Misguided Heart (7 page)

“Your house is amazing. I think it suits you well. You ready to
go? We have reservations at seven thirty.”

“Yeah I’m ready. Let’s go.”

We sat in an awkward silence the whole way to the restaurant. I didn’t know if I had scared him off, but he was the one who took my hand in his earlier. I had made no attempt at physical contact, and maybe there lied the problem. We pulled up into the valet circle a couple minutes later and I was relieved to be exiting the overwhelmingly uncomfortable confines of his car.  He opened my door and reached for my hand and I took it graciously into mine.

I decided to chalk up our car ride to nerves; because once
we sat down to have dinner, Sloan turned back into himself. He was cracking small jokes and trying to feed me food I would never have tried under any other circumstances. We joked and laughed all night. Physical contact had gained some ground throughout the evening as well. I would coyly place my hand on his leg and he would reciprocate. It was one of the best first dates I had ever had. When the waiter brought over our check, I was a bit bummed that the evening was coming to an end. I wanted to spend more time with him and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to until later this week, and even then we would be at work.

I stood up out of our booth
, and smoothed down the hem of my dress and grabbed my clutch off of the table. He slid out right behind me, sliding his hands around my waist, pulling me close into him. I let out a sigh and turned to give him a kiss on the cheek. He had other plans as he pulled me into his chest and planted a kiss right on my lips. I was in heaven. That is if heaven existed in the middle of a restaurant.

Sloan

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her the entire time at the dealership. I watched as her long feminine fingers skimmed their way up the glossy hood of the car in front of her. Damn, she could make the simplest gestures look fucking sexy.

I knew she was elated by the look on her face though the windshield, as I made my way over to her. She looked unbelievably beautiful when she was this happy. I would have to make a mental note to try to keep her this way. I stood staring at her unapologetically the entire walk to the driver side where she sat.

Once she had made up her mind, I made my way over to the desk to find a salesman. In the end, I ended up coaxing him to agree to a lower price than sticker price. At least my father would be excited about that. A short while later, I was back at her side, keys in hand. The reaction I received form her was definitely not one I expected, but I welcomed it all the same.

She wrapped her lean arms up around my neck and squeezed. I must say tighter than I expected from her thin frame. I wrapped my arms loosely around her upper back and gave a small squeeze in return. Seriously, one of the best hugs ever. She suddenly pulled back ap
ologetically. I just smiled and took it upon myself to tell her how much my father would enjoy a hug like that. Her face instantly blushed, and my smile grew wider. She was too fun to tease.

I was going to go straight to my father’s office when I returned to work, but once again, I found myself standing outside of her office door. I told myself I needed to make sure we were still on for tomorrow night, but in all
honesty; I just wanted to see her again.

I could se
e worry fall across her face when she answered, and even more so when I asked if we were still on. I knew she was worried that I was going to cancel. Yeah, not likely.

Silly girl!

I wanted to make her sweat a little before asking her if we could actually go out earlier than previously planned. I watched as her expression changed from worry to relief in a matter of seconds. God she was sexy. Just as I turned to walk away, I stopped and looked back at her.

“Oh, and thanks for the hug. It was, nice.” With that I proceeded to make my way back to my office, chuckling the whole way.

The next day leading up to our date, went by extremely fucking slow. I prattled about the house, trying to find things to do, but kept coming up empty handed. It was beginning to get frighteningly frustrating at how hard it was to keep the little vixen off of my mind.

Finally the clock hit six
, and I started getting ready. It didn’t take me very long, but long enough to let the time pass by quickly. I decided on my three-piece, grey Dolce and Gabbana suit late last night, when I couldn’t sleep yet again. I quickly ran my fingers through my disheveled looking hair and made my way downstairs.

When I pulled into her driveway a little before seven, I had to give myself a little bit of a pep talk just to get out of the car. It didn’t help to calm my nerves much, but it had definitely been worth a try.

After I knocked on her front door, I heard barking coming from inside. I wasn’t much of an animal person, so I prayed it wasn’t some huge dog waiting to attack on the other side of the door. My jaw dropped to the ground when she opened the door for me. She looked beyond beautiful in her plum colored dress. It was form fitting and showed off every single curve she had.

Amazing!

Her long, light blonde hair was curled and pulled forward over her breasts. I stood staring, probably longer than I should have, when I noticed the portly English bulldog sitting at her feet. I wasn’t the biggest fan of dogs, but he was a gorgeous pup and hard to resist not saying hi to. I silently cursed myself when I bent down to pet him. What the fuck was happening to me? I was on the floor in a $1,200 suit, playing with her dog, trying to do what, impress her?

After
she gave me the grand tour, which I watched her ass more than anything, we set off for dinner. For the first time, ever, I couldn’t think of one single word the whole car ride over. It became increasingly awkward, and I was thankful that she finally reached over and turned the radio on.

Dinner went more smoothly. We had some great conversation, and I was finally feeling like my cocky self again. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something about her made me feel at ease one minute and had me nervous out of my mind the next. It was maddening.

The first time her hand landed on my upper thigh, I swear I jumped. It was completely unexpected and overwhelming, but gladly accepted. I returned the favor more than once throughout the night. I honestly wanted my hands in more places than just her thigh, but I vowed to be a good boy until she gave me the go ahead.

When the waiter brought us the check
, I watched as her expression quickly turned to disappointment and I felt the same. I didn’t want this night to be over yet. I knew I wasn’t going to get to see her until Monday and it was already killing me. I watched her intently as she stood from the booth, sliding her hands down her dress. I licked my lips in anticipation of what I was about to do. As she turned towards me to grab her purse off of the table, I slid my hands around her waist. I knew she was going in for a peck on the cheek but I had other ideas.

In the middle of one of the busiest restaurants, I pulled her into my chest and let my lips fall onto hers.
From the first touch, something exploded in my body and my dick strained against my pants. I let my lips linger longer than necessary but I was waiting for my erection to subside enough so that I could walk again. This woman was going to be the death of me. I could see it already.

Aston

The week leading up to the wedding was a slow, mundane week. Sloan and I had talked on the phone at least a dozen times, and he even stayed late at work with me on two different occasions to help me get caught up on my work. I spent almost every moment of everyday, hoping and praying that he wouldn’t cancel as my date and was still as interested as he had been on our date. My morning ritual had turned into leaving about a half hour early for work to meet Sloan at the Starbucks on the corner by our office. We would spend exactly twenty-five minutes catching up and sipping our lattes. I would always leave first and reach my office approximately five minutes before he would emerge from the elevators. It all seemed complicated really, but I was happy with how things were going so there was no need to push the boundaries.

The last two days before the wedding turned into mayhem. I had a deadline due and an indecisive author who refused to submit the final drafts of his last two chapters. I swear sometimes authors were worse than actors, and I had worked with my fair share of actors turned authors. Eventually
, I would get him to cave and his final chapters would be set in stone. I always win. He didn’t stand a chance. I simply couldn’t wait another day for this week to be over.

Friday morning Sloan
had called and cancelled our daily morning coffee. He supposedly had an early conference call he had to be on. I was taken back by his odd behavior, but who was I to question him? I decided last minute to go anyway and get my latte I so adored. As I pushed through the metal doors into Starbucks, I suddenly had an overwhelmingly bad taste in my mouth. Oh god, please don’t let me get sick with one day to go before my ex-fiancé’s wedding.

I walked up to the counter slowly and before I could open my mouth to speak, I turned and ran for the bathroom. I spent the next ten minutes throwing
up into the shiny porcelain bowl. I emerged from the stall and smoothed down my skirt and refastened my ponytail. I rinsed my mouth out at least a dozen times, and then headed back out to order my coffee, sans throwing up this time.

Twenty minutes later
, I was making my way to my office when Sloan waved me into his office down the hall. I took a deep breath, stood up straight and popped an Altoid into my mouth. I dropped off my latte and purse on Annie’s desk as I moved my feet as quickly as they would allow this morning. I reached his office a moment later and closed the door behind me.

“
Good morning beautiful.” He chimed.

“Morning Sloan
, how did your conference call go this morning?” I tried not to roll my eyes.

“It went well actually, thanks for asking.” He was being extremely vague.

“Good. So was there a reason you asked me into your office?” I asked sarcastically.

“Of course. I was just wondering if you wanted to get a hotel room tonight and tomorrow night? I just figure we wouldn’t have to rush to the wedding if we were closer and I’m sure the reception will last well past midnight.” He glanced up at me from his desk.

I wasn’t sure how to answer the question properly. We hadn’t stayed the night with each other yet and this all felt like it was moving fast. But then I thought about all those glorious muscles just bursting to be seen, by me.

“Um, well, I don’t know what I would do with Bugsy for two nights.” I was lying of course, my neighbor was always more than happy to babysit my dog.

“I can always hire someone to go over and feed him.” He suggested.

SHIT!

Well, that didn’t work. “You know, Sloan, I would be okay with Saturday night but probably not tonight.” Why was I being so standoffish? It was pretty obvious how much I wanted to be alone with him.

“Oh okay, well then
, I guess I will pick you up around three o’clock tomorrow afternoon.” He began messing around on his computer and I knew our conversation was over.

I stood up and walked out of his office without saying
good-bye. Why was I pushing him away? I had a gorgeous man right in front of me, wanting to spend
two
nights with me and I was pushing him in the opposite direction, right out the door. I definitely had issues. I ran my fingers through the end of my ponytail as I made my way back to my office. Annie smiled up at me from her computer but I was too distracted to reciprocate the gesture. I slammed the door to my office and immediately dialed Shelby’s number.

“This is Shelby
.” Her voice rang.

“I mean seriously am I just completely stupid and idiotic?” I screamed into the receiver.

“Okay, now tell me what happened so we can divide and conquer. And, hello to you too.” She giggled.

“It’s not funny Shelby. Sloan
just called me into his office to invite me to stay the night with him at a hotel tonight and tomorrow after the wedding. What did I do you ask? Well, I proceed to tell him that I didn’t have anyone to watch my dog, but tomorrow night I could make it work. I mean seriously, what is wrong with me?” I let out a sigh.

“Oh honey,
what
is wrong with you? He is amazing looking and he wants to spend two nights with you? Why did you say no?” She asked. “Hell, I’ll take your place.” She let out a loud laugh. Loud enough that I had to pull the receiver away from my ear if I still wanted an eardrum later.

I thought about it for half a second before I finally figured it out. “I think I’m holding out hope that this whole wedding debacle won’t actually happen.” I slapped myself in the forehead.

“No...you...are...not! You are going to let this wedding happen and you are not going to say anything to anyone. You need to go tell Sloan that you changed your mind and you are going to have a great time, with SLOAN. Why would you even want Nole back in the first place? He is poison.” I could hear the anger in her voice.

“I don’t want him back Shelby. I just hate that I fixed him up right for some other woman to reap the rewards. I’m g
oing to go talk to Sloan, you’re right. I’ll call you later, love you.” I slammed the receiver down and made my way back to Sloan’s office.