I nodded. I’d hear her out.
“You met my friend Carrie earlier today. Do you remember? She’s sitting over there in the booth.” She pointed straight at the woman who clearly did not want to be pointed at in any way. Caroline started shrinking down in her seat as if she were contemplating hiding underneath the table.
“I remember,” I nodded, revealing nothing. You never showed your cards. It wouldn’t serve any purpose to bleat out like a young adolescent, “I haven’t stopped thinking about her.” Though it was the truth.
“You need to seduce her.”
“Excuse me?” I sat up taller, sure I’d misunderstood. What had she just said?
“Snap her up!” She again pointed at Caroline, or where she had been sitting. I couldn’t see her anymore. Maybe she’d snuck out the back. I should go check.
“Listen!” She snapped her fingers, bringing my attention to her. Snapping her fingers at me? Did she know who she was dealing with? Clearly not. “Focus,” she demanded. “We have a situation here. You are a hot CEO and I know Carrie has a whole Fifty Shades, Christian Grey thing.”
“She does?” Maybe talking to this friend could have its benefits.
“Oh yeah, big time,” she confirmed. Interesting. “So you need to get on that, because my girl is never going to come to you. Way too shy. And she’s still getting over her ex. So you need to get in there and make that Fifty Shades shit happen.”
“Hello!” Caroline popped up between us, breathless and bright-eyed with what I recognized as panic.
“Hey there.” I gave her a long, slow smile. Welcome to the party, Caroline. And now I knew exactly how she liked it.
“I don’t know what my friend was telling you—”
“Only the truth that you don’t have the balls to say yourself,” her crazy friend volunteered.
“Ha ha!” Caroline burst out, her eyes even wider. “You are so funny when you make jokes like that!”
“He knows I’m serious. Don’t you, CEO?”
“That’s Mr. CEO to you.” I arched an eyebrow.
“Ooh, so alpha!” her friend burst out. She had no idea. It looked like Caroline was trying to fan herself. She shouldn’t even try. Now that I knew what got her fires going, she didn’t stand a chance at cooling off.
“Why don’t you two go play pool!” her friend sang out, leaving us to return back to her booth. “Or go make out in that limo parked outside.”
Caroline burst out with another forced laugh, her cheeks a bright, flaming red. I liked a woman who blushed. It meant her skin was sensitive. She’d pink right up under the right set of circumstances.
“I’m sorry. She’s really crazy.” Caroline reached out and grabbed an untouched glass of ice water I had in front of me. “Is this yours?” she asked.
I nodded, slowly, watching her distress. Without asking if she could, she brought the cool glass to her lips and gulped down a few sips.
“Sorry,” she apologized, wiping her lips. “I should have asked if I could drink it.”
“Are you feeling warm?” I asked, enjoying teasing her. “You look a little flushed.”
She fanned herself and tugged at her T-shirt. You can take it off, I wanted to offer. But first I’d have to get her into the back of my limo.
“I do have a limo waiting outside,” I offered. “If you’d like to get out of here—”
“No!” she exclaimed, jumpy. “Not your limo!”
“Funny, that’s not the typical reaction I get from a woman when I offer her a ride.”
“Is that what you were offering me?”
“If it’s what you want.” I could practically feel the nervous energy pulsing off of her. She was wound up tight, so high-strung around me. I leaned in, just slightly, closer to her ear so I could whisper, “I know you’d enjoy it.”
There was that shiver again, barely perceptible, traveling down her spine. Her eyes fluttered closed for a moment, as if the power of my words nearly swayed her. You like my words, just you wait, sweet Caroline. I gave her a moment, letting her wrestle with her response to me.
“No,” she finally said, giving her head a slight shake.
“Pool it is, then.” I took her hand in mine. Soft, feminine, warm, why did it feel so right? I looked down at my fingers, clasped around hers. She did too, as if struck in the same way. I gave her smooth palm a stroke with my thumb. She caught her breath.
I brought my drink and pulled her along with me toward the pool table. She didn’t exactly resist, but she also wasn’t leading the way.
She seemed a bit dazed. I handed her a pool cue and started racking up the balls.
“Wait, what are you doing here?” she asked, as if coming to.
“I have a meeting here tomorrow morning. With you, I believe. Isn’t a man allowed to visit a local establishment while on business travel?”
“Local establishment,” she murmured, shaking her head. Making fun of me and my choice of words. Saucy minx.
“Don’t worry, I won’t stay long. I fly out in about an hour,” I informed her. “I have a business dinner down in Palo Alto.”
“Oh, of course,” she nodded, clearly regaining her footing. I was the corporate asshole she was dead-set on fighting.
“How about you?” I teased, chalking my cue. “Will I run into you later down there?”
“No.” She shook her head, dismissive, tossing her glorious hair behind her shoulder. “Silicon Valley’s so 2015. I’m flying up to Seattle tonight.”
“Is that right?”
“That’s where all the major players are these days.”
I chuckled, enjoying her sass. I didn’t get all that much of it, to be honest. Plenty of ass-kissing and glad-handing from people trying to impress me. Lots of hard-selling from those interested in doing business with me and my company. And a whole lot of ‘yes’, ‘please’, ‘more!’ from the women I…we can say dated.
The only people I could rely on to give me a little shit were my two younger brothers, Heath and Ash. And I didn’t see them anywhere near enough. Business kept me almost constantly on the road, and even when I was in New York it wasn’t as if I had a lot of free time on my hands. They’d like the way Caroline stuck it to me. They’d like her.
Why was I thinking about introducing a woman I’d just met, hadn’t even kissed yet, to my family?
She bent over to line up her shot and all thought instantly vacated my brain. It was like that when blood went rushing to one point in your body, suddenly At Attention at the sight of her perfect curves bent over just right. She might have the best ass I’d ever seen.
Lots of society women got too damn skinny, if you asked me. They’d starved themselves right into size zero territory, perfect for designer clothes straight off the runway. Not so good for sinking your teeth into late at night.