Mr. Black's Proposal (Part One: A Billionaire Erotic Romance) (8 page)

“Andy can run it for a couple of days, can’t he?”

“My brother? He would burn the place down within the hour if I left him alone.”

“So close up shop. It’s only a few days.”

My fingers curled up into my palms. How could he be so nonchalant about shutting down my business? Of course, he wouldn’t care. He didn’t know what it meant to run on tight margin. He didn’t know that taking
a few days
off would be basically me flipping the finger to my regular clients. There were so many small cafes and coffee shops that sold my cupcakes. I couldn’t let them down. And he was asking me to let them down.

“No.”

“Please? We can take my private jet. It won’t take nearly as long to fly there.”

I set my face in a tight, neutral expression. Already I was feeling calmer, less jealous. Already, I was recovering.

“No.”

“Why not?”

Putting on my most serious expression, I said the words I didn’t want to say. My heart tore open as I spoke, pushing his shiny black loafer out of the doorway.

“I don’t want to get involved with you, Lucas Black.”

With that, I closed the door behind me and left him standing alone in the hallway.

Chapter Six

Lucas

“You should have busted down her door and thrown her down on the bed,” Clint said.

“That sounds like a great way to get the cops called on my ass,” I said. The hard rubber of the weight bench pressed against the back of my head as I looked over at the weights piled up on the bar.

I didn’t know where I’d fucked up. Steph had been kissing me back, really enjoying it. I could tell when girls were enjoying themselves, and she had been loving every touch. Until— “Can you spot me instead of just standing there?” I said. I gripped the iron bar in my hands.

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Clint said. “You know, Jake kidnapped his girlfriend the day after he met her.”

“He what?”

“That’s what he told me. He didn’t want her to be out so late working, so he got his guys to pick her up at work and tie her up and bring her to him.”

“That’s fucked up,” I said, pushing upward. All I wanted was to have Steph again in my arms. I remembered the way she touched me, the way her lips moved gently under mine.

The bar lifted. My muscles screamed. My thoughts went to pieces. Clint waited until I’d dropped the bar back down with a loud clang before speaking again.

“Yeah, well, she fell in love with him, didn’t she?”

“I guess.”

“Some chicks are into that fucked up shit.”

“I don’t think Steph is like that,” I said.

“What do you think she’s into?”

I shook my head. If I knew what made her pull back, I would be able to get around it. But it made no sense. Why wouldn’t she want to fool around with me? And what girl would turn down a trip to Paris?

“I don’t know,” I said. My palms were beginning to sweat. I wiped them on my towel and rested my hands back on the bars.

“Come on. You can get any girl to fall for you,” Clint said.

“I’m not sure about this one.”

“You don’t think she’s into you?”

“It’s not that.” I gripped the bar hard, ready to lift, but Clint leaned forward onto the weights.

“Too much of a challenge?”

“She’s—hey, look. I could sleep with her if I wanted to, okay?”

“Sure. Sure you could.”

“I’m trying to be a gentleman about it.”

“I bet you a hundred bucks you can’t get into her pants by the end of the week.”

I sighed. Clint was always ready to bet on things. And I was usually willing to go along. This time, though, something had me hesitating. I had never wanted someone as badly as I wanted Steph. I didn’t know why I was being so nervous. Maybe that’s why she wasn’t falling for my normal charms. She must have noticed that I wanted her. Girls never wanted desperate guys.

“What, are you too scared to bet on it?” Clint asked.

I locked my hands around the bar.

“I don’t know why you really want to lose a hundred dollars.” I lifted the weight off the supports. Steel creaked under my back.

“Oh, she’s that easy? That much of a sure thing?”

“She’s not easy,” I snapped, anger making me pump the bar down and up quickly. “I just know I could get her in bed if I really tried, is all.”

“Then bet me the hundred bucks.”

“A hundred—why are we even betting money on this? You wipe your ass with hundred dollar bills.”

“It’s not the money,” Clint said. The toothpick in between his lips flicked down as he grinned upside-down at me. “It’s the principle of the thing.”

“The principle? What exactly is the principle?”

“I’m trying to help you get laid.”

“Thanks for the help. I don’t need it. Did you get with both those chicks you brought to the party?”

Clint got a weird look in his eyes and shook his head.

“Nah,” he said. “Those chicks were basic. Who’s that other one of her friends who was there? Rachel?”

“I don’t remember. Belle?”“Fuck no, Belle is toxic. No, the girl’s friend. I think it was Rachel.”

There it was. That weird look again.

“Sure,” I said. “Whatever. Can we do another set already?”

“How about this?” Clint asked, ignoring me. “I bet I can get with that Rachel chick before you get with Steph.”

I shook my head and wiped my hands off again.

“You’re too much of a gambler, Clint.”

“Hell yeah. Does that mean you’ll do it?”

“Of course I’m going to do it. Just not because of your stupid bet.”

“Awesome.”

“I need time. I’m not going to rush into things.”

“Great,” Clint said, shifting his weight back on his feet. “You’ve got a week.”

“No bet. I’m going to Paris this week, Clint.”

“Whatever. You can pay me the hundred bucks now, if you want to admit you can’t get her.”

I clenched my jaw.

“There’s no bet,” I said. “And I could have her any time I want.”

“Sure,” Clint said, grinning in disbelief. “I guess we’ll see.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said. “We’ll see.”

I wasn’t about to let Clint score any points. On principle. And Steph was attracted to me, I could tell that much. I could make it work. I was going to make it work.

Now, I just had to figure out how to make it work halfway around the world.

Chapter Seven

Steph

“Hey!” I said, pinning the phone to my ear as I rubbed off the last traces of chipped nail polish. “Is it too early to call you?”

“No, it’s fine,” Lacey said. Her voice told me that I had probably called too early. “I’m awake.”

“How’s Paris? What have you seen so far?”

I couldn’t stop the questions gushing out of me. Lacey filled me on her trip, and I drank it in. But even though I tried to keep my attention focused on Lacey and Jake, my mind kept drifting back to Lucas.

Finally, I couldn’t stand not telling her any more.

“Guess what happened,” I said.

“What is it?”

“Lucas Black. You know, Jake’s friend?”

“Yeah,” Lacey said. “I remember.”

I hid my enthusiasm under a guise of professionalism. As I spoke, I let my thoughts wander over Lucas Black’s face. His sharp jaw, his hair all gold in the soft light.

“He asked me to cater a party for him!” I said brightly. “I’m doing a cake and also a bunch of cupcakes. He wants them individually done for each of the guests. It’s probably the biggest catering thing I’ve ever done. Isn’t that exciting!”

“That’s pretty awesome,” Lacey said. There was a touch of envy in her voice, but it was a friendly envy. We all wanted our friends to do well for themselves. “You’re doing such a good job with that bakery.”

“Lucas is over in Paris, right?” I asked. I hoped she couldn’t tell how nervous I was. “Have you seen him?”

There was a silence on the other end. Uh-oh. Maybe she knew something I didn’t know about Lucas Black. Maybe she knew about how far I’d gone with him. Too far.

I pulled myself together and spoke into the phone.

“Lacey? Lacey, are you there?”

“Sorry,” she said, and I couldn’t tell if her strange pauses were because of the bad connection or because she had just woken up.

I waited for her to say more. Eventually, she did.

“It’s just that Jake was gone when I woke up this morning.”

“And?” I said.

“And it’s supermodel day. Today is when he meets everyone at the magazine. All of the models, the magazine editors, everything. They’re planning the next big advertising push.”

“So you’re jealous.”

“Is that bad?”

I almost laughed aloud. As different as we were, Lacey and I were almost twins when it came to our emotions sometimes. I could hear her insecurities coming out of her just like mine were coming out.

“No, it’s not bad. It’s normal. But you trust him, don’t you? I mean, it’s just business.”

Business. That’s what I’d told myself when I let Lucas Black walk me up the stairs back to my apartment. I’d known where it was going, though.

I knew that Lucas Black was no angel.

“Yeah,” she was saying. “I’m just being silly. I think. It’s strange here. I don’t know.”

I lay back on the bed to chat for a while longer. Finally, I told Lacey I’d need to talk to Lucas soon.

“About the cupcakes,” I added.

“Oh, sure.
That’s
why you need to talk to him.”

“What?” I asked, my blood pumping. “I’m serious.”

“You wouldn’t want to talk to him about anything else… like his sexy blue eyes?”

“What?!”

Oh, God. As soon as she brought up his eyes, I saw them as clear as day. And it was like day, the sky blue days of summer. I imagined lying down in the middle of a field of daisies. Lucas next to me, his eyes reflecting the clear blue sky.

“You’re adorable when you have a crush on a guy, Steph,” Lacey said.

I frowned. I wasn’t going to let my stupid desires win out this time. Lucas Black was strictly off-limits.

“I don’t! This is just business.”

“Uh-huh, right. Just business. I saw the way he was looking at you during Jake’s going away dinner.”

The way he was looking at me? I thought that she would point out the way I gawked at him like a lovestruck teenager with a crush on the teacher.

“He wasn’t looking at me! He had a date with him!” I said, more emphatically than I really needed to.

“Right.”

“Just business,” I repeated.

“I gotta go, okay?” Lacey said abruptly. I got the sense that her mind had shifted to something else. “Talk to you later?”

“Sure, babe,” I said. “Love ya!”

“Love you too.”

She hung up, and I wondered what Paris was like and whether it was colder there than in New York. I wondered if they had cupcake stores in Paris. They probably had baguette stores. Lucas Black was probably there, buying a baguette and sharing it with three impossibly slim and beautiful French women, laughing and smoking cigarettes and breaking my heart.

I mashed my head into my pillow. He wasn’t mine. Therefore, he wasn’t mine to be jealous of. Then why did my whole body insist on aching at the slightest mention of him?

I wished that Lucas Black had never kissed me.

And in my secret heart, I wished that he would kiss me again and again and never stop.

Chapter Eight

Lucas

I thought about kissing Steph the entire flight to Paris. Her soft lips, the way her curves fit perfectly into my hands…

Even my work couldn’t pull my mind off of her. Normally, I loved visiting Europe and seeing the new faces that I was going to be shooting for our partner magazines. New, young pretty faces. But this time, no amount of work could save me. I was in the middle of the photo studio, surrounded by beautiful women. And the one woman I wanted wasn’t there.

“Lucas!”

I turned to see Jake waving at me from across the room. Behind him, a row of supermodels waiting for their shoots perked their heads up. Another billionaire to flirt with. God, I hated gold diggers.

“Jake,” I said, abandoning my camera and walking over to him. We clasped hands and he beamed at me. I knew there was something going on with him. “What’s up?”

“I’m going to propose to her.”

“I knew it!” I said. “I knew it. Didn’t I say that before you left?”

“You called it. Don’t tell anyone, though,” Jake said. “I don’t want her to hear about it before I get it all set up.”

“So you already have a plan?” I asked, pretending to care more than I actually did. Marriage proposals were just another way for guys to spend a lot of time and effort impressing girls. I mean, Jake seemed to really like this girl, so I hoped it would turn out okay, but still.