A Fall From Grace. Mail Order Bride Western Page 42

  “No,” he interrupted her. “I am okay with that.”

  He spoke as if he was doped. He circled the rim of his water glass, thinking.

  “So I take it that because you did lay it out on the table for me that I have the job,” he said, his eyes smoky.

  Dana’s insides warmed.

  “I think you just might, Jeff,” she said.

  His face gathered with predatory darkness.

  “Dana I think your baggage is way better than mine.”

  Chapter Two

  After all that pretending to study a menu that Dana was sure he knew almost by heart -- she had the feeling this was a hang out for him -- Jeff ordered the loaded fries.

  “And whatever you have on draft,” he said to the waitress with an intense look in his eyes. “Would you like a beer?”

  “Yes,” said Dana, charmed by him.

  She wasn’t much of a beer drinker but it did sound good. One thing she told herself, if she did happen to breakdown and get involved with someone, she would not just say yet to please him. She would be true to herself.

  “Is that all?” asked the waitress.

  “Yes,” said Jeff dismissively.

  Once they were alone at the table, he said to Dana, “I suddenly have no interest in food now. All I can think about is what you just said.”

  “We don’t have to eat,” she said apologetically. “Let’s get her back.”

  Jeff grinned at her reaction.

  “I take that back,” he said playfully. “I can’t wait to feed those fries to you.”

  Dana warmed. She like that idea, so much so that he knocked her quick answer from her. She usually had something smart alecky at the ready but not this time. All she could do is smile, which he did in kind.

  “Do you like that idea of me feeding you?” he asked sensually.

  Jeff may have had that boyish look about him but his eyes could get dark, erotic in an instant. He had a great brain, she decided. She was so aroused she could hardly reply. He knew it too. There was very little fooling him, she suspected. He raised an eyebrow flirtatiously.

  “I do,” she squirmed.

  The waitress set the glasses of beer and fries between them. Jeff’s eyes glittered.

  “Salt or no salt?” he asked.

  “Salt please,” she lisped.

  “Okay then,” he said sprinkling the fries. “This is already fun. Ketchup?”

  “On the side,” she requested.

  “Oh you didn’t say please,” he flirtatiously scolded.

  “”Please and thank you,” she said.

  “Well in that case,” he said and dipped a fry in ketchup.

  Dana opened her mouth like a baby bird and received the fry.

  “Oh I like that,” he said. “Let’s do that again.”

  And he did. He fed her one more fry before taking a few for himself. Dana sipped her beer.

  “That’s a good combination, the beer and fries,” she smiled. “By the way, you’re better than salt.”

  “Wow, I think that might be my favorite compliment ever,” he said.

  “So how does a billionaire score a day off with someone like me?” she said.

  “I cleared my calendar,” he answered. “As I said, I am a person. I want a life too.”

  “And what exactly do you does your company do?” she asked.

  “Companies,” he said. “I am in Energy. Any kind and all kinds and everything related to it.”

  “Hmm,” she said. “Sounds interesting.”

  “Does it?” he asked sarcastically. “Wanna talk about it?”

  It took her a moment to realize that he was putting her on. She blushed and found it hard to look at him directly in the eye.

  “What’s going on there?” he teased. “Let’s talk about what we were talking about before. Let’s talk about those unaddressed fantasies.”

  Now Dana was on fire, her cheeks rosying as heat rose to the top of her head.

  “That is a lovely shade of pink there, Dana,” he played. “I am enjoying this immensely. Since I see you’re in a state there, you just nod if I get warm about some of the things you’ve been thinking about. Would that be okay if we focused on you?”

  Dana nodded. She sipped her water instead of her beer. She opened her mouth as Jeff offered her another fry. Focused on you. Those words were too good to be true. In her fantasies her man focused on her but never was that the case in real life in her vacant marriage. Jeff was probably smart enough to know he had just said the magic words.

  “So hot sex,” he listed casually, ”that’s a given. In your fantasy, I take it the guy knows your body as well as you do. He gives you all the orgasms you never had in your actual life, right?”

  Dana jolted in a very good way at his graphic language. She was swimming in an erotic state right in front of him and there was not much she could do about it except ride it out. He brought tears to her eyes. He reached out and dabbed them.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” he said huskily.

  He slowed the pace of their conversation, taking a drink of his beer as his eyes never left her. She didn’t return his gaze; she could only watch through heavy lowered lids.

  “So is this guy a little dominant? Draws you out of you?” he asked plainly.

  Dana pressed her back against the booth. He nailed it and it was almost more than she could bear. He laughed. Through her lashes she saw him flash a broad, brilliant smile. It was the biggest smile she had seen so far and he was just plain gorgeous.

  “I said to nod but I think we’re communicating,” he said.

  She couldn’t even mask that she was worked up and yet he showed her no mercy. He asked more questions. He leaned across the table top and whispered a question for her ears only.

  “So is spanking ever involved? Not talking S&M but more like a little playful discipline?” he asked.

  Dana whimpered. If anyone looked on to their table, they would surely know something was up. And yet he kept at it.

  “Have you ever been spanked?” he asked oh-so-softly.

  She held up her hand, signaling him to take a break. She breathed until her body restored to a calmer state, until the richness of the moment subsided. She drank her ice water again. The beer was refreshing but she definitely needed proper hydration after that.

  “Have you?” she flirted.

  He shook his head.

  “Ah no,” he said. “Definitely not my style.”

  “So you’ve never spanked a woman?” she asked, a lot more confident than moments before.

  “I didn’t say that,” he grinned. “You are not answering my question, missy.”

  “That’s for me to know and you to find out,” she replied wickedly.

  He raised his eyebrow at her comeback.

  “You’re on,” he said coolly and then pressed again. “Never?”

  “I don’t want to give away all the surprises and ruin it for you,” she flirted.

  “Dana, the only way you could ruin this for me is if you change your mind,” he said.

  All the tension and insecurity of the first date had vanished. Dana felt as though she was talking to as good a friend as her friend Cheryl. While there was so much to discover about each other, she felt in many ways like she already knew him.

  For two people who met for lunch, they didn’t eat much. Afterwards, they parted in the parking lot, grinning, lightly bumping into each other as they strolled to their cars. They were clear. They were officially having an affair. It had begun.

  Not once did Jeff ask her ‘so, how do we do this?’ He just seem to know, which might have been the best part of all when it came to what they were about to embark on. Dana was so out from under the marriage that was more like solitary confinement than a union. It felt amazing to have met someone who was actually going to be thinking about her and what she might like. Even if it was strictly for mutual gratification, she was finally going to be the center of someone’s attention.

  Jeff held t
he car door for her. They gazed at each other, goofy looks on their faces. In a flash, he grabbed her and kissed her, fully enthralled in the parking lot of the Woodmont Grill. Their breath rushed through their nostrils like a couple of bulls as their lips furiously mushed.

  Their mouths nipped each other at first, until he penetrated her with his tongue. Then they were tasting one another with the flourishing strokes, entwining together. They pressed into each, mouths and frames as though they were trying to fuse.

  Jeff raked his fingers through Dana’s straight satin hair, getting lost in the kiss until he pulled back, touching his forehead to hers, trying to contain himself. They froze, buzzing from their off-the-hook physical chemistry, trying to not to be a further spectacle in the restaurant parking lot.

  “This went much better than I expected,” he said softly.

  “Much,” she murmured.

  He leaned into the window before she could pull away. There was no hint of flirtation on his face. He was very serious.

  “Hey,” he said. “The only thing I ask from you is that if you at any time, you change your mind, you say so. No just disappearing.”

  “I wouldn’t do that,” she said.

  He nodded his head.

  “You’re new at this. I am not. It happens,” he said. “Be honest and communicate. Deal?”

  “Deal,” she said.

  Chapter Three

  As Dana drove back to her house, she was a literally on a date high. For someone reluctant to meet people online at all, she was so happy with the way things went. But she had to focus on her driving; she was seriously worried she might get pulled over and have to explain herself. It would be a hell of a way to talk herself out of a ticket. She practically floated in through her front door from the car.

  One thing was certain, she decided she owed her friend whose idea it was for her to fix her up, a major thank you. As her marriage had ended, Dana never had intentions of finding a date via the internet. But her office mate Cheryl DeLuca, who dated online plenty, announced she had created a dating account on Dana’s behalf. The first hit once the account was up and running -- though not the only hit -- was from Jeff.

  Up to their actual meeting, it had been such nice distraction texting him while she moved into the rental near work. Her new living room may have been filled with a cluster of yet-to-be unpacked boxes from a ruined marriage, but she so liked that she finally had guy to talk to even if it was via texts or even if it all never amounted to anything.

  And now that the date had amounted to something -- and a very nice something -- and Dana had bared all about her motives, instead of swapping flirty one liners, the communication took on a decidedly more sensual tone. Their exchange wasn’t graphic but Jeff Edgarian definitely knew how to bring it to a lady, in short, hot sentences.

  In the privacy of her new home, Dana scoped on his company website, learning everything she could about him. The upside to having just met a billionaire was that he was completely verifiable. There was lot of information about him. He was a hot shot with an impressive business bio. He was heavily into charity and community service.

  It was definitely a guilty pleasure looking him up. It was like watching a soap opera. She especially liked endlessly gazing at Jeff’s high-end, carefully posed photo next to his bio that said he was the CEO and president, and owner of many companies.

  She stared all she wanted into the gorgeous hazel eyes of the man who was going to break her unlucky no-sex streak. Dana determined that behind those intense eyes was a brain that had what it took to play the naughty games she wanted to play.

  For years and years, she lay in her empty marital bed conjuring stories in her head of gallant but bad-boy men who wanted to tryst with her the second they laid eyes on her.

  Studying Jeff’s business profile, imagining his Alpha male being powerful in the conference room and powerful in bed, Dana knew he could be that man of her fantasies; would be that man. Her body tensed sweetly with that awareness.

  He had summed it up at the restaurant so exactly. He could be someone who knew that despite her veneer of reluctance and a lack of confidence, she was a firebrand beneath.

  In these scenarios where there was a little drama that always resolved in the best possible way, these men coaxed her to do the things she always wanted to do. To know passion she always wanted to share. They would push her to the very limits to lead her to rapture.

  Dana emerged from her day dream, aware that she was embracing herself. She lost all drive to unpack. Progress was going to be uber slow as long as she had her Jeff distraction.

  He sent her another text and she found herself smiling at the phone. His words entranced her and she didn’t feel like doing much of anything except for keeping the communication going. He had to be getting as worked up as she was because he was in it as much as she was.

  “Well my day is shot,” he said finally. “Do you have dinner plans?”

  She thought about it. This would make two dates in one day but they did have, after all, an agreement to have a torrid affair. That couldn’t happen if they were in separate buildings, so she went with it.

  “I don’t,” she answered out loud as she typed them into her phone. “But I don’t want you to think I am easy.”

  She meant it playfully. They were both adults and she was her own person. She only had to answer to herself ultimately.

  “On the contrary, you make it very hard,” he wrote.

  It was a cute play on words and though things were going fast, she wasn’t ready to go there with their communication. She looked outside. They burned up the late afternoon and the early evening. The summer light in the sky was softening. It would be dark soon.

  “Please come to my house. Bring you bathing suit,” he wrote, reverting his tone back to a more gallant one.

  “Is this because you have a pool or because you want to see me in one?” she asked.

  “Both,” he replied very quickly.

  Dana knew it was kind of a sick thought that it was great she went through a recent divorce because she was what her friend Cheryl called ‘break up’ skinny. She had no problem with the prospect of wearing a bathing suit in front of him.

  But then she tried it on and inspected herself in the mirror. She was too skinny. It was great if she was going to keep her clothes on but it had been too many years of doing that. She had intended to be naked in front of this man and someone let the air out of her tires. Dana panicked. She called Cheryl.

  “He wants to go swimming with me,” Dana complained.

  “I know you’re new at this but you do know that is code, don’t you?” said Cheryl dryly.

  Dana sighed but her friend laughed softly.

  Cheryl promised her, “It’ll be fine. I am older than you. I don’t work out like you and no one has turned me away yet because I wasn’t perfect. Get over yourself.”

  With that advice, Dana took a long shower and made sure she was impeccably groomed. She packed a little beach bag, loaded Jeff’s address in her GPS and was off. Like the town she just moved from, the landscape changed from strip malls, to rolling lawns to secluded mansions within miles and minutes.

  One minute she was bumper to bumper and the next she was gunning it down winding roads that cut through black groves of trees. The sun had now set in the late August sky and the colors of the night were spectacular. Dana had the top down. She would definitely have beach hair by the time she got to him. Flying down the country roads, the breeze in her hair, her moments with Jeff were already magical.

  She didn’t even have to figure out which house was his. He was standing in the driveway in front of the buttery light of the opened garage. She liked that his garage was not picture perfect. That it looked like the garage of a real person.

  She took a second to admire his house which was large but not mansion-like, set on a very natural lot in what she could determine, even in the dark, was a multi-million dollar neighborhood.

  “Cute,” he said as she cu
t the engine.

  “Yeah, I got it second hand,” she replied.

  He shook his head and smiled faintly.

  “I meant you,” he said.

  When Dana stepped out of the car in front of him, there was just the right difference in their height. He braced her arms, squeezing them softly below the shoulders and gazed into her eyes. It was the perfect set up to a passionate kiss. Instead he leaned forward and pressed his lips to her forehead.

  “Come on in,” he whispered. “Sorry for the garage entrance. I am having my entry way re-done. This is the easiest way.”

  Jeff’s house was very comfortable from what she saw. He didn’t give her the tour or anything; they walked from the garage to the kitchen family room. He invited her to sit on a very comfy couch. He offered her a drink.

  “I have this amazing coconut vodka,” he said.

  “Just a splash please,” she said. “Lottsa ice.”

  He poured their drinks and he joined her on the sofa. They made a little chit chat until he leaned to her.

  “Let’s go check out the pool,” he whispered.

  She pressed her hand on his chest, suddenly aware.

  She said, “This is going to be the second time today you’ve asked me to a meal. We’re not going to eat much this time either, are we?”

  Dana liked the back yard better than the family room. The pool had a natural fence; a house-high hedge of shrubbery. The pool itself was black which she found more alluring. It blended into the surrounding better and made it seem like a pond rather than a swimming pool.

  She slipped out of her shirt and her shorts to reveal a very basic, very small bikini. Jeff’s eyes were fixed. Stairs into the water from the edge graduated slowly so that Dana didn’t even need to hold on to the railing. The temperature was slightly cooler than bath water and it was soft against her skin.

  She glided through the surface of the water, bracing herself for his touch which she expected to come at any second. Jeff didn’t let her get to the deep end. Dana was able to balance on the bottom of the pool with one foot as he gently collided with her.