Mr. Tanner's Babysitter

Chapter Five

                                                                                        Payton 

            Since being back in Trent’s home without the boys, it felt sort of lonely. Trent went off to do some more business that was going to request most of his day. After cleaning the entire house, I decided to call Mark to see if he wanted to get a bite to eat.

           “Hey, Mark. Are you busy?”

           “Not anymore. You know that I would drop anything and anyone to get to spend some time with you. Where are we going?”

           This nice steak restaurant was a few blocks from my apartment that I loved more than another restaurant in the area. “What about that steak place?”

           “Thank god! You finally pick something that even I couldn’t turn away. Meet you there in an hour?”

           “Sounds great. See you then.”

           I rushed into my room to take a quick shower and get dressed. It usually took me much longer than an hour to get ready, but I did not need to dazzle myself up so much with Mark. Mark was a great guy who appreciated me for who I was. Realistically he would be the perfect guy for me if it was not for his need to have different women to keep him interested. I threw on a light blue dress that was loose around my hips. It came up just above my knees and flowed smoothly. The crazy thing was that I used to hate dressing up like this when I was a girl, but since being in a professional setting such as Tanner’s Publishing, I had to dress to impress every day. It had sort of stuck with me, and now I loved to show off the hard work that I put into looking so good. I kept with my natural curls and applied very little makeup. After putting on my open-toed heels, I grabbed my purse to head out for the night. There was no telling what else Mark would get us into tonight.

           From out of nowhere, Trent creepily appeared behind me, which he seemed to do lately. I jumped at the sound of his voice coming from behind me. “Going out?”

           I held onto my chest because I was sure I just experienced what a mini heart attack felt like. “Yes, I am going out to dinner.”

           “You look lovely. The guy must be special.”

           “Oh no, it’s Mark from work.”

           Trent’s face turned blank as he gritted his teeth. “Mark Blane?”

           I could not help but feel like Trent may have been a little jealous. Maybe it was simply that I wanted him to be. “That would be the one.”

           “He does not seem quite like your type.”

           For some strange reason, that comment got under my skin. “Why is that? Mark is a great guy, and any girl would be lucky to have him as a date. You should not always judge a book by its cover. Mark and I have grown close since he started with your company.”

           Trent moved closer to me, which caught me off guard. “Is he your boyfriend?”

           “That is none of your business, Trent.”

           “It is most certainly my business now that you are living in my home. For example, if you were to bring him here, then it would affect my children, which makes it my business.”

           I rolled my eyes at him and pushed past him. “I would never bring Mark here.”

           My remark seemed to satisfy him enough that he turned around and yelled over his shoulder, “have fun!”

           Trent now turned my whole mood sour. Meeting Mark at the restaurant now seemed like a horrible idea, but instead of canceling as I should have, I reached for the restaurant's door and walked in. Mark was already sitting at a table when I spotted him.

           Before I could sit down, he stood up and pulled out my chair for me. “Payton, you look magnificent as always.”

           “Thank you, Mark.”

           Mark could sense that I was not in the best of moods. “Is everything okay, sweetheart?”

           I was not too fond of it when he called me sweetheart, but I was already aggravated enough at Trent that I thought it was best if I did not call him out on it right now. “For the most part, yes.”

           “What is bothering you, Payton? You know that you can tell me everything. I am not one of those guys that will go blabbing all your s**t all over the place. By now, you should know that you can trust me.”

           The thing was that I trusted Mark more than anyone else in my life. Though he was always trying to get into my pants, he was the closest thing to a friend I have had in years. I knew that Mark wanted to be more than just friends, but I knew from the moment we met that he would never be the kind of guy I could see myself being with. Once I was comfortable in my chair, and I could see the vulnerability in his eyes, I decided to lay it out there for him, only holding back some details. “Mr. Tanner offered me a job to be his babysitter until he could find a more permanent one. He said that if I did this for him, then he would be willing to make me a writer at Tanner’s Publishing instead of just an editor.”

           Mark’s mouth hung wide open. “Are you serious? So, what is he like?”

           “He can come off a bit…”

           I was interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat next to me. “Is this seat taken?” My eyes grew wide as Trent took a seat next to me at our already small table.

           “How?”

           “The how does not matter, Payton. You should be asking me why.”

           The glance that Mark gave me was one filled with wonder and uncomfortableness. Having your boss join you for a dinner that you were not planning on came off as a little shocking, to say the least. “Okay, then why?”

           Trent picked up a piece of bread on the table and tore it apart, only sticking a small portion in his mouth. “You said you were going out on a date, and I was curious to know more Mark, one of my editors that have seemed to build up quite a reputation for himself.”

           Usually, this was Mark’s sort of thing. He was good at dodging questions and making up things on the fly, but I am sure that Trent’s unexpected visit had him lost for words. “It is great to meet you, Mr. Tanner finally,” Mark said with a bit of unearthly tone.

           “I would say the same, but I will, of course, have to get to know you first. The rumors that spread around my office do not help when it comes to your reputation. So, Mark, how is that a guy with a notorious reputation for sleeping around with half my staff so interested in someone like Payton?”

           “God, are you my father?” The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. Mark raised his eyebrows at me, and Trent was giving me a sly smile. “You have no business being here on my date. Anytime that you would like to leave, there is the door.”

           Trent reached over and placed his hand on my thigh as he whispered in my ear, “you should watch the way you talk to your boss.” The intense feeling brought on by his hand resting on my upper thigh was almost too much to bear. Trent was making it incredibly impossible to resist him when he did things like this.

           Instantly, I pushed his hand from my thigh and moved closer until I was directly next to Mark. I leaned over into Mark’s chest as he put his hand around my waist. Being this close to Mark was nothing compared to how I felt when I was with Trent. Though, I did have to admit that I did feel a little something for Mark. “Do you want to leave? We could go back to your place for a little more privacy.”

           When I said that out loud for Trent to hear, he gripped the table tightly. If he had grasped it any tighter, the thing would have collapsed on all of us.

           But Mark’s eyes were hypnotic, which pulled me right into him. “Yeah, that sounds great. I will get our check.” He headed off in the direction of the entrance to find someone that could help him.

           “I know what you are doing, Payton,” Trent said to me with a guttural voice that sent chills down my back. He stood up until he was hovering over me from behind. “Just know that it is working.” Trent was trailing off toward the door with those final words, not looking back at me once.

           After Mark returned to our table to get me, I was a little shaken up. Those words that Trent left me hanging with rattled my mind. There was no way a man of pure perfection like him could be affected by someone like me. I just could not imagine that happening. It was probably not the best idea for me to throw myself all over Mark as I did, but it was the quickest way I could think to get Trent to leave. Now I was in the car with Mark, heading back to his place with a clouded mind.

           Once I stepped foot inside his apartment, I was in awe. “Wow, this place is amazing. A little dirty, but amazing. How in the world can you afford a place like this on an editor’s salary?”

           “My parents left me an inheritance when they died. I only use it for the necessities, but it did get me this place. There was something about this place when I saw it that pulled me in, much as you do.”

           “Mark, you do know that I did not come back here for you to get me in bed, right? I came back here so we could have some privacy and talk.”

           “I know, but it doesn’t mean that I cannot try, right?” I loved the fact that Mark was so flirty with everyone but especially me. “Do you want anything to drink?”

           It was probably best that I did not drink alcohol, but right now, I needed something to numb my mind from going around in circles. “A beer or wine, whichever you have.”

           As Mark walked over toward the sofa, he handed me a nice glass of red wine and sat next to me. “That thing with Mr. Tanner was weird. Does he like have a thing for you or something?”

           I had no idea how to answer that question, so I decided to change topics. The one thing that could get Mark off a topic I did not want to discuss was to get him to talk about himself. “Is there a new woman in your life, Mark?”

           “Why would you suggest that?”

           “Because there is a pair of panties peeking out from under the sofa.” I pointed to the edge of the sofa, down next to my feet.

           We both shared a laugh before he began to tell me all about his latest conquest. “Rebecca was great, and the s*x was out of this world, but something was missing with her. I know I f**k with you a lot, but it would be nice to find someone like you. Someone that I could be myself with without having to worry whether they will like me or not. You know me better than I have let anyone know me in the last couple of years. So, you know that when I talk about befouling women, it is only a lie. Sure, I have a lot of s*x with many different women, but it's nothing like I make it out to be. Most of the time, the women know what they are getting into with me before jumping into bed. It's like it's all they are there for without getting the chance to know me first.”

           “But you would never turn down s*x, right?”

           He giggled in a way that was almost cute and innocent. “Would you? Seriously. If a man was throwing himself at you that you found attractive, would you be able to tell them no?”

           My mind traveled back to when Trent and I were in the coffeehouse that I had not realized he owned too. I had said no to him then when he was offering me more. Heat radiated off me like a damn sauna. Only even thinking about him got my body all hot and bothered. As I forced myself to look at Mark, he was staring at me with a hint of seductiveness. “Yes, I would be able to tell them no.”

           Mark reached for my thigh, grabbing the glass of wine with his other hand and sitting it on the table. I could not seem to stop him before he pulled me on top of him. “Can you say no now, Payton?”