Lovers and Takers (7 page)

“He left Roni standing at the lurch in the church, Mr. Varnadore,” Kara volunteered.

Jake didn’t have to ask another question to know how painful that had to be.
 
“Well at least you didn’t marry the joker,” he offered.

Roni nodded.
 
“Yes.
 
At least that.”
 
Then she was pleased to turn the spotlight onto him.
 
“So what about you?
 
Are you originally from Florida?”

“Yes.
 
From Tampa.”
 
But Jake was as reticent to talk about his background, as Roni was to talk about hers.
 
He turned the spotlight back on her.
 
“Your folks still around?” he asked her.

“They are.
 
Both live the good working class life in Knoxville.”

“Oh.
 
Good for them.”

“What about your family?”

Jake hesitated.
 
“I was the product of foster homes.”

“Oh,” Roni said, a little surprised.
 
“Sorry.”

“It wasn’t completely joyless,” Jake assured her.
 
“I wouldn’t exactly recommend it, but it was better than the streets.”

Roni nodded. “Now that’s the truth.”

“Oh, Roni,” Kara said with a smile, “what do you know about the streets?
 
You’ve been a good girl all of your life.”

Roni snorted.
 
“She’s so naïve, Jake, so naïve!”

Jake laughed.
 
Kara smiled too and then returned her attention to Pam’s conversation about which neighborhoods are more family friendly than others.

Jake’s phone buzzed.
 
He pulled it out.
 
He began reading the text message, a move which Roni frankly found rude.

“I thought about investing in Varnadore Global,” she said, prompting Aubrey to look at her.

“Did you?” Jake asked, still reading his text.

“Yes, I actually did.”

“Why didn’t you go through with it?” Jake asked, and then looked at her.
 
“If you didn’t.”

“I concluded it would be too risky,” she said honestly.

Aubrey’s heart dropped.
 
He knew how difficult business was for his father these days, and the concerns he had about a hostile takeover.
 
He looked at his father.

“Too risky?”
Jake asked
,
saddened that the company he worked so hard to perfect could be viewed that way.
 
“What’s risky about it?”

“I don’t mean to knock your business, but my financial planner at the time just didn’t feel it had a strong enough Lipper average for me to chance.
 
My money was limited even then, and I had to be careful.”

“Yes, of course,” Jake said.
 
Roni could see the hurt in his eyes, which surprised her.

“But that was a few years ago,” she hastened to add.
 
“I’m sure it’s back on track now.”

“Varnadore Global was never off track,” Druce interjected.
 
“Mr. Varnadore works his butt off to see to that.”

“I didn’t mean to suggest---” Roni started.

“He turned that company from a one-man operation to the success it is today.”

“And you helped too, Druce,” Pam added with a smile.
 
Aubrey, however, was staring at his father.

“Ultimately,” Jake said softly, his entire attention on Roni, “you made the right decision.”

Druce’s heart dropped.
 
So did Pam’s.

Amos Hudson, the family butler, entered the room quietly and made his way to Jake’s side.
 
“Dinner is served, sir,” he said with a bow.

“Thank-you, Hudson,” Jake said as he stood up, causing everybody else to scramble and stand.
 
Jake motioned for Roni to go in front of him, with him following.
 
Kara, who followed directly behind the couple, nudged Aubrey, who walked beside her.

“Your old man is checking out Roni’s ass,” she whispered to him.

“Don’t be vulgar,” Aubrey whispered back.
 
And then he, too, noticed how his father’s eyes kept moving downward to Roni’s backside.
 
He smiled.
 
Kara nudged him again.

“Your father hates me,” Druce whispered as he and Pam brought up the rear.

“Don’t be daft,” Pam said.
 
“He gave you credit for your marketing of that pipe whatever it was.
 
He respects you.”

But Druce wasn’t at all as confident as Pam.
 
That was why, he knew, this little ploy of his had to work.

Jake held the chair for Roni.
 
As they stood within an inch of the other, he found her clean, soap scent to be refreshing in this age of perfume overkill.
 
Everything about her, he was surprised to discover, was nothing like he had expected.
  
This woman was her own woman.
 
Smart, with seemingly good business savvy, and not one of those tireless self-promoters, either.
 
She wasn’t looking for any sugar
daddy,
he was already beginning to conclude.
 
He even began to wonder if she wanted to be there at all.

 
As Roni sat down, she, too, could sniff Jake’s own clean, aftershave scent.
 
There was something so masculine about him, so all man, that she could feel a sensual vibe pass between them when he helped her to her chair.
 
Especially when he brushed his hand against her bare arm as he pushed her chair under the table.
 

She watched him as he walked around to the head of the table.
 
Although she was oddly disappointed that he didn’t appear to be all that impressed with her, she could still tell that he was showing some level of interest.
 
Then she had to smile at herself.
 
She had been pleased to have a book for company tonight, now she was upset that Jake Varnadore, of all people, didn’t want her in his bed?
 
Reality check
, she thought.

Once everybody was seated at the table, dinner was served immediately.
 
The conversation shifted, from talk of business to talk of American Idol and Nicki Minaj.
 
Roni, as usual, pretty much left the younger ladies to their own devices regarding such frivolity.
 
Jake ate heartily, as he hadn’t eaten all day, but he mostly took peeps at Roni.
 
She ate politely, and watched the other two ladies go on and on, and he began to wonder if she was quiet by nature.
 
A lady who made her living as an advocate, you would think would be a social butterfly.
 
But he wondered about that.

He also couldn’t stop wandering his eyes downward, toward her cleavage.
 
This woman was packed solid.
 
And he liked the view.
 
He had become so accustomed to women in his bed with barely a nub of a tit to fondle that he began to wonder if there were any real women out there anymore.
  
Skinny was fine when you wanted to tap an ass without having to work at it, but when you wanted to take your time and give
 
pleasure back, this voluptuous woman right here was what he would have in mind.
 
He, in fact, began to look forward to their night together.
 
He was going to enjoy fucking her.

Roni ate slowly, as she noticed that Jake, once again, was staring at her.
 
For a man known for his hit and run, well-experienced reputation, he was doing an awful lot of staring.
 
And she didn’t understand it.
 
So she stopped trying.

She, instead, watched as Kara’s sense of humor had everybody laughing as dinner progressed.
 
Jake was slightly bored, as he really would have preferred to eat alone with his children tonight, but even he didn’t come across as a killjoy.
 
And after the laugher, the conversations shifted again.

While Druce and Aubrey were discussing some issues with one of their salesmen in the field, Kara and Pam began playing up Roni.
 

“Isn’t she gorgeous, Daddy?” Pam asked her father outright as she looked adoringly at Roni.
 
“With her dark skin and hazel eyes, isn’t she a fantastic sight to behold?”

Jake, however, didn’t respond, which didn’t surprise Roni.
 
She just wished they would cut it out.
 
This man wasn’t going to be impressed by their ridiculous accolades.
 
But Kara kept it going.

“What I like most about Roni has nothing to do with her looks,” Kara said.
 
“I like her heart.
 
She’s the most caring person I know.”

“For real, girl?”
Pam said
,
to keep Kara talking.

“For real.
 
She gives until it hurts.
 
Don’t you, Roni?
 
I have to tell her all the time to hold up, pump those brakes, girl, you are doing entirely too much for these ungrateful convicts.
 
But she keeps trying to help them.”

“Dad likes caring ladies, don’t you Daddy?” Pam asked her father, determined to rope him into the conversation.
 
But Jake wasn’t feeling the tug.
 
He remained silent.

“Yes, he does,” Pam answered her own question when it was obvious that he was going to let her hang herself before he allowed her to rope him in.
  
She detested that about her father, his unrelenting self-restraint.
 
Even when it embarrassed his own child, he wouldn’t budge.

And it continued that way during remainder of the dinner, with Pam and Kara talking up Roni, and Jake listening politely, occasionally even nodding, but never showing an ounce of interest.
 
Although Roni was a little perturbed by his lack of interest, she nonetheless kept up the cheeriness, determined not to let his disinterest bother her.
 
She had expected it, so she’d be foolish to let it bother her.

Although, if she were to be honest, it did bother her.

And this shift in the conversation bothered Jake.
 
He had pegged Roni differently, but by the way Pam and Kara were talking her up, he began to feel as if his impression before he met her was dead-on.
 
Her appearance here, if this conversation was any indication, was all plotted and schemed.
 
Which placed him back on his guard.
 
She was no different than any of the other women who’d crossed his path, and he had to remember that.

He watched and he listened to the outlandish praise Kara and his daughter were reaping on Roni.
 
Let them tell it she was a veritable Mother Teresa, heart of gold and all.
 
He wasn’t buying it of course.
 
For them to sell her this hard must mean she was a hard sell.
 
She was probably a barracuda, a leech, a woman who loved the limelight and saw in him the possibility of the brightest lights.

And this renewed impression remained that way, as Pam and Kara kept the sell going, until Roni herself put a stop to it.

She looked at Jake.
 
“Don’t believe a word they’re saying,” she said to him.
 
“I’m about as altruistic as a Fox in a henhouse.”
 
Jake laughed.

“Don’t say that, Roni!” Pam said.

“It’s the truth!
 
Your father would be the fool of fools if he believed I was some saint.
 
Y’all need to quit.
 
For real, though.”

Jake felt better.
 
Just like that he felt better about her.

But then Druce stood up and said he had an announcement, and ruined the moment.

Aubrey and Pam immediately glanced nervously at their father.
 
Jake leaned back in his chair, staring at Druce.

Druce cleared his throat.
 
The way Varnadore was staring at him unnerved him.
 
But he knew he had to show he had the biggest balls in the room or Varnadore wouldn’t give him the time of day, let alone more responsibility at V.G.
 

“As you know, sir, I’ve been partial to your beautiful daughter here for almost a year now.”
 
There was nervous laughter from Pam, but Aubrey kept his eyes on his father.
 

But Druce continued.
 
“She’s a wonderful girl, the kind of lady I know I’m not worthy of, but someone who, amazingly, has returned my affection.”

Still nothing from Jake.

“I, therefore, sir, would like to ask your daughter to marry me.”

“Oh,
Druce
!”
 
Pam said as if she was hearing his lame line for the first time.
 
Jake, however, was still staring at Druce.