Chapter 18
Daniel
I noticed Addison’s eyes on me and for the first time in a few days I didn’t see anger or fear or sadness.
All things I wished I hadn’t caused her.
I didn’t know what I saw in that glance, but it made her brown eyes come alive.
I held her gaze until she looked away coyly.
I realized we were on her block and our time was almost up.
As the car came to a stop outside her work, I felt the same disappointment I felt every day when it was time to say goodbye.
On top of that, I felt a franticness that it would possibly be the last time I saw her.
Maybe she would change her mind and this short time together would end.
An hour or so was not enough time together, but it was all I could get right now.
All I attempted to get. All I probably deserved to get after what I had put her through.
“Well, this is me,” she said softly, grabbing her purse and putting her hand on the door.
I gave a solemn nod as Armand rounded the car and opened her door for her. She was almost out of the car, and then she turned around and slid back across the seat toward me. I sucked in a shallow breath as I wondered what she was doing. Eager for whatever was bringing her closer to me.
She leaned in and whispered in my ear, “Thank you.”
Those two simple words entered my skull and sent shivers down the length of my spine, forcing me to close my eyes as if it was a reflex to her close proximity. She then pressed her soft lips to my cheek before pulling away. Then she was gone.
As soon as her lips left my cheek, a burn took place of where her kiss had been. I could have sworn it was a touch that would scar me in a way I would want to remember. Like a scar on your knee from when you first learned to ride a bike. It was exciting and new, and without the pain.
I watched as she walked up to her work, parts of her white dress swishing as she walked, while others clung to her curves.
She didn’t look back, but my eyes didn’t falter from her until she disappeared through the doors.
Today was the first time we had touched in the week I had been picking her up from Brooklyn.
I had taken a chance by placing my hand on the small of her back today as she got into the car.
I couldn’t help it. She was like a magnet, and I no longer had the strength to avoid her pull. It seemed to open a door I thought had surely been shut.
This morning felt different. Driving her to Manhattan had become some sort of unspoken agreement between the two of us.
Every morning, she would walk out of her brick building and look around as if she doubted I was there again, but then her eyes would find me and a slow smile would spread across her lips. It got me every time.
Every car ride, I felt her walls start to come down a little. I wondered if I would eventually get the chance to call her Heart. It had become a new challenge for me.
In the five-ish or so hours we had spent together the past week, we hadn’t talked much about the baby or what the future looked like, other than how she was feeling and what symptoms were new.
The boobs were definitely new. They were good before, but now I knew they’d spill out of my hands, and the thought was tantalizing.
It was as if we knew that talking about the baby would mean talking about us, and we were just barely figuring each other out. After doing everything backward, we were now at the getting to know you stage.
We had nine months to figure everything else out. Or was it eight?
I learned that she was smart. Not in an “I went to an Ivy League,” but more in a street-smart way that I found incredibly attractive. You could go to Harvard and still not know shit about the world. I knew plenty of people like that, and they failed to impress me in the way Addison did.
I felt oddly insignificant next to her, which was saying something coming from the guy who had his ego fed by everyone around him. What she did mattered more than anything I had contributed to the world.
She was worldly in a way that most weren’t.
She’d been to places I couldn’t even imagine because of her work with the nonprofit.
Places people would never go to willingly.
The way she talked about her job and the things she’d seen spoke volumes about her character.
Her heart. Which was why her name was so fitting, and why I wanted it to be a normal thing rolling off of my tongue.
All of her brains and her passion were wrapped in a package I was dying to get my hands on again. To slowly unwrap her like the gift she was. It was all I could think about lately, which was why my eyes couldn’t help but wander over the white number she put on today.
The buttons struggling to contain her creamy breasts, the hem of her skirt riding up slightly as she slid across the leather seat.
It was beginning to feel like torture being in such a confined space with someone I had once peeked inside.
I closed my eyes, remembering her spread open on my bar, her nails digging into my back.
I heard Armand clear his throat, breaking me out of my thoughts. I looked up and caught his eye in the rearview mirror, a smile on his face.
“To work, sir?”
“Yes, please. Thank you, Armand.”
He nodded and pulled away from the curb.
I watched as Addison’s office began to fade away with the distance.
It just hit me that I wouldn’t see her the next morning.
It was Friday, which meant I didn’t have a reason to drive to Brooklyn.
Now I wished I had realized it sooner. I could have asked her to lunch or to dinner.
I sighed. It was going to be a long weekend.
My phone buzzed just then. I pulled it from my jacket pocket and saw Kiera’s name flash across the screen. I rolled my eyes and debated answering. I went against my better judgment and hit the green button.
“Hello?” I answered.
“My knight in shining armor,” said Kiera, nearly purring.
“Excuse me?”
“The other night…at the club…”
I had done the gentlemanly thing and made sure she got her wasted ass home after I left Freddy’s birthday party early.
“Oh, right. I’m glad you got home okay.”
“Thanks to you.”
“Well, thanks to my driver.”
“Either way, I was completely wasted. I barely even remember leaving. If it weren’t for you, I don’t know where I would have ended up.”
Probably in some billionaire’s bed, which was how she ended up getting married the first two times.
“I do what I can,” I said.
“Well, I want to say thank you.”
“You just did.”
“No, silly. I want to take you out, so I can really say thank you.”
I knew that voice. It was the one she used to get anything she wanted. It was almost whispery, and dripping with sex. It had worked on me too many times to count in the past.
“That’s not necessary,” I said.
“Daniel…”
“How about the next time I’m up for bid at a charity auction, you can bid on me.”
I heard her huff on the other line.
I had no plans on being up for bid ever again. As much money as it raised, the salacious press that followed wasn’t worth it.
“You can play hard to get all you want, but you know I always end up getting what I want,” she said before hanging up.
I looked at my phone and smiled. I had pissed her off.
She wasn’t a girl who was used to being turned down, and she was zero for two with me.
It was new for me too. Even though we broke up over a year ago, we hadn’t exactly wiped our hands of each other.
We had remained friendly. Maybe too friendly.
She would sometimes make her way into my bed if we ran into each other at an event.
I couldn’t help myself. With Kiera it was familiar, and the sex was good.
But now, things were different.
Armand pulled up to the large glass building that was practically my second home and opened the door for me. I slid out of the car and saw my brother walking up to the entrance.
“Brody,” I said, jogging up next to him with a grin on my face.
“Hey, bro,” he said, pushing the doors open.
“How are you?”
“Fine, I guess.”
“Nice day out, huh?”
“Uh, yeah. Real nice.” He looked at me curiously as we walked through the spacious lobby toward the elevators.
“You’re extra cheery today,” he said, pressing the button.
“It’s Friday.” I shrugged.
“Riiiight.”
The elevator doors opened and we stepped inside.
“Did you get a really good lay last night or something?” asked Brody, raising a questioning eyebrow at me.
“Can’t a guy just be happy?” I asked.
“Sure, but that guy is usually not you.”
“That’s not true.”
“Uh, yeah it is. You’re either stressed about work or getting bored of supermodels most guys would be damn lucky just to get a passing glance from.”
Okay, that was true.
“Speaking of supermodels, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you on TMZ…” he quipped.
“And that’s a bad thing?”
“Nah, it’s good. Our stocks are up.” He laughed.
It was true. In the absence of any scandal with my name in it, our numbers were up.
It had been over a month since I had been in the papers.
The last time had been when Kiera and I were photographed on our “date” and she went on to claim that wedding bells were in our future.
Little did I know it would actually be footie pajamas and a crib.
I couldn’t imagine the field day the press would have if they caught wind I was going to be a father. Thankfully, I trusted Addison enough to keep this under wraps until we figured everything out. I hardly knew her, and I trusted her more than Kiera who I had known for years.
Brody and I stepped out onto our floor and went our separate ways to our offices. He was on one end of the long marble hallway, and I on the other. As I started to make my way down the hallway, Margaret called me over to the front desk.
“Good morning, Mr. Jacobs.”
“Morning, Margaret.”
“Your dinner meeting canceled this evening. They just called to reschedule.”
Shit. That was a big client I had planned on schmoozing over steak and expensive red wine.
“Did they say why?” I asked, trying to hide my annoyance.
“Their baby is sick.” She shrugged.
I suddenly felt a little more empathy. I wondered if I would ever be in the position where I had to reschedule or cancel because I was being a dad to a sick baby.
With my night free, I suddenly had an idea.
“Keep my schedule clear for the night, please,” I said, drumming my fingers on the desk.
“Yes, Mr. Jacobs,” she replied.
As I walked down the hallway, I started to formulate a plan that would involve seeing Addison tonight. And, if all went well, getting her in bed again. Seeing her naked was all I could think about. I felt like I might combust if I couldn’t have her again.