Melanie Schuster - Working Man

“No, what you had to do is to find someplace to store your stuff until this place gets fixed,” Nick contradicted her. “It’ll be at least three weeks before this place is ready for you to move into, maybe a month. If your furniture is in here it’ll just make it that much harder to get the place done right,” he told her as he absentmindedly scratched Cha-Cha’s ears. She was practically singing with delight at his touch and it was really annoying Dakota for some reason. She abruptly plucked the cat off her perch and put her on the floor.

“Look, Rick,” she began.

“Nick,” he corrected her. “My full name is Nicholas DeVaughan Hunter, but everyone calls me Nick.”

“Okay, Nick.” Normally she would have been embarrassed about forgetting someone’s name, but it didn’t bother her this time. She was too busy reacting to his take-charge tone of voice. The last thing she wanted or needed was to be bossed around by a stranger. “It’s obvious this dump needs something. I’m thinking about a gallon of kerosene and a few matches, but that’s not really the answer, tempting as it sounds. The point is, I start a new job on Monday, I don’t know a soul in Chicago except my new employer and I have no idea where I’m going to find a reliable contractor to fix this place. I have no idea where the crook who did this to me is and trust me, I’m not going to rest until I find him.”

“So what’s your point? You need a place to put your stuff until this place is ready, you need a place to stay, and you need the best man in the business to get the job done,” Nick told her.

“I think we’ve already established that,” Dakota said dryly. “You wouldn’t happen to know where I can get any of these things, would you?”

“Of course, darlin’. There’s one man for the job and you’re looking at him.”

Dakota stared at him suspiciously, thinking that he was teasing her. He looked calmly competent and sincere, as though he meant every word. She opened her mouth to start interrogating him, and to her chagrin a huge growl started in her stomach and charged its way out of her in the noisiest way possible.

“You haven’t eaten a thing today, have you? You need some food, baby. I’ll go get us something and we can work out all the details while we eat.”

He didn’t wait for her answer; he just turned and left the room. She and Cha-Cha looked at each other with wide eyes. “Chach, girl, who was that masked man?” she murmured. “What in the world are we getting ourselves into now?” Her cat had no answer for her other than a soft purr as she wound her way around Dakota’s legs.

An hour later, Dakota was in a much better mood. The first thing she’d done when she heard the door close behind Nick was to dash into the bathroom and take a speedy shower. She put on a little makeup, put on her favorite scented lotion and matching perfume and managed to find a cute outfit, a pair of jeans with flowers embroidered down one leg and a soft-pink top with a deep scoop neck and three-quarter-length sleeves. She thought she looked much better than she had that morning, but she wasn’t aware of how sexy she looked or she might have put on something else. Since there was nothing to sit on, she dragged the air mattress downstairs to the living room and put it in the center of the room, smiling as she arranged her flowers nearby. She had put a throw over the mattress and it looked kind of cute, albeit makeshift and Bohemian in the middle of the empty room.

Nick returned rather quickly with two bags of food that smelled wonderful to a starving woman and her hungry cat. “I hope you like soul food,” he said. “There’s a place not too far from here that has the best food in Chicago.”

Dakota smiled the first really genuine smile he’d seen on her pretty face. “I eat plenty of it, how do you think my butt got to be this big?” She was so hungry she didn’t even think twice about what she’d just revealed to him, she was too interested in the food. “What did you bring us?”

Cha-Cha was going crazy, walking around Nick’s ankles in figure eights and making throaty sounds that signaled extreme hunger. “I brought some fried chicken, potato salad and greens. There’s some Crowder peas and cornbread, too. You’re gonna like their cornbread, it’s just like homemade. Your cat must smell that chicken, she’s going nuts,” he commented.

“Actually, it’s the greens she’s after. She’s crazy about them,” Dakota said as she walked to the kitchen to get Cha-Cha’s dish.

Nick admired her figure as she walked away. If soul food was what put that luscious behind on her he was going to make sure she had a steady supply from then on. She looked even prettier than she had earlier and he could tell she’d done a little primping while he was gone. It pleased him to see that she’d made the effort, although she would probably deny that’s why she’d done it. She returned to the living room, where the cat was now dancing around in excitement.

“Okay, we need to share with her or we won’t be able to eat in peace,” Dakota said with a smile. “Which one is mine?” she asked, looking at the bags.

Nick reached into the larger bag and took out two containers. “They’re both the same, so help yourself,” he said as she took one from him.

He watched with amusement as she put a small portion of greens in the cat’s dish. She used the plastic knife and fork to cut it up finely, and then added a small piece of cornbread, which she crumbled over the top. Cha-Cha fell on it as though she hadn’t eaten for days, purring loudly while she ate. While Dakota cleaned her hands with a small bottle of antibacterial cleanser, Nick watched the scene in amusement.

“I never saw a cat eat greens in my life,” he said, taking the bottle from Dakota and using it on his hands.

“Oh, she loves greens, grits and catfish. If you want to see her really go nuts, bring some chitlins up in here. She’ll gank you for them,” Dakota said before saying a quick grace and taking her first taste of the deliciously prepared food. “This is sooo wonderful! Thank you so much, Nick.”

Nick watched her eat and smiled with satisfaction. She ate daintily but with good appetite and was obviously enjoying every bite. He loved watching a pretty woman tackle a good meal, it was a wholesome and sexy sight that often led to some fantastic after-dinner sex, but he wasn’t crazy. He knew better than to put some cheap moves on her so soon. She was a different breed of woman and he could sense it, but it didn’t stop him from teasing her as he dug into his own meal.

“What you know about chitlins? You look like the beefWellington type to me. You don’t seem like the type who would eat chitlins or pig’s feet or anything real down home,” he said between bites.

Dakota rolled her eyes at him. “I could ask you what you know about beef Wellington, which I happen to despise. What do you think you know about me that makes you say something like that? Did you bring anything to drink? I’m not touching that water from the kitchen tap,” she said grumpily.

Nick indicated the other bag. “I brought us some sweet tea. And you just seem like the real sophisticated type, you know.”

Dakota reached for the bag, took out both tall paper cups and handed him one. She opened the other one and took a long draught before cutting her eyes at Nick.

“You know nothing about me. And I doubt that you’ll get to know me much better, so let’s just keep out of each other’s business, okay? Let’s talk about what you think you can do for this house, how about that?”

Cha-Cha was inching her way to Nick, trying for another handout. Nick obliged her with a little piece of chicken before fixing her owner with a long sultry gaze.