Power & Pleasure

Chapter 15

For the first ten minutes of the car ride, we just sat in silence, listening to music. It was low, but I could still hear it -- it was some jazz some playing. Although jazz isn't my top choice, it was still good nonetheless. But I always prefer indie, r&b, or Spanish music. I also take this time to admire Mateo, which I hadn't done since I walked down the stairs. He looked great, as he always did. He was wearing a black button down shirt with black pants, but his tie was red. A deep red, which matched my dress. He was also wearing a gold chain around his neck, that matched his gold watch and two gold rings on his fingers. He looked good, really good. His muscles were tight in his shirt, and his hair was a little messed up -- almost like he was running his hand through it. But as I continued to stare at him, he turned his head slightly and smiled, then turned his head back to the road.

"Like what you see?" He says, switching lanes from the middle to the left. I feel my cheeks heating up as I look down, fiddling with my hands. Almost as if he knows that he made me nervous, he reaches his hand over and grabs mine softly, bringing it to his lips and kissing it slowly. That gesture has also become one that I love, along with him kissing my forehead.

I look up at him and smile, "Yeah, I do. You look really good."

"Well thank you. A beautiful girl like you deserves a good looking man by her side, and I'm glad I can be that person," He says, staring at the road. I smile softly and look out my window, happy by what he said. Although I'm not sure where this is going with us, I'm happy it's going somewhere. He's always been my little crush I've had; so it's nice for something to turn from that.

After a few minutes, we arrive at a restaurant in the city. I know the restaurant, it's an expensive one. Once we park, Mateo gets out the car and opens the door for me, then grabs my hand as we walk in. I notice that the restaurant is completely empty, and I wonder if he did that on purpose. The waitress sits us down, and we walk towards the back of the restaurant, sitting in a semi circle booth. Once we sit down, someone comes out with a chilled bottle of red wine, a basket of bread, and a bowl of salad. I take a bread and a serving of salad, as Mateo pours us a glass of wine.

"Did you notice the restaurant is completely empty? Odd being that it's in the city," I say, taking a small bite of my salad. When I finish saying this, Mateo looks at me and laughs. Actually laughs, a real laugh. I was shocked. I've never, ever seen this man laugh before.

"Yeah Toni, that's because I shut the restaurant down. I wanted to give you the best service possible," He says, serving himself salad and still chuckling. He acts like this is a normal thing, for people to shut down restaurants for dates. Maybe in his world, but not mine -- that's for sure.

"I forgot, you're Mr. Millionaire," I say, rolling my eyes. Mateo looks at me and gives me a weak smile. Then, I feel his hand run slowly up my leg, lightly touching it as he moves it upwards.

"You weren't complaining when we were shopping the other day," He says, winking as he stops moving his hand once he reaches my upper thigh. My cheeks turn red as I take a sip of my wine, trying to hide my face. After a moment, the waitress comes over and we order our food, Mateo never moving his hand from my thigh. After we order the food, we start talking a little bit. He asks about my family, which I tell him that I'm an only child and my parents were both workaholics. He then tells me that he has two younger brothers, who are also involved in his lifestyle too. As for his parents, his mother was a classic, old-school stay at home mother; while his father was mainly involved in the lifestyle. We then start talking about other things, he asks about my friendship with Catalina and Christina, and I ask him about his friendship with the right hand men. He tells me that he met all of them when he was young, since all of their fathers were also in the lifestyle too.