by West, Harper
Between the workload and the stress, I was lucky to get four hours of sleep a night. Less if I had an opening shift at the coffee shop.
Every area of my life was suffering, and I had no idea how to fix it.
I couldn't even afford to order takeout and drown my sorrows in cheap Chinese food.
Which meant it was going to be another night on beans and rice with some freezer burned ground beef thrown in there for variety. Joy and wonder.
Sitting on the floor pouting about it wasn’t going to get me anywhere, so I made myself get up and went to sit on the couch, booting up my laptop. Maybe I could find a cheaper apartment and that would take some of the pressure off.
Maybe I could find a higher paying job and quit one of my other two.
Maybe money would rain down from the sky, and I could run around with a big bag scooping it up.
It was as likely to happen as finding a cheaper place in the city. Evan was already renting his units for way lower than the standard, appealing to college kids and grad students. Which was funny considering how much he complained about the dumb shit kids did in his building.
I was half tempted to go down to 207 and see if he had any weed left, just to mellow me out.
* * *
The next morning, I was at work at the coffee shop, trying to get through the day without having a nervous breakdown. There was just so much on my mind, and I had no idea what to do about any of it.
I’d been up all night for the most part, tossing and turning, trying to come up with some solution to my money issues that didn’t involve calling my parents for help or digging myself into more debt.
At one point I’d even seriously been considering trying to get into the stripping business. There was a girl I went to high school with who’d gone down that path, and judging from her social media posts, it had worked out pretty well for her. But I knew I wasn’t brave or attractive enough to pull that off.
Just like I knew working part time for eight bucks at hour at the coffee shop wasn’t going to get me where I needed to be, either.
The Jumping Bean was one of those trendy coffee shops that catered to a little bit of everyone. College students from the local university, busy moms on their way to dance recitals and soccer games, exhausted third shift workers just trying to make it through the day, and even the occasional high-powered businessperson or lawyer who worked in the city and wanted to support local businesses.
We saw them all and served them their piping hot life blood with a smile.
There was always a pretty long lull after lunch on weekdays, and we took that time to clean up and gossip while there were no customers clamoring for our attention.
Laura, the other barista on shift, leaned against the counter, one hand on her growing baby bump. She had that whole pregnant lady glow thing going on, but Laura always seemed to glow whenever she was on shift with me. She was one of those people who didn't seem capable of being in a bad mood. I'd literally seen her get scalded by hot coffee and laugh it off.
"How are you, Ash?" she asked, and I sighed while I cleaned out the blender. She even sounded like she genuinely wanted to know.
"I mean, do you want the socially acceptable answer or the truth?" I asked.
"Oh, dear. That doesn't sound good. I'll take the truth if you want to share it with me."
I sighed and swirled water around in the blender carafe angrily. Laura was younger than me. She was married and pregnant, and when she got too big to work, she was going to quit this job. I had no idea how she was going to pay for baby stuff and her bills and everything while she wasn't working, but she didn't seem worried about it. Maybe her husband was pulling in enough money to cover everything. Maybe they had a real good savings account. Either way, I'd never seen her stressing about what she was going to do.
It felt stupid to stand there and pour out my worries to her, but I kind of needed to get it off my chest before it killed me. I opened my mouth, and it all came pouring out of me.
"Stuff is just...I don't know. Everything is too much, if that makes any sense. My landlord is threatening to kick me out because I'm late with the rent, again, and my other job cut back my hours. This one barely covers the bills I have to pay, and I'm falling behind at school because I'm always skipping classes to cover shifts to try and bring in more money. I love the program, but if I can't afford to live in the city, I may as well just drop out because I definitely can't make the commute, and I don't have anywhere to stay anyway."
"That does sound like a lot," she said, sounding sympathetic. "Are there no cheaper places near campus?"
I shook my head. "Not this late in the semester. I could probably move at the end of the semester after people graduate, but I don't know. I'm just trying to get through this month."
"Well," she said. "I have to take off for a doctor's appointment next week, so you can have my shift if you want it." She gave me a warm smile, and I knew she was trying to be helpful.
"Thanks, Laura. I'll see if I can cover it. I mean, it'll all be fine, right? Worst case scenario, I have to drop out and I get evicted, and I go back to the middle of nowhere to live with my parents and work in my dad's grocery store. It could be worse. A lot of people have it worse."
"That's true," she said. "You won't be homeless, and that's a very good thing. I will miss you, though, if it comes to that."
I smiled at her. She really was a very sweet person. But before I could thank her, someone on the other side of the counter cleared their throat, and we both jumped and turned around.
He was here again.
The mystery man who’d popped in over the last few weeks around the same time each day. Laura called him ‘Mr. silent and deadly—fuckable.’ Not that we were ogling him every time he came in. It’s just . . . a man like him was hard to miss. He gave ‘tall, dark and handsome’ an entirely new meaning. I mean, he was ridiculously handsome, but he was also pensive and dominating without saying a single word.
Most times he came in, he’d sit in a far corner table and watch the counter every so often. I could swear he was looking at me more than once, but I figured it was just mistaken. There was something thoroughly exciting and frightening about him. For one thing, he was completely out of my league and I figured a man like that had dark demons just waiting under the surface to be unleashed; but for another, his attention was overwhelming. All it took was one look and his focused stare held such intensity, you couldn’t maintain eye contact without your breath hitching in your throat.
The coffee shop had been empty when we'd started talking, and somehow, he'd managed to come in and get to the counter without either of us noticing.
"Sorry, sir," Laura said, putting on her customer service smile and subtly sexy voice. "We didn't see you there. What can I get you?"
He looked her up and down with cool gray eyes and then looked back to me. "I wonder if I could have her take my order." It was phrased like a request, but his tone made it clear he expected to get what he wanted.
Laura and I exchanged glances and she shrugged before stepping back so I could move up to the counter. I put on my version of the customer service smile, though I was sure it was a little sharper than usual. "What can I get started for you today?" I asked him.
I hoped he wasn’t one of those elitist jerks that came to the city for business and harassed minimum wage workers to get their rocks off.
He dipped his head to the side and studied me. I refused to cave so I returned his stare. This close up, his eyes were startlingly gray against his dark lashes. There was a small scar through his left eyebrow, and his hair was brown and wavy, framing his strong jaw to perfection. His suit probably cost more than my car, and he had on an expensive looking watch and shiny cufflinks. I was sure his shoes would be just as pricey. Definitely some CEO or high-powered executive in the city for business.
Suddenly he smiled, revealing a dimple in his left cheek. “Would you like to have dinner tonight?"
"Excuse me?" I said, taken aback
.
He smirked, "Dinner? It’s what people enjoy in the evening. Usually several hours after lunch, Ms..." He drew it out, obviously waiting for me to fill in the blank.
I didn't. Men like him didn’t ask women like me to dinner. He probably dated models. Or socialites. Or high-priced escorts. What the hell did he want with me? It couldn’t be good.
"Is your proposition you ordering coffee or some kind of pastry and then me getting it for you? Because if not, I probably don't want to hear it."
He watched me as if he could see right through my walls and far into my darkest depths. It was giving me the creeps . . . and a naughty feeling in my lower regions. A feeling I chose to ignore.
He smiled wider. "A skeptic, interesting."
"No, I'm a barista," I said. "It's my job to make you coffee and heat up croissants, and passed that, I don't really have to care."
"You must do very well in tips," he shot back dryly, and I narrowed my eyes at him. Why was it that god chose to give the best looks and the most money to the worst kind of people?
"Look, if you're not ordering anything, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. This counter is for paying customers."
He made a show of glancing around the coffee shop, which was still otherwise empty. "And you do seem to have so many of them here, waiting for your service.”
We stood in a stalemate of sorts as he raised his brows.
He leaned forward placing his hands on the counter and dipping his head to the side, “Look, it’s really very simple. I’d like to take you to dinner. Do you want to go? Yes or no?”
"Wow," I said, mockingly. "How can I refuse such a romantic offer?”
"Is that a yes?" he asked, grinning brightly. Of course his teeth were even and straight, and he was so damn handsome I wanted to hit him. I’d never felt aroused by someone five minutes after meeting them—and I refused to show this hot, wealthy bastard, that he had any effect on me.
"Actually, it’s a hell no," I replied.
He glanced over my shoulder to Laura, “Is this how she always responds when a man asks her out for the evening?”
Laura just shrugged, her mouth wide open in confusion as to what this ‘living-god-of-a-man’ was doing asking me out. Hell, I was confused too.
“What do you want from me?” I asked.
He laughed, and it was a warm, rich sound. "Can’t a man ask a woman he finds attractive to dinner without getting the third degree?”
I was so confused about where this conversation was going. It felt like he was barely listening to anything I was saying, letting it go in one ear and out the other while pushing whatever agenda it was that he had.
"If you’re looking for some kind of sugar baby, I’m not that girl, " I said.
“Good to know.”
“And I’m not some easy woman who has sex on the first date, if that’s your expectation.”
“It’s just dinner.” He slipped his hands into his pockets. "It's just one dinner. Worst case, if you still think I'm as off-putting as you clearly do now, then at least you get a free dinner out of it."
I opened my mouth to say no and tell him, in my most polite tones, to go fuck himself, but then Laura bugged her eyes out at me from the other side of the counter and mouthed ‘what are you doing? Just go’.
"Fine," I said after a few minutes of silence. "One dinner."
He grinned even brighter. "Excellent. Shall I pick you up?"
"No, you shall not," I grumbled. "I can drive myself, just tell me where to meet you."
Of course, it was one of the most expensive restaurants in a town full of expensive restaurants, but whatever, he was paying. "What time?" I asked him.
"Let's say eight," he said. "I'll see you then."
And then he was gone, without ordering anything, disappearing like he'd been some kind of fever dream in the first place.
"Did that really just happen?" I asked Laura, turning around to blink at her in confusion.
"I think it did. He was very..."
"Weird. He was weird."
“I was gonna say oddly charming,” She nodded. "He seemed legitimately interested in you, though. So that's something. Maybe it’s why he’s been showing up all the time." She bumped my shoulder, “He’s in love.”
I almost choked, “Ugh, yeah. I don’t think so.” I stared out the window to where he had disappeared down the street. “He definitely wants something.”
“Babe, we all know what he wants. The same thing every man does.”
“And I just told him he wasn’t going to get it.”
“If you say so. . .” I laughed, then added, “If you don't hear from me tonight, it's probably because he murdered me and used me to fertilize the garden of his mansion."
Laura giggled, shaking her head. "I'll be sure to tell the police that. Maybe it'll be fun? He seems interesting, at least. It will be a nice change of pace!"
Her optimism was nice, but I wasn't so sure. That was a man who wanted something if I ever saw one, and stuff like that hardly ever went well.
Continue Reading The Dom’s Deal Here!
Available now in Ebook & Audiobook
Also by Harper West
The Pleasure Wars Trilogy:
1. The Dom’s Deal
2. The Dom’s Rules
3. The Dom’s Forever
Irresistible Billionaires Series:
1. Her Irish Billionaires (Irresistible Billionaires Book One): A MFM Billionaire Menage Romance
Standalone Novels:
The Dom and the Intern: A Dark BDSM Romance
The Big Bad Billionaires and the Student: A MFM Billionaire Professor Menage Romance
The Billionaires and The Author: A MFM Billionaire Menage Romance
Doubling Down in Vegas: A MFM Mafia Bad Boy Romance
The Pleasure Contract: A Reverse Harem Billionaire Romance
The Billionaires and The Bookworm: A MFM Billionaire Menage Romance
The Billionaires and The BookNerd: A MFM Billionaire Menage Romance
The Billionaires and The Librarian: A MFM Billionaire Menage Romance
The Virgins Double Tycoons: A MFM Billionaire Menage Romance
Seduced by Her Royal Dukes: A MFM Royal Menage Romance
Tempting Her Royal Princes: A MFM Royal Menage Romance
Given to The Mafia Bosses: A MFM Bad Boy Menage Romance
Training Their Virgin Assistant: A BBW Billionaire Menage Romance
The Billionaires Surprise Baby: A MFM Billionaire Menage Romance
The Nanny and The Billionaires: A MFM Billionaire Menage Romance
The Virgins Billionaire Bachelors: A MFM Billionaire Menage Romance
FREEBIE:
Shared by Her Billionaire Bosses: A MFM Billionaire Menage Romance
About Harper
Harper West is a Cali girl through and through, and she’s hella addicted to iced tea. She loves some theme park time, visiting the ocean and the mountains in the same day, and spending time with her kitties as she explores this writing journey.
When she’s not enjoying everything Cali has to offer, she can be found on social media or sitting in front of a fire on a rainy day, staring at the mountains. Sign up for her newsletter to stay up to date on all of her journeys and new books!
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