The One For Me (Danver #8) (7 page)

At least now she had a reason to see him again, and she had to hope that the week would pass by quickly before she resorted to driving by his house.

Mark had gone straight home after work and given Denny the night off. He generally used the drive to and from the office to return calls and e-mails, but still preferred to drive himself when the workday was over. After changing into something more casual, he’d grabbed the keys to his Porsche and driven across town to his favorite bar, Rivers. It was a popular meeting place for college students and professionals. He’d been chatting with the bartender, Jason, while enjoying a scotch and water, when a blond-haired beauty settled on the stool beside him. A quick glance told him that she was around twenty-five and had a spectacular set of fake tits. She had the perpetual tan common to so many living in a beach town. He had the sudden urge to lecture her about the dangers of sun exposure. What the
hell
was wrong with him? The only stern warnings he was usually interested in giving were in the bedroom. He had certainly never cared enough to go beyond that.

She was now turning sideways to face him, flashing her best flirty grin, and he felt . . . absolutely nothing. Nada. She was the exact replica of most of the women he picked to fuck for a few hours, and he wasn’t interested. Maybe it was the whole skin thing. Yeah, that
had to be it. She’d turned him off by being too . . . tan. He angled his seat away from hers, and she stalked off.

“Man, I can’t believe you just blew Ashley off.” Jason laughed. “I’ve heard that she goes above and beyond. I’d kill for a shot at that.”

Mark shrugged, not in the least sorry. He was looking for something different tonight. After another thirty minutes, a brunette took the place of Ashley. This one looked to be a few years older, and she was a knockout. He was considering speaking to her, when she reached out and touched his arm, stroking up and down. He was immediately turned off. She was too forward. He didn’t like aggressive women. At least not tonight.

Things continued along the same lines for the next couple of hours. Jason was openly staring at him in confusion, probably questioning his sexual orientation by this point. He didn’t want to examine why, but no one appealed to him tonight. This was surprising because he’d been hard more often than not since Crystal crashed into his life. Why wasn’t he doing something about it? Just thinking of her again had him pulling his phone out and checking his Twitter account.
“An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.” Mae West. #Angel.

“Damn,” he hissed as his cock strained against his zipper. She was killing him. He hadn’t lied to her when he’d admitted to wanting to fuck her more than he ever had another woman. It was fast becoming an obsession. Just picturing those plump lips of hers
sucking his cock was enough to make him blow his load in this very public bar. Before he could embarrass himself, he dropped some money next to his drink and made a hasty retreat.

As soon as he walked in the door at home, he picked up his iPad and Googled quotes. There was no way he could sleep until he replied to her little tease. A grin spread across his face as he found the perfect one.
“When I’m good, I’m very good. But when I’m bad, I’m better.” Mae West. #Angel.

It was already close to midnight, but he stayed up another few hours in hopes that she’d respond. When she didn’t, he thought it was probably for the best. He’d have begged for her address, and then gone there and fucked her until she couldn’t walk for a week. Unless he was very wrong, sex with Angel wouldn’t be a onetime thing. That was reason alone enough to stay away from the woman who was rapidly turning his life upside down.

•   •   •

Mark was edgy and wired the next morning after tossing and turning most of the night. Denny dropped him at the gym with threats to leave his grouchy ass stranded if he didn’t exit in a better mood. He stopped at the juice bar to buy a bottle of water. He was paying when someone clapped him on the back. He jerked around, still in a foul mood, to see Seth Jackson giving him a questioning look. Mark felt some of his tension drain as he greeted his friend. Seth ran the Oceanix Resort in Myrtle Beach and had been a friend for years.

They had been talking for a few minutes, when his
friend and coworker Jacob Hay strolled up to join them. Jacob was vice-president of operations for the DeSanto Group, as well as Mark’s right hand. He divided his time between their headquarters in Charleston and Myrtle Beach, with a liberal amount of travel in between.

Mark broke into a grin, as Asher Jackson was next through the door and immediately walked over to punch him in the shoulder. “I didn’t know you were in town again,” he said after they shook hands. At one time, he and Ash had hung out a good bit. They ran in the same circles and had similar . . . interests. Hell, they’d even shared those interests a few times in the past. If Mark was considered a hit-it-and-quit-it, as Denny often called him, then he wasn’t sure what that made Ash. The other man had some strange hang-ups, and if women wanted to spend time with him, then they had to accept those aspects.

“For a few weeks.” Ash nodded. “I try to get down and see Mia as often as possible,” he added slyly, while watching his brother Seth for his reaction. Mia was Seth’s girlfriend, and the guy was crazy about her. Mark saw her occasionally at Danvers, and she was a beauty.

Instead of looking jealous, Seth just laughed. “My woman is perfectly happy and satisfied. She thinks of you as the brother she never had, Ash.”

Giving a wolfish grin, Ash said, “I’m trying to encourage that. She gives her hugs more freely to family members.”

Jacob grabbed a towel off a nearby table and wiped his face before asking, “So what’s up with all this
Angel stuff on Twitter? My assistant seems to think you’re doing some kind of Internet dating now. Who’s cryswebber?”

Dead silence settled between them as Seth and Ash joined Jacob in staring at him.
Well, hell. Social death by hashtag—how original.
“Er—it’s nothing. Just joking around with a friend.” Mark began edging away, trying to break the focus of the group. Who knew that so many people followed his fucking Twitter feed?

“Crys Webber,” Seth repeated slowly before snapping his finger. “That’s not Crystal Webber from Danvers, is it? Declan Stone’s sister-in-law?”

“Not sure,” Mark said vaguely. “Are we going to work out today or stand around chatting?”

Both Ash and Jacob were looking at him in surprise, while Seth looked uneasy. “Crystal’s a good friend of Mia’s. From what I gather, she’s rather—innocent, for lack of a better word.”

Exasperated, Mark said, “She’s been married before, Seth. It’s not like she’s never been around a man.”

“Doesn’t sound like your usual kind of woman,” Ash added.

“Listen, there’s nothing going on,” Mark snapped, tired of defending himself. For God’s sake, did his friends think that he was Jack the Ripper or something? Every one of the men surrounding him worked hard and played harder. A common interest had made them friends. He wasn’t sure where all of the judgment was coming from, but he was tired of it. He stalked away but had only gone a few steps when Jacob tossed an arm over his shoulders.

“PMS today or something? Sorry about tossing you
under the bus. I didn’t think it was a secret or anything.”

“It’s not,” Mark replied, still annoyed. “As I’ve said, she’s just a friend.”

“All right, brother, whatever you say. But if you end up marrying her, I’m going to lose money.” At his questioning look, Jack added, “All of the women in the office are betting that you’ve met ‘the one.’ We may have placed a few friendly wagers. So whatever you do—keep it casual.”

Elbowing his friend in the side, he shook his head. “You’ve got problems. And don’t bother losing any sleep over your money—we both know I’ll never settle down.”

Seth and Ash joined them, and they worked out steadily for an hour before hitting the showers. After his recent round of teasing from the guys about his Twitter activity, he shouldn’t be dying to see if Crystal had replied yet. He knew that if she had, he wouldn’t be able to resist continuing the verbal foreplay, no matter how much his friends were enjoying his social media embarrassment.

•   •   •

Her palms were sweaty and her heart was racing—again. Enclosed in the restroom at Danvers with her cell phone, Crystal stared at Mark’s latest tweet. She’d overslept that morning and had no time to look before rushing to work. She normally didn’t check her social media while at work, but she felt like it was acceptable since she was taking a restroom break.

Once again, she was looking through Mae West quotes on Google and trying to find a reply for Mark.
She was on the verge of giving up and doing it later when she spotted the perfect one. Giving a fist pump to the empty room, she quickly composed a new tweet.
“I’ll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.” Mae West. #Angel.

Someone was frantically trying the door handle, so she washed her hands and hoped that she’d transferred the quote correctly. There was no time to check now. The person waiting was a blur of action as she hurried into the room behind her and slammed the door.
Geez.
It made her want to knock on the door and remind them that there were in fact several more restrooms on this floor. When she returned to her office, she had an e-mail from Ella, inviting her to lunch at noon.

Crystal spent the next few hours handling tasks for Lydia before collecting her purse for lunch with her sister. She’d invited Mia along as well. Gwen was having an ultrasound today and wouldn’t be in until later. They were all excited to hear if she and Dominic would be having a girl or boy. The couple had pondered letting it be a surprise, but in the end, they were just too excited to find out.

When she reached the lobby, not only were Ella and Mia waiting, but also Suzy, Claire, Beth, Emma, and Ava were gathered there. Suzy’s husband, Gray, was a vice-president at Danvers along with his brother, Nick. To make matters more interesting, Suzy’s sister, Beth, was married to Nick. Emma Davis was engaged to Brant Stone, who also worked for Danvers along with his sister, Ava Powers. Ava was married to Mac, who ran a security company based out of the Danvers
building. To add even more confusion to the mix, Gwen had dated Mac briefly before falling in love with Mac’s business partner, Dominic Brady. Crystal could barely keep up with all of it in her head. When the women had lunch together, Crystal found herself overwhelmed at times by the details of who was with whom. If love was in the air at Danvers International, then Crystal had to wonder why it seemed to be overlooking her when so many others had found “the one” at the office.

Since there were so many of them, they decided to walk to the sandwich shop next door instead of splitting up into different cars to drive. Crystal walked beside her sister, getting an update on her niece, Sofia, on the way.

When they were finally settled into a large table, Crystal had Ella on one side and Mia on the other. It seemed as if every time they had a group lunch, she ended up directly across from Suzy—which made her more than a little nervous. The woman was gorgeous and sophisticated, but that wasn’t the unsettling part. She was also a bit of a loose cannon. Mia had a similar personality, but Crystal had been around her friend enough to be comfortable discussing most anything. She didn’t know Suzy as well and was usually caught off guard by some of her questions or comments.

Ella had obviously invited everyone to her barbecue on Saturday, and they were discussing the details. Crystal almost swallowed her tongue when her traitor of a sister blurted out, “And we need to make sure that Mark attends. I’ve had Declan invite him, but, Emma, if you could have Brant follow up that would be great.”

Licking her lips, Suzy asked, “So, beyond the obvious reasons, why do we want him to attend so badly?”

Crystal kicked Ella under the table—which was a huge mistake. Instead of shutting up, Ella just started sputtering as if she’d lost her mind. She might as well be holding up a guilty sign. “I—er—um . . . trying to be nice?”

Dammit.
Crystal winced. This was what happened when you had someone like Ella try to play matchmaker. All eyes were on her stuttering sister as if trying to figure out what she was hiding. Then, just as she’d feared, Suzy’s gaze settled on her. “You’re the only unattached one at this table. So unless someone has a confession to make about the state of their relationship, I’d say your sister is recruiting Mark for you.”

“God, yes!” Mia exclaimed. “My girl here is completely gone on ‘DeStudo.’”

Ava made a sound that was a cross between laughter and choking. “DeStudo?”

With a dreamy expression, Emma nodded. “That’s actually pretty accurate. I was in line behind him at the coffee shop last week, and man, is he sexy. He smelled so good that I found myself inhaling too fast and I was getting dizzy. And that voice. All manly and rough . . . I love Brant, but I secretly wouldn’t mind Mark for my work husband. I wouldn’t even need to touch him. Maybe an hour a day of sniffing and staring at him would do for me.”

“He is something,” Claire admitted shyly. “Jason has had him over for dinner a few times, and he’s so charming. He’s even good with our daughter, which I wouldn’t have expected since he doesn’t have children.
I guess I wasn’t too good at hiding my admiration on his last visit because after he left, Jason waved a hand in front of my face and told me that I could go ahead and blink.”

Suzy chuckled at Claire’s story before saying, “Gray knows that I can’t help but appreciate a hot guy. Luckily, he’s secure enough to where he laughs it off. I also know he’s a man and will admire a beautiful woman—but that’s all it is. Now, if I were in the market for a threesome, Mark would be right up there at the top of the list. I mean, it’s not as if I could pick Nick, since he’s my brother-in-law. And Jason signs my paychecks, so that could get complicated. Declan looks like he knows his way around the bedroom, but I wouldn’t be able to choose between him and Brant, so they’re out. That leaves me with Mac, Dominic, and Gage—who wear those cargo pants well. But they are all in new relationships—which could be messy. That brings me to Mark. So yeah, if I were in the market, that bad boy would be my pick. I’ve heard some interesting rumors about him being a bit of a freak in the bedroom as well.” Staring at Crystal, Suzy asked, “Honey, are you sure you’re ready to make the leap from a Honda to a Lamborghini? Maybe you should start with . . . say, a Cadillac or even a Mercedes? While I admire you for going straight to a sports car, I have to wonder if you know how much horsepower that baby has.”