“Nice to meet you. I’m Samuel Butler.” He cocked his head to the side, as if inspecting her for some reason, then took her hand in his own.
The moment they touched, a jolt of electricity shot up her arm. Goosebumps raced along her skin, creating a tingling sensation she hadn’t felt in a very long time. She wanted to yank her hand away, but decided against it. She was afraid it would draw attention to the effect he had on her.
Vanessa hated to admit it to herself, but Samuel was just as handsome as she remembered, maybe even more so. It seemed he aged well, without a single wrinkle or gray hair to show for the two years that had passed since their red-hot encounter. She could tell he still took care of himself, with rippling muscles that couldn’t be hidden under his starched-white shirt. With a square jaw stubbled with a sexy black beard that matched his hair and piercing crystal blue eyes, he was still the most attractive man she’d ever met. She wasn’t about to let him know that though.
“Have we met before? You seem familiar.”
“If we had, don’t you think you would have remembered?” she asked coyly, knowing full well he had done just the opposite. Averting her eyes, she finally pulled her hand away and promptly picked at the imaginary lint on her cashmere blouse, hoping he didn’t notice how nervous he made her.
“You don’t like the drink?” he questioned, glancing at the pink drink that was starting to spill over the top of the tall glass and slide down the sides.
“Too syrupy for my liking. My sister’s the one with the sweet tooth.”
“We should fix that, right now.” Samuel gestured for the bartender. “The lady would like another drink.”
“What will you have, Miss Lewis?”
“A Sazerac, please.”
“That’s an interesting choice for a woman,” Samuel pointed out. “You don’t hear it too often.”
“What can I say, I’m an unusual woman. I’ve always been partial to rye whiskey—plus, my ancestors originally hailed from New Orleans.”
“I seem to recall knowing some other woman that liked that drink, too, but for the life of me, I can’t place who it was. Maybe I read it in an article on the internet somewhere.”
Vanessa shifted in her seat, knowing that on the night they’d kissed, she’d nursed one the entire evening. There was no way, however, she was going to confess that to him. “That’s probably it. I can’t be the only woman in the world who likes it.”
“My, my, my, why if it isn’t Samuel Butler,” a curvy woman with chocolate skin and curly dark hair gushed as she came up beside him and took a seat. “I should have known you’d be here this week. Our birthdays are only a few days apart.”
“Monica Sunder, I completely forgot that we ended up here last year together.”
“Wow, you sure know how to make a woman feel like she can’t leave a lasting impression on you.”
“You can say that again,” Vanessa muttered under her breath, realizing that Samuel had a pattern of forgetting the women he spent time with.
“What was that, Vanessa?” he inquired, turning his head towards her.
“Is this your girlfriend?” Monica asked with a hint of jealousy in her voice. “I didn’t read about you being off the market on any of the blogs.”
“No, we just met,” he quickly explained. “She’s here with her sister.”
“Oh, you must be Vanessa Lewis; I didn’t recognize you in this low-lighting.” Vanessa doubted that was the case. The truth was, the other woman hadn’t even looked at her until she thought Vanessa might be a threat to whatever she believed she had with Samuel. “I overheard your sister, Heather, fighting with her boyfriend, earlier this week in the lobby. I didn’t know you were here, too. Of course, I know who you both are since your family does business with mine, not to mention we went to Cornelia-Rutherford together. I was three grades below you, so I’m not surprised you don’t remember me.”
“You live in New York?” Samuel asked, his eyes darting to meet Vanessa’s. “Why haven’t I seen you at any of the parties in the city?”
“I was finishing up my master’s degree in marketing at Yale. I only got back a few weeks ago,” Vanessa explained, purposely leaving out the part they had been at the same parties during her holiday breaks. After the New Year’s Eve debacle, she’d avoided him at all costs.
“I can’t believe you’re from New York, and I’ve never seen you before,” Samuel stated with obvious doubt in his voice.
“Why are you questioning her so much, Samuel? Leave the poor woman alone,” Monica gently chastised. “Besides, it’s time for you to focus on me.”
“What’s that?” Samuel asked, clearly distracted as he turned his attention from Vanessa to the other woman.
“I wanted to see if you liked my new perfume.” Monica bent down and tilted her head to the side as she pressed her neck towards his face. “What do you think?”
It was uncomfortable to watch Monica fawn all over Samuel. Vanessa wasn’t sure how to extract herself from the situation, when the bartender arrived with her drink. He placed it in front of her, then scurried off again. She took a long swig, hoping it might give her the extra push to get up and walk away.
“It’s a nice scent, but I think you might have accidentally applied a little too much.”
Monica jerked back. “Why would you say that?”
“It’s rather overpowering,” he admitted. “Now all I smell is rosewater.”
A look of embarrassment flashed across Monica’s face as she raised her hands to her throat. “I had no idea that was the case.”
“I want to go back to this party thing; I can’t imagine that we’ve never been at the same party before,” Samuel probed. “If we had though, I’m sure you would have stood out.”
“One would think,” Vanessa stated with a sigh. “It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m only going to be in New York for the rest of the summer. I’m heading back to Yale to start my Ph.D. in marketing.”
A look of what almost seemed like disappointment crossed his face, before Monica reached out and touched his arm to gain his attention. “Why are we talking about something as boring as college and degrees, when we can be talking about your New York Times bestselling book? I can’t believe you have another one. What does this make, six?”
“It’s my tenth, but who’s counting,” he teased with a sexy smile.
“You are, obviously,” Vanessa chimed in from the side. Deciding she’d had enough of both Monica’s and Samuel’s obnoxious behavior, she stood up from the bar, and grabbed her purse before turning around to leave.
“Where are you going?” she heard Samuel ask from behind her.
Over her shoulder, she tossed back, “I’m tired and need to get some rest before we leave for the airport tomorrow.”
“I thought you told me you needed to unwind,” Samuel countered. “I can help you with that, if you’d like.”
“Samuel, let her go if she wants,” Monica protested with a pout on her lips. “We have plenty to catch up on.”