Page 9

Bailey

I had to stop by my office to review some paperwork, and since it was Saturday, I had my nieces with me.

We just came from the park and had ice cream and after chasing around a seven and a five-year-old, I felt every bit of my thirty years of age.

I knew I wasn’t old, but playing hide and seek with two children who were full of energy was not easy with all this wagon I was draggin’.

My ass needed more cardio because my ass was out of “bref” at that park, yeah you read that right, bref.

My nieces were great, though, because they enjoyed coming into my office.

They knew I kept great snacks in my desk drawer, and I kept the mini fridge in my office stocked with juices.

Since no one was in the office today, they could run free.

I was in the middle of editing a press release Marlow sent me regarding an incident at a club involving one of our clients when I heard the elevator ding.

I frowned in confusion because no one besides me ever came in on the weekend.

I could hear my nieces running around in the conference room down the hall, my brother Anthony was still out of town, and Dante got called into work at the hospital today, so I knew it wasn’t them.

My office was closest to the elevator, so I got up to see who was here unannounced.

As I walked down the short hallway toward the elevator, I thought through who could be here.

Maybe Marlow forgot something and came in or maybe it was my assistant Penny coming in to get a jump start on our jam-packed Monday.

When I reached the elevator, I almost passed out from shock because the last person I expected to see was Titan’s sexy ass.

I cleared my throat and tried to play it cool, but on the inside, I was a nervous wreck.

“Uh hey, what are you doing here?” I asked awkwardly.

He didn’t respond because his eyes were too busy drinking me in from head to toe.

I was dressed like I spent half a day at the park.

My niece Hailey called me this morning and asked if we could all wear matching outfits, and it was always hard to say no to either of them.

So, here I was dressed very simple in front of sexy ass Titan wearing dark, denim jean shorts, a red tank top, and a pair of red and white low top Converse.

To top off the very casual look, when I arrived at my mom’s house to pick my nieces up, Rylee wanted our hair to match too.

I can’t lie, I felt uncomfortable as hell standing in front of Titan completely bare, and the symbolism of that statement was not lost on me.

I was wearing zero makeup and zero extensions because my hair was parted down the middle in a zig zag with one large cornrow on each side of my head, the ends reached past my shoulders, and I had a red satin bow tied to each end.

Titan standing in front of me, staring me up and down made me feel like he was scrutinizing me.

I began to nervously shift from side to side because my self-doubt started to creep in.

No one outside of my family and very close friends has ever seen me not dressed to the nines in the latest fashion with my face beat to the gods and wearing the best hair money could buy.

I was about to ask my question again when he finally brought his gaze from my thighs and back to my eyes.

“You didn’t call me.” His voice sounded hoarse, like his throat was dry.

He adjusted his stance, and now it was my turn to slowly look him over.

He was also dressed casually, but he still looked like he could attend a business meeting at a moment’s notice.

His gray blazer stretched wonderfully over his broad shoulders and muscular arms; his crisp white shirt was tucked into a pair of light blue trousers that draped loosely over his gray suede loafers.

When my eyes met his face, I wanted to send his barber a thank you card.

The angles of Titan’s hairline was cut with so much precision, his barber must have studied trigonometry too, and his beard framed his sculpted face so perfectly it looked like it was created by an artist. When his words finally registered through my lust-filled brain, I finally answered.

“I told Royce to pass along my thank you for the champagne. But since you’re here, thank you for the champagne. You didn’t have to do it, but it means a lot that you did.”

“It’s no problem, but I was talking about the note I left with the champagne; you didn’t call me.

” I smirked because he sounded slightly confused, as though the idea of a woman not calling him truly baffled him.

And as fine as he was, maybe any woman with a pulse not calling him when after he asked them to was unheard of, so me not calling him may be new for him.

“Oh, that?” I said, trying to think of how I could explain that the two of us talking about anything outside of work would be a bad idea, but before I could answer, my nieces ran into the lobby.

“Auntie Bailey!” Hailey yelled, running toward me like she hadn’t seen me in a long time.

“We know what we want to eat now!” Rylee yelled, running behind her.

“Um, excuse me, ladies, but you just went past a guest; what do you say to guests?” I said, turning them toward Titan once they were by my side.

“Hello, how are you?” Hailey said to Titan, giving him a wave.

“Who are you?!” Rylee asked rudely and I quickly looked at her, silently chastising her, and she corrected herself, “How are you?”

Titan chuckled at them before he spoke, “I’m doing fine, little ladies.” He walked toward them and kneeled down so that he was closer to their eye level, “My name is Titan; what are your names?”

“My name is Hailey.” I held in my laughter at the shocked look on Titan’s face when she extended her hand for him to shake, then he burst out laughing.

Titan’s laugh was deep and smooth, and I loved the sound of it as he shook my niece’s little hand.

Hailey was only seven, but she was mature for her age.

I don’t know why she started shaking hands with people, but she’s been doing it since she was around four years old.

“And this is my sister Rylee.” When she gestured her free hand toward Rylee, she became shy and partially hid behind me, hugging my leg.

When Titan tried to shake Rylee’s hand too, she giggled before she moved completely behind me.

Titan chuckled as he stood and the soft richness of it gave me goosebumps because I thought even his damn chuckle was sexy.

Honestly, I wouldn’t doubt it if I thought every damn thing Titan did was sexy.

“Well, you ladies look adorable today,” Titan said, looking at the three of us.

“I picked out our clothes!” Hailey yelled excitedly.

“Aunty braided our hair and Grammy braided her hair!” Rylee said, peeking her head from behind my leg.

“Your aunty and Grammy did an amazing job. You three look beautiful.” Titan’s megawatt smile was wreaking havoc on my damn hormones. It was those deep dimples in each of his cheeks and those full lips, that had me wanting to fan my lady parts.

“Thank you!” My nieces said in unison.

“I think I remember hearing you girls say you were hungry,” Titan said.

“Yeah! We want pizza!” Hailey yelled, jumping up and down.

“Really? Pizza just happens to be my favorite food,” Titan said, smiling down at Hailey, who was now beaming up at him with a huge grin on her face.

I guess he has that effect on women, no matter what age , I thought to myself.

“Really?! Aunt B takes us to this place that has pizza and video games! And if I tell them it’s my birthday, I get a free ice cream cone.” Hailey was practically jumping out of her shoes.

“What?! Is that how you got ice cream the last three times we’ve been there?

I thought you were spending allowance money.

Here you were scamming for ice cream.” I put my hands on my hips and shook my head and gave Hailey a stern look, but on the inside, I wanted to laugh because I knew she learned that shit from her Uncle Dante.

I watched out of my peripheral vision as Titan turned his head before he covered his mouth and pretended to cough to hide his laughter.

“But Uncle Dante do it,” she said, putting her head down and pouting. I sighed because Dante’s ass made too much money to be so damn cheap, and he was being a bad influence on our niece. I hated her looking so sad, so I lifted her chin up with my fingers.

“I love you niecey poo, I’ll talk to you and your uncle later but no scamming for ice cream tonight. Ok?” I looked at her until she nodded her head and then she gave me a big hug around my thighs.

“Love you too, Aunt B… Can we still get pizza please?” I shook my head and smirked. It’s amazing how she can suddenly have tunnel vision and focus on one thing when it’s something she wants to do. But let me tell her to clean up a room and suddenly she finds everything to do except what I asked.

“Rylee, is that where you want to go too?” I asked, turning to look down behind me.

“Yes!” Rylee said.

“Well, let me grab my purse, and we’ll head out.” Before I could get to my office, I heard Hailey asking Titan if he wanted to come and that made me pause because I didn’t think that was a good idea.

“Only if your aunty says it ok.” I heard him say, and that made me smile because it showed me he wasn’t trying to intrude.

“It’ll be fine.” I heard Hailey whisper to him when I was coming back to the lobby with my purse on.

“What will be fine?” I asked, pretending I didn’t overhear their conversation.

“Can Mr. Titan come eat pizza with us?” Hailey asked, and she gave me her best pleading face. I had to hand it to the kid, she knew how to pout to get what she wanted. I used to think that only worked on my brothers, but apparently, I’m not immune either.

“I’m sure he has better things to do,” I said, hoping Titan would take the hint and agree.

“What could possibly be better than eating pizza with three of the prettiest girls in the world?” he asked playfully, and when I looked at him, he dropped his smile and pouted.

He actually poked his bottom lip out and pouted and I wanted to bite his lip and suck it into my mouth.

I immediately shook that thought off before it ran wild.

“Can he come please, Aunty? Mr. Tyin is our friend now.” Rylee had come from behind me and was now standing next to her sister.

I was smiling because she said his name wrong, but it was too cute.

I looked at Titan thinking he would correct her, but he just shrugged with a smile on his face.

I looked back down, and she now had the same pleading expression on her face as her sister.

Rylee asking for Titan to come with us shocked the hell out of me because she was extremely shy around strangers.

So, for her to speak up confidently and call Titan a friend was astounding.

How could I really say no? I dropped my head back and let out a deep sigh.

“Well, if he wants to come—” I began.

“I’ll drive,” Titan said, cutting off my invite and quickly rushed over to the elevator and pressed the call button.

His eagerness made me laugh and I had to bite my lip to suppress it.

Once we stepped on the elevator, I said a silent prayer for my strength because me and my pussy had to stay strong and not fall for Titan Browning.

In order for this work relationship to work I would have to keep reminding myself to keep this strictly professional.

Titan looked at me as the elevator started to descend and I quickly looked down and pretended to pick a piece of lint off Rylee’s hair.

I crossed my legs at the ankles as my clit thumped just from that brief eye contact and prayed again for strength.

My body felt warm, and my nipples felt too sensitive against my bra as the amazing scent of his cologne filled the elevator.

I made sure he wasn’t looking at me when I took a deep inhale through my nose so I could commit his scent to my memory.

I have never reacted like this to a man, and I needed to check myself quickly because if I wasn’t careful, I had a strong feeling that Titan could easily convince me that mixing business and pleasure was an excellent idea.