Nights Of Fantasy

“Dead serious,” he said, not even breaking into a smirk as he held her gaze.

“I take back what I said,” Nicole whispered in her ear. “Maybe you did just step into your own horror movie because if he’s the villain, you’re definitely his main target.”

Danni shivered at the thought.

Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing.

When he winked, she looked away and focused on the others in the group. Hard to do since her mind was on the man sitting across from her.

I’m screwed.

Chapter 2 (#u3c533d26-f2c9-553b-9c01-90172fb5709d)

Jaleen would be lying to himself if he said he didn’t get a kick out of watching Danni squirm. In his defense, he’d tried to tell her about the contract he’d won in South Beach for weeks, but she hadn’t returned his phone calls. Once he’d realized that she was ignoring him, he’d reached out to Aiden and Summer to try to figure out why she was avoiding him.

Twenty minutes into dinner and she still hadn’t made eye contact with him again. Not that he could blame her. It was impossible not to feel the chemistry between them, despite how many months had passed since they’d last seen each other.

“I want to make a toast,” Summer said, raising her wineglass in the air. “To Danni, who has almost completed her master’s.” Everyone clinked glasses and offered their congrats.

“And a second toast that may be a bit premature but long overdue,” Summer continued. “Although my sisters couldn’t be here tonight, on behalf of myself, Winter and Autumn, we’d like to express our gratitude and excitement to Danni, who will soon be the newest partner of the Bare Sophistication enterprise.”

This time, even more congrats and cheers were offered, but Jaleen noticed that Danni’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. That’s strange. As hard as Danni worked, he’d expected her to look a little more excited about the offer. He’d noticed her initial excitement over a year ago when the Dupree sisters had made her the partnership offer after the grand opening of their Miami store. It may have made sense to the others that she said she wanted to wait until she finished her master’s—especially considering Summer, Winter and Autumn each had several degrees in the fashion industry—but it hadn’t made much sense to Jaleen.

“Thanks so much, guys,” Danni said as she took a sip of her wine. “I’m really excited to begin this new journey with the enterprise.”

“We couldn’t think of a more deserving person than you to be our partner,” Summer said, briefly standing from the table to give Danni a hug.

Jaleen watched the embrace, thinking for the first time tonight Danni’s response seemed genuine. Which further begged him to wonder why Danni was so tense regarding tonight’s dinner topics.

Man, who are you kidding? You’re probably the reason she’s so tense tonight.

After dinner ended and they were making their way to their cars, Jaleen took a moment to pull Danni aside.

“Can we talk for a minute?”

She looked at their friends, who had just made it to the parking lot. “Sure. What do you want to talk about?”

Jaleen glanced down the block in the opposite direction. “Come walk with me.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Is that your way of asking me to take a walk with you? Because it sounded more like a demand.”

He smiled at her defensive stance. This was the Danni he knew. The Danni who’d spent the past few years arguing with everything he’d said. Although he liked making her nervous, he liked her even more when she was fired up.

Tonight she had on a simple white tee tucked into a pair of high-waisted jeans. He may have loved to see her in dresses, but the woman could wear a pair of jeans unlike any other woman he knew. His eyes traveled farther down her body until they landed on her French-tipped toenails and peep-toe fringed boots. The outfit was perfect for the cooler seventy-degree March night.

When his eyes traveled back to her face, he admired the large brown curls adorning her smooth mahogany face and round dark ginger eyes. Despite all of her features that drove him crazy with desire if he allowed himself to think about her too long, it was her lips that always kept his gaze a little longer than they should. He’d never seen lips so rich and pouty, which was saying a lot because he’d seen his fair share of lips. Today her lips were decorated in a striking burgundy lipstick. A shade that only made him want to kiss her even more than usual. After a few seconds, her lips parted, causing him to take a step closer.

“How about we take that walk?” she said, placing a hand on his chest. He glanced down at her hand, trying to shake the visions of her lips softly kissing his body.

Once they began walking and he felt like he had a handle on his thoughts, he started the conversation.

“I wanted to apologize for surprising you by popping up in Miami. I suppose I could have left you a voice mail when you didn’t answer.”

“Yes, you could have,” she said with a laugh. “But I should have returned your calls. Sorry about that.”

“It’s no big deal. Although I’m curious why you’ve been avoiding me.”

She glanced at him before looking forward. “I’m sure you already know why, but in hindsight, I guess I’ve been acting childish. I’m a grown woman avoiding a sexy man all because we almost kissed. Seems pretty pathetic when you say it out loud.”

So she thinks I’m sexy? She probably hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but it didn’t stop him from enjoying the fact that she’d said it anyway.

“I guess I understand. But I thought that talking as much as we have these past four months while I was in Europe would have made you feel more at ease. I, for one, enjoyed our conversations.”

“I did, too,” she said, lightly touching his arm. Even though her touch was light, he still felt her warmth travel throughout his body. “I just have a lot going on right now and I’m afraid that you’re a distraction I can’t afford.”

“I never asked you for anything other than friendship.”

Danni gave him a look of disbelief. “Oh, come on, Jaleen. You and I both know that you don’t do friendships with the opposite sex.”

“We’ve been friends for years, right? Or do you deny it?”

“Yeah, but most of that time was spent arguing with one another. And I’m not sure if friends is the right word. Close associates may be more accurate since the only reason we communicated with each other was the fact that we shared so many mutual friends.”

He wanted to tell her that he suspected they knew each other more than she gave them credit for, but he knew when to leave the battle to fight another day.

“Tell you what. While I’m in Miami, how about we work on building a friendship?” That way, I can prove to you that it may be time to take this friendship to another level.

She shot him a look of skepticism before her lips curled into a smile. “Why do I have a feeling that you have an even bigger plan brewing in your mind?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” He feigned a look of innocence. “I’m just a guy asking a girl if she’ll embark on a new friendship journey with me.”

Danni rapidly blinked her eyes in surprise before she burst out in laughter. Soon, he was laughing right along with her. When their laughing began to die down, Danni spoke first.

“I’m curious as to what this friendship journey will entail and, although I want to say no, I’m too curious not to say yes.”

“Good decision,” he said as they walked in a comfortable stride. Jaleen really didn’t have a plan brewing like Danni had assumed. But now that she’d put the idea in his mind, a friendship plan with Danni was exactly what he would concoct.

* * *

As Jaleen glanced around the poor excuse for a rooftop terrace of the South Beach boutique hotel he’d be renovating over the course of the next few months, he couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed at the task before him. It was one of five hotels he had to flip and though he usually didn’t stress out over jobs, he was stressing over this one.

Although the family business his grandfather had started began as a small real-estate company, Jaleen’s father and uncle had grown Walker Realty Partner into a multimillion-dollar company. In the Walker family, your path was laid out for you from the time you were born. Both of Jaleen’s older brothers each had a key role in the business, and although flipping real estate was a huge part of their company, Jaleen’s specialty was flipping boutique resorts. It was something he’d started doing just to see if he could prove to his father that he could be an asset to the family business. Jael Walker was not a man who was easily impressed. Especially when he felt as though his youngest son wasn’t cutthroat enough to make the decisions needed to get far in the industry.

“Hey, boss, where do you want us to start?”

Jaleen glanced over at Jesse, the head of his construction team. “Rally up the team in the back of the restaurant on the lower level.”

“Will do.”