Harrison and Vincent looked down, too, and saw the mess. But they also saw the outline of her breasts against the wet t-shirt she wore. Which caused Vincent to smile. But when Harrison looked into her interesting face, it was that face that instantly turned him on. So much so that he got an erection. Which was unusual for a man like him who had more than his share of opportunities to satisfy that part of his life. But it was undeniable.
But what was even more startling was when he looked into her big, soulful, tobacco-brown eyes, he felt a jolt to his system that caught him so off guard that it alarmed him.
What was that about?
Vincent was about to tell her to get lost again, but Harrison held up a hand to stop him from talking to or advancing on her. “What do you want?” he asked her.
“What do you think? Look what your driver did to me. He didn’t have to fly through that puddle like he was on a racetrack.He knew it had been raining. He drenched me!”
Now Harrison was upset. “You speak as if he did it on purpose. He didn’t see you.Ididn’t see you!”
That did it for Jayda. “Nobody sees me,” she said with such passion in her voice and so heartfelt that it captured Harrison’s and even Vincent’s attention. “But just because you don’t see me that doesn’t mean I’m not here!”
Harrison was so thrown by her response that he couldn’t stop himself from staring at her. She had a strong, fierce, unrelenting look about her, as if she refused to be disrespected. But she had a somber look, too, as if life was beating her down and she was tired of it. But it was all of it together that elevated her from just another cute biker in the streets of New York, to somebody completely different. This lady was a fighter. And the way he responded to her physically and emotionally, as well, intrigued him.
He was so taken by her that he didn’t realize Vincent was arguing with her. “Stay out of the way and you won’t get splashed,” he said. “Now move!” Vincent pushed her aside.
When his push nearly caused her and her bike to fall, she pushed Vincent right back. “I’m not talking to you, Beefcakes,” she yelled at him.
Vincent got angrier. “But I’m talking to you, smartass! So what you got splashed? Welcome to New York lady!”
Jayda wanted to cry. She was just that outdone. She was nothing to them. They were acting as if she splashed herself. And she was tired of being dismissed every day of her life as if she didn’t matter.
But when she looked over and saw that smug look on the face of the one who undoubtedly owned the limousine, she felt so tiny. He was staring at her with that same look Kenny had given her, as if she was a piece of trash, and her anger got the best of her. People could treat her any kind of way they wanted to and she was supposed to just take it. She was tired of taking it. “What are you looking at, you perv?!” she lashed out at Harrison. Then she kicked the front side panel of his limo with her shoe, denting it, and then she rode away. She knew what she did was wrong. But it wasn’t as if he didn’t deserve it.
And now Vincent was outdone. “You see what that little bitch just did, Boss? She dented your limo. Want me and Des to go after her ass?”
But Harrison didn’t respond. The last thing on his mind was some dent in his limo. He was still watching her as she rode away. Why did he find her so intriguing? Had he seen her before? Since he never forgot a face, he knew he hadn’t. But she certainly commanded his attention in those few moments she was in front of him. Which was a shocker to him. That hadn’t happened in he couldn’t remember how long.
But she was gone as quickly as she had appeared. He watched until she was clean out of sight.
But Vincent was waiting for a response, and was puzzled by the boss’s reaction. “You want us to chase her down, sir?”
It was only then did Harrison even look at him. “Chase her down?”
“Yes sir. Look what she did to your car?”
Harrison saw the small dent.
“We can chase her down.”
“No. There’s no need. Desmond drenched her. The least I can do is absorb a dent.” Then he looked at Vincent. “And if you inject yourself into any conversation that is directed at me, you’re fired.”
The bodyguard swallowed hard. He knew he meant it too. “Yes sir,” he said.
But Harrison was still thinking about that woman.Just because you don’t see me, that doesn’t mean I’m not here, she’d said. Those were the words that still resonated with him. As if those words, or the woman conveying them, had touched a nerve. A very raw, unused nerve deep inside of him.
But when he saw his bodyguard glance at his driver as if they both found his behavior odd, and when Vincent mentioned didn’t he have a meeting he had to attend, he came back to himself and looked at his Rolex. When he realized he was going to be late for his first meeting on a day filled with meetings, which would throw all the other meetings late, he forgot about her as quickly as he had considered her. And hurried through the side door of the mammoth Bainbridge Capital Trust building where his senior VP, who was actually Harrison’s assistant, was awaiting his arrival.
CHAPTER SIX
Later that night, Jayda dropped by her apartment to change out of the muddy clothes she’d been forced to work in all that day after getting drenched by that idiot limo driver. Her other gig, as a waitress at the Sandhurst restaurant, required her to wear a white, long sleeve shirt, black trousers, and black tennis shoes.
She showered and changed into that outfit, put on her name tag, and then looked in the closet to see if Kenny had come back for the rest of his things. He had a few more clothing items to get, and paperwork too. Which only annoyed her even more. They were done. She didn’t ever want to see his face again. She almost wanted to bleach the rest of his things the way those ladies did on those TV shows and be done with his ass for real. But she didn’t have that kind of maliciousness in her.
But one thing for sure: She’d never go back to a man who had spoken to her so nastily as if he couldn’t stand the sight of her. She’d never go that low. But she had rent that was coming due next month and they always split the rent. Now it was all up to her? On her two pieces of jobs? How in the world was she going to manage that?
She wanted to pray about it: She knew prayer changed things. But she would feel like a hypocrite if she even tried. Although she was raised in the church thanks to her father, and believed fervently in God, she’d been living for nearly a year with a man who wasn’t her husband, was estranged from her drama-plagued family for even longer than that, and just didn’t feel like she deserved God’s help. She wasn’t living right. She didn’t feelclean and innocent and full of hope and vitality the way she felt when she first arrived in New York when she was ten years old. The big city, and all those fated dreams she had of making it big herself, had sucked the girl she used to be completely out of her. And Kenny and all those heartbreaking boyfriends before him did the rest.
