First Thing I See (6 page)

                His breath hissed as he exhaled deep at my
touch, “We won’t make it to the restaurant at all if you don’t put some clothes
on very, very quickly.”  I could hear the restraint in his voice.  

                I giggled, a little embarrassed at my
forwardness, and he turned to face me.   I wanted him to see me as sexy New
Hope and not nervous old Hope.  “I don’t mind missing dinner.”  I said with a
devilish smile on my face.  Kennedy stared down at me and I could feel the pink
on my face heat.  I might be able to hide old Hope with my bold words, but my
face deceived me.  His eyes searched mine and I wasn’t sure what answer he was
looking for.

                “I need to feed you to get your strength up
for what I have planned for later.”  His lips covered mine for a kiss that was
way too short and then he took a step back and pointed toward the bedroom.  “A
box came for you while you were in the shower.  Why don’t you go get ready,
Charles will be here soon.”

                Confusion by who would deliver something to
me at Kennedy’s hotel room, helped me ignore the disappointment of being rejected. 
I studied the large box on the bed recognizing the name of the boutique we had
visited in the afternoon.  My heart fluttered as I untied the large bow and
lifted the box to find every dress that I had tried on and rejected because of
the price tag that afternoon.    Before I could turn around, I heard his voice
from the doorway.  “You should know that I don’t take no for an answer when I
want something.  Even if that want is to give you a gift.”   His voice was
serious and I found his tenacity flattering. 

                I waited a minute before turning around to
face him.  Old Hope would have insisted on returning the dresses and felt
unworthy of such a lavish expense.   Fighting my own innate reaction, I tried
to think of how Shauna would handle such a situation.   She was the type of
woman that men lavished with gifts.  Hoping he couldn’t see through me, I
forced a smile and turned to walk to him.  “Thank you.”   I stood on my tippy
toes and reached up and gently kissed his cheek.  A slow smile spread across his
face revealing the dimples and I had to steady myself when my knees went weak.

***

                I don’t know exactly how long it took me to
get ready after that, my brain was too busy reeling from what had transpired
throughout the day to focus.   I walked out from the bedroom and froze. 
Kennedy may have reached Adonis status in his business suit, but dressed in
dark slacks and a simple grey sweater made my mouth water.   The sweater
slightly stretched across his broad shoulders, one word came to mind.  Power. 

                I saw his eyes sweep slowly up and down my
body taking in my new dress.  His eyes were dark and his voice had a dangerous
throatiness to it “Jesus Hope. Fuck.”  I felt his reaction seeping into my skin
and the small hairs at the nape of my neck stood erect.  He walked to me never
taking his eyes off of mine, I heard him take a deep breath. “You are
beautiful.”  With just a few simple words, I was wet with desire.    He lowered
his head and gently kissed my neck slightly below my ear.   It sent shivers
down my spine.   I melted when he pulled me close and held me in a tight strong
embrace.  He pulled back and cleared his throat “Dinner, now.”  And off we
went.

                The conversation at dinner came easily and
Kennedy laughed as I told him stories of Shauna and I growing up in rural
Oregon.  Most stories had the same theme.  Shauna getting herself into trouble
and me having to save her ass.  I told him about my father being retired from
the service and how he married the former Miss Oregon after my mother died when
I was 11.   He told me he was the oldest of three boys, but didn’t share any
stories about his childhood. 

                When our waitress came with the dessert
cart, he promptly told her that we wouldn’t be having dessert and requested the
check.  Leaning forward, I arched an eyebrow and asked “Are we going out for
more ice cream instead.”  The wine at dinner had made me bold and the way
Kennedy looked at me made me feel sexy. 

                His face turned serious and he leaned
forward close enough that I could feel his breath, “No Hope, I’m eating you for
dessert” 

                My face flushed and I realized that I was
playing in his game and he had just turned the table on me.  “I’ve been
thinking about how your tongue stroked that ice cream all day and I’m going to
pretend you are an ice cream cone and lick you until your cream melts in my
mouth.”

                  I closed my eyes feeling raw with emotion
and desire.  I wanted to dig my nails into his rock hard body and take him deep
until there was no air left between us.  I forced my eyes open, his face inches
from mine.  “Well why are we still sitting here then?”

                Kennedy’s head drew back and a devious smile
lit his face.  He stood and grabbed my hand bringing me to my feet.  He led me
out of the restaurant pulling me behind him so quickly I could barely keep up. 

                Later that night I fell asleep in his arms
after he made good on his promise of having me for dessert and I reciprocated by
treating myself to another ice cream cone.  Only this time the cone was
Kennedy.

***

                I woke Sunday still in his arms and gently
tilted my head up from his shoulder to glance a look at Kennedy sleeping.  To
my surprise, he was not sleeping.  He was looking down at me and began to
stroke my hair.  “Good morning beautiful.”  I smiled thinking how incredible it
would be to wake up to this site every day.  He smiled back, but it wasn’t the
full on dimple smile.  “I have to get ready for my flight back to Chicago
soon.”  The thought of leaving the cocoon we created over the weekend, deflated
whatever excitement I felt waking up in his arms. I straightened at his words.

                “Okay.”  I couldn’t think of anything else
to say without showing how sad the thought of not seeing him really made me. 

                He stopped stroking my hair and I readied
myself for what I thought would come next.  “I can’t stand the thought of you
in this city walking around so innocently with every man following your ass
with their eyes while I am all the way in Chicago.”   Shocked, I leaned up on
my elbow to look at him. 

                “That isn’t exactly what I thought you were going
to say.”  A moment later the realization of his words hit me.  “And I’m not
innocent Mr. Jenner.”  I did my best to look annoyed and serious.  Kennedy,  oblivious
to the attitude I was throwing his way, threw his head back laughing.  He
looked at me smiling and then his face turned serious.

                “You really don’t have any fucking idea, do
you?” 

                “Idea of what, that you just insulted me by
questioning my toughness?”

                He looked at me with arched brows and a
slight curve of his lip.  “Sorry beautiful, you’re tough as nails.”

***

                We had room service for breakfast and then Charles
dropped me at my apartment on the way to take Kennedy to the airport.   We
didn’t make plans for the future.  I don’t know why I was afraid to try to talk
about what we had out loud, but for some reason I knew we had something. 
Kennedy walked me up the stairs to my front door and turned to face me.   He
cupped my face in his hands and pressed his lips firmly to mine.  Then he
looked down into my eyes for a minute and I wasn’t sure if he was waiting for
me to say something.  But he reached down and gently kissed my nose and
smiled.  I went inside and ran to look at the window.  He was already pulling
away. 

***

                Although my muscles were already sore from
my workout with Kennedy this weekend, I forced myself to go to meet Shauna at
the gym.   Luckily the gym was busy so Shauna couldn’t give me the full
interrogation.  I popped in my headphones and spent almost an hour on the
treadmill reliving the fantasy of the weekend.  Shauna had apparently lost
patience with waiting to hear about the weekend, because she pushed the stop
button on my equipment the minute she was done.  When I looked at her annoyed,
she just smiled and said loudly “Are you going to tell me about your fuckathon
weekend or what?”  The guy next to me took his eyes off Shauna’s ass long
enough to look me over and give me a smile.  Shauna definitely knew how to get
what she wanted.

                Back in my apartment, I told her about our
easy conversation and him buying me all the dresses that I had tried on.  She
wanted details on our “sexcapades,” but I only told her that he was a good
lover.  For once she didn’t push until she got more out of me.  We ordered
Chinese food and she told me about her Saturday night date.  Shauna had a top
ten list of things that men had to be dumped for, no matter how much she liked
them.  The poor guy didn’t stand a chance when he hit two of the top ten before
they even ate dinner – asking her to put on her cheerleading uniform for him
later and looking in a mirror during their first date. 

                We cleared the table after consuming more
calories than we had burned off in two hours at the gym, and Shauna told me that
she had dug a little deeper into Kennedy.   

                “I don’t know if I want to learn about him
from reading stories that people who don’t really know him write for money with
a goal to sell their story Shauna.” 

                “I just want you to be careful, Hope.  It’s
not just all the pictures with models. He might have some other issues.  There
is tragedy in is his past.   It’s different from your past Hope, but you should
know more than anyone that you don’t walk through fire without coming out with
a few burns.” 

                Her words hit me as if I was physically
struck.  My stomach clenched and my heart raced.  I could feel the blood rush
out of my face and pool at my feet.  Shauna looked at me and took two quick
steps toward me and hugged me tight.  She didn’t let go until my breathing
returned to normal.   Some things just will never change.  And Shauna and I
taking care of each other is one of them. 

                When I walked back to the kitchen table
after saying goodbye to Shauna later, I saw the folder on the table.  I wanted
so badly to look, but it just didn’t feel right.  If I was going to have any
chance with Kennedy, I couldn’t let old Hope have an arsenal of information she
could obsess on to destroy us before we had a chance.  I took the folder and
put it in my nightstand to avoid temptation.

***

                I was surprised not to hear from Kennedy on
Sunday night after the weekend that we shared.  I was sad and disappointed when
I didn’t hear from him on Monday or Tuesday either.

                Franklin Jenner was thirty, two years
younger than his older brother Kennedy, but he acted like the older brother
most of the time.  When the family business was passed down from their late
father, the brothers split it up and each took the helm in different segments. 
Franklin operated the shipping company, while Kennedy took the financial
division and Garrett, the youngest brother, took the biomedical operations.  
Franklin did well with Jenner Shipping International, and lived a comfortable
lifestyle.  He didn’t quadruple the business as Kennedy had done after taking over
the finance operations, but it was still a multimillion dollar paycheck each
year.

                Franklin married his high school sweetheart
at twenty one and was the very proud father of six year old Emily and three
year old Joseph.  After their parents died, Franklin took over the family
tradition of hosting Tuesday night family dinner.  Garret was out of town, so this
week it was just Franklin and Jenner sitting on the balcony after dinner
enjoying a glass of Hennessey.

                “I saw Mikayla at the Children’s Hospital
Fundraiser this weekend.  She said you were in New York on business again.  And
she sounded pissed off.”  Franklin sounded amused.

                “It’s over with Mikayla but she won’t give
it up.”  Kennedy emptied his glass.

                “So what’s up in New York?  Anything you
need a hand with.”

                Kennedy dragged his fingers through his hair
and let out a deep breath.   He needed to talk to someone.  “I met a woman
there a few weeks ago.”

                “You mean a real woman or a Mikayla
prototype?”

                “A real woman.  One I can’t seem to stop
thinking about and is making me lose my mind trying to keep myself in control.” 
Kennedy poured another two fingers into his glass and stared up at the sky
looking for the answer.

                “Holy. Shit.  You met a real woman!” 
Franklin slapped Kennedy on the back playfully.  “It’s supposed to be a good
thing when you can’t stop thinking about a girl big brother.  Why the long
face?” 

                “All I want to do is talk to her and see
her.  It’s killing me to keep my distance.  I can’t focus and I think my staff
is hiding when they see me I’m so miserable.”  The stress on Kennedy’s face was
evident.

                “Well, why are you keeping your distance
then?  Is she bad news?”  Franklin knew his brother hadn’t been in a real
relationship in a long time, but he was pretty sure Kennedy was smart enough to
know that keeping your distance in a new relationship wasn’t normal.

                Kennedy tossed back the second glass and
turned focused on the sky.  “No, she is an angel inside and gorgeous outside. 
And she has no idea that she is perfect.”

                “Well with that combination, you better not
take too much time to figure out why you are keeping your distance, because you
can bet there will be a line of guys behind you.”  Franklin stood and put his
hand on his brother’s shoulder, unaware that his dad did the same thing when
giving his sons serious talks growing up.   “Look, someday you are going to
have to let someone in.  I don’t know if she is the one, but I do know that you
won’t find out if you don’t ever try.”