C H A P T E R S I X T E E N
• • •
At the time we'd arranged, I made my way to the small restaurant. I had to practically run out of my building before I got a tirade of questions from Jamie when I said I couldn't go to lunch with him as I already had plans. Like Miller, he'd caught the hint right away.
I stepped into the familiar restaurant, taking in my surroundings. As usual, it was fairly busy at this time with those in the buildings opposite and along the road coming here for lunch. I scanned the place for the blonde haired man I was meeting. When he saw me, he waved and I bypassed a pair of women, sitting by the window, to meet him.
He stood as I neared, greeting me warmly with a kiss on the cheek. Like yesterday, he was immaculately dressed, only now he was wearing a navy suit with gold cuff links. Nice touch. It complimented his slim figure, without a doubt, as he towered over me.
Once we'd sat down, a waiter came over and we ordered quickly. Simon apologised that he wouldn't be eating, so we both settled on a hot drink instead.
"I missed you at the gala last night," he said, nodding in thanks as the waiter put down our drinks. "You left early?"
I tried to discourage thoughts of just what I had been doing last night instead of being at the gala. "Yes, I wasn't feeling well." I prayed my cheeks weren't heating up as much as I feared they were.
"A shame," he said. "I was hoping to talk to you more at the party. You see, our company has been expanding quite rapidly in recent years. So, we've had to move into offices very quickly which means interior design has been put on the backseat."
"Until now," I said with a slight smile as I picked up my own latte.
"Until now," he repeated, nodding. "John told me all about you and your work, of course. I want the best for my company." He interlocked his fingers and leant forward slightly. "And you are the best."
"I can gather—" Words failed me as I glanced over his shoulder. Only a table separating his and ours, a pair of golden eyes met mine. Of fucking course. "I can gather designs and any samples of specific materials you're interested in." I knew what I was saying was slightly garbled by the pure shock of seeing Miller and feeling his penetrating gaze.
We continued the conversation for about ten minutes before his eyes on me became too difficult to bear. I'd tried not to look over at him but that was increasingly difficult when just a few inches from Simon's head, he sat.
I gave him one, long look. "Excuse me, I just need to use the loo."
He nodded.
I was quick to stand up and made my way further into the restaurant, where it was more dimly lit. I trusted he was following me.
I stepped into the small space between the men's and ladies'.
I spun quickly. "Just what do you think you're doing?"
He looked down at me. "I'm having lunch," he said, tilting his head. "I thought that was obvious." He gestured around us.
"But why are you here?" I asked, waving my arms emphatically. "And how did you know I'd be here?"
"Your coworkers have loose tongues when they speak to me, it would seem," he said simply.
"Fuck sake Jamie," I muttered, cursing the idiot.
He leant on the wall, his hands in his pockets. "It was the scottish lady actually."
"Mary?" I questioned, even though there was only one scottish lady in the office with a tendency to tell good looking guys everything. It had only been a few weeks before when we'd gone out on the town and she'd told a guy her life story in the fifteen minutes I'd left her for. "Big mouth."
"I believe that is the one, yes."
"Tell me why you're here, Miller."
He kept quiet for a moment, ever so relaxed as he watched me. "I wanted to see whether going on this date was worth missing out on a good time with me?"
"A good time? Average at most." Lies. Lies. Lies.
"Average?" he taunted, pulling me to him until our bodies were millimetres apart.
I stepped forward until we were fully pressed against each other. "Mhm."
"Did I fuck the sense out of you?" he asked, pretending to check my temperature with a hand to my forehead. "Because I think you might be mistaken."
"Prove it."
He smirked. "Gladly."
I took ahold of his tie and brought him down to me. I was the one to meet our lips. Immediately, his hands spread across my back, finding the zip to my trousers. "Not here," I said, looking around.
He let me practically drag him into the nearest door: the ladies room. I quickly checked it was empty. For the first time in possibly ever, it was. I locked the door behind us.
He kissed me, hard, and had my back against the door. But I wasn't about to let him dominate me, not when Simon was probably about to think I was having a shit with how long we were spending in here. I pushed him and what he'd think out of my mind and ground myself against him. When he groaned, I took the opportunity to reassert my own control.
"I like you like this," he said between kisses as I palmed him through his trousers, keeping the other hand on the door to steady myself. "It's sexy."
My fingers made quick work of his shirt and loosened his tie. I felt the skin that was now exposed, feeling his chest rise and fall heavily.
I kissed along it, almost stopping my movements as his cologne invaded my senses. I sucked on his collarbone, making him release the sexiest groan I'd ever heard.
His approval was evident as it pressed against my thigh. He rubbed it against me, seeking my warmth.
I pushed myself onto my tiptoes to be on par with his ear as my fingers sought the lock. "Don't pull something like that again, Miller."
With that, I slid out of his arms and opened the door. Giving him a courtesy wink, I left him there.
The thought of Miller Dreyton standing in the ladies room with his sizeable manhood saluting the world had me biting my lip to conceal the shit-eating grin that would inevitably find its way onto my face.
"Sorry about that," I said as I sat back down. "You were saying about me getting some samples?"
"Yes," Simon said. "If you send everything through to my assistant and he'll sort out meetings so we can discuss things in person. And if you need to contact me directly for any reason—" He reached into his inside pocket and pulled out a slip of paper with an email written on it. "Forgive me for the secrecy but I don't like giving out my personal email. For security reasons."
"Of course." I picked up the slip of paper and tucked it into my bag. "I'll send a few ideas over, just let me know which you like so we can decide on a direction."
He nodded. I reached into my bag again, only this time to pay for my coffee when he put his hand out. "No need," he said, dropping his own money onto the bill.
He motioned for me to go before him, so I led us both out of the restaurant, bypassing the tables I had before. I noticed the girls from earlier had left. Well, one of them. The other was sat with someone else, a guy this time. I wondered just how long we'd been in here.
"Are you still not feeling well?" he asked now we were in the proper light. "You seem flushed. Would you like a lift?"
I touched my cheeks, finding they were, indeed, hot. "I'm sure I'll be fine. The walk back will probably do me good anyway, but thank you."
We parted ways with a promise of keeping in touch.
Maybe the lunch hadn't been exactly what I was hoping for — not getting a man to take over Miller's duties. But I couldn't complain about new business.
Thinking about tiles and lampshades, I hardly realised a car was pulling up beside me. It was keeping pace with me. I noticed, at last, and began hurrying my feet. Still, it kept on level with me.
With black out windows which blended into the car's bodice, I could only imagine what gangster was on the other side of the glass. Big, bulky, violent, barbaric—
The window rolled down. "Amara, won't you join me?"
I stopped, at last. The person talking to me was probably the last person I'd expected.
Veronica Dreyton sat in the luxury car, watching me expectantly.
I realised, all at once, what she'd said. "Oh no, thank you," I said. "I've got to get to work, I'm afraid."
"Amara, darling," she said, looking as beautiful as ever. "It wasn't a question."
I didn't bother arguing, but rather stepped forward. She opened the door for me before sliding over into the other seat for me to take the one she had been in. I took it, closing the door again behind me.
The interior was just as exquisite as you'd imagine. Perhaps noting the high quality seats wasn't the proper thing to do when you'd just be herded into a strange car, but it was the only thing keeping me from not going into a bit of a frenzy.
"How are you?" I asked, feeling a little unsure of where to start in a situation like this. Hey, I fucked your brother last night. How's the family?
"I didn't pull you off the street to partake in formalities," she said, rubbing her ring finger on her thumb.
"Why did you?"
She stared at me with those large, almond eyes. "Word has it you and my brother having been... getting closer, so to speak."
I glanced at the driver. "I don't—"
"Please don't insult my intelligence," she said.
In trying to figure out something to say, I glanced out of the window, praying for my stop to come as quickly as possible. I suddenly felt flushed and awkward, so unlike the woman beside me.
"Miller and I really aren't anything to worry about," I told her. "It's nothing serious, so you don't have to do the whole 'if you hurt him' speech." If anything, he'd be the one to hurt me.
"That's not the reason I picked you up," she told me, turning so she was fully facing me. I did the same, subconsciously. "I need to warn you about him."
"Warn me?"
"My brother is not conventional," she said. "He's not one for relationships and he keeps his personal and work life very private."
"Doesn't everyone?" I asked. I know I didn't go oversharing my life like some women I knew, such as one beginning with M.
"You don't understand," she told me, putting her hand on the seat between us to emphasise her point. "You need to know the good and the bad before you go a step further with him."
"The good and the bad?" I asked. "A step further?" I rubbed my temples. "That's just the thing, we're not going to get that far."
She ignored me. "Do you even know what he truly does?"
"He runs a hotel," I said, flippantly. "That's besides the point, we are not getting together. We had sex. It's casual."
"Where?"
I reeled back slightly in shock. "Pardon?" She stared at me, still, and I found myself unable to stop from admitting it. "His apartment." I coughed. "Twice." I was getting hotter by the second. "I don't see how this is relevant."
"Not serious? I mean, really. He doesn't like people in his space, not even friends or family. And yet, he doesn't seem to mind you being there. He, himself, might not realise it yet but you're different," she said with a roll of her eyes as if it wasn't completely obvious. "Talk to him at least."
"I appreciate your concern but as I've said, we are not getting together." Stop putting stupid images in my head for fuck sake. I hadn't noticed we'd stopped moving, nor recognised just how familiar the buildings were. "This is my stop. Thank you for the ride but you really don't need to worry about me. I can handle myself."
I got out of the car as quickly as possible.
The good and the bad? What he truly does? Hasn't realised it yet? My brain felt more mangled now than when I was taking my A-levels.
Her stupidly stunning person really needed to keep her nose in her own business. And yet, despite my wrought iron certainty, as I walked and thought over it more, the more I questioned myself and him.