First and Ten Read online

  “Come on, scaredy.” She opened the door and he gladly stepped back into the regular observation floor. “What else are you afraid of?”

  “This part of your getting to know me questions?”

  “You could have a fear of the color yellow or poly-blends.”

  “I don’t think I would last long playing football with those issues.”

  “True.”

  Dani smiled and warmth spread across Rome’s chest. There was something about Dani that had settled his nerves. Even being so far up in the air, looking anywhere but straight ahead, could cause him to fall to the ground and crawl like the floor itself wasn’t a thousand feet in the air. Standing next to Dani, fear was the last thing on his mind.

  “Do we need to go?” she asked and Rome looked around at the twenty or so people milling around. The couple from before was gone and maybe he got away without an alert going out a Grizzly was in the building.

  “No,” he replied and followed her back to the steps to sit and watch the lights.

  People were keeping their voices low as Dani sat on the top step again with her legs stretched out in front of her. When she laid back and looked at the ceiling, Rome became confused. Wasn’t the point of being so high to look out at the world, not a ceiling in a random building?

  “Why do you need a stylist?” she asked with her eyes closed.

  “I don’t,” he confessed. “To me it’s a needless expense.”

  “Then don’t pay for one.”

  “You offering free styling advice?”

  Dani opened her eyes and gave Rome a shy smile. “Not the way I work.”

  “Then why are you here with me?”

  “You didn’t want to go to the beach.”

  “Not when it’s forty degrees.”

  “Pussy.”

  The night had not gone the way Danika expected. When she’d finished her class, she pulled on her yoga pants and track jacket with only relaxation on her mind. The Tuesday lectures by Dr. Kent were particularly draining. If she wasn’t the head of the business department at Northwestern, Dani would have avoided her classes like the plague they were. Instead, she found a way to cope.

  Reaching your goal will require stretching. If I handed it to you, you’d never see how tall you can really be. Her father’s words seemed spiteful when she was younger. Now, having lived it she understood. Her father made his fortune and he felt she’d been given enough growing up. She didn’t need his money to get what she wanted out of life.

  Jerome Speed was one of those hiccups she’d tried to avoid over the years. Not that she hadn’t dated, she just never made it a priority. She could take or leave guys most days, but Rome had a crook to his smile she’d missed when his helmet was on. Sure the tight pants were good to ogle, but now she discovered the mystery that was football players.

  Better yet, from what Dalton had told her over the year, Jerome was a gentleman. Tonight at least he’d proven that. She eyed his firm frame with the idea of total relaxation from a much needed orgasm.

  “Hyper planner,” Rome’s deep baritone took her to another place in her erotic fantasy. “How far off your plan are we?”

  “Plan?” she asked as she sat up a bit too quick, catching a head rush.

  “You seem pretty good at regimenting your life.”

  “Do I?” She cocked her head to the side as if he were looking at her through a different dimension. “My life seems so random most days.”

  “You plan me time,” he said with air quotes.

  “If I didn’t, I’d never get any.” Dani stood. “I like it up here on a random Tuesday,” she said. “Tourists aren’t really here and I can just think. Or…at least I can when I’m by myself.”

  “Sorry, did you need me to go?”

  “You drove me here and I’d like to get back to my car without using a taxi.”

  “Is this part of your Tuesday routine?”

  “Not always. Why? Looking to stalk me?”

  “We seem to run in the same circles.”

  “Not really. Your circle’s a bit fast for me.”

  “You know nothing of my circle,” he challenged.

  “Show me your circle,” she suggested. “Where would you be if we hadn’t gone my way tonight.”

  “In bed,” he stated plainly and Dani’s face flushed with heat at the mere mention of Jerome’s bed. “I was going to crash after the massage. They really are relaxing, but where your mind went is an even better idea.”

  “You can read minds now?”

  He stood, towering over her with broad shoulders and thick muscles. Even with the size difference she wasn’t intimidated. Instead, his presence made her heart race for another reason. As if afraid she’d break, he gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and gooseflesh erupted up her spine. The heat from his body warmed her as his hand caressed her cheek. When his thumb stroked her bottom lip, her nipples perked.

  Oh he was bad for her, especially with finals just around the corner.

  “Body language.” The timber in his voice made her body vibrate. Or was it the fact his body was flush against hers. How did that happen? She’d been sure there had been at least a half a foot between them. Instead, barely an inch separated them and she wondered if the smell of sandalwood was his cologne or the massage oil.

  “You need to brush up on your language skills.” The words were forced and wavered as they made their way to her lips. Swollen and slightly trembling, she hoped he didn’t notice.

  His lips twitched, then he took a step back. A cold chill cut between them and she looked to the side hoping someone had opened the outer observation deck. Instead, she saw the area was almost completely empty.

  Unlike her, he hadn’t turned off his phone and it went off. It was then she remembered it had gone off a few other times during the evening, but he’d silenced it. Now he used it as an excuse to step away. The ringtone was different than before, she shouldn’t read too much into his exit to a quiet corner.

  She watched his body language…or maybe it was just his body as he moved around and his jaw tensed. He looked at her for a moment and a scowl crossed as he turned away again.

  “I need to go,” he said, stalking back to where she was sitting.

  “Me too,” she confessed as she looked at her phone for the time. The elevator ride and trip to the parking garage was a strained silence. “Thanks for tonight.”

  “Thanks?” he queried.

  “Tuesdays are usually solitary. It was nice having someone to share the city with me.”

  “Panicking from the height.”

  “That was a bonus.” She smiled as they made their way down Michigan Avenue back to her car. His phone rang again, only this time it showed up on the screen of his dashboard interrupting the light R&B music that had felt so natural she only noticed when it was gone. A name flashed quickly on the screen, but he flicked ignore before she could read it. The scowl returned and she felt a chill.

  Biting at her lip, she turned her focus to the buildings out her window. The magnificent mile with its Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower. All built by giants of the city. Even with new construction her father never wanted to be a part of it. There is something about the old stone and mortar buildings with their intricate details that set them apart. His world was on the internet, before people even understood what it was. He had commanded the dot com boom and was smart enough to leave before the bubble burst. Or maybe it was his leaving that burst it. The idea had been floated in business circles before.

  “Why are you a stylist?” he asked, shaking her from the escape she wanted. “You were the top sales girl at the Gap or something?”

  Rolling her eyes at the idea of that type of nightmare, she sighed.

  “You don’t act like it’s a calling,” he chided. “You don’t even do it full time.”

  “And you play football forty hours a week?” she jibed.

  “I have a feeling you know exactly how grueling my schedule is all year long. Besides,
you don’t seem like the type of girl to just sit around flipping through fashion magazines all day long.”

  “With the internet it really does cut down on that.”

  “Why do you do what you do?” he asked, looking more at her than the traffic ahead. The white glow of the dashboard haloed one side of his face creating a handsome cut to his jaw.

  “Money, and you?”

  “I’ve got a talent and I love the game.”

  “There you go, I’ve got a talent and I have bills to pay.”

  Rome nibbled on his bottom lip as his fingers drummed on the steering wheel.

  “Danika.” As he said her name, she wanted to watch his lips. The deep tone of his voice had a vibration to it that sent shivers down to her toes. “Thanks for sharing your Tuesday with me.”

  She wanted to thank him, he made the night better, she hadn’t shared a Tuesday with anyone. Not even Esme. Alone time had never been as fulfilling as tonight had been.

  “I don’t want you to be my stylist,” he stated plainly as his eyes stayed focused on the road ahead instead of at her. He turned to look out his side window, then back as they pulled into the parking lot for the massage place.

  “Didn’t we already establish this?” Dani asked a bit confused.

  “I’d like to run into you again.”

  Dani’s heart pounded hard as she gripped the door handle. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she couldn’t understand the mixed feelings twisting her stomach in knots.

  “Not on accident or set up by someone,” Rome continued, but didn’t look at her. “I can’t let people in my life. It’s dangerous and…well I don’t have time for trifling shit. You seem like someone I could kick it with and not have it splashed all over social media the next day.”

  “I said I didn’t have time for a new client.”

  “I don’t want to be a client,” he said with a deep timber in his voice that had her breasts aching. WTF! Her body had her shivering, twisting and on the verge of vomiting, then hot and bothered like someone flipped a switch. No downtime to react, nope, but it wasn’t her body, it was him.

  “Client, friend, whatever,” she trembled as the words came out. “It’s time, time I don’t have in my life.”

  “Right,” he replied, completely rebuffed as his lips stuck out almost like a pouting child. “Focused, driven, and on a schedule.”

  “Exactly.” Dani opened the car door and stepped out. The stomach twisting continued again as she saw Rome flicking his thumb over his phone screen as if scanning a page and not caring what she had said. It was silly to think… “Except Tuesdays.” The words tumbled from her lips before her mind could stop them.

  Rome’s thumb froze on the screen as he turned to look at her as if he’d forgotten she had even been in his car. “What was that?”

  “Tuesdays,” she said again, suddenly feeling like a teenager accepting a prom invite from the one boy they never thought would even talk to them. “You could be my Tuesday treat next week.”

  Oh! Fuck! She’d really just called a man her Tuesday treat. His eyes did the eyebrow raise at her again and she knew her face was fire engine red.

  “I…I…didn’t mean…see what I meant was…”

  “Tuesday at five, where will you be so I can run into you?”

  “Leaving class.”

  “You’re in school?”

  “Why do you think I never have time?”

  “Alright, where at?”

  “Northwestern, business school. I mean, I’m in business school…so I’ll be outside the business school entrance. I’m done a little after five. If you want, I’ll hangout for a little bit. No pressure if you change your mind or whatever…I’m sure—”

  “Let me be sure this time,” he said with a commanding tone that had her questioning if she’d finally found the last piece of her perfect life puzzle.

  Chapter Four

  Dr. Kent’s lecture floated around the room as Dani tried to focus on the words, but to no avail. Nope, not with the clock on the wall ticking so loudly it echoed throughout the room. Could the other students not hear its tick with a slight wheeze to it as it bounced back before ticking another second off the class?

  “How many ticks you got?” Esme whispered, bringing Dani to the ground.

  “Um…” Dani looked in her notebook and saw three. They had a game where they marked every time Dr. Kent mentioned Keynesian Economics. For being an expert on the subject, it was strange how she tried to apply it then flip flopped three lectures later. For each mention of the theory the girls were supposed to tick it off, at the end of class they note the difference. Whoever missed the most had to do a shot for each one missed at the next study group. Dani spied Esme’s notebook and decided she’d need to stock up on ibuprofen before Thursday.

  “I swear I haven’t been cheating,” Esme said as she held her hand to her chest.

  Ten ticks to Dani’s three. Could she be that nervous about the possibility Jerome might not be outside when she leaves? She hadn’t planned out an evening. That could be part of her nerves.

  “I demand Patrón this time,” Dani said as she nudged Esme who let out a giggle just loud enough to get Dr. Kent’s attention. The death glare. Not good, the class looked at the two of them, but Esme was on point today.

  “Did you have something to add, Ms. Carmichael?”

  “I wasn’t sure the demand constituted the adjustment in production in that case. It’s a limited use item to begin with. A flash in the pan type idea, mix that with the quality of the items made repair not replacement more likely.”

  “Guess that’s why they failed.”

  “In theory, or because they didn’t try to make other appliances just as good. Adapting to the world around them, they became outdated. Evolution is just as necessary in business as it is in life.”

  “I see your project partner has started to rub off on you.”

  “She is quite infectious, like a fungus I’ve found.”

  Dr. Kent continued with the lecture and Dani eyeballed her friend. “A fungus.”

  “That’s what you’re going to feel like on Thursday.” Esme ticked off another hash mark and Dani sharply turned to the front kicking herself for missing another mention of the theory by Dr. Kent.

  “Shit.”

  “Did you mean shit-faced?” Esme wiggled her eyebrows.

  If Dani couldn’t push Rome out of her mind and focus, not only would the last ten minutes of class feel like three hours, but she was likely to end up with alcohol poisoning. Catching the last few mentions meant Dani would only have to do eight shots. Today she was wishing she didn’t have to wait two days for those. Right now the liquor would help her get through the next fifteen minutes.

  “Spill,” Esme snapped as she loaded her leather messenger bag with her notebook and laptop. “You’ve never had more than three misses.” Tucking her hair behind her right ear, Esme stood and slung her bag across her body.

  “I had an off day,” Dani lied.

  Esme gave her a look as if she were trying to read Dani’s mind or maybe just her face. Dani wasn’t sure if she could hide her uncertainty about the next few hours, then again, why would Esme even care.

  “I’ll give you that, but only because I want you plastered on Thursday.”

  “Are you planning on doing bad things to me?”

  “The punishment should fit the crime.”

  “Not listening?” Dani said as she stood and they walked out of the classroom. “Since when is that a crime?”

  “What was that?” Esme teased. “I didn’t hear you.”

  “Funny.” A cold wind was whipping off Lake Michigan and it slammed against Dani’s cheeks. How the hell it got through the campus and past the buildings needed to be researched by the architecture department. “Motherfucker.”

  “Damn, didn’t we get rid of winter last week?”

  “That warm streak was a ruse,” Dani said into the wind, unsure if her friend could hear her words. Both their he
ads were down as they charged head first into the wind like the prow of a ship through water.

  “What’s your treat today?” Esme howled against the wind.

  “No idea.” Dani lost sight of Esme’s Manolos. Sure she had been blown away, Dani stopped and turned to see her friend staring straight ahead.

  The wind died down a bit, or had they walked into the path of a building that blocked it? Nope, when Dani turned to see what had caught Esme’s attention, Jerome Speed was standing as if he were guarding them against the wind. His unbuttoned three quarter length black coat ruffled in the wind at his knees. No longer having to fight the weather, Dani could take in his form as the last of the sun set behind her. Could it have been that causing him to glow? Maybe it was his smirk of a smile as he rocked back on his heels with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his black dress pants. He was suited and booted tonight. She hadn’t expected that. Looking back at Esme, she wished she was rail thin and three inches taller so they could switch their outfits. Although Esme wasn’t one to be seen in a maxi skirt and V-neck sweater, she might take the hit and switch with Dani’s modest outfit.

  “Did you think I was going to stand you up?” he asked.

  “No…I…didn’t… Why would you think that?”

  “You were leaving. Didn’t you say you’d meet me at the business building?”

  “I did, it’s just.” Dani fumbled with her own messenger bag as she reached for nothing in particular. “I was walking my friend to her car. You know safety in numbers and all.”

  “The buddy system.” He smiled. “I learned that in grade school too.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Does your buddy have a name?” he asked and Dani felt her stomach clench. Esme was the type of woman high paid players dated. Not that this was a date, yet Dani wasn’t sure she was ready to introduce her bestie to a man she couldn’t get out of her thoughts.

  “Um…yes…this is Esme,” Dani introduced.

  “Esme Carmichael,” Esme said as she extended her elegant hand with its perfect reverse French manicure. “Dani’s Tuesday Treats had always been a secret to me and now I know why.”