Free Taming Blake (A New Adult Romance): The Complete Trilogy by Charlotte Eve Page B

man, the harder I found him to read, but I could swear there was an oddly suggestive tone to his voice.
    All of a sudden he was lifting himself to his feet, running a hand through his thick shiny hair, preparing to leave.
    I was trying to keep myself together, but my face must have given me away and he looked down at me, as if disappointed, as if I was some schoolgirl, causing a scene.
    “Jessica,” he sighed. “I’m not leaving because I’m mad at you. I need to get back to the office.”
    Embarrassed, I turned my face away, busying myself by fishing my wallet from my bag.
    He sighed once more.
    “Put that away. This is on my tab.”
    And with that he was gone. I watched his tall, athletic frame as he walked out through the restaurant.
    You well and truly screwed that up, didn’t you?

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
     
    That Friday afternoon in Workshop, I felt my attention straying. I’d made little headway all week since my frustrating lunch with Blake. I looked uneasily around the busy coffee house, before opening my purse and slipping out one of the sleek black tickets Blake had flung at me.
    ADMIT ONE .
    The party was tonight, and if I was going, it certainly wasn’t with Greg. His shift at the bar didn’t finish till 3 a.m., and anyway, he’d never been one for partying, even back in college.
    I opened a new Ghat window to Fallon on my MacBook.
    “You there?” I typed.
    “As always,” she replied almost instantaneously.
    “What are your plans for tonight?”
    “We’re playing Pete’s Candy Store at 11. Why? U finally coming? ;-)”
    I flicked the ticket in my fingers, feeling the expensive, silky matte-finish of its paper.
    “Maybe,” I replied.
     
    §
     
    “Have fun tonight,” Greg said, kissing me tenderly at the door before he left for his shift at the bar.
    I kissed him back hard, part of me wishing that for once he’d just throw caution to the wind, push me up against the wall, tug my skirt around my hips and thrust his hand roughly between my legs. But instead, after a moment, he pulled away, a sweet, simple smile on his face. “I’ll see you in bed,” he said, just as he always did, and then he was gone, leaving me alone once more in the apartment.
    I strode over to the floor length mirror, again hearing Blake’s words from yesterday:
    You’ve got a good body . From what I’ve seen of it so far.
    I’d never had anyone say anything so direct to me before, especially not about my body . After all, Greg was the only guy I’d ever really been particularly intimate with, and while I knew that he found me attractive, he was more of the gruff, silent type.
    No, this felt different — and to be honest, I was kind of enjoying the thought of my body actually turning Blake on, being that ‘perfect design’ he’d mentioned.
    And what exactly does he mean by ‘so far’?
    I stood in front of my wardrobe, looking in at all my clothes, the vintage finds, the polka-dot dresses I liked to wear on the weekends, then all my old work clothes, the dowdy pencil skirts and blouses that I’d once been so proud of – and that I was now intending to take to Goodwill at the next available opportunity, then at my new clothes. I was seriously falling in love with all my beautiful new outfits, but there was one in particular that I hadn’t dared to wear yet.
    It was a tight black Hervé Léger bandage dress, coupled with a pair of skyscraper-high Louboutins.
    Fallon had practically begged me to get them; it’d always been a fantasy of hers to get a pair.
    I’d protested, of course – wondering when I’d even need to wear something like this during my work with Blake, but she’d insisted that there would be ‘client dinners’ and so forth. And she simply wouldn’t take no for an answer.  
    As I got dressed, I realized there was no way I’d be able to wear a bra with this dress. Not that I needed one anyway, but still. It felt kind of strange, like I was already half-naked ...
     
    §
     
    Okay Blake , I