“Thank you,” Phylicia replied. “It means a lot to hear that. My dad left some pretty big shoes to fill, and I’m working as hard as I can to fill them.”
“You think he would be proud of what you’ve done with the business?”
Her mood changed almost instantly, a shuttered look coming over her face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. Because something was definitely wrong.
She looked at him and shook her head. “You just hit the sensitive button,” she said, but her somber smile told Jamal a whole lot more than her words.
Just when he thought she would try to change the subject, Phylicia squeezed his hand and said, “My dad and I were closer than any two people I know. I suspected that he’d wished I was a boy, but he never let me feel unwanted. In fact, he spoiled me rotten. I could get away with just about anything. From the minute I could grip a putty knife, I was in the workshop with him, handing him tools.”
“So, what happened?” Jamal asked, running his thumb along her smooth skin.
“We had different ideas about how to handle the business,” she said. “I thought it was time Dad branched out, hired additional people so we could take on bigger jobs. He didn’t agree.”
She pulled in a deep breath. “My last conversation with him was a huge fight over the direction we should take the business. He died a couple of hours after I stormed out of his workshop. I would do anything to have that day back,” she finished in a small voice.
“Your heart was in the right place,” Jamal said.
“I know,” she said. “So was Dad’s. It still doesn’t erase what happened.”
He wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her. He’d never seen Phylicia so vulnerable, and, bastard that he was, he wanted to take full advantage of it. Having her emotions so exposed, it was hard not to give in to the need to comfort her.
“I’m sorry,” she said with a delicate sniff. “Talk about a way to ruin a first date.”
“You haven’t ruined anything,” he said. “I know a thing or two about having regrets, especially where family is concerned.”
She looked up at him and squeezed his hand. In that moment, Jamal had never felt a deeper connection to a woman. It transcended mere attraction, burgeoning into something more profound.
“We’re here,” Phylicia said as they came upon a nondescript building with a simple green door. “Are you ready to hear some of the best undiscovered jazz musicians in the city?”
If it meant spending more time with her, he’d listen to a band of out-of-tune bagpipers.
Jamal opened the door, settling his hand at the small of her back as he urged her to go ahead of him. As the heat of her skin penetrated her silky top, Jamal tried to think of anything that could be better than being with her tonight.
He couldn’t come up with a single thing. Tonight had been everything he’d hoped it would be…and they were only halfway through it.
Chapter 8
The sultry soundscoming from the jazz quartet filtered through the cozy bar, creating an intimacy that was hard to ignore. As they danced, Phil concentrated on the muscles beneath her fingers as she held on to Jamal’s solid back.
She couldn’t remember the last time a man had looked at her with the same intensity as Jamal was looking at her right now. He ran a hand down her spine, stopping just above her waist. She was tempted to take that hand and move it lower until his warm palm cradled her backside.
Instead, she put her arms around Jamal’s neck and rested her head on his shoulder.
“You feel amazing,” Phil said on a sigh.
His body went rigid. When she peered up at him, his eyes were heavy with heat. “I can’t put into words how it feels to have you against me, Phylicia. I’ve been dreaming about this ever since Mya and Corey’s wedding.”
So had she. He had taken top billing in her nightly fantasies even before the wedding. It had only intensified after the hours they’d spent together that night.
In a hushed whisper, he asked, “What did I do wrong?”
“What do you mean?”
“We had such a good time that night, and then nothing. Why did I become public enemy number one?”
Contrition heated her face. “I owe you an apology for the way I treated you,” she said. “It was unfair.”
