Chapter 3

A pounding at the door startled JL awake. She jumped up, wincing at the stiffness in her neck, and looked around her apartment, confused.

What time is it?

The knocking started again, and the parrot began to oink. She stood and searched for her phone.

“Shit!” It was seven-thirty. She’d fallen asleep on the table while sketching. “Coming!”

She looked through the peephole. “Enzo?” she said, surprised, as she unhitched the deadbolts and opened the door.

“I didn’t want you driving all the way to my house.” He handed her a box of donuts. “So, I thought I’d pick you up.” He pushed the door open and walked inside as if he owned the joint. He set down two cups of coffee, then reached forward, cupped her face with his palm, and with his thumb wiped something under her eye. Her brain wasn’t fully awake yet, but her rapidly beating heart sure was. Was he going to kiss her? And then that thought turned to the next logical one: morning breath. She was about to pull away hastily when he released her and showed her the black smudge on his thumb.

“Oh, uh…I was sketching. Guess I fell asleep.” She wiped her face to get rid of any other traces of the charcoal.

“You were still sleeping? You were going to stand me up?”

“No!” she said, too quickly. “I mean, I wasn’t. I might have been late, though. Eventually I would’ve woken up, right? I don’t know what happened. I rarely sleep.” She lifted one of the cups to her mouth. “Coffee,” she sighed, and walked into her kitchen. He followed and sat at the small table, opening the box of donuts for her. She grabbed one and shoved it into her mouth, making him chuckle.

“So good,” she mumbled. “Donuts are my favorite.”

He reached forward and tugged on a lock of her hair. “Purple?”

“Magenta,” she said as she reached for another donut.

He sat back casually. “Nice PJs,” he said, his eyes roaming over the old Aerosmith T-shirt that she wore over boxer shorts. The T-shirt was falling off one shoulder, and suddenly she was very aware of the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra. The way he looked at her made her feel as if she was sitting there completely naked. She crossed her arms over her chest, finished the donut, and stood up. “I’ll go get dressed,” she mumbled.

“Woof woof woof.”

Enzo looked around. “That’s a strange-sounding dog, Jamie Lynn.”

“It’s not a dog. It’s a parrot,” she said over her shoulder as she walked out of the room. “It’s Violet’s. I teach it animal noises and bad words.”

“Nice,” he chuckled. A moment later he said, “Hey, what’s this?”

She turned and realized she’d left her canvas on the coffee table. She leaped over the couch, tackled him to the floor, and snatched up the canvas, holding it behind her with one hand as she struggled to push herself up off his chest with the other. “It’s nothing,” she said breathlessly.

“That’s some pretty serious nothing,” he said, steadying her with his hands around her waist. “I mean, it got you to sit on me. I’m thinking that I like whatever that nothing is.”

She shoved him playfully and got to her feet, still holding the canvas behind her. “Don’t like people to see my drawings.” She walked backward toward her bedroom, noticing that he was lying on the floor looking up at her with a smirk and maybe…Was that…? Yes, with a hard-on. She looked down at herself. The worn shirt was practically see-through, and the short boxers had barely been any sort of barrier when she’d been sitting right on his cock. She fled into her room and shut the door.

After splashing some water on her face and brushing her teeth, she styled her hair in a fauxhawk, then put on fishnet stockings with holes and runs all over them, black shorts, a tank top featuring another rock band, and sneakers. She lined her eyes with black liner, added a heavy coat of mascara, and finished the look with red lipstick.

She walked back into the kitchen to find him going through his phone with one hand, a partially eaten donut in the other. He looked her up and down slowly. “I like the look. It’s like if Miley Cyrus hooked up with Tinker Bell.”

Jamie Lynn looked down at herself and laughed because it kind of did look like that. She pointed to the donut left in the box. “You going to eat that one?”

He looked at it and shook his head. She snatched it and stuffed it in her mouth.

“How can such a little thing eat so much?” he wondered aloud as he tucked his phone into his pocket.

She shrugged, and they walked out together to his pricey sports car. “You’re going to make us go in your douchy car, aren’t you?” she asked.

He looked seriously wounded. “Most women fall at my feet when they see my car.”

She stepped back and looked at it. “Yeah, no,” she deadpanned. “Not me.”

“Yes, I see that. There’s not much that impresses you, is there?”

“If by that you mean fancy cars, you’re going out with the wrong girl today, Pretty Boy.”

“I’ve known that for a long time,” he said as he clicked the fob. “That you’re not into fancy cars and expensive dinners, I mean,” he amended hastily, “not that I’m going out with the wrong girl today. I’m exactly with the right girl. I’m glad you gave me a chance to show you I can be the right guy,” he concluded with a wide smile that showed off his brilliant teeth. Her heart warmed for a moment at his sincerity, and she quickly looked away and stepped into his car before he could see how affected she was by him. Something about this man made her feel like a bumbling idiot. She never felt this way around anyone else, and it was very disconcerting—she wasn’t sure if she liked or loathed the feeling.

He closed the door behind her and walked to the driver’s side. “So, where are we going?” he asked.

Jamie Lynn didn’t answer right away. In fact, she seemed lost in thought as she looked out the window.

“You didn’t plan anything?” he asked incredulously. He had taken the day off. Didn’t she understand how big a deal that was? He never took a day off. He did want to go out with her, but his plan had been to have a nice quiet dinner late in the evening, not to spend the morning driving all over Tarpon Springs while his work piled up back at the office.

He swallowed his irritation, because he really did want to show her a good time. Plus, not two seconds ago he’d noticed how the fortress that usually surrounded her had cracked a tiny bit, and he relished it. He remembered what her brother had said, and decided that even though the woman sitting next to him was a ball-busting, tough-as-nails, confident little pixie, she was also someone who needed to be treated with tenderness. So he sat back and patiently let her have her moment to think.

“How ’bout the park on Meridian and Third?” she said finally.

He eyed her questioningly. A park?

“Don’t be such a stick-in-the-mud, Pretty Boy. It’s a park. It’ll be fun.” She sat back and let him drive.

He didn’t like it when she called him Pretty Boy. Mostly because he knew she said it under the presumption that he was some sort of pretentious rich man who lived a perfect life. Maybe he had had a charmed life, but it certainly hadn’t been perfect.

His phone buzzed from the phone holder, but before he could answer she picked it up. “Did I mention it’s a phone-free date?” she said, tossing it carelessly into the backseat. Before he had a chance to protest, she pointed and squealed excitedly, “Oh, pull over there, at the corner!” He followed her instruction, pulling up at the curb. “Stay here. Be right back,” she said, without giving him a chance to say a word.

The woman was a tornado, and he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to keep up. Reaching behind his seat, he picked up the phone and hid it in his pocket. Normally he commanded a staff of at least twenty employees and people cowered around him, but now he found himself hiding his own phone for fear of what this tiny woman would say or do. He chuckled to himself as he settled in to wait. Ten minutes later she was back with three bags full of stuff, including…“Is that a fishing pole?” he asked.

“Don’t worry,” she said as she pushed the rod into the car at an awkward angle, half of it sticking out of her window. “Okay. Let’s hit it.”

He let out a deep breath and did as he was told, trying not to think of the damage the fishing pole was inflicting on the leather seat.

Twenty minutes later Enzo parked and lugged the bags and the fishing pole out of the car. “I’m glad I dressed casually,” he said, his arms full of bags and supplies—though he had no idea what they were for. She smiled over her shoulder and skipped happily in front of him. Jamie Lynn was such a tiny little thing. Thin and short, yet the way her shorts hugged her small ass made him want to drop all the bags and see how it’d fit in the palms of his hands. Instead he trotted forward with all the provisions she’d just purchased. “Where exactly are we going?”

“Come on.” She ducked under a low-hanging tree and pushed some bushes out of the way to make room for him.

“I don’t think we’re supposed to go this way,” he said.

“Scared?”

He snorted. “No, I’m not scared. But I don’t want to spend the rest of the day dealing with a park ranger or paying a fine.”

She huffed. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed that your phone has rung or beeped a dozen times in the short walk from your car to here. I presume you make approximately…” She held a finger to her lips and looked up as if she was doing serious mental math. “A hundred and twenty-one gazillion dollars an hour. Even if we did get a fine, I think you could afford it. But since it’s my date and my expense, I’ll pay it if it happens. Anything else, or are you going to follow me?”

She began to walk, letting go of the bush she’d been holding, causing it to whack him in the face. He grunted but continued to follow. In silence they went another few yards until they reached the opening to a big gathering of mangroves. She took the bags from his hands and set them aside, then without talking leaned one hand on Enzo and proceeded to take off her shoes before setting herself down on the grass. She patted the area next to her.

Did she know that his cargo shorts were designer and cost upward of a hundred dollars? Grass stains would ruin them. But, as he’d been doing all morning, he did as he was told and sat down next to her. She stretched her legs and crossed them at the ankle and leaned back on her forearms. Her head hung back and her eyes were closed. Her neck looked delectable stretched out like that, with a hint of sweat and a scent that was all Jamie Lynn. She always smelled of citrus, as if lemons and oranges had babies together and out came Jamie Lynn’s scent. His phone beeped and he went to reach into his pocket, but she opened her eyes, turned her head, and glared at him. He kept his hands in his lap.

“You like fishing?” He was the first to break the silence.

“Yes. No. Not really.” She shrugged and closed her eyes again. “I brought the gear for you. Billy from the drugstore let me borrow it. Have at it.” She straightened her head and looked toward the water.

“Have at it? I don’t understand.”

“I figured you couldn’t just sit and relax with me, so I thought that maybe if you had something to do, you could refrain from working.” She closed her eyes again and took in the warmth from the sun.

He looked at her curiously. “I can sit here and relax just like you.”

She let out a deep laugh. “Okay, cool. Then do that. Relax.” She lowered herself the rest of the way onto the grass and locked her fingers behind her neck.

He let out a breath. Okay, relax. He could do that. Easy. He had been sitting awkwardly next to her. He shifted so that he was parallel to her. He looked back, cleared some rocks and sticks, straightened his polo shirt, and slowly lay down next to her. He moved a few times to get comfortable. But, really, it was not comfortable. The grass was humid from the morning dew, there were bugs, it was hot as balls, and the sun was in his eyes. He turned his head and realized that she was looking at him with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

“Okay, so you suck at relaxing, I see.” She heaved herself off the grass. “You look like a corpse,” she said with a snicker. “Come on. Loosen up, Pretty Boy.” She undid his shoelaces and pulled his shoes and socks off, tossing them casually aside. “Better?” All he did was shrug; now his bare feet were going to get muddy in addition to his shoes. He kept that all to himself and instead threw an arm over his face to keep the sun off his eyes.

Her small delicate hands massaging his feet startled him, and when her thumb dug into his arch he couldn’t help letting out a moan of pleasure. “Good, right?” she asked, and all he could do was nod. She began to hum something. It was a familiar song, though he couldn’t figure out what it was.

“You have a pretty voice.” And it was true. Whatever it was that had started off as a hum was now a little melodic song that was barely a whisper.

“Thanks.”

“What is it?”

“The jingle from the insurance commercial that’s always playing on the radio. It’s stuck in my head for some reason.”

He sat up a little to see if she was teasing him, but she just kept singing and then he realized it was indeed the annoying jingle from the radio. He laid back down and laughed. JL’s good humor was refreshing, and he found that her soothing voice and gentle hands made him feel peaceful. The birds chirped overhead, and he heard a few splashes coming from the water. He realized that the heat wasn’t really that stifling at this early hour; once he made the effort to embrace it, it actually felt nice. He closed his eyes and succumbed to the feel of her small dainty hands kneading the soles of his feet.

A loud rustling sound woke Enzo with a jolt. “What the—” He shot upright and saw trees and grass before his eyes landed on Jamie Lynn, who was sitting with her feet in the water, mud splattered all the way up to her calves and her hand in a bag of cheese puffs, her cheeks full as she chewed. He glanced around and saw her fishnet stockings hanging from a branch. She looked completely at peace. He’d never met anyone as sure of herself and as comfortable in her own skin as Jamie Lynn. “I fell asleep,” he said, feeling ridiculous for stating the obvious.

She turned her face to look at him. “Yep.” She extended the bag of cheese puffs to him.

He shook his head. Who ate cheese puffs so early in the morning? “Why didn’t you wake me?” He ran his fingers through his hair. He hadn’t had a nap since…he didn’t remember the last time he’d had a nap. “I’m a terrible date.”

She tilted the bag up to her mouth and finished off the contents before standing up. “Why would you say that?”

“I fell asleep twenty minutes into our date.”

“Good. You needed to relax.” She plopped down next to him and offered him a warm soda from a bag, but he declined. She shrugged and gulped it down before opening a pack of Oreos, which he also declined. “I’ve never met someone who ate as much as you do.”

“Not true,” she said with her mouth full. “Travis.”

“You’re right.” He swiped a crumb from the corner of her mouth and smiled. “Travis does eat a lot. What’s with you guys? You’ve got a super metabolism gene or something?”

“Not sure. I love to eat, so I’m glad I can.” She took out some baby wipes from one of the bags and cleaned the dried mud off her legs.

“I’m sorry I missed you getting naked in order to take off those stockings.”

She laughed and winked flirtatiously at him. “I guess I should’ve thought it through a little more when I dressed this morning. I hadn’t planned to come to the park, and then once I was here I wanted to feel the water.”

“It’s all right. I get it.”

She settled in a little closer to him, but her eyes were still on the water in front of her. “So, I’d like to know more about this wife situation.”

“There is no wife situation. My father and Marianna’s father are business partners in one of the many corporations my father owns. Marrying Marianna was always something I was supposed to do. Go to Wharton for grad school like he did, return to Brazil, get married and have a handful of babies, and then help run my father’s empire with Marianna by my side. Her father didn’t have any sons and thought of me as his son. I’m the only one he trusts aside from my father. Marianna always wanted to help run his business, but her father didn’t think she was equipped to.”

“Because she’s a woman?”

“Probably.”

“Everything all nice and neat and planned out for you…sounds perfect.”

“I suppose it does.”

“So what’s the problem?” She twisted open a cookie and licked the white cream off. He was transfixed by the movements of her tongue. She snapped her fingers. “You were saying?”

“Oh…uh…yeah.” He shook his head. “The problem is that I never loved her and I don’t think she ever loved me. Hell, I don’t think Marianna loves anyone but Marianna.” He took half of the cookie out of Jamie Lynn’s hand and ate it. He never indulged in sweets in the middle of the day like this. It was delicious. Maybe because she’d just licked it and he’d envisioned her tongue in other places. He tried to banish the thought and continued. “Oh wait, that’s not true—she loves money and charging things on my credit cards. Oh, and she loves to suck my ex–best friend Gino’s cock. Yep, those two things Marianna loves. But me? No, she didn’t love me.”

JL winced. “Ouch.”

He lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “Yep. Caught her. Miss Prim and Proper was on her knees under our imported mahogany dining room table, bone china and linen napkins properly set, sucking him like a Hoover when I walked in early from a business meeting.” The bitch had always acted as if giving a blow job was beneath her. Not once in the two miserable years they’d been married had those lips ever touched his dick. She was a frigid bitch. Or so he thought…

“You don’t seem over it.”

“I am.” He looked up to the sky. “I’m actually good. Better than I’ve been in a long time. It just irritates me that I wasted so many years of my life dating her and then in a loveless marriage. That’s what upsets me, not so much what she did. Regardless, it gave me the excuse I needed to get out of Brazil. My father had some business to take care of here, and I told him I’d come. He thought I was devastated by her infidelity and needed to get away. The truth is, I just wanted to get away.”

“So, your divorce…it’s really finalized?”

“Yes. Thank God. It took over a year, but it’s done.” He turned to face JL. “I haven’t seen Marianna in about a year, Jamie Lynn. I haven’t had feelings for her in…probably ever. I don’t want you to think I’ve been cheating on my wife this past year. I’m not. If you and I were to…I promise I’m a single man. Completely. Legally, and definitely emotionally.”

She nodded and smiled. “Cool. I feel better about that. Not that you and I are going to do anything, but just, you know…in case.” Dusting her hands on her thighs, she stood up. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

He stood slowly, not wanting the date to end already. “You want to grab lunch?”

“Stop trying to top me. I’m in charge, remember?” She walked in front of him. “Let’s get going.” He was happy she had more up her sleeve, because he wasn’t ready to end the day.

Where was this woman leading him?

And why was he so eager to follow?