Because of You

Jordan reached for her elbow. “I said I’ll ride downstairs with you.”

Their eyes met and held for a full minute in what had become a stare-down. Aziza knew she couldn’t afford to alienate Jordan because she needed his legal help. Not only was he a more experienced attorney, but he also had the name.

She needed Jordan when he didn’t need her. “Okay. You can ride with me down to the lobby.”

Jordan bowed low as if she were royalty. “Thank you.”

Aziza rolled her eyes at him. “I still owe you a knuckle sandwich for eating my caviar.”

“I thought we settled that. When do you want to meet?” he said, deftly changing the subject. “Whatever’s convenient.”

They arrived at the elevator. He punched the button and the doors opened. “What are you doing Sunday afternoon?”

“Watching the play-offs.”

“What if I come over after the game?”

Aziza shook her head. “That’ll be too late. If you can get to my place by one, you can work in my office while I fix Sunday dinner.”

The doors opened and Jordan let Aziza precede before he walked in behind her. “You cook?” he teased, pushing the button for the lobby.

“I try. What I can promise is that you won’t get ptomaine poisoning.”

“If that’s the case, then I’ll come early. Don’t you think you should give me your address and phone number?”

Smoothing her shawl, Aziza wrapped it around her upper body with a dramatic flourish. Smiling, she peered over her shoulder. “Ask your cousin.”

If Jordan was serious about helping her build her case, then he would follow through and contact her. If not, then she would have the memory of spending two hours with a man who’d unknowingly reminded her that she was a woman—a woman who’d denied her femininity for much too long.

“Tease,” Jordan whispered close to her ear as the car reached the lobby.

He followed Aziza through the lobby, nodding to the doorman on duty, and out to the street where a Town Car idled at the curb. The driver got out and came around to open the passenger door, but Jordan preempted him and helped Aziza as she slid onto the leather seat.

Leaning in, he stared at her face in the soft glow of the high-intensity lamp behind the rear seats. “I’ll see you Sunday around one.”

Aziza smiled, her gaze moving slowly over the lean face with the dramatic hazel eyes. “Happy New Year, Jordan.” Placing two fingers to her mouth, she touched her fingertips to his slightly parted lips. They stared at each other, the silence swelling to deafening proportions. “Close the door, Jordan.”

Blinking as if coming out of a trance, Jordan stepped back and closed the door with a solid thud. He stood at the curb a long time, long after the taillights from the limo disappeared into the blackness of the night.

Then he returned to the building, when the doorman opened the door for him. Shoving his hands in the pockets of his trousers, he waited for the elevator, his mind awash with the time he’d spent with Aziza Fleming. He was able to recall her every expression, the sound of her sexy voice, the color of her face that was an exact match to the exposed skin on her bare back.

However, what he didn’t want to remember was how she’d tasted, because the sexy lawyer was forbidden fruit.

He could look, but not taste.

Looking was safe.

Tasting was too much of a risk, and he didn’t want to do anything that would risk or jeopardize their very fragile professional relationship.

Chapter 4

Bracing his back against the tiles in the shower stall, Jordan closed his eyes as lukewarm water beat down on his head. He had a headache, his mouth felt as if it’d been filled with cotton and his stomach was doing flip-flops. It wasn’t how he’d wanted to start the new year.

After watching the car with Aziza drive away, he’d returned to the penthouse and had tried to get into the mood of the festive holiday, failing miserably. He’d switched from drinking champagne to downing shots. It had all ended when some woman tried putting her tongue into his mouth. He’d gagged and forcibly pushed her away. He did remember finding his way to the bathroom in one of Brandt’s guest bedrooms where he’d brushed his teeth and rinsed his mouth before falling across the bed, fully clothed. The sun was high in the sky, the penthouse silent as a tomb when he’d ridden the elevator to the lobby where the doorman had hailed a taxi to take him uptown.

Groaning, he opened his eyes and pushed the button on the dispenser filled with shampoo. He went through the motions of washing his hair, then his body with a shower gel that complemented his specially blended cologne. It took two cups of strong black coffee and a slice of dry toast for him to settle his queasy stomach.

He felt like a caged cat, pacing the length of his home office until he called the garage where he stored his car and requested that it be parked in front. The temperature had dropped more than twenty degrees in twenty-four hours, and with the steel-gray sky and the forecast of rain mixed with sleet, he slipped into a ski jacket over a rugby shirt and jeans. Instead of running shoes, he’d selected a pair of rugged Doc Martens.

Jordan wasn’t certain what had triggered his state of agitation but knew it wouldn’t be assuaged if he remained indoors. Instead of leaving his apartment through the high-rise lobby where the doorman monitored everyone coming and going, he left through the side door that led directly from the apartment to a side street.

He hadn’t realized until after he’d purchased the maisonette how much he’d come to value his privacy. Although he had an apartment suite in the Wainwright mansion, Jordan had never invited a woman to spend the night there. If they did sleep together it was either at her place or in a hotel. Never one to kiss and tell, he also did not advertise or flaunt his affairs, which was why it had surprised him when he’d kissed Aziza where anyone could see them. He knew he’d shocked his parents when he’d revealed that he’d been seeing Natasha Parker, but whom he’d dated or slept with was not their business.

He walked out to find Fifth Avenue a bustle of activity with post-holiday shoppers and out-of-towners crowding buses that ran along Central Park. Pedestrians with cameras stopped to photograph one another, using the park as the backdrop. Jordan turned down a side street to the east side rather than attempt to navigate the crowds strolling Museum Mile. The first day of the year had fallen on a Friday, which left Saturday and Sunday for everyone to recover from their revelry before beginning a new week.

It wasn’t until he was seated behind the wheel of the black-on-black two-seater BMW roadster that he abandoned his initial intent to drive down I-95 to hang out in D.C. until Sunday, and he decided to go to his office in the brownstone in Harlem’s Mount Morris Historic District.

Donald Ennis waited for Raymond Humphries to return to the phone. He’d heard Minerva Jackson’s voice in the background, so he assumed Raymond was at her place. He would’ve thought the real estate mogul would’ve been at home with his wife instead of with his secretary, who obviously was his mistress.

Donald had spent the past two weeks shadowing Jordan Wainwright. There was nothing the young lawyer had done that had set off alarm bells, but that was only his opinion, and Raymond Humphries did not want or pay him for his opinion. He’d agreed to contact Humphries every other Friday. If something out of the ordinary happened, then he was to contact him immediately.

“Sorry about that, Ennis. I had to tell Minerva something. What do you have for me?”

“Not much. Wainwright went to his grandfather’s place Christmas Eve and hung out there for a couple of days. When he did leave it was with his sister and another kid about his sister’s age. They walked to the Met, stayed about three hours and then walked to 72nd and Third Avenue. He only interacted with the girls.”

“He had to do more than hang out with a couple of teenage girls for the past week.”

“You didn’t let me finish,” Donald snapped.

“Watch your tone, Ennis.”

The P.I. counted slowly to ten in an attempt to bring his temper under control. When he’d first done investigative work for Raymond Humphries, he’d had to remind the man that he wasn’t one of his employees who relied on him for a paycheck. Donald Michael Ennis was a highly regarded intelligence operative whose career had ended when he’d been diagnosed and had failed to seek treatment for Ménière’s syndrome. The recurring dizziness, tinnitus and slight loss of hearing in his left ear had led to early retirement. He’d allowed six months of feeling sorry for himself before deciding to set up a private investigation agency. He’d hired a streetwise friend and a cousin, both of whom had one foot in the criminal world.

“You pay me, Humphries. Not own me.”

“Point taken,” Raymond drawled.

“My man told me Wainwright returned to his place New Year’s Eve, then left again later that night. He went into a building where Brandt Wainwright owns a penthouse. He was seen again sometime after one when he was talking to a woman before she got into a limo.”

“Do you know who she is?”

“Not yet. But I have the limo’s license plate number. As soon as we track down the driver, we’ll know who she is and where she was going.”

“Where’s Wainwright now?”

Donald shifted on the park bench across the street from Jordan Wainwright’s apartment building, stretching out his legs and staring at the scuff marks on his boots. He pressed the cell phone closer to his ear for warmth. He’d spent the better part of an hour sitting on the bench after his friends reported that Jordan Wainwright had returned home earlier that afternoon. It wasn’t easy casing out a building facing the park because of ongoing police patrols. He didn’t want to be questioned about watching residents who paid seven figures for their condos and co-ops. Doormen were very protective of their tenants, but there were always a few who were willing to provide a little information on the comings and goings, if the price was right.

“My man just sent me a text that he’s heading uptown. If he goes anywhere other than his office, then I’ll get back to you with his whereabouts.”