Page 23 of Blush

Damn, damn, damn.

This is what I want. I want experience. I yearn for it. With experience, maybe I can be something more than Mandy Cake to someone. Maybe I can finally get over lusting for my best friend.

Tonight?

I hit Send without thinking about it.

He responds.

Nine p.m.

Where?

An address follows. Oddly, it’s one of the buildings owned by Black Inc., though it’s a residential building, not their office complex.

Just outside the building?I write.

Tell the doorman you’re meeting someone at the bar. It’s on the first floor. Have a seat and ask for Alfred. I’ll take it from there.

Apprehension surges through me. Fear…but also excitement.

Tonight.

Tonight I will begin my education in the art of sex and seduction.

Chapter Eight

Jackson

“Found her,” Ben says to me.

“How did she look?” I ask.

“She seemed shy. And then, when I had to leave the restaurant to take a quick phone call, she disappeared.”

Icicles poke the back of my neck. “What do you mean, she disappeared?”

“I mean, when I got back to my spot at the bar, she was gone.”

“That doesn’t sound like Amanda. She’s never rude.”

“I think she was just shy. I mean, here I am, coming up to her in a tiny little sushi bar. She just freaked out a little.”

“Amanda doesn’t freak out.”

“I’m a strange man—a famous, strange man—coming up to her and starting a conversation. Of course she freaked out.”

“Well, thanks for checking on her. I hated having to blow her off at the last minute. She’s a special woman.”

“She seems special. Very pretty but definitely an introvert.”

“She is.”

“And you haven’t…” Ben raises his eyebrows.

“No, I haven’t. We’re friends. Just friends.”

“And you think you can always be just friends?”