The Exception (9 page)

Let her make the first move.

A tickling feeling began in my stomach and my heartbeat increased. Feeling nervous was an odd sensation, something I had little experience with.

“I have no words for you, Cane Alexander,” she said finally, trying to hide a smile.

“Words are overrated, anyway,” I replied, not bothering to hide mine. “I’m a man of action, but I’m not going to press my luck with you just yet.”

I was pretty sure I wasn’t as fucked as I had originally thought. Jada rolled her eyes and my grin grew wider.

“Are you going to invite me in?”

“I may as well.” She threw her hands in the air. “You seem to have a way of doing what you want anyway.”

“I’m glad we’ve established the givens right off.”

Her shoulders eased, her posture softening, as I strode into the room. She turned her back to me again and finished organizing the table.

It took every ounce of self-control I could muster not to bend her over the table, pull up that orange dress, and fuck her right there.

I deserve some sort of award for this shit. Who knew I had this much self-control? You learn something new every day.

“I think you thought of everything. I’m slightly impressed.”

“I was going to give credit to Lucy, but if you are impressed, just keep on thinking this was all me.”

“I said slightly. Since you are here anyway, we may as well go ahead and have dinner.” She winced like she was in pain.

“You think I did this for me? You said you wouldn’t get dinner tonight. I was being a gentleman!”

“Uh-huh.” She rolled her eyes. “You are such a gentleman.”

“I’m taking that at face value,” I said, taking the plate she offered me. I put some pizza on my mine and poured wine in two red disposable cups, shaking my head as I handed her one.

“What’s so funny?” Jada led me to her desk, which she had already cleared, and we sat down to eat.

“You would think I had sent Max to the damn store. These things,” I said, lifting up my cup, “are his favorite things in the world. Personally, I like to drink out of a real glass. But Max would use one of these over anything. It’s the country in him or something. But we are stuck with these tonight because someone was hard-headed.”

“No, someone can’t take no for an answer,” Jada said, taking a bite of the pizza. Her eyes rolled back in her head. “This is so good. I seriously love pizza.”

I imagined what she would look like coming down from an orgasm, causing my dick to go rock hard. I knew I had to be careful; Jada wasn’t going to just spread her legs like most women. I had to focus, use my “A” game. “Well, kudos to Lucy for knowing where to order, I guess,” I said with a grin.

Jada sat her pizza down and wiped off her hands. “Cane, I’m sorry. I haven’t been very nice to you and this,” she looked around her office, “is a very nice thing to do.” Her green eyes were filled with sincerity. She was so genuine, so honest—this was a new playing field for me. I really had no experience to go on when dealing with someone like her.

“Now that we are on the same page—”

“I didn’t say we were on the same page. I just said thank you,” she said.

“Why are you so dead set against seeing me outside of work?” Girls begged me to take them to dinner and to fuck them sideways.
What am I missing?

She was quiet for a minute. “Okay, let’s discuss this.”

“Yes, let’s discuss this.”

“What do you envision us doing?”

I gave her my sexiest smile, the one that usually ensured I would get whatever I wanted. “I would lay you down, on this desk would work, and then I would pull your dress up to your waist.”

“Cane!” she said, giving me a pointed look. “This is my point.”

I looked around the room, searching for answers. Or a camera. “You are not interested in having sex at all? Or with me? Because I’m kind of a catch, you know.”

She looked at me unentertained.

I raised my eyes in mock horror. “You aren’t a lesbian, are you? That must be it! It’s the only logical explanation.”

Jada tossed her napkin on her desk and laughed. “No. I am not a lesbian, Cane!”

“So, are you going to lie to me and tell me that you didn’t enjoy kissing me?” I held her gaze, challenging her to dispute what I knew to be true.

“I think it would be pointless for me to say I didn’t,” she said, looking away.

And the truth shall set you free …

“So you enjoyed our kiss, which I already knew—just so you know. And you aren’t a lesbian—which I also already knew. Although I would have no problems with that, for the record. But another thing I know is that you want me, Jada. I see it in the way you undress me with your eyes. The way your cheeks heat when I look at you, the way your mouth moved against mine, the way your body responds to me.”

I leaned a little across the desk, closing the distance between us. Her breath hitched as I took over her personal space, her eyes growing wide.

That’s so fucking sexy.

“The way you get nervous when we are talking and you twirl that ring or play with your hair. You want it, Jada. And I’m totally up for giving it to you.”

She looked down and realized that she was twirling the ring. When she looked up, I was looking at her knowingly. “See what I mean?” I leaned back in my chair, my point made.

“That’s a coincidence,” she scoffed, trying to make light of my observation.

“No, it isn’t. It’s the truth. And I’m going to tell you another truth right now. A woman knows, within a minute or two of meeting a guy, whether or not she is going to fuck. It is really that simple.”

Jada’s mouth opened and shut quickly, flabbergasted at my statement.

I stood up and leaned against the table, looking directly into her green eyes. I loosened my tie, stretching my neck at the sudden freedom. Her eyes widened farther and I watched her force a swallow.

Game. On.

“It all comes down to what a woman needs to hear to go forward with her decision. Some girls want to hear how beautiful they are. Some want to feel needed or smart—witty even. And then there are those that just want a little positive reinforcement that the guy won’t think she’s a whore.”

I watched her for a moment as she tried to process what I had just said. “And there are some that just want to have a good time and just want to hear ‘go’.”

Jada sat absolutely still, her breath labored and lips parted slightly. I knew what she was thinking, what she was considering, and it turned me on to watch those thoughts run so obviously through her mind. She adjusted in her seat, the sexual tension getting the best of her.

“So, the question is, baby—what is it you want to hear?”

“I don’t want to hear anything,” she nearly whispered, her voice so soft I almost couldn’t hear it. Some internal battle played out across her beautiful features and I was interested to see what side would win. It was a few moments before she seemed resolute, squared her shoulders, and began to talk.

“I was married. I’ve been separated a little over a year.” She paused, hoping for some cue that I had heard enough. But I wasn’t about to give her that; I wanted information. I wanted to know what made this girl tick.

I walked back to my chair and sat back down, waiting for her to continue.

“I married Decker after dating for about a year. He was my first love and when he proposed, I disregarded everything everyone said and married him anyway. We had a quick little wedding and then moved to Boston.” She took a sip of her wine and looked across the desk at me.

We are finally getting somewhere.

“I was always the little girl that dreamed of the happily-ever-after. I wanted to be like my mom, baking the day away in a little house with a white picket fence for my family. My husband would come home from work and kiss me and it would just be so … happy. And I thought I would have that with Decker. I thought I would have it all. I thought I could make it everything I wanted, anyway. So when I walked in on him and our neighbor, it was kind of traumatic.” Her voice broke at the end and it caused something to stir inside me.

I leaned across the desk and gently gripped her chin, pulling it up so she was looking me in the eye.

“I don’t know him, Jada, but I can tell you that it was his loss. I know people say that stupid shit all the time and I know I’ve known you like two whole fucking minutes, but I know he was a lucky son-of-a-bitch.” I held her in place until I was sure she wouldn’t look down again before I let her go.

Her husband cheated on her? How is that possible?

“I should’ve known it was coming,” she said, her voice stronger. “Looking back, I think he was messing around on me the entire time. I should have left him long before I did. Between the cheating and the other stuff …”

“What other stuff?” Anger began to rise from the deepest part of me.

Dear God, please let me have misunderstood that.

“Just his drinking and stuff.”

The spinning ring gave her away.

“I’m not going to press you for details about that right now.” My voice was hard as steel. “But if my gut instinct is right, and it always is, my path better not ever cross his.”

“It’s fine, Cane. I am here and he is there. It took me a long time, but I finally realized that I couldn’t be all he needed.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake! Don’t even start with that shit, Jada. His problems are his problems—not yours.”

I’m going to need a good couple rounds with the heavy bag after this.

“Anyway, the moral of this story is that there will be no more bad boys for me. No more players. No more games because I always end up losing.”

“And how does that preclude me?” I asked playfully, trying to put a smile on her beautiful face again.

“Are you serious!?” she laughed. “By your own admission—you’re the coach!”

I got up and threw my things in the garbage, considering what she said. “So you think I’m a bad boy and I’ve been blacklisted because of it. Correct?”

“Correct,” she grinned.

“That seems tragically unfair. You don’t even know me.”

“So, tell me about you. Tell me why you are so damn interested in making me crazy.”

“I honestly don’t know. It could be a number of things,” I said, weighing my words. “It could be your charming personality or your fuckable body.”

Jada turned two shades of red and I stifled a laugh.

“Or it could be that we just have this chemistry that I feel like would be a pity not to explore.”

We eyed each other carefully, trying to figure out our next move. It was Jada who broke the silence.

“Cane, you’re the poster boy for a broken heart. I know how you work. As soon as you get your fill of me, you will move on. You said that yesterday—you want one night to fuck me out of your system. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I can’t do it. I’m not like Kari, if that’s what you are thinking. I know she and Max have some sort of friends with benefits thing going on and that’s great. But it’s just not me.”

I wasn’t convinced that was something we couldn’t get around. “What do you need, Jada?”

“I want to feel like the only girl in the world to somebody. I want to be their priority, their everything. I don’t know what that feels like.”

The hurt in her voice made me want to pull her onto my lap and hold her tight. I cringed at my reaction.
Get a grip, Alexander.

“I don’t want to have random sex. I don’t want to be a booty call or whatever you call it.” She looked up at me and gave a weak smile.

“So you still want the picket fence thing?”

If that’s what she wants, I can’t get around that.

“No,” she laughed. “I mean yes. At some point, I do hope I can still have all of that. I’m going to be picky this go around. I wasted years of my life with Decker and I don’t want to throw any more of them away on someone who doesn’t really care about me. I know that makes me needy as hell, but that’s the truth. I may as well own it. I want kisses in the rain. Flowers for anniversaries. Texts for no reason. I want all of the things I have never had. And I know, without a doubt, you are not interested in giving me those things. And that’s fine. But that also seems to make us spending time together pointless.”

I looked at the beautiful woman across from me, shocked that it really bothered me that she had never experienced those things. She deserved to be made to feel beautiful and wanted. But that didn’t change the fact that I was not the person who could do those things for her.

“Have you ever just been with someone, spent a few hours with them, enjoyed yourself, and went home? There’s something to be said for that,” I smiled, hoping to broaden her horizons a little.

“Yeah, of course I have.” She looked up at me again. “You aren’t the only one that can read people. I can read you, too, and I know who you are. And you are what I need to avoid.”

My phone started to ring and she motioned for me to go ahead and get it. I looked at the screen and then stepped in the hall to take the call from Max. By the time I had finished the conversation and came back in her office, Jada had cleaned up the mess and had her bag on her shoulder.

I was relieved that she was ready to call it a night. Her little speech, as much as I hated to admit it, got under my skin a little bit. She had her mind made up that she wasn’t going to be with me and that pissed me off a little, even though she was right.

You aren’t changing jack shit because of her. This is just some stupid obsession and you’ll have moved on in a few days.

We exited the building and Jada locked up. We made our way quietly to our cars, neither of us speaking.

“Thank you for dinner tonight.” She fished her car keys out of her purse. “It was really sweet.”

I studied her under the moonlight, the warm air blowing her hair around, the smell of her soft perfume swirling around me. She was the closest thing to perfection I had ever seen.

“We could do it again sometime. I can always have food delivered. I have people.”

“I don’t remember agreeing to it this time.” She raised her eyebrows and I chuckled. “But really, thank you.”

“Goodnight.” We exchanged a small smile as we reached her Jeep. She got in and started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot, leaving me standing beneath the parking lamp.