Temptation's Kiss Ch. 02

Cassidy stared after Rand as he rushed from the room. Her heart beat accelerated as the door slammed shut behind him.

Oh God what am I doing? She thought to herself and walked over to where her shirt lay in a pile on the floor. She picked it up and quickly drew the soft grey material over her head.

Her body felt overheated and her stomach was still in knots as she put her jewelry back on. She walked over to the desk and sat down, noticing her breathing was shaky. She pulled her hair out of its ponytail, letting the strait black tresses fall to the middle of her back, and ran a hand threw them.

Her mind went into overdrive as she sat in the spacious office with the muffled sound of some hip hop song drifting to her ears. She never did this. She wasn't the type of person to have sex with a stranger. She stood up and began pacing. She came to stand in front of a small mirror and stared at her face.

Her lips were swollen. She knew her friends would point that out if she were to leave and go to them. Her face looked flushed and her eyes were a darker stormier grey than the usually were. She looked like she'd been...

She looked like she'd been doing exactly what she'd been doing.

The door opened suddenly behind her causing her to jump.

"Hey babe, sorry..." Rand started and trailed off seeing that she was dressed.

Cassidy bit her lip and turned to face him.

"Umm, I don't do that. I mean not normally. That's not what I normally do." she said running a shaky hand threw her hair. It was a nervous gesture.

"I didn't figure you did Cass." He said quietly walking towards her.

"I um, think I should go back out with my friends." She mumbled as he grabbed her around the hips and pulled her close.

"If that's what you want." He said nuzzling the curve of her neck and placing gentle kisses there.

"I think it is." She said helplessly. "Yes, it is."

"Okay babe. Can I have your number? I would like to call you sometime. Maybe we could go out to dinner or something." He said planting a tender kiss on her lips.

"I, I'd like that." She said a little breathy. Her body was still on fire for him.

Five minutes later, she walked out of the office, alone, and found her friends. None of them seemed to have noticed she'd been missing. Mari was wrapped around the cute red head on the dance floor doing some kind of mating ritual dance. Cora was at the table perched on the blonde's lap whispering something into his ear that made him blush strait to the tips of his ears. Anna was sitting alone beside them looking a little uncomfortable.

Cass walked over and sat beside her. "Where's Marcus?"

"He spotted someone that was more his cup of tea." She said and nodded to where he sat making out with a tall dark haired woman with huge breasts that Cass thought looked as id they'd make the girl fall forward at any moment.

"Where's that guy you where with?"

"Long story." Cass said with a sigh. "I think I'm going to go home. Tell Mari happy birthday for me will yah?" she asked and gave Anna a quick hug.

It wasn't long before Cassidy was walking into her apartment. The events of the night were replaying over and over in her head. She kicked off her heels as soon as she was in her bedroom and collapsed on the huge king sized bed that she'd bought only a year before when she'd moved into the small apartment. It was a nice space. It suited her. It wasn't cluttered and everything had a place.

Cass closed her eyes for a moment, just a moment, before regretfully standing up and heading for the bathroom. She needed a shower.

She turned the hot water on and stripped out of her clothes as steam filled the small bathroom. When she stood under the hot spray, she sighed as the heat loosened tight muscles and relaxed her.

Looking back on the night, she was stunned at her actions. She never did anything like that. That was something Cora would do. Not her. She was Cassidy Jennings. She owned a bookstore, drank tea, and ate health food. She was not the kind of girl who had sex, or almost had sex, with complete strangers she knew nothing about.

Well, that wasn't true. She did know a thing or two about Randon Alexander Mitchell the third. The whole of America knew a thing or two about the notorious play mate, though Cass never paid very close attention to the tabloids. If she did, she'd have recognized him.

Her reading preferences ran toward gripping mysteries, thrilling adventures, and delightful romances.

Pouring some jasmine scented shampoo into her hand, Cassidy smiled as the scent enveloped her. She loved the scent of jasmine. It had been her favorite ever since she'd been a little girl.

Her mother had always smelled of jasmine. It had been a comfort that that fact had never changed, when she'd had a constantly changing childhood. Her parents had separated multiple times, moved her to multiple schools yet always coming back to the same small town she lived in now.

She got out of the shower and wrapped herself in a large towel. When she was dressed in a pair of grey sweat pants and a red and black stripped t-shirt she climbed back into bed and picked up the new best selling mystery book that was lying on her nightstand.

It was somewhere around two in the morning when she got up to turn the lights off and fell into a deep sleep.

Cassidy woke around six o'clock in the morning to the sound of her alarm clock buzzing on the bedside table. It was Saturday so she wouldn't open the bookstore until noon. With this in mind she groggily reset her alarm to nine o'clock and fell back into the peaceful sleep she'd been enjoying.

When the alarm clock woke her for the second time she rolled out of bed and stretched. Her stomach growled and she frowned down at it in dismay. She hadn't eaten since lunch the previous day, and now she realized she was starving.

She walked into the kitchen and went through the cabinets until she found her stash of blueberry Pop tarts. After popping two into the toaster, she grabbed a diet Dr. Pepper out of the refrigerator and popped the top. She leaned against the counter and sipped the cold soda as she waited for her Pop tarts.

When they popped up she quickly pulled the hot pastries out and laid them on a paper towel. She sighed in pleasure as she bit into one and closed her eyes to savor the taste. Blueberry Pop tarts were amazing.

When she was done she walked back into her room and dressed for the day. She pulled on a pair of comfortable loose fitting navy cotton pants and a loose grey cotton blouse.

She walked into the bathroom when she was done dressing and pulled her hair back while she brushed her teeth and put on a little makeup. Her daily makeup routine consisted of powder, black mascara, and some clear lip gloss. It wasn't much she figured she didn't like to wear on a daily basis.

When she pulled the clip out of her hair the black strands tumbled in natural waves to the middle of her back. She'd made the mistake once of cutting her hair short back in her teens. She had not made that mistake again.

When she was finished getting ready for the day, she left for work.

It was a five minute drive from her apartment to the cozy little book store she'd bought a year ago.

She pulled into her parking spot and got out. She didn't bother locking the car. She didn't feel that it was necessary.

She dug through her purse to find her keys and when she did, she unlocked the book store and walked inside to get things ready for the day.

She hung the open sign in the door and began to unload a new shipment of books that she'd gotten in. She counted at least six books she was dying to read. She put the books in their correct spots before going to the back room and putting on some soft music. She put on a pot of tea and sat at the counter waiting for her first customer of the day.

She didn't wait long for the bell on the front door to ring alerting her to someone's presence. She had her back turned to the door trying to pull something up on the computer.

"Welcome to Jennings. Ill be with you in just a moment!" she called

"Take your time."

She knew that voice. How could she forget? She turned around to see Rand leaning against the checkout counter.

He looked amazing in a pair of blue jeans and a bright green polo that made his green eyes even brighter than she remembered them being the night before.

"Hello Cass." He said with a grin that made her heart skip a few beats.

"Hi." She returned. "Can I help you with something?" she asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Well I was told by a little birdie that this was the place to come for the best prices on the best books. Is that true?"

"Well I most certainly try to keep it that way." she said and walked out from behind the counter. "Are you looking for anything in particular?" she asked.

"You wouldn't happen to have that new thriller from the Drake Kempt series would you?" he asked.

"I just got them in yesterday so I have a few copies." She told him and walked over to grab it from the shelf. When she turned around he was standing a bit too close for her comfort, so she side stepped him. "It's a wonderful book. I read it in one night. It's hard to put down once you start it. It might be the best one yet." She said nervously.

"I'll take it." he said with a grin.

"So did you know I owned this place when you came in?"

"I did. I asked one of your friends and she told me. It was the redhead I believe."

"Ah, Cora. Is she the birdie?" Cassidy asked with a laugh.

"No, that would be my sister-in-law. Do you know Loretta Mitchell?" he asked.

Cassidy knew the woman well, and liked her. "Yeah, she's a wonderful woman. Will this be all?"

"I believe so." He told her.

Cassidy walked behind the counter and rang up the price of the book. "That will be fifteen even." She told him.

He handed her a twenty and she opened the cash register, avoiding the heat of his gaze. She could feel his eyes on her and it was wreaking havoc on her nerves.

"Cass, you don't have to feel nervous around me. I promise I'm not going to jump you." He said quietly.

Cass looked at him and gave him a weak smile. "Sorry. I've never quite been in this exact situation before." she told him, handing him a five in change.

"Would you like to have dinner with me tonight?" he asked taking the change from her and grabbing her hand in the process. His eyes were burning holes into hers.

"I um, I don't know." She mumbled.

"Please? I promise to be the perfect gentleman." He told her and smiled a smile that could have melted even the coldest heart.

"I guess." She said and pulled back her hand to put his purchase into a bag.

"Great give me your address and ill pick you up at seven!" he told her happily.

When he left Cassidy sighed and turned to her computer. It would be a long night.

Rand pulled up to his brother's house and got out of his car. He felt accomplished at getting a date with Cassidy Jennings. He knew she hadn't been the typical club going party girl the night before, but he would have never guessed that the gorgeous brunette owned a bookstore and listened to Mozart. It had been playing softly in the background at the bookstore.

Her store was a nice establishment. It was friendly, open, and cozy. It smelled of jasmine. He assumed that she had an affection for the scent seeing as she'd been wearing it the night before.

He knocked on the door and smiled when his brother's wife, Loretta, answered. She was tall and willowy with her hair falling around her shoulders in bright red waves. She was also seven months pregnant and glowing with excitement over her first baby.

"Randon, you made it! Oh good, I was beginning to think you wouldn't show up." she said

"I wouldn't miss out on some of you amazing turkey sandwiches Lori. You know how much I love them." he told her and kissed her on the cheek before walking inside. "Where's Chase?" he asked referring to his older brother.

"Oh, he's fiddling around in the nursery trying to put together the baby bed. Oh Rand it's the most beautiful baby bed! It's dark wood and it matches the rest of the furniture perfectly! Not to mention that it is safe and durable." She said leading him into the nursery.

The walls were painted a pale blue. The baby was a girl; however Loretta's favorite color was blue so the baby's room was painted in soft hues of blue and green. It looked just like a nursery with all the trappings.

Chase was sitting on the floor staring at the instructions with a look of utter confusion on his face.

"Hey bro. How's it coming?" Rand asked him.

"I think the instructions were misprinted. There is no way to comprehend them. Why do people insist on making things as tough as possible?" he complained.

"Because it makes life a bit more interesting. Now quit whining and get to work." Loretta scolded her husband. "Rand get down there and help him figure it out. I'm going to make sandwiches and tea." She said.

As she made her way out of the room, Rand got down on the floor with his brother. They looked remarkable similar, he knew. Some people mistook them for twins, although chase was a bit taller and had a more lanky build. He also had dark blue eyes other than green like Rand's.

"So what do we need to do?" Rand asked his brother who was studying the instructions with a fierce intensity.

"We have to put that part over there on top of this part here." he said.

"Oh. That makes sense." Rand said, hiding a smile.

"Shut up. How's the club doing?"

"Great. I hired a few more waitresses and another bartender. I'm turning a decent sized profit from the whole thing, not that I need it."

"Hah, true. The business is good. Dad keeps grumbling about how he's not allowed to do a lot of the labor anymore."

"Well that's dad for you." Rand said thinking about his dad. His dad was his hero and had been since he'd been four and Randon Alexander Mitchell the second, otherwise know as Alexander or Alex, had taken him to his first Yankees game.

"So what are your plans for tonight? It's your night off huh?"

"Yup and I have a date with a woman." Rand said with a cheeky smile.

"A woman? Is she a looker?" Chase asked.

"She's got long black hair, smoky bedroom eyes, and legs up to her chin." Rand told his brother. "Yeah she's a looker."

"Way to go little bro."

It took an hour and a half to get the baby bed assembled. The experience was not without a few cuss words and injuries seeing as Chase had completely smashed his finger with a hammer.

Rand stayed at his brother's house until well after four o'clock. They drank a beer and messed around with Chase's 1960 ford mustang fastback. It was their project. They'd picked it up from a junkyard and were working on restoring it to its former glory.

When he got back home from his brother's house it was four thirty and he immediately headed toward the shower. He smelled like sweat and motor oil and for a date with a pretty lady, that just wouldn't do.

His shower lasted a whole ten minutes. He was all about the jump in, scrub off, and jump out.

When he was dressed in a pair of black pants and a dark grey button down that his mother had bought him for his twenty-sixth birthday the previous year, he walked back downstairs and sat on the couch to catch up on one of the baseball games on TV.

At six twenty he left his house and stopped by a flower shop and wondered if Cassidy would like roses or something less formal.

He left with a dozen violets drove to her apartment wit ha content smile on his face.

Cassidy stood outside her closet trying to decide what to wear. She had no idea where they were going or if what she should wear. She ran a hand threw her wet hair and pulled out a red dress that she'd never worn. It was pretty. Not too dressy or too casual. It was simple but classy. She laid the dress on her bed along with a pair of red pumps that would match it perfectly and went into the bathroom to dry her hair. It was quickly approaching the six thirty mark, but she'd had to stay at the store after it had closed to check on a shipment that was late.

She blow dried her hair and left it down. She loved the fact that her hair never needed to be straitened or curled. It cut some of the time off of getting dressed. She put on makeup, going for the smoky eyes and pale pink lip gloss. When she was satisfied with the result she went to the room and dressed.

The dress fit perfectly. It had a scooped neckline and was nipped in at her waist before falling just above her knees. The sky scraper red pumps made the hemline rise a few extra inches, but overall the dress was modest and sexy at the same time.

She jumped when she heard a knock on her door, and a nervous feeling swept over her. She answered the door and wasn't disappointed when Rand stood there holding a lovely bouquet of violets. He gave her a long steamy look before breaking out into a sexy grin.

"Hello beautiful."