Crave: A BWWM Romance Read Free Page A

to wash up. She paused briefly and looked back in my direction. “He’s just outside.”
    “Good to know.” I tried to sound sarcastic. I didn’t want her to know I was actually looking for him. That would just be more fuel for her fire.
    As I made for the front door, Cole was making his way back inside. We both stumbled into each other in the most ridiculous way. I briefly lost my balance and tried reaching for the hostess podium to steady myself. In the meantime, he reached out with both hands and held my shoulders firmly.
    His grip was strong, but it didn’t pinch. I supposed a man who worked in construction would know exactly the right amount of pressure to place on any given object. In this case, I was the object and I wasn’t at all pleased with how ready he seemed to put his hands on me. The podium would have worked just fine. I tried to remember what Kaila said and allowed myself to be grateful.
    “Thank you.” I said. I straightening up and taking a step back to let him know the contact was over.
    “No problem. Sorry I plowed into you.”
    He seemed nice, not the endlessly stubborn man I'd grown used to battling day in and day out. How come this side of him didn’t make a more frequent appearance? As his hands fell from my shoulders I felt a brief flush of heat course through my body. I would never have admitted this to Kaila, and certainly not to Sonia, but for a moment, I wanted those hands back. I wanted to feel his pressure on my skin. Kaila was right; Saunders was undeniably attractive. His perfectly messy blonde hair draped dramatically over blue eyes. His every expression was a gift. However, that was not a road I was willing to go down. I gave my head a shake as if I was trying to erase his gorgeous face from my mind like a picture on an old Etch-a-sketch. Pleasure was pleasure and business was business, after all.
    “Is there something you needed?” Saunders squinted inquisitively at me.
    “Oh, uh. Well yeah. I just, I wanted to say thank you.”
    “You just did that.”
    “I mean for everything. The work you and your guys are doing. Putting up with Sonia.”
    “Oh yeah. Well, you know. It’s our job.”
    “Right, well. Kaila was thinking, I mean we were thinking, that it would be fun to have a celebration of sorts. For everyone who helped make the restaurant a reality. You know? And, well, I wanted to invite you and your crew to join us on Friday night. Dinner and drinks are on the house.”
    Saunders raised an eyebrow, as if he couldn’t believe that I would be offering free drinks.
    “Yeah,” he said. “That sounds like fun. I’ll let the guys know.”
    “Right. Good. I mean great. Well, I’ll just. Yeah. Be going.” I moved purposefully past him and out the door.
    It was only after the door had closed behind me and I was faced with a chilled Boston night that I remembered I’d no intention of leaving. My purse was still stored behind the bar. I closed my eyes and exhaled a cloud of frustration into the frigid air, I knew I'd have to go back in there. I just hoped that Saunders would be gone by the time I snuck unceremoniously back inside.

4
    Cole
    C ontractors don’t get invited to many dinner parties. At least not contractors like me. That was ok though because I remembered my training from when I was a boy. You don’t get to be the son of a prominent architect without putting on a few suits and attending a few functions. Some have said that I clean up nice. I wondered if Moneka would agree.
    I revived an outfit that lived in its dry-cleaning bag three hundred and sixty four days out of the year, only to emerge for my Dad’s annual Christmas Party. That was the only time he allowed himself to smoodge. He always said it reminded him of the old days, when he had two-hour lunches to convince bigwig executives or trussed up politicians why he should design their new branch, or skyscraper, or public works project. Of course, that was all before mom died. Ever since then, he’d