Chapter3
The day of the dinner, Mia took half the afternoon off from work getting ready for it. She went to the salon and had her hair colored and styled, she had a manicure and pedicure done, she was waxed, peeled, and massaged. She had everything done that could be done, and when she walked out of the building, she looked beautiful.
She had bought a new formal dress for the occasion. It was satin in burnt orange; it made her dark skin glow and she felt that the rich fiery color of it was a subtle invitation to what was beneath the material. It was strapless with a sweetheart neckline that offered a generous view of her deep cleavage, as well as the soft smooth curves of her breasts. From there it tapered closely to her waist, gathered as it descended, hugging her body closely. It was form-fitting over the curve of her hips and there was a thigh-high slit in the dress over one leg that gave more than a glimpse of her long, toned leg. Paired with sparkling fire opals in her necklace and earrings, she gave herself one last spray of perfume before she nodded her head at the finished reflection of herself in the mirror.
Mia had asked Alexander to pick her up so that he would know where she lived and would be more comfortable going back to her place with her at the end of the night. She was just giving herself a last turn before the mirror when she heard her front bell ring and everything in her stopped and her breath caught in her lungs.
She glanced in surprise at the clock and frowned slightly. He was fifteen minutes early. She was relieved that she had taken the extra time that day to be ready for their date. Mia closed her eyes a moment as she stood before her front door, taking in a deep slow breath before she reached for the handle and opened it to see him standing there.
He was in a black tuxedo with a black tie, and a white shirt with black buttons down the front of it. In one arm, he held a bouquet of white roses, long stemmed, with a thick white ribbon tied around them. His hair was styled, perfectly in place. He gave her a smile and a nod when she looked up at him. Everything in her stopped again at that moment. It was rare that any man took her breath away, but Alexander Daniels, standing in her doorway looking like a James Bond hero, was riveting to her, and it was all she could do not to show it.
“Hello! Come in!” she said with an airy smile, stepping back so he could enter her apartment.
He stepped in and handed the flowers to her. “For you,” he said as he placed them in her hands. “You look breathtaking,” he said as his eyes met hers and she lowered her eyelashes a little and smiled up at him coyly.
“Thank you. The flowers are very sweet, and I appreciate the compliment. You look dashing and debonair in your tux.” She gave him a light wink and then went to the kitchen to put the roses into a vase of water. “I’ll just be a minute,” she said as she disappeared through the kitchen doorway.
When she returned, he was standing before her shelves, looking at the photographs that she had there. “Are these your family?” he asked interestedly as he looked at all of them.
She walked up beside him and raised her hand toward them as she spoke. “This one is my sister, those are her children, and those are my parents. These are my best friends.”
“There’s Liam.” He smiled at her and she smiled back and nodded.
“That’s him. We’ve been friends for a long time. I wouldn’t trade him for the world,” she said with a happy and wistful gaze at his image smiling back at her.
Alexander nodded and gazed at her face for a moment. “Those are the friends to keep. There’s no doubt about that.”
He turned and began to walk toward the door. “Do you have friends like that?” she asked curiously, walking behind him. She stopped at the closet and pulled her coat out and he took it from her hands immediately and helped her into it.
“I do. I have some friends from college that I will always keep, and I have a younger brother who I’m quite close with.” He reached for the door and held it open for her. “Shall we?” he asked with an inviting smile, and she nodded and followed him out.
They rode in a stretched black limousine to the event, which was held at a towering and luxurious hotel downtown in the city. When they walked into the hotel, several people stopped Alexander along the way and shook his hand or clapped him on the shoulder. Several ladies eyed him and smiled at him and though he smiled back at them, he did not give them the same sort of smile in return, and Mia watched him closely.
It was like he was a royal coming home to his own castle and everyone wanted to greet him, to shake his hand, to catch his eye, or hear him speak to them as he passed. He seemed like the big man on campus, and Mia laughed silently to herself, big in the societal way as well. She wondered whether the rumor about his body was true, and she thought with a heated blush about the end of the night when she would find out. He turned to her just then and her breath caught. She panicked that he would be able to see through her and know what she had been thinking.