Cameron gave Jasmine’s fingers a gentle squeeze. Three minutes later they were seated at a table on the colonnade terrace overlooking Wall Street. He stared at her as she glanced around the dining room. “Have you eaten here before?” he asked.
“Yes. The company I used to work for occasionally held their holiday and retirement parties here.”
There was something about Jasmine he found mesmerizing and while he knew it was rude to stare, he was past caring. He didn’t know if it was the perfection of her face, the black dress flattering the slender curves of her lithe figure, or the fluidity of her body language that indicated she was unquestionably confident in her femininity.
“Who did you work for?”
“Are you familiar with the name Wakefield Hamilton?” she asked, answering his question with one of her own.
“Yes. I remember Hannah mentioning she once worked for them.” As her financial manager, Cameron was more than familiar with his client’s resources. But when he’d asked Hannah about Jasmine, she had refused to give him any feedback. She said a grown man didn’t need her as a go-between if he was interested in her friend.
* * *
Jasmine settled back in her chair as she studied her dining partner and found him even more attractive than she had remembered. The sprinkling of lighter strands in his thick hair, parted on the left, appeared more gold than gray. A lean jaw, strong firm chin, and balanced features all made for an arresting masculine face. His light-blue eyes were an exact match for his custom-made shirt with French cuffs bearing his monogram, and she knew from the cut of the tailored dark-gray suit that it had not come off a store rack.
“Hannah did work for them, and so did I. It’s a private international investment bank,” she explained. “Last year they merged with another bank and moved the entire company to south Jersey.”
“You weren’t willing to commute?”
“I wasn’t given the opportunity to accept or reject commuting. None of us who were downsized were aware of the merger until we were told to retrieve our personal effects and then escorted out of the building.”
He grimaced. “That’s cold.”
She scrunched up her nose. “That’s one of the pitfalls of working for someone else. Even though we were given a generous severance package and health insurance coverage for a year it still didn’t lessen the pain of having the rug pulled out from under us. And as the assistant director of personnel I had no idea the merger was taking place.”
Cameron whistled softly. “Talk about a sneak attack.”
“Amen,” Jasmine said under her breath.
Their conversation was preempted when the sommelier handed Cameron a binder with a wine listing. “Will you share a bottle of champagne with me?”
Smiling, Jasmine nodded. “Of course.”
“Do you have a preference?”
“No, I don’t.”
Cameron signaled the sommelier and gave him the binder without opening it. “We’ll have a bottle of Krug.”
The man smiled. “Excellent choice.”
“Do you come here so often that you don’t have to look at the wine list?” Jasmine asked Cameron.
He smiled, revealing a mouth filled with straight, white teeth. “I usually eat here whenever I come to New York.”
“And how often is that?”
“Once or twice a year.”
“For business or pleasure?”
Cameron stared out the window for several seconds. “Always pleasure.” His gaze swung back to her. “The first time I came to New York, I admit I was a little intimidated moving to a city with a population in the millions, but after I completed my freshman year I couldn’t wait to get back. I shared a two-bedroom apartment with another student, and we eventually became fraternity brothers. His concentration was accounting, while I majored in finance and economics.”
“I’ve never been able to grasp the principles of economics. It’s the only high school and college course that I barely passed,” Jasmine admitted.
“Where did you attend college?” he asked.
“Unlike you, I didn’t leave home. I grew up on Long Island and commuted into the city to the New York School of Interior Design.”
