was surprised by his answer. Did the golden boy have problems like the rest of the human race? What troubles could someone like him, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, ever have that couldn’t be solved by one flick of his father’s wand?
“Why not?” Ciara asked. “From what I can see you’re a natural. The camera loves you,” she said. She wondered if she could get an exclusive interview for WTCF.
“Thank you.” Jonathan blushed, causing Ciara’s heart to go pitter-patter.
“You’re welcome. But I’m sure I’m not telling you something you haven’t been told before. You have the it factor, now you just need to show that you can back it up.”
“Well, that’s exactly what I intend to do. I intend to showcase issues important to my community like educating our children and taxes.”
“Sounds like you know the issues and that’s important. Because trust me, the press won’t let you get away with a pat answer.”
“Don’t I know it,” Jonathan replied.
The waitress came back with their lobster bisque and placed it in front of them. “This looks delicious.” Ciara wasted no time in digging her spoon into the creamy mixture with chunky bits of lobster. She tore into the bowl and it was empty before Jonathan had hardly had a bite.
He’d been so busy watching her facial expressions as she devoured the soup, he’d barely touched his. She’d looked up several times and found him openly staring.
“Mmmm, was that good,” Ciara commented. She placed her spoon in the empty bowl and peeled a nibble off the warm loaf of bread the waitress had brought to accompany the soup.
“I can tell.” Jonathan leaned over and wiped some of the liquid off the corner of her mouth with his finger and licked it off with his tongue.
Ciara was the first to break their gaze and speak. “Enough about our respective careers. I’m curious as to what makes a man like you tick.”
“What do you want to know?”
“C’mon, something tells me you’re a man of many talents,” Ciara replied flirtatiously. “You’re surrounded by all that money and power, it must be intoxicating.”
“Sometimes it is,” he responded. And sometimes he wished for a moment of peace. Over the next three months he wouldn’t have much of it with the special election coming up in November. That was why he’d been so hell-bent on keeping his date this evening. The women he typically dated were all the same.
Beautiful, well-bred socialites skilled in the art of conversation, parties and none of whom had the least bit of substance, which was why Ciara Miller intrigued him. He was sure he’d barely touched the surface of such a complex woman.
“And you’re unattached because?” Ciara asked.
“I choose to be. And you? Why is a beautiful woman like you still single?”
“I’m not the settling-down type,” Ciara stated. “I didn’t grow up with a white picket fence with dreams of having a family. I was raised by a single mother and grew up poor with barely a roof over my head.” Ciara drew her water glass to her lips and took a generous sip.
Jonathan’s brow rose. Her statement revealed a lot about Ciara. Clearly there were some things in her past that had affected her deeply because hurt was etched across her face, but just as soon as it surfaced, the pain was gone.
“I can’t wait for dinner,” Ciara said, smiling again while she changed the subject. “Because if that bisque was any indicator, dinner ought to be darn good.”
After a leisurely dinner and light conversation about their various interests, they shared a decadent chocolate mousse that afterward left Ciara feeling frisky. Could it be because Jonathan had removed his overcoat, rolled up his sleeves and unbuttoned his top button? Just that little bit of skin was making Ciara all kinds of horny. What was it they said about chocolate?
“Listen, I enjoy my freedom,” Ciara said after regaling Jonathan with tales of her bad-girl youth. “No restrictions. You know what I’m saying. I like being completely uninhibited.”
“I like uninhibited,” Jonathan said, leaning in closer until their arms touched.
“Do you?” Ciara scooted closer and lightly rubbed his arm.
At the slightest touch of her hand, all the hairs on Jonathan’s arm stood up at attention. He was more aware of her than ever.
“Yes, I do,” Jonathan said. He appreciated a woman in touch with her sexual side and one so completely unpredictable. “So let’s get out of here and perhaps we can get uninhibited together.”
“No can do, sweetheart,” Ciara replied and rose to her feet. “I have to work tomorrow and with the way my boss has been riding me I can’t afford to be late again.”
“Oh, you’re no fun.” Jonathan pouted.
“I’ll make it up to you,” Ciara replied, seductively leaving Jonathan no doubt of her intentions.
“Promise?” Jonathan raised a brow.
“I promise.”
“I’m home,” Ciara yelled later that evening as she walked inside the apartment.
Rachel poked her head out from the kitchen and wiped her hands against her flowery apron. “How was your day?”
“Oh, it was rough,” Ciara said, kicking off her shoes and flopping down on the chaise on their sectional sofa. She tucked her legs underneath her and laid her head against the armrest.
“How about a glass of wine?” Rachel suggested.
“That sounds wonderful,” Ciara said, massaging her temples.
Ciara smiled at her younger sister. Poor thing couldn’t dress worth a darn. Rachel was more comfortable in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt than in Ciara’s high-fashion wardrobe. Rachel was wearing a pair of old sweats and her long hair hung in a ponytail.
Rachel returned several minutes later carrying two glasses of red wine and sat beside Ciara. “Mine wasn’t any better. My professor ripped apart my psychology paper.”
“Guess who I saw today?” Ciara asked, taking a sip of wine.
“Please don’t tell me it was Diamond,” Rachel guessed correctly. Ciara nodded. “Asking for money no doubt?”
“Which I don’t really have, but…”
Rachel turned and glared at her sister. “Please tell me you didn’t give it to her?”
Ciara shrugged her shoulders. “Why do you let her do this to you, Ci-Ci?” Rachel called Ciara by the nickname she’d come up with when she was two years old and hadn’t been able to say her name. “You let Diamond run a guilt trip on you every time because she had a hard life. Well so did you, sis. That woman dragged you around the country. You don’t owe her anything.” Rachel had seen Diamond come time and time again to Ciara for a handout and she was sick of it.
“I know, I know,” Ciara said. She hadn’t forgotten being kicked out of their apartment because Diamond couldn’t pay the rent or doing her homework in the back of some scummy bar. All because Diamond refused to grow up and keep a job. “But I can’t just leave her hanging in the wind. She’s my mother.”
“Yes, she is. But she’s a grown woman and quite capable of taking care of herself,” Rachel replied. Every time Rachel saw her, Diamond had another man on her arm. So why was she always looking to her daughter for a handout? “I’m tired of seeing her use you, Ciara. You have to stand up for yourself and stop letting her walk all over you. She only does this because you let her get away with it.”
Ciara stood up and walked over to stare out the window at the passing cars. “I know you’re right, Rachel. But you just don’t understand the bond Diamond