He looks a little confused as I spin on my heels and turn away. My heart is thumping as I get into the elevators and rise back up to my floor.
I close my eyes and slump against the mirror, wondering where she is, wondering if she’s okay. I hate that she’s out there in this big city and I don’t know exactly where. Once I get her back, I’ll be keeping a close eye on her from that moment on. She can be sure of that. There’s no way I’m going to be letting her run freely around other men. Not when she belongs to me.
Katie gives me an awkward smile as I walk back into the office, but I just ignore her and head back to my office. The rose is in my hands. At least I have this. A piece of her, even if it’s a small one.
“Is everything okay?” Annie asks as I walk back to my office.
“Get your husband on the line,” I snap.
I never snap at her. She’s a great secretary and deserves better, but it’s the only form of communication I’m capable of right now. It’s like this girl has untapped my primal side. She’s unleashed the barbarian within me and I can’t put him back.
“My husband?” Annie repeats, looking confused as I step into my office.
“Now!” I hiss and then slam my office door closed behind me.
I slump down onto my chair, feeling like I want to cry as I drop my head into my hands. I still can’t believe that I lost her.
The intercom on my phone clicks on. “Sir? My husband Walter is on the line.”
“Hello?” Walter asks. “Mr. London?”
“Give me the name of the flower shop where you ordered those roses from?”
He laughs. “Are they nice? I hope it made my wife happy because I—”
“Give me the name!” I snap. Fuck, I’m not feeling like myself. What has this girl done to me?
What have I become?
He quickly gives me the name and phone number and I hang up before he can say another word.
My pulse is racing as I run my finger over the numbers. The numbers that will bring her back to me.
I dial them and chew on the back of my pen as it rings.
“Carson’s Flowers,” the guy on the other end says. “How can I help you?”
“The girl that was here,” I say in a battered scratchy voice. Why is it so hard to talk? “The delivery on Sixth Ave. The red roses. Who is she?”
“Hailey? She’s my daughter,” the man says. Hailey. God, that’s the prettiest name I’ve ever heard. I’m already in love. “What about her? Is she okay?”
“She’s fine,” I tell him and I mean it. She’ll be taken care of in every way for the rest of her life. She’ll always be okay from now on. “I just…” I’m trying to figure out the best way to do this. I can’t exactly tell her father to send her over to me because I want to marry her. I am a complete stranger after all.
I clear my throat and try to start over. “I would like to order some flowers,” I say. “Red roses. Six dozen of them.”
His voice picks up and he gets all excited.
“But I want Hailey to deliver them,” I say in a firm unwavering voice. “It has to be her.”
“You got it,” he says and then he asks for my credit card information. “I’ll have her bring them right over. Seventy-two beautiful roses for your girlfriend? Wife?”
“My soulmate.”
He chuckles. “Either way, you’ll have a very happy girl on your hands.”
“I hope so,” I say as I hang up the phone.
If she’s not happy now, she will be eventually. This sweet girl belongs on my lap with my possessive arms around her. She might not know it now, but she’ll know it soon enough.
I lean back in my chair and look at the rose lying on my desk.
Just knowing that her hands were all over the long stem and the soft red petals is getting my cock rock hard.
I lean forward and slam the button for my phone’s intercom.
“Annie, cancel all my appointments.”
My secretary sounds shocked. “But sir, you have the Prince of—”
“I don’t care,” I snap back. “Cancel it all.”
I yank the plug out of the phone and am already unbuckling my belt as I hit the button that lowers the blinds. They descend over the windows, blocking the outside world around me.
My cock is throbbing. It’s rock hard and aching.
I pull it out and watch as a single bead of pre-cum oozes from the slit at the top and runs down my thick shaft.
I’m dying to touch myself. It’s all I can think about.
But I make myself wait. I make myself suffer.
With Hailey on the back of my eyelids, I take the rose and slide the smooth petals up my stiff dick. I shiver when I think that this softness is what her pussy is going to feel like. I can’t wait to feel it clamped around my cock.
I can’t hold it back any longer. With a grunt, I grab my hard dick and start stroking. I stroke until my forearm burns and I’m gritting my teeth as cum spurts out everywhere.
I’m gasping for air and slumped down in my chair as I see the cum on the rose petals.
It’s coated.
Just like she will be.
Once she gets here really soon…
Chapter Three
Hailey
“Six dozen roses?” I ask, staring at my dad in shock. “But I was just there.”
He’s buzzing around the shop happily grabbing all the roses he can. This means we won’t have to throw out any wilting inventory which is great.
I start collecting the roses from him and begin to wrap them up, twelve at a time. My mind wanders back to the office, back to the powerful man behind the desk.
I wonder what type of girl he would go out with. Perhaps a high-powered lawyer, maybe a celebrity, probably a model. I sigh as I tie the first dozen roses up and engulf them in wax paper.
“Add more baby’s breath,” my father says when he looks over my shoulder. “We don’t want to cheap out on baby’s breath with an order this big.”
My older sister Kara comes down and immediately starts helping my dad. The three of us live in the small two-bedroom apartment over the shop. You might think it’s pretty pathetic that I’m still sharing a room with my sister, and believe me, I’d have to agree. But my father needs us to help him work, so what can we do?
Sometimes, we lay awake at night and talk about all the places we’re going to go. We talk about the romantic love affairs we’re destined to have. The adventure our lives will be.
Then, in the morning, we shove those desires for more down into the depths of our gut where they belong and get back to work. Because although fairy tales are nice, real life doesn’t work like that.
“This is a huge order,” Kara says as she drops another dozen roses on the table. “Is it Mrs. Swanson?”
Mrs. Swanson is our best client. She’s obsessed with flowers and likes her Manhattan condo looking like the Garden of Eden. Sometimes it feels like she’s the only thing keeping our business alive. God forbid if she ever moves or falls into the subway.
We’d be toast.
“Not Mrs. Swanson,” my dad says as he inspects our work. He nods in approval. The master has taught us well. “A new client in the building where Hailey just dropped off an order.”
My skin tightens and every little hair on my arms raise as his words sink in.
“Which floor?” I ask. My voice is already husky.
Kara looks at me with a raised eyebrow.
I clear my throat and try to act all nonchalant. “Sore throat,” I mutter. She shrugs and gets back to her roses.
“Forty-second,” he says.
My heart starts racing. Floods of warmth fill me up, taking my body over as I stare down at the roses with unfocused eyes.
Was it the receptionist trying to make it look like she has a man who loves her? Or, was it someone else…
“Hailey just biked all the way there,” Kara says. “I’ll bring them this time.”
“No!” I snap. Both my dad and Kara
stop what they’re doing and stare at me in shock. “I mean, it’s my route. I can do it.”
I turn back to the flowers with my cheeks blushing and feel their eyes slowly dropping away from me.
“We’re going to have to take the van for this one,” my dad says. “I don’t think Hailey can carry all of this on her bike.”
If it meant that I got to see Mr. London all by myself, then I would. I would strap them to my back like a sherpa and start pedaling my ass off.
“I’ll go with you,” Kara says.
“Me too,” I quickly add. “I mean, you stay here, Kara. I got this.”
She seems to read from my panicky eyes that I have a new crush and agrees to stay behind.
Thank God…
Because I was willing to fight her to the death to go.
* * *
“Hey!” the security guard shouts as he comes rushing out of the building. “You can’t park here!”
It’s the same guy as before. The one who I gave the rose to, only it’s gone from his pocket. I’m not surprised about that.