DANIEL'S GIRL: ROMANCING AN OLDER MAN (20 page)

Melanie,
determined that this meeting had to go off without a hitch, looked at him
nervously.
 
“My worries have returned,”
she said.
  
“What is it?”

“It’s true
that I remember you, I don’t think I could ever forget a person quite like
you.
 
But I don’t think I remember your
name.”

Melanie
leaned her head back, revealing a line-free, thin neck, and laughed as she ran
her fingers through her long, silky-straight hair.
 
“Oh my goodness.
 
You don’t remember my name?”

Daniel
smiled too.
 
“I’m afraid I don’t.”

“Guess.”

Daniel
hesitated, looked into her big, brown eyes.
 
“Lola?” he asked.

She
laughed.
 
“No.
 
Wrong.
 
Very wrong.
 
Melanie.”

“Okay.
 
Yes.
 
Melanie.
 
That’s right.”

“Melanie
what?”

Daniel shook
his head.
 
“I can open up this folder and
look if you wish, because if I didn’t remember your first name, I for darn sure
don’t remember your last name.”

“Chandler.
 
Melanie Chandler.
 
A name I hope you will never forget
again.
 
Just think about Arthur
Chandler.”

“Arthur
Chandler?
 
You’ve heard of Artie
Chandler?
 
You’ve heard of one of the
least known of the great jazz musicians?”

“I
have.
 
He made one recording and refused
to step foot in a studio again.”

“That’s
right.
 
Melody for Meloni.
 
My goodness.
 
I thought I was just about the only human being alive who appreciated
Art Chandler.
 
Unless there’s more to it
than that.
 
Unless he’s related to you in
some fashion.”

Melanie
laughed.
 
“Oh, goodness no.
 
I wish.
 
I just love his work.
 
And the
coincidence of him using Meloni in his song, although it’s spelled differently
than my name.
 
Whenever I’m in New York
I’ll go by and check out his set.”

“He’s still
preforming in the Village?”

“Yep.
 
Still there.
 
And record producers are still hounding him about signing a
contract.
 
But he’s not about to do
that.”

“Good for
him.
  
And good for you.
 
Keep supporting the brother.”

“I
will.
 
I sometimes think that’s my
calling.”

“What’s
that?”
 
Daniel asked.

“Supporting
brothers,” Melanie said with a smile and Daniel, unable to resist the pure
magnetism of her charm, and how easily it was to talk to her, smiled too.

Whitney
smiled when Nikki walked into her office.
 
Of all of the girlfriends Daniel Crane had had down through the years,
and he’d had many, she liked Nikki the best.

“Hello, Miss
Graham,” she said, trying to be formal in keeping with the boss’s wishes, who
never asked her to get Nikki on the line, but Miss Graham.
 
Always Miss Graham.
 
But Nikki, she also knew, wasn’t down like
that.

“Child,
please,” Nikki said as she walked in.
 
“You better call me Nikki.
 
Or
Nikki.
 
Or Nick or something.
 
But never Miss Graham.”

“I know what
you’re saying.
 
But you know how Mr.
Crane can be.”

“I
know.
 
Trust me, I know.
 
Although he doesn’t hesitate to call you
Whitney.”

Whitney
laughed her throaty laugh.
 
She was a
slender thirty-something with small eyes and long, red hair.
 
“You are something else, girl,” she said,
leaning back in her chair.
 
“So how have
you been keeping yourself?”

“Hanging
tough, you know me.
 
What about you?”

“I can’t
complain.
 
Just tired of working, that’s
all.”

“I hear
that.”
 
Then Nikki paused.
 
“Is he in?”

“He’s in,
but he’s in a meeting.”

“Surprise,
surprise.”

“But it
won’t be long.
 
They’ve been meeting all
morning and the boss has to be somewhere in less than an hour.”

“Be where?”

“He’s got to
speak at some conservative something or other downtown.”

“Conservative?
 
Never mind.
 
I was going to consider going with him.”

Whitney
laughed.
 
“You don’t be about nothing good,
you know that?”

“I know.”

Whitney
stood up.
 
“You’re welcome to wait,” she
said.
 
And Nikki decided to do so.

Whitney left
the office to take some copies of some important fax to other senior people,
but when she returned some ten minutes later, Nikki was still sitting beside
her desk.

“He’s not
out yet?” she asked her, surprised.

“Not yet.”

“I would let
him know you’re out here, Nikki,” she said, “but he told me to hold
everything.”
 
Whitney said this as she
sat back behind her desk.
 
Nikki nodded
her understanding.

“I know,”
she said.
 
“But you said he’s been
meeting with this person all morning?”

“All
morning, girl.”

“Who is it?”

“I don’t
know.
 
Never saw her before.”

Nikki
nodded.
 
A female.
 
That figures.
 
But she wasn’t going to let it worry her.
 
She stood up.

“I can’t sit
around here all day,” she said.
 
“I’m
going to peep in.”

“I wouldn’t
do that if I were you,” Whitney said, but she wasn’t Nikki.
 
Nikki peeped in.

What she saw
was Daniel, slouched down on his sofa, with a woman seated beside him.
 
“Hey,” Nikki said.

Daniel was
surprised to see her, but he remained as he was.
 
“I didn’t know you were out there.”

“I
know.
 
And I know you’re in a meeting,
but I just dropped by to say hello.”

He stood
up.
 
“Come here,” he said.
 
She came.
 
Melanie stood up as she did.
 

Daniel
placed his arm around Nikki’s waist.
 
“Melanie, I want you to meet my lady, Nikki Graham.
 
Nikki, this is Melanie Chandler.

“Hello,
Nikki,” Melanie said, extending her hand.
 
“How are you?”

“I’m good,
thank-you,” Nikki said as they shook hands.
 
“Nice to meet you.”

“She’s
applying for a position here at Dreeson,” Daniel said to Nikki.
 
“If all checks out I’m sure she’ll be an
excellent addition to the family here.”

“Oh, I’m
sorry,” Nikki said.
 
“I thought Whitney said
you were in a meeting.
 
This is a job
interview?”

“A very long
interview at that,” Melanie said, walking over to the chair in front of
Daniel’s desk.
 
“I’ve taken up far too
much of his time as it is.”

While
Melanie went for her purse, Daniel looked at Nikki.
 
“Where were you earlier?” he asked.
 
“I phoned the Gazette.
 
They said you weren’t on assignment, but they
didn’t know where you were.
 
And your
cell phone went to voice mail.”

“I didn’t
hear my cell phone.
 
It probably needs
charging.”

“Where were
you?”

“I had
lunch.
 
With Luke.”

As she
expected, Daniel didn’t like that bit of news at all.
 
“I think Luke Finley has done enough, Nikki.”

“He’s my
boss, Daniel.”

“He sent you
to that law-breaking exercise at Oxidare, remember?
 
I know you think the world of the guy.
 
I know he’s as harmless as a flea in your
eyes.
 
But that young man is beginning to
rile me.”

Melanie
slowed her progression and took mental notes.
 
Luke Finley.
 
Who was Luke
Finley?
 
Could he become her
counterpoint?
 
Was he important enough to
Nikki to be the distraction she needed to get Daniel’s undivided
attention?
 
Daniel was certainly acting
perturbed with the fellow.
 
But who was
he?
 
She pretended to be searching for
her car keys inside her purse, and listened closely.

“He feels really
awful about what happened, Daniel.”

“He ought to
feel awful.”

“But he
knows it’s a part of the job.
 
He’s one
of the good guys, I don’t know why you won’t accept that.
 
He won’t intentionally do anything to put me
in harm’s way.”

Melanie
inwardly smiled.
 
She already knew Nikki
Graham would be an obstacle.
 
She already
knew that for some crazy reason Daniel seemed to just love that child to death.
 
Now, she hoped, she had somebody who could
keep Nikki out of the way.
 
It was
certainly worth looking into, and Melanie definitely planned to take that look.

“Well,
Daniel,” she said as she pulled out her keys and headed back toward him, “I
really appreciate you for taking so much time to explain the inner workings
here.
 
Thank-you so much.
 
I’ll wait with bated breath to hear from
you.”
 
She again smiled at Nikki.
 
“And it was very nice to meet you, Nikki.”

“You too,”
Nikki said.

Daniel
walked Melanie to the door and opened it.
 
“You should be hearing something soon,” he said.
 
“So don’t accept any other offers before
then.”

“Oh, that
makes me feel great,” Melanie said with a grand smile.
 
“And don’t worry.
 
Dreeson is where I want to be.
 
Especially after my wonderful conversation
with you.”

Daniel
extended his hand.
 
“Take care of
yourself,” he said.

“Thank-you,”
she said, gave him her best seductive smile, and left.

After she
left, Daniel closed the door and then locked it.
 
Nikki knew what that meant.
 
She began to get that feeling, that tingle,
that let her know something very special was about to go down.

“I really
need to get back to my office,” she said half-jokingly as Daniel took her by
the hand and led her to his desk.

“For real
though,” she added, unable to suppress a smile as he sat her on the edge of his
desk, pulled out her tucked-in shirt, and began kissing her.

“I miss
you,” he said as he kissed her long and hard.
 
He kissed her until her mouth opened, and his tongue slid in.
 

He lifted
her slightly, pulling down her jeans and panties until they were down around
her ankles, and then he continued kissing her.
 
She wrapped her arms around him and relaxed to his passion.
 
And when he knelt down and opened her legs,
and began licking her with long, slow licks, she leaned back on her hands and
closed her eyes.
 
She hadn’t expected
this, and she knew Daniel hadn’t expected to do this, but there was a look in
his eyes last night that concerned her.
 
Especially when he first met Luke at that hospital.
 
It wasn’t jealousy, but it was close.
 
It seemed as if he had an awareness that she
and Luke connected.
 
And he didn’t like
it.
 
And she wondered now, as Daniel
licked her so aggressively, if this had something to do with that.

But when
Daniel stood up, and unbuckled and unzipped his pants, and she saw that mammoth
love machine come climbing out, she was no longer interested in wondering
why.
 
Because her need was too
great.
 
And as he entered her, as his tip
touched her tip and he moved his fully aroused dick further inside of her, she
grunted and clenched and lobbed her head back.
 
It was the force.
 
The force of
his fullness alone.
 
And it overtook
her.
 
And relaxed her.
 
And enveloped her with such an alive euphoria
that she opened wider and wider to take it all in.

Daniel took
her all in, too, and he couldn’t stop staring at her as he fucked her.
 
He needed her to feel him at this moment,
every inch of him, greater than she had ever felt him before.
 
And he pushed and he pushed, trying to slide
into her deepest pocket, where the intensity alone would leave her speechless.
 
And that feeling, so full and perfect, would
wipe every memory of Luke Finley from her mind.
 
He had to reassert his claim.
 
That was why he stroked.
 
Harder
and harder.
 
Deeper and deeper.
 
With stroke after stroke after ever loving
stroke he fucked her senseless.
 
He could
not lose her.
 
Not to Luke.
 
Not to anyone. And he had to let her know.