Damn. He really, really likedher.
Chapter7
“Don’t you think that it’s a little strange he just gave me the card and told me to go get a dress?” Erica asked. She had stopped by her father’s coffee shop on her way downtown to ask his opinion on what had been happening, but he merely shook hishead.
“It’s strange,” her father agreed, wiping down the counter. “It’s good that you didn’t take it. He could get ideas. That whole debt thing … I mean, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but in my experience, employers just don’t do that.” He tossed the dish rag aside and reached for a broom to scour the empty coffee shop, the way he did whenever it was empty. She’d inherited her work ethic from him, in a bigway.
She flushed, having been thinking the same thing, and took the broom from him. “Right. I really shouldn’t have accepted that, but I didn’t know what to do. How do you tell someone that you don’t want to be debtfree?”
“What’s done is done,” her dad went on. “Just watch yourself. He’s not getting handsy or anything, ishe?”
Erica turned beet red, mostly because she’d been fantasizing for weeks about him doing exactly that. “No!” she exclaimed, doing a brisk back and forth with the broom across the café’s seating area, before starting on the space behind the counter. “He’s always been completelyprofessional.”
“Good. As long as that continues, you’re okay,” her dad replied, stepping around the broom and walking over to buff the tables to a niceshine.
“He invited me out tonight,” Erica mumbled, not looking at her father. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him stop. “But we’re going out with a group of people. It’s not like it’s a date or anything,” she addedquickly.
Her father gave her another look. “Just remember, if you ever feel uncomfortable with the situation or like you don’t want to do something, then don’t do it.” He leaned over the first table and then froze, groaningquietly.
“Dad!” Erica dropped the broom and rushed over, grabbing his shoulders. He’d turned starkwhite.
“I’m fine.” He straightened and pulled away. “I pulled a back muscle lifting something the other day. Just aspasm.”
She wasn’t even remotely convinced, but nagging her father never had any kind of positiveeffect.
“Really, I’m fine,” he went on. “I want you to get out of here; you need to go find a dress.” He smiled at her, but she shook herhead.
“I can’t leave you when you’re not feeling well! I can help you close up today. You really do need at least a second person in here,Dad.”
“Don’t you worry about me,” he said firmly. “I told you, everything is just fine here with me. Now go on, if you are going to find a dress in time for tonight, you’re going to have to get started now. I know how you are, if you don’t go now, you’re going to be there until midnight before you even know what you’re going to want,” heteased.
Erica frowned. “All right,” she said slowly. “But if you need anything at all—anything, Dad—you let meknow.”
“I always do,” he reminded her, and it was true that he was good at reaching out if he needed an extra hand withsomething.
Still reluctant, Erica helped him finish the tables and washed a few dishes before giving him a big hug and headingout.
“I love you,” she called over her shoulder and smiled at his usualresponse.
“I love you more, sugarsweet.”
She didn’t really knowwhat to expect for their outing. As Erica moved from store to store until she found the perfect emerald green dress, one that hugged her in all the right places but was modest enough that she’d be comfortable in it in any setting—it wouldn’t hike up too high if she was perched on a bar stool, for instance—she built up expectations and then batted them aside. In between, she talked things over with Meagan on the phone. Down with a bad flu, her friend couldn’t join her, but she offered plenty of advice anyway, ranging from earrings and shoes, hair and makeup, to the ‘non-date’itself.
“You know as well as I do that this is a date-date,” Meagan said yet again later on, as Erica was at home finishing up the last curls in her hair, then reaching for a necklace that matched the soft green fabricnicely.
“Yeah, yeah,” Erica muttered distractedly, slipping into her new pair of heels and eyeing herself in the mirror. By now, Meagan had argued her around to accepting that this was actually more than Brock had made itappear.
“The man is into you,” Meagan reminded her unnecessarily, just before hanging up. “You have to make the decision whether to pursue that ornot.”
It might have taken weeks for Erica to stop deluding herself, but the fact was that she and Brock did have a consistent sizzling undercurrent between them. What was the point in continuing to deny it? And if she accepted that, the question then became … what happenednext?
As the doorbell to her apartment rang, her mouth went dry and her anticipation rocketed. At the back of her mind, she made the decision right there and then. If he came onto her, she was going to go with it. If he didn’t, maybe that was better career-wise. But if he did … she was going to take the opportunity, for better orworse.
“Coming,” she called, and hurried to open the door to the most handsome man she’d everknown.
Chapter8
She looked like a goddess. Plain and simple. Brock almost swallowed his tongue as he escorted Erica downstairs, barely able to peel his eyes away from the dress. She might not have used his money to buy it, and it wasn’t anywhere near the skimpy affair he usually liked on a woman, but it was exactly right. It left plenty to the imagination, but offered more than enough visuals—those breasts, molded to perfection within the fabric, even if the hint of cleavage was minimal; that modest stretch of leg that made him want to reach high up to explore more; that ass, for God’s sake, cupped so lovingly by the dress that it made him jealous—to whet his everyappetite.
