DANIEL'S GIRL: ROMANCING AN OLDER MAN (24 page)

Daniel’s
heart melted.
 
She was so tough in a lot
of ways, the queen of toughness when she wanted to be, but she was also
inexplicably vulnerable too.
 
Emotion
overtook him as he stepped into the shower, the water pelting against his
expensive shoes and suit, and got on his knees.
 
He reached out to her trembling naked body, and pulled her into his
arms.

Nikki woke
up in time to reach for the ringing phone just as it seemed ready to go to
voice mail.
 
She turned onto her
back.
 
She was still so groggy that she
could barely open her eyes.

“Yeah,” she
said into the phone in a husky, raspy voice.

“Good morning.”

“Daniel?”
she asked, surprised.
 
The last thing she
remembered was his arms holding her in a tight embrace.
 
She looked beside her.
 
She was now alone in bed.
 
“Where are you?”

“I’m at
work.
 
Which is where you need to be.”

She
frowned.
 
“What time it is?” she asked,
sitting up.
 
She took her hair and lifted
it back and out of her face.

“It’s only
seven, you have time.”

Nikki sighed
relief.
 
“You made it sound like I was
late.”

“You will be
if you don’t get up.”

Nikki threw
the covers off of her, revealing a body naked, but also wet between the
legs.
 
She vaguely remembered Daniel
entering her early this morning.
 
Or did
he open her legs and was licking her?
 
She recalled his mouth on her, but she also recalled his penis.
 
Most likely both, she decided.
 
“I’m up,” she said, as she headed, with her
cordless phone in tow, for the bathroom.

“How do you
feel?” he asked her.

“Still
sleepy.”
 
Then she stood in the mirror
over the bathroom sink and looked at herself.
 
She could still remember all of those poor people running, and such
sadness she remembered seeing in their eyes.
 
“But I’m okay.”

“I need you
to do me a favor,” he said.

“Like what?”
Nikki asked.
 
It was usually her asking
him for favors.
 
Whenever the script
flipped, she was always willing to help.

“I want you
to go over to my house, and then I want you to go into my office.”

“Okay.”

“You’ll see
a stack of thick folders either on my desk or on that side table by the
couch.
 
I want you to get the one with
POV written on it, I think it’s the blue folder, and bring it to me.”

“Must be
important.”

“Very
important.
 
I need it for a
videoconference this afternoon.
 
So have
it here before then, all right?”

“I will.”

“All right,
darling, I’ve got to go, but you drive careful out there.
 
If you’re running too late for work and can’t
get over to the house to do that for me, just call me and I’ll make other
arrangements.”

“I got it,”
she said.
 
“I won’t be running
late.”
 

He told her
to phone him nonetheless if there were any glitches, said goodbye, and hung up
the phone.
 
Nikki tossed her phone aside
too.
 
Looked at herself in the mirror
again, and sighed.
 
She still couldn’t
get yesterday, and all of that destruction, out of her mind.

A little
over two hours later she stepped off of the elevator on the top floor at
Dreeson and headed for the double doors at the end of the hall.
 
Office
of the Vice President
was written in big, bold, semi-circled letterings
above the entranceway.
 
Every time she
saw that title, and realized her relationship to the man who owned that title,
she smiled.
 
When she was in college she
wasn’t thinking about any man whatsoever, while her friends were obsessed with
finding that elusive Mister Right.
 
For
her to be the one to end up finding him, when she wasn’t even looking for him,
was almost amazing to her now.
 
She felt
blessed was the truth of it, and never hesitated to thank God for giving her
Daniel.
 
Many people said she didn’t
deserve him; that she was too young and too liberal and just too out-there for
an elegant man like him.
 

But God said
different.
 

“Well good
morning,” Whitney said as soon as Nikki entered the suite’s double doors.
 

“Hey, Whit,
what’s up?”

“What’s up
with you?
 
Shouldn’t you be at work this
morning?
 

“Daniel in?”

“He’s
in.
 
But he’s in a meeting.”

Nikki
smiled.
 
“Why am I not surprised?
 
He told me to bring this folder to him ASAP.”

“Oh,
really?
 
Dang.
 
He’s in a DND.
 
I’ll see if one of his assistants can
help.”
 
She picked up the phone, but
looked at a list of extensions before she dialed.
 
Nikki began walking around the suite.
 
She knew that DND meant
do not disturb
, and she also knew how angry Daniel could get if
Whitney were to disobey that order.
 
So
she didn’t object.

“You know
what,” Whitney said and then began dialing.
 
“I better let Miss Chandler handle it.
 
She’s only been here a few months, but she’s already like his right hand
man.
 
Or woman as the case may be,”
Whitney said and glanced over at Nikki.

Nikki knew
what she was implying, but she let it slide.
 
If she worried about all these females that surrounded Daniel, all she
would do was worry.
 
She had to trust
Daniel.
 
And with every passing day, she
was doing a better job of it.
 
She wasn’t
perfect with it, by any means.
 
But she
was better than she used to be.

After a few
minutes, Melanie Chandler entered the double doors and headed for Whitney’s
desk.
 
Nikki was standing at that desk.

“Well hello,
Nikki,” Melanie said cheerfully.
 
“I
understand you have something for me.”

“For Daniel,
yes.”

“He’s in a
DND, Mel,” Whitney said.
 
“You think you
can get that folder to him?
 
Apparently
it’s important.”

“Oh,
certainly,” Melanie said with a smile.
 
Nikki handed her the folder.
 
“I’ll make sure he gets it,” she added.
 
“So you can run along now.”

Whitney
couldn’t believe she said that.
 
She looked
at Nikki.

And as
Whitney suspected, Nikki was offended.
 
“No,” Nikki said, “you can run along now and take that folder to your
boss, and, oh yeah, that’s right, to my man.”

Whitney
smiled.
 

That bitch
, Melanie said inwardly, staring at Nikki.
 
But she, amazingly, managed to smile.
 
“Have a nice day,” she said.

Nikki smiled
too, with the same degree of manufactured warmth Melanie’s smile
portrayed.
 
“You too,” she said.

Melanie
left.
 
Whitney laughed out loud when she
did.

“I can’t
stand her,” she said.
 
“She’s good at her
job.
 
I’ll give her that.
 
She works her ass off for Mr. Crane.
 
But when he’s not around she’s awful.
 
She’s so condescending.”

“I’m
saying,” Nikki said.
 
“But anyway, I’d
better get going.
 
Or,
run along,
as she puts it.”

Whitney smiled.
 
“You need to stop.”

“I’ve got to
do some sourcing for my story on that Springfield riot from yesterday, so I’d
better get at it.”

“That’s
right.
 
You were over on Springfield,
weren’t you, girl?”

Nikki
nodded.
 
“Yeah, I was.”

“I thought
so.
 
Mr. Cane looked mortified when he
came out of his office and told me to notify the board that he wouldn’t be able
to make that big meeting.
 
Then he just
took off.
 
I knew that meant you had to
be there.
 
That man loves you so much,
Nikki.”
 
Although, Whitney inwardly
added, that didn’t mean he was faithful to her.

Nikki nodded
her head.
 
“I thank God for him.”

“You
should.
 
He’s special.”

“But you
mentioned a big meeting.
 
What big
meeting?”

“He didn’t
tell you?”

He never
did.
 
“No.”

“They were going
to name him the acting CEO of Dreeson, until they could find a permanent
replacement for Mr. Murdock, which most people figured was going to be Daniel
anyway.
 
They’re getting rid of Murdock,
you know.”

Nikki was
stunned.
 
“Really?”

“Yup.
 
It was a big deal around here.
 
But they got upset and changed their minds
when Mr. Crane didn’t show up for the meeting.
 
But that man wasn’t thinking about no meeting.
 
All he was thinking about was getting to
you.”
 
Then Whitney smiled.
 
“He’s getting too old to be running behind
you, Nikki.”

Nikki wanted
to joke it off, but she couldn’t pull it off.
 
The idea that she was always the source of his devastation wasn’t funny
to her.
 
At all.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Luke ordered
a beer and leaned back in his booth at
Wanda’s
.
 
The lunch crowd was animated as everybody
were laughing and talking and hurrying through their meals, seemingly not
giving a second thought to the three young people who lost their lives
yesterday on Springfield Avenue.
 
But
after his beer arrived and the waitress left, he couldn’t think about anything
else.

He was
horrified by the scene, and when Avery called in with the news that Nikki had
managed to get through the police barricades and had entered that war zone, his
heart dropped through his shoe.
 
He spent
ten minutes yelling at Avery for letting her do it, realizing as he yelled that
nobody stopped Nikki Graham from doing anything.
 
But the idea of it, of that beautiful lady
running for her life, and nearly losing it, still brought chills to his
spine.
 
 

Those chills
kept rolling when Nikki entered
Wanda’s
.
 
She was wearing a pair of tight jeans and a tucked-in polo shirt,
looking more like a college kid than his twenty-four-year-old ace reporter.
 
And to Luke she was still, even dressed like
that, the prettiest human being in the joint.
 
And as she walked toward him, as her small hips swayed and her tight
thighs shook, he wanted her so badly he could taste it.
 
And if it wasn’t for that damn Daniel Crane,
he believed, he would have had her in his arms, and his bed, tasting every inch
of her by now.

“There’s
Miss America,” he stood up and said, as Nikki arrived at his booth.

“Hey, Luke,”
she said, sitting down.
 
“Were you
waiting long?”

“Just a couple
hours.”

“What?”

“I’m
kidding, Nikki, come on.”

She
smiled.
 
“I’m sorry.
 
I’m just...”

“You’re just
still getting over that horror show from yesterday.
 
And you still showed up for work this
morning.
 
I couldn’t believe it.”

“I know, but
I’ll go stir crazy if I stay home.
 
Staying home is not an option.”

“Thanks for
coming to lunch with me.”

“Any
time.
 
But you didn’t have to do this,
you know.”

“Oh, yes, I
did.
 
Two near-death experiences since
I’ve been your editor?
 
This is the least
I can do.”

Nikki
smiled.
 
The waitress came up and she
ordered juice.
 
When the waitress left,
Luke smiled.

“OJ for the
lady,” he said.