Settling The Score ( BBW Romantic Suspense)

Counter Offers

Just a few feet away from her stood the most gorgeous man she'd ever seen. He had to be an international male model. Any other career for him would just be a waste of his natural manly perfection.

She believed his sparkling blue eyes could see right into her brain and know what she was thinking about him. She didn't even care if they could!

Her eyes swept over all 6'4" of him, instantly memorizing every detail since she was sure she'd never see him again. His brown hair was cropped closely on the sides with a little length left on top. The top portion looked wet like he either had styling gel in it or had recently gotten out of a shower.

His high cheekbones gave way to perfectly contoured cheeks, just like the statues of Greek gods in the museum. The stubble on his face extended from his short sideburns around his full lips, down to his strong chin with just the hint of a dimple, and even onto his neck.

The man's jacket casually hung over one shoulder, held in place by his index finger – just like a model in a print ad. A Tigers football jersey clung to his body in all the right places. Jasinda guessed he was about 225 pounds of solid muscle from head to foot.

The football jersey shook her back to reality as the thoughts jumbled in her mind. Football. Game day. Work. Ice cream. She was at work and the hot hunk was a customer.

Her face flushed with embarrassment. "Oh, I'm sorry. How can I help you?"

The stud smiled. Even his teeth were gleaming white, toothpaste commercial perfect. "You've got a little..." he said gently, pointing to his own face, under his bottom lip.

Jasinda wanted to scream, cry, and laugh all at the same time. She had completely forgotten about the messy spoonful of hot fudge she had just downed.

She suddenly became aware of the feeling of the chocolate sauce dripping all over her fingers and wrist from the spoon's handle. Then, worst of all, she obviously had chocolate on her face too.

She had just become the poster child for the big girl eating all the profits at work!

"I-" she started. Her mouth went dry. That's all she managed to choke out. She quickly threw the plastic spoon away and wiped her hands on her apron.

"That's OK. Take your time," the hunk said.

He smiled at her. He's just laughing at me, Jasinda thought. Laughing at the fatty with the food in her mouth.

She looked down at the apron. The recent hot fudge from her fingers combined with the rest of the stray ice cream from a busy shift made her clothing look like a kindergarten teacher's finger-painted smock.

She ran through the situation in her mind. He's a drop-dead gorgeous stud. You're an overweight loser. OK, the universe is back in order now.

Jasinda regained her composure and her sanity. She assumed her normal professional demeanor as she took a step closer to the counter, "I'm sorry about that. What can I get for you?"

His piercing eyes almost seemed hesitant to mention it as his smooth voice informed her, "You still have a little on your face..."

Jasinda quickly swiped the back of her hand across her face. In practically the same movement, she wiped her hand on her apron at her thigh. She hoped that would conceal any more chocolate smudges from the customer's view.

That's how she told herself she would think of him for the rest of his transaction – as a customer. She decided that internally referring to him as a hot stud was accurate, but pointless.

"You missed it," he said sympathetically. He reached his hand across the counter towards her face. "May I?"

Jasinda felt she had nothing to lose, least of all any dignity at this point. She shrugged. "Sure. I mean, please, go ahead." She leaned forward to give him easier access to her face.

The customer's eyes met hers as his fingertips brushed against her lower cheek. As soon as his skin touched hers, she felt her knees buckle.

She wasn't expecting that reaction, or any reaction for that matter. She reached out to grab the edge of the counter. The act steadied her both physically and emotionally.

Jasinda stopped breathing for a moment when she realized that he hadn't pulled his hand away!

He carefully cupped her chin with his strong fingers. His thumb gently grazed her cheek several times.

She momentarily wondered if there was such a thing as love at first touch.

"There, I got it," he announced.

Just as fast as it started, it also ended. He let go of her face.

Even though his hand was gone, she still felt the impression and warmth of his fingers in the spot. She almost feared that the handsome stranger had taken her heart along with the errant drops of chocolate fudge.

Snapping out of the quasi-daydream state again, Jasinda pulled a napkin from the dispenser. The corner got stuck and it ripped. She grabbed another one. It did the same thing.

Jasinda indelicately grabbed a fistful of napkins. She handed him the wad of balled up paper.

He took the napkins from her with his clean hand and set them down on the counter. He brought the fingers with the chocolate up to his mouth.

Jasinda watched wide-eyed as he slowly licked the chocolate from his fingers!

Crazy thoughts raced through her head. Oh, my God! Is this gorgeous hunk flirting with me? So much for only thinking of him with the term "customer." He can't be flirting with ME! That must be his personality. He's probably so used to charming the pants off supermodels, he doesn't even know how to turn it off when he comes across someone like me.

He flashed a grin. "I guess I don't have to ask for a sample now. I can see that I definitely like what you're offering."

He's doing it again, Jasinda thought. Does he even know what kind of effect he has on women (and probably that one guy in my Western Civ class who always wears the scarf) when he acts like this?

"So, is it too late?" he asked.

"For what?" Jasinda replied, genuinely not knowing where the conversation was headed.

"To order ice cream," he said with a slight laugh while looking up at the Biggie Scoops Ice Cream sign which Trudy still hadn't shut off from the switch in the back room.

"Oh, yes, of course. I'm sorry. What can I get you?" she said in a back-to-business tone.

"Whatever it is, I want it drenched in hot fudge."

Jasinda decided to be just a little bit daring and throw customer service caution to the wind. It wasn't like she was ever going to see him again anyway. "Of course you do. Your type always does."

"My type?" he said, clearly taken aback. "Just what kind of type do you think I am?"

Jasinda smiled. "Tall, dark, and flirty."

"Guilty as charged, ma'am," he said with an old-fashioned awe-shucks, phony-on-purpose southern accent.

The menu sign above the counter flickered off.

"I guess I really did come too late. I'm sorry. You must be tired after your shift and want to go home."

"I do get pretty worn out on game day," Jasinda agreed.

The hunk smiled in sympathy. "I can imagine." He tossed his jacket on the back of a chair at the closest food court table. He removed his wallet from his jeans pocket and pulled out a bill. His hands folded it and tucked it into the plastic tip cup on the counter.

Andrew Jackson's face stared at Jasinda through the side of the cup. "What are you doing? That's a twenty dollar bill! And you didn't even order anything!"

"My way of thanking you for not rushing me out even though you were trying to clean up. Also my way of apologizing for keeping you at work later after a rough day."

"Thank you, that's very sweet. But unnecessary." Jasinda fished the bill out of the cup and offered it to him.

He held his hand up and shook his head simply saying, "It's yours."

"Wow, thanks."

"Since I didn't get any ice cream tonight, are you working tomorrow? I can come back for lunch."

"I am working tomorrow, but I'm sorry. We don't serve meals. Just ice cream."

The hunk turned around and gestured toward the rest of the food court. "I think we can find somewhere to eat around here." He winked and turned away.

Jasinda loved watching him walk out of the food court and into the main part of the mall. His ass was so tight, it looked like his pants were sprayed on!

"O...M...G!" Trudy squeaked in a voice much higher than usual from her position in the partially opened swinging door.

"Were you spying on me and that customer?" Jasinda asked.

"Uh-huh," Trudy agreed with her jaw dropped open.

"He was fun to look at," Jasinda admitted.

"Fun? You had so much chemistry going on between the two of you that I was afraid a spark would fly off, land on the napkin holder, and set the whole counter on fire!"

"Dramatic much?" Jasinda said aloud, pretending she hadn't felt that way herself. She might be able to deny it to Trudy, but denying it to herself would be much harder.

"Did he just make a lunch date with you?" Trudy asked.

Jasinda shrugged and smiled a little. "It did kind of sound that way, didn't it?"

Trudy shook her head slowly as if in a trance.

Jasinda scrunched up her face as she thought about it. "He probably just meant 'we' as in the royal we or as in him and his impossibly thin supermodel girlfriend. Whatever, I'm sure he won't be back tomorrow in any case."

Trudy walked over to Jasinda. She put forth actual effort to make her legs move one in front of the other since most of her mind focused on something much more exciting than walking.

Trudy grabbed her co-worker's shoulders. "Jasinda, don't you know who that dreamboat of a guy is?"

"I didn't get his name, but going by the football jersey, obviously some Tigers fan on his way home from the game."

Trudy wanted to slap her. "He's not just 'some Tigers fan.' He IS a Tiger!"

"A tiger? Is that a new slang term for a hot buff dude? Like an older woman is a cougar?"

Trudy rolled her eyes. "Not a tiger with a small 't,' a Tiger with a capital 'T'" Off Jasinda's perplexed look, Trudy continued, "Let me try again. He's not just a fan of the Tigers, he's one of them. That was Craig Wilder!"

"And..." said Jasinda because the name still didn't mean anything to her and she sensed Trudy had much more to say.

"Craig Wilder is a pro football player, he's been the star quarterback of the Tigers for the past four years since he was a first round draft pick! Before college, he was in the military for a few years. You've heard of him. He's the one the press calls 'The Billionaire Quarterback' all the time."

Jasinda waved her hand dismissively. "Come on, Trudy, now you're just being silly. I may know next to nothing about professional sports. However, I do know that despite their exorbitant salaries, athletes, especially those in their late twenties, are not billionaires."

"They are if they invest all their salary for the first three years of their careers into their brother's tech start-up which goes public - and is then bought out by the largest computer software company in the world!"

"I don't believe you," Jasinda challenged.

"Wait here!" Trudy ordered. She marched through the swinging doors and reappeared a moment later flipping through a magazine. "Really, Jasinda, if you would take your nose out of your college textbooks every now and then and pick up People Magazine, you might actually learn something!"

Trudy plopped the magazine into her friend's hands. Jasinda looked down and sure enough, there he was.

Her sexy, flirty customer sported his unmistakable smile right under the headline The Billionaire Quarterback.

"I'll take the trash out to the dumpster in the back." Trudy tapped her fingers on the magazine page. "I'll just leave you here to your drooling."

"OK," Jasinda mumbled absently as she started to read the article. She had no idea that checkout stand magazines could be so engrossing. In fact, the article garnered her full attention. She didn't hear the man approach the counter until his jacketed arm rested against it.

Jasinda looked up. A tattoo of a dragon adorned the back of his hand. Her body's natural reaction produced a "rock in the pit of the stomach" feeling. Dragon tattoos are common. You can't freak out every time you see one. You know that, she told herself. The sensation passed as quickly as it had come.

"I'm sorry, we're closed," she told the man.

"You'll have to make an exception," the gravelly voice responded.

The man in front of the counter kept his baseball cap pulled down low over his face.

Jasinda's eyes opened wide as the guy pulled a gun out of his pocket!