Chapter 8
HOLDEN
Ispotted her the second she stepped through the restaurant doors.
The picture she’d sent me of herself in that dress had been pretty, cute even, but it hadn’t prepared me for the reality.
Because the reality of her wrapped in hunter green silk, every curve packaged like a gift for me to unwrap, was mind-altering.
The sight of her when she appeared in the doorway made my throat go dry and my slacks go tight. She was breathtaking, her hair hanging in soft spiral curls around her shoulders and her makeup understated but perfect.
Fucking hell.
I stood automatically, tugging at my collar in an attempt to make it easier to breathe. It didn’t really work, specifically because she’d spotted me now too and she was striding toward me with a nervous but genuine smile on her lips.
Something low and much too familiar rolled through me. Something I definitely should not have been feeling about a student, but right now, she didn’t feel like that same girl who’d showed up on the first day looking like she’d gotten lost on her way to a garage band audition.
She looked like a capable, sophisticated woman but not in that sharp-edged way I was used to. That was what was so attractive about her to me, the fact that she could look capable and sophisticated but also still soft and innocent.
“Ellora,” I said when she reached me, my voice coming out lower than it should’ve. “You look great.”
Unbelievable. Incredible. Stunning.
“Thanks.” She flashed me a shy smile, cheeks flushing.
She held my gaze for another beat before looking away to take in the intricate chandeliers overhead and the starched white tablecloths, candles flickering between glass vases on each table.
“This place is just wow. It’s not quite the type of restaurant where I usually eat dinner. ”
“Were you expecting a diner or something?” I asked, walking around to pull out a chair for her. “We don’t have to stay here if it makes you uncomfortable. I just figured a dress like that deserved a proper night out.”
“I’m fine. It’s a lovely restaurant. It’s just, uh, not what I’m used to.” She lowered herself carefully into the chair but leaned over across the table as soon as I settled back in my own seat.
Peering up at me through those long lashes, she seemed uncertain. Maybe even a little bit intimidated, her voice a furious whisper as she gave me a pointed look. “You said there wasn’t going to be anything romantic about this arrangement. This place is pretty darn romantic if you ask me.”
“It’s just dinner,” I said, but it felt like a lie. Even to me. “It’s the candles. Ignore them. For us, it’s just a casual meal between colleagues, right?”
“Colleagues,” she repeated, her mouth quirking like she didn’t quite buy it. “I don’t know much about how things are done at your company, but this sure doesn’t seem like the kind of restaurant colleagues usually share a meal at.”
I handed her a menu, trying to focus on anything other than the way the candlelight gleamed off her bare shoulder. “At my company, we do whatever it takes. Whatever a situation calls for. So here we are.”
“Here we are,” she repeated slowly, opening the menu. Her eyes widened and she quickly shut it again after just a glance. “You can order for me. At those prices, I’m happy with tap water, but I don’t have any allergies and I’ll eat anything but organs.”
“Anything but organs, huh? That’s pretty specific. See? We’re already learning things about each other.”
Her green gaze held mine with curiosity as well as a healthy dose of trepidation in it. “I suppose we are, but yeah. Organs. Heart. Liver. Lungs. Tongue. I can’t do any of those.”
I nodded and shrugged. “To be honest, it shouldn’t be too hard to avoid all those. I don’t even think they’ve got any on the menu, but how do you feel about pasta? The chef here makes an incredible lasagna.”
“Lasagna?” She blinked a few times before taking another quick look around. “I didn’t realize they’d serve something so hearty at a place like this. I thought they’d only do tiny, pretty foods.”
I chuckled. “They do that too, but Marco studied in Italy and he insists that no menu is complete without an amazing lasagna.”
“You’re on a first name basis with the chef?” Her mouth twitched into a weirdly amused smile. “Actually, don’t answer that. Of course you are, but okay. Let’s get down to business, then. What else would you like to know about me?”
“We don’t have to learn everything about each other, but since we’re about to pretend to be a couple in front of a few hundred people, it might help to cover the basics.”
“Like what?” she asked.
I shrugged and leaned back. “Favorite color. Family. What you do for fun when you’re not taking night classes or moonlighting as a fake girlfriend?”
She laughed, and the sound was so soft and surprised that it wrapped around my insides like warm honey. “The boring stuff, huh? Alright. I doubt anyone is going to ask you about my favorite color, but if I had to pick one, it’d be yellow.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s bright and happy.” She studied me for a moment. “Let me guess. Yours is something serious, like gray or brown.”
“It’s blue, actually.”
One of her eyebrows arched. “Blue. Any particular shade?”
“Right now?” I smirked, twining my fingers around the stem of my wine glass. “Navy.”
Ellora stilled, her hand pausing halfway to the glass of wine I’d had poured for her before she’d arrived. “Navy? Like the dress.”
I looked right into her eyes, not quite sure what to think about the undercurrent buzzing between us all of a sudden, but I still told her the truth. “Precisely.”
Our server arrived then, breaking the unexpected moment we’d been having, and I ordered dinner for us both, steak for me, lasagna for her.
By the time our appetizers arrived, a tasting platter for one for each of us, she’d started to relax a little bit.
Her shoulders weren’t quite as tense and she was actually smiling when I told her about Jimmy almost falling off a golf cart last week.
“So he’s your vice president?” she asked, genuine curiosity sparking to life in her eyes. “How does that work, anyway? Is he running the company now that you’re teaching?”
I shook my head. “I’m still in charge. There’s no way I would ever give it up. My father started that company forty years ago as a local construction outfit. He built it from the ground up. Literally. He’d send a lightning strike at me from the afterlife if I ever tried to walk away completely.”
A deep kind of understanding I wouldn’t have expected from her softened her eyes. “Yeah, I think I know what you mean. It’s kind of like you’re bringing a part of them into the future with you by keeping it going.”
“Exactly.” I looked at her from across the table, those soft, angelic features and the kind eyes, and wondered why it seemed like she understood this better than anyone ever had when I hadn’t even said more than a few sentences about it. “What about you?”
“Nope.” She suddenly sat back, wrapping her fingers around her glass and lifting it to her lips, but not taking a sip. “This is your turn. We’ll get to mine.”
I inclined my chin. “Fair enough. Okay. What else is there? My father started the company, but I took over about ten years ago. After that, we started expanding steadily, we diversified our projects, and did a few other things and now we’re one of the largest urban developers in the state.”
This wasn’t usually the kind of conversation I broke out on a date, but Ellora seemed genuinely impressed. Her eyes were sparkling with real interest and she was holding my gaze without hers ever drifting away. Strangely, she seemed completely engaged in this.
“That’s impressive,” she said after swallowing a sip of her wine. “How does teaching figure into all that, though? I’m still trying to work out how you go from massively successful CEO to nighttime business college professor.”
I shrugged. “It started because I was at the point where I felt like I wanted to give back. I’d been doing that for a while by the time I took the offer from the Institute, mostly by restoring parts of the city.
I’m still doing that as well, but now, I’m also doing it by teaching eager young businesspeople how to succeed in such a competitive world. ”
“I bet your dad would be real proud of you,” she said quietly, a wistful little smile spreading on her lips.
“My mom helped me start my shop, too. Back then, she was living in Chicago, but we planned everything over the phone and video calls. She helped me pick paint colors. The name, the place. All of it.”
I took a sip of my wine. “You two must be close.”
Her smile dimmed just slightly. “We are. She’s actually still helping me. It’s pretty special to get to work with her. She gives great advice.”
“What kind of shop is it?”
“A vintage thrift store,” she said, then arched an eyebrow at me. “I know a big, fancy developer like you might not think about it as a real business, but—”
I cut her off without remorse. “Bullshit. Don’t give me that. You’re making a living from it, right? Pouring all of yourself into it? Constantly thinking about how it can be better?”
“Yes.”
“Then it’s a business.” I flicked my eyes from one of hers to the other. “The real question is why are you taking my class? What are you hoping to get out of it?”
She shrugged. “I’m trying to find ways to bring in more income. Maybe expand, eventually.”
I nodded, though part of me wondered what she wasn’t saying. I didn’t push. It wasn’t my place, but the thought lingered. There was definitely something she wasn’t telling me.
The waiter came by to refill our glasses, and she looked at me across the table, still cautious, but more curious now as well. I could get used to her looking at me. Just maybe with less caution.
Dismissing the thought as soon as I found myself thinking it, I glanced back at her over the rim of my wineglass.
“If you ever have anything specific to ask, something we don’t cover in class, just come straight to me, okay?
The course work itself is pretty general, but I’m happy to help however I can. ”
She smiled. “I might take you up on that, but not today. I think you’ve earned a break from business talk.”
“Fair enough.”
Our food was served and I found myself watching her as she ate, surprised by her gusto.
After dinner, I paid the check before she could argue about it.
Then I walked her out. When we stepped onto the sidewalk, the air was cool, the city humming around us, but she didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave.
“Would you like to take a walk?” I finally asked as she slipped her hands into her coat pockets. “Again, there’s no obligation. It’s just an offer.”
She gave me another smile. “In that case, let’s do it. I’m not quite ready to go home yet.”
“Same here.” I found myself slowing my pace to match hers. “Would you like to know why I’m on a first name basis with that chef?”
She glanced up at me. “Yeah, I actually would. I assumed it was just because you’re a regular.”
“Nope. It’s because this area is part of one of the redevelopment projects we did a while back.” I pointed down the block. “That building with the green awning over there? It used to be condemned. It’s a wine bar now with a cultlike following.”
“What does that have to do with Marco?”
“He used to sling pizzas out of a food truck, but he’s classically trained.
Fine-dining and all that kind of thing. A restaurant like the one he wanted to open just wouldn’t have worked here before, but he couldn’t afford it in any of areas where it would’ve worked.
Now that he’s made a name for himself, he’s one of the hottest chefs in the city. ”
“That place over there?” she asked, nodding toward a storefront with its doors open, music spilling out while young professionals milled on the balconies above.
“It was an old textile warehouse. There’s some retail space at the bottom now with lofts and studios above it.”
She followed my gaze, taking it all in. The street was busy, full of people laughing and even a few dancing on the sidewalks outside of the trendier pubs.
The area had been thriving since the restoration and it was honestly one of the projects I was incredibly proud of, but I still glanced down at her, wondering what she thought about it.
“It’s beautiful,” she said finally without me even needing to ask. “I never came down here much before, so I don’t really know what it was like, but it sure seems to have become a hive of activity. It’s lively and happy now.”
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s good to see life come back to a place.”
She smiled up at me. “You sound proud.”
“I am,” I admitted. “It’s nice when a plan actually works out.”
We reached a corner and she turned to me, tilting her head up to look into my eyes. “You’re not as scary as you seem sometimes in class.”
I laughed. “Thank you?”
Neither of us moved for a beat, and she kept looking up at me through those long lashes, her playful smile melting into something more thoughtful. “So what’s next? You’ve already got half the city with your name on it. Are you working on something new?”
I hesitated. “We’re cooking something up. It hasn’t been announced yet, so I can’t really talk about it. But if it all works out…” Trailing off, I glanced down the street, imagining the skyline I wanted to leave behind. “It’s going to be spectacular. The kind of project that cements my legacy.”
She tilted her head, studying me like she was trying to see the man behind the ambition.
“Your legacy,” she repeated softly.
I nodded once. “That’s the goal.”
I sighed and turned back in the direction of the restaurant. If we didn’t go our separate ways soon, I was going to start thinking of her as more than my student. More than a pretend date. If I made a move on her, we’d both regret it. And I still needed her to be my date for the wedding.
I couldn’t scare her off just yet, no matter how badly I wanted to kiss her until she couldn’t remember how to even spell her own name.