Sherelle Green - Beautiful Surrender

But Mya wasn’t just any woman and after listening to the incorrect judgments she’d made about his character since he stepped into her office, he figured he was allowed to take a look at the sexy set of legs he’d love to see wrapped around his midsection.

When the room grew silent with awareness, Malik forced himself to tear his gaze away from her to peer at the clock on the wall.

“I have to get going, but I’m in town for the next few days. How about we meet up and discuss some of the details for the charity date auction over dinner. I want to make sure I’m giving you exactly want you need,” Malik said, purposefully implying a double meaning. She couldn’t mask the interest reflected in her eyes quickly enough, proving to Malik that she could feel their chemistry as well. But he also knew that she would refuse to entertain the idea unless he gave her a push in the right direction.

“I could pick you up around seven and we could head to that Spanish restaurant in the West Loop,” he continued. During Cyd and Shawn’s rehearsal dinner, he’d heard Mya mention to Lex that she had really been enjoying Spanish food lately. He wasn’t sure if that was still the case, but he hoped it was.

She tilted her head to the side and slightly squinted her eyes in observation. “Why can’t we just meet for lunch or meet here at the office?”

He sensed her hesitation, so he decided to adjust his tactic. “Tell you what,” he said crossing his arms over his chest. “If you want, we can meet at my office and I’ll order takeout. That way, you get to see my office and we won’t be alone because my assistant will still be there finalizing some paperwork for me.”

Her brow creased as she considered his suggestion. Malik forced himself to concentrate on her face and not the increased pace of her breathing that drew attention to the peaks of her breasts lightly covered in a white blouse. To him, meeting in his private office was much more intimate than meeting in a restaurant, but the choice was hers to make.

“So,” he said uncrossing his arms and placing his hands in the pockets of his sleek black slacks. “What will it be? The restaurant or my office?”

* * *

Mya met Malik’s stare, determined to give him her best poker face. She knew what he was doing. If she chose the restaurant, it would feel more like a date rather than a business dinner. If she chose his office, even with his assistant there, it would probably feel more intimate than the restaurant.

She gave him a quick glance over. There was no doubt that Malik’s good looks would garner more attention to the charity date auction. Especially when single hopefuls found out he would be cohosting. And she knew he really did have a lot of connections. The more people they had at the auction and the more prominent singles that agreed to be auctioned off, the better turnout they would have.

She didn’t need help with the planning portion because most of it was already under control. But she did need someone who was reliable and believed in the cause. She didn’t doubt that Malik had the best intentions, but she had hoped he would back out when he realized she didn’t want to work with him. Instead, it only made him try harder.

She had to give him points for his patience. The past few minutes, he had been silently awaiting her answer and she hadn’t done much talking after her rant about him cohosting.

She took a deep breath and thought about her choices once more. Standing before her in that sexy suit and those glasses, he reminded her of Tyson Beckford on this reality show she’d watched a few weeks ago, and it wasn’t making her decision to constantly reject him an easy one.

“Okay,” she said as she stood from her desk. She slightly smiled to herself over the fact that he was trying his best not to look at her legs and thighs as she did so. Her heels gave her an extra three inches, but at about six feet tall he still towered over her five-foot-three-inch frame. “How about you give me the address to your office and I’ll meet you there on Thursday.”

His lips curled into a slow smile. “Sounds like a plan. As promised, I’ll order dinner while we work. I’ll stick with Spanish if that’s okay with you.”

“Spanish is fine,” she replied, moving behind her metal and glass desk. She pulled a business card from the desk holder and jotted down her personal cell number on the back. “If you don’t already have it, here’s my contact information in case anything changes with your schedule.”

“No, I didn’t have it. Thank you, but I doubt anything will change,” he said with confidence as he took the card from her before slipping his own business card out of his pants pocket. “Here is the address to my Chicago office,” he said, jotting down the information on the back of the card. Just as she’d carefully given her card to him, she was cautious to accept his card without their hands touching.

“This is the address,” she stated as she read the details he’d written on the back of the card since the front had his Detroit information. “It’s only a few minutes away from here and right down the street from Micah and Shawn’s office.”

He gave her a small grin before responding. “It’s definitely the right address. I was the one who told Micah and Shawn about the River North vacancy. But I wasn’t aware that the Elite Events office was this close until today.”

“Then I guess it’s just my luck that you’re so close to my office,” she said sarcastically.

“Do you ever think about the things you say before you say them?”

She smiled pretentiously. “Of course I do. Some people just take what I say the wrong way.” Mya was a straight shooter and she’d rather be blunt and honest with people than passive and misleading.

“If you say so,” Malik said with a slight laugh. “But something tells me you’ve been asked that before.”

She shrugged her shoulders and pretended to tidy a few unruly papers on her desk. He was right. She had been asked that question before. But she wouldn’t dare tell him that. He already seemed to pick up on more of her personality traits than any man she’d met before.

She was still fumbling with the papers when she chanced a look in his direction. As she’d predicted, his eyes were still locked on her. But it wasn’t the look in his eyes that was unnerving her at the moment. It was the slow curl of his lips when he caught her attention.

Oh lord, what is he thinking? Mya wasn’t the type to ever put much effort forth into trying to figure out what a man was thinking. But she also never really cared since for the most part, men were always really easy for her to read.

In her experience, there were two thoughts that men always had on their mind regardless of the conversation or situation. The most obvious thought was always how soon they could get laid, and the less recognizable thought that was still true of most men, was the process of trying to remember everything about you so they could masturbate later to the vision of having sex with you.

Both thoughts had been proven true on more than one occasion. Men dreamed of situations with women they knew would never happen in real life. Nevertheless, it didn’t stop some men from trying to pursue the object of their desire any chance they got. She had no doubt that Malik wanted to sleep with her since they had obvious chemistry. She could admit that the thought of sleeping with him had crossed her mind more than once, but Malik wasn’t like most men. He kept his thoughts more guarded. And the reason she assumed they always got caught staring at one another was because neither one of them could ever really tell what the other was thinking.

Malik was very respectable and while they had only had a couple conversations, it hadn’t felt forced like other men she’d been in contact with. But what annoyed Mya about Malik wasn’t that she put him in the same category as most men...it was the fact that she didn’t.