Chapter 1 #2
Detroit and societies like the one at Pandora’s were small.
However, I’d never run into anybody I’d slept with at the club, outside of it.
Not to my knowledge at least. Never like this.
It was… pretty fucking ironic. To me, this was God’s way of showing me He had a lot of fucking humor.
Giving me what I wanted with a stipulation in front of it.
Not only a stipulation but other messy shit attached to it too.
What the fuck was Judah doing here? It was clear, how Crescent had gained access to the club.
Never in a million years would I have expected the two of them to be linked.
The man I wanted and the man who’d popped my Pandora’s cherry.
Again… God and his humor. Sometimes it was funny, sometimes it was frustrating. Today, it was both.
“Don’t worry—you’re in good company,” Crescent said, leaning against the wall of the elevator, with his eyes on his phone.
And as if I had no control over myself, my eyes locked on him. Tami nudged me in the side, and I looked away, shaking my head.
Whispering, she said, “Everything is okay.”
She thought I was nervous about the meeting. Good. I didn’t want anybody to know that I was damn near drooling, in utter disbelief by who I was sharing an elevator with.
I hated this. Hated it so much. The subtle tug in his direction.
A light beckoning for me to put my attention on him.
The way heat radiated down my spine to my lower back where it sat for a moment before spreading over my entire body.
Tingles, sitting in my fingertips where our hands once met.
The desire… it was potent. So much so that my fucking mouth salivated.
I swallowed and crossed my arms at the wrists, so embarrassed that I could fucking throw up.
I was disgusted with myself. With the desperation.
The longing. Hated what she did to me. Me.
The one who met him. The one who felt what she felt.
Look at what she created. Look at what she did.
I… I couldn’t escape the feeling of wanting him closer.
Couldn’t stop thinking about what his hands on my waist felt like back then. Fuck.
Regardless of how much I wanted him, I couldn’t do anything with Crescent.
Rule numero uno was that business couldn’t be mixed with pleasure.
I’d worked with a fair share of very attractive, flirtatious men that I would have loved to ride until his balls were drained dry.
But I kept Mahogany the adulterous slut tucked anytime I was in a business setting.
But… I had to bend the rules a little… didn’t I?
For thee Armani suit, there should be an exception, right?
It’d been too long. I’d spent too many nights riding my husband’s dick, thinking about him.
I couldn’t just let something silly like workplace morals get in the way of that…
right? Shit. Wrong. The risk was too big.
With a contract of this size, the only position I needed to be in was as CEO of Couture, not on my back, on top, or ass up.
The elevator doors opened, reaching the top floor and the guys stepped aside to let me and Tamia out first. I felt their eyes on my phat ass as I did my little sashay off the elevator.
Not too much, enough to exude just enough sex appeal.
My hips moved like a smooth symphony—never one to shy away from eyes on my ass.
I welcomed it, even. It gave me chills knowing that Armani suit had somehow found his way back into my web and had his eyes on me.
Didn’t matter how he’d gotten there. Didn’t matter that I couldn’t pounce on him the way I’d dreamt of neither.
The only thing I cared about was that he was in my web at all.
And this time, I was going to keep him in it. Even if that did mean through business.
Judah probably thought the sway in my hips was for him. I needed to chill. The last thing I needed was for him to think I enjoyed him being here, because I didn’t. Running my hand through my hair, I relaxed my stride a little and shook my head.
By the middle of the meeting, my nerves were calmed, and I was all in, in business mode. Yeah, it took a little overthinking but eventually, I got it together. Stopped thinking about the size of his dick and the size of that hefty, lengthy six project contract, instead.
Crescent wasn’t nearly as intimidating as he was upon meeting him.
However, his eye contact? Daunting. Striking.
Right up in your face. It didn’t take long for me to realize that he kept direct eye contact as a form of respect for the person he was interacting with because he did it with everyone else too.
Which told me that whatever I felt between the two of us was simply just his lore.
I didn’t want to feed the delusion anymore.
Didn’t want to think there was some type of magical chemistry between us. Had done that long enough.
After a while, the meeting didn’t feel like a meeting anymore.
Much like people swapping industry, success, and struggle stories.
We had so much chemistry. A ton of it. As if we had been friends for a while.
All of us. Not just Crescent and I. Tamia and the rest of the team got along very well too.
Judah was on his best behavior. Didn’t make any more slick comments, just laughed, and participated in the conversations like everyone else.
My phone buzzed again, for what felt like the sixth time, and I turned it over to check it.
Duke. Again. He’d called me every single one of those six times, and it was driving me nuts.
Not only had he been calling but texting too, asking how much longer it would be.
Sending lengthy messages about how much he loved me and shit like that.
It was ridiculous. If he loved me like he said he did, he would’ve let me have my meeting in peace.
He would have waited for me at the house.
It was so bad that I was concerned about him coming up. But I knew he wasn’t that crazy.
With a sigh, I held the power button on my phone down and shut it off. When I looked up, my eyes caught Judah’s. He gave me a subtle nod, and I gave him a soft smile in return before turning my attention back to Crescent.
God it was weird. But so far, the meeting had been going exceptionally well.
However, we were about thirty minutes into the meeting, and the deal hadn’t been confirmed.
Honestly though, I didn’t need confirmation to know that Couture had snagged thee top investment firm in the state.
The fact that it was black owned and operated was the cherry on top.
“So,” Crescent said with a smile. “You ready to talk numbers?”
With raised brows, I crossed one leg over the other, pivoting my body to face him. “I’m always ready to talk numbers.”
“Good. I’m very impressed by what you have going on here.
Skylight Industries would be honored to partner with you and Couture,” He paused.
“However…” Sliding his portfolio in front of me, he pointed.
“This one? This project here? I’d like to work with you personally on it.
Just this one. The others can be divided across your team however you see fit. ”
I swallowed. He wanted to work with me personally.
That should have been a good thing right?
I should have been ecstatic! Thrilled to be spending alone time with him, right?
But I wasn’t. I was nervous. I might’ve come off to him as poised, confident, and ready but inwardly?
Inwardly I was a big bag of nerves. I could barely keep the confident act up.
Working closely with Crescent could pose as a threat.
As a threat to my marriage first, but my company right after.
I couldn’t let that line blur. Because he’d requested me personally, I couldn’t just deny him though.
I had to do it. This was an important contract, remember?
Life changing, honestly. But despite how nervous I was about being in closed corners with him alone, I nodded and told him it wouldn’t be an issue.
“Perfect,” he said, with those eyes on mine again. “I look forward to a very rewarding partnership, Ms. Mills.”
“Mrs. Mills-Morris,” I corrected with furrowed brows. He’d just called me Mrs. Mahogany Mills-Morris when we shook hands. The slip up felt intentional but… I couldn’t be sure. My name was pretty long, so to help him out I said, “If it’s easier for you… Mrs. M works.”
“Ah yeah… right. Gotchu,” he stated with a sly smile. “I like to seal deals with a toast. Would you be open to joining us at one of my bars? Nothing too crazy, just an hour or so of your time.”
Shit.
I locked eyes with Tamia, and she gave me this sad expression that only I could read. Her hot in the pussy ass wanted to have drinks with them. I did too but because Duke was downstairs and I knew my kids wanted to see me, I had to decline. Regretfully.
“I’d love to, but I can’t. I have something important—”
“We can meet after,” Judah said, cutting me off.
I squinted at him a little. “I’ll be tied up for the rest of the day. I’m sorry guys. I’d really love to.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Crescent said. “A signed contract is more than enough.” He added with a smile.
The sound of my heels click-clacking against the pavement as I marched toward my car drowned out the sound of Duke’s begging.
He wanted to talk. Wanted to talk bad as hell apparently.
So bad that he had to come down to my job on the day of one of the most important meetings of my career.
So bad that the conversation just couldn’t wait for us to get home.