A Lover's Wish (18 page)

“What’s wrong?” his voice was sleepy. “I felt you tense.”

She turned to face him. “Did I overstay my welcome, Dao?” His eyelids flew open when she asked her question. His brown eyes focused on her, unreadable.

“This house, Kianna, is now yours, if you wish it so.” As he told her this, he lifted his head to place his arm behind it. “Don’t move.” He scooted from the bed and walked his naked body out the door.

Before he disappeared though, Kianna watched the way his muscles flowed over his body. Sleek, sexy muscled thighs, back, and legs—she loved

that about him. When he walked back in, she looked away shyly and heard him chuckle. The next thing she knew, he was lifting her chin while he knelt down before her.

“Remember when I left you to get ready in the hotel in Hong Kong?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I didn’t tell you the truth about where I was going.” He produced a box that was wrapped in beautiful red paper and held it up to her. “I went to get this. I wanted to ask you in China, but I didn’t think it was right. I wanted to talk to you about it in my office earlier, but you—”

“Freaked and ran.”

Dao smiled and nodded. “Here, open it.”

With trembling fingers, she accepted the package. It was small. She ripped into the paper and a red, velvet box fell into her palm. She looked into his eyes and he smiled.

“Go on,” he encouraged.

Her hand shook uncontrollably as she flipped the box open, then her eyes widened. There in the box was a ring with a lovely Jade stone.

“Would you be my girlfriend, Kianna? I know it’s not a diamond, but I want to do this right. Take you on dates and all that stuff. I don’t want to screw it up.”

Tears flowed down her face as she listened to his words and before he could say anything else,

she wrapped her arms around his neck. She held on tightly as he rubbed her back and she sobbed. She was so happy that she could not control it. When he asked her not to move and left the room, a slight bit of fear ran through her, but she had sat there, waiting. “Yes,” she spoke, her mouth against his hair. “I would love to be your woman.”

“Can I put the ring on your finger?”

“Ring? Oh!” She sat back against the bed and glanced down at her hands. “Which finger do you put a girlfriend ring on?”

Dao kissed her ring finger before sliding the beautiful ring against it.

She giggled, squealed and dove for his chest again.

D

ao glanced down at clock and frowned. Kianna was going to strangle him. It wasn’t late as yet, but he knew with his next meeting he was going to be late. As he rushed from the office, past Beth-Ann’s empty desk, he hurried for the elevator. While he jabbed a finger against the elevator button, he yanked his cell phone from his hip.

Dialling Kianna’s number, he waited for her to answer.

“Hello?” a familiar voice came from the other side, but it wasn’t Kianna.

“Jace, it’s Dao.”

“Hey, you! What’s up? What time are you coming?”

“Erm, can I talk to Kiki?”

Jace chuckled. “You in trouble!” Dao grinned.

“Hold on, I’ll get her.”

There was a ruffling sound from the other end of the line, then Jace yelling on the phone that Kiki’s lover was on the phone.

“Hey, baby? You okay?”

“I’m fine. Listen, I’m going to be a little late. I have to stop for this meeting that I put off while I was in China.”

“Well,” Kianna gasped. “Someone won’t be getting any booty tonight.”

“Oh come on, girl,” Dao chuckled.

“Oh alright. I’ll see you later. We’ll watch a movie until you get here. Deal?”

The elevator came and Dao stuck his foot into the door to keep it open so it wouldn’t leave him to wait for it to come again, “I’ll make it up to you. I swear.”

Kianna laughed. “Oh trust me. You will.”

After telling her he loved her, Dao hung up the phone and dashed into the elevator. He hooked the phone back against his belt and bit his lower lip. He had missed out on so many meetings while he was in China. But he would do it again in a heartbeat. Family came first over business. A person can always rebuild their business, but once a family was gone, it was gone. The ride came to a smooth end and he stepped from the elevator.

“Goodnight, Mr. Zhi!” the guard called and Dao stopped and walked over to him.

“Jason,” Dao arched a brow. “How long have you been working here nights? I remember you were working in the evenings.”

“I need the money,” Jason Tilman explained. “I’m going back to school and I have to pay for it somehow.”

“You go to school full time or part time?” “Full time,” Jason shrugged.

“When do you sleep?”

Jason laughed. “Sleep’s overrated.”

Dao nodded for in school he had told his mother that same thing. But in the same breath, if Jason was too tired, he would not manage in school. “What are you going to school for?”

“Bachelor degree in music,” Jason shrugged. “I tried the whole music industry thing, it bit me so I’m going in to be a music teacher.”

“So you’re doing teacher’s college after you’re finished your degree.”

Jason nodded.

“Alright listen.” Dao rummaged through his pocket and handed Jason a card. “I’ll talk to someone and have them find someone to take your shifts. Come see me Monday morning and bring your demo. If that doesn’t work, I’ll find another job for you to do. Because working nights while going to school full-time is not healthy.”

Jason laughed and took the card happily. “Thank you.”

Leaving the building, Dao drove for his meeting, wondering what he would have done if his father was anything like Jason’s. Jason’s father was doing a life sentence for a homicide and his mother had taken off the first chance she got. Dao did a detailed background search on each person that worked in the Red Dragon building. He made sure he knew about everyone. If he could lend a hand to Jason to help him in anyway, he would. The kid did not want to continue the deadbeat cycle and Dao for one, would support that.

He glanced at the time again and sighed. He was definitely late.

By the time the meeting was over, it was almost eight in the evening. He stopped and picked up some flowers as his apology and then sped all the way home.

When he opened the door and stepped in, the aroma of Chinese food assaulted his senses and he tried to remember the last time he had homemade Chinese food out of China. He couldn’t. Living on his own, he didn’t order in, but he cooked Canadian food or protein bars.

Smiling, he entered the kitchen where Kianna was speaking to Jace over a bottle of wine and pressed a kiss to Kianna’s lips. He moaned for her lips tasted delicious. Forcing himself to behave, he kissed Jace’s cheek. “Sorry I’m late.” He handed

Kianna a bouquet of roses, but not before removing one and handing it to Jace.

“He is a sweet talker, this one.” Jace sniffed the rose.

Dao smirked. “Why thank you.” “Thanks for the flowers.” Kianna smiled.

He watched as she got up to place them in a vase before he spoke. “I’m going to change. Then I promise we can have dinner.” When she nodded, he excused himself and darted up the stairs. He changed quickly into a pair of blue jeans and a black dress shirt before hurrying back. “Okay, ladies.” He clapped his hands together with a goofy grin. “Feed me.”

Kianna laughed and motioned for him to sit at the table where she had been sitting, she was busy setting up for dinner with Jace. He insisted on helping them and when everything was set, they all sat down. He kissed Kianna’s neck in thanks and picked up his chopsticks.

“How in the world do you use these?” Jace wanted to know.

Dao watched as his lady, his queen reached in to teach her friend how to use the long sticks to eat with. He chewed and smiled.

“This is hard.”

“Not really, once you get used to it,” Dao explained.

Jace made a face. “Well I’ve never used them before.” The piece of chicken she was picking up went flying when the chopsticks slipped.

Dao laughed. “It’s alright, Jace, you can use a fork.”

“I told her that earlier,” Kianna spoke. “But she never listens.”

“It’s not that I never listen,” Jace piped in with her tongue stuck out the corner of her mouth in concentration. “I am just stubborn.”

Dao laughed.

“You’re telling me.” Kianna grinned.

At that moment Dao’s telephone began ringing. He looked up and made to ignore it. He was already late and didn’t want Kianna to feel as though he was choosing his job over her. That wasn’t the case and besides, who called a house so late? He didn’t have time to muse over it because Kianna got up and answered it.

“Hello, Zhi residence!” she chimed. “Oh, hi…One second—Dao?”

Dao frowned, but stood. As he took the phone from her hand, he kissed her nose before pressing it to his ears. “Hello?”

“What woman do you have answering your phone!” the masculine voice wanted to know.

Dao shook his head.

“You’ve never brought any of them home long enough to answer your phone. What is going on?”

“Hey, stranger! You missed a lot since you’ve been away. What? The telephone hadn’t been discovered in Paris?” Dao leant against the wall.

“I deserved that,” Claude St. Pierre muttered. “Things haven’t necessarily been the greatest over on my end. I spent way too much time in a cramped office trying to figure out how to—look it’s a very long story, one that I don’t want to go into over the phone. I wanted to come see you tonight. But I guess you have a guest.”

“You know you’re always welcome,” Dao spoke, arching a brow. “You alright?”

“Yeah…I’ll be over in about one hour? I’ll explain it all then.”

“Alright, I’ll be here,” Dao assured before hanging up.

He walked back to the table and sat down, “We’re going to have one extra for dinner. He’s a friend of mine from back in the day.”

“Wow, he has friends.” Kianna giggled.

Dao gave her a wickedly hot look in promise of retaliation later.

Dinner was the most amazing meal he had had in years. Nothing after leaving home, China, had prepared him for the rampant loneliness that had consumed him. He was happy, overly so, that he was with the woman he loved and her friend who were busy chatting with him and laughing.

Laughter, it had been so long that there was a woman’s laughter in his home. He had forgotten how lovely the sound was to have a lover laugh. He smiled and picked up Kianna’s hand to press a kiss to her wrist. Silence fell over them as he did that. It was interrupted by Jace.

“Aww!” She grinned happily.

Dao opened his mouth to speak, but the doorbell chimed, breaking the spell and slipping into his thoughts.

“Sit,” Kianna demanded as she placed her napkin on the table. “You’ve had a long day.”

Dao smiled at her and watched her hips as she walked toward the door. He wanted to take her up the stairs as her perfectly rounded hips danced before his eyes. A low sound rumbled from his throat before he could stop it.

“Down boy,” Jace joked.

Dao smiled and tore gaze eyes from Kianna’s body. “I really love her, Jace. I never thought I could, but I really do love her.”

“I see it in your eyes, Dao. You may try to hide it, but you fail miserably. Just now, you growled at her.”

Dao laughed, but couldn’t reply as Kianna walked back into the room with Claude quickly on her heels.

“I think this belongs to you,” Kianna beamed.

Dao rose from his seat with open arms. He hugged Claude tightly, squeezing his friend for it had been a while since he had seen Claude.

“Whoa, you could have told me you had two lovely ladies with you.” Claude pulled back.

“Sorry. Claude St. Pierre, meet my lovely girlfriend, Kianna, and her friend, Jace,” Dao explained.

“Well.” Claude kissed Kianna’s hand, then turned to do the same to Jace. “I don’t know how you put up with him, but if you want to leave…”

Dao simply chuckled before offering his friend a seat.

Being introduced as his girlfriend was so new to Kianna that when he had said it, she had glanced behind her to see if there was someone standing there. She smiled at Claude and as they sat down and talked for a while, she felt included. Dao had not hesitated when introducing her as his girlfriend and that made her so proud that he loved her so dearly. Even hours later when she was in the swimming pool with Jace and Dao spoke with Claude on the deck drinking a beer, she was still beaming.

“What do you think of Claude?” Jace wanted to know.

“He’s sexy.” Kianna grinned. “He has that lovely, French accent that just makes you wanna purr.”

“Lay off, lady,” Jace grinned. “You like him…”

Jace shrugged. “It’s too early to say that. Like is such a strong word. I just like what I see when I look at him. And besides, he’s Dao’s friend, he can’t be that bad. Can he?”

Kianna glanced over at Claude and thought about the question. Claude was a lovely man. He reminded her of a model with large body, jet black hair and green eyes. He spoke as though he was educated and from the looks of it, Claude had money. But Kianna knew that Jace didn’t care for that. “Well, if you’re going to go for it, you should do it soon,” Kianna advised. “From his accent, I’d say he doesn’t spend much time in Canada.”

“He could be from Quebec.”

Kianna nodded. “That is also true. But if you want, he’s staying here tonight. Dao has tons of room and you know he likes you. So you can stay and I can talk to Dao about him.”

“You would do that for me?” Jace questioned. “Of course!”

Jace squealed and flew at Kianna in a hug.

“You ladies alright?” Dao and Claude asked, leaping from their chairs.

Kianna was sinking slightly in the deep of the water from Jace’s weight, but was happy when the men spoke and Jace let go. She treaded water and nodded. “Fine!”

K

ianna snuggled into the pillow and watched Dao as he stripped. As a young girl, she had imagined having a man to love her and she would watch him while he prepared for bed. Her dreams would go further to where he would crawl into bed and make love to her until she couldn’t stand it. But the man before her and the one from her dream were so different it was scary. The man in her dreams was African American, sexy and sculpted. The man of her dreams was a
brotha
with some cash and a job that he had to work nine to five every week. But Dao Zhi was Asian, sculpted with his own business. When Dao removed his pants and boxers, Kianna couldn’t help herself. She smirked and whistled. When he laughed and crawled into bed, she squealed happily as he pressed a kiss against her neck. “Stop that,” she