15
Mandisa sat on the back porch swinging lightly as the music from her phone filled her ears. Eyes closed, with the sexy groove of LUV by Tory Lanez blasting through her earbuds, she allowed the emotion of the song to slowly spread through her. With each bop of her head and snap of her fingers, ideas would blossom, forming the building blocks for the scent she was creating in herhead.
To the average person, scent was something handled solely by the nose. However, for the chemist in her, scent always began with ideas about what she wanted a scent to represent, and what ingredients she’d need to build it the way her mind imaginedit.
This scent was inspired by the man she’d cradled in her arms for the last few nights. The memory of Slade, resting his head on her chest and letting her stroke the dark strands of his hair until his choppy breathing turned into a quiet bristle of wind against her skin, warmedher.
He’d scared her the night of their dinner withBull.
Not in the physical sense. She had no fear of him bringing her physical harm. But watching him battle whatever this fucked-up situation was between Slade and his father unnerved her. Slade was always calm, carefree. But when she’d asked him to discuss Macy, she almost hadn’t recognized the man who’d walked into the bedroom withher.
Bull made Slade jumpy, uneasy, and wary, none of which were attractive qualities on the bigman.
When he’d first lain in her arms, he was stiff, his body rigid with anger and pain. Pain he hadn’t wanted to voice. But even though he hadn’t revealed his pain to her in his words, the way the stiffness bled out of him as she stroked his hair and ran light fingertips across his skin told her everything she needed to know…fornow.
That dinner had caused a tide to turn in their brief but intense connection. It was somehow deeper than before. In Slade’s anger, Mandisa could see a glimpse of vulnerability she wanted to desperately protect. That vulnerability was just one more beautiful layer to the tender man she was getting toknow.
A light flashed across the inside of her lids as aromatic thoughts burst behind her eyes. She pressed her finger over the home key of her phone and pecked away at the digitalkeyboard.
Strong, fun, sexy, spicy, sweet, intriguing, intelligent, and treasured, were the words swirling around her head and olfactory system. She could feel a wide grin dancing on her lips as she thought of ways to describe Slade. She couldn’t say exactly when it happened, but at some point he had become a cherished part of her life. Someone she wanted to keep near at alltimes.
You live three thousand miles apart. How are you supposed to keep him close with that much distance between the two ofyou?
As the song played on repeat, the sensual tones sliding through her veins and stoking the bubbling emotions just beneath the surface, her mind created scenarios of how she and Slade were going to make a go of their relationship living in two different time zones. Her jam session hadn’t given her a definitive answer to the how of their situation, but she knew they’d figure out a way in theend.
Satisfied about the direction of the relationship and certain she had the correct descriptors for the new scent she was planning, she needed to go shopping and play with a mixture of ingredients to make a scent that was uniquelyhim.
She finished jotting down her notes on her phone, turned the music off, and stood up, looking out at the beautiful expanse of Slade’s land. Leaving this place, even with the knowledge she’d be frequently visiting to see it and its owner, created a small ache inside her heart. She shook herself, attempting to displace the heavy feelings trying to take over. Convinced her creative process had left her emotions exposed, she took a deep breath and headedinside.
Why sit here lamenting leaving when you can be spending time with the object of yourthoughts?
* * *
Hey, cowboy.” Slade looked up from his desk to see a smiling Mandisa leaning against the doorway. “For someone I sleep next to every night, I’ve seen very little of you over the last couple of days. I get the feeling the events of the infamous dinner with your father are still hanging overus.”
Slade closed his laptop as Mandisa slowly made her way from the door to his desk. She kept walking until she was standing next to him, twisting his swivel chair until he faced her. She climbed into his lap and snaked an arm around his neck, tugging him until their lips met in a sweetkiss.
“You don’t have to avoid me, Slade. I’m not going to hound you about the issues you have with your dad. You don’t have to spend my last few days here dodging me because of it. Or does your avoidance have to do with our bet coming to an end? Is this the part where we transition from the pleasure part to thebusiness?”
Slade closed his eyes, quickly attempting to hide the shame he felt welling up inside of him. She was right. Ever since Aaron had called with the news about the Pitkin Avenue store, Slade had been avoidingher.
Slade worked tirelessly to put his plan into action. Getting all the necessary players into position while keeping Bull in the dark hadn’t been easy, but he’d managed to do it, and tomorrow he’d finally be able to cut his father off at theknees.
“Darlin’, my scarceness doesn’t have anything to do with you. A few days after you got here, I found out my father is trying to make a play to steal my company. I’ve been working overtime to stop him. Tomorrow I take back what’smine.”
“Your company? Isn’t Logan IndustriesBull’s?”
Slade shook his head. Bull certainly wished Logan was his, but Slade would never let thathappen.
“Logan Industries was created and owned by my mother’s family. My mother dying when I was a child left us a in a bit of a pickle when my granny died and I was still a teenager. Although she left me the ownership of the business, I wasn’t technically old enough to run it. So she put the company in a trust for me until my fortieth birthday. Until then, Bull and two other trustees run it. I’m not supposed to take the reins for another fiveyears.”
Slade could see the questions swirling around in her warm chocolate eyes when she asked, “Whyforty?”
“Granny didn’t want to pressure me into taking over the business if I didn’t want it. She was attempting to give me options. What she actually did was give my father another way to attempt to control me. Don’t get me wrong—she put in failsafe contingencies to keep him from completely screwing me over, but for the last decade that I’ve worked under him, he’s used his position to tortureme.”
Concern marred her deep brown skin and reminded him yet again why he couldn’t let Bull’s tentacles reach her. She should never look worried or saddened, especially because of something his useless fatherdid.
“Slade, if my being here is a complication right now, why didn’t you just tellme?”
