First and Ten (5 page)

“Okay, then let’s go to the Hancock.”

“Are we going to eat?” he asked as his
stomach rumbled while the aroma of hot dogs filled the truck.

“Not yet.”

Jerome took her directions and pulled into
the parking ramp. Not too many tourists were ahead of them in line
as they bought their tickets. He reached for the hot dogs only to
receive a sharp smack to his hand, making it tingle a bit. Dani
attempted to buy the passes to the floor but Jerome set down his
bankcard first.

She’d already picked up dinner, he wasn’t
about to totally lose his man card tonight. It was obvious she’d
been here before because the usher who was supposed to make them
watch a movie just smiled and sent them on the fastest elevator in
the world. At least that’s what the recording said. Ninety-three
floors in less than a minute.

“Why not Willis Tower?” he asked as they
exited to the glassed in observation deck.

“Everyone goes there,” she sighed and sat
down on a set of steps looking out over the city.

Families and couples walked around reading
information and flashing cameras, but Dani relaxed as tension
melted from her frame. Jerome envied her calm.

She passed him a few hot dogs as his body
protested sitting down on such a hard surface. But soon he
understood the draw. People were so enamored trying to make out the
three states at once no one noticed them. Sitting in silence, they
could enjoy their hot dogs and veg out.

In front of him, lines of red and white
lights outlined the streets and showed the travelers. Although he
knew down below honking and yelling was rampant, in this moment
there was silence. Dani closed her eyes and stuck her long body
out, crossing her legs at the ankles.

“This place is pretty cool,” he admitted
after they’d soaked in the atmosphere. “I’ve never come here.”

“Want to see the best part?” she asked as she
crumpled up the remnants of her hot dogs and tossed the paper in a
garbage can.

“Sure,” Jerome copied the action then
followed her to a door.

Fear gripped him as she opened it and a blast
of air hit. There was a screen on an open air observation deck.
About twenty feet long and six feet deep.

Dani walked out as if she were window
shopping. A guard looked at him.

“In or out?” he asked and Jerome slipped in,
but kept his back against the glass wall.

A cool strong wind blew across his face as he
reached for Dani’s hand. He pulled her back, but she stood fast and
turned to him, taking his one hand in both of hers. They were
dainty and just covered his. Wow, he was going to have to drop his
man card over the edge of the building. His massive mitt must have
crushed her hand.

Taking a step backwards she tugged lightly,
but he refused to step closer to the screen. No sir, he was not
made for heights and he wasn’t even sure how she got him up here.
It just seemed all she had to do was make a suggestion and it all
made sense.

“This is why I came up here,” she explained.
“We are over a thousand feet in the air with the wind blowing
through my hair.”

Jerome reached for her and caught the binder
for her hair. Removing the binding caused her dark hair to cascade
from her misshapen bun. Thick locks tumbled over her shoulders and
framed her face.

“Now it’s blowing through your hair,” he said
huskily as his finger brushed the hair back and cradled her
face.

She stepped closer to him and the reaction
hit his groin. Catching her sky blue eyes, he saw them dilate and
her lips plumped. Jerome’s instincts had been right. She didn’t
want to work with him because she wanted him.

“Oh my God,” a woman screamed as she rushed
to his side and slapped his arm. “You’re my husband’s favorite
player.”

Dani walked toward the corner of the deck,
leaving his scared ass stuck with the uber fan.

“Don’t go anywhere,” the woman ordered with a
pointed finger. Jerome balled his fist on the opposite side of the
woman. “He’s inside. He’s going to freak.”

Jerome smiled and looked at Dani silhouetted
by the lights of the city as she rested her forearms on the bar.
Wind kept her face clear as her hair blew behind her. Biting her
lips, she looked back at him as he took pictures with the man and
shook his hand, not even acknowledging his existence. On the field
he could register a dozen players, but keep his focus straight
ahead on the end zone.

Danika Albright was quickly becoming that
thick white line. In those yoga pants thickness was in more than
one area. And thickness was his weakness. Dani had curves most
black women would kill for, though he’d found white women felt they
were obese once their clothing size hit double digits.

“Man, I’m totally putting you on my fantasy
team next year,” the man said, slapping his shoulder. Jerome balled
his fist again from the contact, but breathed out and smiled.

“I’ll help you win,” he said, walking toward
Dani.

Looking directly ahead, he could focus on the
top floors of buildings but each step brought the city streets into
view. A gust of wind blew and his long reach caught Dani’s bicep as
he yanked her back. Cradled in his arms, he felt better, like she
was his security blanket.

“You’re scared of heights?” she giggled.

“Can’t prove it,” he replied and rested his
head on hers.

She took a giant step forward and he couldn’t
keep his balance without going with her.

“I think it’s pretty easy to prove.”

Snatching her back, they quickly fell against
the glass wall on the side and she rolled out of his arms.

“Come on, scaredy.” She opened the door and
he gladly stepped back into the regular observation floor. “What
else are you afraid of?”

“This part of your getting to know me
questions?”

“You could have a fear of the color yellow or
poly-blends.”

“I don’t think I would last long playing
football with those issues.”

“True.”

Dani smiled and warmth spread across Rome’s
chest. There was something about Dani that had settled his nerves.
Even being so far up in the air, looking anywhere but straight
ahead, could cause him to fall to the ground and crawl like the
floor itself wasn’t a thousand feet in the air. Standing next to
Dani, fear was the last thing on his mind.

“Do we need to go?” she asked and Rome looked
around at the twenty or so people milling around. The couple from
before was gone and maybe he got away without an alert going out a
Grizzly was in the building.

“No,” he replied and followed her back to the
steps to sit and watch the lights.

People were keeping their voices low as Dani
sat on the top step again with her legs stretched out in front of
her. When she laid back and looked at the ceiling, Rome became
confused. Wasn’t the point of being so high to look out at the
world, not a ceiling in a random building?

“Why do you need a stylist?” she asked with
her eyes closed.

“I don’t,” he confessed. “To me it’s a
needless expense.”

“Then don’t pay for one.”

“You offering free styling advice?”

Dani opened her eyes and gave Rome a shy
smile. “Not the way I work.”

“Then why are you here with me?”

“You didn’t want to go to the beach.”

“Not when it’s forty degrees.”

“Pussy.”

The night had not gone the way Danika
expected. When she’d finished her class, she pulled on her yoga
pants and track jacket with only relaxation on her mind. The
Tuesday lectures by Dr. Kent were particularly draining. If she
wasn’t the head of the business department at Northwestern, Dani
would have avoided her classes like the plague they were. Instead,
she found a way to cope.

Reaching your goal will require
stretching. If I handed it to you, you’d never see how tall you can
really be.
Her father’s words seemed spiteful when she was
younger. Now, having lived it she understood. Her father made his
fortune and he felt she’d been given enough growing up. She didn’t
need his money to get what she wanted out of life.

Jerome Speed was one of those hiccups she’d
tried to avoid over the years. Not that she hadn’t dated, she just
never made it a priority. She could take or leave guys most days,
but Rome had a crook to his smile she’d missed when his helmet was
on. Sure the tight pants were good to ogle, but now she discovered
the mystery that was football players.

Better yet, from what Dalton had told her
over the year, Jerome was a gentleman. Tonight at least he’d proven
that. She eyed his firm frame with the idea of total relaxation
from a much needed orgasm.

“Hyper planner,” Rome’s deep baritone took
her to another place in her erotic fantasy. “How far off your plan
are we?”

“Plan?” she asked as she sat up a bit too
quick, catching a head rush.

“You seem pretty good at regimenting your
life.”

“Do I?” She cocked her head to the side as if
he were looking at her through a different dimension. “My life
seems so random most days.”

“You plan me time,” he said with air
quotes.

“If I didn’t, I’d never get any.” Dani stood.
“I like it up here on a random Tuesday,” she said. “Tourists aren’t
really here and I can just think. Or…at least I can when I’m by
myself.”

“Sorry, did you need me to go?”

“You drove me here and I’d like to get back
to my car without using a taxi.”

“Is this part of your Tuesday routine?”

“Not always. Why? Looking to stalk me?”

“We seem to run in the same circles.”

“Not really. Your circle’s a bit fast for
me.”

“You know nothing of my circle,” he
challenged.

“Show me your circle,” she suggested. “Where
would you be if we hadn’t gone my way tonight.”

“In bed,” he stated plainly and Dani’s face
flushed with heat at the mere mention of Jerome’s bed. “I was going
to crash after the massage. They really are relaxing, but where
your mind went is an even better idea.”

“You can read minds now?”

He stood, towering over her with broad
shoulders and thick muscles. Even with the size difference she
wasn’t intimidated. Instead, his presence made her heart race for
another reason. As if afraid she’d break, he gently tucked a strand
of hair behind her ear and gooseflesh erupted up her spine. The
heat from his body warmed her as his hand caressed her cheek. When
his thumb stroked her bottom lip, her nipples perked.

Oh he was bad for her, especially with finals
just around the corner.

“Body language.” The timber in his voice made
her body vibrate. Or was it the fact his body was flush against
hers. How did that happen? She’d been sure there had been at least
a half a foot between them. Instead, barely an inch separated them
and she wondered if the smell of sandalwood was his cologne or the
massage oil.

“You need to brush up on your language
skills.” The words were forced and wavered as they made their way
to her lips. Swollen and slightly trembling, she hoped he didn’t
notice.

His lips twitched, then he took a step back.
A cold chill cut between them and she looked to the side hoping
someone had opened the outer observation deck. Instead, she saw the
area was almost completely empty.

Unlike her, he hadn’t turned off his phone
and it went off. It was then she remembered it had gone off a few
other times during the evening, but he’d silenced it. Now he used
it as an excuse to step away. The ringtone was different than
before, she shouldn’t read too much into his exit to a quiet
corner.

She watched his body language…or maybe it was
just his body as he moved around and his jaw tensed. He looked at
her for a moment and a scowl crossed as he turned away again.

“I need to go,” he said, stalking back to
where she was sitting.

“Me too,” she confessed as she looked at her
phone for the time. The elevator ride and trip to the parking
garage was a strained silence. “Thanks for tonight.”

“Thanks?” he queried.

“Tuesdays are usually solitary. It was nice
having someone to share the city with me.”

“Panicking from the height.”

“That was a bonus.” She smiled as they made
their way down Michigan Avenue back to her car. His phone rang
again, only this time it showed up on the screen of his dashboard
interrupting the light R&B music that had felt so natural she
only noticed when it was gone. A name flashed quickly on the
screen, but he flicked ignore before she could read it. The scowl
returned and she felt a chill.

Biting at her lip, she turned her focus to
the buildings out her window. The magnificent mile with its Wrigley
Building and Tribune Tower. All built by giants of the city. Even
with new construction her father never wanted to be a part of it.
There is something about the old stone and mortar buildings with
their intricate details that set them apart. His world was on the
internet, before people even understood what it was. He had
commanded the dot com boom and was smart enough to leave before the
bubble burst. Or maybe it was his leaving that burst it. The idea
had been floated in business circles before.