Lemon Truffles - Love Instantly (2 page)

He’d run into American women in HK from time to time, but never someone like her. Cheng was fairly certain that the woman now seated at the opposite end of the bar from him was Black, but he would guess that she had some kind of mixed race ancestry in her family’s background too. Cheng had never seen a woman who made everything else around him feel like it melted into non-existence in her wake. In a word, she was extraordinary. He hadn’t meant to, but he stared at her so long and so intensely, he caught her attention.

The lady looked up at him and must’ve seen the blatant interest he couldn’t conceal even if he’d wanted to. She smiled shyly and then looked back down at her drink. Normally, Cheng would’ve felt embarrassed at having been caught so openly gaping at a woman, but he’d just downed his own drink and it must’ve been fueling his bravado with liquid courage. After all, he did live by the “just do it” motto to the fullest.

Cheng realized suddenly that he should’ve eaten first since he’d just had a double shot of whiskey on an empty stomach, not having eaten since lunch time.
Oh well, too late now
he thought to himself wryly as he motioned for the bartender. When the bartender came over, Cheng ordered a second drink for himself as well as one for the lady he hoped would allow him to get to know her much better before the night was over.

~

Angela was an attractive woman, or so she’d been told on several occasions. So she was somewhat used to being noticed by her fair share of men in various places around the world. Her job for the US State Department often had her traveling to numerous international sites, but she sometimes found it lonely always moving, shaking and jet-setting. Angela knew how to put on her professional game face and was definitely confident in her abilities when it came to her job.

Yet for some reason, she didn’t feel nearly as comfortable randomly starting up conversations with strangers she ran across out in the big, wide world. Though the gorgeous man at the other end of the bar was making her rethink the limitations imposed by her social awkwardness and general shyness. She’d had the instinct that someone was watching her and when she’d looked up to meet his gaze she couldn’t help but smile at him like a simpleton.

She hoped he didn’t think she was behaving in a way that made her seem as silly as she currently felt. If only she were more like her best friend Beverly. Beverly believed in getting what she wanted above all else. If a desirable man was scoping out Bev like he wanted to devour her slowly, sensuously, Bev would definitely find a way to make it happen. Angela wasn’t like Beverly though. So instead, the best Angela had managed had been a tiny, juvenile, idiotic smile.

The good thing about that inane little smile, however, was that it had apparently worked well enough to give Mr. HK Super Model the green light. Angela had barely sipped out of her first drink when the bartender slid her over a lychee martini and inclined his head towards the other end of the bar and said “from the gentleman over there.”

“Thanks,” Angela said as she accepted the drink with a slight dip of her head and another weak smile in the handsome stranger’s general direction. She took a deep breath, then proceeded to make a cheers gesture towards the man, which he returned in kind, before she gulped down the drink he’d sent her. Good thing it had been delicious and smooth, which had made it easy to chug down so quickly. Then Angela immediately returned her attention to her first drink, pretending to study the glass, thereby giving her an excuse to keep her eyes averted from the man.

Angela couldn’t help but think about how it was a good thing that the stranger was handsome even without “beer goggles.” Unfortunately, that thought gave her a slight case of the giggles, that she was having a hard time keeping in check now. Angela became more somber as she thought about the fact that she was twenty-four years old and had never had a one night stand before. She wondered if there really was a first time for everything in life and if this was going to be her first time to engage in a casual affair? If so, how did one initiate such a thing?

Oh God. She was doing it again. What Bev called “micro dissecting,” or Angela’s tendency to overly analyze absolutely everything. Angela couldn’t help it though. Sometimes other people made her feel so anxious. She always wanted to know what they were thinking and why. She also wanted to know what they thought about her specifically and did she meet, exceed or fail their expectations. Yet as the alcohol loosened her up a bit more, her brain decided it was tired of working in hyper drive.

She’d been stuck at work all day, then at an exhausting business dinner where she’d had to play peacekeeper and referee between two stubborn idiots (her boss being one of them), and it was getting late now. All Angela wanted to do was go with the flow, relax and maybe even have some fun for once in her life. She glanced up then to see the man making his way over to her.

Angela nervously tucked a few locks of her hair behind her ear and looked down into her nearly full drink again. She took a sip and watched his continued approach over the rim of her martini glass. He was tall, lean, and sexy; his stride even exuded the utmost in male confidence and swagger. He was so comfortable with himself that he wore his self-assurance like he wore his well tailored suit – as though it was his second skin. He was also much closer to where she was sitting now. Angela took another deep breath.
Well, here goes…

~

Under normal circumstances, Cheng would be calling himself all kinds of names akin to the phrase “dumb ass” right now. Despite her earlier tipsy giggle fit, the woman now looked like she’d rather be getting her toenails all ripped off one by one than have him come over and talk to her. It was already too late though. Despite her positively terrified expression, Cheng felt the momentum of his feet carrying him towards her.

He was drawn to this woman and wasn’t sure he could halt his forward progression to her even if he wanted to. Which by the way, he most assuredly did not, could not. Cheng had to go over to her. It felt like he’d been waiting all his life for this one particular moment and dammit, he was going to seize this instant and live it to the fullest even if it killed him.

If nothing else, he had to meet her and at least learn her name. He didn’t want to be full of regrets tomorrow, torturing himself by playing the “what if” game over and over again in his own mind. So Cheng had to take the chance to see where just striking up a conversation with this remarkable lady could lead. Despite the playful, boyish, womanizing bachelor image that some local gossips would like to associate him with, Cheng wanted the opportunity to show this woman he was so much more than that.

He was actually glad she wasn’t a local so she wouldn’t know to associate him with any of that agitating gossip rag rubbish. It might have unduly prejudiced her against him. Cheng briefly mentally flashed back to when he was dating a college student just over a year ago. At the time, he was already receiving some local press attention for being a Liu heir and so-called “golden boy.”

So when the girl he’d been dating decided to sell her “tell all” story to the highest bidder, Cheng had been thrust even more so into the spot light, but of the very unwelcome variety. He’d been advised, however, not to worry about it and let the would-be scandal die a slow death. Apparently, his defending himself to the public would only make things worse for him.

He’d immediately broken up with the girl when she’d admitted to him what she’d done. Of course she’d only been looking for additional funding for her studies and seemed genuinely remorseful, once it was too late to undo all the damage that was. Later, Cheng came to understand that she hadn’t really understood all of the ramifications of her actions at the time. Still, her betrayal stung and was only one complicating element in his life then.

It had already been challenging enough for Cheng to deal with that whole situation, but later, the tabloids tried printing more and more inventive, salacious, outrageous lies just to get him to respond, oh yeah and to sell even more of their publications. He’d persevered and had managed to ignore every single scathing word, through eight grueling months, until the whole thing seemed to have finally blown over. Did people really not have anything better to do with their time than try to learn every juicy tidbit about his life? Too bad for them, because there wasn’t much of that in Cheng’s life anyway these days. Actually, there really hadn’t been ever.

That situation had made him much more reluctant to trust people in general, but women specifically seemed to fall into his automatic category of being untrustworthy these days. So Cheng was surprised as hell at himself when he was suddenly overcome with the strongest urge to really get to know this lady in front of him now. As if doing so was going to forever alter the course of his life. He couldn’t shake the strongest suspicion that this woman would definitely have something to do with his life’s ultimate fate.

“
Do you mind if I join you?” Cheng asked the young woman in his friendliest tone. He smiled at her then and she nervously took a sip of her drink again. Cheng waited patiently for a moment and when she looked back over at him, she simply nodded and inclined her hand to gesture to the seat next to her. So Cheng sat down. He realized then that he’d miscalculated. Looking at her now, not only did he want to get to know her, but being in even closer proximity to her was awakening a hunger in him to physically possess her. He wanted to reach out and touch her, kiss her, make love to her.

Despite what some people seemed to mistakenly think, Cheng was not the smoothest operator on the planet when it came to dealing with women. High stakes business deals, he could deal with that. Women? They were delicate and delicious, yet sometimes seemed to be another species entirely. Maybe they really were from a different planet? How could Cheng be so well versed in business best practices and still be such a novice when it came to interacting with the ladies?

Good thing even Cheng had some sense when dealing with the fairer sex. He had the inkling that if he tried to start off a conversation with her by telling her everything that was on his mind right now, that the rest of this night probably wouldn’t go very well. He wanted this woman, badly, but if he handled this situation right, she’d still know. He could be subtle… kind of. He knew how not to come off too strong anyway, while still letting his general interest in her speak volumes. So throwing her up on the bar top right now, as he had an impulse to do, was definitely not the way to go.

“
Hi, I’m Angela,” the lady said as she extended her hand to him. Her voice sounded thin and tight, as though severely strained. As if she’d had to force herself to speak at all.

Glad for any excuse to touch her, however, he accepted her hand and replied. “Hello Angela. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Cheng.” He smiled at her again and let her hand linger in his longer than was clearly necessary. He noticed that he really liked how smooth her skin felt touching his. Though her grip was firm and businesslike, her skin was so soft. He couldn’t help but think about her velvety hands gliding over all of his skin.

Angela seemed to relax a bit more then and smiled at him too, giving him a genuine smile now that revealed dimples in each of her cheeks. If Cheng thought she’d been beautiful before, she was simply breathtaking now. How he longed to kiss each of her dimples… “So are you here for work?” he asked, finally releasing her hand. His question was based upon the business suit she was still attired in, a navy blue blazer and skirt with a crisp white blouse buttoned up all the way to the top, pantyhose and matching navy pumps.

Essentially, she was dressed in every business woman’s corporate armor. Though unlike many of the business women he regularly saw in Hong Kong, she had on very little makeup. Only her lips held a bit of glossy tint. He loved her natural beauty and appreciated that she didn’t have to cake on layer upon layer of gunk to allow her true essence to shine through. He now had another adjective with which to describe this lovely lady – impressive.

“
Yes, but I’m heading back home tomorrow. What about you?”

“
HK is my home base, so I work from here most of the time, but I’m actually going out of town tomorrow for a business trip.” Angela nodded, and then continued sipping her drink without further comment. “Are you hungry? I was just about to finally eat dinner,” he added persuasively.

Angela nearly declined Cheng’s dinner invitation knowing she would likely be too nervous to eat in front of him, but just then her stomach started a low level grumbling. It was reminding her that while she’d been so busy playing peacekeeper earlier in the night trying to keep too dignitaries from verbally assaulting one another, she hadn’t gotten to actually eat much at her business dinner.

So in response to Cheng’s invitation, she simply nodded graciously and wondered what on earth this man saw in her. No, there weren’t many people here at the bar, but the hostess was pretty. There were likely other businesswomen here as well as the hotel staff… Argh! Angela was doing that other thing Bev always accused her of doing too, being insecure by way of self-deprecation.

Angela sipped her martini again and gave herself a stern warning internally to stop it. She had a lot to offer a guy; she brought intelligence as well as inner and outer beauty to the table. Trying to move on from her issue of being self-conscious, Angela wished she had spent more time paying attention to polite conversation subjects with which to engage the locals. It was always the part of her work briefings that she paid the least attention to. She didn’t really talk to people outside of work when she traveled, or if she did, she never engaged in small talk, so that part of her job never seemed particularly relevant to her.