She was readying to launch a counterpoint, but suddenly, her cell phone rang and her expression straightened. She glanced at the screen and activated the call. “Gotta’ take this,” she muttered swinging around and stepping away. “Call me when you get to the room. And be careful!”
“I will,” I called after her.
Good!
Offering her a final wave, I hustled outside into the crisp, September air. Dinah was right: Saks must be having a fifty per cent off sale, because the way people were pushing up and down the sidewalk, they clearly had some place to go. The sidewalk was alight. Cars, busses and taxis zipped across the hectic streets. It took me a second, but soon I spotted the long, sleek limo parked across the street at the end of the block.
I stepped amidst the mob and pulled the collar of my coat around my ears, trying to shield myself from the nipping air, as well as the light anxiety shifting my emotions.
“No fear,” I muttered to myself under my breath. “Just get to the car.”
Out of nowhere, someone thumped into me and I grunted at the impact as my briefcase crashed onto the sidewalk.
“Hey, watch it lady!” the angry man warned me.
I jolted, shaken by his menace, but in an instant, he’d been swallowed up by the masses. I retrieved my personal item from the ground and readjusted my coat before pushing back against the throng. I pulled my peacoat closer and marched further up the sidewalk, but it wasn’t long before my thoughts drifted, and potential scenes for the next novel sparked in my mind.
Evan took the woman’s hands into his and pressed them against his mouth. Her head tipped back, and her long, curly locks dripped down over her shoulders.
Evan dipped forward. “I have never met a woman as stunning as you.” His eyes traveled over her face. “I want you,” he admitted in a vulnerable whisper and his head clouded with unmitigated desire. “I need you…”
The image made my heart jerk.
Evan, is that the woman we’ve been waiting for? Who is she? I can’t see her face!
I waited for another image to manifest itself in my brain, but nothing came.
Damn, Ev, where’d you go?
I was completely in my head. This was the way it always happened. This was exactly how the bestsellers had been produced. Evan would show up – just like this – and start talking, but he was gone again. In fact, the entire scene seemed to fade out of my mind, but I gripped onto it as best I could.
Come on, Evan, I tried to massage him and my muse. How you gonna’ show up then bolt like that? You’ve gotta’ talk to me and tell me what’s supposed to happen next. You know I can’t do this without you. Who was that woman?
I marched forward, trying to identify even the slightest spark in creativity, but nothing more came. I muttered a few curses and prepared to cross the street. My stiletto touched the crosswalk and suddenly, the sounds of screeching tires and a blaring horn paralyzed me.
My head jerked around, but it was too late. A colossal weight careened into me and I crashed against the ground before plummeting into an all-too-familiar darkness.
Forever Yours
Natasha
~Chapter Two~
I marched away, making sure that my shoulders were pushed back and my chin was tilted up. I didn’t have time to engage this playboy, because clearly, that’s what he was. I’d taken in every detail of his perfection and made a quick assessment. Jesus, he was flawless: from the way his jaw was sculpted to the wispy brown curls of hair on his forehead. I’d felt him following me. his aura was intense. The minute I sensed his presence draw up, the glowing heat from his intensity scorched me.
But there was no way I’d let him know any of that.
I knew how the game went, and that group of girls staring me down like we were in the wild, wild west was all the evidence I needed to know that I was about to be playing a game, in which I had no intentions of being involved.
He didn’t know me, but I knew him. Everybody knew Evan Hanson. I’d only been on campus for three weeks and I’d had the pleasure of hearing all about him and how he was the material of every girl’s fantasies. They said he had the biggest dick in the entire university. They said you could hear the girls screaming his name all over campus at all hours of the day. The stories of the many hearts he’d broken were legendary, and even though the girls knew to say clear of him, they still flocked to him like polar ends of a magnet.
I tipped my chin higher.
Not me. I didn’t have time to fall prey to Evan Hanson’s charm. His green eyes didn’t move me, not one bit. Nope, I wouldn’t be swayed by… the way he smelled or the rigid definition of his body or…
“Hey!”
Damn, he was still following me!
I flicked a few long, curly strands of hair over my shoulders and marched ahead, but my stride was nothing compared to his because he was tall like a church steeple.
He caught up with me and grabbed my elbow. “Your name, please.”
“I told you, my name is of no importance.”
“I beg to differ.”
I spun around to face him. Why I’d chosen to do that, I don’t know. Maybe I thought I could match him, go toe-to-toe, but the minute we faced one another, I withered. I tried my best to stay resolute. “I thought you might have had other business to attend to and I didn’t want you to be distracted.”
“Other business?” he parroted, thick brows drawn.
“Yeah. There was an entire horde of women waiting for you. I didn’t want to keep you away.”
He tossed his gaze over to where the crew had been and shook his head. “I’m not worried about those girls, sweetheart.”
“Sweetheart?” I challenged him, but the term of endearment secretly warmed my heart.
He grunted, amused, which was the opposite of what I wanted him to be – but the hell if his cockiness didn’t turn me all the way on.
This was what he did to girls, I was sure of it; and there I was, about to become his next victim. Whatever cologne he was wearing smelled heavenly. The sounds of my voice screaming his name through campus blasted my eardrums.
I battened down the hatches.
“If you’d tell me your name, I wouldn’t have to call you sweetheart, would I? Or baby, or sexy…”
My breath jumped. Damn, he could call me any one of those things and I’d answer to all of them.
“I didn’t mean to disrespect you,” he continued with a soft smile. “It’s just that I’ve never seen you before, and if I’m completely honest, I think you’re fly as hell.” He reached over and trailed his finger over the back of my hand.
My breath took another leap, but this time it was accompanied by short, sharp shocks of electricity zipping straight to the seat of my existence.
He pulled his hand back and shoved them both into his pockets. “Okay look,” he began to offer. “I have an idea. Don’t tell me your name right now. We’re about to go into class and I don’t want our conversation to be interrupted. Wait until after your next lecture to tell me.”
“We’re not gonna’ see each other after my next lecture.”
“Yeah, we are,” was his curt response. “And when we do, you’ll tell me your name and whatever else I want to know.”