Dedicated to my dear friends "Jane" and "Cock."
* * * * *
Jane first saw the silent man with the shaved head at her own engagement party at her fiancΓ©e's mansion, and Jane knew instinctively how much she wanted that man from the very moment she saw him. His piercing dark brown almost black eyes captured her attention immediately, although she had to admit that the rest of him would have kept anyone's eyes enthralled to his thin muscular body for a long time. Arthur Stoddard and Jane Betts had been standing in the midst of family, friends, well-wishers, co-workers and everyone else's significant others, while "dark eyes" seemed to skirt the edge of the room nodding an occasional brief exchange with some other person. Yet, whenever Jane glanced back toward him, his deep, dark eyes consistently returned her questioning look with an obviously covetous answer.
Time and again she tried unsuccessfully to break away from the little bridal clique from Arthur's father's office which had been clinging to Arthur and Jane as if the two of them were some sort of emotional lifejacket. Finally, on her fifth try, Jane broke away only to lose sight of him in the nooks, crannies, hallways and doorways of that great big house.
Damn. Why hadn't he introduced himself to the bride to be?
Jane hadn't been so sure that she wanted to get married, but everybody told her what a great catch Arthur was, and how lucky she would be to marry into all that Stoddard money. Besides, they told Jane, she couldn't pass up this opportunity.
"I feel like I'm applying for a job," Jane told one friend. "Maybe I should update my resume first."
"Don't be so critical," the friend replied. "You'll be great together."
Jane held back telling her friend that she'd already been a bit disappointed with Arthur in
that
capacity. Still he was charming, and most of her acquaintances felt that his money would more than make up for any inadequacies. Besides Arthur swore up and down that he loved Jane for better or for worse, if only she'd give him the chance to prove it.
"Have you seen that new guy circulating through the house," Jane asked Julianne, one of her bridesmaids elect. "Young guy, gray suit?"
"Which one? There's only a dozen of them. Oh, I'll bet you mean one of the college interns."
"No. This one's got a shaved head, brown eyes. Tall, handsome...," Jane paused for a second then finished. "...And dark."
"Oh that one," Julianne laughed. "I heard he's on some kind of loan from some Canadian company. Some kind of special training assignment or something of the sort."
"Oh really. Does he speak with that quaint little 'up north' accent?"
"I wouldn't know." Julianne shrugged. "He hasn't spoken a word to me."
This time Jane deliberately hunted the mysterious black man down. She found him waiting alone in the Stoddard mansion library. Quickly she closed the double doors behind them. "So here is where you've been hiding from me."
"Not hiding," the handsome black man corrected. "Just waiting for you."
Jane Betts introduced herself. The mahogany skinned man smiled. His teeth were surprising white and even. He held out his hand. "Cock Smith," he said softly.
Jane felt her head and shoulders start at that odd response. "What?"
He handed Jane a business card which read
David Wincock Smith
. "Cock Smith?" Now she got it. His next question totally floored her. "Jane, if I asked you point blank to come back to my hotel with me twenty minutes from now, would you do it?"
Biting on her lower lip for just a moment, Jane let her blue green eyes sink into the depths of his brown eyes, before she finally decided. "Yes," she answered.
"How long between this engagement party and your wedding?"