But I’d also be crazy not to. As surely as I’m sitting here, I know I would forever regret it if I didn’t say yes to this man. At least once.
“Her silence means please do,” Chris chirps happily.
I watch one brow rise again. It conveys so much when he does it. It’s sarcastic. It’s devilish. It’s arrogant. It’s challenging.
He’s daring me.
“You’ve never met a man like me.”
His voice is like smooth, rich caramel, pouring over my skin, oozing into every crevice, invading every cell.
My answer is the same. “No.” And I haven’t, outside of my head.
“Maybe you could tell her all about it tonight at a black-tie fundraiser for Childhood Neurological Disorders,” Chris adds. “Eight o’clock.”
Neither of us has spared her a glance since his eyes came back to mine.
“Are you brave enough?” he asks. I would say that he doesn’t know how much he terrifies me, but I think he does. I also think he knows just how much he excites me. “Give me your phone.”
With shaking hands, I grab my purse, reaching inside to bring out my phone. He takes it from me, his fingers brushing mine, his eyes seeing right through me.
When he moves his attention to the little black rectangle, I feel somewhat released from his spell. My mind is whirling with the same thought, over and over again.
Is this really happening? Is this really happening?
I feel like Daire again. I’m caught in the spider’s web. I feel the heat. I sense the danger. But still yet, I’m captivated by the spider.
After a few seconds, he hands me the phone. “Alec Brand,” he says quietly. “And you are?”
“Samantha Jansen.”
“I’ll pick you up at seven, Samantha Jansen.”
He starts to move off, but I stop him. “Wouldn’t it help if you had my address?”
“I’ll find you,” he replies just before he turns and walks away.
CHAPTER SIX - Alec
Even after going home to change, fighting the traffic and spending a long day at the office, I’m still thinking about her. I know I shouldn’t have approached her this morning. That alone was like taking several steps backward in my progress. I know better than to involve a woman like her in the wreckage of my life.
But I just couldn’t help myself.
If I were half the man I should be, I’d stay away from her. I wouldn’t show up tonight. I wouldn’t call, I wouldn’t seek her out. I’d just disappear.
But I’m not the man I should be. Yet. My weaknesses still get the better of me now and then. And this one will. I know there’s no point in even trying to resist. I’ve already got her scent. She’s in my blood and I know there’s only one way to get her out.
I know how this will go. It’s sick that I take such pleasure in thinking of it. It’s not the ending devastation that excites me. I do feel guilty for not being able to love and commit to a woman like they want and need. But they know that going in. I’ve never misled any of them.
No, it’s the innocence of a woman like Samantha Jansen that excites me. Introducing her to new things, watching her body come to life, showing her how good I can make her feel, doing things to her that she never thought she would agree to, much less crave.
And crave she will. Just like I can see the innocence in her eyes, I can also see the sensual creature begging to be released.
And I’ll make sure I’m around just long enough to help her with that.
CHAPTER SEVEN - Samantha
I feel like an idiot. I’m standing in front of the mirror, making sure everything looks as good as I can make it, waiting for a guy that will likely never even show up.
I let Chris get inside my head. She has a tendency to blow things way out of proportion. Like today, for instance. She makes it seem like there were fireworks going off over our heads. Granted, at the time, it felt like there were. But now, in retrospect, when I think of him—Alec Brand—of what a man like him probably likes in a woman, of what he’s used to, I think Chris and I were both sorely mistaken. There’s no way he’d be interested in someone like me. He must’ve just been passing the time in the coffee shop.
Probably gets a kick out of striking women speechless.
I think to myself that Mason isn’t like that. Then I mentally slap my own cheek.
Snap out of it! He’s not Mason. Mason Strait isn’t real!
With a sigh of resignation, I check my phone once more. Still no word. No call. No text. No nothing. He’s definitely not coming.
Taking a deep breath, I run my fingers through my loose curls and give myself one last appraising look. My eyes are ringed with smoky shadow that nearly matches the soft sage dress I’m wearing. The color sets off the gray of my eyes and the deep red of my hair. Tonight, it cascades to the middle of my back. Below that is pale skin all the way to my waist.
I bite my brick-stained lip. I’ve never bought, much less worn such a dress before. It’s nothing Laura Drake would wear; it’s far too sexy and…accessible. Yet it’s nothing Samantha Jansen would wear either. It’s bold and risqué, colorful and confident, adjectives that don’t apply to me. They apply to Chris, though, and I have her to thank for the dress.
Grabbing the matching purse from my vanity and stuffing a few essentials into it, I shut off the light and make my way to the living room. There’s no use putting off the inevitable. Mom will just have to get over it when I show up alone.
Again.
I detour to the kitchen to make sure Jinx has water before I grab my keys and head for the door. I fling it open, never expecting to see Alec Brand standing on the other side of it.
Yet he is.
Startled, I gasp.
“Something wrong?” he asks in his deep voice, that one brow shooting up again
I want to say that nothing is wrong, that nothing in the whole entire world is wrong. That everything has never felt more right. But I don’t. Instead, I look him over. Drink him in. He goes down so smooth!
They say clothes make the man. I can honestly say that, in this case, the man makes the clothes.
Alec is dressed in a tuxedo. It’s nothing special, but he effortlessly turns the plain black suit and white shirt into something more, something dashing and debonair. Something dangerous. Very, very dangerous.
“If you’re going to look at me that way, I might need to warn you about me,” he says, taking a step toward me. Instinctively, I retreat. One side of his mouth quirks into a wry grin. “Or maybe you already know.”