Board Approved (3 page)

“You’d better go,” she whispered.
 
She could feel the blush once again spread
over her face.
 
He looked at her closely,
studying her.
 
Another horn honked and his
hand fell from the back of her neck and rested on her knee.
 
He gave her a little squeeze and she watched
as his lips quirked up into a gorgeous smile.
 

“I’ve
been wanting
to do
that since the moment I laid eyes on you,” he said, roughly.
 
“And truth be told, I can’t wait to do it
again.”
 
Tessa inhaled sharply at his
words and the desire behind them.
  
He
glanced over at her and smiled.
 
His grey
eyes were darker than they had been earlier, and she wondered if this was the
look she’d read about countless times in all the romance novels she adored.
 
“Where to, Tessa?” he asked.
 
His question brought her back to the present.

“Uh… oh.
 
Yeah.
 
The Publix shopping plaza.
 
I’m tucked away in there,” she managed to stutter.
 
It was obvious he was attracted to her.
 
She could tell that by the look in his eyes
and the way he kissed her.
 
And if truths
were being told, she was attracted to him too.
 
Very much so.
 
He was the sexiest thing she had ever seen.
 
She could just tell from that kiss that he
knew what he was doing.
 
She was tired of
the immaturity of the boys her age.
 
They
wanted to get laid and get drunk… and not in any particular order.
 
And they weren’t very good at either.
 
Any orgasms she may have experienced over her
limited sexual history were sadly all self-induced.
 

She hadn’t been on a date in four months since her
heart was broken by Tom, who after two weeks of dating and finally giving in to
his demands sexually, informed her that he was married.
 
But was jumping into the sack with someone
she didn’t know really the answer to her romantic woes?
 
What if Greg was married?
 
She didn’t see a ring on his finger, but that
didn’t mean anything.
 
Tom hadn’t had a
ring either.
 
What if all Greg wanted was
a quick roll between the sheets?
 
Could her
heart handle that again?
 
Her heart?
 
Really?
 
She just
met Greg minutes before.
 
How is her heart even involved already?
 

Greg pulled into the small shopping plaza parking
lot.
 
He pulled right up in front of her
studio and put the car in park.
 
There
were already four women standing outside the studio with their yoga mats slung
over their shoulders.
 
Tessa hit the
window button to put her window down.

“Good afternoon, ladies,” she said out the
window.
 
“Had car
troubles.
 
Be right there.”
 
She smiled and waved.
 
The women waved back and Tessa put the window
back up.
 
“Thank you so much, Greg,” she
said turning her head to look at him.
 
She wanted him to know she was sincerely thankful for his help.
 
“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you
driving me over here, especially with having other obligations.”

“Tessa,” he said, turning slightly in the driver’s
seat.
 
“Stop thanking me.
 
I’d do it again… no questions asked.
 
I have my friend towing your VW to his shop
to take a look at it.
 
I need your keys
so I can drop them off at his place.”
 

“Greg,” she said, not recognizing her own
voice.
 
Panic and surprise had set
in.
 
She was grateful for his generosity,
but she was pretty sure she could not afford what was wrong with her car.
 
Basically, she’d just been doing patchwork on
it in hopes it would hold out a few more months so she could save up enough
money to get a newer used version.
 
“You
really didn’t have to do that.
 
There’s
no way I’m going to be able to afford to fix it.”
 

“I’m covering the repairs, Tessa,” he said softly.
 
A small smile spread across his lips.
 
“Just give me the keys to the car so I can
drop them off.
 
I have Jarod calling me
with the estimate and then he can drop the car off to you.
 
We can’t have you driving around in a car
that’s on the verge of breaking down every day.
 
It doesn’t sit right with me.”
 
His hand came up and stroked the side of her face.

“I don’t know what to say,” Tessa said.
 
“No one’s ever just done something so
generous for me.
 
And you don’t even know
me.”
 
She slid her keys out of her purse
and wound the VW key off her butterfly keychain.
 
Tessa handed him the key.
 
Greg took the key and set it in the cup holder
in the console between them.
 
She looked
up at him.
 
His grey eyes were soft and
warm as his gaze dropped to her lips.
  
A
wave of heat washed over her as the memory of their kiss fluttered through her
thoughts.

“I only have one request,” he said almost in a
whisper.
 
His gaze came back to hers.

“What’s that?”

“Go out with me,” he said.
 
“Please.”
 

“Like on a date?” she asked shyly.
 

“Most definitely,” he said with a small
chuckle.
 
Tessa did everything she could
to keep from bursting.
 
This gorgeous
man… this generous man wanted to take her out on a date.
 
She knew she would be risking her heart by
agreeing to this.
 
How could someone like
him really be interested in her?
 
He was
a big-time attorney for a large firm making good money and living on the
beach.
 
He could probably have any woman
he wanted.
 
She was just a young yoga
instructor trying to make it on her own.
 
It had taken her three years to save enough money to move out of her
mother’s rundown bungalow.
 
Her mother
would steal money from Tessa for booze and then order Tessa out of the house
because she was a bother.
 
She finally
had her first apartment.
 
And it wasn’t
much.
 
Just a little one-bedroom
apartment near Tyrone Square Mall.
 
She really had little to offer him besides herself.
 
But he was asking her out.

Even if it was ultimately just sexual, she couldn’t
find a way to say no to his request.
 
Nothing in her wanted to say no.
 
Just from their limited time together, Tessa knew he was going to open
her eyes to a whole new world and that excited her. And that made her want to
risk it all.

“It doesn’t bother you that I’m twenty-seven?” she
asked in all seriousness.

“Does it bother you that I’m forty-two?” he
asked.
 
His face was sincere when he
asked the question.
 
She could tell he
was concerned that his age would be an issue for her.

“Forty-two, huh?” she said, making her best effort
to keep a serious tone.
 
“Goodness, you
are old!
 
Will you need a walker for the
date?”
 
His eyes widened a bit at her
comment before she broke into laughter and then so did he.

“So, what are you saying?”

“Yes,” she said softly before throwing her arms
around his neck.
 
“I say yes.”
 
His arm slid around her body and gave her a
squeeze.
 
The feel of his hand on her low
back sent a heat coursing through her body.
 
She wanted to know what it would be like to feel his hands everywhere on
her body.
 
She wanted to throw caution to
the wind.

“Good,” he said.
 
“I was a little worried you’d say no.
 
Here’s my business card.” He drew back from her embrace and pulled a
card out of the front pocket of his shirt.
 
“It has my cell phone number on it.
 
Call me in two hours and I’ll update you about your car and what the
plans for tomorrow night will be.
 
I’d
make the date tonight, but there’s no way I can get out of a client dinner on
this short notice.
 
But you’re mine for
dinner tomorrow!”
 
Tessa took the card
from his hand and looked at it.
 

Gregory T. Snow.
 
Partner.
 
Lowes & Kravitz.
 
She laughed to herself.
 
That card should also say gorgeous and
generous and sexy if it were going to be truly accurate.

“Thank you,” she said with a smile.
 
“I will call you.”
 
She reached for the door handle, but his hand
grabbed her forearm and pulled her closer until his forehead touched hers.
 
His grey eyes looked
into
her own
.

“I meant what I said about kissing you,” he
whispered.
 
His warm breath floated over
her face.
 
“I can’t wait to do it again.”
 
He kissed her on the tip of her nose before
pulling back.
 
She sighed.
 
Yep, she sighed.
 
Like nothing in the world could be greater
than this moment.
 
“Now get in there and
teach those ladies some yoga.
 
I’ll talk
to you in a bit.”
 
Tessa opened her passenger
side door and slid from the BMW SUV to the ground.
 
She grabbed her yoga mat and purse from the
floor of the car and slung them over her shoulder.
 
“Tessa,” Greg called before she shut the
door.

“Yes?” She peeked in.

“I can’t wait for tomorrow night.”
 
A smile spread across his face and Tessa’s
knees weakened at the look.
 
If he could
make her feel this way with just a smile, she was in big trouble.
 
“Enjoy your class.”
 
She shut the door and stepped up onto the
curb as she watched him drive away.
 

“Who was that?” one of the girls waiting outside the
studio asked.
 
“He’s smoking hot!”

“I know,” Tessa responded, doing a little dance from
where she stood on the curb all the way to the door of her studio.
 
“And he asked me out for tomorrow night.”
 

“Get out!” one of the other girls shouted.
 
“You said yes, right?”

“You better believe it,” Tessa said, opening the
door of her studio and letting the yogis in.
 
Namaste!

Chapter
Three

Greg smiled the entire way back to Advantage.
 
He had watched Tessa in his rearview mirror
as he drove away.
 
She danced with what
looked like excitement from where he left her until she reached her studio
door.
 
He hoped that was a sign that she
was as excited as he was about seeing her Saturday night.
 

He didn’t know what came over him at that red
light.
 
She just kept talking.
 
He could tell she was nervous, but he didn’t
know exactly what made her so nervous.
 
He had kept glancing over at her and she just kept talking and gesturing
with her hands.
 
It was adorable, but he
wanted to put her out of her misery and the only thing he could think to do was
kiss her.
 
And it was the best damn
decision he had made in days.
 
She had
tasted like cotton candy… so sweet.
 
He’d
be on this sugar high for the rest of the afternoon.
 
He could have spent the next several hours
just kissing her if only they hadn’t been at a red light.
 
Oh
well, there was always tomorrow.

He had dropped off Tessa’s car key at Jarod’s, where
he had been told the tow truck was already picking up her vehicle, and Jarod
promised to get in touch with him within the hour.
 
Greg parked his car in the parking lot at
Advantage and walked the relatively short distance to the door.
 
He pulled his pass out of his back pocket and
scanned it to gain entrance to the building.