City Vibes - Complete Series (BWWM Interracial Billionaire Romance) (6 page)

Chapter 12

Reese turned her sharp gaze on Daniel, her brows furrowed in confusion. “His ex?”

Mark nodded nonchalantly, “Yeah, she's the daughter of the CEO of Coca Cola.”

Reese's jaw dropped and she could think of nothing to do, but to take another swig of wine. She felt completely out of her element.

“My ex,” Daniel started, as if someone suddenly flipped a switch in his head. “Was a woman who did nothing with her days but spend her father's money. Reese is a researcher at NYU.”

Reese bit her lips, her eyes going wide in the light of Daniel's defending her.

“Oh, is she?”

“Yes, and she spends her days culturing organs from scratch.” Daniel continued.

Mark turned his impressed eye on Reese. “You do?”

Reese was blushing in spite of herself. “Well, it's … I'm... well... I'm trying to get a grant to start a project that might lead to us being able to do that.”

Daniel took her hand in his and turned to Mark, “So, as you can see, the fact that she is a waitress is the least interesting thing about her.” He snapped. “If you'll excuse me, I would like to visit the bar.” Before Mark could say anything more, Daniel began to push through the crowd, dragged a stunned Reese behind him.

“Wait, there's a bar?” She called over the noise of the crowd.

“Yes,” Daniel replied, “There's always a bar.” As he said this, they came to a clearing in the back of the room that revealed a short marble table, behind which stood a man dressed in a black button down shirt and black slacks who alternated between filling glasses with an assortment of drinks from the massive collection sitting behind him and leaning over the counter to take orders from those waiting not-so-patiently.

Daniel took his place leaning against the bar counter and Reese copied his example. When the man finally attended to him, Daniel smiled, then screamed, “One Gin and tonic for me and a Vodka Cranberry for the lady!”

The man nodded, and set to work making his drinks.

“I'm really sorry about my boss.” Daniel sighed as the two of them waited for their drinks.

Even though it wasn't Daniel's fault that Mark was an asshole... and drunk, or Mark's fault that she had waited on him once, she couldn't help but nurse a serious urge to equally blame both of them for the scrutiny that she had endured. Even when she disguised herself as deeply as Chanel lipstick and louboutin heels would allow, she still carried around that sneaking suspicion that she stuck out like a sore thumb to all of his friends and basically everyone important in his life.

She worried about the fact that she was always having to defend who she was and the right she had to date him, even to her own friends, like Maria. Reese pursed her lips and refrained from answering out of a fear that her buzzed lips would say something now that her sober mind would regret later.

Eventually, the bartender came back with their drinks. She grabbed the glass full of red liquid and took a generous swig, her head swimming at the markedly stronger drink: she could feel the vodka burn as it slithered down her throat. Then, after taking another sip and smacking her lips, she looked up to Daniel and replied, “It's not your fault.” But even with all of her effort, her voice still came out short and in-genuine.

Daniel sighed. He cupped the back of her neck with his right hand and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, then one on her cheek. With this, he whispered, “You know I admire you.”

Reese melted at the sound of this and could do nothing more than nod eagerly. As he pulled away, he checked his watch. “Now, we've got about fifteen minutes until midnight and then we can go do whatever you want.” he murmured with a wink.

“Okay.” Reese muttered. She faced the counter and continued to sip out of her glass of vodka and cranberry juice. As she drank, her mind started to wander back to the conversation they had had in the car on their way to the party. She drained her drink and asked for another as, in her excitement, she took a mental inventory of all the things she owned and how many boxes she could fit them in.

“Daniel?” She looked up to find Daniel leaning with his back to the bar, with a drink in his right hand and resting his right elbow on the counter. He surveyed the room with a calm expression on his face. Reese took note of the fact that, although everyone else seemed to cling to each other for the sake of conversation and networking, Daniel was in no hurry to be social.

“Yes?” He replied, turning his gaze on her.

Reese just grinned, “Nothing... I was just....” She shook her head.

He raised an eyebrow. “Thinking about moving in?”

Reese intertwined her arm with his. “I would go home and do it right now if I could.” She sighed, staring out into the homogenous crowd of people. “You said this party was going to be crazy.”

“I said people were going to be out of control and indulgent.” He replied.

Reese took another sip of her drink. “I think we have two very different understandings of, 'out of control and indulgent'”

Daniel chuckled at this, just as a younger man in a black dinner jacket with a thin gold tie walked up to Daniel. He smiled, an action that illuminated his hazel eyes, and extended a hand. “Hi! My name is Brad.”

Daniel narrowed his eyes, but then responded with, “Oh! Brad Gridders.”

Brad laughed. “We spoke on the phone a couple of days ago.”

Daniel nodded. “Yup. I sold you some stock.”

Brad shrugged. “You said they would go up and they did!”

“I'd be a really bad psychic if they didn't.” Daniel joked. As their laughter subsided, he turned to Reese and added, “This is my girlfriend, Reese Allen. Reese, this is Brad Gridders, a new client of mine.”

Brad glanced at Reese, shot her a quick smile, then swiftly returned his gaze to Daniel. “She's lovely. Uh... I actually would like to consult you on the possibility of more investments.”

Daniel nodded and the two of them launched into a jargon-charged conversation Reese couldn't hope to follow. With a sigh, she returned to her drink and sipped it down to the ice.

“Can I get you another one of those?” Reese looked up to find a tall, incredibly sleek looking man with blond hair and warm, brown eyes staring down at her.

Reese, feeling her face flush from all the vodka cranberries just laughed at him. “It's an open bar. You don't need to get me anything.”

He shrugged and rested his forearms on the counter next to her. At this close range, Reese could smell the Calvin Klein cologne emanating from his every pore. The scent made her want to swoon. “I know that. But it's the thought that counts.”

Reese, realizing what was going on, raised an eyebrow and replied, “Good sir, you're thoughts are going to get you trouble.”

The man cocked his head to one side. “Are they?” he ran his fingertips over her bare shoulder. “I could use a little trouble.”

Reese blinked twice. Something told her she needed to find a way to artfully hint at the fact that she was, in fact, taken, and not in the mood for any, 'trouble,' at all, but her mind was simply too foggy to think of anything in time. So she simply pointed a wavering finger at Daniel, who was still immersed in his conversation with Brad and replied with, “I've got all the trouble I need right there.”

As she said this, Reese could have sworn, she saw the man's face flush a slight pink color. He dropped his gaze to the damp, marble counter, but when he lifted it again, he seemed to be completely unphased. “Ah. Daniel Scott. He's a lucky man. He's got the job... and the girl.” He commented, gesturing at her.

Reese couldn't help but smile at this. Now that she had made it clear to him that trying anything was not a good idea, she found it easier to let her guard down. “You've clearly got the job too.”

The man shrugged. “You're too kind. What's your name?”

“Reese Allen.” Reese answered as she offered him a hand.

He nodded. “Ah, Reese.” he repeated, but when he shook her hand, his touch was a bit too tender for her comfort.

Reese opened her mouth to ask his name, but before the question could come out, there was a swelling roar in the crowd of people. She looked up to see that the waiter’s trays of Chardonnay had been replaced with Champagne. Mark and the other old man she recognized from Daniel's dinner at Per Se all those months ago stood on a raised platform with identical, unopened bottles of champagne in their hands.

Their faces were beat red and they were talking excitedly to the people that immediately surrounded them. Then, as if, on cue, the two of them raised their hands and screamed, “Ten!” In one syllable, the crowd had caught on and everyone was counting down.

As Reese joined in somewhere around “Seven!” She felt an arm wrap itself around her waist. When she looked up to find that it belonged to Daniel, her smile grew wider and she screamed the numbers with just as much gusto as everyone else.

And finally, at one, the crowd erupted into a heart, “Happy New Year!!!!” and more unintelligible screaming.

Daniel turned Reese and kissed her. Their lips met and began to dance with each other as a shock shot up her spine and her skin sizzled with desire. She wrapped her arms as tightly around his neck as she possibly could and he lifted her clean off the ground. Even when Daniel put her down, and her unforgiving louboutin heels slapped against the tile floor that surrounded the bar, and the two of them fell into uncontrollable laughter, Reese's heart still pounded, throbbing in her neck and ears. Each fine hair lying on her skin still stood on end, sprouting from her goose bumps and picking up every bit of Daniel. Each and every inch of her body still longed for more and more of him.

Chapter 13

Reese rolled over in Daniel's bed, groaning as she dragged his silk sheets up to her nose and burrowed her face in his shoulder. He adjusted to this by wrapping his arm around waist. He slowly ran his hands up and down her thigh, his fingertips leaving trails of goose bumps. At this, Reese pressed herself even closer to him, a peculiar warmth spreading in between her legs. She moaned at the sound of his heartbeat, slow, steady and hard, pounding against his rib cage and filling her ears. She clutched his satin night shirt with her fingers and planted a soft skin on his neck; rough with his morning scruff. He returned the favor, kissing her on her forehead and running the fingers of his free hand through her hair. She squeezed her eyes shut and began to suck on his neck, wrapping her leg around his waist. When he nudged her with his nose, she lifted her chin, offering her lips up to him.

Reese sighed as he kissed her hungrily, his lips finding her cheek, then her chin, then the tender spot of skin just underneath her earlobe. She could feel his bulge growing harder just inside of her lifted thigh. She massaged it with her leg, her excitement swelling with his. In one swift, powerful moment, he turned her onto her back and mounted her. Reese lifted her arms as he peeled her tank top off, then quickly unbuttoned his night shirt and slipped it off of her shoulders. A smile tickled the edges of her lips as the sensations of their bare bodies pressed against each other. He kissed every inch of her body, leaving short flashes of fire in his wake. She arched her back and ran her fingertips across the perfect contours of his chest and back, squeezing him and scratching him whenever... and wherever she pleased.

“Oh....” Reese murmured as his lips found her chest and gasped when his fingers entered her, her toes curling at the titillating sensation. She dug her hands into his pants and wrapped it around his member, stroking him until it peaked out of the elastic waistline and he began to thrust against her.

Her moans grew more high pitched and breathless, and they mixed with his low grunts, forming a symphony of pleasure that hung in the morning air, suspended in the rays of sunlight that streamed through his large windows. With Reese's help, he hastily kicked off his pants. Daniel cradled her head in his hands, his eyes staring straight into hers as he entered her. Her jaw dropped and she stopped breathing, just as her heart started pounding, pumping her boiling blood  so hard she could hear it in her ears and feel it throbbing in her neck and her thighs. They thrust against each other, banging against the leather-padded head board.

He pressed his lips against hers as he dug harder, deeper, and faster into her. Reese was losing herself, and as she pulled at his head of thick, silky hair, she felt as if she was falling into herself. Jolts of electricity shot up her spine and her head was ambushed with white noise and, as her eyes flickered open, she could see nothing. She bit her lip as the bed disappeared and the sheets haphazardly draped over them ceased to exist and the only real part of her became that which was in between her legs. Screams of pleasure pried themselves from between her lips. It came in relentless waves. With one final thrust, he stopped and collapsed on top of her.

“Good morning.” He murmured into her ears.

She giggled at this, “Good morning to you to.” She murmured.

He kissed her once more, then rolled over onto his back.

With a sigh, Reese muttered, “You're really good at sex ,” as she wrapped her arms around his torso and rested her head on his shoulder.

His chest shook as he laughed at this. “I know.” He replied jokingly.

Reese lifted her head to get a better look at him. “Calm Down, hot head.” She replied.

He ran one hand through her hair, which was incredibly frizzy, nappy and unkempt from the night before. “I think you're much more of a hot head than I am.”

Reese gasped and yanked her head out of his reach. “Stoppit!”

He chuckled. “I don't understand. It's like your hair has a life of its own.”

Reese glowered. “You don't have to tell me what my hair is like. I know, I've been living with it my whole life.”

Daniel sat up. “That's one thing that fascinates me.”

Reese shook her head. “Yes, African American hair, has always been a topic of massive fascination, from slicks, to the Afro-fetish of the '80's, to whatever this is.” She replied, trying her best not to get defensive. This was one of those things she preferred not to talk about, because every time she did, it just brought her back awkward childhood conversations with her tactless classmates who would stop at nothing to make her feel as different as possible.

Daniel planted a kiss on her nose, then responded with, “Well, your hair is one of the least fascinating things about you.”

Reese couldn't help but to smile at this, but when she opened her mouth to respond, the shrill ringing of Daniel's phone cut through the air. Daniel picked it up glanced at it to see who it was, then gave Reese an apologetic look. “I have to take this.”

Reese sighed, then hopped off the bed. “All right. I'll make breakfast.” She muttered as she put her tank top back on and slipped on her slippers. She left his room and shut the door gently behind her, being careful not to make any noise so as to not disturb him.

Once in his living area, she opened all of his curtains, allowing the glow of the morning sun to illuminate the apartment. As she stretched open the last curtain, she froze, catching sight of his magnificent view. Being in the penthouse, Reese could, quite literally, see the entire city from the Hudson River to the far reaches of the Bronx.

She took in everything, from the buildings that jutted into a blue sky with wisps of clouds floating this way and that, to the people thousands of feet beneath her that rushed through the streets like ants powered by equal parts ambition and fear.

With a sigh, she tore herself away from the window and made her way to the kitchen. She opened the fridge, grabbed three eggs and set to work on breakfast. As she cooked, her mind wandered to the New Year's Eve party Daniel had taken her to. Even though, it had been almost a week since then, she couldn't stop thinking about people that Daniel constantly surrounded himself with and how different she was from all of them. She narrowed her eyes at the image of his boss, judging her, just behind her eyes and at the sea of people wearing things she couldn't even afford to rent.

Yet, as she dropped her whisked eggs into a frying pan filled with melted butter, she found herself overcome with a strange sense of longing. She wished she could have bought those three thousand dollar shoes that she wore instead merely received them as a gift from Daniel. She wished she had a cousin or a father or an uncle with a connection that she could offer, if only to fit it. It was all strange to her because her whole life, she had been taught that achievement and worth were things measurable with academic accomplishments, not monetary gains. Yet, being with Daniel made her feel like those things mattered a lot less to him and to the people in his world than they did to her, and that gave her an eerie feeling inside. 

She split the omelet in half and slid it into two small plate. Just as she had grabbed an avocado and was in the process of cutting it in half, her phone chimed. She groaned, but stopped what she was doing and fetched it from its place on Daniel's coffee table. Her brow furrowed when she unlocked her screen and saw that it was a facebook message from Jack Benson. Having never heard of that name before in her life, she clicked on the link to his profile. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of the man she had had that awkward bar-side conversation with on New Years Eve.

His profile picture was of him behind the wheel of what looked like an insanely expensive boat. His golden hair looked ruffled by some invisible wind and the blue linen shirt he wore with only one button fastened, had flown apart, revealing a washboard chest.

“Oh man.” Reese mumbled when she spotted the, “Respond to Request,” button that indicated that he had sent her a friend request. She sank into the couch and clicked on the button.

“Hey, Reese?” Daniel's voice stopped her in her tracks.

She looked up to find him fully dressed in slats and a maroon sweater.  “Hey!” She jumped up and dropped her phone on the couch. “I made an omelet...” She explained as she scurried back into the kitchen, “And I was working on cutting up some avocado when my phone chimed.” She continued cutting the avocado.

“Uhm. That's great. Omelets are great.” Daniel mumbled as he followed her into the kitchen.

When Reese looked up at him, she noticed something strange about his demeanor. A worried look darkened his eyes, and he set his jaw in a way that made him look either incredibly angry or incredibly nervous. She couldn't decide which. “What's wrong?” She asked.

He bit his lip. “I have to go to work today.”

Reese's eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. “What? It's Sunday!”

He nodded. “I know, but Mark and Jim want me to come in.”

She ducked her head. “W-.... I... Well did you tell them you had plans, that you're busy?” She asked. They had both been really excited to check out an exhibit that had been up at The Whitney. Since they had both been extremely busy for the last two months, they managed to clear out their schedules for the last day it was going to be up... or so she thought.

He shrugged. “I tried...”

“Okay.” Reese said as she picked up the plates and led them to the dining table. “Well, what do they want? Can't you handle it tomorrow morning?”

Daniel took a bite of his omelet, “Mmm,” he murmured as he smiled. “This is really good.”

Reese rolled her eyes. “It's the simplest thing I could have made.” She snapped. She sat back in her chair and stared him down. A minute ago her stomach was growling for food, but now it churned with frustration at the fact that he was blowing her off yet again, for work.

He shrugged, seeming to have completely ignored her obviously display of anger. “Either way, it's wonderful.” He shot her a fake smile, “Thank you.”

“Are you just not going to tell me what's going on?”

Daniel dropped his fork and released a long, painful sigh. “I don't want to worry you.” He replied in a short voice.

“Worry me? Blowing off yet another one of our dates frustrates me. It kind of hurts me... But it doesn't worry me. Why do you think I would be worried?”

“Okay, Reese. If you really want to get into this. I'm scared because our company hasn't been doing so well in the months since we took that twenty billion dollar loss...”

“But everything seemed fine, “ Reese interrupted.

“Yeah, because that's how it works around here. Everything is fine, and then you wake up one morning broke”

“So, is that what just happened?” Reese asked. “Daniel, did you lose all of your money?”

Daniel raised a hand. “No... I don't know. I think my company,
may be in serious trouble and I think I'm being blamed for it.”

“Why? Because they asked you to come in on a Sunday?”

“No, because they refused to tell me why they wanted me to come in over the phone.”

Reese bit her lip. “Like a, 'you should sit down for this,' type deal.”

Daniel nodded.

“huh.” Reese murmured. “But, why are you just now telling me this?”

He ducked his head. “Telling you what?”

“That you're company is in trouble!” She responded. She felt her face grow hot. She couldn't believe that after everything she had told him, after all the time they spent together, he didn't think it was “worth it,” or, “necessary,” to tell her something as big about his life as completely running out of money.

“I'm sorry, I didn't realize I had to report the daily fluctuations of my checkbook to you.” He snapped.

Reese flinched at his sarcastic words and pursed her lips at the sharp retaliation that banged around in her head, begging to be released. But when she watched him slam his elbows on to the table, and press his folded hands against his forehead, his shoulders rising and falling with his deep breaths, worry overcame her anger.

She realized that this was his career and he was being faced with having it taken away from him. She got out of her chair and stood beside him, wrapping her arms around his stiff body, and burying her face in his freshly shampooed hair. “It's not about the money, Daniel.” She sighed.

His muscles relaxed and he wrapped his arms around her waist.