“That’s because you're on a heart-healthy diet,” said Tobias trying to hide his mirth. “No flavor for you since you ate the wrong things for too many years even though I warned you.”
“Get out!” my father declared imperiously.
So we did.
CHAPTER TWO
Tobias
Iswallowed hard and struggled to keep cool with Jacine.It was hard to resist the urge to put my arm around her waist, to draw her close and breathe in the scent of her musky perfume.
At forty-eight years old, I am old enough to be her father, but damn if she didn’t light a fire in me that another woman couldn't.
I always had a thing for Alexander women. Jacine’s mother was a beauty that took my breath away. Franklin had damn good taste. But Jacy was exceptional. With her mother’s beauty, blonde hair, startling blue eyes, her tall hourglass figure, and her father’s smarts, she was the full package.
It wasn’t until that first Christmas back from college that I noticed how much she’d grown. She left for Harvard a gangly teenager, a kid that I regarded with paternal affection and returned a bare four months later with a polish that belied her years.
Jacy knocked me off my feet.
But Franklin was my best friend, and I would never make a move on his daughter. That would cut across boundaries I didn’t want to cross. In fact, my attraction to Jacine freaked me out.
In one way, it was good. No other woman would register on my Richter scale and I could concentrate just on work. The yearning in my heart funneled into making cash, and a lot of it. Franklin and I were on par in the asset area, and I built a solid reputation as an entertainment lawyer. This is why I also worked closely with Franklin and in fact, was on retainer with his firm.
So I tell myself this dinner with Jacy is a business expense, though I know in the most secret part of my heart what it is.
Time alone with the one woman I could never have.
Why would such a beautiful young woman want an old man like me? Sure, I kept in shape at the gym, but as each year passed, I felt the workout more in the muscles than the year before.
Even if this was LA and such pairing was as common as fronds on a palm tree, she was still my best friend’s daughter.
Off limits.
Do not touch.
A big neon sign flashing “forbidden.”
So, idiot me, that made her even more enticing than she should be. Forbidden fruit is always the sweetest.
I am not listening to what Jacy is saying because I think her plump lips look especially juicy, and I fantasize about biting her lower lip with my teeth and my hands cupping her creamy breasts. She dropped the tanning in favor of New York pale, but I like the look on her. Her blue eyes seem to shine brighter above the rose blush of her cheeks and her blonde hair done up in a tight bun is the stuff of librarian porn. My breathing grows shallow, and she looks at me with alarm.
“Are you feeling okay, Uncle Tobias?”
Uncle Tobias. The kiss of death. Relegated to the old man zone.
I deserved that. I am a horn dog, a dirty old man standing next to a sweet young thing, and my thoughts aren’t just inappropriate. They are downright sinful.
I wish I were a religious man because I think there is a prayer that says “lead me not into temptation.” I could use that kind of help right now.
“I’m fine, Jacy. It’s been a long day.”
“We don’t need to do dinner now. It feels like lunch to me, and you know New Yorkers don’t do lunch.”
“You don’t?”
“Not unless it is a job interview. You don’t intend to interview me for a job, do you.?”
Oh no, but I could put those sweet lips to work.
