The Alpha Male Romance Boxed Set (6 page)

"I know it has just been a month, but since we've been pretty much living together anyhow, I was thinking we should find new living arrangements. I was thinking about buying a house, so I thought you should look with me."

He was still a little wary, she got that. So what he was offering, his promise of a future together was more than she could have dreamed of at this point.

"So you could live with me there." he added, mistaking her silence for misunderstanding about what he was asking.

Placing a hand on his cheek she leaned over and kissed him. "I got that part."

"So..." he prompted.

"Of course, I would love to."

Alex let out a loud sigh of relief. "Good because I made an appointment for us with the realtor tomorrow."

Jade cocked an eyebrow at him. "Presumptuous?"

He raked a hand through her silken hair once more and gazed deep into her eyes. "No just hopeful."

The End

And The Girl From The

Coffee Shop

By

Terry Towers

"Look sharp ladies, here he comes!" Denise announced to the two other coffee shop hostesses, who were busy serving customers.

As Jessie secured a plastic lid on the coffee she'd just poured, she looked out into the parking lot and spotted Senator Jeff Morrow's black Mercedes glide into a parking slot.

"Enjoy," Jessie said giving her customer a quick smile as she slid the coffee across the counter to him, while keeping her eyes glued to the parking lot and Senator Morrow as he stepped from his car. Normally, Jessie wasn't into older men and although he didn't look it, she'd read the senator was thirty-three - twelve years her senior - but he was so damned sexy that she made an exception.

"Thanks," the gentleman she'd just served slid a couple of quarters across the counter to her as her tip and strode off.  She swiped the quarters from the counter and tossed them into the front pocket of her brown apron.

Her bright blue eyes focused back onto the senator, who was nearly at the entrance. Until she had met Jeff several months ago, she'd always thought of politicians as being stuffy and uptight, she supposed that assumption was due to the fact that the majority of senators were over the age of fifty, but Senator Morrow changed that view for her. 

Being one of the youngest Senators and hailed as one of America’s most eligible bachelors, he was easily one of the sexiest men she'd ever laid eyes on. Tall, tanned complexion, short blonde hair, mysterious grey eyes and an amazing body, he reminded her of a surfer stuffed into a very expensive suit. To top off his list of attributes, he seemed to be an all round nice guy. Sure, politicians were supposed to appear friendly and kind, but you could tell simply by looking into his eyes that he was a genuinely good man.

"Anyone wanna bet he gets Jessie to serve him?"

Jessie looked over at her co-worker, Denise, grabbed a tea towel and swatted her arm with it. "Oh will you stop, he goes to you guys as well."

Denise huffed as she rolled her eyes at Jessie.

"If I didn't know better I'd think he had a thing for our little Jess," came an amused male voice from behind her, which belonged to the coffee shop baker, Anthony.

"He likes how I make his coffee
that's
all," Jessie assured them though a part of her secretly hoped they were right and that he did have a 'thing' for her. She laughed to herself; it wasn't as though anything could ever happen between them anyhow. Senators didn't pick up girls that served them at the local coffee shop. Did they?

As Denise predicted, Jeff headed straight for Jessie. She gave him a sweet, sexy smile as he approached which he returned, sending her heart racing.

"Looking good today Senator. New tie?" she asked as he approached, already in the process of ringing in his order, a large coffee and a blueberry muffin. The tie - grey with silver specks - matched his eyes perfectly so she had immediately taken notice of it.

Jeff chuckled, his grey eyes lighting up with amusement as he reached into the inner pocket of his black suit jacket and pulled out his wallet. "So how's my favourite coffee shop girl this morning?"

"Wonderful, yourself?" She didn't bother to tell him the total, and he didn't bother to ask, he simply slid a bill to her and waved off the change.

"Fantastic." Jeff watched her intently as she set to work on his order, virtually ignoring the rest of the staff who all had their eyes glued to the two of them, while pretending not to be watching. "How did you know it was new?"

Snapping the lid of his coffee in place she looked back up at him and give him a coy smile, "I always notice my
favourite
customers." Leaning to her right she nabbed a blueberry muffin from the display case and bagged it for him, when she straightened back up she caught his eyes. "Besides, you always look good, it's hard not to notice." She cringed inwardly at how that sounded; she was certain it had sounded much better - and less like a cheap come-on line - in her head.

"I think that's the nicest thing someone has said to me that wasn't intentionally trying to kiss my ass because they were lobbying for something." Jeff responded, accepting the bagged muffin and the coffee as she slid them across the counter.

"I assure you, Senator, the compliment is genuine and in no way meant to butter you up."

Laughing outright Jeff nodded. "Well, thank you. So, I'll see you tomorrow morning? Same time, same place?" he inquired, one brow raised.

Grinning Jessie nodded. As if he didn't already know the answer, but it seemed to be the traditional good-bye they'd established over the past few months so she rolled with it. "Same time, same place," she confirmed leaning her elbows on the counter and giving him a small wave.

"Good-bye, Jessie." He made a half-turn, seemed to consider turning back to her, but ultimately decided against it, turned fully and strolled out of the shop without another glance in her direction.

"Oh, he totally has a thing for Jessie," she heard Denise comment.

"I think so too," her other co-worker and roommate, Rebecca, agreed.

With a sigh, Jessie spun around to face the two ladies. "Senator Morrow is
not
interested in me. I'm a coffee shop girl for heaven's sakes, what would he want from
me?
"

A snickering from Anthony sounded in the kitchen.

"Besides that," Jessie yelled back to him as her cheeks flushed slightly then turned to the other hostesses, "I heard that he was dating some model. How could I complete with
that?
Even
if
he was interested, which he
isn't
."

"You didn't hear about the breakup?" Denise asked, as a customer approached her register and she began to pour a coffee for him.

Crossing her arms over her ample breasts, Jessie leaned her hip against the brown-colored marble counter, cocked her head and raised a curious brow at Denise. "Senator Morrow broke up with the model?"

After placing the lid onto the coffee cup Denise slid it across the counter to her customer and then turned to face Jessie, mirroring her position, arms crossed, hip leaning against the counter. "No, from what it said in the news, the model dumped him to go back to her ex; he's some daytime soap star or something. I only caught part of the story."

Jessie huffed, why anyone could dump the Senator was beyond her. She pushed herself off the counter and made her way towards the back room. When she reached the entrance to the kitchen she stopped and turned back to face Denise. "I'm going to go check the food temperatures in the freezers. Give me a shout if you need me."

"Oh, I would say you'd need to cool down after enduring the red hot tension that was sizzling between you and the Senator."

Jessie rolled her eyes while wagging her finger at her slightly older co-worker, "You know what your problem is? You read too many romance novels."

"When you've been married for over ten years, romance novels are all you have sweetie; you'll see," she warned, turning her back to Jessie as she greeted an approaching customer.

She's got me there
, Jessie mused with a chuckle as she made her way to the freezer.

****

Dropping the third orange into the thin plastic produce bag, Jeff gave the bag a spin and knotted it, before lowering it into the grocery store hand basket with the few other items he'd picked up. He'd stopped at the grocery store as a quick detour home from the office. He noticed the blonde coffee shop girl, Jessie, also heading towards the checkouts but from the opposite direction.  She was frantically texting into the phone in her hand, a basket of groceries swinging from her arm as she walked.

Although she still wore the brown uniform announcing her to be a hostess of the coffee shop down the street, she was minus the visor and her long golden blonde hair was now loose, falling halfway down her back. Visibly agitated, she frowned at the small screen and raked a hand through her silky locks.

Jeff slowed his pace to the checkouts, waiting to see which one she chose so he could fall in line behind her. He looked down at himself and frowned, he'd gone to the gym right after leaving the office and was still wearing the jogging pants and t-shirt he'd worn there. He hadn’t bothered to change partially due to the fact that he didn't want to be stopped by someone with an issue they were just dying to discuss. When he went to stores wearing plain clothing, then people were less inclined to recognize and stop him.

Sure it was his job to hear the concerns of the citizens, but sometimes he just wanted to go to buy some oranges and cereal without having to stop to have an hour long discussion on his current policies, or lack thereof. Sometimes, if just for a few hours it felt good to be plain old Jeff. Not Senator Morrow, just Jeff.

As he walked up behind Jessie, he watched in amusement and chuckled as she cussed and turned off the phone before slipping it into her little brown handbag. The sound of his snickering drew her attention so after setting her basket of groceries on the conveyer belt, she spun around to face him.

Her eyes, wandered up the length of his body beginning at his sneakers, but when her eyes met his, she gasped and her eyes widened. "Senator Morrow?"

He gave her a friendly smile, nodded and set his basket on the conveyer belt behind hers. "Jessie, from the coffee shop."

"Oh my God, I didn't recognize with you with clothes on!" she exclaimed, a little too loudly, drawing the attention of a number of people around them in other lines, along with the cashier and customer before them
in their line.

Jeff didn't need a mirror to know his face must have lost every ounce of color it may have had. With the ease of a true politician he quickly wiped the look of shock from his expression and laughed it off.

"No! Oh my god!" Looking around them, she noticed several sets of eyes on her and Jeff. Immediately, a deep crimson hue began to grace her cheeks. "No, no. That came out wrong. Oh God! I've never seen him naked. He always has on really nice suits, and…"

Looking around them Jeff nodded to a number of onlookers and leaned over to her. "Not helping. Maybe you should just stop talking," he whispered, his tone was teasing, but he truly did want her to stop before she drew more attention to them.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered back, and handed the cashier a bill, though Jeff doubted she even knew what the total was. The change she was handed by the cashier was tossed into her purse, without her paying any attention to what it was.

"Don't worry about it. I knew what you meant."

She moved forward and began to gather her bags as the cashier rang his few items in. By the time she appeared to have both her embarrassment and her bags under control, he'd already paid and was picking up his own items.

"You just caught me by surprise is all..." she turned and moved away from the checkout, with Jeff following suit.

"Nothing to worry about," he assured her as he walked with her through the automatic doors and into the parking lot.

"You just always wear these beautiful suits and..." her bright blue eyes looked up into his grey ones, worry evident in them, "I hope that isn't going to cause you problems..."

Jeff couldn't stop the laughter that erupted from him. "I think it'll be fine. I've had worse said about me, I assure you of that."

His laughter helped relieve her anxiety and she gave him the cute, sexy smile she greeted him with every morning, the very smile he made a detour to stop by the coffee shop she worked at each morning just to see. The same smile that took his dick from a resting position to full awareness.

Damn it!

The flimsy material of his jogging pants did little to cover the growing bulge underneath them. He swiftly shifted the grocery bag he was carrying to block her view of his groin, if, on the off chance, her eyes should wander in that direction.

"Boyfriend problems?" he inquired. As soon as he said the words he wanted to kick himself and half-wished he could take them back. Looking down at her, roughly half a foot shorter than his six feet, he hoped she wasn't underage. He assumed that she wasn't since she worked the morning shift at the coffee house otherwise she'd be in school during the day. But still, she'd be maybe twenty - though he seriously doubted much older than that.

She shrugged. "Nah. Not really. I'm not seeing anyone at the moment."

They walked in silence for half a minute, giving Jeff a moment to decide if he was actually going to take a chance with her. The press had made all sorts of asinine remarks about him and the twenty-five year old model that he'd been dating and got dumped by. Dating a young woman from the coffee shop would give the press a field day, but he reasoned with himself that it was in his remit to mingle with a wide section of society.  Anyway, he was hardly some geriatric politician. He was entitled to a simple date. It didn't have to make headline news; what harm could an innocent date do, right?

"This is me," Jessie announced, stopping and turning to face him as they reached a red Pontiac Sunfire.

Jeff eyed the beat-up little car, which gave him serious concerns its road-worthiness and frowned.

As if sensing his worry over the car, she smiled. "It's not much, but it's paid for. And - believe it or not - it works great."