His Perfect Woman (Urban Hearts Series Book 1) (24 page)

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She wasn’t wrong about adoring fans. But the Barnes and Noble was a much bigger retailer than the indie bookstore he read for in Boulder and they were equipped to accommodate more people. A tiny bit of floor space was sectioned off for listeners and as Ross began to speak, more and more people wandered over, keeping the staff  busy wrangling more chairs.

She had been caught in traffic and was late so Az didn’t get to speak to him prior to the reading. But he found her as he said he would and after the speech, she sat just to the side and behind him at the signing table. It was a great vantage point to watch him work. He greeted each person and chatted with them briefly prior to signing and handing them a book. The line finally dissipated after forty minutes.

“My plane’s at seven thirty. Can we grab a bite before I go to the airport?” he spoke to her as he signed the last book.

“It’s always food with you, isn’t it?” She teased.

His eyes lit up and he leaned toward her, speaking low into her ear.

“Not always. But we don’t have time for anything else. I mean, unless you want to try the restrooms of a Barnes and Noble?”

She leaned back to see his grin.

“And if I said yes?”

He turned to the green shirted staffer who was packing up books.

“Excuse me, your restrooms are where?” The guy pointed over his left shoulder and Ross looked back to find her giggling like some idiot school girl.  But when he pulled at her, she protested half-heartedly and they managed to restrain themselves.

“Are you sure? Bookstore restrooms have to be cleaner than the airport’s.” He teased her on the way to her car.

“You think I’m going to have sex with you in an airport restroom?”

“I mean, I might be gone for awhile and—”

“I will miss you?  I might languish and die without your studly self in my bed?”

“Yes.” He turned serious.

“I will miss you.  It seemed there was never any time before, for us. And now, here we are, just finding each other again—”

“And yet, we’re on the road to another airport. I’m not letting you go again.”

“Then stay another night, call them. Tell them you can’t make it.”  She was only half-joking, the thought of him leaving her created a darkness inside of her she’d rather not think about.

“Come with me,” he breathed.

“I can’t.”

“You have to admit. The sex is pretty good.” He’d leaned over the console, stretching his seatbelt to the max in order to nibble at her neck.

“Pretty good?” she glanced at him.

“Awesome. You’re awesome. I’m awesome with you. Come with me, we’ll do it anywhere you want. A real bed even. Cheyenne’s not that far. We can book you a ticket. You can fly home in two days.”

“This is so unlike you. Ross Berenger being all spontaneous.”

“It’s not spontaneous. It’s a very quick plan. I’ve been thinking about it since I left your house. Besides, what happened to that girl I knew—the fixer, where there’s a will, there’s a way, keep calm and—”

“I have no clothes.”

He chuckled. “You won’t need any.”

“I have a wedding to do this week.”

His hand ran up her leg, slipping between her thighs. His fingers were warm and solid against her. She was simultaneously turned on, pissed off, and grateful for the denim between them.

“Two days.” His tongue flicked out and grazed her ear. He knew she was considering it. “Azure, we’re just getting started and it’s been so long. I want. I want time. Time with you—in my bed, in my life. I want to hear everything you’ve done and thought and dreamed since I last saw you. I want to tell you all of that. You know it’s not just about sex.”

“As awesome as that is.” She covered his hand, interlaced the fingers and brought it to her lips. His index finger slipped into her mouth and she bit down, just a little. His chuckle low and seductive turned to a moan as she sucked the calloused skin where her teeth had been.

“Maybe you should find an exit.” He said roughly. “I’m in no shape to go through security, now.”

“You’re going to miss your plane.” She released his hand.

“Then say you’ll come with me.”

It was much more than just a quick trip to Cheyenne. The lack of plans, or clothes or plane tickets didn’t scare her. The idea of taking things further with him did. She didn’t say anything, still thinking about her choice and not making it until she steered toward long term parking instead of departures.

Getting through security is incredibly easy if you have no luggage. She did have the bag that held everything, but fortunately, no liquids, perishables, or weapons of any kind.

It wasn’t long before they were snuggled on the plane, the armrest between them pushed out of the way so his body touched various points along hers. It was an hour and half flight and he’d ordered two mini bottles of Jameson and a diet coke. She drank the diet coke.

“So, Ms. Worth, tell me do you belong to the Mile High Club?” His smile flashed in the low light of the plane’s interior.

“Do you?” She sparred with him. Since boarding, they’d chatted politely until the engines revved up for take-off. Realizing the plane was half-empty, the person on their row moved across the aisle to a single. They were relatively private and Ross was never one to miss an opportunity.

“Now, that’s not fair. I asked first. But, I’ll go.” He drank some of his Jameson. “Yes, once—a long time ago—me and Dani.” He frowned. “I think I dislocated my knee.”

She laughed and realized his mention of Dani hadn’t been as painful as she thought it would be. They’d avoided the topic for two days now.

“I saw her on some cop show last month.” Az said.

“Yeah, she’s doing well.”

“You guys talk? Often I mean?”

He leaned away, surprised.

“No. Not at all. Last time I spoke with her was....hmmn, when I sent her the rest of her stuff. Maybe August of last year.”

“August? Wait. I thought that you’d just broken up.”

He smiled a little woefully and then squinted at her.

“Are you sure you want to hear this?”

“Only if you want to tell it.” She wanted to hear it regardless.

He settled in closer and stared at the back of the seat in front of them. They held hands under the tray table. His thumb rubbed a light path over the back of her knuckle.

“I was going—to California. I’d stayed behind to pack up the apartment. Thought I’d propose over the 4th of July, had a ring and everything. Just before I left, Jack came over with a bottle of really good Scotch. It’s a good thing he did.”

He told her then, of a face to face call from Dani—how she always forgot to lock her phone and it was a redial by mistake. It hadn’t been just a voice call, that would have been bad enough, but their phones were synced in a face to face i-chat. His voice was serious when he described seeing the other guy, naked behind Dani’s surprised look. How he’d hung up on her excuses. Her agent—and maybe every aspiring actress banged their agent in Hollywood, maybe it was standard, but he’d been a combination of stunned and relieved.  He and Jack had put the scotch to good use.

“I suddenly had all this free time. Time that I had slated for moving and looking for other work in LA. I decided to use it to write. Remember all the concepts we talked about? About life and time and careers? You’re the inspiration for the book, you know.”

“Those ideas were all you.”

“Yes, but you were the one who convinced me I should write them down. Teach people my method of planning for the future. Did you not read the dedication?”

She’d purchased a book the day before, along with everyone else in the Boulder Book Store.

“Been kinda busy.” she couldn’t help her smirk. She’d been busy with him. “Haven’t gotten into it yet.  And if I’d known, I’d have brought it with me. I love to read on planes.”

He squeezed her hand.

“I’m sorry about Dani.”

“I’m not. Sure, I felt the whole betrayed, jilted-lover thing, and it hurt. But when Jack told me I’d dodged a bullet, I realized that we hadn’t been a real couple in a long time. What was sad about it—was that she couldn’t tell me. That she was so unhappy, or that she’d given up on us.”

“Right.”             

“In all fairness, we just weren’t right for each other. I was fooling myself.”

“Why didn’t you call me? Back then?” It had been last summer, barely a month after he’d told her he was getting married.

“Because I thought you’d gone back to Jonathan. That you were happy.”

“I never said that. I was going to tell you at the speakeasy, that Jonathan had moved out. We were separated.” Even though he was with her now, the utter desolation of that night came back to her. He felt her sadness and brought their hands up to his mouth, kissing her knuckles. “But then, you were getting married, and moving to California, so what was the point of telling you?”

“That was what you wanted to talk about.”

“Yes. After he moved out, I called you, left messages. But you never called back, so I thought…”

“I never got a voicemail.” He kissed her hand again, his voice soft and comforting in her ears. “When I realized, much later, I checked my phone, Dani must have erased them. Or there was a glitch or something.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter now.” She kissed him, pulling away as the flight attendant approached to gather empty cups and cans. The young woman lingered just a bit over Ross.

“Is there anything else I can get you? Before we prepare for landing?”

“No thanks,” Ross barely glanced at her. Azure smiled into his eyes before watching the attendant shrug and head down the aisle. He leaned over to whisper in her ear. “So before we get locked into our seats for the rest of the flight, you never answered my question. Are you a member of the Mile High Club? Or better yet, do you wanna be?”

She laughed and remembered a tidbit from her former brother-in-law.

“The originator of the Mile High Club was a guy named Phil, actually, I can’t remember his name, but he was a flight instructor and teaching a married woman to fly, or at least that’s what they went up for. When they crashed about 500 feet off the ground and were found naked, he claimed they’d lost their clothes in the crash.”

“You are a plethora of fun facts, Ms. Worth, but you’re evading my question.”

“Sorry. Yes, I’ve been inducted.” She pressed her lips together in the memory of her younger, more frivolous self in love with Jonathan. She didn’t want to think about Jonathan. Not when Ross was so close to her, his voice was sheer seduction, and he smelled like fine leather and oak trees in spring. “We wouldn’t want to risk another dislocated knee, would we? Not when we’ll be at a hotel in...” She looked at his watch. “Under two hours.”

“What if I can’t wait two hours for you?” She closed her eyes thinking about that. Before she could respond, his lips were just below her ear, mouthing softly into the curve of her neck. “Bet I could convince you.”

She was sure he could.

A lot of people think Colorado is western, and it is, but Denver has grown into an urban metropolis with an eclectic collection of people and culture. Cheyenne, Wyoming is the epitome of Western culture—like cowboy hats and rodeos-West.

In her black slacks and blazer, Azure felt enormously over-dressed and stuffy. Ninety percent of the people in the airport were wearing jeans, including Ross, and she found herself wondering what he’d look like in a cowboy hat.

“You’re wearing boots?” They weren’t exactly cowboy boots, but boots nonetheless, very manly, leather, square-toed boots with a small heel, which he certainly didn’t need.

“I like boots,” he replied. “Didn’t get to wear them much on the corporate circuit.”

“I never knew that about you.” He switched his bag to his other hand so he could pull her to him, an arm around her shoulders.

“I am full of surprises,” he murmured in his sweeter than sex voice.

Az turned toward him as they headed for the door.

“Me too,” she said, looking him in the eye. This stopped him cold, caught by her tone and her words. She laughed.

The hotel where they stayed had only six floors and Ross asked for a room on the top floor. Not knowing why, Azure hadn’t asked. She’d simply shrugged it off as one more tidbit about him she hadn’t known before.

“I wish this hotel had twenty floors,” he spoke as they waited for the elevator.

“Why?”

“Remember the last elevator ride we had together?” She frowned, thinking.
The last elevator ride.
It had been late. They’d spent the evening in a coffee shop. He’d told her about his mother’s cancer scare and noticed she’d taken off her wedding ring.  Back at the hotel, when they’d gotten into the elevator, he’d asked her what she was thinking and she’d kissed him. He’d backed her up into the wall and kissed her back. It never went any further than that. But now, remembering, she blushed and looked down at her feet as the doors opened. An older couple got in with them and pushed the button for the third floor.

“Do you remember?” He edged her to the back of the elevator and spoke softly, but she knew the other couple could hear. He didn’t seem to care. His hand came up to caress her around the waist and he looked straight into her eyes.

“You asked me what I was thinking,” she answered him with a slight shrug. He moved in front of her, his back toward the couple and the elevator doors which opened. The couple exited and Azure saw the woman glance back at them wistfully.

“Ask me what I’m thinking,” he whispered. Her eyes snapped back to him. His lips hovered so very close to hers. She didn’t get the words out, but soon she understood why he wanted twenty floors. Six were simply not enough.

The next day she’d bought him a cowboy hat. It was a deep brown felt, not too high or too much of a brim in the style of JR Ewing, but the kind of hat actual ranchers might wear. She’d found a Western store not too far from the book store where he was reading and she’d talked him into trying on hats.

He loved the hat. Wearing faded jeans, the same boots and a plaid shirt, he looked like a man who knew hard work and horses. It was very sexy and she couldn’t help but glow a little at the admiring glances from the women on the street as they walked to the restaurant.  The Cattlemen’s Club served huge steaks with fixins, as they called them. Baked potatoes were spuds, and rolls were hardtack. The place even sported hat racks for all the dudes, tourists and ranchers.  She doubted he’d ever wear the hat again, because there was no real occasion for it, but she was glad he loved it.

He kissed her in the elevator like the night before and kept a hand on her till they got into the room. He removed the hat, turning it brim up on the desk before pushing her toward the bed. They were undressed in a manner of minutes.

At some point during the night, he decided to wear the hat again, modeling it like some bowlegged cowboy with his thumbs in his belt—except he wore no belt, or pants or anything except the brown felt hat perched jauntily on his head.

“Howdy Ma’am,” he touched his fingers to the hat in greeting, as though he were meeting her on the street of a Western instead of in bed in a hotel room. “Mighty fine evening, ain’t it?”

Azure giggled, but at his look, she played along, and pulling the sheet up over her breasts, she managed a coquettish expression.

“Why, yes it is indeed, and I must say, that’s a mighty fine hat you’re wearing.” 

“Thank you. Why, you’re as pretty as a sunset.” He climbed over the sheet slowly, like a lithe predator, the body language completely opposite of his speech. “A fine looking woman. We don’t get many women here in these parts.” He was on hands and knees directly over her, but he held himself away, still playing the game. She smiled, running a hand along his side, dipping into the narrows at his waist and then curling around a very firm ass. At his grin, she moved her hand to the front of him, fingers closing around his erection.

“You mean these parts?” she asked innocently and stroked the smooth skin. He groaned at her touch, the game forgotten. She plucked the hat off his head as she rolled him to his back. Placing the hat on her head, she tossed the sheet back and straddled him. “You know, I’ve never actually ridden a cowboy before.” Her lips nipped along his collar bone, before she settled herself in place.

“Let’s hope it lasts more than eight seconds.” He choked out as she started to move.

“Oh, I’m sure it will.”

It was into the single digit hours on the clock before she’d curled into him, exhausted, sated and happy. She dozed while he checked his tablet for info on his next bookstore. Finally, he put out the light and scooping her into his warm side, they both slept. 

They stayed through the next day,  and she was amazed that his second reading was so much different than the first one. He geared each reading to where he was, what type of audience he thought he’d have.

“There is no quick and easy fix to the good life, because everyone is different. The good life for one person may not be the same for another, so the way to getting there is different too.” Ross’s professional reading voice flowed over her like an unfurled roll of high quality velvet.

Az looked around at his audience, watching as they lapped at his words like cats after cream. He glanced at her briefly before sipping from bottled water.

“As an example of what I mean, in my own life, I’m a planner. I plan everything. Someone once told me that my back-up plans have back-up plans.”  A chuckle sounded throughout the room and she smiled, realizing he was speaking about her.

She remembered how easily he’d taught at conferences, how comfortable he’d been. He was born to do this. Deliver his personalized brand of part speaking, part lesson, part book reading.

“I was always so sure, that this was the way to getting everything I wanted out of life. Just make a clear and concise plan and follow it. Simple, right? Of course not. Because not everything goes according to plan. So what do you do?

“In my former career as a consultant, I met lots of people and one of them was also a planner—an events planner.” He grinned, pausing for breath and giving his listeners a break. He spoke about her, but not to her and deliberately shifted his gaze to the opposite side of the room. “But she didn’t plan, not at all. I mean, she set things up—meet here at this place, at this time, with these people, but that was it. Nothing else. I couldn’t figure it out.” His hands went out, palms up in a
what-the-hell
gesture.

“If I had done things that way, it would have been disaster. But she just set things in motion and dealt with problems if they arose.” His head turned finally in her direction, his eyes settling on hers. She smiled back, biting her bottom lip for a moment and giving him a sheepish look. He looked across at his audience. “Let me tell you, it was chaos. And it worked. People were coming up saying it was the best conference they’d ever been to, etc. It worked because she was a fixer. That’s how she does things, how she works her life.

“My point is, everyone has a different way of getting what they need in life. If in your partnerships, your relationships, you find that your partner is not like you, they aren’t planners, or fixers, or thinkers like you are, that’s okay. In fact, it’s great, because they have gifts that you don’t.” 

“It took me a long time to realize that. And this woman, this fixer showed me that living in the moment isn’t such a bad thing. I still can’t do it all the time, but I’m working on it. There’s so much I can learn, and she can learn from me. We’re different. And it’s work, but it’s some of the best work I’ll ever do. I know that.”

Azure listened to him talk, and wondered how she’d come to find someone who understood her so completely. How did she ever think she’d been happy without him?

He finished up his talk to a rousing applause and she’d sat next to him again as he signed books. People who were bold enough to ask if she was the fixer he’d been talking about, were treated to his real smile and a somewhat shy yes, as he signed their books.

“So, you want to continue that living in the moment thing?” she asked on their way to the airport.

“As long as it’s with you.”

“This tour is almost done, yes?”

“Yes, Salt Lake City is the last stop. Then I’m home.”

She stopped herself from talking. Wondering what she was doing. Why she was putting this much out there so soon. She should let him go back to Chicago. He could email her. She could call him. They could visit back and forth. But after all this time, she couldn’t take the long distance thing. There was too much chance of it falling apart before anything had truly started. She needed time with him and she knew it. That and she wasn’t willing to let him go just yet.

“Come back to Denver with me—after Salt Lake. Stay with me. You can write—I can do my wedding thing and…”

“And what about Eli?”

“He’s gone for the summer, until August.”

“Just for the summer, then?” he asked.

“I’m not the planner here. I can’t think further ahead than tomorrow, maybe the weekend.”

“This is kinda big you know. What if I leave dirty socks around or something and you hate me.”

“Don’t be absurd, it’s much more likely that I’ll drive you crazy with my chaotic lifestyle.”

He grinned at her then, the boyish charm exuding from him like static electricity.

“You could drive me crazy in bed. That’d be okay.”

“Maybe. If you wear the cowboy hat again.”