Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
“Thank you, Hank,” I murmured. Once he was in the driver’s seat, I told him the address of the restaurant I was meeting Danica Lane at. As we drove, I took a few deep breaths to get my shit together.
Bella was my assistant. I was practically twice her age. What the fuck was wrong with me? I was a living cliché. But that wasn’t the worst part. What really ate at me was having such a reaction at all. I hadn’t been attracted to another woman since I met my wife, Joanna, in college. Since her death two years ago, I hadn’t been with another woman. The only erections I had since her death were from dreams of making love to her. When I woke and realized she wasn’t really there, the feelings of loss and grief quickly deflated my dick. That meant the last time I had an orgasm was the last time I’d made love to Joanna before her cancer diagnosis. At the time, we’d been trying to make another baby.
To be honest, I figured that part of me was dead and I was okay with it. I did not need sex now that my wife was gone. My life now was dedicated to building the company we’d conceived as a class project in business school and to raise our beautiful daughter, Lily.
But what just happened with Bella? That was unsettling. I guess that part of me wasn’t dead, but why would it wake up then and there? Sure, she was an attractive woman. I wasn’t blind. She was also smart and about to help me achieve one of my wife’s dreams of exporting our products to France. But none of that should make me want to kiss her. Or make my dick to thicken to full staff.
Jesus. I pinched the bridge of my nose and hoped it was an anomaly. I was tired from a long day that still wasn’t over and she was a sweet woman who did a tremendous job as my assistant. Perhaps my hormones just got confused. Maybe they thought my gratitude and admiration for her work were attraction.
Hank pulled up to the curb in front of the restaurant.
“No need to get out, Hank. I’ll be about an hour. I’ll text if I need more time.”
“I’ll be here in an hour then, Mr. Alexander.”
I got out of the car and headed to the restaurant, focusing my brain on the task at hand. Convincing Ms. Lane to be the face of our new organic product line.
The non-toxic, organic skin care and cosmetic line had been another brainchild of my wife’s whose skin had become sensitive during her cancer treatments. She wanted something that took care of her skin, and made her feel pretty.
“I’m completely bland, Blake. I’ve lost all my color.”
“You’re beautiful.” She had lost much of her pallor, but her eyes always sparkled with life. That was what I saw when I looked at her.
She rolled her eyes. “You’re blind.”
But that was Joanna. The glass was always half full. And every card needed to be played even if the hand sucked, and boy had her hand been a bad one.
“For you, Joanna.” I walked through the restaurant’s door and immediately a maître d′ approached. “Mr. Alexander. Your party is here. We’ve seated them already.”
“Thank you.” When I arrived at the table, Danica was with her agent. I shook their hands and sat, ordering a ginger ale. I liked a good stiff drink, but not when I was doing business.
“Mr. Alexander, my agent doesn’t want me to gush, but these products are amazing.” Danica rubbed a hand over her cheek.
“I’m pleased to hear that.”
“I gave them to the makeup person at my last photo shoot and I swear, it lasted longer and I looked fresher than any of the other girls.”
“Danica, you’re going to make my job harder.” Her agent tried to temper her enthusiasm.
I smiled at her agent. “We’re prepared to be very fair, and generous if Ms. Lane is willing to endorse the line.”
“No animals were used in testing, right?” she asked.
“Didn’t my assistant give you all the details?”
Danica waved a hand. “I didn’t have time to go through it all.”
“We used no animal testing. The ingredients are non-toxic and we’re using recycled packaging for the line.”
One thing Bella discovered while researching organic personal care products was that many weren’t necessarily environmentally-friendly when it came to packaging.
“These organic tampons use plastic applicators,” she said, clearly surprised. “These organic facial wipes aren’t biodegradable and they’re in plastic packaging too.”
The other staff in the meeting snickered or blushed at the mention of tampons, but Bella was giving us the information we needed. It was something my wife would have noticed and called out.
Danica turned to her agent. “I want to do it, and I don’t want to be obnoxious about it. I don’t need to extort money.”