Travis gave a slight pump of the fist. Logic Designs had long had interest in working with Dunn Inc, but the logistics of making two firms of their respective size work proved enormously difficult. Travis had waited for months for this to come through—often having to overcome the difficult nature of his lawyers and Logic Designs’ lawyers—and now that it had finally happened, he felt like opening a bottle of whiskey to celebrate.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have it with someone, too.
Like that girl—
Goodness, Travis.
Travis busted out laughing, half in celebration at having achieved the contract, half at his disbelief that he still, even after saying multiple times that he wouldn’t, thought about the barista at that coffee shop. How would he even see her? He could go back, sure, but then that manager would say no. Not that that mattered to Travis, who knew he could persuade his way past the manager. But he worried it might make a bad impression for the lady.
Still, he knew that as long as he thought about her, he would want to see her. And as long as he wanted to see her but chose not to, he would want to see her.
So in that moment, Travis Dunn decided that he would do something he had not thought to do for a woman in years. He would pursue her and he would make a move. He would make her his.
The rest of the day went by smoothly for Travis, who, with his quiet time to himself, had the energy to put on his cool, quiet, tough Marine look for those he had meetings with. He took his time leaving the office, not departing until nearly 8 p.m. What did it matter when he left? He didn’t have a wife and kids, nor a dog at home. He had a giant home to himself, and though he had lots of rooms with lots of different purposes—some of which he couldn’t show even his mother—he didn’t need to go home immediately. It could wait.
When the next day came, he rose eagerly and had a limo driver drop him off at the coffee shop. He requested, though, that the driver wait while he looked inside.
He peered through the glass. He didn’t see that one barista. He saw the guy who had kicked him out, though, and that was enough. He went back to the limo and squatted down.
“Everything all right, sir?” the driver said.
“She probably has off on Tuesdays and Wednesdays,” Travis said. “So we’re going to make this return trip on Thursday.”
Sure enough, when Thursday came, he waltzed up to the coffee shop, entered with a confident look and his full suit and tie, and stood in line.
He did not see that particular barista. But no barista had a three-day weekend, and if she wasn’t there, someone would say something.
It all went well until the man who had kicked him out before walked over.
“Excuse me, sir, weren’t you the man who got into a fight here on Monday?”
Travis had several thoughts about lying. But he knew better than to create a scene, and so he nodded his head slowly. He could see the manager was intimidated but not willing to back down.
“You’ll have to leave then, sir.”
Travis looked around the room. He saw people glancing at him—including the baristas, though they had their eye on him for a very different reason—and knew that if he wanted, he could win this argument.
But he also knew that the element of mystery played in his favor. To just disappear like the wind would create rumors and stories among the staff. So, he knew what to do.
“Very well,” Travis said.
As he left, he smiled at the baristas. He didn’t say a word more.
He didn’t need to.
Ivy’s alarm went off at 6 a.m. on Thursday just as it did every day not named Tuesday or Wednesday. And yet, despite it being her Monday, despite the alarm going off before most of the world awoke, despite not having done anything that productive over her time off, Ivy woke up with a strange feeling.
Excitement.
Ivy put in extra effort the next morning. She had dressed in her most skinny jeans that clung to her legs and made them look longer than they actually were. Her blouse was a thin floral cotton thing with barely-there straps so that she could feel her perfectly brushed strawberry blond locks brushing against her bare arms. She’d put on a light pink lip gloss to match the pink flowers of her blouse. She knew she’d still have to throw her uniform on over the outfit, but she couldn’t help herself.
What if Travis Dunn still returned? What if Travis wanted to make an appearance just for her? A billionaire like himself wouldn’t let himself settle for just any normal girl, let alone a barista. No, he’d want the prettiest, cutest, sexiest lady he could find.
If Ivy could get away with it in her uniform, she could. Yes, more than just Travis—if he even bothered to show up, that was—would lay eyes upon her and have their minds go wild. But that was fine. If anything, it would get her better tips.
But the only tip she wanted was from Travis Dunn, and she wasn’t talking about a few coins or a couple of bills.
When she arrived at the shop, she hummed to herself, another behavior far out of the ordinary for her. Shelly and the others arched their eyebrows at her when she walked into the shop that morning. She just pretended not to notice them, but when she saw her manager giving her wide eyes, she felt like she’d been a bit excessive in her preparation for a rather remote possibility.
She knew she was being silly. What were the chances that Travis Dunn would return to the shop after what happened that Monday? It wasn’t like he would have stayed awake the previous nights fantasizing about her, the way she had done about him. He was probably in someone else’s bed that night, having long forgotten her name. Ivy would never forget Travis, but Travis would easily forget her. He probably wouldn’t even remember the fight—he certainly had worse fights as a Marine.
Despite knowing all that, Ivy remained alert the whole morning. Every time the bell on top of the shop door chimed, she looked up with bright green eyes hoping that it was him. She remained polite with customers and could feel her heart thudding against her chest. At 10 a.m., her manager instructed her to take over barista duties from Shelly, and feeling dejected, Ivy walked over to the other counter.
She decided that if Travis walked in, she would do whatever it took to get to him. Damn her job, she didn’t care about something that paid less than ten bucks an hour. She cared more about getting to be near him. She had enough capital built up with her boss that she could afford to move a little bit slowly every once in a while.
As she swapped places with Shelly, her coworker leaned over and gave her some news that nearly had her quivering in excitement.
“Did you hear he was here again today,” Shelly whispered to her in a low conspiratorial tone.
“Who was here?” Ivy asked, wiping down the faucets of the coffee machine. She hoped—though didn’t necessarily expect—that Shelly was speaking about the one Travis Dunn.
“That hottie from yesterday, you know the one who nearly punched that idiot in the face,” Shelly said with a giggle.
Ivy felt her legs go jelly. She is! She really is!
And wait?!? He was here?!? And we didn’t notice?!?
“He was here? When?” she asked, stopping what she was doing to stare at Shelly.
“Earlier, at eight I think…before we got in anyway,” she said, beginning to walk away to the counter.
No, no, no, this is not happening. This. Is. Not. Happening. Ivy placed a hand on Shelly’s arm, stopping her.
“How do you know this? Are you sure?” she asked, trying to not think about how crazy she must have sounded to Shelly then.
“Yeah, apparently Martin turned him away and told him not to come back here again,” Shelly said, rolling her eyes as Ivy’s stomach sunk. “He’s such a fool!”
Shelly went on her way, leaving Ivy standing there with her throat all choked up. Her manager had turned him away at the door! The one and only Travis Dunn, the richest, most well-liked man in the city—and her manager had barred him from coming?
Why? He hadn’t done anything! Even if Ivy did not have the hots for him, it made no sense for the shop to turn away a man of his caliber.
She wanted to scream but tried to maintain her composure. He had come back! Why had he come back? Did he really enjoy their coffee so much?
Ivy tried to concentrate on the coffee orders that came pouring in, but she couldn’t. All she could think about was that Travis had returned, for some reason, and she wasn’t there to see him.
But if he had come today and gotten turned away, what about the other days?
“Shelly, question,” Ivy said when she got a chance to speak to her coworker. “That guy, you said Martin turned him away today.”
“Worst decision ever?”
“Easily, but that’s not my question. I want to know, did he come in the previous two days? When I was off?”
Shelly shook her head and shrugged.
“Never saw him, never heard anyone talking about him,” Shelly said. “Maybe he had a meeting on Monday and one today and that’s why he tried to come here.”
Ivy would never say it out loud because it sounded so ridiculous, but she had the fantasy that Travis had walked in, saw that she wasn’t there, and turned around. If that was the case, then he really had remembered her. He really had sought her out. It would also make sense about Martin, because he would not have seen him if he’d only scanned the shop from the far back, nor would he have said anything if he’d left right after.
But that was too preposterous to be true. Travis didn’t have time to stalk girls at coffee shops, even if he did have genuine feelings for Ivy. Far more likely, she thought, that it was a mere coincidence that he’d come on the days she was working and not her days off.
Still… Ivy wanted to hope. She wanted to dream. She wanted to believe.
But she couldn’t wait to do any of those things. And so, when she got a lunch break, instead of heading to the sandwich shop next door or going to her car to take a nap, she did something that she swore she would never do when she started the job. She did something that seemed preposterous and almost stalkerish. She did something that she knew sounded crazy but she would regret if she didn’t try to do it.
She went to find Travis Dunn herself.
When she got off her shift, she hurried to the closet to store her uniform. Shelly, seeing her move so quickly, looked at her askance.
“What’s got you moving so quickly, girl?” she said.
Ivy tried to ignore her, but she made the mistake of making eye contact with her coworker. She faked a smile—a skill she’d gotten better at through the months—and shrugged.
“I’ve got plans with someone for lunch.”
“Someone, huh? That’s awfully vague,” Shelly said, playfully accusing Ivy. “Who is it? The hot guy?”
Ivy froze and prayed that her reaction had not given away her plans. She could tell that Shelly was joking—she didn’t even have to think about it to do it—but damn, that had hit too close to home.
“No, it’s just my mom,” Ivy lied. “She’s in town and she wants to hang out as long as possible. So, you know, gotta move quickly.”
“Oh,” Shelly said, somewhat disappointed. “I was hoping it was the hot guy.”
“You think that would’ve happened?” Ivy said.
She’d started out saying that to deflect attention away from it. Now that she had said it, though, she was more curious about if Shelly thought it had any potential.
“I mean, he did look at you like he wanted to sleep with you.”
“Shelly!”
“What? He did!”
Ivy found that a bit preposterous, although the way he had glanced at her…
No, no, no, she thought. Travis Dunn was a gentleman. He wasn’t like the rest of the guys who catcalled her or said terribly awkward things to her. Maybe he did want to sleep with her, but only after a long period of dating and true romance. Not on the spot.
“That’s crazy,” Ivy said, even as the doubt in her mind crept up.
“I don’t think so,” Shelly said. “Anyways, if you do see him, you should try. I think he had the hots for you.”
“We’ll see,” Ivy said as she began to move away.
Shelly’s words hadn’t changed anything. If anything, it had made things feel a bit more awkward. Now Ivy began to feel a bit crazy for what she was doing. Wasn’t this the definition of being a stalker?
But on the other hand, if Travis did want Ivy… who knew? Maybe something would happen. Maybe she’d have to push back a bit, but maybe in doing so, it would lead to something.
“We’ll see.”
Finding Travis’ office building proved to be the least difficult part for Ivy. It was a massive forty-storied structure in the middle of the city, made entirely of glass. Compared to the buildings around it, it looked like a modern table set in an antique furniture store.
Very modern, clean and classy. Just like him, she thought. It had his company name, Dunn Inc., blazoned in big gold lettering on the side of the building and Ivy stood staring up at it for a few moments, in front of the automatic glass entrance doors.
I’m really doing this. I’m doing this for a man I met once. A man who helped me, yes, a handsome man, yes, a man who would change so much of my life, but…
Nope. Gotta do it. Gotta see what might happen. Gotta go in.
Sucking her gut in, with her hands shaking slightly as she held on to a coffee cup, she entered the building. Immediately, she felt out of place in her barista’s outfit.
The lobby was immaculately shiny, with smooth dark marble floors and people walking around in hushed whispers and dressed professionally. A woman with a tight bun behind her head was sitting at the reception desk and Ivy walked towards her, aware of the sound her kitten heels made on the marble floor. She felt embarrassed, but if she’d come this far, Ivy knew she wasn’t about to stop here. Maybe she’d get laughed out, but at least she would have tried.
And who knew? Maybe word would spread to the higher levels of the office. Maybe Travis, upon hearing the tale of the crazed barista who came to visit, would make an appearance back at her shop.
“Hi,” Ivy said and the receptionist looked up at her with the most delightfully pleasant smile on her face.
Ivy made a mental note to practice that smile on her own customers. There was no way this receptionist truly felt happy to see her, but that’s why Ivy supposed she was at her desk making far more money at a far nicer place than she was at her coffee shop.
“How can I help you, madam?” the woman asked. She looked down at Ivy’s casual attire, but didn’t present a judgmental expression.
Ivy grew even more self-conscious of what she was wearing but tried to hide it with her best smile. She had a feeling her smile did not match the receptionist’s.
“I was wondering if Mr. Dunn was around,” she said, trying to sound casual and relaxed.
The woman’s neatly shaped eyebrows arched up and her smile widened. She looked on the verge of laughing. Ivy tried to maintain her expression, but she began to feel her face go hot.
“Mr. Travis Dunn? You’re wondering if he’s around?” she asked, with a tone of disbelief entering her voice.
How stupid could I be? How badly could I have phrased that question?
“Yeah, it’s no biggie if he’s not. I just had something to give him,” Ivy said as she tucked in a few strands of stray hair behind her ears.
She had already realized that this was a bad decision. The woman was now literally laughing at her. Surely, within moments, everyone else in the lobby would turn and laugh at the coffee girl who wanted to know if Travis Dunn “was around.”
“Well, he owns this building and works here, so he’s usually around,” the receptionist said and adjusted her expression now so that Ivy could see that the woman was clearly judging her. Nor could Ivy blame her. Well, she said so, so might as well continue on.
“Okay, great, do you think I could—”
“Ivy Zimmerman.”
Travis’ unmistakable, masculine voice cut through the din of the lobby and their conversation and twirled Ivy around. He had said her name like it was the most natural thing for him to say.
She whipped around, spilling some of the hot coffee from the cup on the polished marble floor. Travis looked down at the spillage and then back at her without any concern on his face. He had that same grin on his face and a hand tucked into the pocket of his blue pinstripe suit. It was sharply tailored to mold to his muscular athletic frame. His tie was a cherry red today and Ivy couldn’t drag her gaze away from how polished he looked.
But more than that, she couldn’t believe that a man who knew as many people and had as many duties as Travis Dunn had not only remembered her, he’d remembered her full name even though she’d only said it in the most hasty of fashions.
“Sir, I wasn’t sure where to send her,” the receptionist’s voice erupted from behind her, but neither of them acknowledged her presence. Ivy had Travis, and Travis had his focus—neither of them needed anything else.
“Hi…I…,” Ivy began. She cleared her throat. Speak clearly and slowly. Better too slow than stumbling over your words. “I thought I’d bring by your coffee. I wasn’t in the past couple of days so I wanted to make sure you got it, since you helped me and all.”
Travis’ sparkling blue eyes fell on the coffee in her hand and then he gazed at her body, just the way he had done the previous day. Ivy had no idea why he had that effect on her where he could get away with it, but she wasn’t one to ponder such a question with him physically in front of her.
“That is very kind of you,” he said and reached for the cup, taking it without question.
When he did that, it reminded her of what Shelly had said—how their manager had made the dumbest decision of his life.
“I’m sorry that my manager sent you away,” Ivy said, her heart pounding so fast she felt sure she could hear it. “I felt bad that you were denied your daily dose because of standing up to a bully on Monday. That was dumb of him. You shouldn’t have been punished like that for being a hero.’
Travis took a sip of his coffee and then smacked his lips as though he was very pleased. It bordered on smug, but for now, Ivy found it rather confident.
“I went elsewhere for my coffee,” he said and suddenly Ivy felt very foolish. “But I was just going out to grab myself another one, so you’re just on time. I suppose you could say that you were rather helpful here and I thank you for that.”
“You’re welcome,” Ivy said.
She couldn’t think of anything else to say, any other excuse to keep standing there and staring at him. She thought of all of the workplace duties Travis had to fulfill, all the meetings he had to make, all of the places he had to go. And she had the audacity to stand there and take up his time?
No, she had to go. Plus, her lunch break would end sooner rather than later. She couldn’t miss that.
“I guess I should leave now,” she said, and then she forgot her rule for speaking slowly. “I, uh, you have a nice day.”
She avoided his gaze and brushed past him, breathing in the whiff of expensive cologne he was wearing. She could feel the receptionist’s eyes boring down on her. At least she had given Travis and his company some nice office gossip. She could easily imagine the gossip now, the mean nicknames they would give her for her move.
Then she heard words that stopped her in her tracks, words so unreal that they made her forget she had to go back to the coffee shop.
“I’d like to show you my office,” he said. “Come with me.”
When Ivy turned, she saw him already departing for the elevators. Turning on her heels, with her skin tingling with excitement, Ivy followed him towards the glass capsule elevator that was waiting for him at the end of the lobby. It seemed to be for his private use only since other people seemed to pass it by. In fact, a lone security guard stood outside the elevator, making it even more plausible this was a private elevator.
The guard pinged the door open and Travis stretched his arm out, indicating for her to step in before him. She gulped, having never had luxury even approaching this level of quality. What had she done to deserve this? Don’t blow it. Don’t complain. Just go with it. See what happens.
She did as he commanded and then he entered, filling the small space with the intoxicating, heady scent of his cologne. He had to say nothing, and the guard pressed the button for the fortieth floor and the elevator zoomed up smoothly.
Ivy tried to hold herself together, not look at him as often as she wanted to, but she could sense that he was looking at her. And she had her suspicions that he was undressing her much as he had with previous gazes.
“Are you on a break at the moment?” he asked, cutting through the silence.
She was forced to look up at him now, and she had to clear her throat before she spoke. His eyes had a fierceness to them that sent a shiver down her spine. It was like that of a lion seeing prey. It aroused her.
“Yes, I am,” she said.
“So we won’t have much time together then,” he said as the elevator came to a sudden halt.
She wasn’t sure what he meant by that but decided that he was just being polite. Perhaps he said it as a mental note to himself to show her his office quickly and get her on her way. That made the most sense.
It was amazing enough that he even remembered her name—her full name. He didn’t have to. There was a strong chance that Travis would never have seen her again, and even if he had, he had no reason to remember it.
But then again, Travis Dunn was notorious in the press and in the city for his shrewd business acumen and impeccable people skills. Remembering people’s names was part of what made him this successful, she figured. It diminished the special feelings she had, but not so much as to eliminate them.
Travis led the way into his penthouse-styled office, at least three times the size of her entire apartment. Made entirely of glass and decorated to the most sophisticated minimal standards, the room welcomed Ivy as she walked in behind him, afraid of making any swift movements that might break something expensive. She had a feeling that any single piece of furniture might cost more than her annual salary.
A solid piece of oak made up his enormous desk, which he was now walking towards. She paused at the entrance of the office, unsure of what to do. Frankly, she felt so out of place that she wouldn’t do anything until commanded to.
“This is beautiful. I can’t imagine working in a place like this,” Ivy managed to say.
Travis turned to face her again, leaning against his desk and with his arms folded over his chest. He looked like such a quintessential executive and founder in that moment that Ivy figured he was posing for a secret cameraman for a magazine coffee.
“The work you do isn’t affected by how expensive your table lamp is,” he said in a deep wise voice and their gazes locked again. “This is just a nice side effect of the work I’ve done so far in my life.”
Ivy nodded, but she paid little attention to the words he spoke She felt a shiver run down her spine because he was looking at her with those same dangerously blue eyes. And as he did, she remembered all the research that she had sworn not to do but wound up doing anyways over the past few days.
He was older than her, by fifteen years; she had looked up his exact age. This was not his first business; she had searched for his online profiles. And she was not his first woman; she had seen that in the tabloids. Despite that, though, he had that air of maturity and wisdom. From the comfort he exuded being in his own skin to his confidence in his looks and the effect he had on people; Travis Dunn knew exactly what he was doing.
And Ivy was just along for the ride. And it was a ride she could not afford.
“I wish I could agree with you, but I don’t feel like I’m maximizing my capabilities in a coffee shop,” Ivy said, with a grin on her face which he didn’t return, leaving her feeling a bit heavy. “I only wish I could have the talent to someday have a room like that.”
The atmosphere in the room had suddenly become very serious. It was like he was thinking about something like he was searching her face for some kind of answer. The heat of the moment became less about excitement and more about a sense of pressure she could not place.
“I don’t know you well enough to comment on your talents,” he said flatly, in a voice that nearly sounded enraged.
Ivy licked her lips, feeling slightly offended. She could see on Travis’ face that she was wasting his time. Had he thought she would pitch some skills to her? Too late now.
“I’m sorry for coming here like this, to your place of work,” Ivy said, her voice becoming weaker. “This was a mistake. I didn’t mean to take up your time like this.”
She couldn’t figure him out and as attracted as she was to him, she realized that she knew nothing about him other than what the tabloids print. She had made an insane, if not dangerous, move not on a man, but on a reputation. And now, seeing the man before her, she realized she had erred.
He held her gaze for a few moments longer and then took a few steps towards her. Ivy could feel her fingers quivering and she clasped them together in an attempt to stop them from shaking. She looked back to the elevator. Even if she wanted to leave, it would take a minute for the elevator to get her down.
“It wasn’t a mistake. I appreciate your thoughtfulness, I liked your coffee yesterday. In fact, I loved it,” he said.
He stepped even closer to her. She got the feeling that those were just words, which he didn’t actually mean. He had said them rather dryly, and his actions spoke much louder to her.
However, she couldn’t forget that she had spent the whole night fantasizing about him, and now she was alone in a room with him. In his office! Where could this go? Where would this lead to?
“Thanks,” she said flatly.
And then he smirked and removed his suit. He looked like he was ready to make a bold statement.
And boy, did he ever.
“Since we don’t have much time to waste, I suggest that you start taking off your clothes now.”
Ivy’s lips parted and her eyebrows creased in confusion. She was more shocked than offended by what she had just heard him say. It hadn’t even crossed her mind that someone could speak like this. Did he… he wants me naked? Wait, here? Now?
“You look surprised. Isn’t this why you’re here?”
He was absolutely serious.
“Excuse me?” Ivy blurted out, but Travis had stepped closer to her with his blue eyes focused on her face, searching her eyes. He looked like he was peering into his soul, and now Ivy didn’t feel aroused—she felt nervous.
“Nobody is this grateful,” he said. “You had a reason for coming here.”
Now that he was just an inch away from her, he lowered his face.
Ivy still had to crane her neck to look up at him, and when she did she could see the fire in his gaze. A burning that looked dangerous and alluring at the same time. Her throat felt dry. She licked her lips and tried to shake her head. But the truth was, even as she felt nervous, she didn’t want to truly leave. She felt locked into place, but they weren’t chains she wanted to escape.
“The coffee is a good excuse,” he said, his voice dropping even lower. “But we both know why you’re really here. We know what made you come so you could come.”
Ivy breathed in sharply, transfixed by his gaze, by what was happening. It was like one of her fantasies from the previous night was actually playing out. And now that it was, she didn’t know how to handle it.
“So I suggest,” he said and placed a hand on her shoulder, using his thumb to slide the strap of her blouse down her arm. She’d never had this before—and it left her shivering. “That you start taking your clothes off now.”
The strap slid down to her elbow. Ivy couldn’t move. Ivy couldn’t think to move.
She could feel the goosebumps on her skin. The back of her neck had become burning hot. There were knots tightening in her belly that she had no control over. She wanted this man from the first moment she laid eyes on him, but she had never done anything like this before. The moment of truth had come, and she had just turned into a shaky mess.
Without another word, he continued to slide down the other strap which now revealed her black lace covered breasts to him. He stepped back like he wanted to look at her breasts in admiration and she saw the hungry expression on his face, like he was a hunter who had caught his prey. Goosebumps puckered her skin and she could feel a wetness growing between her legs. Travis breathed in deeply, and after he was done admiring her breasts, he stepped forward again.
“We both want the same thing, Ivy, and I don’t have time to waste on games,” he said and then with his left hand, he reached for her left breast. “So, you’re going to do as I say before we have to return to reality.”
Ivy gasped when his warm large hand cupped her breast and he squeezed. With his thumb, he sought out her erect sensitive nipple which was trying to burst out through the lace of her bra. He flicked it expertly and the wetness between her legs grew. His touch was setting her body on fire and she felt like she was in some sort of trance. Travis… oh that feels so good… so good…
“Good girl,” he said, in a commanding deep voice.
He pulled her blouse down to her waist. Ivy shivered. Placing his hands on her bare torso, he drew her closer to himself so that she landed with a thud on his wide solid chest. Ivy gasped again. Their faces were barely an inch apart. His lips grazed hers and his warm breath fell on the locks of her hair that had fallen over her face. She was breathing harsh, dazed and in shock to the way her body was reacting to him. She may not have admitted to needing Travis, but her body had no shame in craving him.
Without warning, Travis slipped his hand down her jeans and she gasped again as his fingers reached closer and closer to where no one had gone before.
“I’m giving you what you want, Ivy,” he grumbled under his breath as he brought his face even closer to her and she felt his fingers slide down to her throbbing wet mound. “This is why you came here. Yes, yes, good girl, Ivy.”
No man had ever come this close to her pussy before. First base was as far as she’d gone with anyone, and now this stranger, this fantasy man from her dreams, this billionaire entrepreneurial Marine had his hand down her jeans! Her mind was swirling with arousal and confusion and desire for Travis. Her breathing quickened when his fingers gently parted her folds.
He was good at this, he knew exactly what to do with his fingers. He was stroking her sensitive clit gently, rubbing it and bringing her right to the brink of an orgasm. He had a method to what he did, and she knew she should’ve expected nothing less.
She had her hands on his shoulders, clinging to him for support and with her breasts heaving and her body quivering, she felt herself hurtling violently towards an orgasm she hadn’t expected. No, I… I hadn’t come for this… not like this… but oh, God…
“This isn’t why I’m here,” she managed to squeal, unconvincingly weakly.
In her fantasies, it had developed more slowly. It had felt more intimate, more romantic. It had not felt so… straight sexual. As soon as she said it, she knew she didn’t mean it. She knew the truth.
But Travis had heard it nonetheless.
His fingers stopped stroking her clit and, with the moment having been paused, she took the opportunity to wriggle out of his grip. His hand slid out of her jeans and Ivy stepped away from him, pulling her blouse up and sliding the straps back into place.
She was still aroused, the wetness between her legs was still there…but now she had recovered some of her senses. Enough for her to see more clearly. Enough to see that her fantasy had not gone as she had hoped. Enough to see that she had rushed headlong into a bad spot, and it might have cost her any long-term hope with Travis.
Travis remained standing where he was, with his brows crossed and his eyes narrowed. She could see the stormy darkness on his face and the way he was glaring at her. He did not look like the kind of man who got told no often—and now that he had, he didn’t look like he enjoyed it too much.
“I told you, Ivy, I don’t have time for games. I’m a busy man,” he said in a voice she was sure he used on his employees all the time. Professional, but scolding all the same.
Ivy shook her head and tried to compose herself as best she could. She could still feel his hand on her pussy, where his fingers had been stroking her. She couldn’t lie, she wanted his fingers back there, the better to finish the job and do what no one had ever done to her before.
“This is not a game to me,” she said. Slowly, her voice gained strength. “This is not why I’m here.”
Travis straightened his neck and then folded his arms over his chest. He didn’t look like he was about to respond to that, for he didn’t look like he believed her. Even a voice inside Ivy’s head said that she didn’t believe him.
“I did genuinely want to bring you coffee and okay, I’ll admit it, I was intrigued by you…but this is not what I’m here for!” she said as she placed a hand on her mouth to hide the quivering of her lips.
Maybe it could have led to this. Maybe, no, I had hoped it would lead to this, if I’m honest. But not like this. Not this quickly. Not this… lacking romance.
Travis clenched his jaw and then looked away from her, out of one of the windows that overlooked the city skyline. Then he nodded his head gently, a rather accepting look on his face.
“You’re telling me that you didn’t fantasize about this happening?” he asked and looked back at her, fixing his fiery stubborn gaze on her again.
He didn’t look like he would fight for her, but he would fight for the truth. Ivy could do nothing but gulp and he nodded his head again.
“That’s what I thought,” he said and then turning from her, he walked back to his desk, taking a seat.
She remained standing where she was, with her shoulders heaving and her mouth hanging open. He had walked around his desk and was now beginning to sit down on his luxurious leather swivel chair, while Ivy had no idea what she was expected to do next. Clearly, he just wanted her to leave. She wanted to leave.
But not without letting Travis realize what he’d done.
“You’ve misjudged me,” she said.
She watched as he slipped open a case and took out a pair of spectacles. They were on thin silver frames and had square glasses. He took his time to place them in position. Now he had an even more serious and authoritative look, the glasses matured him by at least five years. He carried himself deliberately, excruciatingly slowly.
Ivy gulped again, for she was still painfully attracted to him. Every move he made was like a sexual act. He could have coughed, and it would have seemed hot somehow. Ivy hated it.
“How have I misjudged you, Ivy? Enlighten me,” he said and she stuck her chin up in the air proudly.
She hadn’t come with a speech prepared so she had to think fast on her feet. With the aura of Travis removed, she found her ability to speak freely and quickly.
“Well, maybe you’re accustomed to a certain kind of woman, but I’m not like them,” she said. “I came here because I was curious about you, and all right, I’ll admit that I’m attracted to you.”
A grin appeared on Travis’ face, though nothing followed that expressed any empathy for Ivy. He had pulled a file close to him and flipped it open. His eyes had begun scanning the page like he was already disinterested in what she had to say. Ivy felt foolish standing in front of him like that, trying to explain to him why she didn’t want to sleep with him. The truth was that was all she wanted, that was all she had been thinking about since she first saw him, and that was, perhaps subconsciously, all she had wanted when she came over to his office.
“But I didn’t…I don’t…” she said, fumbling with her words again.
Travis looked up from his file at her, with his eyes narrowed on her face again. The expression on his face was somewhat resigned, but his words soon dispelled resignation.
“You were looking forward to the whole song and dance,” he said in an unexpectedly harsh voice. “The flowers, the champagne, the chocolates, the fancy dinner, the materialistic seduction that goes with these things. I’ve seen this game before from many a woman, Ivy, and if you think I was just going to give it to you, you’re mistaken.”
There was venom dripping from his voice and Ivy’s hands had begun to shake with anger. She knew that her cheeks were flushed, she could feel her skin tightening with rage. She lifted her chin up in the air even more and tried to make her voice sound as rigid as possible. She couldn’t compete with Travis in a lot of areas, but she could in elements of the truth.
“I had no expectations,” she said flatly, causing Travis to shake his head before pulling the glasses off his face again.
He was looking up at her with a vicious smile on his face. He looked like he enjoyed this verbal sparring.
“Are you one of those girls who has a three date rule or something? Three dates before you sleep with me?”
Ivy couldn’t remember the last time she was this angry and embarrassed at the same time. He had quickly gone from being irresistibly charming to a venomous man with preconceived notions about her. And there was nothing Ivy could do about it.
So she resorted to dismissing him.
“I feel sorry for you,” she said with a sudden calm descending on her.
She had no idea where the words had come from, for it was like she was having an out-of-body experience. Travis squinted his eyes and his lips were pursed together. The smile was gone from his face. Suddenly, Ivy realized that she had struck a nerve with Travis.
“Oh yeah?” he said.
“You’re such a busy man, your human interaction is limited to quickies in your office with strangers. That is what you’ve come to expect from your life. You don’t think anything else could possibly exist. I feel sorry for how low your self-esteem must be.”
Ivy had landed an irreparable blow, she knew. But she had no reason not to lob it, not when Travis Dunn had thought he could literally just walk up to her and start fingering her.
Ivy turned on her heels, forcing herself to walk deliberately towards the elevator door.
She heard Travis’ chair creak, and she didn’t have to turn to see that he had stood up from his chair. But he didn’t say anything. She had left him speechless, and for how he had acted when things went awry for her, that counted as a win.
She got on the elevator, turned, and saw Travis staring at her. To her surprise, there was a hint of sorrow on his face.
But it was too late.
“Bye, Travis,” she said as the doors shut.
Ivy watched as the lights came on for every floor that they passed. Keeping her head up, she walked across the lobby, aware of the stare that the receptionist was giving her. I’ll never see her again. It doesn’t matter what she thinks. I stood up to her boss and maybe even taught him a lesson.
Out of the building and onto the city streets, having regained her place back in reality, Ivy sighed loudly. She wasn’t even sure how long she had been holding her breath. She knew she’d been holding on to her fantasy for far longer than she should have. At least she had escaped largely without incident.
When she checked her wristwatch, she saw that she was already ten minutes late for work from her lunch break. Strangely, though, she felt no urgent panic. Perhaps it was the intensity of what had just happened or just the knowledge that nothing her manager would do would make her feel guilty, but the nervousness she expected to feel being late never came.
Ivy walked her way back to the coffee shop. Her cheeks were burning up and they stung with every gentle breeze that blew into her face. She couldn’t believe what had just happened, but she was blaming herself. None of this would have happened, she wouldn’t have been embarrassed like this if she hadn’t foolishly gone to his office to deliver a coffee that he hadn’t even ordered. If she had known better, if she had acted her age, if she had realized the ridiculousness of her plan…
Ivy knew Travis was right. That was exactly what she wanted. She hadn’t even acknowledged that she had gone to his office for that very reason. She wanted to see him again, watched him as he looked at her body, be near him… but she couldn’t go through with it, even though now it seemed plain as day her reason for going.
This was not how she had pictured losing her virginity. She had held out for so long so that she could sleep with the right man, and Travis Dunn was very far from being the right man for her. And even if he was, she certainly wasn’t going to lose it in his office on some fancy desk or chair.
He didn’t deserve her virginity, she tried to convince herself. He was an arrogant man, he was in the business of taking what he wanted and Ivy’s virginity was precious to her. A quickie in that man’s office was not going to be the best idea for experiencing sex for the first time and she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life regretting it.
But the thought didn’t settle as well as Ivy would have liked.
Travis sat dumbfounded in his office.
No one had spoken to him like that in ages, possibly ever.
And for that matter, he couldn’t have argued with it. He probably deserved it, because he couldn’t remember the last time he acted that aggressively in what felt like years.
Something about Ivy Zimmerman had just compelled him to make a move, and he felt certain that she had come there to have sex with him. All of the signs pointed to that as the inevitable conclusion, anyways. She had stalked his office. She’d brought him coffee on her break. She’d worn an outfit that was about as revealing as one could get while working a job. If that hadn’t said that Ivy wanted sex, then Travis didn’t know what did.
She was naive or presumptuous, but she didn’t seem like either of those for how boldly and aggressively she had come at Travis. She had no fear of his status which, in some ways, made Travis like her even more. The number of women who threw themselves at him on the basis of his bank account or his name had grown old. They knew of Travis Dunn. But did they know the man behind the name Travis Dunn?
Sadly, for Travis, the answer for most of his adult life was no. There was one, but…
He shook his head as he deflected the thought that accompanied that. He shifted his focus instead to trying to figure out why he had acted the way he had.
He prayed, first, that Ivy didn’t go to the press and tell them what had happened. He knew with his reputation, even though it was greatly exaggerated in the headlines, that he would never get a fair pass—not that he believed he deserved one for his actions.
Yes, he had acted too brashly and too boldly. As a result, he’d lost her.
And yet there he stood, trying to figure out why he still wanted her.
What did Travis want? He spent much of his post-lunch break figuring that question out. Ever since that dark day many years ago, Travis had refused to even entertain the idea of a romantic relationship with anyone. To get that close, to open himself up, would also open up scars that he’d worked so hard to sew up. He didn’t need to revisit those, not when everything else in his life was going as perfectly as it was.
But, then again, he wanted more than sex. That much was evident by the fact that he still wanted Ivy. It wouldn’t surprise him if, by the time he left work, his receptionist in the lobby had gently steered away three or four women who claimed to have an important meeting with him. If all he wanted was sex, he could’ve easily collected their numbers, contacted them, and then taken them to his special room in his house.
He had to admit, the thought of using that room made his skin crawl with excitement. He hadn’t used that room in years, but the potential it held made it feel like a tragic waste that it hadn’t been used in over three dozen months.
In the end, though, he couldn’t lie to himself, no matter how much he wanted to believe otherwise. To say he just wanted sex would leave him feeling hollow in the end. Ivy just had a captivating grasp on his mind, even if it meant risking tearing open the old wounds of the past.
Might as well try and see what happens. I can always duck out if it gets too painful. She can always say no after what happened.
Travis knew not only could she say no, though, she was likely to say no. He had to go for the plan of all plans to impress her and win her over. He hated using his money on women, but for this one, he was more than willing to make an exception.
His work pushed to the side, he first looked up the coffee shop address. That was easy enough. Once he had that, he went shopping online for a nice, sexy dress for Ivy to wear. He knew quite a bit about men’s fashion, and while that didn’t translate perfectly to women’s clothing, it gave him enough knowledge to not pick something ridiculous. He also had to guess her size, but he had felt her body so closely and observed her so finely that he could narrow it down to one of two sizes. He chose the smaller of the sizes, deciding Ivy would look much more attractive in a tight dress than in one that didn’t perfectly conform to her.
When he got to check out, he paused. He had the option to write a gift note, and he knew he had to do that. But the note that he would leave would involve him admitting to the last step of his plan—a step that might make him look a tad creepy, but one that, in his position, he felt he had to execute. The risk to Travis was minimal. The money he spent, he would make in the time it took for him to shop for the clothing. He already figured he had probably lost Ivy, so what was the harm in trying something ballsy to get her back?
He wrote the note and made it concise and to the point. Within the first couple of lines, he’d already established what he planned to do with her. If this didn’t work, then Travis knew that he had done all that he could. Yes, he could try more roundabout methods of reaching her, but if there was one thing he’d learned repeatedly in the Marines, it was that the shortest path between two points was a straight line. He could try some flanking, but that wasn’t his style anyways. Better to use the direct option.
When he finished, he clicked to have it delivered next day air. He checked out, not even knowing what the actual price was, and leaned back when he got the email confirmation.
From there, Travis had but one task to do. He went through a public database, got the information he needed, and called his limo driver.
“I have a job for you tomorrow night at 9 p.m.,” he said.
The driver agreed and Travis put the phone down. The rest of the day went by like a blur, because Travis had now done all that he needed to do and could do in his office. If it didn’t work out, he had gone down swinging.
As the day came to a close, though, he decided to make one last appearance at the coffee shop. He didn’t have any intentions on having a long, drawn out conversation. In fact, he didn’t really plan on speaking to Ivy at all. He just wanted to see her, smile, and walk away. Let him remind her of his presence.
When he got to the outside of the coffee shop, he tried to peer inside. He saw one girl with blond streaks in her hair wiping down tables, but he couldn’t say for sure if it was Ivy. The girl looked up and stared at him, but it didn’t look like the kind of stare that Ivy would have given. She looked at something else, Travis shrugged, and he went on with his way.
He’d done what he needed to do. If that was indeed Ivy, then she would have her mind run wild with questions about if she’d actually seen him. If it wasn’t Ivy, well, he had a rep at that coffee house now. Word would get around.
And now, as Travis headed home, he had but one last task to do.
He had to plan the date to end all dates, the greatest date anyone had ever had.
When Ivy got back to work, she saw that she had made it with literally seconds to spare. And, truth be told, she probably would be late anyways since work required her to be in uniform and ready to take orders as soon as she got back.
Fortunately, the manager was nowhere to be seen at that particular moment, and when Ivy punched back in for work, her boss would be none the wiser that she spent the first few minutes gathering herself.
And boy, did she need that time. After what had happened with Travis, Ivy had hoped that a walk home would relieve some of the disgust and confusion that she felt, but it only seemed to heighten it. Distance and time blurred her memory of what had happened, painting it with a coat of hopefulness she knew it didn’t deserve.
Her pondering of the instance drew the attention of Shelly, who noticed that she wasn’t herself.
“Lunch with Mom must’ve been rough, huh?”
Ivy didn’t understand what the hell Shelly was talking about, so at first, she just gawked at her. She had a bit of nastiness to her that she tried not to display, but it was as inevitable as having to deal with rude customers on a daily basis.
“Oh, right,” Ivy said. “Yeah, not great.”
Shelly gave her a look that suggested she didn’t believe what Ivy had said, and why should she? Ivy knew she had lied, and Shelly probably knew that Ivy had lied. If Shelly called her out on it, well, it wouldn’t even be the worst thing that had happened that hour.
“How so?” Shelly asked, switching from inquisitive to polite.
But Ivy wanted nothing of it. She just wanted to stew, finish her shift, and get the hell home.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said.
She brushed past Shelly and moved to the cashier. A woman approached.
“Coffee, all black, please,” she said in a screechy voice.
The voice annoyed Ivy, who didn’t bother to add her fake smile. She knew that she was in no place to take customer orders, and fortunately for her, there was not a line behind the woman. She rung up the woman, saying “thank you” in the most insincere manner when she’d finished, and approached Shelly.
“Switch spots?” Ivy asked.
She did so in a way that didn’t leave much room to argue. And in some ways, Ivy figured she was doing Shelly a favor. Shelly could now get tips, something Ivy wouldn’t do as the actual coffee maker.
“Sure,” Shelly said, surprised and also a bit off-put by the request. “Seriously, Ivy, are you OK?”
“Yes, I’m fine,” Ivy said, her voice dragging out a bit.
She quickly switched, made the woman her black coffee, and put it on the counter, announcing the drink as dryly as she could. She just was grateful that Martin was nowhere to be seen—she didn’t need lectures on top of disappointment for the day.
A lull hit after the woman got her black coffee, and Ivy stewed. She sat on a stool in the back instead of cleaning the back counter, as management expected her to do during periods of inactivity. Shelly picked up a towel, but Ivy didn’t do anything.
Finally, Shelly approached.
“I just want to make sure—”
“Shelly, really, it’s OK,” Ivy said. “It’s not great, but I don’t want to talk about it. If you do, save it until tomorrow, OK?”
Shelly looked hurt, and Ivy regretted coming across so strongly. She tried to make a sympathetic face and said sorry. Shelly nodded in appreciation, but Ivy could see she had accomplished her goal in an unfortunate fashion—she’d gotten her coworker off her back, but only in a way that put a strain on their relationship.
Shelly went back to cleaning as Ivy joined in, but neither girl said a word. Ivy, instead, spent the next few minutes wondering if she’d met the real Travis Dunn just within the last hour.
Of course, she knew that the man who had gone up to his office with her was Travis Dunn, CEO of Dunn Inc and US Marine and all that sexy jazz. She knew that the man she had seen was handsome because he was hot, not because of some weird props or clothing or whatever.
But she still couldn’t help but wonder if she’d seen the full Travis Dunn. It seemed impossible for how short of a visit she had, but that didn’t mean that Travis had more protective layers of sorts than anyone would for a meeting like that. He was unusually distant, cold, and removed from the scene. He spoke without passion or enthusiasm, although he did speak with certainty and clarity that was rather attractive.
But still, some spark that most men had was missing. She wondered if something had happened during war time that had gotten to Travis. Maybe that explained his aggression?
Ivy tried to consider some other possibilities. Perhaps a woman had burned him in the past. Perhaps his mother had treated him poorly, or maybe his father. Maybe he was just so driven and so confident as a man that he couldn’t help but carry that cool edge around him. Perhaps he just had women throwing themselves at him with such ease that it was only natural for him to act as he did.
Nothing, though, made complete sense. Some of it had a logical trail of evidence, but nothing felt conclusive. There was something to him that went beyond the sexual aggressiveness and the charisma—Ivy just wished she knew what.
Of course, with the way her encounter at the office had gone, she probably never would find out. Her best chances of seeing Travis ever again were on the streets at night, and given her utter lack of social life, that seemed less likely than if she just went to his offices and demanded to see him until he came down.
“Ivy Zimmerman.”
Ivy’s veins froze as she heard a male’s voice call to her. Except it wasn’t a voice of a man she wanted to see.
It was Martin, her manager, coming.
Martin was a plump man with a thick beard that probably hadn’t gotten shaved in years. He apparently had once served as a bouncer at a nightclub, which explained his lack of fear in breaking up fights, but his size at least prevented Ivy from ever fantasizing about him as she did about Travis Dunn. While Martin wasn’t a terrible manager, these encounters happened with enough frequency that they never left a good taste in Ivy’s mouth.
“Can I speak to you for a moment?”
Ivy nodded, but fear began to run through her. Had Shelly said something? Did he actually see her clocking back in and then not working immediately? What had transpired to prevent her from just having a normal rest of her shift?
She approached Martin, who gestured for her to sit at a nearby table. She did so and plopped down, waiting for Martin to clear his throat. Martin folded his hands, sighed, and shrugged.
“You look like you’ve had the worst lunch break of your life,” he said.
Ivy shrugged back, trying not to roll her eyes.
“It wasn’t great,” she said.
“We all have those,” Martin said, which Ivy nodded to. Silently, though, she vehemently disagreed. She couldn’t imagine Martin meeting a girl on his lunch break, getting seduced into nearly having sex, and then being ostracized as a result. “Listen, I don’t need to know what happened. If it’s an emergency, you can go. But if it’s not, I would ask you to please stay focused on your work. You haven’t been cleaning or organizing the store at all, and it’s bothering me. I don’t like to see unproductive employees.”
“I know,” Ivy said. She had turned into the stock employee giving stock answers. “I’m sorry, sir. I will remain a focused employee and do things the right way.”
“Good,” Martin said. “Then get back at it.”
Ivy nodded and quickly rose. As far as meetings went with management, it was about as merciful and relaxed as she could get.
Still, she knew that Shelly had seen it. She knew that customers had seen it. And while she didn’t particularly care that they had, it did reinforce to her that she was working a job she was way overqualified for. She had to get those jobs in marketing. She had to find something that better fit her talents.
And she had to find it ASAP, or else her sanity would just break entirely.
She headed behind the counter, grabbed a wet towel, and started wiping down some of the counter tops. Thanks to the slow hour, she didn’t have any customers come in, and when the evening came, with just about twenty minutes left on her shift, she set about to wipe down the customer tables.
With just two tables left, she stole a glance at the clock. She only had about twelve minutes left. At most, that meant maybe four customers if the store somehow experienced a shocking rush. She looked to the door.
And there, though she couldn’t say for sure, she swore she saw Travis Dunn standing.
The blur of the door and the various icons left it just vague enough that she couldn’t say with certainty. But the hands in the pockets, the suit, the chiseled frame—it all suggested that the man of the day stood before her, eying her from afar, studying her body like a prize that he had lost.
She found herself disgusted and put her head down to keep wiping the table down.
But curiosity was telling her to go and talk to him. Even if Ivy found his actions deplorable, she knew there lay a good man on the other side. She couldn’t resist entirely. She had to go and see why he had done what he’d done, now that they weren’t in the office environment.
She looked back to see if Martin was anywhere around. She remembered he had left fifteen minutes before and chuckled to herself. She looked at Shelly. Work was so slow she had opened a book.
She had nothing holding her back.
Ivy looked back out the door.
And he was gone.
She rubbed her eyes, convinced that she had imagined Travis. She moved closer to the door and looked out, but she didn’t see Travis anywhere.
She took a step outside under the pretenses of cleaning the outside tables. She looked right. She saw nothing. She looked left.
She saw a tall, slender figure with a buzzcut walking away, about thirty feet. She felt his name catch in his throat. All she had to do was shout his name, and he’d come back to her.
But then he turned and disappeared into a rush of people. Ivy sighed, cleaned the tables outside, and headed back inside, kicking herself for the missed opportunity.
She went home and swore to herself that she had to put Travis Dunn out of her mind. He’d acted without permission in his office, and no one deserved that.
Except… she remembered, when she said stop, he had. He hadn’t violated her. He had taken what she’d given him, and nothing more.
Travis Dunn, she thought. You are going to be the bane of my existence. You’re either going to be the best thing that ever happened to me.
Or I’m seriously going to regret ever meeting you.
The next day, Ivy headed into her shift feeling glum and tired. Her morning half of her shift had no obnoxious customers, quite possibly because everyone was saving themselves for their Friday, which was just as well. Ivy didn’t imagine that she would have the patience to deal with stupidity or drama from any customers, no matter how handsome or funny they were.
When she took her lunch break, she walked outside and saw that stupid, ornate building and scoffed under her breath. How had she ever thought to go there and not have Travis think she wanted to have sex with him, she couldn’t say. She felt silly and stupid.
And yet, for as much as the sight of the building left her feeling uneasy, for as much as it made her wish she had some intelligence in courtship… it wasn’t like she never wanted to see Travis again. Maybe, just maybe, she thought, if she could indeed get him in a normal setting, he would show his normal side. His non-transactional side.
Hopefully.
But not likely.
She sighed. She imagined looking at the top floor and making eye contact with Travis from all this distance away. She imagined keeping his gaze until she walked into his office and then having a real conversation. A real connection.
And then…
She checked her watch. She only had a few minutes left on her lunch break, so before she could let her thoughts run too wild, Ivy stood up and headed back to finish out the last couple hours of the Friday—her Tuesday—shift.
When she walked in at 2 p.m., Shelly came rushing to her excitedly. She looked like a teenager who had just learned that her parents had let her get a puppy.
“You have a delivery. It looks expensive!”
Shelly tugged Ivy in the direction of the kitchen at the back, barely unable to contain her glee. Ivy just wondered what kind of prank Shelly had planned, but since she hadn’t actually resumed her shift yet, even as their manager gave them stares from the other end of the cafe. Ivy followed Shelly into the kitchen, confusion rising because she wasn’t expecting any deliveries. She also felt pretty sure as she saw Shelly’s glee that she wasn’t pulling some malicious prank.
“Look!” Shelly said.
Ivy’s brows crossed when she saw a large square box made of papier-mache and tied with a luxurious red satin bow. Suffice to say, this was not the type of box that held coffee shop material.
“Are you sure it’s for me?” Ivy said, delicately touching the box. “I didn’t order anything like this. I couldn’t afford to.”
“A note came with it, addressed to you,” Shelly replied, pointing to a card that dangled from a cord from the box.
Ivy gulped and looked at the writing on the envelope, which was beautifully written in cursive and had her full name. She opened it and pulled the note out and turned her back to Shelly to read it in private. As she read, her eyes went wide and her body began to tremble.
I’ll send a car to pick you up at nine tonight. Don’t ask me how I know your home address. Come have dinner with me. The dress is a little gift as an apology for my behavior yesterday. I’d like to see you in it.
-TD