====== Lone Wolf and the Flower Child ====== {{ :kaine:d13243dfd5ec27ccac8475e20e39c094.jpg?direct&200x300|d13243dfd5ec27ccac8475e20e39c094.jpg}}[[profiles:summercaldwell|Summer Caldwell]] pushed open the doors to the club, [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d1/32/43/d13243dfd5ec27ccac8475e20e39c094.jpg|wearing]] a flowy print wrap skirt and a black lace crop shirt. Her long red hair hung down her back, a braid framing the side of her face. Sparkling green eyes turned back towards the sign on the door as she read over establishment rules. Hmpf. Establishment. [[profiles:kainehayden|Kaine Hayden]] stood outside the door, holding a business card in his fingers. Yes, this was the place. Nowhere else quite managed to keep his attention, he needed somewhere new to pique his interest. This was the next in a long line of interests that never quite held his attention for long enough. Maybe today would be different. He pushed the doors open, [[https://static.f-list.net/images/charimage/13418489.jpg|dressed to [s]kill[/s] thrill]] in a smartly tailored suit. The room opened up to him, giving him a view of his latest conquest. Empty. Bare. He missed the woman glaring at the sign as he was focused on the room, figuring out his next move. His eyes roamed, seeing the bar with its selection of alcohol, the various furniture in the room, the painted wooden floor, the tables, the couches. There. He started to move towards one in the middle of the wall to one side, coincidentally opposite the door one might think if they didn't know the man. He settled into the cushion, placed his back up against the rest, and pulled his phone from his pocket to check his stocks. Okay, that suit caught her attention. She wasn't really truly anti-establishment, she just liked to pretend she was. Because Summer Caldwell was a woman who appreciated a well-tailored suit and goddamn, it didn't hurt that the man wrapped in it was a little sunbeam sitting on that couch checking on his investments. He needed a flower in his hair… She pulled the daisy from her hair and walked over to him, her step confident, her expression open, friendly. She tucked the flower behind his ear as she…. Sat in his lap. Take that, Suitman. {{ :kaine:tomhiddleston-0317-gq-fath03-01.jpg?direct&200x267|tomhiddleston-0317-gq-fath03-01.jpg}}Kaine frowned as the woman approached him. He'd barely noticed her when he arrived, now she was approaching him. He looked up and watched the flower child, his hand with his phone settling to the couch at his side. She pulled the daisy from her hair. He had a sudden realization what she was going to do, but he didn't fight it. He didn't budge from his seat. He waited, expectantly, prepared for any outcome. Already she had her hooks in him. He had something to be interested in. Something to hold his attention. Maybe… Just maybe… Maybe not any outcome. The daisy behind his ear was an expected outcome. Sitting in his lap? Invading his personal space? That was very forward of her. "Well…" This was a comfortable lap. Oh yes, Summer liked this particular lap. She took the opportunity to inspect him a little more closely, fixing his lapel, and then the effervescent free-spirit rather masterfully adjusted the Windsor knot of his tie, loosening it just a little. "Choking is for the bedroom." She informed him. Well… She gave him a sunny smile as he spoke. "Well, at least I'm not ugly, right?" Kaine looked down at her fingers as she messed with his carefully measured look. Nothing major, just appearing to make a claim to the suave, sophisticated gentleman whose lap she had also just claimed. She spoke, his eyes darted up to her lips, then her eyes, his head canting to one side as he processed what she said. The hint of a smile glimmered at the edges of his mouth in realization of what she was saying. Yes, he could picture that vividly. "I was going to say 'that was new', but we'll go with what you said. I've done worse." Summer gave a noncommittal shrug. "I can relate. So have I." She rejoined cheekily. Everyone had been worse compared to this guy, but he didn't need to know that. Speaking of cheeks, her right one had a dimple. Bet you pervs thought I was going to wax poetically about her ass, hm? "I'd ask what you're doing here, but judging by that suit, I already know. Let me guess. Businessman, clearly, you were checking stocks and **bonds**, eh? Your suit is well-tailored, perhaps even custom fitted. Senior exec, maybe even CEO." She leaned in and pressed her nose to his neck, and while it may have been sensual, intimate, there was no brazen, wanton sexuality to it. She inhaled. "You smell of man. Dominant. Alpha." Kaine was a man used to being in control. Of everything. As she said. Dominant. Alpha. Lone wolf. This woman… Wasn't. Perhaps in time she would be, but that's jumping ahead of ourselves in the story. She was cheeky, assured, unafraid. A brat in the wild. That smile started to grow as he understands what she was, what she wanted, how he could provide that for her. Again, getting ahead of ourselves. She even had him down to a T based on his clothing. As a student of psychology, he could appreciate someone who could read the situation, even tell him exactly what she saw. Brazen, bold, in her actions as well as her words when she leaned further against him for that smell. It was refreshing in this age of political correctness to see someone unafraid to do as they pleased. "Yes." A man of few words, it answered many of her questions. All of them, in fact. His right hand reached across his body to pluck a business card from his pocket between his index and middle fingers, holding it up with the plain back to her. "Ever heard of Hayden Industries?" Summer pursed her lips slightly and moved her head in a diagonal, slightly sweeping tilt, the expression of doubtful thought. "Ehhh, can't say I have, though it rings some sort of tiny bell in the back of my head. But I wouldn't be too offended by that if I were you." She reached…into her shirt and pulled out a business card. "Please take this, it was poking my breast. It's my day off but you never know who you might run into." **Summer Caldwell\\ Owner, Senior Accountant\\ Caldwell Accounting LLC** The hippie just got a little more interesting. "If you ever need numbers manhandled into submission, I'm your gal." What a curious choice of words. Kaine was gobsmacked. Purely internal. Nothing showed externally, no matter what she had said. He took that moment where she offered her card to exchange his for hers, using a trick he'd learned as a schoolboy. With that sleight of hand complete, she would notice who he was, if she chose to look at the card: **Kaine Hayden\\ Chief Executive Officer\\ Hayden Industries Inc.** He checked her card and filed it in his pocket, noting her name. "I'll keep you in mind if any of my usual accountants are tied up." He was never one to back down from a battle of the wits. Even when caught unawares. Did she not read magazines? He could understand missing the full page spread in GQ, that was a man's magazine, but Time? People? The Economist? Summer had admitted to hearing of it when she said it rang a tiny bell in the back of her head. But if he'd thought she'd be one to fawn all over him because he was a–ooo, CEO. She'd been right. Yis! If he thought she was going to be one to throw herself at a man of power and influence, he would be extremely wrong. She was a self-made woman. Despite her nary-a-care attire, she was a hard worker, She'd made a lot of something out of years spent wondering if she and her siblings would be able to actually have three meals a day. Or even one, sometimes. "Tied up? Oh dear. I do hope you don't flog them too hard when they let you down." When not if. She wasn't as well publicized as he, but she'd had an article in the Times when she'd used some of her hard-fought gains to financially back a restaurant where the city's homeless could go for a hot meal. Kaine pondered a response with a suitable double entendre. He would hate to lose the battle at this stage. Think. If this were a cartoon, there would be smoke being expelled from his ears at this moment, a cutaway of cogs grinding and sticking, possibly a spanner in the works. He was struggling. He wasn't used to dealing with someone as an intellectual equal. "That would be a reward, and why would I do that when they've done something wrong?" Perhaps subtlety would work. It made his point about how he felt. That's where he'd heard the name before. She was that Caldwell. He still had to figure that out, but maybe, given time, he'd find that out about her. For now, he was blissfully unaware that the women in his lap were entirely self-made. Whips and chains, handcuffs, smackaliddlebootyupwithmahbelt. But his reply was a little less–witty and more–informative. Stay away from him, Summer. He's dangerous. "Different strokes for different folks I guess. I'm just trying to live my **life**." She shrugged. Stay away from him, Summer. You'll only get burned. Men like him like to play, and very few ever play for keeps. Okay, but she was still perched in his lap like she fucking belonged there. Kaine hadn't realized how much he'd given away with his shift in his point of attack. He needed to get back on point, use his psychology, take control of the situation. Right now he was a little flustered from how close she'd decided to be, forthright in her words, and even dealing with everything he dished out. He loved it. Despite her apparent disinterest in his words, the shrug showing she didn't like his attitude, she was still there. She'd claimed his lap. She wasn't going to leave it any time soon. Not that he could tell, at least. She was hooked, as far as he could tell. "Very true." He tucked his phone back into his pocket, he'd left that hand laying there on the couch as if he'd forgotten what to do with it. As he removed his hand, it brushed over her arm. Stroked, even. "What's a life to live without a raison d'etre?" That hand. Felt good. Her lips pressed into a thin line and she looked at him. Striking light green eyes staring into his as she rested comfortably in his lap. "My reasons…they drive me. People don't take me seriously, even less so when I'm not in my skirt and blazer. I **love** bucking expectations and shocking the shit out of people. But my reasons are the people I feed. People where I once was. I fought through hell to get where I'm at. I built my business to a point I can offer a hand up to those where I was and still not want for anything myself." Okay, they were having a conversation. Welp. Fuck. "I need no one. I fought alone to get here and I won't let anyone take me back down again." Next: [[logs:wolves_of_new_york:dances_with_wolves|Dances with Wolves]]