DANIEL'S GIRL: ROMANCING AN OLDER MAN (3 page)

“Would you care to talk to their
mother?” she asked him.
 
“She can give
you a lot more details.
 
She’s right over
there.
 
Miss Newsome!” she yelled before
Daniel could respond.
 
But the traffic
was so loud that the woman couldn’t hear her.
 
She therefore stepped off of the curb, to move closer, and yelled again.

But just as she stepped off of the
curb, a car was speeding by so fast that Nikki almost stumbled forward trying
to move out of its way.
 
Daniel’s strong
hand pulled her back so hard that she slammed against him.
 
And the car sped by, laying on its horn in
anger as it did.

And Daniel’s anger was unleashed
too.
 
“What’s wrong with you?” he yelled
at her, his arm like steel around her waist, as if it was a protective
shield.
 
“Didn’t you see that car?”

Nikki was shook up.
 
Her heart was pounding.
 
She actually hadn’t seen that car until it
was almost too late.
 
“I was trying to
get Miss Newsome’s attention,” she said.

“You almost got yourself killed, young
lady, that’s what you almost got!” He was shook up too.
 
And he knew his reaction was shrill, but for
some reason he couldn’t help it.
 
When he
saw her step into the path of that car, his heart almost stopped.
 
He nearly injured himself getting to her and
getting her out of harm’s way.
 
It felt
as if somebody near and dear to him was about to be hurt, when he saw her in
that car’s path.

He also realized, now that it was
over, that he still had her slammed against him, and he still had his big arm
gripped around her small waist.

Nikki realized it too.
 
At first it was a comforting feeling.
 
She was so shaken by what almost happened
that she loved the fact that his arm was around her, and the back of her body
was wedged against the front of his.
 
It
was a comforting feeling.
 
But as the
moments ticked by, and they remained as they were, the feeling changed.
 
She began to feel, not only the warmth of his
embrace, but the expansion of his penis.
 
And it wasn’t just a swish of arousal, either, but an undeniably rock
hard press into her flesh.

She immediately extricated herself
from him.
 
Their eyes met, which
acknowledged what had taken place more than any words could have said, and then
Daniel, to blunt his error, reached into his wallet and pulled out one of his
business cards.
 
“Write your address on
the back of that card,” he ordered.

“I can go and get their mother,” Nikki
said.

“Did I ask you to go and get their
mother, Nikki?” Daniel snapped.
 
Nikki
was offended by his snappishness, but he couldn’t help it.
 
His irritation had far more to do with his own
frustration than any words she spoke.
 
Because he couldn’t understand what was wrong with him.
 
This girl had not only nearly given him a
heart attack, but she had him aroused to the point of nearly tenting his
pants!
 
He’d been working so hard lately
that it had been a while since he last had some.
 
But he didn’t think it was an issue at
all.
 
Until now.

“I have to be in Fort Wayne within the
hour,” he said, “but I’ll be back this evening.
 
I’ll pick you up around eight, we’ll have some dinner and talk about
these Newsome boys then.”

Truth was, he was going to fuck her
tonight.
 
He made up his mind just like
that.
 
He let her get away before, and he
undoubtedly did her a favor when he did, but he wasn’t letting her get away
again.
 
Not with those breasts.
 
Not with that ass.
 
Not with that face.
 
He had to have her.

Nikki felt the heat of his stare, too,
and she questioned if discussing the Newsome boys was the real driving force
behind this dinner invitation.
 
She
stared into his hazel eyes.
 
There was
something magnetic about this man, as if he was drawing her in, but what she
couldn’t work out was what exactly he was drawing her in to.
 
He had a sexual interest in her. She was used
to guys coming onto her that way, and she knew what it looked like.
 
Besides, his erections already proved
that.
 
But she saw more than just a sexual
appetite when she looked into Daniel’s eyes.
 
She saw more than that.
 
And she
decided that yes, she wanted to explore just what that
more
was.
 
He’d already
demonstrated his kindness.
 
Even if he
had some ulterior motive regarding her, he willing to hear her out, and
potentially help Miss Newsome.

And besides, she thought, it took two
to tango, and she wasn’t about to tango, or even tangle, with anyone.

She wrote down her address and cell
phone number, and handed the card back to him.

Daniel pressed his keypad, got into
his car, cranked up, and was about to drive away.
 
But he pressed down his window.
 
“You be careful going across that street,” he
warned her.

Nikki almost smiled
.
 
What was this? High school?
she wanted to ask.
 
But she didn’t.
 
If it wasn’t for him her lack of carefulness
could have caused that car to knock her back into high school.
 
“Yes, sir,” she said instead.
 
And then carefully made her way across the
street.

Daniel sat there watching her, like
some idiot he felt, until she was safely across.
 
Then he drove away.

Nikki was so thrilled that she could
hardly contain her joy.
 
“Miss Newsome!”
she yelled as she ran toward the woman.
 
“You’re not going to believe this, Miss Newsome!”

CHAPTER THREE

“No, girl, no.”

Nikki was in her bedroom, with her
roommate and best friend Valton McDermott, at her side.
 
She liked the outfit she had picked out, but
he didn’t.
 
At all.
 

He slung his long, black hair out of
his handsome, golden-yellow face, and shook his head.
 
“No,” he said again.

“What do you mean no?” she asked
him.
 
“This looks nice.”

“If you’re trying to look like a sack
of manure, yes, it looks very nice,” Val said.
 
“But if you’re trying to look sexy, or even just presentable, then it
looks like shit.”

Nikki tossed the pantsuit at him.
 
Piles of other clothes, the rejects, were
spread over her bed as if she were a hoarder.

“I’m not trying to be a fashion plate,
Val,” she said.
 
“I’m just trying to pick
something out to go to dinner.
 
To a
working dinner at that.”

“Yeah, right,” Val said.
 
He knew what kind of working that man had in
mind.
 
“But you’re obviously interested
in this man or you wouldn’t bother.
 
I know
your ass.
 
You would have turned him down
cold the way you usually do.
 
So don’t
even try it, Nikki.
 
You need to wear a
dress.
 
A dress.
 
Don’t you understand that?”

“No, I don’t understand that.
 
Why is it so crucial that I wear a dress?”

“Because it is.”

“Why, Val?”

Val hesitated, as if he didn’t want to
go into it.
 
He was a slender man who
always kept a pair of prescription shades on a black strap around his
neck.
 
He put on his shades.
 
“Just wear one,” he said.

Nikki removed his shades.
 
“Don’t cover up,” she said.
 
“Why is it so important that I wear a dress?”

“Because it’s easier for him to get
you out of.”

Nikki looked at him with confusion in
her eyes.
 
“Easier for him to get me out
of?”

“Yes, and don’t look at me like
that.
 
You know I’m telling the
truth.
 
Why else would the vice president
of Dreeson want to take you out?
 
No
offense, but I mean think about it, Nikki.”

Nikki hadn’t thought about it.
 
Not that blatantly.
 
But he was right.
 
He was absolutely right.
 
She began looking through the piles of
clothes on her bed, a morose look now on her face.
 

Now Val felt bad.
 
“I wasn’t trying to hurt your feelings,” he
said.

“I know that.”

“But that had to cross your mind.
 
Right?”

Nikki lifted up one of the rejected
outfits: a pair of puce-colored trousers and a beige crisscross blouse.
 
She stood in front of her bedroom mirror and
held both garments up to her small body.

“Right, Nikki?” Val asked again.
 
“You had to know when he asked you out he had
sex on his mind.
 
He had that slammin’
body of yours in his crosshairs.
 
I mean,
I’m gay and even I find that body of yours attractive.”

But Nikki had hoped that she and
Daniel had connected on a different level.
 
She knew there was a sexual connection, a strong one, but she had
thought there was more to it than that.
 
But who was she kidding, she now thought, as she looked at the outfit in
the mirror.
 
She saw how Daniel kept
taking peeps at her.
 
She saw how he got
so aroused by her.
 
But she saw something
more, too, and she was going to focus on that.
 
On the positive.

“I’ve decided to wear this outfit
right here,” she said, tossed the outfit on the bed, and then headed for the
adjacent bathroom.
 
“And if that blouse
and those pants don’t give him easy access, then tough.
 
He’ll just have to work for it, won’t he?”

Val laughed.
 
Nikki laughed too, although it didn’t quite
capture her true mood.

But by the time she had showered and
dressed, she was coming out of the bedroom in a form-fitting red dress and
equally alluring black high heels.
 
Val
really laughed when he met her in the hall and saw what she had ultimately
decided to wear.
 
“That’s my girl!” he
said as he laughed.

But when the doorbell started ringing
inside their small, two-bedroom apartment, Val began to beat his retreat.
 
“I’d better hide,” he said.

Nikki frowned.
 
“Hide?
 
Why would you need to hide?”

“Because I know how men can be.
 
Especially alpha-men.
 
I don’t want to see those accusatory looks,
and I don’t want him to think less of you just because you’re my friend.”

Nikki stared at her friend.
 
Like her, he had a lot of pain in his past
life.
 
It was probably why they hit it off
so easily.
 
He had suffered untold
physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his father, and was ultimately
abandoned by both his parents.
 
Nikki’s
grandmother raised her when her parents chose drugs over parenthood, and
although Granny was great, she passed away when Nikki was fourteen, leaving her
to pretty much fend for herself.
 
She and
Val both had to constantly battle feelings of inadequacy every day of their
lives.
 
Especially Val.

She grabbed him by the arm.
 
“Boy, you better come on to this door,” she
said as she pulled him along with her toward the front door.
 
“I want him to meet you.”

Val would have expected nothing less
from a good-hearted person like Nikki, but he knew men better than she
did.
 
He’d been bullied all through high
school because he was gay, and even now, in college, many guys still looked at
him with disgust in their eyes.
 
He was
apprehensive despite Nikki’s confidence.

Especially when she opened that door
and he saw what had to be one of the most sumptuous men he’d ever seen.
 
And this was Nikki’s date?
 
His brown hair was short, but thick, and
dropped down along the forehead of a sculptured face of high cheekbones and
dazzling hazel eyes.
 
A
tailored-to-perfection silk suit covered a body that appeared ripped with tight
biceps and abs.
 
Val looked sidelong at
Nikki.
 
When he had asked her how the man
looked, she had said he looked okay.
 
Okay
?
 
Jamie Foxx looked okay.
 
Justin
Timberlake looked okay.
 
This man was the
personification of elegance, posh, and drop-dead gorgeousness.

“Good evening,” Daniel said in that
formal-sounding voice Nikki liked.

“Good evening,” Nikki replied,
ignoring Val’s glare.
 
“Would you like to
come in?”

Daniel glanced at his wristwatch, a
real Rolex, Val noticed, and shook his head.
 
“I made a reservation.
 
We’d
better get going.”

“Okay, sure.
 
I’ll just grab my jacket.
 
But I wanted you to meet my roommate and best
friend.
 
This is Val McDermott.
 
Val, this is Daniel Crane.”
 
Nikki went to get her jacket after she said
this.

“Hello, Daniel,” Val said nervously,
expecting a look of disgust to suddenly appear on his face as he and Daniel
shook hands.

“How are you?” Daniel asked.

“Very well, thank-you.
 
And you?”

“I’m good.
 
Little tired, but I’m good.”

“Yes, you can see little circles
around your eyes.”

Daniel was a little taken by his
honesty, but he was, after all, Nikki’s roommate and best friend.
 
What did he expect.
 
“Yeah, I’m sure it’s showing.”

“Not that it’s a bad show,” Val said
with a smile, and Daniel laughed. “I was just pointing it out.”

“As so you should.
 
Are you a student over at Brannon also?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Journalism too?”

“Right again.”

“Good for you,” Daniel said.
 
“I’m sure you help keep Nikki out of
trouble,” he added as Nikki returned with a short jean jacket.

“I try my best,” Val said, “but you
know Nikki.
 
She certainly doesn’t make
it easy.”

Nikki hit Val.
 
“Very funny,” she said with a smile as she
stepped out on the stoop with Daniel.
 
Daniel glanced down at her and placed his hand on the small of her back.
 
He extended his other hand to Val.
 
“Nice meeting you, young man.”

“You too, sir,” Val said with a grand
smile on his face.
 
Nikki, he felt, had
won the lottery this time.

Nikki, too, felt fortunate.
 
She glanced back at him as Daniel ushered her
to his car.
 
She had that
I told you so
look on her face, while
Val was giving her two thumps up with a snap and a wave.
 
Daniel had treated him civilly.
 
It was a small thing to most, but it was a
big deal to Val.

Nikki too, felt well-treated.
 
Especially when Daniel allowed her to move
ahead of him as they walked through a narrow passageway that led to the parking
lot.
 
It was obvious to her that he was
checking out her ass as she walked, but amazingly she was pleased that he
was.
 
She usually didn’t like men gawking
at her.
 
She hated it almost always.
 
But for some reason she didn’t see Daniel as
a gawker.
 
That would have been beneath
him, she felt.
 

Why she felt this way, however, was
the question.
 
She really didn’t know
this man from Adam.
 
What gave her the
idea that he was somehow above the fray?
 
Even Val, who loved her, believed that Daniel was only after her
body.
 
Why she didn’t believe it too,
when she’d always believed it about every man she’d ever met in her entire
life, was the million dollar question to her.

 
But even as he held her hand and sat her down
in a car of posh leather seats that smelled spanking brand new, and his eyes
roamed down to her breasts as he handed her the seat belt, she still had high
hopes for him.
 
And it wasn’t just because
he was nice looking or rich or any of that.
 
She’d had successful older men try to get next to her before.
 
But it was him, she believed.
 
Daniel Crane.
 
The man who once broke his promise to her and, because of that alone,
should have been the one she distrusted.
 
But for some odd reason, as if reason itself had nothing to do with it,
he was the one she trusted.

He took her to Skylar Bay, an upscale
seafood restaurant on the lake, and their reserved table was one on the second
deck outside, overlooking the marina.
 
As
the waitress stepped aside, Daniel held her seat for her.
 
He was still taken by how beautiful Nikki
looked tonight.
 
He knew she was a pretty
girl, and had an attractive body, but the way she looked tonight kind of blew
his mind.
 
In that red dress she no
longer looked like a twenty-year-old college kid.
 
She looked like a seductive woman with every
curve in the right place and beauty exemplified in her.

Daniel had only dated a black woman
once before.
 
Caroline.
 
She was a beauty also.
 
But like most of the women in his past, his
ex-wife chief among them, she turned out to be a cheater and a liar too,
somebody who wanted what she wanted and saw him as a means to get it.
 
She didn’t sour him on black women, because
all the other women who had used him were white, but she did sour him on young
women. She was young too.
 
Not as young
as Nikki.
 
Caroline was only ten years
his junior, whereas Nikki was more like fifteen or sixteen years his
junior.
 
But she was his first foray into
dating a young woman, and his last foray.
 
Until now.