“Yeah, I’m still the handsome Ashby.” I stroked my chin and flashed a smile that tugged a deep, rumbling laugh from my older brother.
“Now I know you’re delusional. Get together with Calvin to work out the details, and we’ll talk specifics at dinner. Tomorrow. And you better keep him safe.”
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I froze, hoping like hell it wasn’t Ma with another clean up job to do. I was still exhausted, and other than a hot meal and a neat whiskey, all I wanted to do was to go home. Maybe with a certain raven-haired woman I couldn’t stop thinking about. Then Jasper’s words sank in. “Sunday, you mean.”
Jasper smiled and shook his head. “Sadie has business to attend to on Sunday.”
Which probably meant more trouble for us. Just fucking great. “See you tomorrow then,” I muttered, half distracted.
“Who’s the girl,” Jas called out when I turned to leave the office.
“What girl?” I asked and kept walking, the sound of Jas and Terry laughing at my back. My secret still intact. Mostly. The message was from Maisie and it was just three words.
Date. Take two. A time and address followed and that was it.
The mystery of it all brought a smile to my face as I pushed the heavy wooden door that carried me out of the pub and into the early evening air. It was a perfect blend of a desert breeze and leftover heat from the sun. Plugging the address Maisie sent me into the GPS, I realized I had enough time to go home and change before meeting with her.
For our second date, hopefully this one would end tomorrow afternoon instead of before we got to sit down to dinner. Or dessert.
***
An art gallery. I shouldn’t be surprised that the college girl had set up our second date at an art gallery, something that was completely out of my comfort zone and interest level.
“An art gallery,” I said to myself with a half laugh, half snort.
“Yeah, an art gallery,” Maisie said from behind me, startling me. Briefly. “You don’t like looking at pretty things, Virgil?”
I nodded as I turned and let my gaze travel the length of her body and the pretty fucking picture she made. She wore a strapless sapphire dress that was almost the same shade of her eyes and it clung to her curves, showing off a slender waist, meaty tits, and the kind of hips a man could get nasty with. The black heels she wore, I knew without a doubt, would be the only thing she was wearing in a few hours.
“Somethin’ in there prettier than you are?”
Her brows arched in surprise. “Look at you with all that game,” she said flirtatiously, letting out a husky laugh that went straight to my cock.
“Game?” I had a way with the ladies, that much was sure, but nothing I really had to try all that hard to accomplish. I was good looking, rich, and from an influential family, which impressed most women. The rest loved the whole bad boy thing that my kid sister Kat assured me was like catnip for crazy chicks.
Maisie nodded. “Plenty of game, I think.” Her gaze lingered on mine for a long time, the coy smile still on her pink painted lips as she took me in, watched me. Studied me. “Want to go inside or is this too artsy for you?”
I knew a challenge when I heard one. “Think a non-college grad like me can’t understand art?” I didn’t understand art for shit but I knew what I liked and what I was willing to pay for it, which for most art was not a goddamn thing.
She laughed and pushed my shoulder before she wrapped one of her arms around mine.
“No. I saw this series when it opened a few weeks ago and I thought it was amazing. I think you’ll like it too if you open your mind.” Another challenge and it was one I couldn’t resist.
“Let’s go, then.” She laughed and flashed a pleased smile as we stepped inside the spacious gallery with pale wooden floors and stark white walls. “What the hell is this?” Someone had painted a toilet seat and put a five figure price tag on it.
She laughed again and the sound was sexy and deep, drawing eyes from the others inside the gallery. “That is the kind of art that sends normal folks like us running for the hills. “Thirty-five grand for that? I think I invested in the wrong degree,” she said with another laugh that confirmed once again, Maisie wasn’t like other girls.
“I won’t argue with you there.”
“Good, that’s what I like. A man who knows how to obey,” she teased and grabbed my arm once again, tugging me through the semi crowded gallery towards a walled off area near the back. “Okay, here we are. Remember, Virgil, open mind.”