The Tycoon's Tender Triumph Page 0,39
him and shrug off her comment, lie and tell him that she’d been with other men, but none had made her feel the same way he did. He’d never have to know that she was a virgin, silly and untouched at twenty five and a complete oddball in a world where sex was taken for granted with dating couples.
And maybe she could even get out that it wasn’t desire he made her feel that others hadn’t been able to engender within her, but anger, frustration and irritation at how obnoxious he was.
Or maybe she should just leave it alone, thinking he might challenge her assertion on what he actually made her feel. She could just imagine him pulling her into his arms, his eyes determined and ready to take on her challenge.
She wouldn’t stand a chance, she thought with a shiver.
Goodness, she just hoped he didn’t go back and have a talk with her father. That would definitely be embarrassing but her father knew better than to tell her secrets. Not that he knew how she felt about Sam. Her father might have wanted something to blossom between his daughter and his neighbor several years ago, but she was pretty sure that dream had died when she’d refused to go out to dinner with Sam after college.
With her camera bag in hand, she found a small print shop and went to one of the self service kiosks. When she plugged the memory chip in, she saw several month’s worth of pictures she’d taken and smiled at the memories she’d captured.
Knowing that pictures looked different in print than on a computer screen, she selected several of the best shots and sent them to print out. While waiting for the pictures to be processed, she leafed through several magazines, but wasn’t really able to remember anything she’d read. By the time her number was called to pick up her photographs, she was a nervous wreck.
She ducked into a cute little restaurant and took a deep breath. Pulling the envelope out of her purse, she closed her eyes and said a silent prayer. Hopefully, the pictures turned out like she wanted them to but she was never certain.
The waitress arrived and Chloe hid the pictures while she ordered a sandwich and sweet tea, grateful when the waitress left and she could once again flip through her pictures.
Holding her breath, she glanced through the first few photos. As her eyes took in the scenes on the small pieces of photo paper, she was relieved, even excited, when she realized that most of the pictures had captured exactly what she’d wanted. There was the man on the ridge, sitting on his horse as the sun set behind him. The man and horse were black while the sunset behind him had the sky on fire with pinks, reds and yellows. The man’s head was bowed slightly, making him seem sad, almost despondent. In reality, he’d probably been sleeping or looking at a weed, but the picture didn’t know that and she smiled as she continued looking.
There was another woman sitting on a park bench in New York, her eyes lonely and sad while people bustled all around her. It represented the way she’d felt all those months in the city, being surrounded by people moving around her but no true connections being formed. She smiled as she saw the picture of the field of wildflowers, all periwinkle and happy flower faces and she could actually feel the wind in the picture. But what stood out was the one soft yellow flower in the middle of all the periwinkle. She had thought it represented rebellion and assertion of one’s spirit despite an overwhelming tide of pressure to conform. There were others as well and Chloe sifted through them slowly, remembering how she felt while trying to capture each scene.
“Hey Joe!” the waitress called out loudly from behind Chloe’s left shoulder.
Chloe quickly grabbed all the pictures, trying to hide them but several of them fell onto the table and floor in the mad scramble.
“Come over here, Joe!” the waitress called out, setting Chloe’s sweet tea on the table while picking up several of the wayward photographs, looking at the details.
A man came out of the back, wiping his hands on a huge apron as he walked through the restaurant, clapping some people on the back, nodding to others. The man had a head full of red hair that she suspected he dyed to a more shocking color, but