The ping happened instantly once he pressed send, and he couldn’t stop smiling at the response. The woman would look like a goddess in anything she wore, especially the off-white business suit with black trim and beaded sequins she was in this morning when he met her. Still, he understood she had a refined taste and would want to change into evening wear.
It was why he showed up at her place of work. He planned with a local boutique to stay on call for him—should she need an outfit for the evening. But clearly, this woman was intelligent and savvy enough to have a wardrobe at her beck and call at the office. He quickly texted Shelia to tell her he wouldn’t need her services at the boutique and quickly pocketed his phone. A smile graced his lips in anticipation of what she’d be wearing.
It wasn’t a long wait for her to pop out of the elevator. She was in a black and silver beaded full-length sequin dress with a sheer shrug wrapped around her spaghetti straps. The bodice hugged her breasts perfectly, accentuating her long neckline and enhancing her glorious cleavage. A slit on the right side of the dress went from mid-thigh down to the black heels that matched the sequins of her dress.
Her silhouette was glorious to him. The dress clung to every single one of her womanly curves. She was a perfect sight. Women barely out of college couldn’t hold a candle to this woman.
Obscenely skinny girls like that may have their youth. But they lack the polish and confidence that comes with curves, scars, and experiences of a woman in her prime, like Poppy. The woman before him exuded all the desires he dreamed of in a mate. Most would call her mature since Facebook told him she recently turned 40, but to him, she was still a young thing. Of course, any woman was young compared to him because he was more than one century-old vampire.
And now that he learned she turned 40, it gave him another reason to hate her boss. She clearly had the knowledge to have her own clients—hell—she could probably run her own firm! But that man held her back, telling her she wasn’t necessary, special. And all because he saw her as the competition. She allowed it—but only for keeping her job, a paycheck, to sustain herself. No one should have to exist in life like that.
Ridge smiled as she approached him, and he decided that tonight was the night he would show her how special she indeed was.
“It is good to see you, Poppy! You look lovely this evening. May I escort you to my car?”
“Uh, sure?” She said with a slight frown.
“Is something wrong?” He asked, searching her for an answer.
Tension ruled her eyes.
“No! No! I just expected to follow you to the place in my car—that’s all.”
“Nonsense! My driver can take us to the restaurant and take you back here to pick up your car if that is what you choose to do.”
She half-smiled at him before her eyes darted to the ground.
“Um. Okay. I guess. You’ll have to excuse me. I rarely get into—” Poppy’s voice stopped short as a limo greeted them when they exited the building. “Into? A limo?”
She gasped a breath as she emphasized the word ‘limo.’
“Poppy, I rarely worry about certain things, like driving myself around. Does this bother you? Because if it does—I can send him home and we can take your car to the restaurant. I’ll merely call him when I am ready to leave.”
“No! Don’t be silly! I’m just not used to corporate dinners with billionaires. That’s more Parker’s cup of tea. He is the upper management at Creative Collabs, and I’m nothing special.” She said to him with a breath that came out as a nervous laugh.
“Alright then, why don’t we head over with the limo?”
Ridge helped her into the limo and removed a couple of tumblers from the bar.
“Would you care for a drink?”
“Water is fine.”
Ridge raised a brow.
“I understand that this is a business meeting, but you don’t have to be so formal around me. I’ve stocked red and white if you’d like some wine. Which do you prefer?”
“White will be fine.”
She smiled at him as he handed her the glass. The ride to Gotham was only a couple of healthy New York blocks, twenty minutes by car. But the deadened silence grew to an unmanageable discomfort. Poppy rubbed imaginary wrinkles out of her dress while trying to avoid Ridge’s gaze. He couldn’t help but smile because her fidgeting was adorable to him.
“How was the rest of your day at work?” After a few moments of watching her torture herself in the silence, he asked the question.
“Oh, it was fantastic! I have emailed a few colleagues already and—” Her voice stopped short as Ridge held a palm in her direction.
“We have plenty of time to discuss the intimate details of you acquiring gifts for this auction, Poppy. I’m merely interested in how your day has gone so far. Do you like the wine?” He asked as he gestured to the glass she was holding that was now half empty.
Poppy blinked and sucked in a breath.
“Work went okay. My boss was a pain in the ass, hovering over my shoulder while I tried to work on your project, but that goes with the territory with him, I guess.” Her voice trailed slightly when she saw Ridge frown.
“Oh? Does he not trust you to take care of the project?”
“It’s not that. Parker’s just been a little lonely since the divorce proceedings.” Poppy cleared her throat before continuing. “But enough about him. I’m excited about this project, Mister—ah—Ridge.” She said, swallowing hard. “The white wine tastes great, by the way. And was the better choice in the limo because I can be very clumsy.” She said with a roaring giggle.
Ridge smiled at the giggle, a clear sign she was becoming more comfortable.
“I’m sorry. As I said earlier, I’m not used to business dinners. Frankly, the mixture of business and pleasure eludes a Southern Belle like me. I’ve always separated the two. But now that I live in the city that never sleeps, I probably should start getting used to interchange the two.”
“Well, that’s understandable. Your boss doesn’t seem to be the type of person you’d consider a friend.” Ridge’s gaze locked onto hers.
“No—definitely not.”
“Poppy, we didn’t realize that we had already been speaking to each other for several weeks when we talked on Facebook last night. I think we hit it off as friends. So technically, we aren’t blending the lines between a working relationship and friendship because we didn’t know.”
“I suppose you are right. I just never mixed the two. My mother taught me you don’t shit where you eat.” She widened her eyes and covered her mouth with her hand. “I’m sorry! Normally, I’m not this brutally blunt with colleagues! And that was a little crass!” She said through her hand. Her cheeks turned a few shades of bright pink.
Ridge chuckled.
“I actually welcome this bluntness, Poppy. It’s rather refreshing. Typically, I meet with a bunch of stuffed shirts like your boss. They all like to yes me to death, and I’d much rather talk to someone who can give it to me straight.”
He filled her glass with another drink that she guzzled in one shot.
Ridge laughed again.
“You are cute when you are nervous.”
“Okay, perhaps I am just a tad bit nervous, but in my defense—”
Ridge put up a palm between them.
“I get it. In your defense, you haven’t done many business meetings before. The thing is, Poppy, you don’t have to be nervous around me. I enjoy your company and intellect, and I think we will work well together.”
The limo stopped completely, and the driver got out of the car and opened the back. Ridge stepped out first and reached for Poppy’s hand to help her. Once she reached the sidewalk, a couple of cameras flashed.
“Mr. Turner! I’m Gerald from the Daily. Care to comment on what the celebration is this evening?”
“I am discussing business this evening with the extremely talented Poppy Lee of Creative Collabs. We will hold a gala event around the holidays. Once we establish when this event will take place, we will give you an exclusive, Gerald.” Ridge said with a confident grin.
A myriad of questions arose from a gathering crowd of more reporters.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m afraid that’s all the time we have for questions. Thank you.”
Ridge shielded Poppy from the crowd and led her into the restaurant.
“I’m sorry about that.” He whispered in her ear.
“It’s fine. I know you get that all the time.”
Ridge smiled.
“I do, but that doesn’t mean you have to deal with it, too. Please let me know if the pap is bothering you, and I will take care of it.”
“I’m sure they have better people to cover than boring old me,” Poppy said with a chuckle before she diverted her eyes from his.
“Poppy, you are something special. I wish you could see yourself the way I do.” He lifted her chin to meet his gaze.
“Right this way, Mr. Turner!” Said a maître d’ as he came to seat them.
He whisked them off to a private area of the restaurant, where there was a line of VIP rooms. They stopped at the fifth one on the left of the long hallway.
The maître d’ placed menus on the table and explained that the waiter would be with them shortly.
“Poppy, would you mind if I ordered the wine for us?”
“No, I don’t mind. Frankly, you’d be better at it than me. Dom Perignon is the first champagne I see listed, and it’s at 55 dollars a glass. I’m pretty sure that’s much higher in quality than my usual seven dollars a glass Fetzer.” She said as she placed the menu back onto the table and giggled.
“I like to hear your laughter,” Ridge smiled.
The waiter came, and Ridge ordered the Vincent Dauvissat Vaillons, vintage 2000. The waiter smiled and said he’d return with the order.
Poppy gasped.
“That wine is more than I pay for groceries in a month!” Her voice was a low whisper.
Ridge grinned and placed his hand over Poppy’s.
“You deserve nothing but the best, my dear, and it’s worth every penny to hear your laughter and to treat you like the princess you are.”
“Ridge, you don’t have to do so much. I mean, it’s only dinner.”
“I want to do this for you. Please let me.”
Poppy smiled.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
The waiter returned with two glasses and placed them in front of each. He opened the bottle and handed the cork over to Ridge, who nodded after taking in the wine’s aroma. The waiter then poured a glass for Ridge. He swirled it, took in its scent, and then finally sipped. Ridge nodded at the waiter, who smiled and poured a glass for Poppy.
Poppy gazed at Ridge in sheer amazement.
“How is it, Poppy?”
“Oh! It’s fantastic. Um, but I must admit, I’m not as good at tasting a glass of wine as you are. I had been to a couple of wine tastings with my gal pals before, but it was never an intimate experience. You practically made love to the wine as you took in the notes of peach and citrus.”
She cupped her mouth as a fresh tinge of pink colored her cheeks again.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t be so candid like that.”
Ridge let out a chuckle from deep within his belly. The woman was candid, and that made his dick hard. What she said about making love to the wine merely helped his erection grow even more.
“It’s not hard to enjoy the subtle notes. Wines are like women. Not only do both get better with age, but they should be savored and cherished for their gorgeous body.”
He couldn’t help himself. Poppy’s line about the wine was an admission of her attraction to him—not that she could hide it that well to begin with. He’d heard her heart race from the minute she walked into the office and realized who he was, and that racing heart was music to his ears. His gaze flicked from her eyes to her lips as she gingerly bit her bottom lip. Heat rushed to her cheeks, making her sexy as hell.
“Well, I don’t know about all of that, Ridge. No matter how opulent a wine truly is—someone out there will call it flabby.”
“It’s clearly apparent that you’ve learned much more about wines than you are letting on!”
A wry smile came over him. He adored this side of Poppy, and he hoped to see much more of it as the evening progressed.
“Honestly, I really didn’t learn much. I mean, I understand the terms. Everyone who’s read an article in The Wine Enthusiast would be familiar with those terms. But I’ve only used them to describe wines you’d find in any local supermarket or drugstore. Well, a supermarket or drugstore down South, that is. Here in the North, you only have package stores. I’ve gone to an occasional local winery. Still, I really don’t think I can call myself anything more than a novice.”
Her Southern drawl seemed to slip through as she mentioned the drugstore.
“Novice never crossed my mind, Poppy. What does your nose and mouth sense from the glass?”
Poppy raised the glass to her nose.
“I can sense notes of white peach, nectarines, and another citrus fruit. But honestly, that’s about it. I like the silky taste of it, and it makes it smooth going down. And I’m a definite fan of a dryer wine, which this one is to me.”
“See, Poppy? You know what you are talking about with wines. That’s spot on!”
“If you say so. Again—I’m not one to look much past the cheap sections of the wine aisles.”
“I did not know wines were sold in drugstores down South. That’s a little strange to me.”
“It’s a Southern thing, and I think Northerners are a little too uptight with their drinking habits.”
“I can relate. I think people wait too long to indulge here in the North. People seem more relaxed in the South.”
“Yeah, we definitely are. We work just as hard as everyone else but at a slower pace. It’s too hot to work fast. Anyway, getting back to the gala, I’ve secured some modern art pieces from Savanah Sully. Those should be good for the silent auction since she is a popular local artist. I’ve also emailed my friends Ciro DeLuca, Daryl Davis, Stephan Sanders, and Carl Conners. They are all CEOs of various businesses in the financial district, except for Ciro—he works on Wallstreet. They will hopefully get me concert, theatre, and sporting event tickets, at the very least. All of them were in college with me, so if they know what’s good for them—they will donate.” She said with a nod and a smile.
Ridge let out a chuckle.
“I have no doubt you will get them to donate. You are very persuasive.”
“Now, I’ve worked on the preliminaries for the website already, and here’s what we have so far,” Poppy said as she opened up her laptop. “This page will be for our high-end advertisers. This one is for the silent auction. Potential bidders will bid on their smartphones right from the site on the evening of the auction. We will also have a page dedicated to the Alzheimer’s Association with your bio and the companies you own as the About Page.”
“You’ve done all of this in just one day?” Ridge asked with a raised brow.
Her laptop pinged. A message from Daryl Davis read he’d be happy to donate tickets to a Keith Urban and Toby Keith concert. She smiled at the email.
“Yeah, but this really isn’t a lot of progress. What will take the most time is cataloging everything on the computer once we get the gifts. I’m glad Daryl is coming through because those tickets will be popular items. Tomorrow I’ll start looking at Disney. Sometimes they do park passes for organizations that are doing a benefit event. But I’m uncertain about their cutoff date for applying.”
“I must say, I’m impressed with what you have done so far. I knew I could count on you for this event. Now, enough about business. Let’s enjoy the meal. What looks good to you?”
Poppy glanced at the menu, and her eyes widened.
“I’ve never heard of half of what is on this menu before.”
“Well, given you are from the South, do you like steak?”
Poppy nodded.
“Why don’t we share the ribeye for two, then?”
“Sounds wonderful to me.”
“Excellent.”
Once the steak came, Ridge moved his chair closer to Poppy so they could share the meal and the wine. It wasn’t long before they had finished their main course.
“Would you like some dessert, Poppy?”
“Oh, no. I can’t eat another bite!”
“How about a nightcap instead? It’s still early, and I’d love to spend more time with you.”
“Okay, why not! Tuesday is my normal weekday off, so I can afford to stay out later than normal.” She said with a smile. “How about brandy? It’s one of my favorite nightcaps.”