Playing Dirty: Windy City Kink, Book 3 (8 page)

Kevin’s eyes widened briefly. “We’d like that too.”

“We should talk some time.”

“Definitely.”

Raff looked at Paige. His eyes warmed. “Paige. You look beautiful.”

She blinked a few times rapidly. “Thank you.”

He helped her put her coat on, and she picked up her purse from the narrow table in the foyer. She smiled at Kevin. “Have fun tonight. See you later.”

“Yeah. Later.” He lifted his chin at Raff. “Take care of her.”

“Without a doubt,” Raff murmured, a hand on the small of her back as he moved her to the door. Even through the thick wool of her coat, she felt the heat of his hand. “Good night, Kevin.”

Raff opened the door for her and let her exit first. Very gentlemanly. Then she saw the car idling at the curb in the dark. Holy crap. A limo.

She couldn’t help the little thrill that ran through her. Maybe it was unsophisticated and girly, but she’d only ever been in a limo once before and it was really kind of cool. Trying not to smile too much, she looked at Raff, who was watching her. “Trying to impress me again?”

He grinned. “Hell yeah. But why do I have the feeling that’s a lost cause? You’ve been decidedly
un
impressed with me since we met.”

That wasn’t true. But she didn’t say that.

The driver emerged from the limo to open the door for them and she slid inside along the leather seat. Subtle lighting revealed a long seat that curved around up front and a narrow bar down the other side. She looked around and took it all in as Raff followed her and the door shut. They were soon pulling smoothly away from the curb.

Raff sat close to her, not close enough to touch, but close enough that she was intensely aware of his presence. He seemed to fill the space, an energy emanating from him. She could also faintly smell his scent, a masculine, spicy smell that made her want to put her nose to his skin and breathe him in. He shifted so he was looking at her.

“Would you like a drink?” He gestured to the bar across from them.

“Uh. Sure.”

“I think there’s quite a selection. What do you like?” He opened a cabinet to reveal bottles.

“Is that wine?” She indicated the bottle sitting in a recessed ice bucket.

“Yeah…” he pulled it out, “…Chenin Blanc. There’s a bottle of Merlot too.”

This was boggling her mind. “Merlot would be nice.”

“Great. I’ll have some too. Don’t mind white wine, but I prefer red.”

He busied himself opening the wine and pouring it into two of the glasses. Then he handed her one.

“Thank you. This is surreal.”

He touched his glass to hers. “Just a car and some wine.”

She laughed and took a sip. “Very nice.”

He sat back and crossed one ankle over his knee, one arm along the back of the seat. Beneath his long coat, he still wore a suit, which she assumed he’d worn to work today, a charcoal suit with a sky-blue shirt beneath it. If he’d had a tie on, he’d taken it off, and the top buttons of the shirt were unfastened. Five o’clock shadow darkened his jaw and upper lip. He lounged there with masculine grace, so big and beautiful it was hard to take her eyes off him.

“Brad tells me the paperwork is all signed for the lease,” he commented. “Glad things got worked out.”

She eyed him. She wanted to ask if he’d had anything to do with Crenshaw’s quick change of attitude. But, then again, maybe she didn’t want to know.

“What are your plans?” Raff asked. “What can we do to help?”

“I think you’ve done enough,” she muttered.

He smiled. Their eyes met. Yeah. He’d done it. He’d interfered and likely leaned on Crenshaw somehow to get him to change his mind. And he knew that she’d figured that out.

“I told you I could handle it.”

“I know you could. Just sped things up a little.”

She shook her head. “Raff.” She let out a short breath.

“Tell me what you need to do.”

“It’s almost overwhelming how much there is to do. But this is what I wanted and I knew it would be a lot of work.” She shared with him some of her ideas and he made some good suggestions.

They’d been talking a while and she hadn’t paid attention to where they were. She looked out the window but it was dark and she couldn’t see much. “Where are we going?”

“San Diego.”

She choked on her wine. “Wh-what?”

He grinned. One arm stretched along the top of the seat, his hand near her shoulder. “San Diego.”

She shook her head. “No, seriously.”

“I am serious. The limo is taking us to Midway. I have a private jet waiting there for us. We’ll be in San Diego by midnight our time.”

She felt like her eyes were going to fall out of their sockets as she took in his words. “But…but…”

“I’ve got a cottage booked at the Hotel Del Coronado for tonight and Saturday night.”

“What?”

“You agreed to one date,” he said. “So I’m making it good.”

“A whole weekend!” Her heart started racing. “I can’t go away for a whole weekend! I have work to do!”

“You said your weekend was open.”

“Yes, but…I meant, open, as in I didn’t have any social plans. I have a million things to do to get ready for this move.”

A furrow appeared between his eyebrows. “Two days won’t set you back. It’s the weekend.”

“But…but…I don’t have anything with me. You never told me…”

“Everything you need will be waiting in the cottage. If there’s something we missed, we’ll get it tomorrow.”

“We?”

“The concierge service at the hotel helped me.”

She blinked rapidly at him, the flutter in her belly developing into bigger ripples. “I can’t stay with you,” she said. “We hardly know each other. Raff, this is too much.”

“It’s a two-bedroom cottage.” His eyes on her face were steady and warm. “You’ll have your own bedroom and bathroom. This won’t be anything more than you want it to be.”

“Oh my God.” Her mind was spinning. “I can’t… This is crazy.”

“Is there someone you need to let know where you’ll be? Kevin?”

“Uh…yeah. Kevin will definitely freak out if I don’t come home all weekend.” She let out a huff.

“Call him. Or text him.”

“Raff…seriously. I can’t do this.”

He again met her eyes. “Think about it, Paige. The Pacific Ocean. A white, sandy beach. Palm trees. Sunshine.”

She glanced at the icy snowflakes falling outside the limo. Yeah, that was tempting all right. But still crazy.

“We’ll be back Sunday evening,” he continued, voice low and husky. “We’ll relax by the pool, go out for dinner… I’ll take you to Sea World.”

She choked on a laugh. “Sea World?”

His eyes softened. “Sure. Why not? It’ll be fun, Paige. But I’m not going to abduct you. If you seriously don’t want to go, I’ll get the driver to turn around and take us to Traviata for dinner.” He named a new restaurant that had been getting rave reviews. “It’s only a date, Paige.”

“A long date,” she muttered. “I can’t believe you did this. It’s insane.”

“I know you don’t know me that well. I hope you trust me enough to come with me. But the final decision is yours.”

“When were you going to tell me where we were going?”

“Before we got on the plane.” He gave her such a cocky grin she couldn’t help but laugh. She clutched her wineglass tighter.

“Seriously. We’re getting on a private jet and flying to San Diego? Just like that.”

“Yep.” He took another swallow of his wine.

It was crazy of her to trust him. She didn’t know him well. There were things about him that still made her nervous. But…there were things about him she liked. A lot. She thought about how he’d reminded her of Delmer. At first, it had seemed so glaring—his air of control and command. His determination to get what he wanted.

But now the similarities didn’t seem so glaring because she was seeing more to Raff than just those things. She could see that he was a very different man than Del. And as she studied his face in the dim lighting of the limo, she saw what appeared to be uncertainty shadowing his eyes, tightening his mouth. Something he undoubtedly didn’t want to show.

It should have annoyed her that he’d been that presumptuous, to arrange a whole weekend date without even telling her. But all she could think was how incredibly complimentary it was that he wanted to spend
a whole weekend
with her. How he’d gone to all that trouble to make it happen. How he’d thought about her needs and apparently arranged everything for her. Wow.

If they didn’t go, he’d have spent a fortune for nothing. The stuff he’d had the concierge provide would be wasted. That was a silly little thing to tip the scales in favor of going on this crazy date. But all it took to tip a scale one way or another was—a little more.

He waited patiently for her response, looking casual and relaxed, leaning back into the limo seat, holding his glass of wine. But she sensed the tension, the leashed energy, and she knew that patience was something he had to work at.

Her chest filled with warmth and she drew in a long, slow breath. “Okay,” she said. “We’ll go.”

His smile made her heart hurt with the beauty of it. He leaned toward her and she went very still as he touched his mouth to hers in a sweet, soft kiss. Then he drew back. Her eyelashes fluttered and her heart bumped. “Thank you,” he whispered.

Chapter Eight

Raff was pretty sure he’d stopped breathing while he waited for Paige to make her decision, and when she said that single word, relief flooded through him, loosening muscles he hadn’t even known had tightened. And then impulsively he kissed her, not the way he really wanted to, just a touch of his lips against hers. She was soft and pretty and smelled amazing. And she was his for the weekend. Warmth radiated through his body, along with a feeling of rejuvenation. After a long, stressful week, he suddenly felt energetic.

“We’ll be having dinner on the plane,” he said. “It’s about a four-hour flight.”

She nodded, still apparently bemused by what was happening. “I’ll text Kevin and tell him I won’t be home until Sunday night. He’s still gonna freak out.”

Raff grinned and took her wineglass. “I can talk to him if you want, to reassure him you’ll be okay. He was giving me notice when I picked you up. Is he always like that with guys you date?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t dated anyone since I moved in with him.” With her head bent, she tapped a message into her phone.

“Huh. How long have you been living there?”

“A few months. He’s a really great guy.”

Raff frowned. “But he’s just a roommate, right?”

She lifted her head and gave him a look with raised eyebrows. “Yes. He has a girlfriend.”

Raff wasn’t sure why that was supposed to comfort him. Apparently she thought the fact that Kevin had a girlfriend would reassure him that
her
feelings for Kevin were platonic. Actually…that was kinda cute.

“How’d you meet him?”

She dropped her phone back into her purse and reached for her glass of wine. “Through my friend Mallory. Her boyfriend Joe is Kevin’s best friend. Kevin’s previous roommate moved in with her boyfriend, and I…wanted a new place to live, and Joe thought of me. So it worked out perfectly.”

“We’re at the airport,” Raff noted. “Drink up, sweetheart.” He drained his glass and returned it to the bar. Paige did the same.

“Hey, Mr. Lauden,” Brice Temple greeted him as they boarded the plane. “Good to see you again.”

“You too.” Raff shook hands.

“Jeff is getting us all ready for takeoff,” Brice said. “Let me take your coats.”

“Brice, this is Paige Nelson. Paige, our copilot, Brice Temple.”

“Please to meet you, Ms. Nelson.” Brice helped Paige with her coat, accepted Raff’s and stowed them in a closet. “Your dinner was just delivered.”

“I can smell it.” Raff grinned. “Smells awesome. Have a seat, Paige.” He gestured to one of the beige seats and he took the one facing her.

“Can I pour you a glass of wine?” Brice asked them.

“That’d be great. Red, please.”

Brice served them wine then returned to the cockpit as they prepared to depart. Paige was once again taking it all in, looking around as she fastened her seat belt with that same expression of delight and befuddlement she’d had in the limo.

“It’s small,” she said to him.

He laughed. “What did you expect? A 747?”

“No.” She bit her lip. “I’ve never been on a private jet. Do you own it?”

“No. Just hired it for the trip. I use this company quite a bit, though, when I need to travel. They’re great.”

“Yeah. This is amazing.” She leaned toward the window and gazed through it as they took off, the glittering lights of the city falling away behind them as the jet soared into black.

He watched her, enjoying her wide-eyed pleasure. Her pale-blonde bangs were long and swept across her forehead, almost in her eyes, but the short hairstyle revealed her perfect small ears and graceful neck. Tonight she wore a little more makeup than other times he’d seen her, more shadow on her eyes, emphasizing how big and beautiful they were, and shiny red lipstick that matched her blouse. He had no idea why he’d never found short hair on women attractive before, because, man, she had it going on.

When they were up and cruising smoothly, Brice reappeared from the cockpit. “I’ll serve you dinner if you’re ready now,” he said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll do it,” Raff said. “Thanks, Brice.”

“No worries. Let me know if there’s anything at all you need. Want this table down now?”

“Sure.”

Brice lowered the oak tabletop between their two seats then disappeared again. Raff unfastened his seat belt and moved to the small galley.

“Can I help with anything?” Paige called to him.

“Nope. Just relax. Dinner’s from Traviata.”

“Traviata?” she said when he returned with their meals.

“Yep.”

“So you were willing to have the limo driver stop and turn around and take us to Traviata when you’d already ordered dinner from there? Dinner that no doubt cost a small fortune.”

He flicked a glance at her as he set things on the table. “Yeah.”

“And this dinner would have been completely wasted.”

He sat back down and met her eyes. “Yeah.” He shrugged. “It would’ve been a waste, but I wasn’t about to kidnap you. If you seriously didn’t want to go, I would’ve turned around and gone back.”

She nodded, her lips pressed together, and dropped her gaze to the food.

“I hope you like this,” he continued. “I ordered the same for both of us. It’s just rigatoni.”

“
Just
rigatoni. From Traviata.” She smiled.

“Have you been there?”

“Uh no. It’s a little out of my price range.”

“I can’t say the name of this dish in Italian, but it has some kind of special cured bacon, fancy mushrooms, corn and some kind of peppery cheese.”

“
Pecorino pepato
. It has peppercorns in it.”

He took his seat. “Oookay. How’d you know that?”

“I like to cook. I like trying new recipes. I like to watch cooking shows on TV.”

He stared at her. “You watch TV shows about cooking?”

She laughed. “Yeah. There are a lot of them.”

His forehead wrinkled. “Uh. Wow.”

“You have to have heard of some of those shows. Those ones where chefs are competing and things get really intense and they melt down or blow up.”

“Yeah. I guess so. Can’t say I’ve ever watched them, though.”

“Those aren’t my favorites. I like the ones that aren’t so much drama, but more about the cooking. Kevin and I both like to cook, so we take turns trying to outdo each other.”

He frowned. He wasn’t digging this male roommate thing and the fact that she seemed to really like this Kevin dude. On the other hand—she was here. With him. On their way to San Diego. Not home with Kevin. So there was that.

They began to eat and even though it wasn’t as fresh as it would’ve been at the restaurant, it was pretty fucking good.

“Oh, this is amazing,” Paige said with a sigh. “So good.”

“Glad you like it.” He was enjoying watching her eat, observing the sensory pleasure she took in the food. Christ, what was she like in bed? His mind started to go there. No. He had to shut that down.

He offered her a slice of crusty Italian bread.

“Thanks. Okay, I can’t believe I’m in a private Learjet flying across the country, eating food from Traviata and drinking amazing wine.” Paige’s eyes sparkled. “This is wild.”

Raff grinned. “Babe, believe it.”

He met her eyes and he fucking loved that she was so pleased by this. “Sometimes I can’t believe it either,” he found himself confessing. “This is a million miles from how I grew up.”

She gave a head tilt and lowered her chin. “Yeah?”

“Oh yeah. I hope I never take all this for granted.”

“Tell me about it. Your childhood.”

His gut clenched briefly. There was a lot of shit in his past, stuff he didn’t want to remember, never mind
tell
someone else about. But this was a date, and the whole point was for them to get to know each other so that hopefully when they got back to Chicago, she would know she didn’t have to be afraid of him and maybe… Christ, he didn’t even know what he was hoping for. He’d been fucking around for a long time, looking for something he’d never found. Why he had this feeling he’d found it with Paige, he had no clue.

“My childhood was shit,” he said, unable to keep the hardness from his voice. He’d tell her something, tell her enough, but he sure as fuck wasn’t going to tell her all of it. “My dad disappeared when I was six. Mom struggled to raise me and my little sister. We didn’t have much. Lived in a bad neighborhood.” He gestured with the hand holding his fork. “So, yeah, I never knew anything like this.”

She nodded, eyes soft and warm on him. “You’ve come a long way.”

“Hell yeah. Not that this was the goal, but, hey, it’s sweet.”

“What
was
the goal?”

Her question made him go still. He looked at her, watched her slip a piece of pasta into her mouth, her full lips closing around the fork. Her eyes were intent on his face. What was the goal?

“The goal was…” Christ, what
had
he been working for all these years? “I guess the goal was to see what I could do. What I could accomplish. To push myself. To make the best of myself. To maybe make my mom—and Dutch—proud of me.”

A little notch appeared between her eyebrows. “Who’s Dutch?”

“Dutch is the dad I never had. He helped me more than I can ever repay.”

She nodded, her mouth soft, eyes warm. “I’d like to hear about that.”

“Yeah.” He bent his head. “Sometime I’ll tell you about Dutch.” He wanted her to
meet
Dutch. Which was fucking crazy. He’d never once introduced Dutch to a girl he was seeing. “Anyway. Let’s talk about something cheerier than my fucked-up childhood.”

“Sure.”

He saw something in her face, something tender and fleeting, and, goddammit, he liked how she let that go, as if she knew it was something big for him. Too big for right now. She was obviously a helluva lot more patient than he was. “There’s dessert when you’re finished with your meal,” he said. “Tiramisu.”

“I love tiramisu. Oh my God. Mascarpone and chocolate…”

“I’m sure it’s good, coming from Traviata.”

The plane bounced through a bit of turbulence and they both grabbed for their wineglasses. “Whoa,” Paige said, eyes wide.

“Are you nervous?”

“I’m okay. Turbulence makes me a little nervous.” She fingered her seat belt.

“These guys are great pilots. Very experienced.”

She gave a quick nod. He reached out and took hold of one of her hands. He gave a gentle squeeze. “It’s all good, sweetheart.”

She nodded again, eyes flicking up to his, then away.

“Where did you grow up?” he asked.

“Albany, New York. I went to college in New York City and ended up staying there.”

“When did you move to Chicago?”

“About fifteen months ago.”

“That’s not that long.”

“No.” She smiled and set her fork down. “I’m pretty new to the Windy City. But I like it.”

“What prompted the move?”

“I left my husband.”

Now it was his turn to choke. “Shit,” he muttered. “Husband?”

She gave a weak smile. “Yeah. We were married five years. He’s an asshole.”

“Okay then.”
Christ.

“I left him, quit my job and moved to Chicago.” She gave a brighter smile. “My parents wanted me to move to Florida, where they live now. But I…wanted to start over. A whole new life.”

He eyed her. He was sensing there was a whole lot more to that story. An asshole ex-husband in the picture. Well, at least he was “ex”. And living in a different city. And so there was that.

“What did you do in New York?”

“I was Public Relations and Social Media Director at Chatelaine Cosmetics.”

She kept fucking amazing him. “Wow.”

“It was a good job. The best part was all the free makeup I got.” She smiled and wrinkled her nose. “But I wasn’t entirely happy there. For a long time I wanted to start my own business.”

“Did you always know what you wanted to do?”

“Yeah, more or less. But I kept telling Del about it—”

“The asshole ex-husband?” he interrupted.

Her smile flashed again. “Yeah, him. He never thought it would work. He kept telling me it was a stupid idea.”

“Fuck him.”

“No thanks.”

He laughed. “Shit, Paige. He’s an idiot.”

“I know. Believe me, I know.”

“You’re showing him,” he said.

Her gaze shifted away and he caught the way her jaw tightened briefly. “I guess.”

What was that about? Time to change the subject, away from the ex. “Did you know your friend Mallory before you moved here?”

“Nope. Didn’t know a soul. She’s only lived here a little longer than I have, so we bonded.” Her smile turned soft talking about her friend. “I mentioned that was how I met Kevin. Mallory’s boyfriend Joe is friends with Kevin. And I actually knew Kevin’s first roommate, Sasha, a little bit from hip-hop class.”

“Hip-hop.” He lifted an eyebrow.

She grinned and picked up her wineglass for a sip. “Yeah. Mallory, Sasha and I all met at hip-hop class. Sasha just moved in with her boyfriend. Jack Grenville. You may have heard of him.”

“Hell yeah, of course. That was big news when he moved his company to Chicago.”

“Yes. Jack and Sasha knew each other when they were teenagers. Apparently he came back to Chicago because of her.”

“Huh. Didn’t know that. What does Sasha do?”

“She’s a landscape designer. She has her own business. She specializes in rooftop gardens. You should see the one she designed for Jack at his condo. It’s gorgeous.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “What’s her last name?”

“Bandel. Sasha Bandel.”

“Bandel. Any relation to David Bandel?”

“I don’t know…”

“He’s president of Michigan Trust.”

“Oh! That’s her dad. I didn’t know his name but I know he’s a big banker. Her brother works there too.”

“Yeah. Had lunch with them last week.”

She blinked. “Really? Wow. It
is
a small world. Anyway, now Kevin is dating Jack’s sister Emma. They’re all great people. Kevin and Joe’s other friend Beamer is some kind of mad scientist working on the cure for cancer or something.”

He grinned. He could tell she liked these people by the way she talked about them, her voice warm, lips curving into a smile. “Ready for dessert?”