Take Me (12 page)

He probably just needed to get laid. It must have been way too long if he was thinking about going after a reporter from upstate New York.

His theory was confirmed when Alyssa came out of the bathroom in a pair of jeans and a black sweater, her hair pulled back in a sloppy ponytail. “Ready?” she asked.

“Yup.” She seemed a little wary, which Jay had to admit he liked. But he also knew he had to be nice to her.

He led her downstairs to the underground parking garage in the hotel.

Alyssa stared when she saw his car. “You drive?”

“Yes,” he said, “Jay drives.”

“Ugh.” She opened the passenger door before he could do it for her. “Please don’t refer to yourself in the third person.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s annoying.”

“If you find that annoying,” Jay said, “you’re probably going to find a million other things about me annoying as well.”

“Duly noted.” She settled into the passenger seat, then pulled a notepad out and started writing something down.

“What are you writing?”

“I’m making a note that you talk about yourself in the third person.”

Jay frowned as he navigated the car out of the garage and onto the streets of Brooklyn. “Why are you writing that?”

Something about the idea of people knowing he talked about himself in the third person bothered him. The truth was, even though it was causing him a career headache, he kind of liked the fact that people thought he was a badass. There was a certain cache to it, a certain power that he liked.

“I’m writing it because it’s the kind of thing that I think readers would be interested in reading.”

“Why, though?”

“Look,” Alyssa said. “Your boss hired me to follow the team around, and then write about my experience. And that’s what I’m going to do. If you don’t want me to write about something, then don’t do it.”

“I don’t give a shit what you write about,” Jay lied, then reached over and turned the satellite radio to the rap station.

“You seem like you do.”

“Well, I don’t.”

“Fine,” she said, shrugging. “Then there won’t be any problems.”

Jay looked at her out of the corner of his eye, wondering why she was suddenly being so feisty. It was in contrast to the way she’d been this morning in the elevator, and in the hotel room. Then she’d been a little spitfire, yeah, but it had seemed like more of an act. Now Jay felt like she had taken back some of in control, even though she was in
his
car, at
his
mercy, going where
he
wanted to go.

He glanced over at her again. She was scribbling away in her notebook, biting her lip in concentration. His eyes traveled down to the sweater she was wearing. It was a V-neck, and since he was so tall, he had a perfect view. He could see the top of a lacy black bra, and he thought about those pert little nipples that were under there, the nipples he’d seen earlier popping through her thin t-shirt. He quickly averted his eyes as he felt himself becoming aroused.

“So where are we going?” she asked.

“Don’t worry,” Jay said. “You’ll like it.”

***

He took her to dinner at Koi, his favorite sushi restaurant, mostly because he wanted to impress her. He wasn’t sure why, but for some reason, their car ride had thrown him off. There’d been a small but perceptible shift in the dynamic. Once she had that damn notebook out, she’d gotten confident, like she knew he had to be on his best behavior. And for some reason, he felt like he
wanted
to be on his best behavior. Well, except for when it came to her breasts, which he couldn’t stop thinking about.

“Hello, Mr. Havens,” the maitre’d said as they walked in.

“Hey, Walter,” Jay said, shaking the man’s hand. “How’s it goin’?”

“Excellent,” he said. “Would you like your regular table?”

“That’d be great,” Jay said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a hundred dollar bill, and handed it to Walter. Usually these things were done secretly, so that no one could see, but Jay wanted Alyssa to notice. He wanted her to be impressed. But she didn’t seem impressed, and she seemed even less impressed when Walter led them to a secluded table in the back of the restaurant, behind a privacy curtain.

Walter pulled Alyssa’s chair out, and she slid into it. “Thank you,” she said, and placed her napkin on her lap. She picked up the menu and scanned it.

“This is one of the most exclusive restaurants in New York,” Jay tried.

“It looks lovely,” she said.

Jay frowned. Lovely? Koi wasn’t lovely. Yes, it was lovely inside, but you didn’t go there because it was lovely. You went there so you could say you went to Koi, you went there because the food was kickass, you went there to see and be seen, even though you were behind a privacy screen.

“Should we start with a caviar appetizer?” Jay asked casually. Alyssa looked at him blankly, then pulled her notebook out of her bag and started to write something down. “What did you just write?” he demanded.

“I wrote that you wanted to order a caviar appetizer.”

“Why is that relevant?”

“All the women who are swooning over you want to know this stuff.”

“There are women swooning over me?”

“Yes,” she said.

He grinned. Obviously he knew there were women swooning over him. And he liked the idea that she was going to write that he ordered caviar. It made him seem refined.

When the waiter returned, Jay ordered sushi for them both. Alyssa scribbled away in her notebook. “Are you writing that I ordered for you?”

“Yes.”

“Are you writing what kind of sushi I ordered?”

“Yes.”

Finally, she set the notebook down and took a sip of her water.

“So how are you liking Brooklyn so far?” Jay asked politely.

“I’ve only been here for a few hours,” she said. “That’s hardly enough time to make up my mind.” She took another sip of water, and her tongue snaked out and licked a stray drop of water off her bottom lip. Jay’s eyes flicked back down to her sweater, which somehow seemed even lower cut than it had been in the car. She had nice full, breasts. Jay imagined what they’d look like out of that black bra.

The waiter set down their caviar, and Jay thanked him. Then he scooped some up with a cracker, popped it into his mouth, and sat back to enjoy the show. The show being, of course, that Alyssa had probably never had caviar. Probably she was going to refuse to try it, or even better, spit it out.

“Good,” Jay said, after he swallowed.

Alyssa reached over, scooped up some caviar, and took a bite. “Not bad,” she said, chewing and swallowing. Jay tried not to feel disappointed.

They made conversation about the weather, about New York City, about her job.

When the sushi came, she was just as adventurous, and slammed down everything from raw tuna to eel.

When the bill came, Jay paid for it with his black American Express. He noticed Alyssa didn’t pull her notebook out to make a note of that, which relieved him. Black Cards were pedestrian nowadays, with everyone from Jessica Simpson to Pete Rose to those Kardashian girls running around with them.

“Thanks for dinner,” Alyssa said as they walked outside. “I’m sure you have somewhere to be, so don’t worry about taking me back to Brooklyn.”

“We’re done?”

“What?”

“Well, I didn’t know the date was over.” And suddenly, he really didn’t want it to be.

“This isn’t a date.”

“I didn’t mean a date like that.”

“Oh.” She looked down at her watch, and Jay could see her weighing the options in her mind. Getting more dirt vs. going back to the hotel and relaxing. Finally, she shrugged. “What else did you have in mind?”

“I’m going to take you,” Jay said, “to my favorite place in the city.”

~Chapter Three~

Alyssa gazed out the window of Jay’s car as he drove through the streets of New York. The windows were tinted, which was good. Otherwise she’d feel self-conscious about all the staring she was doing. It was just so hard not to! Everyone in New York just looked…well, like someone you’d want to stare at. The people were diverse, from the woman in the long fur coat with the tiny little dog, to the group of people on the corner banging on drums and hoping people would drop change into the hat in front of them. It was very overwhelming, and not like Boston at all.

When she really thought about it, Jay was kind of right about Boston. It
was
a little bit pseudo-intellectual and kind of stuffy and crunchy. And even though it was a big city, it lacked the energy of New York.

She shifted in her seat, then reached into her bag and pulled out a bottle of water and took a long sip. That caviar had been disgusting, and she’d choked it down only because she hadn’t wanted to give Jay the satisfaction of seeing that she didn’t like it.

That’s what he’d been hoping, she could tell.

The car stopped, and Alyssa looked around. They were on a busy corner, with a sub shop across the street, and a bunch of nondescript little shops lining the sidewalk.

“Where are we?” She looked around for a club, or some kind of flashy monument or something where he’d take her to the top and show her a view of the city in an effort to dazzle her.

“I told you, we’re at my favorite place in New York.” He reached over and into the glove compartment, and as he did, his arm brushed against the side of her breast. She felt how hard his arms were, how strong, and for a second, she imagined what it would be like for him to take her in his arms and hold her close.

Jay rummaged around in the glove compartment for a few seconds, and then pulled out a hat and sunglasses.

“What are those?” Alyssa asked.

“My disguise.”

“Your
disguise?”

“Yeah,” he said. He pulled the hat, a short knit green cap, down over his brown hair, and slid the glasses on. “Do I look like me?”

“Yes,” she said.

He nodded. “You’re right, it hardly ever works. I’ll get recognized for sure.” He sounded cheerful.

“Do you like getting recognized?” Alyssa asked.

He thought about it. “Sort of,” he said. “I don’t mind signing autographs and talking to fans. The only thing that sucks is when there’s a big group of people. They all start taking videos with their phones, and they want pictures, and then it wrecks whatever I’m trying to do.”

“So I should brace myself?”

“Well,” he said, and she was pretty sure she saw his eyes slide down to her cleavage. “We’ll see if it gets out of hand.”

She opened the car door and stepped onto the sidewalk, and he came around to meet her.

“What is this?” she asked as they walked up to a store. There were carts of books on the sidewalk, with cardboard signs that proclaimed them to be a dollar. It was a nice night, with the sun just starting to dip down, and a nice warm breeze, and so there were lots of people outside, browsing through the racks.

“What does it look like?” Jay asked. “It’s a bookstore.”

“Your favorite place in New York is a bookstore?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “Why, you don’t like books?”

“I’m a writer,” she said. “I love books.”

“Then you’ll love it here.”

She followed him inside, and saw a sign that said “The Strand, 18 Miles of Books.” She looked around. It was halfway between a warehouse and a bookstore, with floor to ceiling shelves as far as the eye could see, a bank of elevators to take you to another floor, and books, books, and more books.

“Wow,” she said.

“Pretty amazing, huh?”

She nodded. And then she decided to ditch him. She had to, at least for a little while. Books were her favorite things in the world, and she needed to be on her own to really have time to browse. Ever since she’d she’d learned how to read, she’d been in love with books. It was probably why she hadn’t had many friends growing up. While most of the neighborhood kids were out enjoying the summer by swimming in pools and running lemonade stands, she was holed up inside with a book.

“Meet you back here in half an hour?” Jay asked. Alyssa looked at him, and nodded, realizing that however much of a jerk he was, he obviously somehow got it when it came to books. The next thirty minutes were pure heaven, as she loaded up her arms with lots and lots of discounted books. Romances, thrillers, a young adult novel or two, and even a science fiction she’d heard good things about.

When she met up with Jay at the front of the store, he looked a little wary. “Find anything good?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said. She nodded at the pile of books in his arms. “You?”

“Yeah.”

They waited in line, and Jay kept glancing over his shoulder.

“Okay,” he said finally, leaning into and whispering right into her ear. A shiver went through her body as she felt his breath on her skin. “I think we’ve been compromised. Crazy teenagers at six o’clock.”

Alyssa went to look, but Jay grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the register.

“Don’t
look,”
he said through gritted teeth.

“Why?” she whispered. “What will happen?”

“They’ll follow me,” he said. “Teenage girls always follow me. They like to find out where I live so they can hang out outside.”

“Isn’t that info available online?”

“Yes,” Jay said. “But they like to stalk. It’s more exciting to them or something.”

They paid for their purchases and walked outside, and as they did, Alyssa turned around. It was like being told not to think about something – of course you did the exact thing you weren’t supposed to do.

“Uh oh,” she said.

“What?” Jay looked behind him, where the teenage girls were dropping their books down onto a table that contained nothing but copies of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, and started running for the door. “You looked, didn’t you?”

Alyssa nodded, feeling kind of guilty.

“Come on.” He grabbed her arm and they walked quickly down the street, then ducked into a small space between two building.

Alyssa started to protest, but he put a finger to her lips. “Shhh,” he said.

She shut her mouth obediently. But he kept his finger on her lips, and Alyssa felt a frisson of heat rush through her body.