Falcon
I almost didn’t think Clementine was going to take the bait. She came across as flirtatious and playful, but I could see where her walls were up. The boundaries became clear pretty quickly in the course of our first conversation, but I eventually managed to get her to cave in. I knew I had her. As long as she was waiting outside when I showed up, like she said she would be, I knew this job was in the bag.
I pulled up to her apartment building, one of those new modern buildings that was all glass with thin balconies jutting out between floors. I could see directly into the apartments above the first floor. The first floor windows offered me a clear view of the gym, the leasing office, and the indoor pool. It was insane. I couldn’t imagine living somewhere so open, and certainly not on a cashier’s budget. It was obvious Leo or another family member was helping her handle her rent for the place.
I spotted her standing just outside the glass doors facing the parking lot on the side of the building. She looked even better in her dinner clothes. She had done her hair; it was no longer perfectly straight in a ponytail like she had it at the store. It flowed from the top of her head down to her shoulders in long beautiful waves. Her blue eyes caught the glow of the lights standing guard over the parking lot and sparkled.
She wore a thin, blue flowing blouse that was open to reveal a hint of cleavage. She also wore black pants that framed her hips and ass perfectly while flowing loosely around her legs. I didn’t want to put her on the back of my bike. I wanted to take her in my arms and drag her back up to her apartment. I wanted to tear those clothes off of her and take her in her living room, in front of the large window overlooking the seedy streets of downtown. I wanted to deflower that beautiful little thing, and I wanted the whole city to see me doing it.
I parked my bike and killed the engine. I started to get off and walk up to the door to greet her, but I saw she was already walking my way.
“You showed,” she said in her teasing voice. “I almost expected you to stand me up.”
“Why would I pass up this opportunity?” I asked her.
“Am I overdressed?” she asked suddenly, looking me up and down. I wore my vest over a black dress shirt and blue jeans.
“No, you’re dressed perfectly,” I assured her. “I wear the vest everywhere,” I explained.
“That’s right, you’re this big bad biker,” she said in a mocking tone.
“Well, let’s leave how big and bad I am for another night,” I said with a wink. “Tonight, let’s just get dinner.”
“I’d like that,” she said with relief in her voice. “I’m glad I didn’t wear a dress.” She looked at the bike with a little trepidation in her eyes.
“Have you ever ridden a motorcycle?” I asked her.
“No, I haven’t.” She shook her head and looked at me with those gorgeous blue eyes. She was obviously apprehensive, but she wasn’t shaken. I admired that.
“Well, it’s really simple. You just straddle it and wrap your arms around my waist. Hold on, and don’t let go. But first, you have to wear one of these.” I grabbed my spare helmet and handed it to her.
She sighed as she lifted it over her head and slid it on. There was something incredibly sexy about a woman in a helmet, suited up to ride. I was definitely more accustomed to riding with women who knew what the hell riding was all about, but her innocence didn’t take away from how attractive she was. If anything, it was starting to turn me on. There was something endearing about her innocence, something that made me want to show her more of the world than she was used to seeing just because it would open her eyes to everything around her.
She climbed on the bike behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist. She gripped me pretty tightly and pressed herself against my back. I laughed to myself as she tightened her grip when the bike roared to life beneath us and again when we pulled out of the parking lot. Yeah, it was definitely her first time. This was going to be fun.
I knew I couldn’t take her to the roadhouse where the guys usually met up for drinks and grub. I had to take Clementine Richards somewhere nicer than that. Her company was worth more than a greasy cheeseburger and cheap chili-cheese fries. Rogue Demons had a couple of places around town where it was safe for us to conduct business, so I decided on one of those. I knew our privacy would be respected, and if any trouble came up, it would be handled tastefully.
We pulled into the parking lot at Sapphire, a five-star restaurant specializing in steak, seafood, and wine. As long as she wasn’t opposed to any of those things, this place guaranteed us a good time on our date.
Sapphire was on the first floor of a five-star hotel with a street entrance as well as an entrance in the hotel lobby. We pulled into the parking deck behind the hotel and strolled around to the front entrance.
Inside, they maintained a cozy atmosphere with warm, dim lights. Each table and booth sat in its own pool of light, separating it from the surrounding tables. We were seated as soon as we walked in, and I could see by the look on Clementine’s face that I had chosen well. Her eyes sparkled even in the dimly lit room as she looked around at the individual tables and booths we walked past on the way to the back of the room where we could eat in private.
“I’m impressed,” she told me after we were seated and ordered our wine.
“I’m glad I did well, then,” I said.
“You did very well.” She gave me that teasing, suggestive look again. I was going to make her regret that look eventually.
“Have you ever eaten here before?” I asked her.
“I really haven’t gotten out much since I came to the city,” she admitted.
It occurred to me I hadn’t done all of my homework. I figured the reason she wasn’t around much when she was younger was simply because of how young she’d been. It never occurred to me that she might have been from somewhere else, so I decided to play detective and find out all I could about her past. “When did you come to the city?” I asked her.
“I visited off and on when I was younger. My brother moved out here years ago to start a consulting firm, and I would occasionally take trips to see the place. The tall buildings and bustling sidewalks fascinated me back then, when I was living in a quiet little town that would fit in just a few city blocks downtown,” she explained.
A consulting firm? Was that what Leo had told his little sister he did? I had to stifle my laughter. This situation kept getting better. Not only did she not have any idea of what her brother was really doing here, but she didn’t realize I was one of his rivals. It was really going to mess her up when she finally put two and two together. Leo couldn’t have made her a better target for me.
“Why aren’t you working for your brother, then?” I asked her.
“It’s not really what I wanted to do. I have other plans,” she answered.
“To work in a card shop?” I joked.
“No way. This job is just supposed to be temporary. I came up here for school and recently graduated with a business degree. I’m working until I can get something going,” she explained.
How many times had I heard that same story? Everyone went to school, got a degree, and worked their way into adulthood while waiting on something to happen, or so it seemed sometimes. She still had hope for the future, and that was pretty amazing to me. But with an older brother who was willing to pick up the slack for her financially, she didn’t really have to face any harsh realities like so many other people did. She didn’t have to do things she wouldn’t be proud of the next day to make her way in life.
“What are you thinking about doing?” I asked, knowing that by continuing to probe into who she was, I was ruining my plans for her. She wasn’t supposed to be an actual person. She was just supposed to be Leo’s little sister.
“I’m going to open a print shop,” she told me with confidence, like she just knew it was going to happen one day. Innocent optimism. My God, I wanted a piece of that so bad!
“Like for t-shirts and posters, stuff like that?” I asked.
“Anything that needs to be printed,” she told me. “It’s going to take a lot of startup capital to make something like that happen, though. I just don’t want to have to take any mammoth loans to make my dream a reality.”
“I can understand that,” I agreed.
We continued to talk while we ate. She ordered sushi, and I ordered a steak with a baked potato and some steamed vegetables.
I was surprised at how easily she opened up to me once we got to the restaurant. Any time I asked a question, she came back with an answer pretty quickly. It was like she knew she wasn’t supposed to be so trusting, but she couldn’t help who she was. On one hand, that made my job so much easier. On the other hand, it made it harder, because she was becoming a real person right in front of me.
“So, do you mean to tell me that a sweet little girl like you from a small town can’t find a date on Friday night?” I asked after a few minutes of silence while we ate our delicious food and drank our wine.
“What do you mean?” She blushed. I was starting to like it when she blushed. It meant I struck a nerve.
“Well, do you normally wait for strangers to walk into your store to ask you out?” I continued.
“Oh, no. I’ve never done anything like this,” she admitted. “I don’t know why I even accepted your invitation to dinner. I don’t know many people here. Most of my friends were at the university, and after we graduated, many of them moved away. I know a few people here and, of course, there’s my brother, but I don’t see him as often as I’d like,” she explained.
It occurred to me that I didn’t even have to have sex with her to ruin things for Leo. I could have just told her what her brother was really up to and explained to her that the reason she didn’t see him was because he had to keep her out of the loop to cover up his real business. While I would still have gotten the satisfaction of taking him down if I did it that way, I would have robbed myself of everything his beautiful little sister had to offer me.
“Well, I’m glad you decided to take a chance on a stranger,” I told her, holding up my wine glass to hers. We toasted to taking chances and took a sip of our wine.
We sat and talked a little while longer while the server removed our plates from the table and brought me the check. I had earned my way in with Clementine, but I wasn’t quite ready to pull the trigger just yet. I knew if I did it too quickly, it wouldn’t have the same impact.
Still, despite my intentions to draw this out as long as I could, I felt my desire growing for her under the table. I sat back in the booth and listened to her tell me about herself while she finished her glass of wine before deciding to call an end to our date. If I didn’t do something, I wasn’t sure I would be able to keep myself off of her by the end of the night.