City Vibes - Complete Series (BWWM Interracial Billionaire Romance) (4 page)

Daniel nodded and kissed her again on the forehead. “All right. I'll be right here waiting.”

Reese beamed her heart singing with a relief she couldn't logically placed. “Thanks.” She muttered as she skipped away.

Chapter 7

Reese's eyes fluttered at the sight of Daniel's car in a parallel space on the side of Per Se. Although she had seen it almost five times since she met him, something about the sight of his midnight blue Audi, the moonlight glinting off of the dark headlights and sharp rims, took her breath away. Daniel unlocked the car and opened the passenger door for her before taking his own place in the driver's seat. She settled in to the leather, its smell filling her nose and relaxing her mind. “You're car makes me want to sleep.” She murmured.

Daniel laughed. “That wasn't really the reaction I was going for.” He mumbled as he put the car in drive and maneuvered out of the parking space and into the busy street beyond.

“Don't worry. It's a compliment. I swear.”

“I was hoping it would dazzle you.” he joked.

Reese plastered a curious smile on her face. “You don't need a car to dazzle me.”

“Oh?” Daniel replied as he glanced at her. “So tell me, what is it that will dazzle you?”

She sighed. “Well, if I'm looking to be dazzled.... which I'm most likely not... it would take a lot more than a car.”

When Daniel didn't respond, Reese pressed her forehead against his window and watched as the skyscrapers, their shapes skewed by the shadows of the night and the glaring light seeped into her line of vision, then slipped out of her consciousness. She kept her eyes wide open, taking in the images of thin women in Burberry pea coats and LV heels slamming against the unforgiving pavement as unforgiving 40-somethings and 50-somethings rushed from their cafe's and office buildings to their dinner dates and Broadway shows. The blown out girls and shiny necklaces wisped around in the night, always just out of reach. Reese sighed to herself as Daniel pulled up to the awning of what looked like a large, elaborate apartment complex. One quick look at a cross-street told her she was somewhere around East 104
th
street and Park Avenue.

A man in a hat and a cap hopped up to the car and whipped the door open for her. She shot him a half-hearted smile as he took her hand and guided her out of the car. By the time her feet hit the pavement, Daniel had already come around the front of the car and was handing his keys to the valet. “Good evening Mr. Scott.” he greeted him.

Daniel just nodded at him, then slipped his right arm around Reese's waist as the doorman opened the door for them. When they entered the lobby that looked as if it had been carved out of Mt. Olympus, Reese balled up her apron in an attempt to make it as small as possible so that it would hopefully escape the notice of everyone around her. As the elevator doors swung open and she followed Daniel inside, she found it more and more difficult to ignore the fact that her skin crawled with self-consciousness.

After souring to the penthouse floor, the elevator doors opened to reveal a pristine hallway  that continued on in both directions for about ten feet and then terminated at the face of french style doors. Reese followed Daniel as he stepped out of the elevator and approached the door to the right. At the foot of the threshold was a black doormat with gold trim. Reese pursed her lips as she scraped her cheese encrusted, soap scoured non-slip soles against them. Eventually, Daniel got the door open and they stepped inside. Reese sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of his wide open pad of a penthouse apartment. Sets of warm light clicked on one by one as they stepped down into his living area and kitchen. Reese could have sworn her right eye was twitching at the mere sight of so much dark marble and stainless steel in one place.

“Are you hungry?” Daniel asked as he led her into the kitchen and retrieved a bottle of scotch from an elaborate-looking bar area.

“Why? Do you have a chef hiding in the pantry.”

He laughed, his hands trembling as he filled two cocktail glasses with expensive-looking alcohol. “No. I was thinking we could order pizza.”

Reese's brow furrowed. “How proletariat of you.” she joked.

Daniel stood up as he dialed the number to a local pizzeria on his phone. “I'm sorry if I can't meet all of your expectations.”

Reese giggled, then slipped out of her chair, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Rest assured. You have met all of my expectations.”

Daniel turned so that they were facing each other and pressed his lips against hers. Reese sighed to herself, her body turning to mush beneath his touch as she wrapped her arms around her neck. He snaked his hands around her waist, the tip of his tongue pressing just inside of her mouth. She then moaned at the sensation of his lips against her cheek.... then her neck...

“Daniel....” She moaned.

“Reese.” He hissed.

She hitched her leg around his hip just as he dragged his fingertips down the inside of her thigh. In one motion, he swooped her up and carried her into his bedroom. Daniel dropped her onto the black silk sheets that covered his California King bed. Her eyes flashed open as her chest hit the mattress and she took in his grand, yet minimalist room. Besides the bed and the canopy, he had nothing but a large avant-guarde tapestry filled with purple and green patterns, occasionally interrupted with a slash of bright red. “You're room is...uhm... interesting.” She commented.

Daniel just smiled and kissed her again. “You're interesting.” He murmured.

Reese giggled to herself as she kicked her shoes off and began to unbutton his shirt. She closed her eyes to the sensation of his dense body pressing against her. Her skin was singing; each microscopic hair stood on end as if to reach out and embrace him. Goose bumps sprouted through her chest as he unbuttoned her shirt and caressed her chest with his lips and tongue. She tugged at tufts of his hair pressing her body closer and closer to his until she couldn't be sure if the pounding against her rib cage was her heart or his. Her mind had been overcome with a deep serenity, the kind where the only image in your mind is bright white light, where the only sound in your ears is your breathing and his body is the only thing that exists to you. She felt the “L” word at the tip of her tongue. It danced around in her mouth as he sucked on her neck. She parted her lips and it had all but slipped out of them when a sharp ringing stopped the two of them in their tracks.

Daniel froze.

“Is that... a phone?” Reese asked.

He nodded, then reluctantly stepped off of the bed.

Without his body against hers, Reese felt a draft of cold air.

“Hello?”

She drew his soft sheets up to cover her chest as he answered the phone.

“Yes, I'm at home.”

There was the muffled sound of someone speaking on the other end of the line.

“What? You have got to be fucking kidding me!” He snapped.

Reese flinched at the heat of his anger and murmured, “Is there something wrong?”

But he ignored her. “No. Mitch you should have said something.”

He turned his back on her, his right hand resting on his hip and his shoulder as tense as a bull's.

“What the fuck? I leave the office for an hour and you let this happen?” He demanded. “They've got 500,000 shares. It's Google! Not some no-name trailer trash penny -stock. Jesus what the hell do you expect me to do? Undo everything you've apparently caused?”

Reese's eyes went wide. Her heart was still throbbing, but for different reasons now. The sight of Daniel stiff with anger and cursing like that made her tremble. She beat her lips and squeezed her hands into fists in an attempt to calm her tremors.

“That's twenty billion dollars,
Bill
!” he lodged his phone in between his ear and his shoulder as he rolled down his sleeves and redid the buttons on his shirt. “How committed do you think they are?” He asked. As he listened to whatever this Bill Mitch person was saying, he turned his razor sharp gaze on Reese, and with demanding fingers, snapped in her face to get her attention.

She grimaced at this, her skin crawling with disdain at the level of disrespect he was displaying. “God. You know what I meant. Their tone of voice. Did they sound resolved? Like they were considering it? Like someone had put the idea in their heads?”

Reese slid off of the bed, her eyes wide and dry with shock. “What?” She snapped.

Daniel cocked his head to the side at the sound of her voice. “Go get my brief case and my laptop. It's in the dining room.”

Reese held her hands out in sheer confusion. What did he want her to do with his brief case and laptop, and where was the dining room to begin with? When she did not move, Daniel swiped the phone away from his ear and pressed it against his shoulder. “GO!” He roared.

A lump the size of a basket ball lodged itself in her throat. Out of sheer fear; a fear that made her skin crawl, and fear that turned her lustful blood to sheer ice, a fear that sent her running through his bedroom and out into his dining room, half naked, looking for his brief case and laptop. In the next few minutes, she returned to his bedroom with the things he had asked for. He snatched them from her with a curt, “thank you.”

“What's going on?” She demanded.

“No.” He snapped. “Don't do anything.” he replied in a hard, hasty voice. “Mitch.” He muttered deliberately. “Please, don't do anything. I'm on my way right now. Call John. Have him meet us at the office.” he then ripped the phone from his ear and threw it on the bed. He brushed past Reese, who swiftly stepped aside to put on his pants and re-buckle his belt.

“Daniel, what the hell?” She demanded, her hands on her hip.

“I have to go back into the office.” He muttered as he shoved his lap top into the brief case.

“oookay... why?”

“Because a client of ours has decided to drop all of his holdings.”

Reese nodded. “That doesn't seem to bad. What does that mean?”

Daniel released a harsh sigh. “It means I'm fucked!”

“Hey!” Reese snapped. “Watch your language.”

Daniel grimaced as if to question her nerve. “I don't have time for this.”

“Yes! You do!” Reese pressed. “Explain yourself.”

He stood up and placed an oppressive hands on her shoulder. “No. I don't. I don't have time to explain basic economics to someone like you.”

At that moment, Reese felt everything Maria had said to her about him, come rushing through her head, but she didn't want to believe it. Reese shrugged away from his touch. “What is that supposed to mean?”

He rolled his eyes. “Don't be stupid.”

Reese's jaw dropped. She could already feel her lip quivering again and her eyes watering up. “Daniel. I think you're stressing yourself out and you just need to calm down.” She said in an even tone.

“Jesus, Reese. Don't tell me what to do.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “I wasn't...” Then she trailed off as he stood up and headed for the bedroom door with his brief case in hand. “Wait!” She called as she jumped off the bed. “Where are you going?!” She demanded.

“I already told you!”

“What do you want me to do?”

“I don't know! I've got billions of dollars on the line as we speak. I cannot deal with this right now.”

“What is this?” Reese wrapped her thin fingers around his wrist in an attempt to stop him. “This is me you're talking to. No one treats me like this. Over money of all things.” She spat.

Daniel ripped his hand away from hers. “This is my job!”

“It's money! Who cares? No one is dying!”

Daniel sneered at her. “You have absolutely no respect for what I do.”

Reese bit her lip. “And you have no respect for me.”

“This isn't about you.”

“No. This is about you right?” Reese countered. “This is about your job. The only thing that matters to you.”

“Well, I'm sorry if I'm ambitious and not a waitress at Per Se.” He snapped.

“I'm a research assistant!” She cried.

Daniel just shook his head and continued out of the bedroom.

“Wait! What do you want me to do?” She demanded.

Daniel whipped his body around. “I have more important concerns that what you do!” He roared.

“YOU DISGUST ME!” Reese cried after him just before he slammed the door behind him.

Chapter 8

Reese took short quick breaths of the frosty air. It was well into the night by then and buckets of tears had already dried on her cheeks and yet her abdomen shook with the promise of even more tears. She couldn't believe what had just happened. As she sludged through the streets of  the upper east side of Manhattan she tried to wrap her brain around how she had just been treated, but just couldn't comprehend any of it. It was as if work made him a completely different person. The image of his eyes, which were always so serene fierce and red hot with rage made her nauseous. She could have lived a thousand years without ever seeing this side of him. After standing in front of the subway entrance for thirty minutes, she was finally able to bring herself to descend the stairs and board the train home.

Once the train reached West 4
th
, she stepped out onto the platform and followed the small crowd of working people just like her. But when they reached the stairs, she found she couldn't go on. She rested her back against the tile of the wall next to her and slowly sank to the ground, not caring who had been there, or peed there before. Just as her bum hit the cool pavement, a fresh wave of tears hit. She wrapped her arms around her abdomen and dug her nails into the back of her shirt as heaves of grief flowed out of her, because for a second she actually believed that she meant something to him; that she meant something to anyone. But, once again, she was losing to the luster of money. Her face didn't matter, nor did her frizzy hair or her ideas... or her heart. “No.” She thought, “My body mattered. He only wanted me for my body.” Those words echoed throughout her skull as she murmured, “He used me.”

With that, she sucked in one long breath of rancid air and stood up, ascending the stairs and emerging into the special night air of Manhattan that she had become accustomed to. Her feet moved with a deliberate sadness, until finally, she reached the street that housed her apartment building.

But...

In the distance...

She saw a figure.

Her feet picked up speed as she peered through the blue glow of street lamps at the frame she could have recognized anywhere. Her heart skipped a beat and then thrust itself into rhythmic pounding as she all but ran to her doorstep.

It was him, sitting on her stairs like a homeless man.

“What are you doing here?” She asked in a wavering voice.

“I lied to you.”

She brushed past him, and, with weak hands, fished out her keys. “I know you pretended to care about me.”

Her muscles tensed as he placed his hands on her waist rested his head in the back of her hair. “No. Tonight. When I told you I didn't care what you did.”

“Well, I wasn't lying when I said you disgust me... because you do.” She got the door open, but when she tried to step inside, he tightened his grip, holding her to her spot.

“Look at me.” He whispered.

Reluctantly. Reese turned to find Daniel looking more beat up than she'd ever seen. His brilliant eyes which were sharp just three hours ago, were weak, and pleading. “Don't say that to me. I can't bear if that's true.”

“I suppose everything went great with Mitch.” Reese retorted.

He shook his head. “I didn't go.”

Reese's eyes went wide. “You... what?”

“I regretted everything as soon as I left. I got in the car and drove two blocks, but I turned around....” He trailed off, shaking his head. “I came rushing back to apologize, but you were already gone. Somehow I fished out your address from GPS and I came straight here, but... but you... I waited for three hours.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “And then I was sure something happened to you.”

“I'm right here.” Reese pressed.

“I don't even remember what I had planned to say when I first left, but now all I can't about is how much I can't lose you. I know I sound crazy, and maybe clingy, but you're worth so much more than twenty billion dollars.”

Reese threw her arms around him, pressing her body against his as tears of relief streamed down her face.

Daniel buried his face into her small shoulder. “Just don't ever disappear like that ever again.”

Reese split her lips as a sliver of the cool night air filled her mouth. She raised her head to sky offering all of her to this one moment where everything felt exactly right. “I won't.” She breathed.

Daniel came into her apartment and embraced her with a kiss that lasted an eternity. His hands caressed her thighs while slowly moving up her dress. He touched her like a man who had been locked up for the last 30 years. Gently kissing her and unwrapping her clothing like a child on Christmas morning.

Reese shivered a cold shiver like the first day in winter, but with the added warmth of his breath over her nipples. He rubbed gently between her legs and could feel how wet she had gotten. She pulled his pants down, and went down on him. Something she usually hates, but for some reason it fell so right with him. After 10 minutes of intense fellatio Daniel pointed to the bed and asked for her to head over. He used those muscles of his to flip her over and they began enjoying a mutual satisfying 69.

Reese was drenched with excitement, as she couldn't remember the last time she was truly pleasured without having to pleasure herself. Daniel's technique was impeccable as he would slowly insert a finger letting her juice out, but keep his tongue on her clit, slowly circling, over and over. She moaned, again and again.

She got to the point where she needed him inside and Daniel, being the gentleman had to start off in missionary. Their lips were locked until infinity, and he slowly embraced her with soft deep strokes.

Right when Reese was about to cum Daniel sat up slightly, looked into her eyes and said "I feel like I've always loved you."

At that moment Reese, knew that nothing mattered, other than the two of them. Not socio economic status, not age, not race, she had truly found her soul mate and she closed her eyes and lost herself in the moment.