Playing Dirty: Windy City Kink, Book 3 (7 page)

Monday morning Raff found himself weirdly out of sorts. Usually he was anxious to get back to the office, back to work. Although he often worked over weekends, Mondays were the days he could be surrounded with the people he worked with, all the energy and activity he loved and fed off.

This Monday he was distracted and edgy.

Didn’t take much to figure out why. He wanted to hear from Paige.

But over the weekend, he’d been thinking about what Dutch said. Was he coming on too strong? He could tell she was nervous. He was attracted to her beyond fucking reason, and he’d been sure she felt the same, but maybe he was wrong. Nah. He was never wrong. But she’d been clearly nervous. So maybe he
was
wrong.

Being so unsure of himself was not like him. It kind of pissed him off.

He was going to give her to the end of the day. No pressure.

But after lunch with the CEO of Michigan Trust and his son, who was a VP at the bank, he couldn’t handle it anymore. He gotten Paige’s cell phone number from Brad, and, back in the office, he grabbed his phone and called her. He would tell her the space was hers, no pressure, no strings attached. He would apologize.

“Paige Nelson.”

“Paige.” He paused. “It’s Raff.”

“Oh hi, Raff,” she said breezily. “I was about to call you.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Mmm. I gave some thought to your offer over the weekend. Frankly, it would be a poor business decision for me to turn down the space you offered and the rent deal. So I’m going to accept.”

“Great.”

“And,” she continued, still sounding casual and confident, “I’ve also decided to accept your offer of a date.”

Chapter Seven

Paige waited for Raff’s response. And waited. “Hello? Are you there?”

“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Yeah, I’m here. That’s great. On both fronts. I’ll get Brad to take care of the paperwork and the details about the lease.”

“Perfect.”

“So. How’s this weekend for you? For our date?”

“My weekend is open.”

“Great. I’ll pick you up Friday night about six thirty. Can you give me your address?”

She gave it to him.

After talking to her friends and realizing what a wuss she was being, she’d made her decision. Yes, she’d take the space, because like she’d said, that was just good business. She’d also decided to go out with him. Just once. It really wasn’t the big deal she was making it into. A date with an attractive man wasn’t exactly a hardship.

After thinking about it all weekend, she’d admitted to herself she actually wanted to go out with him. And even though he’d said he wouldn’t give up, she honestly didn’t think he was the kind of guy who would coerce someone into a date. She could have given him a hard no, as he’d said, and that would have been the end of it. This was her decision and she was going to own it, like the strong, independent woman she was trying to be.

“Got it.” Raff paused. Again she waited. He was sounding uncharacteristically hesitant. “Looking forward to seeing you again.”

Well. That was nice. And polite. “Thanks. I’ll see you Friday.”

They ended the call and she set her phone down on her desk. “Okay,” she said to Trenise. “I did it. I took the spot.”

Trenise squealed. “I can’t wait to see it!”

Paige had told her all about it last week—what a lovely street it was on, what a beautiful building it was in. They could pick up Starbucks coffee from the place on the corner. In her mind’s eye she’d already started designing the interior the way she wanted it. This was going to be work, but in the end she’d have a beautiful little place.

“There are a million details to think about,” she said. “We need to start making a list.”

“Yes. Let’s do that.”

Her phone rang only moments later and it was Brad Jaworski. Paige smiled. Raff wasted no time when he moved.

The next thing she had to do was call the company she leased this space from and find out how to get out of the rest of her lease with them.

“There is no early exit clause in your lease,” Abe Crenshaw told her, sounding annoyed. “You didn’t negotiate that.”

She pressed her lips together. This was true. She’d signed a two-year lease because they gave her a better price for two years instead of one. In fact, they’d pressed for five years, but she’d been hesitant to commit for that long. Her plan was to give this a shot for two years and then see if she was in a position to continue. This was happening sooner than she’d thought. “No, I didn’t,” she agreed, mentally kicking herself. “But I’m sure we can come to an agreement somehow.”

“You need to find a new tenant,” Crenshaw snapped.

She sank back in her chair. “Great.”

Well, that was fair enough. It was like subletting an apartment, she supposed. Disappointment settled heavy in her gut, though, at the thought that she was going to have to now delay the move, just when she’d found such an awesome spot and was being given a great deal. Even though she still had some reservations about that. There was certainly no way she could afford to pay the rent on
both
spaces.

“Okay,” she said, “I’ll get to work on that.”

Then she called back Brad Jaworski and cancelled their meeting, explaining that she had to find a new tenant before she could sign another lease. “I don’t expect you to hold the space for me,” she said, although she felt like crying. “I understand if you want to rent it to someone else.”

“I’ll get back to you on that,” Brad said.

Paige met Trenise’s eyes as she ended the call. “Shit,” Trenise muttered.

“Yeah.” Paige’s mouth twisted and she swallowed through a tight throat. “I guess I should have been thinking about that sooner.”

“What are you supposed to do, though? You can’t find a new tenant for this place before you have somewhere else to go. You know how hard it’s been finding a place.”

“Yeah.” She sucked in a big breath and expelled it. “Not even sure where to start with that. Put an ad in the paper? Backpage?”

Her phone rang and she answered it. Raff.

“What the hell?” he snarled. “You can’t get out of your lease?”

“Apparently not.”

“Don’t you have an exit clause?”

She sighed, already annoyed at herself for not thinking to include that. “No.”

“Okay. We can’t unring that bell. But look, there are always ways to get out of this.”

He sounded so confident and knowledgeable. Of course he was. This was his life.

“He said I have to find a new tenant.”

“Bullshit,” he clipped. “The market is good for space like that. How much do you pay?”

She told him her rent.

“He could lease that space in a heartbeat,” he said. “Asshole. Who is it?”

“Abe Crenshaw at Max Properties.”

“Yeah, I know him. I’ll talk to him.”

“About what?”

“About getting out of the lease. You don’t have to find a tenant. In this market, he could let you out. Or you could negotiate a buyout. There are ways.”

“You don’t have to talk to him,” she protested. “I can deal with it.”

“How much time is left on your lease?”

“Eight months.”

“Huh. Not that long. But a buyout would cost you.”

“I can’t afford to pay two leases.”

“Yeah. I get that. Let me deal with it.”

“No,” she said, pressing her lips together. “I can handle it.” Even though she was tempted, because this was stuff she really knew nothing about, and also she was so disappointed about losing out on that perfect spot.

A long, heavy silence stretched out. “Okay,” he finally muttered.

Really? He’d given in on something. Holy shitballs.

“See you Friday,” he said before ending the call.

She started exploring ways to go about finding a tenant while Trenise carried on with business as usual. Two hours later her phone rang again. This time it was Abe Crenshaw calling back.

“Okay,” he said. “We keep your security deposit and you’re out of your lease.”

Paige’s mouth dropped open. “What? Seriously?”

“Yeah. Gave it some thought. We got people interested in small spaces like that.”

“Okay. Great.” They arranged a time to meet and finalize things the next day. Paige hung up and turned to Trenise. “Great news!” She related what Abe had said.

Trenise beamed. “Fantastic. Now you better call back that Jaworski dude and tell him it’s on.”

“Yes!” She grabbed her phone and did that, and they too arranged to meet later in the week to take care of paperwork.

She’d been on a roller coaster that day, up and down and now back up, a bubble of happiness now swelling inside her that things were working out. And, once again, she had a million things to do to get ready for this move.

The rest of the week was taken up with work—the usual day-to-day work, as well as planning for the move—and the meetings that took care of the lease issues. Trenise was awesome but many evenings Paige stayed hours after she’d left. There was a lot to get done, but Paige also knew she was keeping busy so she wouldn’t think too much about going out with Raff on Friday night.

However, Thursday night she had to deal with it because she had the universal female dilemma—what to wear.

For someone who styled other women’s clothing for a living, this should be a snap. She sat on the side of her bed with the closet door open in front of her. She had no indication where they were going. What if she got all dressed up, and they went somewhere really casual? What if she wore jeans and he took her out to a fancy restaurant?

It didn’t help that she really didn’t know him or what he liked to do. Judging from what she did know of him, she figured she’d better err on the side of too dressed up. With his money and the kind of people he hung out with, he was more likely to take her to dinner in a nice restaurant than, say, bowling.

Black pants. Basic and kind of boring, but would work anywhere. She hustled over to her closet and fingered the black wool fabric of the Donna Karan pants he’d given her. Sure. Why not?

She perused her selection of tops. Something dressy, maybe even sparkly, which she could put a cardigan over in the event they went somewhere more casual. She pulled out a sleeveless red silk top with a collar embellished with rhinestones and silver studs. That would work. With her little black cardigan on top, she’d be warm enough. The shoe decision was easy—her black patent Manolo Blahniks. They were old, but they never went out of style.

Once those decisions were made, nerves tightened her stomach. It would be fine. It would totally be fine. Maybe she’d get a nice dinner, probably a glass of wine, and…well, if she was going to be completely honest with herself, a little sparring with Raff was actually kind of fun. And hot.

He was hot.

God.

She tried hard over the next twenty-four hours to keep her nerves under control, but despite her best efforts, including numerous snaps of the elastic band she wore around her wrist, she found herself with a fluttery feeling in her stomach and twitchy muscles as she dressed and redid her face for her date. The last thing to do was lipstick, and she rolled her lips together in the mirror after applying a bright-red lipstick that matched her top.

Okay!

She’d had a glass of wine while getting ready and since she had a few minutes, she headed downstairs to the kitchen with her empty glass to pour a little more while she waited for Raff. Kevin was in the living room talking to Emma on his phone.

“Okay, baby, I’ll pick you up in about half an hour. See you soon.”

He ended the call and looked over at Paige. “Whoa. You look hot.”

Paige grinned. “Thanks. You and Emma going out tonight?”

“Yeah. To a movie. So you still don’t know where you’re going tonight?”

“Nope.” She sloshed a little more of the Sauvignon Blanc into her glass and replaced the bottle in the fridge. “He did text me this morning to confirm but didn’t say anything more.”

“When’s he coming?”

“Six thirty.”

Kevin checked the time on his phone. “Okay, I’m waiting until he comes so I can check him out.”

She leaned against the counter and sipped her wine. “I didn’t know you were into guys. Also, you’re already seeing someone.”

He snorted. “You know what I meant.”

“Did you check out every guy Sasha dated?”

“Bet your ass I did.”

She smiled. “What did you think of Jack when she first started dating him? She told us last weekend he stalked her.”

Kevin laughed. “Yeah. He sorta did. First time I met him, I kinda liked the dude. First time he came here to get her? I have to admit I was giving him a message. Because of their past.”

Paige was aware that Sasha and Jack had known each other since high school, with a long period of time where they didn’t see each other because he’d moved to California. “What happened in their past? Were you worried about her with him?”

“Hell yeah. As for what happened…you better ask her about that.”

“It has something to do with Jack being kinky, doesn’t it?”

Kevin choked a little. “Uh. Yeah. She told you that?”

“Not details, although we all wanted to know. Well, everyone other than Emma. She wouldn’t let Sasha talk about it.”

“Christ. She does
not
need to know that shit about her brother.”

Paige tipped her head to one side. “It must be good.” She paused and took another sip of wine. “You really care about Emma, don’t you?”

His face shut down. “Sure.”

It wasn’t her business, but his relationship with Emma seemed very up and down. Paige was convinced he was in love with Emma, but he wouldn’t admit it and acted like their relationship was super casual. Emma and Paige were getting to be friends, hanging out with Sasha and Mallory, but they hadn’t known each other that long so Emma didn’t share a lot of personal stuff with Paige. But she was more open about her feelings than Kevin was, more open about caring for Kevin and feeling frustrated at times by his lack of commitment.

Paige really liked Kevin and was getting to know him better, and she didn’t get it. She didn’t get why he was holding so much back from Emma, when to Paige it seemed like he really did love her. She got that some guys were afraid of commitment, but Kevin seemed so together, so mature, totally solid.

She eyed him over the rim of her glass as she drained it. “I’m only your roommate,” she said. “Not your best friend. So this isn’t really any of my business. But you’re full of shit where Emma is concerned.”

His head jerked back.

Maybe this was a couple of glasses of wine talking.

The doorbell rang. Her stomach lurched.

She pushed away from the counter, setting her glass there. “That’s Raff.”

She headed to the front door to open it. When she saw Raff standing there under the outside light, his dark hair gleaming, his face shadowed, her breath stuck in her throat and she felt her pulse beating at her throat and wrists.

“Hi,” he said in a low, rough voice.

She tried to speak and at first nothing came out. Then she said, “Come in. I’m ready. I just need my coat and purse.”

Raff stepped inside and shut the door behind him against the small icy snowflakes swirling in the cold January night..

“This is my roommate, Kevin,” she said as she reached into the closet and pulled out her beautiful new coat. “Kevin, this is Raff Lauden. Oh right, you two have actually met before. A long time ago.”

Raff stepped forward and extended a confident hand. “Forgive me for not remembering. I understand you’re an architect.”

Paige was impressed he’d remembered that.

“Yeah. I work at Smith Daley Partners. Good to meet you again.”

They exchanged firm handshakes, each eyeing the other.

“Excellent company,” Raff said. “I was impressed with the work you did on Lombard Square. I’d love to work with you.”