to go. I blew it, Ruthie. I was never cut out for this business and never wanted to do it in the first place. I’m a twenty-six-year-old high school dropout without a diploma and soon to be without a job.”

  Ruthie’s hands stilled and she looked Jack in the eyes. “You could always go back to school, Jack.”

  Jack’s muscles tensed at the thought. Going back to school at his age wasn’t an option. “Bite your tongue, Ruthie. I’m too damned old for that and we both know it. I screwed up early in life, and my father is the only one who has given me a chance. All I wanted to do was show him I’m capable of running a business and making it succeed without the proper schooling, but I’m starting to think it isn’t true.”

  “Now you’re talking nonsense, Jack!” Ruthie scooped up her tips and shoved the
m in her apron pocket. “You were doing just fine . . . at first.”

  “Fine until I met Professor Jonathan Starke,” said Jack, smashing out the cigarette against the glass holder. “He’s taken me for a ride and left me without a pot to piss in.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” said Ruthie, sounding as if she were about to teach him a lesson. “Don’t forget that he left you his most precious possession. He left you as guardian of Eden until she returns to Peru. Maybe you shouldn’t be so hard on the little lady. After all, she did bring in quite a crowd this afternoon, and I rather like seeing the tip money again.” Ruthie patted the bulge of money in her pocket to prove her point.

  “Ruthie, no little lady is going to change anything around here, especially not the one upstairs. I assure you, she is the furthest thing from Lady Luck. She’s more like Lady Disaster. It was a fluke we got busy today, that’s all. It had nothing to do with her. Now, I won’t have her sitting in the window like a sideshow in that get-up anymore. Do me a favor and take her shopping or something. Buy her some clothes so she can blend in a little better and not make me the town gossip in tomorrow’s paper. I’ve got to build up the reputation of this restaurant, not bring it down. I’ve got to think of something to save this place, and fast.”

  Jack walked through the kitchen feeling like maybe he could have been a little nicer to Eden. After all, it wasn’t her fault her father had ruined his life. The last thing he’d meant to do was to take it out on her, but he’d been under so much stress lately that the smallest thing made him ready to snap. He walked over to one of the wall refrigerators and pulled it open. Removing a piece of cherry pie, he realized it wasn’t as cold as it should be.

  “Alfredo,” he called. “Did you get a chance to look at these refrigerators yet?”

  “No, Señor Talon,” the man answered. “The crowd took us by surprise.” He cleaned up the kitchen, banging pots and pans as he spoke.

  “I see.” Jack hated to ask the next question, but had no choice. “I need you to stay late and –”

  “No stay,” said Alfredo with a swish of his hand through the air. “I’ve got to get home to feed the dog.”

  “You don’t even have a dog, Alfredo,” said Jack, knowing the man wouldn’t stay unless he paid extra but he just couldn’t afford it right now. Alfredo busied himself wiping down a stainless steel counter, refusing to look at him. Jack didn’t need to see the man’ s face to know he was bothered by this suggestion. He supposed he couldn’t blame the man. He only wanted to be paid. “All right,” said Jack in a low voice. “Just empty this fridge into the ones that work and I’ll take a look at it with you tomorrow.”

  “Sí, Señor Talon.”

  “And quit calling me Señor Talon. My name’s Jack, so use it.”

  Alfredo grunted.

  “By the way, I was wondering if you could teach me a couple words in Spanish.”

  “Why for?” Alfredo played with the rag, looking up at Jack in question.

  “I want to be able to talk with Eden.”

  “Does she speak Spanish, Señor Jack?”

  “How the hell should I know?” spat Jack, hating when Alfredo purposely ignored his orders, like not calling Jack Señor . “Isn’t that what they speak over in that part of the world?”

  Alfredo mumbled something in Spanish under his breath.

  “What does that mean?” asked Jack.

  “It means we’ll start on the lessons in the morning.”

  Somehow Jack knew better but let it slide. He picked up a clean fork and the cherry pie and headed upstairs. He figured he’d bring Eden some dessert and, hopefully, they could start all over. Even if she had no idea of the way he’d talked to her, it still tugged at his conscience a little that maybe he wasn’t as nice to her as he could have been.

  It was late and already dark by the time he got to his apartment over the restaurant. He figured she’d be sleeping so he opened the door quietly when he entered. The night stars shone brightly through the glass-domed ceiling, the full moon lighting up the darkened room with a soft, bluish glow.

  Eden’s clothes and that silly hat lay atop his bed, but she was nowhere to be seen. He set the pie on the glass table and made his way over to the table lamp. With one flick of the switch, a soft orange glow flooded the room. His gaze swept the area. No Eden. He realized she could only be in the one room with a door in the open apartment. That is, the bathroom.

  He called her name but heard no answer. The door to the bathroom was ajar so he pushed it open, switching on the light as he did so. It was then that he realized she had never gotten out of the bathtub. Instead, she had fallen asleep.

  The light woke her up and she sat upright, her long, unbound, ebony hair falling around her shoulders. He couldn’t stop his eyes from wandering to her high, perky breasts. She certainly was not the child he’d first thought she was. Her dusky nipples were standing out straight on her bronze skin and he felt himself stirring below his belt.

  It had been a long time since he’d had a woman. Ginny had left him to go live abroad, and he took it personally, delving instead into his work. That is, work and bad investments from having a weary mind.

  Eden blinked in the bright light as if she were trying to remember just where she was. She got to her feet, splashing water over the side of the tub. Without even realizing it, she gave Jack an even better view of her naked body, only managing to get him more aroused than he’d been since Ginny dumped him.

  He swallowed hard, not able to speak. The woman under all those silly clothes was beautiful! Her stomach was tight and lean and her hips were well rounded but nothing like the huge hips he had imagined. At the juncture of her thighs was a black triangle of silken curls that he longed to run his fingers through. She had strong, shapely legs that he’d love to feel wrapped around his hips.

  Once Eden realized where she was, she screamed and grabbed a towel to hide her beauty and deny him the wonders God had given her. Jack closed his eyes and quickly backed out the door.

  Damn! How careless of him to enter and not remember she was in the tub. But still, he had called her name and she hadn’t answered and he’d been worried about her. Since she’d only said two words since he met her, he probably shouldn’t have even thought she’d answer. Jack had come up here to try to make amends but, instead, he’d only managed to make things worse.

  Walking over to the closet, he pulled out one of his dress shirts, tossing it onto the bed. All the while, he kept his back to the bathroom door.

  “Ruthie’s going to take you shopping tomorrow,” he called out, feeling silly since she couldn’t understand him. Still, by talking to her, it would keep his mind off of what he’d just seen and the way he was feeling. “I’ll give her some money to buy you a few clothes. For now, you can wear one of my shirts to sleep in.”

  She probably cowered in fear in the bathroom, thinking he was waiting for her to come out so he could take her to bed. He couldn’t blame her because it did seem that way. Just the thought of making love to her excited him even more. He had to get out of there, though he had nowhere to go.

  He’d given her his place to use and, now, he couldn’t trust himself in the same room with her all night. Not after seeing her naked. He’d never sleep when he was so aroused.

  “Eden!” he called, but knew she’d never come out of the bathroom as long as he was still here. “Eden, I’m leaving now and won’t be back until morning. I know you can’t understand me but . . . but I wanted to say . . . I’m sorry. I’m sorry about your father, and I’m sorry about being such a jerk.”

  Eden heard Jack’s words clearly from the bathroom and also the slam of the door and his footsteps going down the stairs as he left. She slowly opened the door and peeked out, just to be sure he had gone. The room of glass was now covered by purple velvet curtains that encompassed the entire room. He must have closed them for her privacy before he left.

  She tiptoed out to the bed and picked up her old clothes. They we
re dirty and she now realized that they did smell like llama. Alpaca to be exact. She missed the furry animals, and she missed the mountains of home. Now, she was so fresh and clean that she dreaded the thought of putting her alpaca wool clothes back on. Then she saw the shirt he’d left for her on the bed.

  Picking it up in one hand, she reveled in the silken softness of it. Such luxury to be able to wear such expensive threads so close to her bare skin. As she rubbed it against her face, she noticed that it smelled like Jack’s cologne. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. There was no way she could wear this without dreaming of him.

  No, she decided she wouldn’t wear this, even if he did say he was sorry. Jack Talon was a rude man, and she wanted nothing more to do with him. It was apparent that he didn’t like her father much and it was no secret that he didn’t like her.

  Never in her life had Eden felt so alone. Her mother and family were thousands of miles away, and her father was dead. That made Eden nothing more than a foreigner in a strange land of rude people. She had no one to talk to, no one to tell of the grief that was eating her up from the inside out. If only she could allow herself to cry, she might feel better. But she wouldn’t do that.

  Reaching out to carefully pull down the comforter on the bed, she eyed the beautiful leopard-skin sheets. It reminded her of the ocelot that roamed wild in the jungles of the Amazon. It also reminded her of the man whose bed she’d be sleeping in that night. She lay down naked, wondering where he would spend the night. No doubt, it would probably be in the arms of a woman somewhere. Suddenly, she felt a strange pang in the area of her heart. She pulled the sheets up over her and lay on her back, looking at the stars beyond the glass-domed ceiling.

  What if she were that woman he spent the night with? A strange part of her longed to know how it would feel. She shoved the thought from her mind and, instead, focused on the few stars she could see in the skies.