I woke up still stiff from the other night with Evan. He made me feel things that should have been against the law. The way he touched me and caressed me brought in too many emotions for me to name. Even after all the sweet words, nothing could become of us. I was the woman he used to fulfill his sexual desires not the girl you brought home to your parents.
I walked in my bathroom and quickly prepared myself for the day ahead. I had two classes everyday except for Fridays. Somehow I had no classes on Friday but who was I to complain, I was in school trying to recapture my dream. Focus Cadence, Focus. I repeated back in the mirror. I slipped on some skinny jeans with a MK off the shoulder blouse and some MK flats. I grabbed my purse and headed downstairs
When I got to the kitchen there was a note on the stove. The girls had taken a field trip with their teacher to Dela Maison Rouge, a large plantation in Hammond so I knew they would be gone for the rest of the day. I sighed because I haven't really spent anytime with them, so I decided I would take them out this weekend. I grabbed some juice, a bagel and smiled as I was now officially a college student again.
When I got to the door a flower truck was pulling up. I saw the man getting out of the truck with a huge bouquet of yellow roses.
"Ms. Cadence Montgomery?"
"Yes, that's me." I looked at the man with confusion and then a smile covered my face from ear to ear.
"These are for you and I need you to sign here. You are one lucky woman, these were specially ordered from Afghanistan. The true yellow blossoms are hard to duplicate in the US. Oh, and I have this too." There was a small black bag with a small gift wrapped in white paper and a fancy red bow. I took the flowers and the bag.
"Thank you."
I reached in my pocket to tip him and he said, "tip already taken care of. I hope you enjoy the flowers." He walked away and I took them in the kitchen and sat them down next to the black bag.
I found a card inside the flowers and read it.
"In every bunch there's one who stands out and you are that one."
In the bunch of the yellow roses, one yellow rose with a red tip stuck out. I put my hand over my heart. I had no idea who would say those kind words to me. The blossoms were absolutely beautiful. I could tell they were very expensive as the thorns were carefully trimmed in a beautiful crystal vase.
I reached in the black bag and pulled out the gift. I quickly tore it opened to only find a black velvet box. I opened it and inside was a small gold mirror. Engraved on the top were my initials. When I opened it up the inscription read,
"In this mirror you will see the image of the most beautiful woman in the world."
E.M.
The thought of the other night choked me up. This had to be the sweetest thing anyone had done for me. I wiped my tears from my face. I looked in the mirror to see my mascara starting to run. I was just a ball full of emotions lately. This crying shit had to stop, but this was who I really was. It wasn't easy turning off your emotions at the drop of a hat. Although I wanted more from Evan, it wouldn't work. I placed the mirror in my LV bag and touched up my make-up.
I quickly ran out the kitchen smiling knowing those hood rat chicks didn't have a chance.
~~~~~~~~
I made it to the campus. I parked in the commuters parking lot and headed to the business building. My first class, Healthcare Marketing Concepts, was on the second floor. It felt good to walk back on the campus although all my classes were in this building. I took the elevator and heard a deep voice asking me to hold it. I did and a very handsome man walked in.
"Thank you," he said smiling.
I blushed. "You're welcome."
We rode up in silence. This man was not only handsome but his jeans hugged his tight ass. The polo shirt intensified his muscles that all I wanted to do was ask him to flex. Did I have thing for men with muscles?
The elevator stopped and he held it opened while I got out. Such a gentleman I thought to myself.
"Ladies first," he said stepping to the side as I walked out.
"Oh, thank you." I said still blushing. What was with me with all this damn blushing? He walked away heading in the opposite direction. I watched him as he entered a room. Girl get your shit together. I had to tell myself.
I found my class and only one person was in there. I looked at my watch and still had another ten minutes before class started. I must have been super excited to be here so early. I pulled out my phone and had two new appointments added to my calendar. They were added by Marci.
I opened up my calendar to see Paul Captiville scheduled at seven pm on Friday and Robert on Saturday night. Then my text messaging alert bling. It was a text message to call Marci after class.
The class started to fill up. We went from having two people including myself to about fifteen. I looked around to see a mixture of all races and nationalities. I saw a couple guys looking my way and smiling. I quickly turned my head and faced the white board.
The door behind us closed and the handsome man that was on the elevator turned around and smiled. He quickly wrote Healthcare Marketing Concepts 430 on the side board.
"Hello, class and welcome to Healthcare Marketing Concepts 430. For those that don't know me," he said looking directly at me, "my name is Todd Poche' and I will be your instructor for the semester and I am also the Dean of this department." Why did his eyes linger a little bit too long for me? Cadence not every man wants you. Tone it down. My inner voice said sarcastically.
I looked around to see the other girls staring at the Dean. Some of them had dreaming eyes while others pretended not to look. He looked to be so young to be a Dean. You always imagine a Dean as an older man, not a Channing Tatum look alike. Yep that's who he reminded me of. With his 6'2 foot frame, brown hair and eyes the color of deep forest pools of green he could have been his twin brother. His eyes were so enticing to follow that I held my head down most of the time. The guy next to me passed the roll and I signed it. I passed it on to the next person. Soon Dean Poche' gave us our assignments that were due in three weeks. I looked over it and put it in my bag. He dismissed the class and I walked out.
I headed to my next class twenty minutes later. The teacher was female and I was glad. I was able to focus on the coursework. Most of it was review from my previous classes at Baylor. I took the notes and a hour and a half later I was walking out the class. I was done for the day so I headed to my car. I grabbed my keys out of my purse, put my sunshades on and walked pass some people standing around talking. I heard a masculine calling my name.
"Is that you Cadence?" I looked over and saw a guy looking straight at me. "I thought that was you," he said narrowing his eyes on me. He was standing next to a female version of himself. As he walked closer to me I realized who it was.
"Jacob," I said trying to sound cool.
"Hey, how are you?" he smiled looking at me.
"Just fine." I smiled looking into his sea ocean blue eyes. He had his brown hair slicked back as if he had just gotten out of the shower. He gave me a hug and his cologne was nice and all manly. He pulled back slowly from the embrace and smiled.
The woman he was was speaking to earlier cleared her throat. He turned around and pulled her up to his side.
"Cadence this is my twin sister, Heather Moore-Stevenson. She is married to Bill Stevenson, the President of the University."
My eyes must have widen. "It's a pleasure to meet you Cadence," she said.
"Pleasure is mine," I said shaking her hand.
"Are you a student here?"
"Oh, yes, I started today."
"And what are you pursuing?" He asked looking at me in fascination.
"Healthcare Management."
"Sounds Interesting."
"Well good luck and if you have any problems you let me know." Heather passed me her business card. "Any friend of my brother's is a friend of mine. I better get going." She kissed her brother and walked away. I looked down at her card and noticed that she owned a HR firm.
I felt a little nervous standing there in front of him. I felt a little intimidated.
"Do I make you nervous Cadence?" The question caught me off guard.
I swallowed. "Why would I be nervous of you Mr. Moore?" I felt my hands all of a sudden sweating.
"Because you can't look me in the eye." I slowly raised my head to look at him and immediately turned away.
"You don't have to be afraid of me," he said pulling my chin towards him with his fingers. I actually felt my breath leaving my body. He was too much of an alpha for me to handle.
He moved away from me as group of people passed by us. He walked back up to me and whispered in my ear. "When you stop being afraid and ready to bring your sexual desires to life call me." He kissed my earlobe and walked away.
I stood there with my eyes closed scared to looked away. I knew he was gone and I felt wetness between my legs. Got damn these men! Why did they all have to be so viral?! In all my years on this earth I have never looked at men as I have in the past few weeks. Maybe I needed help.
I walked away and his cologne lingered. I walked through the invisible cloud trying to soak him up. I knew this would be the closest I would ever get to him. He was like dynamite ready to explode. I wasn't ready for him or his delectable friend. I was scared that if I let him in, I would lose myself.
I drove home and called Marci. She answered on the first ring.
"Hello Cadence. I was calling you because Lilly wants to meet with you tomorrow after class at the Monroe Building. I will text you the address and phone number."
"Do you know what she wants to see me about, Marci?
"No, sorry hun."
"Okay I will be there around one pm."
"Is there anyway you can get a message to Evan and tell him thank you for the flowers and mirror."
"Why don't you call him yourself." Was she crazy. It was nooo way I could talk to him on the phone. It would be horrible. I could only imagine how that conversation would go. He would probably laugh and hang up on me because all I could probably do was stutter.
"No, I can't."
"You want to talk about it?
"No, I just need you to tell him."
"Okay, I will. How was class today by the way?"
"It was good. My instructors were very nice and I saw Jacob." I let out a deep breath.
"Jacob Moore?"
"Yeah, that would be the one."
"That's right his sister is married to William. Are you okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be."
"Jacob can be very...what's the word I'm looking for...manipulative. He is very attractive but he could make you lose your mind. He plays these mind games where he can have you doing things that .... just know he is dangerous and if you decide... just be careful and prepared. Garrett is an angel compared to him. Jacob is dangerous for your health, he should have a sticker on him with a big red X." I couldn't help but laugh at her statement.
"You don't have to worry, Marci, I'm not ready for that type of drama in my life. It is bad enough I have to deal with Robert and Evan. I'm just wondering how Paul will be. Have any pointers?"
"He can be arrogant from what I hear, but excellent when it comes to sex. Katrina use to be his attached. She got married and he has been around. He is not the romantic one from what I hear, but he will definitely satisfy you."
"Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it."
"No problem. Talk to you later." We said our goodbyes and I hung up. I was curious about something so I pulled out my computer and googled Robert, Evan, Paul and Jacob. I took out the notebook I hadn't used and wrote their names down on each page. I wanted to know everything I could find out about them. I needed to know what I was dealing with. Two of them had me fully but the other two hadn't and it scared me.
I googled Robert. The basic information showed up. His net worth was available. It was very impressive. The fifteen dealerships he owned throughout Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi was notable. He had bought the dealerships first and later bought the New Orleans Sharks when they were going into bankruptcy. He and five other men bought them six years ago, revamped the program and now they were ranked number two in the conference, soon to be number one and headed to the Superbowl. He had been married once and engaged twice. I wondered what happened to them? There were some pictures of him and a few women. They were young, attractive and white. It didn't bother me, but deep down, I wondered if he just wanted to experiment with something a little different. He was an excellent lover, but what was wrong with him to have been engaged twiced.
I moved on to Evan. There were tons of pictures of him with some of the music world's biggest artists. He smiled in majority of the pictures, but his eyes told a different story. He looked sad. They were the same sad eyes, that looked at me the other night in the shower. I quickly flipped through more pictures until I stumbled on one with his parents. The caption read: Thurman and Dorothy McCain (parents), Emilia and Markus Hansbrough (sister and brother-in-law), Jessica and Steven Hathaway (sister and brother-in-law) and Jeffrey McCain (brother). The picture was taken five years ago at the opening of EMR Records and Production company.
Not only did he create the company, he was opening smaller studios in underprivileged neighborhoods finding new artists. He really was a nice guy. As I came to the last picture, he was standing next to a very attractive woman. She looked to be Brazilian, with long flowing hair. High cheek bones, and a flawless face. She was only a few inches shorter than he. They were both smiling and he seemed to be happy. Her name was Yaritza Pena. I wondered if she was the one to break his heart. If it was her, I was pissed at her. I jotted down some facts and moved on. Looking at his pictures made me miss him.
I googled Paul. He was not only the CFO of Orion Oil company, but he owned several other small businesses. He graduated from Oxford University, magna cum laude. Then less than a year later he had his MBA from Stanford and was recruited by Orion Oil Company. He wanted to be close to his family so he took the job. Although he lived in Houston, he came to Louisiana once a month to spend time with his family. There were a few pictures of him with the press breaking ground at several oil fields and his charity work with the local non-profits. There were tons of pictures with he and Tara. They looked so adorable together. Almost like father and daughter. I looked really hard at the pictures and the resemblance was remarkable. It wasn't my business so I moved on and took notes of him in the notebook.
Last but not least, Jacob Moore. His picture along the side of Garrett Ashford made you sexually frustrated. They were to damn handsome for their own good. Jacob's blue eyes sparkled that matched his smile and Garrett blond hair and hazel eyes stared back at me as well. It was too much so I turned to the next picture. They owned and sold properties all over the world. As a matter of fact their offices were blocks away from Monroe Enterprises. They had just recently moved into the ten thousand square foot building with over twenty five agents. They were doing it big at twenty-six years old and could retire at anytime. They had met in elementary school and had been friends ever since. Not only were they business partners, best friends but I knew their secret. I was sure they didn't just let anyone into that world. Thoughts of being with them both made me shiver. Although I wasn't ready for them at this particular time, I wasn't going to exactly rule it out. Who knows what the future holds?
I powered down my computer and took my shower. When I came back, I received a text from Olivia stating they were staying at the plantation. They heard there was a ghost and they wanted to stay. I texted back to have fun because there was no way in hell I would stay. I was sure they would be scared and head back here later on tonight. I laughed only imagining the fear on their faces if something was to scare them.
I got into bed and turned off all the lights. The moon shone through my window and thoughts about each man filled my thoughts. I smiled thinking about the wonder pleasures yet to come.
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Since Cadence's story is flowing today, I will begin the next chapter and hopefully have it posted by tonight. I promise to have update on Blind Date and Chrisitna's Peril by Monday. Thanks for all the great comments and ideas from the last chapter. I truly appreciate it. Luv you guys!!!