My Asian Lover (Interracial BWAM Romance Book 1) (6 page)

             
She was lying on Mike's silky sheet covered bed with the lights dimmed low. She was wearing the same black lace lingerie set that she had been wearing when she was caught in bed with James. It was still moist and clung to her body uncomfortably. She writhed and wriggled, trying to get it off of her, but it dug in to her skin and she could not escape. She gave up fighting and examined her surroundings, wondering if there was anyone else there with her.

             
“Hello?” she called out.             

             
She was getting tired of hearing no answer every time she found herself in a dreamland.

             
“ANSWER ME, GODDAMMIT!” she shouted, her frustration escalating.

             
Still nothing. She heard a noise from the corner and squinted her eyes to see Mike standing before her in his black boxer briefs and nothing else. Hair fell into his eyes and he brushed it away so that he could better see her. He walked towards the bed, arms reached out and pulled on her bra strap. It stuck hard to her skin but he pulled again, refusing to back down. With a ripping sound, he had managed to remove the entire bra from her body and reached down to pull off her panties too. Taunya looked down at herself to see blood pouring out of her chest in an underwire shape along her breasts. She screamed and scooted back on the bed out of Mikes reach. He let go of her panties and faded into the abyss. She covered her chest with her hands and curled up into a ball, crying. She was ashamed and frightened, but most of all, she was in a great deal of pain. The blood would not stop gushing and it pooled in her arms until she was covered in it. She grasped at the sheets, trying to cover herself up and maybe stop the blood, but it soaked right through.

             
“HELP!” she screamed.

             
But there was no one there to help her. The false world began to swirl around her and she felt as dizzy as she had when she was standing in Mike's condo earlier. She crawled over to a bedpost and tried to hang on for dear life as the bed began to spin out of control. She felt as if she was trapped inside of a miserable, bloody hurricane and she cried out once more only to hear no answer.  

             
Taunya startled awake and looked down at her bare chest. Her body remained in tact, but her mind was still spinning out of control. She looked at the clock, which read four in the morning and she cried slightly, hugging the covers to her and curling up in fright. Would she never be able to let go of her past? Would she ever be able to see her way clear to a better future?

              Taunya awoke to the alarm on her cell phone blaring right next to her head. It was half past nine in the morning and she had severely overslept. 'Fuck!' she yelled inwardly. This was not the start to her Monday that she needed. Far from it. She did not have time to sit there and continue to agonize over the horrible dream she'd woken from on in the middle of the night. It was time to get to work and hope that she still had a job by the time she slipped into the office to sit behind her desk – all but shackled to it – for yet another day. She untangled herself from her sheets and nearly fell out of bed, racing to wash up and pull together some semblance of an appropriate outfit for the workplace. She almost didn't lock the door behind her as she hurried to her car and sped off to work.

             
Once insider her office, she tried her best to be stealthy at getting over to her desk but was headed off at the pass by an inquisitive Gina.

             
“So, you're over an hour late...did you get that 'job' you were telling me about?” she said with a wink.

             
Though Gina was on to something, Taunya was fuming at her insinuation. She just wanted to get to her desk and start on her endless pile of work before anyone else noticed that she had not gotten in on time. She also desperately wanted a cup of coffee, but knew that it was too risky to let anyone else see her before she had made at least an attempt to look like she was working. Gina stood in front of her with her arms folded, tapping one foot and looking far too impatient to be ignored.

             
“No, Gina. I just overslept. Please just let me get my day started.” she replied.

             
“Girl, I can smell that stank all over you. Don't you try to lie to me.” Gina insisted.

             
“Gina, even if anything had happened – and I'm not saying it did – why on earth would I waste my time standing here and telling you all about it? I have work to do and you're a gossip.” she said.

             
Taunya turned red and shoved past Gina to get to her desk. She felt trapped by both her job and Gina's accusatory words at that moment and all she wanted to do was to escape the hell she had inadvertently managed to create for herself that morning. 'Fuck Mondays.' she thought to herself. She finally reached her desk to find a stack of forms with a note attached to it that read:              

ENTER INTO THE SYSTEM ASAP

              Just great. Her day had barely started and already she was swamped with a heavy dose of data entry. It appeared that she was not the only one who had not arrived in a timely manner that morning as one of her temps was missing from their desk. She figured that the flake was lined up to be fired if she hadn't been already, leaving her to pick up the slack as usual. She sighed a heavy sigh, sorted the paperwork, turned on her computer, and began typing for what would turn into a multitude of hours.

             
By lunch time, Taunya's fingers felt nearly arthritic and she was starving, having missed breakfast and having had no time to put together a lunch for herself to bring. She decided that she might have to make move that was out of the ordinary and actually leave her desk for the short designated half hour in which she was allotted time to eat. She put her computer to sleep and got up to go to the kitchen. Gina was standing there, sipping a cup of coffee and eating a turkey sandwich. 'Fuck.' Taunya thought for the second time that day. She knew that she would have to apologize for her nasty behavior earlier, but was regretting the inevitable questions with which Gina would want to badger her for the rest of their lunch break. She poured herself a cup of coffee and walked over to her friend, trying to look as genuinely apologetic as possible.

             
“Look, Gina, I'm sorry for the way I acted this morning. My behavior was inappropriate and I apologize. I was just running late and stressing.” she offered to her still hurt-looking friend.

             
Gina shrugged in reply and rolled her eyes. She hated having to deal with Taunya's constant mood swings. All Gina wanted to do was to be her friend, but Taunya never seemed to want to let her – or anybody else – in.

             
She breathed heavily and replied, “I forgive you. But are you going to tell me what the hell went on this weekend? I know you weren't telling me the truth earlier. I can see it in your eyes.”

             
She decided it was time to come clean, and, as the two ladies talked, intaking much more caffeine than was absolutely necessary, Taunya felt her phone buzzing in her pants pocket. She continued to gulp down copious amounts of espresso, knowing that she would regret it later. She looked down at her phone to find a text from Mike, which read:

             
Look, I'm sure that you're not interested in seeing where this goes but I would be remiss if I didn't at least give it a shot and ask you. Would you like to have dinner with me tonight?

             
Taunya was dumbstruck at her reaction and Gina was too. Taunya was grinning – in her words – “like an idiot” and didn't seem to know how to make it stop. It seemed that Mike was not going to give up on her so easily. A man who had all that he did certainly did not get to the place where he was by giving up and Taunya felt a glimmer of hope as she held the phone in her hands and read and re-read his words to her.

             
“So are you going to text him back or what?” Gina asked.                            

             
Taunya looked down at her phone, her smile ceasing to fade.

             
“I guess I will.” she said. She typed back:

             
Dinner sounds good to me.

             
It was all up to him now. Had he simply been playing her? Or was he actually interested? She didn't have much time to worry about figuring out the answer when she got a text back from him to confirm a time and place for that evening. He offered to pick her up from her place and, not thinking much about it, she accepted. Her Monday was beginning to look up.

             
She raced back to her desk and nearly spilled her half full cup of coffee all over her keyboard. Luckily, she caught her clumsy self before she was able to do any real damage. She typed furiously as she counted down the hours until she was free from her tasks and able to get home and spruce up before Mike arrived. Her day was dragging on, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel that she could see and she was consistently and thoroughly motivated all the way up until it was time to get off. She shut down her computer and grabbed her coat, rushing to get to her assigned parking space and then rushing on home.

             
She was a nervous wreck as she threw outfit after outfit onto her bed. That is, until she remembered that Mike had already seen her naked, and she him. She laughed to herself. This was indeed highly unusual, but perhaps it was time for a positive change in her lifestyle. She settled on a short dress that zipped up the back. It was red with a black flower pattern and cut low in the front. The skirt flared out to reveal her long legs and she chose a pair of black pumps to compliment the look. She pulled her braids into a low ponytail, which she let hang down her back. She put on a small amount of makeup and studied herself in the mirror, wondering what it was that Mike saw in her. She finished off with red lipstick just in time to hear her doorbell ring. She had figured that he might just call her from his car outside, but he proved himself to be a true gentleman. She opened the door and there he stood looking better than ever. He wore a dark grey suit with a small pinstripe pattern running through it and a grey shirt underneath topped off with a black tie.

             
“I'd have you come in, but my place is a mess,” she lied. She was afraid that if she let him into her home that they would never make it to dinner. All she had on her mind was fucking the handsome man, but that was not on the menu quite yet. 

             
He offered her his arm and together they walked downstairs to Mike's waiting white BMW. It was freshly washed and incredibly luxurious looking. He opened her door and she got in and sat down to a comfortable leather seat, on which he had already turned the seat warmer. They drove off to L'Affaire Cafe, a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant that was Mike's favorite. Taunya had passed it many times on the way home from work, but had never wanted to go in for a meal by herself. She was glad to finally have a reason to go in and check the place out. Once inside, they were seated at a small table by the window, on which had been placed a “RESERVED” sign. Mike ordered them each a glass of wine and they perused their menus as Frank Sinatra's “The Tender Trap” played in the background.

             
“So, how was your work day today?” Mike asked.

             
Taunya didn't really want to talk about work, but she knew that she would have to make some awkward first date small talk whether she liked it or not.

             
“Fine. Got there late. Lots of paperwork,” she said, taking a sip of her wine, “And yours?”

             
“I'm sorry to hear about that. My day was fairly productive, though I have to say I was distracted for a good part of it,” he answered.             

             
“Why is that?” Taunya asked, slow on the uptake.

             
“Because I spent most of my day thinking about you,” he said, smiling.              

             
He offered her his glass and they clinked together.

             
“To the new and unfamiliar!” he cheered.

             
She smiled back. He was definitely on to something with that statement. They ordered their food and continued the idle chatter until Mike decided it was time to kick things up a notch.

             
“I must confess that I brought you here for more than just a date.” he said.

             
Taunya raised an eyebrow. 'Ok. So you want to fuck me. Big deal. I'm down.' she thought to herself.              

             
“I would like to make you an offer,” he said.

             
“An offer?” she asked, “What kind of offer?”

             
She thought back to the
Pretty Woman
moment that she'd had in the elevator the day before and wondered just exactly what Mike was getting at. While his words were intriguing, she was certainly nobody's whore and wanted to make that very clear. Mike could sense an uneasiness on her part and wanted to assuage her concerns.

             
“I can't hire you as my interior decorator anymore; however, there is both good and bad news to that fact,” he began.              

             
Taunya leaned in and listened intently.

             
“As you know, I am a headhunter and I know many people involved in many different companies and in many different aspects of the business world. I'm not sure if you have heard of Michel Dubois.”

             
She had certainly heard of Michel Dubois. He was only one of the most sought after interior decorators in the entire country. She loved everything of his on Pinterest and even had a board dedicated entirely to his bathroom fixtures.

             
“I have heard of him, yes,” she said, trying to contain her urge to gush with fangirl-like excitement.

             
“Well, he has a spot open in his studio here in town, and I gave him my personal recommendation to hire you. You would be free to let your inner creativity shine through and allow your imagination to run wild. The pay is in your range and you would have great benefits.” Mike said.

             
Taunya's jaw dropped on the floor. Was this guy for real?

             
“Are you serious?” she asked, nearly choking on her wine.

             
“As a heart attack.” Mike replied, “I told him that you were decorating my bedroom and that he would have to fight me to have you. That only served to make him more interested in having you on his team.”

             
This was impossible. There was no way that this was happening. There lay the opportunity for Taunya to work for one of the most prestigious interior designers of her time and all she had to do was say “yes”. Wait. There was more than that. She would have to quit her job, leave all of her grueling work behind, live more happily than she'd ever been... The job was starting to look better and better the more that she thought about it. But still. How could she know if she would do a good job? Perhaps she would be hired and fired in the same day? Perhaps she would be nowhere less expendable than one of the lowly temps in her office? There was simply no guarantee, no matter how good Mike made it sound.

             
“Mike, this is very tempting. Believe me, but I just don't know if I can take it.” she said.

             
“Just think it over and enjoy dinner. No rush.” he said.