She rolls her eyes. “Favorite? I assumed it was the only one you knew.”
I laugh. She’s funny even when she’s not trying to be. “Have dinner with me tonight.”
“Can’t. I have plans.”
Plans? I want to ask her with who but I stop myself. As a practice, I don’t care about who a woman is with before or after me. They’d have to matter for me to care about that and they don’t.
Nor does Penny.
The car pulls up to my building. I lower the window and instruct my driver to leave his phone number with Penny so he can take her home after her visit with her father.
“That’s not necessary. I can take the bus,” Penny says. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be there.”
I slide out of the car. “I have too much work to get through today to worry about how you’ll get home.”
She smiles and my heart does a somersault. “Such a softie under all that growl.”
I close the door and walk away. The anger rising in me has nothing to do with her. Why am I offering my driver to get her home? Because of the rain? Right, because of the rain. That’s why she’s in this car. The fucking rain. First Bachelor Tower, now my car. Fuck.
I’m pissed at myself.
Neither she nor her sister belong in Bachelor Tower.
I can’t forget that.
Wanting her doesn’t mean she is my responsibility. How she gets anywhere and who she sees are none of my business. I storm into my office with an expression on my face that clearly has my staff scrambling out of my way. I grab a stack of files off my assistant’s desk and slam it down onto my own. I will not let the corners of my mind wander to what might be wrong with Penny’s father and why she looked so worried.
Not. My. Problem.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Dalton
“Shit,” I grumble as a complicated contract hits my desk.
“Sorry to give you this so late, but it just came in. Boden said the terms are no longer acceptable. He wants to renegotiate.” Neil apologizes as he pushes his wire-rimmed glasses up on his nose. The kid’s a good assistant. I’m not quick with a compliment, but he knows if I haven’t fired him yet, he’s doing a damn good job.
“Get me updated numbers.” It shouldn’t have gone this far and wouldn’t have if I hadn’t let myself get distracted. If my team thought I was in a bad mood earlier, they are in for a rude awakening. This contract should have flown with no problems. It would have if I had met with Boden myself. Someone had faltered during the signing. That’s all it takes for clients to believe they deserve more. One glimmer of weakness.
“Will do, Boss,” Neil says, skittering out of the office, knowing my mood doesn’t bode well for hanging around. Smart. I’ll keep him around another day.
I pull out my cell and consider texting Penny. We exchanged numbers the night she cooked me a meal. I hesitate. If there’d been a problem my driver would have contacted me. But as I am about to return my phone to my jacket pocket it announces an incoming message.
Penny: Thank you for today.
You’re welcome. I tell myself to stop here, but I add: I thought you had plans for tonight?
Penny: I do. I’m out for drinks with the girls. We get together when we all have the same day off.
I smile. Her roommates. No fantasy of the three of them follows this time. My normally X-rated imagination is cluttered with images of only Penny, and I wonder if her lips would taste of some sugary sweet drink.
Yeah, this has to stop.
Not fucking her hasn’t helped. Maybe sex will clear my head.
Penny: I told them what you said about vanilla sex.
I’d thought instant erections were a thing of the past, but that’s all it took to prove to me they weren’t.
And?
Penny: They think I should see if you’re as good as you say you are. But—
Yeah, no work is getting done now.
But?
Penny: I want to stay on one hand.
What?
Penny: When I meet my soul mate and he asks me how many men I’ve been with I want to hold up the fingers on one hand, not two. That gives me three more mistakes, tops. Depends if I count my soul mate or not. If so, then I only have two more.
I know I’m an ass, but I can’t stop myself from texting:
Seriously? You don’t still believe in Santa Claus, do you?
Penny: Why, do you think he should be one of my last two?
Before I have a chance to answer, she adds: I just laughed so hard I spilled my drink.
That might be a sign.
Penny: Yes, that I shouldn’t text and drink. TTYL
I toss my phone on my desk and shake my head at it. Of course she believes in soul mates.
Even though it’s not a good idea—I know what I need to do: Get it on with her so I can get her off my mind. As soon as possible.
“I sent you the numbers. You need a coffee, Boss?” Neil interrupts nervously as he sees me staring off into space instead of working.
“No,” I grunt. “No interruptions. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” Neil replies as he closes my office door.
With new resolve, I turn to my computer and start crunching the numbers. Work first then I’ll play. It’s how I’ve always done things and why I’ve gotten as far as I have.
The part of me that wishes I was there with her at the bar with her friends? That’s the part that has to go—and it will after I have her. Right now she’s a flavor I’ve never tasted. Soon, she’ll be just another one I enjoyed before moving on.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Penny
“Why on earth have you not slept with him?” Millie asks as she hands me my phone. She’s read through our text exchange, and she’s reacted just as I knew she would. “There is absolutely nothing stopping you. Just do it.”
“Did you see what I said? Life coach? That goes against everything I believe. I don’t want to change him.” I don’t have to say why. Millie knows me too well.
“You are not your mother, and he is not your father.”
I let out a shaky breath. There is a worse possibility. “Are we the reverse?”
Millie shakes her head. “Aren’t you the one who has always said that you choose your own path?”
“Yes. It’s just that I get so confused when I’m with him. I want to make him smile. I want to show him there are people he can trust. Then I tell myself it’s none of my business and who am I to judge how he lives his life?”
“You are the least judgmental person I know, but you do like to make people happy. That’s not a bad thing. I’m the same way. From what you’ve told me about him, he could use a little sunshine in his life. What do they say—if you can’t find the light, be the light? Something like that? Be his light.”
“His naked light?” I joke.
Millie throws her head back and laughs so loud people turn to look at us. “Whatever kind of light you want to be.”
I chew my bottom lip. “I don’t know.” I think about the night before and how it ended chastely. “Are you sure I’m not reading more into this than is there?”
“Easiest way to find out? Go home tonight and knock on his door. He’ll take it from there.”
It’s not that easy, but Millie is my friend and she’s trying to help. It’s almost working.
“I still have to live there for a little while until Kylie gets home. We’re going to hook up and then what?”
“Since when do you need a plan? Where is your spirit of adventure?”
“I’m free-spirited when it comes to meditating and not overscheduling my weekends. I’m not all willy-nilly about whose willy I nilly.”
“Girl, you need to stop overthinking it.” She raises her hand to the bartender and orders another round. “We need to get you a little liquid courage. You are doing this tonight.”
“Tonight.” Excitement floods as I sip my drink. Tonight.
“Put a good spin on this. You told Kylie yo
u would take care of her apartment and make sure you held everything down until she got back. You’re making a good impression on the neighbor for her. It’s practically your sisterly duty.”
I laugh at that then lower my voice. “Am I ready for the kind of sex he says he has?”
“Ready? I’d say overdue.”
I take the last sip of my martini and slide the new one closer. “I’m not his type.”
“Oh, I’d say you sure as fuck are.”
“You said fuck. Did I tell you that’s his favorite word?” I start laughing again. It might be nerves or the alcohol or both, but I can’t stop. “He didn’t know I could say it.”
Millie signals to the bartender to cut me off. I laugh harder because the entire conversation is ridiculous.
Like the idea of anything between Dalton and me working out? I stop laughing suddenly and glare at my drink.
Millie pays the tab and announces she’s calling a car for us. She moves the rest of my drink away from me. “My advice? Knock on his door tomorrow night. If you’re going to have the best sex of your life, you should remember it.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Dalton
It’s late by the time my driver drops me off in front of Bachelor Tower. I consider texting Penny, but she’s probably listening for the sound of my door opening. I like the idea of her coming to me.
After her admission that she was talking to her friends about me, it wasn’t so much a matter of if she would—but when. It had been a long, frustrating day, but if the opportunity presented itself, I could muster the energy for a night that would likely change Penny’s one-hand policy.
I stop before entering the lobby as a thought slams through me. I don’t like the idea of Penny going from me to someone else. No, I don’t like that one fucking bit.
I shake my head as if to dislodge that unwelcome realization, but it doesn’t. I’ve never been the jealous type. No way in hell will any woman turn me into that guy.
“Mr. Croft,” the doorman, Robert, breathes out nervously as he tugs my arm. No one tugs me. But I can tell that something is wrong. “You need to help me with her.”
“Who?”
“Miss Penny,” Robert whispers as he pulls me through a door and into a small office. It’s a pitiful square space with a few doorman coats hanging up in the corner. But I don’t have time to scan the rest of the room. Penny is in the corner with an ice pack on her head and smeared mascara under her red-ringed eyes. She’s been crying. Who the fuck hurt her? I have bail money and friends in criminal law if I have to kill someone.
“What happened?” I ask, looking from her to Robert and demanding an answer.
“She had a problem with her key again—”
“They did it again,” she slurs, immediately giving away the fact that she’s drunk. “Then I fell. Damn martinis. I said no more, never again, but Millie said just one.” She waved her finger wildly in air. “It had a sidecar the size of a pitcher. Damn martinis.”
“She’s not bleeding,” Robert reports, staring at the door to the office. “I tried to make her a new key, but the system is down. When I tried to explain it to her, she started to cry and said she didn’t want to be alone. I didn’t know what to do. You two are friends, so I thought you could help. Should we call someone?”
“I’ve got this,” I say, letting the friends comment die on the vine. “Come on. We’ll figure the key thing out.” These assholes are taking this too far. I help her up then guide her toward the elevator.
“Where are we going?” she asks in a slurred tone as we step into the elevator.
“To my place.”
She stiffens beneath my hand. “I don’t know if that’s a good—”
“Trust me, the last thing on my mind tonight is screwing you.” My gut tells me real trouble is brewing for her if she stays, and I’m conflicted. Neither she nor her sister belong here. They have literally brought chaos to what had been my haven. Everything that made sense to me before she showed up is now jumbled and muddy.
Her bottom lip quivers. “I already feel awful. Are you trying to make me feel worse?”
I pull her to my chest and hug her because—fuck—no, I don’t want her to feel bad. I’m half ready to promise to help her, but that would be the final nail in the coffin of the possibility that Bachelor Tower might ever go back to normal. “You don’t belong here, Penny,” I say gently. “There are other places your sister can live. If you call her and tell her you can’t stay, I’m sure she’ll find something else.”
We step out of the elevator and she waves a hand around wildly. “No one—no one is running me off.” She sways on her feet and her hand moves to her bruised forehead. “But they’re beginning to piss me off.”
Ben appears before I decide what to answer.
“What happened, Penny?”
Wait, they’re on a first-name basis?
“They locked me out again, Ben,” she says in a forlorn voice.
“And your forehead?”
“I fell,” she steps away from me to show him. “And the key system is down so no key tonight. I’m sure they did that too.”
Ben frowns. “That doesn’t sound right. I’ll go down and see what I can do. Maybe it needs a reboot.”
She touches his arm and smiles up at him. “You’d do that? Thank you. You’d be my hero.”
“It’s nothing. My apartment is doubling as my office for now, so I’m always here if you need me. Just call.”
“I will, thanks,” Penny says at my doorway.
I open the door to my apartment with more force than necessary as the little green monster in me rears his head again. Never, never in my life, had I imagined I would ever feel threatened by Ben, but he was laying on the nice-guy shit thick. That’s a card I don’t keep in my deck.
Penny steps inside and I follow.
Ben gives me an odd look from outside my door. I’m tempted to tell him to get lost, but he did say he would get Penny a new key. I can tell he’s waiting for an invitation to come in.
“I’m going to use the bathroom,” Penny says, rushing across the living room toward it.
I turn back to Ben. “So, you think you can get the system to work again?”
He shrugs. “That’s not the real problem here, is it?”
“What is?” I meet his eyes. The little shit is challenging me. I lean forward aggressively. He surprises me by not backing down.
“Does Penny know why you’re hanging around her?”
I arch an eyebrow. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“I was there when you shot down the idea of getting close to her for information. Did you change your mind?”
“No. This has nothing to do with them. And what’s it to you? You going to make a pass at her?”
“She reminds me of my little sister. I’m not hitting on her.” Ben rubs his chin. “You say this has nothing to do with their plans. Do those guys know that?”
“I’m not in this fight—one way or the other.”
“Because you’re afraid to be?”
His question flames my temper. “Run downstairs and get her key. We’re done.”
“You are afraid,” Ben says with wide eyes. “I thought you were the badass of the building, but you’re really the pussy. Disappointing. And uplifting to know it’s not me.”
I slam the door, but his words stay with me. I’m not afraid of anyone in the building. I started my business without their help, and I’d be fine without them. But, is that what I want?
For what?
So some woman I’ve never met can have the bragging rights of saying she lives here? Part of me understands Penny’s sister needing to prove she can do something simply because someone told her she couldn’t, but that doesn’t negate what I want.
Penny walks into the living room and plops on my couch. She’s holding a cold cloth to her forehead. My gut twists painfully. What I want no longer feels relevant. I sit next to her. Whether I like it or not, tonight changed t
hings. I have to choose a side.
I don’t enter a fight I don’t intend to win—regardless of what that requires.
In this case, though, even if I win—I lose.
“Where’s Ben?” she asks.
“Getting your key.”
She studies my expression. “Are you upset with me?”
“No.”
She leans her head back on the couch. “I feel like an idiot. Robert must think I’m crazy.”
“He’s a doorman. You’re not the first drunk person he’s come across, trust me. I’m sure they teach you how to handle that in doorman school.”
She raises her head and looks at me. “I would tell you that’s not nice, but my head is spinning, and I might throw up again.”
“Perfect.”
“Keep using that tone, and I won’t even care the next time I miss the toilet.”
“You didn’t.”
“Oh, I did, but I cleaned it up. Well, most of it.”
Delightful. Thankfully the building has a twenty-four-hour housecleaning staff. I loosen my tie, stand, then get her a glass of water from the kitchen. This isn’t exactly how I imagined our next night together going. “Drink,” I order after she takes the glass from me.
She takes a few tentative sips.
I remember the smile she gave Ben when he offered to help her. I’ve never aspired to be anyone’s hero. In my experience, most people didn’t deserve one. Penny, though, isn’t like any of the women my father chose. Or rather like the women who chose my dad. She isn’t in the building hoping to score a rich husband. Money is not a priority to her. Rather than the high-maintenance women I’m accustomed to, most things genuinely don’t seem to bother Penny.
So, why did she choose to hide in the doorman’s back room and cry? After all they’ve done to bother her what makes today different?
Is it really due to the key? The bump on the head? The alcohol? Even lumped together it doesn’t seem like enough to break her. “How did your visit with your father go?”
Her shoulders slump at the question. “Good. My father and I are a lot alike. He always makes me smile.”
“But?”
“My mother called while I was there. She doesn’t care for the fact that he and I are a lot alike. She blames him for all the potential she thinks I’m ignoring. It’s hard.”