So Sweet Read online

  “Then I’ll start with what it means to me. I will take care of you financially, handle any bills you have and give you what is essentially an allowance. We will spend any free time we choose to together and you have the option to accompany me to any of the many social events I need to show my face at. It’s the same thing I would do with any girlfriend, but you’re in a financial bind that I know of up front and I want to help.”

  “Okay. Okay. Is there anything else?”

  “You’re still wondering about the sex?”

  “Ah yeah.”

  “I didn’t forget the rest of our conversation. I’m attracted to you and I would hope that you’re attracted to me.”

  “I am.”

  “I wouldn’t want any woman to sleep with me out of any obligation, financial or otherwise. Let’s say my door is open and if you ever find yourself wanting to cross that threshold...”

  “Okay. Still not sure though.”

  “She’s smart,” Ruben said with a laugh. “Don’t give in to his shit, Kayla. Make him negotiate.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh a little myself. “I’m not trying to drive a hard bargain. I just have reservations. This is a little weird to me. Fine, I’m just gonna ask the one thing I know I shouldn’t, but it’ll kill me if I don’t. Are you looking for fun or are you looking to settle down? I know we’re talking about a sugar arrangement, but I would like to know where you’re really coming from.”

  “Yes, girl,” Ruben hissed under his breath.

  Michael glared at his assistant for a fraction of a second before he answered. “I’ll be honest and say that I am looking to settle down. I had never intended to be single this long.”

  “Thank you. I just—I just needed to know if this position is… part-time temporary. Or part-time with room for growth.”

  “How about a date?” Michael suggested just as we pulled into the airport. I’d been to LAX dozens of times, but I’d never been in through this way. Their driver pulled us out onto the runway, onto a private tarmac where a smooth, clean jet was waiting. We were out of time. I should probably make a decision.

  “I can do a date.”

  “We’ll go on a regular date and if you feel like you want to keep seeing me we’ll discuss how I can assist you financially. I’d at least like to help you out until you get back on your feet.”

  “That’s very kind of you, thank you. Do you want to just call me when you get back from New York?”

  “I was thinking you’d come with me.”

  “To New York? I guess I could, but I—”

  “I’ll only be there two days, but I’m shoving a lot into this trip so you’ll get a taste of what it’s like to be with me and I’ll get a chance to see what it’s like to be with you.”

  “But I didn’t bring anything to wear.” I had my wallet, my phone, and the clothes on my back.

  “I have a shopper in the city. Just give Ruben your sizes and he’ll take care of it.”

  “I—yeah. Sure. Why not.” Under any other circumstances I would say no. We’d basically just met, but Michael was on to something. Getting to know each other a bit before I made my decision was a great idea.

  Also there was one thing that made running off with him different than disappearing for a few days with a random guy I’d met at work or online. Michael was super rich, and Adler knew his name. He wouldn’t be hard to find if I came up missing or floating in the Hudson. Besides, a little adventure was just what the unemployment doctor ordered.

  “Let me just tell my roommate.” I climbed out of the SUV and shot off the most frantic text of my life as I followed Michael to the jet.

  Going to NYC with Michael for a few days. If you don’t hear from me in eight hours I’ve been murdered. Tell my mom. Then avenge me.

  “Ready?” I looked up as Michael’s hand landed lightly on the small of my back.

  “Yeah,” I said, trying to breathe.

  ✶

  I had first-day-of-school-in-a-fancy-museum-where-everything-is-breakable-and-really-expensive jitters. We got settled on the plane, on a plush sectional that ran up the right side of the cabin. There was a gorgeous table and two massive recliners on the left side. Farther back there were four more recliners facing a wide screen TV hung on the rear wall. There was more beyond that, maybe the restroom, the maid’s quarters. A pony stable.

  Michael and I sat on the sectional. Before Ruben took his seat he handed me a tablet and a stylus. I looked at the document on the screen and asked the obvious question. The words Non-disclosure Agreement were printed clearly at the top, but I had no idea why he was handing it to me.

  “I need to sign a NDA to date you?”

  “No, for Michael’s business,” Ruben said.

  “While we’re in the City you’ll be privy to a lot of face to face meetings and business calls,” Michael said. “I need to know that everything you hear or see will be kept in confidence. You can talk about us to whomever you like, but I have to protect the business.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  “And I have to let you know that we might be photographed. I haven’t been on a date in a while. It won’t hit TMZ levels of madness, but some paps will take interest.”

  “He’s so boring in public though. If you match that level of blah, they’ll get bored of you both in like a minute,” Ruben teased.

  “I can handle that,” I said, but mentally I paused. I’d have to tell my mom something if I decided to take this all the way. She loved grocery tabloids. She did not need to find out about Michael and my potential relationship that way.

  As the crew readied for take off Michael walked me through every section of the document. He was sitting so close, almost leaning into me as we went over each part. I didn’t fight the way my body reacted to him, but I think I hid my lust for him pretty well. He just smelled so good, like some cologne they only sold in stores I’d never be rich enough to shop in. And I loved his voice. I wanted him closer, touching me, but we were taking this slowly. On his private jet. To spend two nights together. Three thousand miles away from home.

  I ignored the oddness of the situation and focused on the task in front of us. The NDA was short, but thorough and firm. I wasn’t to blab about anything I heard. Period. I signed the bottom line and handed the tablet back to Ruben.

  Michael sat back as the flight attendant came around and greeted us, letting us know we’d be taking off soon. I wanted to relax, but I was afraid I would screw something up. I didn’t know what there was for me to screw up. All I had to do was sit there and not try to crash the plane, but I was nervous. Michael was sitting next to me, leaning against the plush fabric of the sectional, his long legs stretched out in front of him, ankles crossed. He had on a pristine pair of white Converse. He looked like he was settling in for a good nap, but then Ruben started talking.

  “You have Johnson at 9:00. That’s going to run long,” Ruben said, as another of the flight attendants appeared with fancy bottles of water. She was a gorgeous brunette, maybe in her forties. She had kind eyes.

  “The gentlemen will have their usual, but can I get you anything to drink?”

  “A ginger ale if you have it.”

  “We sure do. And I can put your bag up as well.”

  “Oh thank you. What’s your name?” I asked.

  “Sandy.”

  “Thank you, Sandy. Kayla.” I grabbed my phone and handed her my purse, which didn’t quite match our mode of transportation. She popped a small panel on the wall that opened to a swallow cabinet, storing my stuff safely on a shelf. I was actually impressed by a hidden shelf.

  “We’ll eat after takeoff,” Michael said. “I still eat like a college student. Chicken tenders okay?”

  “Yeah sure.” I didn’t want to tell him that I was more than accustomed to eating like a poor college student.

  “So you have Johnson at 9:00,” Ruben said again. Of course, they had business. I supposed I could busy myself on my phone. It had already linked to the plane’s Wi
-Fi, but I didn’t know if that was the right thing to do. I didn’t want to be rude, so I just waited patiently, taking turns studying Ruben and his mannerisms, and every visible inch of Michael’s body. And his voice. The things Ruben said that made him laugh. The things Ruben said that annoyed him. Not that Ruben said them, but the messages that were being delivered.

  Michael’s trip to NYC was pretty packed. I knew he said he wanted to spend more time with me, but I had no idea how he was going to manage that. Meetings all morning, a lunch meeting, an appointment in the afternoon followed by a dinner meeting. The next day sounded like it was mapped out the same. Meeting, meeting, meeting with a meal, meeting, and then back on this flying mansion to return to LA. I’m sure the rest of his week was the same.

  We took off and, like Michael said, dinner was served the moment we were in the air. While we ate they continued to talk schedules, and what Michael wanted out of this trip and what he wanted to put into it. For example, someone named Richard Arnold was a hair away from getting fired. And then someone named Alice Crammer was up for a review. Michael was proud of her work, but he wanted to meet with her in person so they could touch bases. There was an apartment he was thinking about looking at, but that was less of a priority. By the time Sandy brought dessert I saw the obvious need for the NDA. Michael and Ruben talked about everything.

  Listening to them talk helped me relax too. The focus was completely off me and I could just observe. Until Michael turned to me and, as he touched my hand, said the last thing I expected to hear from a man like him. “One thing you should know about me, I’m a bit on the affectionate side. Is that cool?”

  “Yeah. Thank you for asking.” I swallowed the nerves in my throat. I touched him back, letting him play with my fingers and my palm while he continued to talk business with Ruben. I tried to ignore the butterflies that were dancing in my stomach and my underwear. It didn’t work though. I was so fucked.

  After a bit, he turned to me again. “We have about five hours ’til we land. I haven’t slept a full eight hours since before college, but I like to catch a few hours of shuteye on these longer jaunts. You want to join me?” He nodded past the TV, toward the pony stables.

  “Uh, sure.”

  Ruben wouldn’t let me leave until I gave him my sizes, including my bra, underwear and shoe size. Since we were getting personal I asked him for a satin scarf as well. I could get through a few hours without it on a plane, but I wasn’t going three nights without wrapping my hair. After Ruben got all the relevant information out of me, Michael reached out for my hand again. He led me into a large room in the back of the plane, complete with a gigantic bed.

  Three

  “I’ve never slept in the thing,” Michael said nodding toward the bed of the gods. “I usually just nap on top of the sheets.”

  “A napper?”

  “Yep. I get what sleep I can here and there. Most of the time in chairs.”

  “And on top of sheets.”

  “Yep. And I bet you’re the all the way in type. All the way under the covers. You’re a snuggler.”

  “Oh totally. You should see my bed. It’s ridiculous. Tons of pillows and I have a down comforter and this fluffy fleece blanket. I even got this silly teddy bear that doubles as a pillow. Pure fluff.”

  “I get that about you. Well, this will have to do for now. We’ll have to get you fluffed up later.”

  I didn’t know whether he was joking or not. The bed had mountains of pillows and a suede comforter. If I didn’t want to spend the whole flight talking to him and hoping he’d touch me in my pants I’d burrow right into the thing and be out like a light.

  I took the lead and climbed onto the bed with my clothes on, kicking off my shoes as I went. Michael joined me, but he kept his shoes on.

  We looked at each other, I think for the first time. He was so good looking that I knew I’d been looking around him, or just in his general direction. I’d taken good stock of his hands, how long his legs were, and shape of his thighs before dinner¸ but his face? Whew. His face. It was pretty.

  He wanted to touch me some more, I think, but we were both being shy. Or careful. I knew if I made the first move something weird would happen, like I’d go right for his crotch and I’m talking over the jeans. Just grab the whole thing in my palm and then stare at him like it was the sexiest, most normal thing in the world. Or apologize profusely while still holding fast, or squeezing harder. The whole thing played out in my head and I laughed, just buried my face in the soft covers and laughed, which was just as embarrassing as grabbing his dick.

  “What?” he asked, before he gave my shoulder a gentle shake. “Whaatt?”

  “You’re so hot. Do you know that?”

  “I feel like I look homeless half the time, but okay.”

  “No.” I reached up and touched his beard. “It’s so hot.”

  “I’ll take your word for it. So human resources.”

  “Ugh, yeah.” I flopped onto my back and looked up at the tiny lights embedded in the ceiling. It was easier to complain without looking at a ridiculously hot man. Hot men threw your whole perspective out of alignment. “It was fine. It paid well enough, loved my coworkers—”

  “But not the dream.”

  “Not even close.”

  “Or what you went to school for.”

  “Ha, no. I don’t even know what I went to school for. I got a degree in Political Science and that’s only because I was undecided forever, but I’d bonded with one of my professors. She was like the grandma I never had, so I just kept taking her courses. By the time I had to declare I had accidentally set my course track.”

  “So no political office for you. No political consulting.”

  “No.”

  “What is for you then, Kayla Davis?”

  I looked over at him. His eyes were so blue and they were focused right on my lips. I had to look back at the ceiling. It was impossible to talk to him like that. “I was thinking about graphic design, and digital art, and I kind of want to learn to code. I know I’m only twenty-four, but I feel so far behind. I’ll find the coolest stuff online, like a photorealistic painting of Lucy Liu done in Illustrator and like a fifteen year old drew it. I’d be dead before I caught up.”

  “Well you’d need to start somewhere. Seems like the art is important.”

  “I love to draw and if I could translate that skill to a digital medium, maybe someone would pay me to do it full time. Right now I’m still in the colored pencils/crayon phase.”

  “And the coding?”

  “As you know, every company has a need for it. I’d learn a valuable skill. But it’s kind of hard to find the motivation to start when you get tanked from a job you don’t even really want, but you still have rent to pay.”

  I thought Michael was going to offer me money again, but he didn’t. “It is tough when things are going in one direction, but you want to focus on another. I want to touch you,” he said kind of out of the blue, but not at all because it was exactly what I was thinking.

  “I want you to, but also, there’s touching hands and then there’s—”

  “The fact that we’re on our first date. Don’t want to rush it.”

  I licked my lips. “Yeah.”

  “Then we won’t. Tell me more about you.”

  It was work to tell my vagina she would have to wait, but I managed to get my lust under control and just talk. I told him about myself, my kind of conservative parents and my baby sisters, our place in Nowhere, North Carolina. He had a younger sister too and a younger brother. They grew up poor in Michigan.

  He’d earned a scholarship that had led him to the college roommate that helped him make his first million. His parents were still around, but his mom was showing early signs of dementia. I appreciated him sharing that bit with me. I could tell he loved his mom but, I don’t know, the way he told me just made me want to know more about him. It didn’t dampen the mood.

  He mentioned what was next for him. The NBA deal w
as real, but he was on the fence. Owning a franchise was a dream of his, a dream of most basketball fans. He knew that would take precedence over all his other ventures and he wasn’t sure if he was ready to let the world of online dating go.

  We talked until the plane landed. So much for a nap. I was fine until about halfway to the city. The lack of sleep kicked me in the ass. My eyes were blinking closed when we pulled up to this fancy Manhattan hotel. Michael guided me through the lobby and I shamelessly rested against his shoulder as Ruben checked us in. I heard the woman behind the desk joke that they needed to hurry and get me off to bed. I must have muttered something, because they all had a good laugh.

  Michael got me upstairs to a room I apparently had to myself. Ruben was a floor below and Michael was next door to me. We’d spend the night together if and when I was ready, he said quietly, as I zombie walked to another massive bed. I was climbing into this one for sure. But before I could, Michael’s arms were around me. It was so dangerous. My whole body melted against him. He felt so good. Warm and sturdy.

  And then he kissed me. It was quick, kind of, or just not as long as I wanted it to be. But it was perfect and completely first date appropriate. That mustache tickled my face like crazy, but his lips were so soft. When he pulled away his lips brushed against my cheek and my neck. My neck, over and over. I pressed my pelvis against him. As soon as I could keep my eyes open, it was on.

  “When we get back to L.A., okay? When you decide,” he whispered.

  “Okay.” I managed to get out.

  “Do you want me to stay with you for a while?”

  I nodded. “Yeah.” I was dead tired, but I didn’t want him to leave. Not yet.

  “Okay. In you go.” Michael pulled back the blankets while I kicked my shoes off. I ditched my jeans and my bra, leaving on my drawers and my drop back shirt. I really needed some clothes. I was afraid Michael had seen what gravity does to double D’s and was about to make a break for it when he didn’t join me under the covers. He tucked me in instead then climbed on top of the bed and spooned me.