"You're doing this again?" The angry brunette hissed into her phone. "Fine, Liam. Just don't show and I'll have dinner like I seem to always have it, alone."
She slammed her phone on the bar and sighed loudly. This was three times in the past week she had dined alone. She'd become her own best friend. She'd learned to find comfort in the depths of her own misery.
Three years she had dated the same man, wore the same fake smile when he feigned love, and cried the same tears when it became evident that it was all a farce. Liam was nowhere near the man she thought she deserved, but preservation of the family name kept her doing the same dance she had for years. Her father said he was for her, and she abided by his wishes. She hated disappointing him.
She was the youngest in her family to take the reins of leading the company. Fashion was their game, although she'd hardly pass for the model she used to be. "You need to look more business like," her father would tell her when she strutted into a meeting wearing the latest trend. Now, pantsuits and dress shirts adorned her body. She'd pretty much replaced her old wardrobe. There wasn't much left to the woman she used to be before taking on this tedious, yet important role.
Running a hand through her now loose hair, she waved her free one at the bartender. "I'll take another drink, please. Actually, leave the bottle here, if you don't mind."
"Put her drink on my tab." She heard a deep voice surround her and shook her head.
"I can buy my own drinks, and I don't need your charity."
"No charity here. I saw a beautiful woman and wanted to buy her a drink. I'd like to give you more, maybe perhaps dinner if I'm not being too presumptuous."
"I can assure you that you are." She kept her back turned to him. "I just want to have my drink and be on my way."
"Steffy." There was a name she hadn't heard in years. To everyone around her, she was Stephanie Forrester, CEO of the Forrester family business. She'd shed her childhood name years ago.
Turning to the man who had seized her attention, she searched his face for familiarity and saw none. "Who are you, and how do you know that name?"
"Have dinner with me. I'll tell you all you need to know."
"I'm not into tricks."
"Neither am I, Steffy. You think I came here to trick you?"
"You know my name, and you won't tell me who you are. I'd say the assumption seems accurate."
"Just one dinner, and if you're not intoxicated by my earthly charm, then I'll never bother you again."
"I don't get intoxicated by anyone. Nothing phases me anymore."
"Well, we will have to change that. There is no reason why a smile like yours shouldn't light up every room you enter."
Who the hell was this dashing stranger?
Within minutes he had scored them a table. She took her seat as he pulled her chair out. He kept staring at his phone, which made her a little antys, but she ignored it for the most part. She watched him as he ordered his food with authority and looked to her for her decisions. When she settled on a salad, he scoffed and tossed his menu down.
"She likes her lobster with butter drizzled on top, and crack the shell. She hates it when she breaks her nails."
All of this was true, but how could he possibly know? Steffy watched him as he sipped from his glass and tried to place where she'd encountered him. She had been a little wayward after college, but she would remember sharing a meal with a specimen as fine and this.
He was gorgeous. Dark hair that was in a low cut, pearly white teeth, a physique to rival most, and his smell. He smelled like a dream, and heaven help her, she was definitely intrigued by his seemingly mysterious backstory. She only hoped whatever their story was wasn't tawdry. Her father would never stand for a scandal when she was so close to achieving a goal even he and grandfather hadn't, an exclusive deal with one of the biggest names in fashion, Vera Wang.
In conjunction with her father and grandfather, Vera was designing a few exclusive pieces for a showcase to be debuted at Fashion Week. This deal took a lot of maneuvering on her part and was exclusively her brainchild.
While she was mulling over her accomplishments and regrets, she looked up to see him watching her. This wasn't any ordinary stare. He was looking at her as if he'd seen her intimately as if they'd been intertwined with each other.
"Why are you looking at me that way?" Steffy balked after too much time of him staring at her passed. "What is it that made you come and talk to me?"
"I was just wondering." He crossed his arms and stared at her like a hunter stalking his prey. Where she should have felt uneasy, she was captivated. Something about him made her want to know more.
"What were you wondering?"
"What happened to the girl I used to know."
"What girl did you know?"
"You. I remember your smile, your energy was infectious, you never let anyone or anything hold you down."
Oh, God, she thought. A drunken night of passion with a man she didn't know. This wouldn't boil over well.
"I can't be here." Steffy stood, coming to her senses after weighing the ramifications of being this close to a man she had possibly been with before she was in an active relationship. Never mind that Liam was useless to her, she still had to keep her image clean for her business and family's sake.
"Steffy, don't go." He gripped her hand, and she saw a certain vulnerability in his eyes. It pulled her back in. "She reclaimed her seat and cleared her throat. Something about him endured her. A particular familiar kindness.
Leaning forward, she looked into his eyes, and then it hit her. She'd gazed into those eyes before. She just couldn't place where.
"Are you going to tell me where we know each other from?"
"You promised me a meal together first."
Steffy picked up the glass she drank from and took a sip. "Holding me hostage over a meal isn't going to gain you any points."
"There was a time where me holding you was all you craved. You demanded it like the air you breathed. It filled your lungs and weighed you down, and the only thing that pulled you free was knowing that something deeper awaited. You loved the thrill of us. You loved everything you knew we could be."
Her skin was quite possibly on fire. The words he spoke did more to her than any single touch Liam had placed on her body. Her mouth went dry, her legs shivered, her crystal blue eyes widened.
"What is your name?"
"In due time, sweetheart." He nodded his head and slid back a fraction from the table. "Your food has arrived."
She took the first bite of her lobster and tried to remember a meal such as this with a man like him and couldn't.
She thought back to all the meals she had shared and remembered one that made her smile, it was when she was in college on spring break in Laguna. There was this boy that worked in the restaurant she frequented that night. The guy she was with was being a jerk, and the boy dropped a drink on him, purposely, and subsequently fought her date when he'd called her a bitch. She had never had anyone stand up to a guy like that for her, and she'd invited the boy out to dinner. She'd ordered a lobster much like this one, but he had forgotten his wallet at home. She assumed it was a ploy to get her to cover his tab, but she didn't make a big deal of it. She had money, her father and grandfather saw to it. When she pulled out her card and paid for the meal, she saw something in his eyes that made her feel awful for assuming the worst of him, but he'd simply thanked her and walked her to her hotel afterward. She had actually enjoyed her time with him. She'd opened up to this boy more than anyone in her life. A few hours felt like a lifetime in his company. He had made an impression, despite her earlier qualms about the possibility of his deception. The next day she'd found the exact amount of the meal taped to her door in an envelope with a note. "Until next time. The lobster will always be on me."
Sadly, she wasn't able to enjoy that next lobster meal with him. She was called home soon after. Her grandmother had taken a turn for the worse and died days later. She never saw the boy again.
Steffy remembered that night fondly. The guy was sweet, he'd danced with her at the restaurant, held her hand as they consumed their dinner, hung on her every word as she spoke. He wasn't the type of guy anyone would ever think of seeing her with. He was skinny and wore glasses, but had the deepest brown eyes. His eyes were intoxicating like...
Gazing across the table, Steffy dropped her fork and huffed. "I don't believe it. Bill."
"I told you we would share that meal again."
"How did you possibly find me?"
"Research. Research and a lot of money passing palms. Imagine looking for Steffy while Stephanie Forrester is inhabiting her body. You know you left me without much to go on. Looking for a Steffy in a world of women was very tiresome and lonely," he joked.
He looked so different from their brief encounter. He'd filled out in all the places that counted. The glasses were gone, and he looked as if he had spent every day since they last saw each other in the gym. She had thought about this man over the years. She had wondered where he ended up. He was so sweet to her in a moment where she needed it most. That one night had made her feel more alive than any other, but why all the secrecy? Why had he toyed with her, eluding to more than just a shared night of wonderful company?
Steffy stared at him for a second longer and flung her drink in his face. "What the hell was that for?" He waved his arms, trying to shake her drink from his now wet shirt.
"I told you I was not here for your games. You had me agonizing over where we'd met, and I thought you were some drunken one night stand I had forgotten. I was a wreck!"
Bill chuckled and raised his glass to his lips. "Well, you didn't look a wreck. Actually, you looked quite composed. Did they teach you that at the same place you got these interesting clothes from?"
"That is not the point. The point of this is that you hinted at a sexual relationship between us, and there wasn't one."
"But you've thought about it." His cheshire grin made her want to smack it off of his face. "You see a kind man offering you drinks and a meal and the first thing that popped into your head was did you sleep with him and not remember? A normal person's mind just doesn't go there."
"I never said I was a normal person, and where my mind goes is none of your business. For the record, I don't get drunk and pick up random guys for sex. I just let my father believe I did for a period."
"The ever rebellious little minx. What did this game with your father entail?"
"Hotel rooms and alcohol. I'd make sure to be seen with a lot of different guys and spend my nights in whatever hotel I charged to his black card."
"And the men?"
"Never got past first base. There were some nights where I drank too much and went a little too deep," she admitted.
"And you thought I was a guy that enjoyed random sex with passed out women?"
"You looked like the kind of guy that could have made his head explode. You would have been right up my alley to piss him off."
"Was I supposed to be one of your guys?"
"No," she answered honestly. "You were different. I actually enjoyed your company."
Steffy wasn't sure why she was admitting all these things to a man she had only spent one evening with, but there was a safeness about him back then. Even now as she glared at him across the table, she felt it. This night was the most interesting she'd had in months.
She began eating her food, and he followed her lead. "What is it that you do, Bill?" She tried to bring the conversation around to a lighter subject.
"I'm in media."
"Media, that's interesting."
"Allows me to meet a lot of interesting people."
"Do you have a family?"
"I have a sister and niece who I adore, but no woman in my life. Do you have a family?"
"Yes."
"A man in your life?"
"No," she answered quickly. "I mean, yes. I have a boyfriend, Liam."
"Yet you're dining alone? I don't know a man in his right mind who would leave you in a restaurant alone. You never know what or who might happen. Even under those clothes that hide your body, I could see you for the gorgeous woman you truly are."
Steffy felt the heat of his words and took a deep breath, she'd had enough. "Check please."
"But we've hardly just begun, my beautiful Steffy."
"My name is Stephanie, and I'm actually done. And for the record, I'm not yours to claim."
"But you could be. Eight years ago I met a woman who had the most amazing impact on me. For years I've been looking for her in the women I've bedded. No one has compared. One night where I should have taken her and made her mine, I let it pass. I came here tonight for one reason, for you."
"You hardly know me."
"You let me look into your soul that night, and I know you felt it. We could have been real."
"Could have been," she shrugged. "Now my life has changed. I'm not that girl anymore."
"Well, Stephanie Forrester, I'm going to enjoy dragging Steffy out of you."
"Thanks for dinner, Bill. It was nice seeing you again." She stood to leave.
"You will be seeing more of me, Ms. Forrester. I've relocated to Los Angeles. I plan to be around a long time."
"Enjoy your stay."
Steffy left the restaurant with her head spinning. She'd only let a man get under her skin this much once in her life, and even it felt like child's play compared to Bill. He wasn't this cocky when they met or this arrogant. While parts of it annoyed her, she had to admit, she was turned on. It was the reason for her hasty exit. She wouldn't be like the whore her father married when he replaced her mother. No, she would be true to Liam, and this chance meeting with the familiar yet mysterious stranger would never happen again.
