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Chapter 22

“Whom are you looking for?”Christy asked Nicolas right before Maya had the chance to reach the door.

“Hello! Is this Maya James’s apartment?”

“Why yes it is? Who you might be?” Christy said with a teasing glint in her eyes.

“My name is Nicolas Larkson. I believe Maya is expecting me”

“Yes hello Nicolas I am sorry. Let me introduce you. This is my neighbor and friend Christy. Christy this is my boss Nicolas. We are going to be on our way now. So if you please when you finish eating my food, lock my apartment on your way out.”

“Nice to meet you Nicolas. Aren’t you going to come in?” Christy extended her hand to Nicolas and he took it in his for the briefest of moments.

“Nope, we don’t won’t to be late” Maya exited her apartment and practically dragged Nicolas with her not giving him a chance to accept the offer.

“Nice to meet you Christy. Maybe some other time.” He all but shouted while Maya had a death grip on his hand and was pushing him in the elevator.

“I’ll hold you to that” Christy shouted and closed the door.

“Well you were in a hurry to leave. You must be really hungry. Alexandro’s has great food and I am sure you will be satisfied” Nicolas said clearly amused by the whole situation.

Maya blushed at that comment. Which reminded her that she hadn’t eaten anything since lunch and that she would be extremely hungry at dinner. That would be bad because she did not intend to scare away Nicolas with her extensive eating habits. “No I just wanted to spare you the third degree from Christy. I told her that this was a business dinner but after your flowers arrived she couldn’t stop teasing me. By the way thanks you for the flowers they were beautiful. You shouldn’t have bothered.”

Nicolas smiled one of his heartbreaking smiles at her and said “It was no bother at all. Someone as beautiful and charming as you should be getting roses everyday”

Maya blushed even more and could not find anything to say to her. Her mind had gone completely blank. Lucky for her the elevator reached the ground floor and they had to exit. Nicolas showed her to his car and held open the door for her. That was a first for her since JD which was her longest relationship never bothered. He had also commented sometime that he thought it to be a sign of weakness for a woman to need the man to open the door for her. If a woman considered herself powerful and confident, she should do most things by herself. She did not agree with him but did not want him to think of her as week either so she had not spoken her mind on the matter. “You are out with your gorgeous boss and you are thinking of your scumbag ex boyfriend? Get a grip girl” her inner voice chastised her and she instantly turned her attention to Nicolas. He was wearing one of his well tailored suits that molded to his body accentuating his muscular form. She wondered what kind of sports he did to keep his body fit like that. When she moved to his face she saw him looking at her with an amused grin on his face. She was soooo basted ogling him. Once again she got red as a tomato and averted her eyes to the road ahead of them. They were near the restaurant which meant she must have been ogling him for a long time. She got even redder at that thought. “Way to go Maya on keeping a professional front” she told herself and tried to compose herself as much as possible with his nearness distracting her all over again.

When they reached the restaurant he gave the vale his keys to park the car and guided Maya inside. He put his hand on the small of Mayas back as they entered and felt a shiver go through her whole body. Her reaction made him really happy. He was not the only one affected. He had repeatedly caught her staring at him during the drive when he was trying to steal glances of her. She was mesmerizing tonight. The dress she was wearing was very elegant but managed to show her curves in the best way possible. He loved the fact that she was not skinny. He liked women with curves in all the right places and Maya was not lacking in any of those places. And her eyes. Her eyes had something hypnotic on them tonight. That was the reason he had not said a word during their drive at the restaurant. It was as if she had swallowed his concentration.

The waiter sat them down in a secluded table with candles and a vase with red roses. Maya looked around and saw that the other tables were lacking the roses. She wondered if he had asked the restaurant to put them on their table, but she refrained from asking him. He looked deep in her eyes but he did not say a thing. She felt totally captivated by the way he was looking at her and got a little startled when the waiter approached them to take their order. She knew that although she was famished by now, she would order only a salad. But Nicolas had another thing coming. He ordered a fine wine and five different plates from the menu that he claimed were divine and that she absolutely had to sample them. Only thinking about them made her mouth water. She had no idea how she was going to resist those delicacies.

As soon as the wine arrived and they drunk their first glass they both relaxed a little bit and started talking. At first their talk revolved around work. Maya told him about how everybody had welcomed her in their company and how good they treated her so far as if she worked with them all her life.

“Well it is really a great place to work. I mean everyone is always very eager to help me in everything I need. That has been a life savior for me during those months you were away in Europe. I mean I had to replace you in running your company and if not for their cooperation I would have spend half my time searching for where most things were around the office. After the first day had passed I felt a lot more reassured that everything was going to work out, because whenever I needed a file or some information on a client or a deal, all I had to do is call July and she would connect me to the person who knew what I needed. So the thing really rolled out fine. That is why you had all these deals prepared for you when you came back. It really was not all me. It was team work. And that is the best part. In all my previous jobs the personnel was trying to undermine one another for their gain and that was so frustrating for me. Not to be able to rely on a colleague's help.” Nicolas appreciated her honesty and the fact that she did not try to take credit for all the work that had been done during his absence. He knew his crew and he was certain they all have helped her, especially during her first weeks in the company.

“I can assure you that I have hand picked very carefully each and every one of my employees. I know that in my line of work I have to be out of town from time to time and I needed with me people that I could rely on. I did not want to have half my mind back in the office the minute I stepped out of it. After all the hard work we have put together all these years, I consider them as part of my family. I was leaving you in good hands” He winked at her.

“So it was them you were sure of, not my abilities” She said pretending to be offended.

“Sweetheart like I told you I handpick each and everyone of my employees and I try to get the best of the best. That applied to you too.” He winked at her again and the butterflies in her stomach started their wild dance once again.

After talking a little more about work that was of course their safest subject, the conversation moved to their families.

“So tell me about your family. Do you have any brothers I should be watching out for?” He teased her and she laughed heartily.

“No, you are safe. I am an only child. My parents are the only family I have got. I really love them. We have a very special relationship and of course they adore me. Their only fault is that they have tried to shelter me from everything bad since I was a baby. I mean they gave the word overprotective a whole new meaning. So after I graduated from college I decided to live on my own and try to survive in the big bad world. Of course my parents did not like that idea and I knew that the only way to convince them I should have a place of my own, without hurting their feelings, was to find a job in a town different form the one they live in. That was why I ended up working here in this town where I have spend my college years. It has many job opportunities for me and I already have some friends here. It is also close enough to my home town for my folks to be able to visit me when my absence becomes unbearable for them.”

“Don't you feel suffocated by your parents?” he asked

“Well sometimes I do. But I know their behavior is like that because they love too much. And to tell you the truth if I was in their position I am not sure I would be a lot different. I totally give myself to people I love and the thought of them hurt can really destroy me.” She said honestly and Nicolas admired her dedication to her loved ones.

“Soooo you have many friends here. Guy friends?” he asked a little bit jealously and she laughed

“I am very close to Christy that used to be my roommate. We are very close , she is like the sister I have never had. We have stuck together in all the good and the bad moments that have come along our paths. We are each other’s rocks even though she is “a complete nut case” and sometimes I just want to kill her.” Nicolas made a mental note that he had to win over Christy if he wanted a chance to a successful relationship with Maya. She apparently loved Christy and valued her opinion.

“So enough about me. I feel like I am monopolizing this conversation. Tell me about your family.”

“Both my parents are still alive and I also have a sister. We have a loving relationship but I was too independent even as a kid, so when I left for college I began planning my company and rarely had the chance to go home to visit them. I am not too happy about that nowadays, especially since my sister got married four years ago. She has two little nieces I absolutely adore and regret not being able to visit them more often. My sister always teases me that she is glad that I do not visit them more often because I always spoil rotten her girls whenever I visit them. She might be a little right about that.” he said sheepishly. His eyes sparkled when he talked about his nieces and she wondered how he would be with his own kids someday. That thought unsettled her because the idea of him married to another woman made her mad as hell. She tried to rein her emotions. She did not want to ruin their evening that was going great so far. He was seemed more interesting by the minute and she feared she would not be able to protect her heart against him for long. That thought would have given her a panic attack this morning but now after their night together it gave her a sense of peace.

Maya was so engrossed in their conversation that she did not realize they had consumed almost all their food. When the waiter came to collect the plates and ask if they would like dessert she gasped at the sight of the empty plates. Nicolas ordered a piece of each of their desserts and she begged him to cancel the order. She could not believe she had eaten like that in front of him. She wondered what he might think of her, because he did not seem fazed from her appetite. Not that he would say something. He was too much of a gentleman to do such a thing.

When the desserts arrived Maya blushed. Nicolas enveloped her hand in his and fed her a little bit of each and every one, no matter her protests that she had already eaten too much. He sincerely loved the fact that no matter her first objections she sampled all the plates he had ordered. And after she got caught up in their conversation, she ate what he considered a normal proportion of food for dinner. He was sick and tired of women that ate only salad to keep themselves skinny. His last girlfriend did not have anything in her fridge or her cupboards that did not belong in the food groups of fruit and vegetables and whenever he stayed over he almost starved. Right before their relationship ended she had the nerve to go to his place and throw what she considered inedible from his fridge. He remembered how mad he had been with her. He avoided speaking to her for two days not to murder her and after that she sent him an email that she was breaking up with him because he was unreasonable. Ha! He was unreasonable. She was not worth his thoughts especially in the company of a sweet fairy called Maya. Every time he fed her a spoon full of one of the sweet deliquesces he had ordered, she closed her eyes in total bliss. That was how she had reacted in the aftermath of each and every one of their love sessions and seeing her again like that he almost spilled himself in his briefs.

When the waiter came with the bill, Nicolas was disappointed that their evening was coming to an end. He had no intention to ask her to come up her apartment for a drink. He wanted to take things slow, because he was certain that a more direct approach would scare her away. And that was the last thing he wanted to do. But he intended to steal a kiss from her. That was his big goal for the night. Yet he did not want to be apart from her just yet.

“How would you like it if we went for a drink in a nice bar restaurant I know near here? It has live piano music. I think you would like that”

“I would love that” Maya replied happy that he did not want the night to end either. “But unfortunately tomorrow is a working day for both of us, and my boss gets really angry when I am late.” She teased him.

Nicolas blushed for the first time. Since they had met she was doing all the blushing. “I already told you I am sorry about that day. I overreacted. I am not going to do such a thing again.” He said sheepishly.

Maya laughed. “I am just teasing you, but still it is already late and we both have appointments tomorrow that we can’t ignore.”

Nicolas huffed and for the first day since he founded his company, he coursed his professionalism. “You are right. We will leave. But but but. Don’t just stand yet. I want you to promise me that we are going to repeat this dinner over this weekend.”

Maya chewed on her bottom lip and it took all he had not to replace her teeth just then. “It is not that I don’t want to go out with you again, but the girls from the office asked me to go with them on the movies and I wouldn’t want to blow them off. They have been so kind to me.”

“That is one evening. What about the others? We can do it on Friday if you want.” He knew he must have sounded desperate, but he did not want to be separated from her tonight without the promise of another date.

“The thing is they haven’t settled yet on a date and I don’t want to have you on hold. It just doesn’t feel right.”

“Don’t worry about it. Make your plans with the girls and afterwards we can make ours.” He beamed and stood from their table and helped her stand too. They left the restaurant with his hand in Maya’s back. As they waited for their car to be brought to them Maya leaned on Nicolas side for support and he, not missing the chance hugged her lightly and gave her a small peck on the lips. It was only a small peck but Maya felt an electric current to go through her whole body. She had never felt like that before and all she could do was stare at him in a daze. Their moment was interrupted by the arrival of their car. Nicolas helped her inside the car and then he drove her to her apartment. Neither of them spoke during the drive, both of them lost in their thoughts. When they reached their destination, Nicolas got out of the car and escorted Maya to her door.

“Thanks you for a wonderful evening! I look forward to more of the kind.” He whispered at her coming closer to her. Maya was looking at him deep in his eyes. She opened her mouth to say something but no words came out. Nicolas not wanting to lose the opportunity, he bent down and kissed her. This was not a peck on the lips though. It was a thorough passionate kiss that stole her breath away. After a few moments or maybe an hour, he was not sure, Nicolas withdrew. His little fairy was in a complete daze and a wave of pride coursed through him.

“Goodnight” he said

“Goodnight” she replied still in a daze and entered her apartment.

Nicolas could do a victory dance at that moment. He felt that good. He descended the stairs jumping happily at each stair like a kid and left with his car for his place.

Maya could not believe this night had happened. Everything was perfect. He made her feel so passionate and secured at the same time and she was afraid that something might happen to throw her from the top of the mountain that she was at the moment. She looked around her apartment and was happy that no one was there. She was afraid that Christy might be waiting for the details. Apparently Josh had come over. She should buy him a gift next time she saw him, because she really needed to be alone and think all the things that had happened. She undressed and got to her bed. She was sure that she would not be able to sleep for some hours, but at least when she slept, her dreams would surely be happy tonight.

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I really hope you liked it

 five pages was one of my records....

kisses everyone!!!
XXX