BAD BOY ROMANCE: A Wifey for the Bad Boy (Contemporary Alpha Male Romance Book) (New Adult Alpha Male Romance Short Stories) (34 page)

Love in Bloom

Chapter 1

“Of all the days my assistant had to call in sick,” Corrine Marshall thought as she made her way to the entrance of Giovanni’s carrying what seemed to be the millionth basket of roses. She had spent the better part of the afternoon decorating the restaurant for a wedding reception later that evening. Her heart was pounding hard in her chest from all the trips she’d had to make from her car to the restaurant in the past few hours and trying to organize the handymen who were busy hanging the decorum from the ceiling. This was normally Simon’s job. All she had to do was handle the money end of things and he would do the rest. But even when he didn’t, she could always count on Mona, her other worker who was also out of town. The last couple of days had been exhausting and to think that she had to go to two more restaurants before the end of the day thanks to her biggest contract yet: all four of Dante Giovanni’s restaurant across the state. She had been a little excited at the thought of having such a big contract. After all, a big name like Dante Giovanni would look great in her portfolio but she was beginning to feel overwhelmed especially since two of the restaurants had events on the same evening and the other two… well, they were five star restaurants. So that said it all.

“Making the delivery all by your lonesome today, Corrine?” Yvette, Giovanni’s hostess said as she looked at her setting up the floral arrangements on the tables.

“Yeah, Simon caught that flu that has been going around his family and Mona is supposed to be back tomorrow.”

“Oh yeah? Mona’s away?” Yvette pressed and Corrine nodded.

“She went to see her grandmother over the weekend. She was actually supposed to be back on Monday but I told her to just take the extra two days and come back today.” Corrine looked up and sighed. “No one really knows how much time that poor old woman has anyway.”

“I thought Mona said that she got into that clinical trial,” Yvette said, walking towards Corrine a glass of water in her hand.

Corrine let out another loud sigh as she pushed three red roses into the center of a white rose floral arrangement.

“Yeah she did but you know how these clinical trials are like. You never know if you are getting the real thing or the placebo… and judging by the way Mona’s grandmother’s health is deteriorating, I’m thinking she got the candy and not the real deal.”

“Candy?” Yvette asked, her forehead a little creased in confusion.

“You know… the placebo pills could be some powdered sugar and water hardened up into small pills with a letter in the middle…” Corrine looked up and shrugged. “Fucking candy.”

Yvette frowned and took a long sip of her water.

“The place looks really amazing. The wedding party will be supper stoked,” she said and Corrine looked around. A smile played on her lips as she looked at the restaurant that had every round table draped in a black tablecloth with a white and red rose centerpiece. Everything was perfect. And the arch… that damn arch made her want to get married. It was a white rose arch with what seemed to be a ribbon of red roses going around it from one end of the arch to the other. And to think she had done all that by herself was even more reason to be proud.

“I hope they will be,” Corrine said as she reached for her phone. At some point during the day, she had decided to rely on her people; to rely on Mona and Simon and the team that they had handpicked. And so far, she had done a great job. The job at Giovanni’s was great. But now she had to find out how the situation at the second hotel was. She dialed Zeke Richards, one of the guys she had left in charge at the G-Spot and held the phone to her ear, her heart racing. “Hey, how’s everything at the G-Spot?” A smile played on her lips when she said that. Every single time she saw the name of the restaurant, it tickled her fancy. But probably that was what Dante had in mind when naming the restaurant in the first place. To get people talking. And it had worked too.

“Almost done. We were hoping you would come and approve the décor before we left,” he said.

“Sure. I’m almost finished here anyway,” Corrine said.

She was still talking to one of the staffers at the G-Spot when she spotted Dante walking in. His presence was almost impossible to ignore. His tall lean and muscular self looked perfect in the grey slim suit and burgundy shirt he had on. His full head of dark shiny hair was a little out of place, a sign that he’d had a hard day running his fingers through his hair a lot. But even then, he still looked perfect. He was a few meters away but she could almost see his green eyes piercing through her.

“Zeke, I have to go,” she said before hanging up quickly, without even giving him a chance to say anything.

Her heart was racing as Dante made his way towards her. With every step he took, she felt like her heart was going to explode out of her chest. The back and forth dance that they had been doing over the last few months was finally getting to her. She could no longer ignore it. He had been flirting with her. There was no doubt about it. And she had been entertaining it. Heck, she loved it. She loved the fact that a man of Dante’s caliber, a ten in every sense of the word would ever take an interest in her, a plus-sized black woman who could not hold a candle to some of the world’s most attractive plus-sized women… it was not like Kim Kardashian had made the world any simpler for plus-sized women in the world. You were either as slim as Giselle Bundchen or as curvy as a Kardashian. Anything out of those confines was… simply unacceptable.

She was still standing rooted to the spot like an idiot when Dante walked up to where she was.

“Corrine,” he said in a soft voice.

“Dante,” she said in an equally soft voice, hoping to the heavens that he could not pick up on the tension she was feeling.

“How come the boss is getting her hands dirty today? Something seems amiss,” Dante pointed out as he looked at the flower arrangement in her hand.

“Yeah… my people had…” her voice trailed off. She was not very sure what she was supposed to say. She wanted to say on leave or on break but at the back of her mind, she knew that there was no word good enough to explain what was so bad that she had to be the one on her hands and knees instead of her employees. “Emergencies,” she said after a long break.

“Emergencies?” Dante asked and she nodded.

“Emergencies,” she echoed.

She placed the flowers in her hand in a vase before she put it on the last table.

“I was actually just finishing up here. The rest of the stuff will be handled by…” her voice trailed off as she looked around. “I was about to head to the G-Spot.”

She was trying as much as she could not to look into his eyes but it was virtually impossible. Dante was looking at her, almost as if he was undressing her with her eyes.

“You are finally able to say the name of the club without giggling,” Dante noticed.

“Well, trust me. It wasn’t easy,” she said as she zipped up her bag.

“Wait, Corrine. I just got here,” Dante said as he looked at her.

“Yes, and right now you are my boss talking to me about not doing a job you paid me to do,” she said. “Definitely need to go.”

She grabbed her keys and looked into his eyes.

“You know I can cut you some slack right?” he asked. “I mean, all I need is a few minutes of your time.”

She looked at him and at that moment, she had a million questions. She wanted to know why he needed a few minutes alone with her, not that she minded or anything.

“A few minutes?” she asked and he nodded.

“Why don’t you step into my office?” he said, taking her hand to lead her out of the main restaurant area and into his office. What she was feeling at that moment could only be described as a million different bolts of electricity going through her body. Her heart was racing as they walked into his office. For a man with so many restaurants, she was always surprised at how big his offices usually were. You would think one office would be enough but not for Dante Giovanni.

“We really don’t have anything to talk about, Dante,” she started as he closed the door and leaned against it. Almost like he was sending a message that he was imprisoning her. She looked at him and felt a shiver going through her body. That was the kind of hold he had on her and she hated the idea that he knew it too.

“Yes we do,” he said in a low voice as he began slowly walking towards her. “I have been waiting for two weeks for you to honor my invite.”

“Your invite?” she asked and he nodded.

“I asked you out to dinner a while ago… a couple of weeks ago to be exact.”

She took a long deep breath. She really thought she had dodged that bullet. Yes, he had asked her out but she had so many reservations. Her biggest one being the fact that this was the same man she thought that she could never have. The macho guy in high school. The hot quarterback and she was the kid who never got picked at P.E. They were from two different worlds and there was no way no universe where the two would ever be together.

“Are you going to make me wait forever?” he asked as he slowly began walking towards her. She held her breath and bit her lower lip as she looked at him.

“Dante… we can’t…” she started in a soft voice. “It’s not a good idea.”

“What? When has sharing a meal ever been a bad idea?” he asked. By this time he was so close to her she could feel herself panicking.

“But dinner…” she shook her head. “It’s a little too intimate.”

“But I do want to have something intimate with you.”

“Intimate?” she asked in a whisper and he nodded.

“And I mean it in every sense of the word,” he said in a low tone.

He slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close to him. She gasped as she heard her car keys fall to the floor with a rattling noise.

“Why are you making me work so hard for you?” he asked in a whisper. “I mean, not that I’m complaining. You are worth every single fight but baby…”

“Don’t call me that.”

He pulled her even closer, crushing her against his body. She was so close to him that she could smell his intoxicating scent. It was all around her. Engulfing her. Drowning her.

“I want to call you that.” He began lowering his head, bringing his lips closer and closer to her neck. “Every day for the rest of our lives.”

“Dante…” she said, putting a hand against his shoulder. But he never gave her enough time to say or do anything else. His lips were on her neck and she suddenly felt herself melting into his arms. He was kissing her, nibbling on her neck… doing everything right that made her weak in the knees. She wanted to push him away but he seemed hell bent on having her right there and then. “Dante, please stop it,” she finally managed to say when she found her voice. She pulled herself from him and took a long deep breath.

“What? Why do you keep on pushing me away?” he asked and she stood there for a long minute trying to figure out what she was supposed to say. But after a long moment of awkward silence, all she could do was just bend down to pick her keys before she walked out leaving a stunned Dante behind, looking at her wondering if he had possibly crossed the line.

                                                                      *****

By the time Corrine got back to her apartment, it was a little after nine and she was exhausted. And she knew that she had nothing left over in the refrigerator. She would have loved to whip something up but she was too tired. She couldn’t even think of making a plate of mac and cheese. It was that thought that made her dial Mr. Wok’s, her favorite Chinese restaurant.

“Yeah, hi. This is Corrine Marshall. I was wondering if I can have Kung Pao chicken and a side of fried rice delivered to me… yes. 1347 Willoughby Street apartment 402… yes, that’s my address…” she kicked off her shoes. “Forty minutes sounds perfect. Thank you.”

She hang up and sighed loudly as she made her way down the hallway to her bedroom. All she wanted to do was to jump in the shower and wash off the day’s exhaustion and maybe try to wash away the memory of what had happened earlier on at Giovanni’s. As she stood in the bathroom, under the running water, she could not help but wonder what Dante’s angle was. The first time she had seen Dante, she had immediately had that feeling that she would never be the kind of woman he would look at twice.
His
kind of woman. And to make matters worse, he had a girl with him the very first time she had seen him. And it was not the kind of girl you can claim to be just friends with. She had been hanging on to his every word, taking every excuse to touch him… as far as Corrine was concerned, she was just a needy girl who was taking every moment to show the world that he was hers and hers alone.

She did not know how long it had been before she finally stepped out of the shower. She had just wrapped her hair in a towel and put on a bathrobe when she heard her doorbell ringing loudly, piercing through the peaceful quiet of the apartment.

“That was fast,”
she thought as she began making her way to the front door. She was sure she had not been in the bathroom for all of forty minutes already. She grabbed her purse and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill before she made it to the door. “You deserve a tip…” she started as she opened the door but her voice trailed off when she saw Dante standing on the doorstep.