A Reservation for One (Untamed Love Series Book 1) Page 11

  He had no idea what he was going to say to her when she came to work. Ellis tried several times to contact her over the weekend, but his calls had all gone straight to voicemail.

  Hanging out with her was supposed to be fun—safe. But it was entirely too much fun and the complete opposite of safe. Their date turned out to be a disaster for so many reasons, not the least of which was that his grandmother would kill him. They didn’t want the same things, and she was an employee. His grandmother would kill him. She was still tangled up with her ex, and he didn’t even have a home address in the state. Not to mention, Haven had become a good friend and sex always complicated things. That friend with benefits bullshit didn’t even work in the movies. But even with a list of why he should leave well enough alone, Ellis still wanted her.

  His mind kept coming back to . . . what if? No. That wasn’t even an option. He’d never been monogamous in his life. Ellis would only end up hurting her, or worse—getting hurt. Haven wasn’t over her ex.

  Not having spoken to her over the weekend to straighten out the madness was going to make this morning awkward when she came into work.

  “I’ll just have to take the blame and apologize, again.” Saying it out loud made him feel a little better about it.

  There was a knock on the door. Ellis checked his watch and sucked in a breath. It was probably Haven and time to man-up.

  He stood and came around to the front of his desk. “Come in.”

  Her head popped through a crack in the door. “I was hoping I could have a word with you.”

  “Of course. Come on in, Vanessa.” Ellis was grateful for the short reprieve, and that is wasn’t Haven.

  Vanessa came inside then pushed the door behind her but didn’t close it all the way. She sashayed into his office. “C’mon, now. I think we’ve known each other a little too well and for too long for you not to call me Vicky.”

  “Which is precisely why we should keep it professional. What’s up? What can I do for you?”

  Her voice was throaty. “I could think of a million things you could do to me. All of them pleasurable.”

  Ellis wasn’t in the mood. “I’m extremely busy. Again, what do you want? Does this concern my grandmother?”

  “Not exactly.” Vanessa walked a little closer until her body pressed up against his. She wrapped her arms around his neck.

  In an instant, Ellis attempted to remove them without being violent, but Vanessa kept her arms locked. She purred, “Why are you being so difficult? You’ve been home almost two months, and I’ve yet to have any private time with you.”

  Ellis yanked her arms apart and pushed her away. “The first time, over two years ago, was a mistake. You should be well over that episode by now. Being with you again would make me clinically insane.”

  “It’s because of Haven isn’t it?” Vanessa seethed with jealousy. “Her little innocent act is just that. I know you’re smart enough to recognize it.”

  Ellis’ eyes narrowed. “What I know is that you’re walking on thin ice. You have a job because my grandmother trusts you. I don’t.”

  “Now you don’t trust me, but, when we were making love you didn’t seem to have a problem!”

  “Let’s get a couple of things straight. Fucking and making love are two different things. We had sex. I told you up front; I wasn’t interested in anything else.” Ellis couldn’t prove it, but he also had a feeling she was the source of articles that began popping up in the press about his private life.

  Vanessa whisper-yelled, “You always use that sorry ass excuse! You can’t keep jerking me around . . .”

  “Jerking you around? We had sex, once! I never called you on the phone, never took you to dinner, a movie, or anywhere. The only place I took you was to bed. You might want to get a doctor to examine whatever it is in your head that’s making you think what we did was anything more than sex.”

  “Vanessa!” Bertha was calling out to for her. “Vanessa, where are you?”

  Instantly, her demure act returned. “I’m in here ma’am.”

  Ellis had to admit, to see it happen in front of him, freaked him out. It was truly as if Vanessa were two different people.

  Bertha pressed the button to her wheelchair and rolled up into the office. She pushed the door open, her smile wide. “Here you are. I wondered where you went while I was taking that phone call. Good morning, Ellis.”

  He walked over and kissed her. “Good morning.”

  “Your grandfather used to love this office. I couldn’t get him to come out of it. I won’t let you do the same. Speaking of getting out of the house. How was your date with Haven?”

  “It wasn’t a date.”

  She smiled mischievously. “Deny all you want but old ladies are smart. I know the truth.”

  Almost imperceptively, Vanessa’s lips tightened.

  Bertha turned to her. “Haven’s running a little late. I know you usually run errands around this time. Do you mind sticking around until she gets here? It shouldn’t be too long.”

  Vanessa nodded. “Of course.” She glared at Ellis before smiling down sweetly at Bertha. “I would do anything for the McKenna’s.”

  Bertha didn’t seem to notice the tension in the air. “Great. I’m starved. Let’s head down to the kitchen.” She turned to Ellis. “Would you care to join us?”

  “I would, but I’ve got a lot of work to do this morning.”

  “Lunch, then?”

  He returned her smile with a lop-sided grin of his own. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  As his grandmother and Vanessa left, Ellis knew he was going to have to do something he should have done a long time ago. He was going to have to fire her. But, the worst of it was going to be explaining why to his grandmother.

  Chapter 17

  For the first time ever, Haven was late for work. She did not want to see Ellis’ face and all of the back and forth in her mind on how to deal with him was the reason. Haven was frustrated but mostly embarrassed at her own behavior.

  The closer she came to the McKenna estate the less she was able to focus on the words coming out of her mother’s mouth.

  “Haven . . . Haven, are you listening to me?”

  “Hmm . . . um . . . yes. Sorry.”

  “I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t absolutely need the money.”

  “Mom, I don’t have five hundred, but I think I can come up with three.” Haven would have to put off buying a car until her next paycheck.

  “Well, if that’s all you have, it’ll do. Couldn’t you ask those rich folks you work for to get the rest of it?”

  “No! Absolutely not. What about Detrick? He’s still living with you right?”

  “You know Detrick is down on his luck. He doesn’t have a job.”

  Anger rose up in Haven’s chest. “Detrick hasn’t had a job since the two of you started dating. That was almost two years ago.” He was the excuse her mother used for not being there when Haven needed her most.

  Katrina sighed heavily into the phone. “Let’s not argue. When can you wire me the money?”

  Haven pulled up into the McKenna’s circular driveway. Briefly, she shut her eyes. “If they’re open when I get off work, I’ll do it tonight. I’m not going to class.”

  “Good. Good. That will work out fine.”

  “Mom, I’m at work. I’ve got to go.”

  “Okay. We’ll talk later? Tell Dylan I said hello.”

  Haven and Dylan had been broken up for months, and her mother still didn’t know. There never seemed to be a moment where everything wasn’t about Katrina Shaw. Haven didn’t see any reason to correct her now. “Yeah. Will do. Talk to you later.”

  After taking another minute to get herself together, Haven got out of the car. She dreaded seeing Ellis, but it was time to face the music. She’d behaved like a little slut-bucket with her employer’s grandson, and the worse part about it was, had he not stopped them, Haven would have slept with him. Her face went up in flames just thinking abo
ut it.

  *****

  Haven managed to get through most of the morning without running into Ellis. That ended the moment Bertha went up for a nap.

  She was in the library reading over her notes when he walked in.

  “You mind if I talk to you for a moment?” Seeing Haven with no makeup, hair in a messy ponytail, and hunched over her books still took his breath away.

  Haven straightened her back. She’d been preparing for this conversation all weekend. “No. Not at all.”

  “I wasn’t sure you would since you didn’t take any of my calls.”

  Haven bit the inside of her lip. “Yeah . . . um . . . turned my phone off. Didn’t get your messages until today.”

  “Look . . . I get it. I also don’t do this often so if I screw up, I apologize in advance. I’m not used to explaining myself, so here goes.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “First, I’m sorry about what happened the other night.”

  Haven could only stare. She couldn’t make her voice work.

  “I know I’ve already said that, but I just lost my head. You were beautiful, we were having a good time, and one thing led to another. It should never have gone as far as it did. I would never want to take advantage of you.”

  She didn’t hear much after you were beautiful.

  “Haven?”

  She checked back into the conversation desperately trying to remember what he’d just said. “I’m sorry?”

  “Do you accept my full apology? I’ve really come to appreciate you as a friend. I hope I haven’t ruined that.”

  Her smile was forced. The pitch of her voice was too high. “Yes. I accept, and of course, you haven’t ruined anything.” Haven wasn’t sure why his words didn’t leave her feeling relieved, but, really, she knew why. Because in the back of her mind, she wondered what it would have been like to get to know Ellis on that level. “You have nothing to apologize for. You weren’t acting alone. I’m sure too much wine had a little bit to do with us getting carried away. We had already said that we would just chalk anything crazy up to that and leave it there.”

  “So, we’re good?” Ellis’ face had the look of relief on it.

  “Better than good.” She hadn’t been honest with herself until this very moment, so there was no point in telling him the only thing she was sorry about was that they hadn’t hooked up.

  Thoughts of Dylan seemed to come at the worst possible moments. Haven felt guilty for it. They hadn’t been broken up long enough to be already interested in someone else—or sleeping with them either.

  Maybe she should give him one more chance to make sure she was genuinely ready to move on. Haven had to wonder if this new revelation was actually about Dylan or her way of not having to deal with her budding feelings for Ellis.

  The only thing Haven knew for sure was that she was more confused now than she had been just twenty-four hours ago.

  Chapter 18

  Dylan had been relentless in pursuing Haven ever since she’d attended the charity event with Ellis, almost as if he’d had a sixth sense of her forbidden tryst. She finally gave in and accepted his dinner invitation shortly after her heart to heart with Ellis.

  Haven felt things for him she hadn’t wanted to admit. Even though their relationship had returned somewhat to normal, that night in the limo was never too far from her mind. If she were really honest, her date with Dylan might have a little to do with exercising thoughts of Ellis out of her consciousness. Considering her history with her ex, she was surprised that it wasn’t the other way around.

  Something lingered on her mind. It was curious that Dylan hadn’t backed off after all this time. He continued to pursue her with reckless abandon. Haven’s suspicious mind, when it came to him, was taking over. In the big scheme of things, a few months really wasn’t that long of a separation considering they’d been together for four years.

  After trying to make sense out of her personal life, Haven wasn’t sure if she was the biggest fool for accepting his invite or the biggest hypocrite. Probably a little of both, but, at the end of the day, this was her life and right or wrong, she had to live it. She didn’t ever want to look back and have regrets. She needed to give Dylan one last chance if for no other reason than their shared history and the amount of time they had devoted to each other. If and when she moved on, Haven wanted to do it with a clear conscious.

  Staring at her reflection in the mirror, she tried to dial back the sexy in her outfit but still hoped to achieve flirty. Haven thought the simple black dress and leather boots that came up just under her knees were perfect. Granted, the dress did hug every curve, and the boots added an extra few inches to her five-foot-seven-inch frame, adding the smoky-eye makeup and plum lipstick finished off her look and gave her a more vixen than vampy look. She chastened herself. “I’m not a tramp, but I’m not vanilla either.” A small smile started to form at the corners of her lips because maybe there was a little piece of her that did want to prove Dylan wrong.

  Her doorbell rang. Haven, took one final look in the mirror before running her fingers through her big bouncy curls and high-tailed it to the door.

  She stopped just before turning the knob and took a deep breath to calm her nerves. After a second or two, Haven opened the door. Dylan stood on the other side looking sexier than she’d ever seen him . . . but there weren’t any butterflies in her stomach. He wore a wine-colored blazer that was tapered to fit him perfectly with a white button up shirt. He’d left the top two buttons undone, some things never changed. He also had on a pair of fitted jeans that in the past made Haven want to drool.

  As sexy as he was, he still paled in comparison to Ellis. Nope, not today Satan! Haven chastised herself. No thoughts of that man.

  Dylan leaned over and touched his lips softly to hers. This time, Haven didn’t pull back and prayed she felt something. Nothing.

  His gaze was heated as it traveled the length of her, but it wasn’t reflected in the kiss. It was more of a light peck and completely undemanding—a first for him. As he stepped back, she got a whiff of his musky cologne. It was her favorite. His cocky smile immediately showed that he thought he was having an effect on her that he wasn’t. However, Haven wouldn’t correct him.

  He asked. “You ready to go?”

  Haven answered and nodded at the same time. “Yes. I’m ready.”

  *****

  Dylan wasn’t about to take any chances with Haven, so he took her to The Monaco restaurant for dinner. It had taken him weeks to get the reservation. He was sure that, in the end, all of his efforts would pay off.

  She couldn’t believe her bad luck. Was God serious? Did Dylan really just bring her to the same restaurant Ellis had brought her to a couple of weeks ago?

  After that night in the parking lot with Haven, Dylan researched Ellis James McKenna on the internet. The man had money to burn and didn’t seem like the settling-down kind. Dylan had that going in his favor. But, what dude allowed a beautiful woman to borrow a car like Haven’s? More than likely, someone who’s intentions weren't good. Fortunately, for Dylan, Ellis’ grandmother’s nurse went to his gym. Meeting her changed everything. Vanessa helped him put things into perspective.

  Money wasn’t an object for Ellis. He could lease dozens of cars for plenty of women, but something told Dylan that wasn’t the case with Haven.

  Still, he had an ace in the hole. Haven still cared for him. He knew her body language like the back of his hand. Even if she wasn’t head over heels, it was still clear as day, at the very least, she wasn’t over him. Dylan knew that Haven wanted and needed to be wooed. If that’s what she wanted, he would give it to her.

  The lighting at the restaurant was dim. The flames from the candles flickered across her face. It was a place for lovers.

  “What do you think about this spot?”

  “It’s really nice.” She almost said I’ve been here before and you really didn’t have to do all of this for me but then thought better of it. He did and he should. Dylan ow
ed her that and more.

  “I’ve told you that I’m a changed man. I’ll do anything for you, and you certainly deserve the best.”

  A flash of skepticism appeared on her face.

  “What? You don’t believe me?”

  “Dylan, what I know, is a few months is not a lot of time to change.”

  The waitress interrupted their conversation when she came to take their drink order. After she’d gone, Dylan responded.

  “I would say under normal circumstances yes, but being without you for all this time has made me really think about the possibility of there no longer being an us. I can’t imagine my future without you. I see what Zach and Andrea have, and that should be you and me.”

  Haven hesitated before plowing through with her thoughts. “I figured this conversation would come after dinner, but it seems like now is the perfect opportunity to ask. If you loved me so much, then why all the cheating? Why wasn’t I enough?” Her voice broke on the last word. If Haven was seriously going to consider letting Dylan back into her life, she needed answers.

  Dylan’s smile faltered. “The last couple of years have just been hard. I had to deal with so much and honestly . . . I felt as if you weren’t there for me. It was like Ms. McKenna, school, and everything else came before me.”

  Haven dropped her head slightly from the pain of a memory. She pressed her lips together. After a moment, she was able to speak. “I shared the same loss as you Dylan. I felt our child moving within me for seven months.” Haven’s eyes became glassy. “I was devastated when we lost her. I didn’t know how to get past my own grief, and I’m sorry if you think I wasn’t there for you. But I never thought about cheating.” Her voice a barely a whisper. “Meeting Ms. McKenna at that chapel may have saved my life.”

  The waitress came back with their drinks. Haven and Dylan grew quiet, and both took long sips from their glasses as soon as she set them down.

  The woman pulled out her pad. “Are you two ready?” Quickly, they gave their order, and she scurried off.