Chapter 4

Pollen’s POV

He was tall, with the shoulders of a titan. And even though he was seated, he still towered over me in a dominating way, which I couldn’t help but admit was sexy. He had a pair of fierce, yet warm hazel eyes, they were piercing and quite intimidating. In a way that would cause any woman to go on her knees in complete worship and adoration of him. His midnight dark messy hair gave a boyish look to his masculine physique, with his American tuxedo fitting so perfectly on his athletic frame.

I almost drooled at the mere sight of the perfect image of the man sitting in front of me, across the table.

If this was truly my blind date, then this was the best thing my mother and Aunt Margaret had ever done for me.

“Are you alright?” He asked me, breaking me from my trance.

His eyes moved to my dress, and I felt another wave of embarrassment wash through me.

“Uh. I–uh. I mistakenly dropped an uh… glass of water on my dress.”

I stuttered and mentally slapped myself in the face for being an awkward cow.

Get a grip on yourself, Pollen!

“Do you want to excuse yourself to the bathroom?” He asked me, sounding a little concerned.

No, baby. I want to sit here and stare at your handsome face forever.

“No.” I shook my head at him and cleared my throat before sitting properly in my seat. “It’s fine. It was just a small drop.”

“Are you certain?” He looked at me in doubt.

Even though I nodded in confirmation, he went ahead to pick a napkin from the table, then he rose from his seat again and walked towards me.

“Can I?” He asked for permission, and I nodded.

My heart started beating so wildly. For a moment, I feared that it might jump right out of its place.

He leaned closer to me and wiped the napkin carefully across the wet spot on my dress, a little close to my thighs. His touch against the thin fabric of my dress felt electrical and caused the space in-between my thighs to tingle in sexual excitement. Fearing that I might get lost in the excitement of the moment, I blinked my eyes and decided to listen to the logical part of my brain for once.

“I’ll do it myself.” I cut him short, and he lifted his head to stare into my eyes for a second.

Again, I felt my heart melt from the intensity of his spellbinding hazel eyes, but my it fell in disappointment as soon as he pulled back and handed the napkin to me.

“Alright.” He said to me before returning to his seat.

I looked down at my dress and pretended to focus on wiping the wet spot on my dress.

“Again, my apologies for arriving later than you did.” He apologized again and I brushed it off.

I would forgive him for taking an entire hour of my time as long as he appeared, looking this ravishing.

In my head, I started to create mental pictures of a happy life with this man.

We would get married and live in the countryside with two kids — a boy and a girl, maybe a dog.

“It’s fine.” I replied to him.

We remained in a moment of awkward silence before he broke the silence.

“So—how did fashion school treat you?”

Fashion school?

I frowned slightly at his question. What fashion school? Was I mistaking the question for something else?

“Fashion school?” I voiced my confusion.

“I was told you were studying at a fashion school in France and graduated just a month ago.”

I almost opened my mouth to tell him that he was wrong and clearly mistaken about someone else, but I held back my tongue again. My mum must have corrupted my Aunt to tell those lies to elevate my status before him. If I was right, then my mother was a perfect liar. And her lie had worked in my favour for the very first time.

“Oh…uh… I err…” I stuttered, but immediately regained my composure so that he would not suspect a thing or catch a hang of my lie. “I definitely enjoyed it while it lasted.”

He raised a brow at me in an unimpressed manner, and I jumped in to ask him a question so that he wouldn’t come to the conclusion that I was an awful conversationalist.

“Harvard…” I started, but he butted in.

“You know, I will be straight with you.” He cut me short, and I went silent and waited for him to speak, feeling a bit more nervous than usual.

“I do not have any interest in dating you. Neither do I intend to lead you on blindly, only to end up hurting your feelings. So, if there is nothing more to do here, I would like to take my leave already.”

My heart sank into a shallow bottom as his words filled my ears, and I felt a wave of heat suddenly cloud me even though the air was icy.

I couldn’t believe he had just said that to me. I felt my insecurities take over me and I glanced at my dress, suddenly conscious of myself. Not only that, but I wondered where I had gone wrong. Was it in the way I had dressed or the way I had spoken? Did he think I was too thin or too chubby for him? I couldn’t believe the perfect picture of a happy life with this stranger that I had enacted in my head had shattered in a matter of minutes.

“Uh…” I gulped nervously and sucked in the dry, crispy air before nodding and planting a fake smile on my face. “It’s fine. I do not intend on having a relationship with you either.”

He raised his brow, looking quite taken aback and just when I was about to rejoice that he was beginning to regret breaking things up with me without giving us a chance, he lifted his lips in a lopsided grin and continued to stare at me.

“Nice. I guess the feeling is mutual, then. You know, for a moment, I feared the fact that I could be hurting your feelings. It is such a relief that I never did.” He said after a waitress briefly stopped by our table to arrange some wines on it.

Oh, hell, you did hurt me. You gorgeous asshole!

“A hundred percent true, sir.” I maintained the fake smile on my lips and decided to turn the table into a formal setting.

“Please call me Raymond” He smiled as he poured a bottle of wine into two champagne flutes.

Raymond…or Mason? Perhaps that was his other name. Whichever one, it doesn’t matter anymore.

“Let’s cheers for that.” He handed me a glass and I accepted it half-heartedly.

My body itched to leave and get out of here immediately. I badly wanted to return to the comfort of my room and cry my eyes out for getting dumped by a breathtaking man in less than an hour of meeting me.

“Cheers.” I did not let my fake demeanour slip, and I allowed our wine glasses to click against each other.

I gulped it down at once, frustration taking over me. Since he was clearly no longer interested in me anymore, I did not see any reason why I should be trying to impress him.

As soon as I gulped down the glass of wine, I reached for the bottle and poured myself another glass of drink. Caring less that he had his eyes fixed intently at me, I consumed it in one go again and proceeded to pour myself another drink.

Raymond chuckled lightly and poured himself another drink after me.

“Even though I am not much of a heavy drinker, it wouldn’t hurt to allow myself to get a little tipsy again.” He held his glass before me again. “Let’s have another one.”

Almost rolling my eyes behind my head, I clicked my glass against his and drank the content of the glass again.

“Cheers to a drunken night.” He chuckled.

We continued to drink until we were down to three bottles of alcoholic wine and gradually losing our sanity. Thereafter, I couldn’t follow whatever was happening in my surroundings anymore. I could only recall things in bits and pieces.

Raymond and I ordering more wine, he and I gulping down the bottles, us talking about stuff I was unable to remember anymore and laughing until our ribs hurt. We talked about sex and eventually left the restaurant in our drunken state.

The last thing I recalled was us kissing in the back seat of his car.

***

My eyes gently peeled open as the subtle rays of morning sunlight infiltrated the room through the sheer curtains of the windows.

I could swear on my life that it was Laura who left the windows open just to spite me.

Squinting my eyes at the sunlight, I opened them again, half awake. I felt a banging headache that caused me to moan and curse at myself for having a hangover from the previous night.

Feeling too lazy to get out of bed, I rolled to the other side. I froze when my hand landed on the solid frame of a sleeping man lying beside me, in the bed. Panic suddenly embraced my heart as I became fully awake. I did a quick tour as my eyes traveled across my surroundings, realising that I was not in my bedroom.

It was a freaking hotel suite!

I returned my gaze to the frame of the man as he stirred and turned his face towards my direction. My eyes shot wider and as his eyes fluttered open to meet mine, I lowered my gaze and stared downcast to see the bedsheets spread over our bodies. Raising the sheet cautiously off my body with my heart beating wild and with so much nervousness, my mouth fell open at the sight of my stark naked body.

Again, I turned my head to look at the familiar man from last night's blind date, who mirrored my facial expression.

“Fuck.” I muttered a curse under my breath and turned to the other side.

I just had a one-night stand with a total stranger!