Blind Attraction Read online

  “James!” a woman’s voice called out. Victoria turned her head and saw a woman walking determinedly towards them, her sleek blond hair pulled back and her blue eyes flashing. She was dressed in an elegant, designer suit and as she came to a stop, she shook her head in dismay. Gathering the shirts from James’s arms, she scolded, “What the hell do you think you’re doing? I stepped out of the car for a moment and you go and disappear.”

  “Hey, Catherine,” he grinned awkwardly. Still holding Victoria’s hand, he pulled her forward, releasing her as he made the introduction. “I’d like you to meet Victoria, who has been kind enough to help a poor, old blind man find the dry cleaners; Victoria, my dearly devoted, overly protective assistant, Catherine Isaacson.”

  Catherine glanced over at the girl, a slight frown marring her smooth forehead as she looked at Victoria. Smoothing her expression, Catherine held out her hand and smiled dispassionately, “It’s a pleasure to meet you; and thank you for helping this stubborn man; I swear, he’s making me go prematurely gray. Thank God he pays me very well.”

  With an amused grin, Victoria shook the other woman’s hand, the cool fingers in such contrast to her own over-heated flesh. Catherine was awfully stylish and exceedingly beautiful, just like Taylor. Feeling a bit self-conscious in her casual outfit, Victoria pulled her hand back, blushing, “It wasn’t a problem. It was nice to meet you, James. Catherine.”

  She turned to leave, feeling very frumpy compared to the stunning duo standing there. Warm, strong fingers wrapped around her upper arm preventing her immediate escape. Looking over her shoulder, she saw James looking at her. Er, um, well, he seemed to be looking at her, even though he couldn’t see. This was so awkward. Turning, his hand still on her arm, she looked at him. “Yes?”

  “I was wondering if you’d like to go out with me.” Pausing, he grinned a rueful little smile. God, it was sexy. “You know, so I can thank you for helping out.”

  “It really wasn’t a problem,” she said, not understanding why he would want to spend more time with her; she was simply Victoria. But then the realization dawned on her; he couldn’t see her. That thought should have made her feel guilty but when had a man as intriguing as James ever shown any interest in her? Or more to the point, how many men continued to show interest in her after meeting Taylor? That really wasn’t fair. Maybe the men she dated were idiots. Besides, there was something to be said about that zing. Licking her lips, she swallowed, “I mean, that would be nice.”

  His grin was somehow triumphant, though that made no sense. “Excellent. How about I pick you up this evening and we can, I don’t know, maybe have some drinks or something?”

  Victoria’s eyes darted to the blond assistant again and she was very aware of the frown marring Catherine’s face as she watched her boss. Still, it was a chance to have equal footing with Taylor and the truth of the matter was, he fascinated her. And there was that zing, something that she had only read about. “That sounds nice.”

  “Nice,” he grinned, shaking his head at her awkwardness. “What time do you close up shop?”

  “Um,” it took Victoria a moment to remember how to speak. The way he smiled sent shivers down her spine and the feel of his hand on her arm was sending shivers everywhere else. Closing her eyes for a moment, she concentrated on answering. “Uh, six thirty; but I need some time to close out the registers and stuff; make it seven?”

  “Perfect,” he grinned, bending his head and planting a soft kiss on her cheek.

  Her eyes slammed shut as currents of electricity tore through her body – from a simple kiss! Suddenly she understood what it meant to be struck by lightning, to experience something so powerful she could feel the earth shift beneath her feet. Oddly, after years of reading romance, it was a stranger’s kiss that made her believe in love at first sight. She had been under the impression that it was an artistic expression, not something real. Of course, it couldn’t be true love; she just met the man, but her heart fluttered just the same.

  His lips lingered a moment longer before he cleared his throat and straightened, “Then it’s a date.”

  “Jimmy,” Catherine interrupted, breaking the spell he weaved around Victoria, who had forgotten where they were. Hell, she forgot her own name. “We need to drop these off and get going; you have a meeting in twenty minutes.”

  “Of course,” he smiled casually, releasing Victoria’s arm. With a half-smile, he waved good-bye and let his assistant lead him into the dry cleaners.

  Bringing her hand to her cheek, Victoria drifted back into the shop in a daze. She was a little wobbly on her heels and decided that height was over-rated. Flinging off the shoes Taylor insisted made her look fabulous, Victoria slid into her comfortable sneakers. It would have been really difficult to try to remain steady in bare feet; on those heels it would have been impossible.

  “Hey, who was the hottie?” Taylor asked from the lotions and potions section. “He looked vaguely familiar.”

  Startled, because she didn’t realize she wasn’t alone, Victoria blushed, “He’s just someone who came into the wrong store.”

  “Wow, he can come into my store anytime,” Taylor laughed, fanning herself with an imaginary fan. “What was he doing with a cane? He seemed to walk just fine.”

  “He’s blind,” Victoria explained, not quite meeting Taylor’s eyes because of the shadowy thoughts that led to her accepting a date with the man. How could she face her friend and say that for the first time in her life, she was jealous of Taylor?

  “Did he ask you out?”

  “Yes, tonight after work,” Victoria admitted with a little grin, very much looking forward to spending some time with this guy, wanting to know whether that zing was a fluke or perhaps something more.

  Taylor’s delicately arched brows drew together in consternation. “Isn’t that terribly presumptuous on his part? Asking you out for tonight, a Tuesday night no less; I mean, he should have gotten your number and called tomorrow at the earliest to arrange a date for this weekend.”

  “Perhaps,” Victoria simply murmured, not really sure whether or not any dating etiquette was being blundered. It seemed rather nice to be impulsively asked out for drinks.

  “Whatever.” Taylor waved her hand through the air, dismissing the damage since what was done was done. Lightening her tone, she asked, “What’s his name? What are his connections?”

  “Um, James,” Victoria said, drawing a blank at his last name, though she was pretty sure he had told her. With a frown, she tried to remember but it seemed the harder she tried to recall it, the further it slipped from her grasp. Shaking her head, she shrugged, “I can’t remember his last name.”

  “Well, James is a good name,” Taylor said decisively with a nod of her head. Looping her arm through Victoria’s, Taylor grinned, “You’re not wearing that tonight, are you?”

  “I was planning on it,” Victoria admitted. She just planned on putting the heels back on and praying that the balance fates were smiling on her as she walked beside him.

  “I know,” Taylor beamed. “You should get your hair done, maybe buy a new dress.”

  “It’s just drinks, Taylor,” Victoria laughed at her friend’s shop-a-holic tendencies. Jokingly, she added, “Besides, I doubt if anything more will come of it; I mean, once he gets his sight back, what reason would he have to remain?”

  “Victoria Autumn Davis,” Taylor scolded, lightly punching Victoria’s arm. She was surprisingly strong for being so thin; maybe it was just her bony fingers. “You’re beautiful! Haven’t I always told you that you’re beautiful?”

  Rubbing her arm, Victoria bent her head in mock shame as she smiled, “Of course.”

  “You simply lack confidence.”

  That wasn’t exactly true; Victoria just lacked confidence when it came to men since they tended to see her as a hurdle on their way to get to her best friend, beginning in junior high. Even her semi-serious college boyfriend Alex, who had come home with her over Christmas break their s
ophomore year, had taken one look at Taylor and proclaimed his undying love and devotion. To Taylor. The sad thing was that Victoria wasn’t all that surprised, or even hurt, by his defection.

  “I’m confident,” Victoria finally replied. With a teasing smile, she added, “In areas that don’t involve interacting with men more interested in my best friend than me.”

  “You’re too precious,” Taylor laughed airily, dragging Victoria away from her depressing thoughts. “Well? You know that you need to change outfits.”

  Victoria shrugged, trying not to freak out too much over the prospect of finding something else to wear. She didn’t have Taylor’s flair for putting an ensemble together. “Like I said, it’s just drinks. I’m wearing what I have on.”

  “Not those ghastly sneakers!” Taylor exclaimed, clearly horrified by the prospect.

  Victoria chuckled, “Of course not, but I don’t want to risk breaking my neck wearing those heels around the shop. I’ll put them back on before he arrives.”

  “Whew.” Taylor gracefully brushed the back of her hand across her forehead and sank against the counter. “Thank God you’re at least sensible about that; he was really tall. Could you imagine going in for a kiss and having him miss because he expected your head to be way up here?”

  Taylor exaggerated Victoria’s lack of height by putting her hand way up in the air, gaining another amused laugh out of Victoria. In a breathy voice, Taylor purred, “Why James, you must have grown, and my, how you’ve grown.”

  Victoria’s eyes widened as she laughed at her friend’s blatant innuendo. Taylor sighed, resting her head on her hand, “He’s gorgeous.”

  “You couldn’t have seen much of him; we were only outside for like two minutes.”

  “But you were in here for at least ten,” her friend grinned. As Victoria frowned, Taylor laughed. “I came in through the back door and saw you two; I didn’t want to interrupt.”

  Victoria was reluctantly grateful for that. Even introducing Alex to Taylor didn’t cause this amount of jealousy and she had known him for two years! Okay, so she was still a little insecure when it came to relationships, preferring business to dating. After Alex, trying to expend the energy in trying to get to know someone seemed rather pointless. It was simply easier to double with Taylor, get the rejection out of the way right off the bat.

  She also realized that Taylor saved her from making a huge mistake. Victoria had wanted to feel more mature and had falsely believed that sex was the answer and she was all set to take the next step. When Alex so recklessly wounded her pride, Victoria spent some time re-evaluating her priorities and realized that sex wasn’t what made a person an adult. From Alex’s awkward kisses, it probably wasn’t all that great to begin with.

  Of course, she had never experienced that zing before so her theory had never been truly tested. Assuming James could have anyone, what would he want with a girl like Victoria? What would happen if he got his sight back and wasn’t attracted to her?

  Victoria swallowed against the knot of dread that formed in her throat at that thought. But why was she worrying about it? It was just drinks….

  *****

  From the moment James took Victoria’s hand in his her smell, subtle flowers and a slight feminine musk, had filled his nostrils. He had had the strongest urge to bury his nose in her blond hair and breathe her in until her scent was branded onto his brain. It had been difficult trying to disguise his body’s reaction to her, especially with her sweetness and sincerity. He wished he could have seen her up close but he had his memory of her and for now that was enough. As she had walked him out of her shop and next door to the dry cleaners, he had the strangest feeling that she was his soul mate and it had nothing to do with her stunning beauty, though that definitely didn’t hurt.

  James heart continued to race in his chest and he couldn’t wipe the smile from his face if he tried. Even ten minutes later he was struggling to find his equilibrium as he replayed the meeting in his head over and over.

  His dream girl had a voice that had oozed sensuality, low and velvety. Not quite the cool civility he had imagined, he realized that the reality was infinitely better. But he had expected worldliness and instead got a wholesome, slightly odd, girl; it was unexpected and kind of wonderful. Of course, her voice was pure seduction, even if her words were innocent.

  And then she touched him. Man, that zing of electricity from merely taking her hand in his had nearly brought him to his knees. In the months since the accident, his other senses had heightened but this… this was so much more. He wished he could have seen her, discover the color of her eyes.

  This girl was turning out to be even more amazing than his fantasies: model-perfect looks, killer body, sweet personality and chemistry to spare.

  His life was looking up.

  Chapter 2

  By the time the last customer left the store at six-thirty, Victoria was a bundle of exposed nerves, barely able to keep the butterflies from ripping her stomach open and flying away. She wasn’t sure if she was going to be sick or if she was going to faint. Neither option was at all appealing. Maybe her memory of James was over-exaggerated; no one could really be that attractive, that mesmerizing.

  It was that darn zing; if she didn’t experience that then she wouldn’t be frantically pawing through her clothes five minutes after closing the store in an attempt to impress a blind man. She was grateful that her tiny apartment was located right above her store; it made last minute wardrobe decisions much easier to deal with. Although, if she lived somewhere else, she would have been forced to wear the clothes she was currently wearing.

  It was no use; she wasn’t going to find anything suitable and she didn’t have time to call up Taylor and borrow something of hers. Cursing under her breath, she went into the bathroom to do a last minute touch up. Running a brush through her thick, dark blond hair; applying a fresh coat of lip gloss, spritzing some softly scented body spray between her breasts and she was done.

  Taking a couple of quick, shallow breaths to keep from hyperventilating, she raced back down the stairs in her heels, feeling the butterflies revolting. Maybe it was slow, deep breaths to prevent hyperventilating because she was feeling a little light headed. Gritting her teeth, she reminded herself, “It’s just drinks.”

  But then there was a knock on the front door and her breath stilled when she saw James standing there, looking even more attractive than he had that morning. He was wearing a long-sleeved knit shirt and a pair of jeans and he was even more devastatingly gorgeous dressed down. Stumbling over to the door, she unlocked it and stepped out, nervously locking it back up behind her. “Hey.” Glancing behind him for his assistant, she asked, “You’re alone?”

  James smiled down at her, making her heart trip over itself. “Cate dropped me off.”

  “Then we’re going somewhere close by?” Victoria asked, fascinated by the green of his unseeing eyes. It seemed as if his eyes were searching hers and it was hard to believe he was blind. Still, she continued to stare at him, emboldened by the very fact that he couldn’t see. And being this close, she could smell a subtle aftershave and something that seemed to be inherently him. She could have stood there all evening just drinking him in.

  “There’s a little café down the street,” he told her, holding out his arm for her.

  “I thought we were going for drinks.” She was slightly confused, her entire body trembling with something between excitement and fear. She had the strangest feeling of free falling and it was exhilarating.

  “I think this will be better,” he explained. “And since it was close to your shop, I figured it would be easier.”

  With a slightly creased brow and the knowledge that she was going to have to lead them, Victoria murmured, “But, I don’t know where we’re going.”

  “Just keep walking straight and we’ll get there,” he assured her. Pulling her arm against his rib cage, he smiled down at her, “Trust me.”

  “A literal interpretation of
the blind leading the blind,” she stated, before clamping a hand over her mouth at her faux pas.

  He chuckled, “Something like that.”

  “I am so sorry,” she apologized, feeling the heat in her cheeks.

  “Don’t worry, Victoria,” he told her. “It bothers me more when people pretend my blindness doesn’t exist and tip toe around the topic.”

  “Well, if it makes any difference, I think that my internal monolog button is faulty or something,” she admitted. “My mom says I tend to ramble on when I’m nervous – not that I’m nervous – well, not much anyway. If it gets to be too much, let me know and I’m sure I can stop.”

  “All right,” he said solemnly, the corners of his luscious mouth turning upwards, obviously trying not to chuckle.

  “Are you laughing at me?” she asked lightly, smiling up at him. After he shook his head no, they continued to chit chat about trivialities and her heels were hardly noticeable at all. After a few minutes of idle chitchat, she stopped. The smell of coffee and pastries wrapped around her, the scent of decadent desserts brought a smile to her face; she loved desserts “I think we’re there.”

  “Indulgence?” he asked, his voice velvety rough.

  She tilted her head back and read the elaborate sign, particularly liking the little swirl of chocolate drinking a mug of coffee. “It is. You know, I’ve lived around here a couple of months and I never knew this place existed.”

  His smile melted her panties, “I hope it pleases you.”

  Victoria said, “It’s perfect.”

  “It serves the best desserts,” he told her as she opened the door and they walked through with her in the lead, holding his hand.

  “Ooh,” she moaned. “A man after my own heart; desserts are the whole reason to eat salads and low fat food.”

  He maneuvered it so that his arm was around her waist and he pulled her into him. Bending his head until his lips were against her ear, he asked in a low voice, “And what is your favorite dessert?”