Page 6 of Beautiful Heart

“No, thank you. I have to go to work in a few hours. Can I see you again sometime?” She asked a moment before her cheeks pinked up with embarrassment. “I’m sorry, that was forward of me.”

“Not at all,” he assured her. “How about 8:00 tonight? I’ll pick you up and we can go out for dinner.”

Gerri looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding. “I’d like that. Eight o’clock. What should I wear?”

“Do you have one of those little black dresses the fashionistas are always talking about?”

Though she looked hesitant, Gerri nodded. “I believe there’s still one in the back of my closet.”

Livingston slid one hand around the back of her neck as he leaned forward and kissed her. She stiffened for a second, then relaxed. Her lips parted and her tongue peeked out to meet his.

He massaged her neck as he shifted his head slightly in order to take the kiss deeper. She tasted of chocolate and cherries and a sweetness all her own. A sweetness he wanted more of every night for the rest of his life.

Wrapping his arms around her hips, he shifted her so she half lay over his lap as the kiss went on and on. Time lost all meaning as they thoroughly explored each other’s mouths. Their tongues danced together back and forth until Livingston thought he might come just from the kiss alone.

Finally Gerri turned her head to break the kiss. “I need to go in,” she whispered for his ears alone.

Livingston sighed, but slowly released her. “Eight o’clock. And if you need me before then, call or text. All right?”

She smiled and nodded before climbing out. He could tell she felt his words were a platitude she would ignore. For now. Soon she would understand that now that he had found her, she would become his reason for living.

One last brush of a kiss on her forehead and he released her to step out of the car where Quinlan was waiting.

He watched through the car’s window as his man escorted her into the building. It was nearly ten minutes before the man returned to the street. After scanning the area for who knew what, he walked around and climbed into the driver’s seat.

Livingston lowered the screen between them as the man started the engine. “Well?”

“She lives on the third floor in the back of the building. It took so long because the elevator in the building is out and we had to climb the stairs. She was hurting by the time we reached her door,” Quinlan reported. He headed uptown to the building Livingston owned and where he lived in the penthouse.

“Thank you for seeing her home,” Livingston said as he sat back and brooded about his woman living in such conditions.

What would it take to convince her to move into his penthouse apartment in a building with four working elevators and a concierge service that would deliver anything and everything she might want with just a phone call?

Chapter Four

Gerri spent what free time she had during her day doing what she did best—researching. She wanted to find out more about Livingston Daniels, Mystic’s All-Night Café, and Daniels Enterprises, which Livingston let slip that he owned, as well as anything she could uncover regarding the nonfiction truth of vampires and their life mates.

What she discovered made her wonder what kind of rabbit hole she had fallen down when Livingston had climbed out of his limousine and into her life. While there was no apparent interweb presence for Livingston, Mystic, or her café, there were numerous business and philanthropy articles about Livingston Enterprises, which told her she was dealing with a man who lived so far out of her realm of reality, she would not ever fit into his world.

As the sole owner listed on the Daniels Enterprises papers of incorporation, Livingston was a billionaire, with a capital B. Why would he be interested in a crippled research librarian who was up to her eyeballs in debt?

Feeling like someone was watching her as she left the library, Gerri decided to splurge on a taxi. Once home, she took a quick shower in the hopes of reviving her slowly flagging energy.

Livingston’s 8:00 dinner date meant she would be going out to eat about the time she normally crawled in bed to read before falling asleep. But it also meant that maybe, once she returned home after their dinner, she might sleep through the night, not waking until morning.

She was lucky to be off for the next three days.

After drying and braiding her hair, and reapplying the light touches of makeup she normally wore, Gerri pulled on her panties, bra, and a slip. She stepped into the closet and moved to the back where her dresses resided. It had been a while since she had dressed up for anything. It took a few minutes to find the three black dresses she owned.

Pulling them out, she immediately returned the floor-length gown to the rack. She then studied her two remaining choices. One was tea length with cap sleeves and a V-neck that hinted at her cleavage. It was a few years out of fashion, but Gerri loved it.

The other had been short, tight, and something she’d bought for a special occasion that had never happened. She’d bought it before the car accident, planning to wear it for their anniversary, which had been a week after the accident. The plastic bag she’d brought it home from the store in still covered it.

“I hope Livingston doesn’t laugh too hard at my sad attempt at seductive dressing,” she whispered as she pulled the plastic off the little black dress.

She had gained a few pounds since the accident, and the stretchy knit fabric of the dress seemed to emphasize them. Looking in the mirror on the closet wall, she shook her head. “Nope. That’s not happening.”

Stripping off the dress, she tossed it into the box on the floor in the back corner. The dress and everything else in the box would eventually be donated to charity.

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