Page 25 of A Night To Remember

Steve ground his teeth together, his eyes shooting green daggers at Jake. If looks could kill, Jake knew he’d be dead on the spot. “Yes, you did, but we both know you made that up. If you knew her so well then why haven’t you mentioned her before? If I had met someone like her I sure as hell would have told you. How could you, Jake?”

“How could I what?”

“I smell sex in this office, you son of a bitch. I thought we were friends. You knew how I felt about her.” Steve accused.

Jake refused to feel guilty about what had just happened between him and Charlie. He wasn’t going to cater to Steve’s fragile ego, especially where Charlie was concerned.

“Did I really? You fall in and out of love with women so fast, what’s she to you? You’re not upset because you actually like her, your ego is bruised because she turned you down.”

“How the hell should you know how I feel?”

Jake raked his fingers through his hair. “Be honest with yourself, Steve, had she went out with you when first asked, you would probably have lost interest by now.”

Steve averted his gaze, and Jake knew he’d hit the nail on the head. “How the hell will I know now? You never gave me a chance to find out how I felt.”

Jake shrugged. “I think you already know, you’re just being stubborn.”

“You don’t know everything, Jake.” Steve glared at him before turning on his heel and slamming the door behind him. Reasoning with Steve when he was in one of his moods would have been pointless. Steve had a tendency to blow his top before gathering all the facts. His friend was right in that Jake didn’t know everything, but one thing he was certain of, he and Charlie Brown belonged together.

Chapter Eight

A week had passed since that incident in Jake’s office and Charlie still couldn’t get him out of her mind. Just thinking about it was slowly driving her insane. Charlie’s nerves were so frazzled she felt as if she would snap at any moment. Now was not the time for anyone to get on her bad side. She’d just come out of a meeting she had barely paid any attention to, and to top things off, her head was throbbing.

While Brian had been outlining the quarterly goals for their department, Charlie found herself in the middle of a daydream, remembering every graphic detail of that fateful day. She remembered the way he had kissed her, the way his tongue had trailed its way over her skin, tasting it, and the feel of his cock inside of her. The very thought of those hard, thick nine and a half inches made her tingle between her legs. And had she been alone in her room, she would have massaged her clit to relieve some of the ache built up inside of her.

Everywhere she had looked she saw Jake, or at least she imagined she did.

Charlie couldn’t believe how easily she’d surrendered to him. It was as if she’d become a slave to her hormones. When she had lost Paul over four years ago, she vowed she would never let herself to love anyone the way she’d loved him. No other man would be allowed to pierce her heart that way again, and that’s the way she wanted it.

She had loved Paul with such intensity that the pain of losing him was emotionally crippling. Although the pain had lessened, in her heart Charlie knew that she would always love her handsome big-hearted husband, but now it was a closed chapter in her life. Charlie was too much of a coward to put herself through that again. Loving someone didn’t always guarantee they’d be around.

The way Jake made her feel scared her. She couldn’t let him into her life and if that meant keeping his daughter a secret, then so be it. Granted, she had needs, but it wasn’t something her vibrator couldn’t handle. It was too bad, though, because her pussy tingled at the mere mention of Jake’s name. It certainly didn’t help matters that she saw him so often. He made more trips to her department in the past week than he had the entire time she had worked for MBF.

Not only that, he always managed to brush up against her. Charlie swore the man was doing it on purpose in order to mess with her head. Jake also seemed to know how disconcerting his presence was to her. If the job didn’t pay so well, she would have been out the door. She still looked through the classifieds in earnest, but nothing was comparable to what she had at the moment.

She walked back to her desk from the meeting still deep in thought. When she sat down, the phone rang.

“MBF accounting department, this is Charlie speaking.”

“Charlie, Jake here.”

She nearly dropped the receiver. He had never called her desk before. What did he want?

“Yes? Can I help you?” she asked, silently congratulating herself on the coolness of her tone. She refused to let him know how flustered his call had made her.

“I know this is late notice, but I was wondering if you had plans on Saturday.”

Charlie paused. He had to be joking, she thought. “Umm, why do you ask?”

“Let’s not play games, Charlie. You know I want to see you.”

“Do I? That’s not the impression I’ve been given. As I recall, you seem more interested in getting me into the sack.” She pulled no punches.

There was a pause before Jake spoke again. He let out a long sigh. “I won’t lie to you and say I don’t want that delectable body of yours again, but I would like to see you. Socially, I mean. We can do a little sightseeing around the city for the day, and then have dinner. Or we’ll do whatever you want. I’m game. This isn’t just me trying to get you back into bed, because if sex was all I wanted, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

For a brief moment, Charlie wanted to say yes, but she quickly dispelled any notions in that direction. “No, I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

“Why not?” he demanded. “I think we would have a good time together. Give us a chance, Charlie. All I’m asking for is one date.”

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