The Truth About Fairy Tales by Annie Walker Page B

meal and the wine were perfect, but having him all to myself was the best part of the evening.
                  After dinner, he put on some slow music and asked me to dance. Seductive, sexy, he knew all the right things to do and say to melt my cranky little heart and shatter my self-control.
                  At the thought of the other women who shared the rotation cycle with me, I felt my softer side harden. I didn’t know where I stood here, but I didn’t want to be one of those ladies waiting for my turn.
                  “I should go,” I told him when another slow song began.
                  “No. Don’t go. Spend the night with me, Maggie.” He didn't let me go. We were no longer dancing. He stood looking down at me with that expression in those blue eyes that made me want to do anything for him.
                  “But I have class tomorrow.”
                  “And I have work.” He watched as I let go of all the arguments the old Maggie wanted to throw in his face and then I was in his arms and somehow in his bed and we were in a race to see which of us could get the other’s clothes off first.
    ****
                  I had no idea whether or not Jackson actually owned an alarm clock, but it didn’t go off the next morning.
                  I awoke sometime just after eight to the bright sunlight streaming through his bedroom windows.
                  I sat up in bed and then remembered I wasn’t wearing a thing.
                  “Where do you think you’re going, Miss Monroe?” Jackson said as he reached for me.
                  I pushed his hand away and got out of bed. Was he crazy? We were both late…for something. “Did you forget to set the alarm last night?”
                  “I don’t happen to own an alarm.”
                  “What?” I looked at him as if he’d suddenly grown two heads. Who didn’t own an alarm clock?
                  “I don’t need one. Well, at least I didn’t until you came along. Now, I’m not so sure I’m going to see my next birthday.”
                  “Do you realize what time it is?” I ignored his references to health entirely and grabbed my watch. “I have to go home and let Sidney out, and you have to go to work.” I added the last part as an afterthought out of sheer desperation when Jackson kissed my bare shoulder and my determination started to slip a bit.
                  “I’m the boss. I can do whatever I want. Right now I want you.”
                  The sexy growl in his voice would have made me do just about anything he wanted.
    ****
                  “Are you going to stay in bed all day?” I asked Jackson some time later after I was fully clothed and trying to ignore his bare chest and chiseled body as he lay in bed watching me.
                  “Maybe…what are you up to today, besides letting Sidney out and going to class?”
                  “I have lunch plans.” Okay, it’s a habit of mine to keep things to myself. I’m not the kind of person to share, well, very much of anything for that matter. This trait had become ingrained in my psyche since childhood as sort of a copying mechanism.
                  “Lunch plans, huh? And who exactly do you have lunch plans with, little bit?” Jackson had taken my hand and was slowly pulling me closer while I tried my very best to keep my eyes averted from that bare chest of his.
                  “No…no one. No one that you’d know anyway.”
                  I really wasn’t trying to be coy. In fact, I didn’t have a clue what I’d just said. He gave my hand a final tug and I was back in bed with him. I glanced up and found him looking almost angry.
                  “Who are you having lunch