One Night: A BWWM Interracial Romance (27 page)

She was with an older black man who had enough of her eyes and nose to make Jake think it was probably her father.
 
The man looked at her in confusion as she stopped, then followed her gaze. His eyes shot up, then he leaned in to say something to his daughter.
 
She gave a slight smile, her eyes never leaving Jake’s, and nodded.
 

Jake walked past the tables and onto the dance floor to meet her.
 

“Natalie,” he said smiling.

“Jake,” she breathed back, still astonished.

He stared at her for a moment longer, taking her in. Then he felt the eyes of the man next to her giving him a speculating look and turned to greet him.

“Oh, um,” Natalie said, flustered, “Jake, this is my dad. Daddy—Dad, this is Jake. Jake Cavanaugh.
 
Jake Steele?” She was getting more flustered by the moment.
 

Jake smiled sympathetically but gave her dad a serious look. “Mr. Damond,” he said, reaching out to shake his hand. “I’m extremely pleased to meet you.”
 

Her father was quick enough to take his hand, obviously not being the cliché type to make his daughter’s boyfriends work for his respect. Hopefully that meant she had been putting in a good word for him…despite how they’d met.
 

“Well, I’d say it’s about time I met the man who’s got my daughter so addled,” he said gripping his hand and pumping it twice.
 

“Daddy!” she cried, giving him an evil look.
 

Jake and her dad both laughed. That was a good sign.
 

“At any rate,” her father continued, “I
was
planning on dancing with my daughter again, but I think I’ll leave you two love birds to it.”

“Oh no—!” Jake began.

“Nonsense,” he put a hand up to end Jake’s protest. “I think I’ll get my wife to finally get on the dance floor. She’ll be wanting to meet you later on,” he said, giving Jake a pointed look.

“Yes, sir,” Jake said, amused at how deferential he was being towards the man, but certainly didn’t show it on his face.
 

With that her father left them alone. Jake wrapped his arms around Natalie and they made their way outside to one of the love seats.
 
He felt the bare skin of her back underneath his hands and knew instantly that he had made the right decision.
 

“So,” she said, settling back into his chest as they sat down, “you decided to come anyway.”
 

“I decided to come anyway,” he echoed.

“That’s a long flight,” she mused.

“It is,” he agreed again.

She laughed and pulled herself up to twist and face him.
 

“I’m glad you’re here,” she said, giving him a serious look.

“So am I,” he said, reaching up to cup her face in his hand.
 

She fell back into his chest and he wrapped his arms around her.
 
They stayed like that for a while, watching the night sky above them as the muted sounds of the dance floor inside wafted out to them.

“About New York?” Natalie asked, and he had an idea of where she was going.

“What about New York?” he proded.

“You know what about New York,” she turned around. “Did your publisher really pay for all of that?”

He stared at her. No lies.
 

“No. I wanted you there with me,” he confessed, staring into her eyes.
 

She smiled as she stared at him as if coming to an understanding.
 
Still, her eyebrows shot up as she said, “That must have cost a fortune.”

“Not, quite a fortune,” he mused. “Still, that bed at the Ritz, though.”

She laughed and fell back against his chest. “Yeah, it was kind of nice.”
 

“I like being with you, Jake,” she said a moment later.
 

“I like being with you, Natalie,” he said, echoing her words again.

“I want you with me all the time,” she continued.

“You’ll get no complaints from me,” he said, smiling above her head.

They lay there, letting their confessions sink in.
 

“So where do we go from here?” she asked later on.
 

“Your place or mine?” he asked.

He could feel her laughing gently against his chest.
 

“Well, I have to admit, those fries…Animal Style, was it?” he asked. “Anyway, they were pretty impressive.”

“Indeed,” she said. “On the other hand, your apartment is way better than mine.”
 

“I’ll have to take your word for it,” he said. “Maybe I can find out later on tonight.”

She laughed, “No fair—I didn’t know you were coming.”

“Uh oh,” he said, teasingly, “Am I going to find your secret
One Direction
scrap book next to your bed?”

“Stop!” she said, laughing again while giving him a soft jab in the chest with her elbow.
 

“You know, there are a lot of libraries in New York,” he said.

“And a lot of mountains in California,” she responded.
 

“Hmm,” he continued. “My lease is up in a few months.”

“Well, let’s not be too hasty,” she said, “New York is…
New York
.
 
And what about your sister?”
 

“Planes, trains, and automobiles,” he said. “I can afford all three. She’s been dying to take the kids to Disneyland anyway.”
 

Natalie pulled herself up again to turn and look at him. “Are we really having this discussion?”

He shrugged, “I just flew halfway across the world last minute to see you,” he said. “I guess we are.”
 

She leaned in to kiss him.
 

They were really doing this.

FOUR MONTHS LATER

Jake had just put the finishing touches on the next installment of the adventures of Nick and Naomi. It had been a stretch, but he had managed to work in a little detour to the Maldives so both of them could have a romantic getaway.
 
He had been influenced by a very special individual, and who knew? Maybe life would imitate art.
 

He certainly hoped so.
 

He was idly staring into the fire, holding his first glass of whiskey and thinking about the past four months. How he had managed to pump out yet another full-length novel, while packing up his life in New York to move all the way across the country, was beyond him. Of course it helped to have a stunning muse.
 

He caught a figure at the bar in the corner of his eye. He shifted his gaze to take in the shapely legs covered in thin, cotton stretch pants. They roamed over the very nice ass that jutted out temptingly as she leaned in to order something from the bartender.
 
The only flaw he could see from the waist down was those god awful boots she had her feet stuffed into.
 

Her eyes wandered around the lounge as the bartender went to work making her drink. He saw that her face was just as alluring as the rest of her body. She caught his gaze and her eyes lowered with self-consciousness. He could see the creep of a smile forming at her lips.
 
Perhaps this night would be more enjoyable than he thought.
 

She turned around to retrieve her drink and wandered over to where he sat near the fire. He could see it was a glass of something that looked like milk. His distaste must have been apparent on his face since she gave him a slight sneer.
 

All the same, she pointed to the seat across from him and raised an inquiring eyebrow. He lifted his hand toward the chair, inviting her to settle in. Gazing across the fire at her through his glass of whiskey was not a bad way to spend the evening. She settled in, bringing her boots up on the seat underneath her and placed the glass on the low table between them. Her eyes settled into the e-reader that she had brought with her.
 

Jake stared at the woman with a smile, watching as the flames danced across her gorgeous face.
 
She reached out to grab her milk and that’s when he decided to make his move.
 

“I can’t watch you like this,” he said.

Her eyes shot up at him in surprise. “Excuse me?” she asked.
 

He got up out of his seat and went around the table to kneel in front of her. Her eyes were wild with confusion.
 

“You’re breaking the ritual,” she scolded.
 

“Well it served me well last time,” he responded.
 
“But I can’t watch you without seeing this on your finger,” he said, bringing a small velvet box out of his jacket pocket and opening it for her.

She gasped at the rather large diamond that sparkled in the firelight.
 

“Natalie Damond, will you marry me?” he asked. He waited with bated breath as she stared at the ring and then up at his face.
 

Instead of responding, she leaned down, wrapped her arms around him and gave him the best and longest kiss they had ever shared.
 

Then she said yes.
 

Thank you for reading!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Camilla Stevens is a New York transplant from Los Angeles. By day she is a humble librarian. At night you can find her typing away, usually with a glass of wine, getting all the steamy Happily Ever After stories out of her head and down on the screen.
 

She loves writing about fun romantic adventures between lone-wolf, alpha males and the perfectly imperfect women who make them fall in love.
 

When she isn't writing, she enjoys sitting in Starbucks with the New York Times crossword puzzle, wandering around the city, gorging on tacos, traveling to foreign countries, and tulip season in New York! You can usually find tulips making an appearance in most of her novels.
 

Want to read the occasional follow ups to the Happily Ever Afters in her books (sometimes with happy little surprise updates)? Follow her on Facebook, where you can also find out about upcoming releases, Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) and promotional sales.
 

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Website:
www.camillastevens.com