Chances (Mystic Nights #1)(19)
“I can’t. I’m meeting a friend for dinner,” she murmured shakily. Her words came out in little puffs of vapor. The air was quite cold tonight. But he didn’t feel it, not with this beauty so close causing the fire of desire to run in his veins.
“Really?” He questioned feigning doubt. He leaned in closer, and took a whiff of her hair. It smelled like fresh raspberries and cream. “You are a very beautiful woman, Aliya. I could make things really easy for you.”
She raised her knee a fraction of an inch and then pulled back. She’d been about to knee the man in the groin. He was taking this way too far, and just as she hoisted her knee forward with all her might, she felt the cold night air suddenly separating them as Peter took several awkward steps back. Her eyes went wide when she saw Jonathan’s hand with a fist full of his coat sleeve. The smile plastered on his handsome face was fake. She saw the anger there. “That would be great, Peter. She really wants to open this studio for Lantern Hill. Your vote would be greatly appreciated by both of us.” His words dripped with sarcasm. If the man wasn’t a council member, he would have smashed his face in. Had he touched Aliya he would have. Luck. It arrived just in the nick of time.
Peter was dazed. Jonathan had yanked him away from Aliya, but his words did not belie the anger he saw in the younger man’s eyes. He would play the man’s game. For now.
“Oh yes. Of course. I’m sure you both would appreciate it. I’ll be sure to examine her proposal well. From all angles.” He added giving the two a parting nod as he backed up to his car. “Have fun tonight. See you at the next board meeting, Jonathan.” And without giving them a second glance, he got into his car, quickly slipped the key into the ignition, and revved up the powerful engine on his mustang before heading out of the parking lot with tires spinning.
“Jonathan, I’m sorry,” she started to explain breathlessly.
He saw her panic and wanted to assure her that he’d seen enough to know Aliya had been backing away from the man’s untoward advances. “No need to explain. I saw enough to know he was trying to press his luck where it wasn’t wanted.” When he saw her smile of relief pass over her face, he pressed a quick chaste kiss to her cheek as Peter drove by the two of them. As Jonathan steered her out from in between the cars, he added, “The man is known for being quite the lecher. Can you try not to be alone with him?”
She looked up at the man by her side. Aliya saw nothing but concern in Jonathan’s eyes and it warmed her immediately. She nodded her assent, grateful he didn’t think anything else was going on. She didn’t know what she would have thought had she come across him in a similar situation.
As they approached the restaurant, Jonathan was fuming inside. The man was a pig. And he would have words for him next time he saw him. Make it absolutely clear that Aliya was off limits. The only thing that kept him from smashing the man’s face was that he didn’t want to turn his and Aliya’s first date into a memory neither one of them would like to remember. He had held his restraint well. He didn’t care a wink that the man was on the council, and the board. So instead of letting the man permeate his thoughts, he focused his attention on the beautiful woman beside him.
Jonathan took her arm, placed it in the crook of his, and kissed her once more on the cheek to assure her they were okay. “Come on my love,” he whispered seductively. “Let’s go eat because I can’t wait to get you alone.”
Aliya leaned into him taking comfort in his strength. She could definitely get used to this. Smiling up at him, she was determined to enjoy herself, and make tonight a night neither one of them would forget. Neither one of them noticed Peter Sebastian had stopped his car at the stop sign and was watching them walk in. Together.
*
The appetizers were served. Steaming oysters. And the wine a delicious pinot. By the time dinner was served Aliya was truly enjoying herself. Jonathan was full of stories about his boyhood and the pranks he and his brother, Joseph, had pulled and their mother getting them out of all kinds of scrapes. Aliya found herself really admiring the woman who had raised four children on her own. Barely out of her teenaged years, Tawny had found herself pregnant not once but twice during college which she continued to complete with her law degree. Then right after college, when she just opened up her own law practice, fighting for the rights of her people, she found herself pregnant with the twins, Eve and Dawn.
To her surprise, Jonathan made no mention of his father, or his sibling’s father or fathers, whoever they might be. He’d only said his mother was fiercely independent, loved all of her children, and chose to raise them alone. She was truly a one woman show. She dedicated her life to the reserve, and with her parents help in raising the children while they were younger, she’d been instrumental in getting first the federal government to recognize their tribe as a first people. Then she had come home to raise her sons and push the state into giving them the same recognition the federal government had given the western tribes long ago. The battle with the state had been a long and arduous one, but luckily she was able to stay home to do that. It meant she was home with her children while she fought with the state to recognize Lantern Hill’s rights to reservation status and first people. As soon as her sons entered college, Tawny found a new battle to champion. The casino. Her daughters had still been young teenagers while she brokered the deal that had gotten the loan from Malaysia to build the Mystic Nights Casino & Spa. And her sons had come home to help her run it.