Sexy Bastards Anthology: Bad Boy, Biker, Alpha, Motorcycle Club, Contemporary Romance Collection (107 page)

“Yeah…bad huh?”

She laughed. “Was it bad? The kiss I mean.”

“Oh hell no! It may well have been the best kiss I’ve ever had…no actually, it was the best kiss I’ve ever had. My insides were pure hot liquid when he finished with me.”

“Then that’s not bad. Baby, you made out with the hot DA! I’m so jealous! He wants you.”

Crystal laughed. She never should have worried about Debbie. She’s always on her side. She was still conflicted though. “I agreed to go out to dinner with him,” she blurted out. Debbie couldn’t hold it in any longer and she laughed…long peals of girlish laughter. Crystal was looking at her like she’d lost her mind. “What are you laughing about?”

“You, you’re so funny. You innocently say no to dinner and then end up with a hot kiss, an indecent proposal and dinner! You go girl!”

“Is the whole thing sordid?”

“You’re both adults honey. If he wants you and you want him…it’s no one else’s business and no one has a right to judge. You’re not doing anything wrong by dating him. If you’re looking for me to tell you that you’re doing something inappropriate or this makes you or him a bad person, you can forget it.”

Crystal smiled. “Thank you. I guess the feelings I have for him just freak me out a little bit.”

“Understandable…but I’m afraid if you don’t let yourself explore them, you’ll regret it.”

Debbie was right again. She knew she would regret it if she didn’t at least have dinner with him and see where it went from there. Otherwise after Monday…she might never get the chance again. “What am I going to wear?” she said. Debbie laughed again.

Chapter 11

Sheri walked into Eric’s office that day after Crystal left and shut the door behind her. He’s already received her lecture about “messing with the interns” the last time Crystal had been in his office. What the hell is it now?

She was standing at the edge of his desk staring down at him. He finally looked up at her and said, “What?”

“You need to leave that girl alone, Eric. She’s just a kid, and a nice one at that. She’s not one of your regular floozies.”

“Give it a rest, Sheri! Since when do you dictate my love life?”

“Your love life should be a separate entity from your professional life. Being the district attorney is entirely different than being the playboy son of a millionaire oil tycoon. You have to be careful. You already have a reputation…”

“I’m well aware of my reputation and I don’t need my little sister to tell me about it. I wouldn’t have that reputation if people could mind their own fucking business. Don’t we have two other brothers for you to lecture?”

“They keep their love lives to themselves,” she said.

“No, they’re just smart enough not to hire their little sister to work for them. How I ever got talked into that one…”

“You needed me to keep you in line and you knew it. That’s why you hired me.”

“Listen to me, Sheri. My love life might be kept to myself like our brother’s if you weren’t always sticking your nose into it. I don’t need you policing me.”

“Eric, you don’t realize how badly you could hurt an impressionable young woman like her. She’s different. I like her…”

“Sheri…mind your own business!” he snapped at her too loudly. Realizing it, he lowered his voice and said, “I have a mother, I don’t need another one.”

She rolled her eyes. “Hopefully Mom has no idea what you’re up to. She’d be so embarrassed…”

“Enough!” She held her palms up and Eric sat back down at his desk. She continued to stand there and he looked up at her at last and said, “Why are you still here?”

“We never finished our conversation about my raise.”

“We did, I believe. I told you to talk to HR. I cannot raise your salary…not that I would.”

“Did you talk to them already? If I recall, you agreed to do that.”

He rolled his eyes and sighed. His phone buzzed. He looked down at it and saw that it was Emily…again. Fuck! “I don’t have time for this right now.”

“Who keeps texting you?”

“Once again, none of your fucking business. Don’t you have work to do?” The phone buzzed again.

“Maybe you should get that,” Sheri said. Eric narrowed his eyes at her and looked down at the phone again. Emily’s messages said,

“Eric, call me,” and “Damn it, Eric! Call me now!” He ignored Sheri and quickly text back,

“Or what?” The woman is a lunatic.

He looked back up at Sheri. She was gazing at him with a disapproving look. She looked just like their mother sometimes, especially when she did that. She could give him a look that said she knew exactly what he was up to and that she didn’t approve in one glance. Her dark brown eyes identical to their mother’s and the way she set her jaw when she was being stubborn about something too. He almost snapped at her again, but decided to try a different tactic, “I will talk to HR, okay?”

She smiled. “Thank you. And…you’ll leave Crystal alone?”

“Get out!” She was still smiling but she headed for the door. “By the way, I don’t want a fucking cinnamon roll in the morning. I want a donut.”

She rolled her eyes and said, “Yes, your majesty.” She finally left and closed the door. Eric received another text from Emily then. This one said,

“You know what. Do you really want to play this game with me, Eric? I’ll win…every time.” The bitch was three thousand miles away in Los Angeles and she was still controlling his life. He could almost hear that fucking maniacal laughter of hers. She was the absolute biggest mistake he’d ever made. She was the one person that he couldn’t control and she was the wild card. He stared at the phone. Fuck her! He wasn’t going to call her back until he was damned good and ready.

*****

Friday had already come and her work day was done. She was a bag of nerves. “Is it too short?” Crystal had on her favorite “little black dress” but all of a sudden it seemed too “little.” It fit fine…but it was so short. It fell just to the tops of her thighs and clung to every other part of her body.

“It’s really fine honey…you look gorgeous.” Debbie had been monitoring her progress step by step. Crystal was so nervous that Debbie was afraid she would call the whole date off. It wasn’t like she hadn’t thought about it.

“Maybe shorter heels, then it wouldn’t look so short?” She started digging through her closet.

Debbie laughed. “Stop it. You have great legs and you look perfect. If I had your legs I’d never cover them up. I like your hair up like that too.”

“You think so? Maybe I should wear it down. My neck looks really long, like a giraffe.”

Debbie laughed again. “That’s it, you’re way too nervous. I’m going to go for you…”

“Uh uh!” Crystal laughed. She suddenly realized that nervous or not, she really was looking forward to this. “I want to do this, but you’re right…I’m a nervous wreck. I’m just not sure about this.”

“It’s just dinner, right?”

With a heavy sigh Crystal agreed. “Yes, just dinner. He’s just so…assertive, I guess is the word.”

“Hey, I know you and you’re not going to do anything you’re not ready for. If you don’t want to sleep with him tonight, you won’t, no matter how “assertive” he is. If you do though, you know that’s okay, right? You’re a big girl.”

Crystal felt herself blush. “I know,” she said. She wasn’t a “one-night stand” kind of girl though. She’d had one once and it didn’t feel very good the next day. She’d rather not go there again. She got the feeling that Eric wasn’t looking for much beyond that so she had to ask herself if she was setting herself up for the fall. The doorbell saved her from having to think about it any longer however. She stood there frozen for a second and with a giggle, Debbie slapped her small black bag in her hand and gave her a little shove towards the door. When she still didn’t move, Debbie went out and answered the door herself. Crystal watched from the bedroom as her friend pulled open the door and Eric framed the doorway in a black, tailored suit with a dark blue tie that matched his eyes. His hair was perfectly styled and he looked better than ever. Crystal’s insides were shaking as she watched Debbie give him the once over.

“Hello,” Eric said.

“Hi,” Debbie sounded out of breath. Great, she’s as spellbound by him as everyone else.

“Hi Eric,” Crystal said from the doorway of the bedroom. His eyes locked into hers and for a second she could actually feel the heat from them.

“Hi Crystal. Are you ready?”

“Yes. See you later, Deb.” Debbie turned and gave her a wide-eyed look. Crystal tried to keep a straight face as she made her way over to Eric. She took his arm and let him escort her down the few steps that led up to their apartment and to the blue Jaguar that waited at the curb. He opened the door and she slid in to the comfortable leather seat. As he got in his side, his eyes went straight to her legs. She tugged at the hem of her dress, pulling it down as far as she could.

“You look beautiful Crystal…except for one thing.” He reached over and untied her hair and let it fall around her shoulders. “Don’t wear your hair up around me.”

She wasn’t sure how to respond to that. This was their first date. Did he really just tell her how to wear her hair? Finally she just said, “Okay.”

“Good girl.” Good girl? What the hell?

He pulled away from the curb and as he drove he said, “You can change the radio to whatever you like.” She reached over and put it on a hip hop station. When she sat back, she pulled at the hem of her dress again.

“Your dress is fine. Why do you keep pulling at it?”

She shrugged. “I’m just worried that it’s a little too short.”

He reached over and put his hand on her thigh. It was warm and tingly and although she knew it probably wasn’t a good idea to let him leave it there, she didn’t want him to move it. “It’s perfect,” he said.

Crystal sat perfectly still as they drove through the city. She’d never been out with anyone who was so assertive before. Maybe it was because he was older than most of the men she dated, or maybe it was just his personality…she wasn’t sure. It made her both nervous and excited at the same time. It seemed like the drive was taking a long time and she was just about to ask where they were having dinner when he pulled the jaguar up in front of a tall, luxury apartment building. He got out and handed his keys to a valet before coming around and opening her door.

“Where are we?” she asked as he led her into the building past the doorman. The lobby was huge and ornate. It had white and black marble floors and white furniture.

“At my penthouse,” he said, leading her into the elevator. He put a key into the slot that said, “P”

and pushed a button.

“This is just dinner…”

He smiled. “Of course. Sheri ordered dinner in for us from my brother’s restaurant.”

“Oh…your brother owns a restaurant?”

“Yes, it’s called House of Steel have you heard of it?”

The elevator stopped and the doors slid open into a smaller but equally as plush lobby. “Of course,” she said. House of Steel is one of the most upscale restaurants in Manhattan. Everyone had heard of it. Crystal had never eaten there. It was a little stiff for Ryan’s blood she was sure and he used to hate it when she paid for things. “Is your brother a chef?”

Eric shrugged and said, “He fancies himself one.” He laughed then and said, “I suppose if you take into consideration the success of his restaurant that most of New York does too.”

“Nice,” she said. “I’m not much of a cook, but I always thought it would be fun to learn.”

Eric led her through a set of French doors and they were suddenly in the largest apartment she’d ever seen. She realized then that it took up the entire top floor of the building. The walls were made of glass and the entire New York skyline was visible. “This is beautiful,” she said.

He smiled again. “Thank you. I like it. It’s my haven up above all of the crap that goes on down there on the streets every day.”

She nodded. “It must be hard for you to deal with what you do every day and not bring it home with you.”

“It’s something you learn,” he said. “For survival sake you have to be able to leave most of it at the door when you leave the building downtown. How are you dealing with it…you’ve seen a few ugly trials since you’ve been with us.”

“I guess like you said…I try to leave it there. You see so much more of it, and John. It seems like it would have to affect you.”

“It does,” he said with a wink. “I used to have a sunny personality.” She smiled and he said, “Are you ready for dinner?”

“Yes, thank you.” She followed him through the ultra-modern living room and into a formal dining room. The table was large but had only been set on one end with their two plates and bowls and white candles in the center. The plates and bowls had silver covers on them. Eric pulled her chair out for her and she smoothed her dress underneath her as she sat down. He took the other seat and then pulled the covers off their meals. Crystal was still so nervous that although the meal looked delicious, she wasn’t sure how she was going to eat with the butterflies taking up so much space in her stomach.