Aiyana almost lost her wine out her nose when Julia asked if it could do other things with a saucy grin. The resulting blush on Jonathan's face was priceless, even if it came at the cost of a few cleared throats at nearby tables.
As the rode in the limousine back to the house together, Aiyana made up her mind about one thing. She wasn't going to give up Blake Hanley just yet. If Candice, the petite, strawberry blonde who looked like she'd never hurt a fly could win over his mother, then she could certainly do the same. It would take some work, maybe an honest heart to heart talk, but she'd do whatever she had to keep herself in his life.
She wanted nothing more than to snuggle up beside him at night like she did that night.
Chapter Eight
Blake tried not to be nervous as he looped his tie around and thought of the steps he needed in order to get it straight. No matter how much he tried to get it to knot properly, it wouldn't.
"Son of a-"
"You better keep your tongue when you're in front of my mother," Aiyana warned him with a small smile as she reached around him from behind. She stood on her tiptoes until he finally sat down on the chair and allowed her to tie it for him. Her warm fingers brushed over his neck and then her hands finally rested on his shoulders.
"I'll probably fumble with everything until they finally think I'm either daft or having a stroke, and then you'll be so embarrassed you'll leave me on the curb still fumbling around like an idiot." He wanted badly to impress her folks enough for them to want him to marry their daughter, but if he couldn't do that, he'd at least like it if they didn't object too much when he asked.
He knew he should have waited to ask her. This was how it was supposed to be done, and just because he was a billionaire hotshot in New York City didn't mean he had the right to marry Aiyana without asking her father's approval. He just wasn't sure he would survive the actual event.
"You'll do fine," Aiyana whispered into his ear, her sensual voice sending shivers down his spine.
"You want to-"
"Nope," she told him with a teasing smile before she stood up and patted him once on the shoulder. She left the dressing room of the private jet and took her seat by the window. She was getting used to flying now that they'd been to a few places using his jet, but she didn't think she'd ever get used to the fact that they could go anywhere they wanted on the planet at the snap of a finger.
Blake took a deep breath, tensed his shoulders and then slowly relaxed them before he stood from his seat. He ran a hand through his hair and wondered if he'd messed it up, but figured it wasn't going to help him much anyway. He didn't know why he was so nervous. It wasn't the first time he was meeting a woman's parents, but it wasn't every day he met the people who might be his in-laws in the future.
He just hoped he made a good impression.
"We're landing in fifteen minutes. Settle down and get on some seat belts," his pilot informed them via the intercom. His heart skipped a beat as he sat down next to the woman who still haunted his dreams. He reached out to grab her hand, for her comfort or for his, he wasn't sure.
Then they both felt the slight decline as the jet banked and headed for the air strip. Whether he liked it or not, they were landing in a tiny, private airport outside of Millbrook, Alabama.
She had told him to wear something informal, something that would look nice but that wouldn't scream that he had money. He'd put on a black suit with a black tie and plain, silver cufflinks. Blake couldn't understand why she'd put her hand over her mouth and her eyes had danced with humor, but now he did. Getting off the plain, smelling the strange air of a different state, and seeing the few people who were manning the small airport that afternoon, he felt like he'd stepped into a time machine and gone back about a hundred years, been dumped off, and left to fend for himself.
Aiyana tightened her grip on his hand to let him know he wasn't alone, and then she was suddenly gone as she grabbed her suit case and started to lug it across the airport strip by herself. She'd chosen a pair of heels that made her ass swing enticingly back and forth in her tight jeans. His mouth watered as he watched her a moment too long before he hurried after her with his suitcase in his hand. He deftly grabbed hers away from her and smiled at her before they headed into the airport.
Two African-American men waited with cell phones in their hands, laughing at something the one on the right had shared with the other. One of them was tall, with a round face, and sharp, calculating eyes that found Blake immediately when he looked up. The second was a little shorter, more robust, and with a kinder face. Yet there was still a look of distrust behind the warm facade.
"Allen, Row," Aiyana said as she hurried toward them. Blake stood back as he watched her embrace both men and give them each kisses on the cheeks before she stepped away. He might have been wearing a suit and tie, but he could tell he wouldn't have any special treatment where he was going.
"This is Blake Hanley," Aiyana said as she stepped aside. Blake put down the suitcases gently and held out a hand to the men, but he received a curt nod from both before the taller one grabbed Aiyana's bag and hurried off with it.
She put a hand on her hip and blew a strand of her dark hair out of her eyes as she watched after them. "Well, Momma will be making dinner soon and if we're late for that, we'll be stuck outside on the porch for the rest of the stay." She tried to ignore the slight Blake had been given, but even the man standing idly off to the side who'd seen them in looked a little shocked.
"Yeah, wouldn't want to be late for dinner," Blake said warmly as he picked up his own suitcase and put his hand on the small of her back. He wanted the feel of her beneath him, anywhere in that moment, to reassure him that he was there with her, and he'd make sure this trip went well so that he'd have her family's approval by the end of it.
Blake leaned down to kiss her cheek and she smiled up at him as they walked through the doors that led outside.
It was hot, sticky, and unlike any environment he'd been in before. Blake stuffed his suitcase into the back of the tall man's, Allen, car. Row was sitting in the front seat with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, unlit, and his eyes seemed to track their progress as Blake made his way to the back driver's side door and opened it for Aiyana. She slid across and he followed her in.
"So you sell televisions," Row stated. Unsure of how to respond, Blake snapped his seat belt.
"I do," he finally answered. As if he'd been waiting for Blake to respond, Allen started the black sedan and turned on the radio.
The music, thumping and loud, erased any attempt to make conversation on the way to Aiyana's family house. She reached across the back seat to hold his hand as they rode along; listening to music Blake had never even heard in the clubs. As they pulled into a cul-de-sac where the houses all looked the same, Aiyana turned to smile at him reassuringly before she opened her door and slid out of the sedan, and Blake swallow the uncanny fear that was trying to escape. He helped himself from the sedan and hurried to the back to help Aiyana with the suitcases, being sure to take hers before Row or Allen could get to it.
"It'll be fine," Aiyana whispered to him before she closed the trunk and hurried up the sidewalk to greet a thin woman in a gray pencil skirt and a white blouse. Blake wasn't sure what he'd expected, but looking around at the neighborhood where every backyard had a pool and the woman, who was obviously Aiyana's mother, standing in clothes that were much nicer than expected, he felt thrown for a loop.
Row and Allen walked past the woman standing on the porch and sat down on the cushioned, wrought-iron chairs that surrounded a glass top, matching table. A man sat at the table with his eyes narrowed and his lips seemingly perpetually down-turned. He had one hand in his pocket where he fiddled with something and the other hand resting on the table, his fingers playing with a quarter that he ran across his knuckles and grabbed, repeating the process. Blake was immediately intimidated, but he didn't think Aiyana's father would appreciate a coward wanting to marry his daughter.
He squared his shoulders and carried the suitcases up the long walkway to the old-fashioned porch with white pillars. Aiyana was sliding away from her mother's embrace and her father stood to meet her halfway as she flew into his arms. It was obvious the two had a loving relationship, so there weren't any odds of him marrying her if he didn't impress.
Blake kept the suitcases in his hands as if they were an anchor to reality and flashed his best smile to the woman in front of him. Aiyana, a little flustered, pulled her father over to her mother to introduce him to the new man in her life.