***
‘Why the fuck is he staring at me?’ Ty asked himself, trying not to fidget. He’d never felt that uncomfortable in his life.
Ty was sitting on a couch in Paul Ashton’s luxury living room, pretending not to be bothered by the elderly man’s intense gaze on him. Paul Ashton sat across from him, in another couch tapping a foot against the plush rug beneath his feet. He’d been staring at Ty for what felt like hours.
Ty had gotten to the Ashton home at exactly ten a. m. Dora Ashton had met him at the door with a cheerful smile and waved him onto a couch. Anyone looking at Ty wouldn’t have possibly noticed how shaky he was inside. Or so he hoped.
“Paul will be with you in a moment Ty.” Dora had informed him. “Would you care for anything?”
“I’m good thanks.” He’d responded politely but Dora had tilted her head to one side and looked at him…assessing him.
“I think you need a strong drink. Scotch? Cognac?”
“I’d rather not Ma’am.”
“Dora.” She’d corrected automatically. “And Ty?”
“Yes, Dora?”
“Relax.”
Ty’s eyes had widened in surprise. Then he nodded. And as he watched Dora leave, he wished he’d accepted the offer of the scotch. “Fuck.” He muttered to himself.
Now, looking at the stern face of the elderly man sitting across from him, Ty couldn’t help but feel he’d done something wrong. But what had he done wrong? Ty hoped the man remembered that he’d brought his daughter home before twelve midnight the night before, as he’d promised. By eleven twenty p. m. the night before, Ty’s sleek metallic black Bugatti Veyron was parked in front of the Ashton Mansion. He clearly remembered how displeased Tanesha had been with that.
“We came too early.” Tanesha had groaned.
“Sure about that?” Ty murmured. “Any later and Cole would have heard your scream of release.”
“Skull…” Tanesha slapped Ty on his arm, making him burst into laughter. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
“Did you see your father’s face?” Ty turned his head to look at Tanesha. “I don’t want to take chances.”
“We could have danced a bit more.” She whimpered.
“You call what we were doing dancing?” Ty chuckled.
Tanesha giggled. “No, I wouldn’t call it that. But it’s not my fault you didn’t want to dance. I did love what we were doing though. But it was definitely not dan…” Tanesha trailed off when Ty began to punch some buttons on the music console, immediately filling the car with the lovely violin orchestration that precedes Etta Jones’ ‘At Last’. She couldn’t help the smile that brightened her face.
Ty got out of the car and quickly went around to Tanesha’s side. He bowed and reached out to take her hand. “May I have this dance Ma’am?”
“It will be my pleasure,” Tanesha responded like the lady she was, her heart fluttering inside her chest.
Ty drew her to him just as Etta James’ melodious voice began to belt out the song. And right out there, under the stars, the young lovers swayed to that lovely song.
‘At last
My love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song’
It was the perfect setting for that amazing song, Tanesha couldn’t help but think as they moved to the tune. It was…magical.
‘At last
The skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up in clover
The night I looked at you’
Tanesha looked up and found Ty’s smoldering gaze on her. Her breath caught. That look never failed to turn her insides to mush.
…And here we are in heaven
for you are mine…
At Last’
When the song ended, they kept staring at each other, still completely lost in the magic of the song.
“Thank you for the dance,” Ty said huskily, just as affected by their dance as Tanesha.
“Finally, our first real dance of the night,” Tanesha whispered. “I promise I’m going to sing this song to you…when you least expect it.” She said shakily. “I love you, Ty.”
“I love you, Tan,” Ty responded hoarsely. “Ready to head in?”
Tanesha’s mood instantly changed. “Will you call me when you get home?” She asked in a small voice, trying very hard not to cry. She didn’t want Ty to go. It felt as though she was losing him all over again. “I don’t have your number. I don’t know where you live.” She said pitifully. “I don’t know…” She started crying.
“Give me your phone.” Ty didn’t think it was necessary to save his number on Tanesha’s phone as his plan was to call her immediately he got home. But Tanesha was crumbling right in front of his eyes, and he needed to at least give her something.
Tanesha pulled out of Ty’s embrace and went to the car to pick up her clutch. Then with shaky fingers, she opened it, took out her cell phone, and gave it to Ty. Ty saved his number and gave the phone back.
“I’ll call you immediately I get home.” He assured her. “I don’t know how my day will go tomorrow. After my meeting with your father, I need to get back to the office to take care of some paperwork. We’ll communicate and know when and where we can meet. Then I will take you to see where I live, okay?”
“Okay.” Tanesha didn’t sound like her usual confident self and it was killing Ty. “Hey come here.” He crushed her to him and hugged her till she was calm enough to enter the house.
Ty knew for a fact that Tanesha had entered the house before twelve midnight. And although they’d talked on the phone till dawn, the fact still remained that he’d managed to get Tanesha home before her father’s curfew. So why was the man eyeballing him?
“So you decided to have sex with my daughter when you were supposed to be keeping her safe.” Paul went for the jugular.