But when they got on the nearly-packed train, it was Mick who had the exact opposite impression. Instead of noticing the ladies assessing him, he couldn’t stop staring at the guys, all of them, who were assessing Roz. After finding her a seat, sandwiched between a guy and a girl, he was forced to stand some distance away, near the back. And from his vantage point he saw guy after guy check Roz out as if she was a leg of lamb they were craving. He understood why. Just looking at her from a distance made him ever more aware of her attractiveness. And not just the fact that her brown skin was so chocolaty smooth and unblemished, or her breasts looked so big and imposing beneath that shirt she wore, but it was in the way she carried herself. She smiled, she was polite, she seemed entirely approachable to anybody watching her.
Too approachable, Mick felt, as visions of her alone on this train at night, and some real murderous psychopath following her home and doing heaven knows what to her, disturbed his peace. He didn’t like that worried feeling that just the thought created in him. He didn’t like the fact that those men were eyeing her, some even openly salivating over her. And he especially didn’t like the fact that any of it bothered him. But it did. It bothered him mightily.
And when they had bounced and jugged their way to Brooklyn, and the train stopped, he became particularly concerned. Because Roz stood, indicating that this was their stop, and one guy, the guy who had been sitting behind her, stood up and pinched her on her small, tight ass. Mick quickly began moving people out of his way as he hurried toward her, ready to knock the shit out of that man, but Roz beat him to the punch.
As soon as Roz felt the pinch, she took her satchel and slammed it against the pincher’s head. “Do it again, creep!” she yelled at him, staring him down. And it was enough. That snake of a pinching man slithered off of the train, suddenly in a massive hurry, as soon as the doors flew open.
And Mick exhaled. And even smiled. She could take care of herself just fine, he decided. And he was inordinately pleased to know it.
The rain didn’t stretch as far as Brooklyn, and they walked, side by side, to Roz’s brownstone. What amazed Roz was the fact that a Town Car was waiting out front when they arrived. She didn’t realize Mick had even spoken to his driver. But apparently he had. Deuce was standing at the passenger door, waiting to open it for Mick, when they walked up.
She smiled at Mick. “Very efficient,” she said.
“You hire good people,” Mick said, “you get good results.” Then he looked at the series of brownstones. “Which one is you?” he asked.
She pointed at the third from where they stood. “That one,” she said.
“Very nice,” Mick said. “Reminds me of that brownstone on the Cosby Show.”
The Cosby Show? “And that’s where the similarities end,” Roz said with a smile.
“What is it? A converted apartment building?”
“That’s right.”
As they walked up the stoop and he opened the door of her building, he was pleased with her. She had good taste, for one thing, and the good sense not to live just anywhere.
They entered the nice looking building, and he walked her up to her apartment on the second floor. It was a quiet, clean, nice environment. He was pleased.
When Roz pulled out her key and unlocked her door, she turned to him. And there returned those warring emotions again. On the one hand, she felt a strong emotional attraction to him too, an attraction she also felt at the theater, but she thought it had died as soon as he mucked up their connection with talk of sex. For some reason she felt as if he was sabotaging their connection on purpose.
But she felt differently now. A man who would see her home by way of the gritty Subway line, and would protect her from harm almost instinctively, and would get such a massive boner just by having her on his lap, changed her mind about him. He was crude and rude as hell, she’d already seen those sides of him. But there was another side too, a side that seemed capable of truly caring for her. He didn’t know her like that yet. He was, despite what he had said, still a stranger to her. But the potential was there. And a part of her wanted to see where that potential could take them.
But another side of her, perhaps the bigger side, was telling her to pump her brakes and wait. This guy was the real deal. This guy could really break her heart. She’d had that happen to her before. She couldn’t bear to experience that again.
She decided to leave it to fate. She decided to see where he would take it. “Do you want to come in?” she asked him.
Mick smiled, and folded his arms. “Now that’s progress. No longer a cannibal threat, am I?”
“You’ve been very nice to me. And you’ve been a gentleman. Yes, you have. Things change. Perspectives change.”
“Yes, but I’m still the man who propositioned you.”
Roz hesitated. “I know.”
Mick studied her. “Does that mean you’ve changed your mind about my proposition?”
“No,” Roz said firmly. “I’m not spending the night with you.”
Good, Mick thought, and then was amazed he had thought it. He wanted her badly. But not like this. “I’d better go,” he said. “I’ve got some work to do.”
That surprised Roz. “Tonight?”
“Every night.”
Roz was curious now. “What kind of work do you do?”
She didn’t want to know, Mick thought. “I’m a businessman,” was all he was going to say about it.
That was obvious, Roz thought. And it was also his business. “Well, thank you for the lift.”
“By way of an accident. By way of the Subway.”