Waiting For You Read Free

“I’m so proud of you for starting your own firm. A lot of men would have crumbled if they went through what you had.”
    A slight ache pounded behind his eyes. How he hated stress…and her words were not comforting in the least. “Then I must be a lot stronger than they are.”
    She turned the doorknob and walked ahead of him into his office. He followed behind, and the moment he stepped in, she spun and grasped the lapels of his suit coat and shoved him against the wall, pressing herself next to him. Using her black stilettos, she kicked the door closed. She wrapped her fingers around his tie and gazed into her eyes, seductively. “Nicky, do you know how much I’ve missed you?”
    She leaned up to plant a kiss on his lips, but he refused to accept it. “Stop it, Vanessa. I’ve got to get to work.”
    A deep frown marred her face. “Dinner tonight, then?”
    “Can’t. I’m busy.”
    “No, you’re not.” She scowled. “You’re trying to avoid me.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    “Do I need to remind you that my father owns this building?”
    He tilted his head as he narrowed his gaze on her. “Vanessa, dear , that almost sounds like a threat, and I don’t surrender to them.”
    “I’m not threatening you. But whether you know this or not, I was the one who made it possible for you to get an office in my father’s building.”
    “What are you talking about?” His hopes sunk. He didn’t need to hear what she had to say. He already knew why.
    “My father was going to refuse your lease application because of your public fall from grace. He wasn’t sure he wanted someone with a scandalous reputation renting from him, but I convinced him to give you a second chance.”
    Nick bunched his hands into fists and tried to hold in his frustration. Why couldn’t people forget the past? Now he felt obligated to take Vanessa out on a date. He probably owed her dinner, but nothing more. “Okay, we’ll go out, but not tonight. How about tomorrow night? I’ll pick you up at seven o’clock.”
    She lifted on tiptoes to kiss him again, but he turned his face so her lips grazed his cheek. She pulled back and glared.
    “I hope you’re in a better mood tomorrow night,” she snapped before walking out the door and slamming it behind her. The sound of her high heels pounding on the hardwood floor of the hall echoed loudly.
    Nick exhaled a relieved sigh, then closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. Leave it to Vanessa to make the dead aware of her departure. Thankfully, he didn’t have close neighbors in the building.
    “Excuse me if I’m intruding.”
    Another feminine voice broke his concentration, and he swung around. A woman rose from the brown leather chair in front of his desk. Confused, Nick glanced from the woman to the closed office door and back again. When did she get here? His face heated from embarrassment. She must have been in the office waiting for him when he’d arrived with Vanessa. But why hadn’t he noticed her until now?
    Not believing his eyes, he blinked and ran his gaze over the strange woman again. She definitely didn’t look like a model from a style magazine, like Vanessa did. Instead this woman looked as if she had stepped off the set of a motion picture from the early 1900s—or a historic magazine.
    His visitor smoothed a hand down the side of her ankle-length dark brown skirt decorated with entirely too much lace. Her silk blouse was the darkest purple he’d ever seen, and the color brought out her amazing cobalt eyes. Her clothes contoured her body nicely yet were modest, especially in this day and age. Her dark brunette hair was swept up beneath a flat purple hat decorated with an outlandish matching bow-shaped flower in front. White-laced gloves encased her slender hands, adding to the olden-day glamor style. Even her proper posture spoke of an old-time society dame. Yet her smooth, youthful face told him she wasn’t old at all—probably somewhere in her mid-twenties. And