Chapter 2

Letting loose, drinking, and dancing were probably as far as possible from what Rose actually felt like on a daily basis. But her friends felt better when they saw her out partying with them, so she had grown to enjoy her Saturday evenings the best she could.

Drinking, dancing, and flirting with men were all great ways for her to keep her mind busy and her body moving. Everyone at the clubs was always younger than she was, but no one really knew how old Rose was. She appeared to be in her mid-twenties, and only her close friends knew otherwise. Sometimes guys guessed she was a little older than them, but that was only because she took charge of the situation and didn’t wait for the men to hit on her.

Elsa was the only one of her friends that really knew Rose from when she was married. Both Kimberly and Ava were other single friends that Rose had connected with through Elsa. All three of the women were twenty-five years old and still in the partying stage of their lives. They were single, had high-paying government jobs, and used their weekends to let off the steam from stressful weeks.

Rose envied the simple life that came with her friends’ lives, though. They didn’t know tragedy like she did, and they were able to have joy like she no longer felt. Instead of joy, Rose was content to have ambition. It was her new best friend, and she was going to hold onto it with all her might.

Her husband had had a lot of ambition, and Rose felt closer to him when she was working hard at school. She thought she might also feel closer to him once she had a job and was working hard at it. Although she had a little money saved up still from Derek’s life insurance, most of it had gone to her schooling and paying her bills over the last few years. She had to start working so she could support herself. Plus, it felt like it was time for her to start a new chapter in her life.

“Oh, my God, did you see that guy over there. I swear he’s been looking at you all night long,” Ava said as she pointed to a tall, thin man at the other end of the club.

“I’ll bet you twenty dollars I can go over there and get him to kiss me within sixty seconds,” Rose said as she downed the shot of vodka she had in front of her.

“Don’t take the bet,” Elsa said to Ava.

“Oh, I’m taking it. Even a knockout like Rose has to warm a guy up a little. Sixty seconds from the moment you arrive over there. I’m going to time you. If it goes to sixty-one seconds, you owe me twenty bucks.”

“Yep. Elsa will keep time.”

Rose shook hands with Ava and set off across the club to the tall, good looking man in the corner.

“Hi Rosaline,” he said with a grin when she arrived.

“Hello Noah.” She smiled back. “I can’t explain, but I need you to kiss me.”

Noah didn’t hesitate more than a second before he grabbed her and dipped her down in a dramatic kiss. His lips were gentle and seductive against hers, and Rose felt her body react and kiss him back instinctively. She couldn’t help herself, he tasted so good. As he brought her back up, he steadied her on her feet.

“Should we do it again?” he questioned.

“Nope, that’s good. How are you? What are you doing here?”

“I know; is it that obvious that I’m too old for this place?” Noah said as he looked around the club.

Club Door, or just Door as people usually referred to it, was a very young crowd of people. The women were almost exclusively under thirty, as were most of the men. So Noah, who was near forty, was a little out of place, but his good looks would get him by just fine for the night.

“I’m sure you can find yourself a young sugar baby if that’s what you’re looking for.” Rose winked at him.

Noah rolled his eyes. He hated how Rose always teased him about the young women he dated. Noah had been friends with Rose’s late husband, and when Noah had brought a woman over to meet the two of them, Rose had always given him grief; mostly because she thought it was funny that Noah never dated women his own age.

“You know I’m a fan of all women,” Noah said as he moved closer to Rose.

Rose knew that Noah cared for her. If she would allow it, they probably could have had an exciting romance between the two of them, but Rose wasn’t going to allow it. Noah reminded her too much of her late husband, Derek, and she couldn’t have a man around all the time that reminded her of the love she lost.

“Now, now, we are going to be working together starting on Monday. You’ll be my boss. We can’t go breaking any office rules.”

“I’m the boss; I make the rules,” Noah said as he kept his hand around Rose’s waist.

She saw the desire in his eyes. His bright blue eyes had shown desire for her for at least the last year. He wasn’t a jerk trying to steal his friend’s woman or anything, but five years had gone by since Derek’s death, and Noah was still there looking out for Rose. He genuinely cared about her, and she appreciated that, but she wasn’t about to give into some primal desire for Noah. He was too special to her, and they had a great friendship going on between them.

“I’m pretty sure Elaine wears the pants in your partnership.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Noah laughed.

Elaine Wolfe was Noah’s partner at Wolfe and Conley Law Offices. Although Noah had a huge financial stake in the company and wasn’t that bad of a lawyer either, Elaine started the firm and was clearly in charge. It didn’t bother Noah much, though. He and Elaine got along well and worked together seamlessly in running their firm, which had grown into one of the most successful firms in the D.C. area.

Wolfe and Conley employed almost a hundred lawyers and twice as many support staff. They took on all sorts of cases and were very financially stable in a very unstable market. Noah couldn’t have asked for a better business to run, and Rose was lucky to have a job offer from his firm.

Wolfe and Conley had monthly retainers with some of the biggest names on the east coast, including the current President of the United States, Matthew Storm and his wife. Other big name clients throughout the country included Theodore Stern from New York and LeBlanc Industries out of California. Noah had been pivotal in landing most of those clients, and he knew Elaine was appreciative of his friendly approach and ability to get retainers.

“I better get back to my friends and gather my winnings,” Rose said with a witty smile.

“You bet them I’d kiss you didn’t you?”

“Of course, I’m not turning down a free twenty bucks.”

“What if I wouldn’t have kissed you?” he protested.

“Well, we both know that would never have happened.” Rose stood up on her tiptoes and kissed Noah on the cheek before turning to head back to her friends. “I’ll see you tomorrow, boss.”

He just shook his head as Rose walked away. Admittedly, Noah hadn’t thought about the ramifications of being Rose’s boss when he helped her get the first year lawyer position at his office. He had been excited that she would be working with him, and he would get to see her every day. He hadn’t thought about what it would be like to have the woman you lusted after walking around in your office every single day.

“I can’t believe you did that,” Ava exclaimed as Rose returned to her group of friends.

“He’s her new boss,” Elsa said.

“Shit, that’s one smoking new boss. And how’d you get him to kiss you?” Ava asked.

“Long story; let’s get some dancing done.” Rose grabbed her friends and pulled them out onto the dance floor.

She couldn’t help looking over at Noah as she started to move to the music. Noah Conley was a very kind man, and in any other circumstance, Rose would have loved to have been with him, but she wasn’t in any sort of mind to have a boyfriend. Rose liked her fun boy toys but wasn’t interested in anything more. At least she would get to work with Noah though; she would know one person at her new office, and that would help her transition to the new world of working.

But Rose wasn’t sure she was really ready yet for work. She wanted to be ready. Rose wanted something to keep her busy during the days and certainly needed a job and some consistent money coming in, but she wasn’t sure she was ready for the stress of being a first-year lawyer at such a big law firm.

The way Noah looked at her gave Rose the chills as she continued to dance. Not in a weird way, but he had a powerful stare, and she knew he wanted her. If it were any other man, she would have offered to take him home, but not Noah. Nothing would ever happen between her and Noah; it just couldn’t happen. He was a friend and now her boss—Noah Conley could never be more than that.

The alcohol had taken effect, and Rose was ready to dance the rest of the night away. At least on the dance floor she didn’t have to talk to her friends, and she was moving, using up as much energy as she could so she didn’t have to think about her life. She always liked to stay moving to keep her mind from slowing down enough to reflect on her life. Rose hated to think about her own existence, it depressed her.

She had the perfect life before the tragedy hit. She had married her college sweetheart and followed him to Washington D.C. as he started working at a local law firm. Life was good for them. Derek and Rose had been the life of the party throughout the town. Always getting invited to the top parties, never turning down a chance to have fun and travel, Derek was a daredevil and loved to do things that got his adrenaline going. Rose never tried to stop him, but she certainly was nervous to see his great escapades. She hadn’t loved the adrenaline as much as Derek had, but she was starting to understand the appeal of it now that he was gone.

Rose and Derek had traveled to faraway places, jumped out of airplanes, and did other crazy life-defying things. But it wasn’t one of those things that ended Derek’s life; no, it was much more horrible. Derek had simply died from walking across the street and being struck by a driver who wasn’t paying attention. Rose hated the lack of meaning in his death. He hadn’t even been doing something he loved. She couldn’t understand why something so random would happen and take her whole life away from her. That single car had ruined the seventy years she had planned ahead of her.

With Derek gone, Rose couldn’t plan to be a mother. She couldn’t think about growing old with the man of her dreams. Everything she had thought that her life would be was taken away in that single moment of time.

Even five years later, she still couldn’t wrap her brain around the randomness of Derek’s accident. Rose needed explanations, she needed reasons, and she didn’t have any for the death of her husband. There was no rhyme or reason to why Derek died, and that haunted Rose more than him even being gone. If he had died doing something she loved, Rose told herself she would have been okay with it. But by dying in an accident, Derek’s life seemed very unfinished.

Hours and hours went by as the four women took turns dancing and then drinking. This was their norm for a Saturday afternoon, except Rose usually found herself a nice guy to take home with her. She glanced at her watch and noticed it was already after 10 o’clock, and she needed to get home. Bronx should be there waiting for her, and she was eager to play with him.

“Sorry girls, I need to get going,” Rose said as she hugged Elsa.

“It’s that guy from the zip lining isn’t it?”

“What are you talking about?” Rose answered.

“You’re meeting him for drinks or something, aren’t you?”

“Not for drinks.” Rose flashed a wicked grin.

Elsa knew exactly what Rose meant and didn’t push the conversation further. As much as she hated that Rose never talked to her, Elsa didn’t feel like it was her place to judge Rose for the men she brought home. Her friend was hurting, and if being with a man for the night helped with the hurt, Elsa wasn’t going to raise any big objections.

“Well, then you better get going,” Elsa said as she squeezed her friend in an embrace. “You can always come over tomorrow, you know. We are having a picnic with the family.”

“Oh, you know me. I’ll be busy getting ready for the new job.”

“Take care, darling.”

Rose gave the other girls each a hug and made her way out to the front of the club to grab a cab. She felt the energy building as she got in the cab and drove away toward her home. As she got closer to her house, Rose could feel her heart pounding with anticipation. There was no doubt in her mind that Bronx would still be waiting for her, even though it was well past 10 o’clock. When she finally arrived at her apartment, he would be waiting for her; she knew it.

The elevator opened up onto the seventh floor, and Rose saw Bronx sitting in a chair outside of her apartment. He was texting on his cell phone and instantly stopped as Rose walked out of the elevator. His eyes lit up with desire, and he scanned her body from her feet all the way up to her face.

“I thought you forgot about me?” Bronx said with a grin.

“Oh, no. I’ve been thinking about you all night.”

Rose didn’t waste any time. She slid her key into the door and pulled Bronx into her apartment. She grabbed at his shirt and pulled it up and over his head before pausing to admire his firmly built chest. He obviously took the time to work out, but he didn’t look like the kind of guy who worked out at the gym. Perhaps his friends at the zip lining facility let him use the ropes as his workout? But it didn’t matter to Rose—she only had one thing in mind, and his body would do absolutely fine for what she needed him for.

Her hands moved to the button of his pants again, but this time, Bronx let her continue. There was no way he was going to stop what was about to happen with one of the sexiest women he had ever met. He let her unbutton his pants.