“Rebecca.”
I froze as he said my name. Oh, God, please let there be another Rebecca he’s talking to. I turned, but no one else had gone over to him. His eyes were locked on me.
“May I have a quick word with you?”
“O-of course.”
Was he going to say something about last night? In front of everyone? My heart skipped a couple beats.
“Follow me.” He motioned towards the hallway I’d gone down when I came in for my interview. I didn’t notice my heart was racing until it slowed slightly. Whatever he was going to say, it would be in private, and that was all that mattered to me right now.
I followed him to the room where he’d interviewed me.
“Close the door.”
I did as I was told, closing the door behind me ever so slowly, more of an excuse not to turn and face Dean than anything else. Finally, I couldn’t put it off any longer. I stared at the door for a couple of seconds, and then turned to face him.
“Is everything alright?” I asked just like I would if nothing had happened last night.
“We need to talk about last night.”
Of course. The one thing I didn’t want to do.
“Alright.” I nodded, stepping towards him. “I understand what I did last night was very unprofessional.” Was I about to get fired here? “And I have no reasonable excuse for what I did. However, I can assure you that it won’t happen again—”
His lips pressed against mine.
I gasped and stared at him in shock. My body screamed to move, half of me wanted to pull away, but the other half wanted nothing more than to pull him closer and nip his lower lip like I had last night. His lips pressed against mine ever so gently as his eyes locked on mine. I couldn’t bring myself to move my lips, but that didn’t stop him.
His arm wrapped around me, pulling me closer to him as his lips moved gently away from mine and towards my neck. His hot breath against my skin sent a shiver of arousal down my spine.
“I’m okay with a little bit of unprofessional, you know … as long as it doesn’t happen at work.”
I stepped away from him. “This is work.”
“True, but there is no one around.” Still, he didn’t step towards me. He straightened his suit jacket and looked up at me. “I think we need to discuss what happened last night over detail.”
“Alright.”
“Perfect, are you driving tonight?”
“No.” I hadn’t had time to get the car from the mechanic last night. It was supposed to be another three or four days until they even called me.
“Alright, I’ll drive you. To dinner.”
“Dinner?” I almost spat the word. “I thought you—”
“Well, it’s not like we have the time to talk about it now, do we? Or do you want people to start wondering about our relationship?”
The first person I thought of was Melina. My stomach knotted. “No.”
I didn’t know what their history was, but I didn’t want her knowing. She had been so kind to me, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to be alone at work. I bit my lower lip.
“Perfect, you can work late tonight. Of course, you will get overtime.”
Now that sounded good. I tried not to show it though.
“Alright.”
I agreed to his dinner because, honestly, I wanted to go. I wanted to spend more time with him, time out of work—time that was just the two of us. People can be friends with their boss, right? I mean, so what if he was super-hot, and I wanted nothing more than to go over there and stick my tongue down his throat? That didn’t mean I had to.
We could just be friends; I’d been friends with people I found attractive before, and it had been fine. I mean, annoying as hell that they didn’t want to date me, but this time it was more than understandable, he couldn’t just start dating a new employee.
“Good. I know the perfect place for us to go.” As long as it wasn’t the bar in the restaurant, I didn’t care. “You may go now before people start to think about our little meeting too much. We wouldn’t want the rumors to start before anything even happens.” A wide grin spread across his face as he made his way over to his desk and sat down.
I let myself out of his office my head racing. Did I just say yes to a date with my boss?
***
No. There was no way it was a date, right? The casino was closing at 8:00 tonight for some renovations to be done upstairs. I had no clue what kind of stuff was going on upstairs, but I did know that until the renovations were done, the casino was closing at 8:00 in hopes of getting it all done before the opening weekend thingy that Dean had been talking about earlier.
I picked up a lot of information if I asked the right questions, and I realized I was good at asking the right questions.
It actually didn’t take long for people to warm up to me. I’d been so scared that they would all hate me and be mean, but everyone was nice for the most part.
When they found out I was working late, they seemed a little nosey about that; something someone said made me think it wasn’t very common for Dean to have people work late.
“I’m sure she just has more to learn.” Melina had quieted everyone quickly. It seemed like she was the Queen B here, which didn’t surprised me to find out, but I did take note of it and reminded myself to keep on her good side.
But, finally, 8:00 rolled around. I was tired and my legs ached from walking around most of the day, but I’d made it through the day, and that was all that mattered. I changed quickly but was the only one in the change room when I left.
As I made my way into the lobby, I caught Dean’s eye. He smiled as he said something to someone I’d never seen before and then headed towards the door. I followed him out into the parking lot.
“How was your day?” he asked casually. “Are you feeling like a good fit? Everyone’s being nice to you?”
“My day was fine. I’m feeling very welcomed.” I paused. Now was my chance to pry. “Melina has been very nice.”
“Has she?” I couldn’t read the look that passed over his face. “That doesn’t surprise me; she’s always good with newcomers.” He led the way towards his car.
“Is she? Is that why you picked her to come with you?” What I actually wanted to know was why he picked her to come with him, but I was going to beat around the bush a little to see if I could find out that way—after all, it wasn’t really any of my business, now was it?
“It’s one of the reasons.”
Damn it, he was going to make me say it.
“What are the other reasons?”
Dean grinned as he turned to face me. “Are you jealous?”
“No,” I said quickly though I wasn’t quite sure I believed it myself, I was hoping Dean would.
We came to his car, and he circled around to the driver’s side.
“Good.” As we climbed into the car, our conversation died. I didn’t dare bring it back up for fear of looking jealous. I tilted my head as we left the parking lot.
“You said you had somewhere in mind, right?”
“Yes. Just a small place down the street.”
“So,” I turned to face him as he drove, taking a couple seconds to give him a good once over. I swallowed dryly as my eyes traced from his green eyes to the five o’clock shadow running over his jawline. He had his hair slicked back today, and despite the fact he wore a well-fitted suit, he looked like he was actually comfortable. I eyed his cufflinks and grinned. “You’re a Batman fan, eh?” The silver bat symbol cufflinks sparkled in the sunset.
It hadn’t actually been the question I was about to ask, but I couldn’t help it. Plus it might be better to pry with lighter questions first. I didn’t want to be rude.
He laughed softly. “Big fan. Always was growing up.”
“So you figured you’d grow up to be a billionaire too? Are you a superhero by night?” I gave a dramatic gasp.
“I wish I was that productive.” He smiled. “But no, just a normal bill
ionaire by night.”
Oh, I had a feeling he was anything but normal but didn’t say that out loud. I just smiled.
“Really? So if saving the world isn’t your pastime, what is?”
Dean laughed softly. “I don’t have much time honestly; at least, I haven’t since we started work on this casino, it’s been my hobby until it opened. Now … well now, by the time I’m done, it’s pretty much eat and sleep, then up at 4:00 to work out.”
My eyes widened as I stared at him. This had to be a joke. Was he a total workaholic? I mean, I guess it made sense. I mean he did run several casinos—I knew that from when I’d done my research, and from what I could tell they were all thriving.
“What about vacations?”
“I try to take a couple a year at least. I love traveling.”
“Where do you plan to go next?”
“I’m thinking somewhere in Europe, either Paris or Ireland most likely. I’ve been dying to go to both places.”
I blew out a soft breath. I’d love to travel; it would be wonderful. But college first and then traveling. That’s what I always told myself, so that’s what it was going to be. I’d start with the country, that way it would be cheaper. I’d start somewhere cold. Somewhere that gets a real winter with lots of snow. I smiled.
“What about you?” His voice snapped me back to reality. “Have you been able to do much traveling?”
“Not too much, no. Sadly, my parents didn’t like to travel much, so that was never an option when I was little. My gran took me to see a friend a few hours away, but it was just a train ride.” I could still remember being ten and thinking the eight-hour train ride was the worst thing ever to happen to me.
I smirked, thinking about it as the car came to a stop. I looked around, and my brow furrowed. “This is a house.”
“It’s my house.” He turned the car off and opened his door. “I hope you don’t mind.”
My heart skipped a beat as I pulled my phone out of my pocket and stepped from the car. Taking a quick picture of the house, I sent it to Katie and quickly explained why along with including Dean’s name, even though I knew I didn’t need to. We were always each other’s safety net. If she were going on a date, I’d get his name, number, and she’d give me the make and model of the car once she got in—I did the same for her, except I hardly ever actually went out on dates.
I slipped my phone into my pocket and felt it buzz, but didn’t reach for it.
***
I led the way up the walkway towards the house. “I thought you might not actually want to go out for dinner. I know a few of the girls live quite close to the casino.”
“Oh … yea, I guess it’s a good idea they don’t get the wrong idea or anything.”
Wrong idea? Oh, that was what I had in mind. I didn’t make a habit of dating girls I hired, but there was something about her. I mean, she was hot—no, she was beyond hot, but that wasn’t it. I bit my lip. It was when I’d been talking to her by the car, that had been when I first realized it. Then last night, driving her home … there was something about her.
I just couldn’t place what it was.
She was easy going, and from what Melina told me she worked hard—I liked that, but I wasn’t sure that’s all there was to it. Whatever it was, I wanted to figure it out.
I unlocked my door and stepped inside, flicking a light on after picking up the mail that sat on the front step. I skimmed through it and let out a soft breath as my shoulders relaxed. Still nothing, and that was good. That was the way it needed to be.
But still, every day I thought there would be something. Every day I worried about what I would find. I mentally shook myself. There was no point in thinking about it right now. There was nothing that would happen, not here. Not in Vegas.
No one knew me here except Melina, and I trusted her.
“I hope you don’t mind something quick, how about ribs and rice?”
“Sounds perfect to me.”
I motioned for her to step ahead of me into the kitchen and watched her reaction as she looked around.
***
Nope, there was no way this could be real. Not at all. Nope.
Real people didn’t live like this. It had to be a dream.
My brow creased. Kinda a weird dream for me to be having, but what else could it be? No one had kitchens like this, they were only seen in magazines. I looked around; all the appliances were stainless steel. Three walls were white, and the one with a long stretch of counter along it—the one right in front of me—was teak.
There was a fancy mixing bowl on one counter, and other than a bowl of fruit, that was all there was on the counter, except some clean dishes in the sink. The stove and fridge were beside each other to my left, and the right looked like it opened into a dining room.
“This is a pretty big house,” I said stepping onto the checkerboard tile flooring into the kitchen.
“It is. I sometimes wish I’d picked a smaller place, but what’s done is done—and it will only increase in value as long as Vegas keeps booming.” He stepped past me and made his way over to the fridge. I padded to what looked like a pantry and pulled it open.
Beans, rice, pasta. The man had a full pantry with tuna, veggies, and loads of snacks. My brow furrowed as I pulled out an open bag of rice. I didn’t see any instant rice, so I guessed we were going to have to do it the old-fashioned way, which if we were doing ribs didn’t matter that much.
I turned around just in time to see him pulling a foil package out of the freezer and closing it as he strode over to the counter.
“You don’t have to help.”
“I’d be itching to do something if I didn’t help,” I admitted.
Dean chuckled. “I’m the same way. Pots are down there.” He pointed to the cupboard as he placed the package on the counter and unwrapped it. Garlic filled my nose as I strolled over to the cupboard and grabbed a pot I was sure would be big enough for us both.
Now, being as broke as I was, I knew all about cooking rice. I didn’t even bother reading the bag before going to the stove and turning the dial.
“Will you put that at 350?”
“Sure thing.” I did as he asked and headed to the pot. I eyeballed it, but I was sure I got it right as I filled the pot with water and measured out rice before putting the pot on the stove to boil.
“I have to admit, I’m a little surprised you have so much rice lying around.”
“It’s an easy meal, good for you and cheap.”
It sounded odd to hear him going on about cheap food like it was good, because I mean really there was no telling how much he’d spent on this house. I had no clue how rich he actually was, but it was safe to assume he was really rich, so why should he have to worry about cheap meals?
I guess the more you save, the more you have to spend on stuff you want.
“So Rebecca, tell me about yourself?”
“Oh, I’m boring.” I shrugged.
“You said you wanted to go to college, right? What for?”
“Business.”
“Really?”
“Yea, I …” I paused, feeling the flush on my cheeks. People always laughed when I said it. “I want to own my own business.”
“Really?” He glanced at me as he crossed to the oven with a tray full of ribs and placed it in there. “What kind of business?”
“You’re going to laugh,” I warned him.
“No, I won’t.”
“That’s what everyone says.” I took a deep breath, waiting for it. “I want to start a hot chocolate business.”
“Like … gourmet hot chocolate.”
“Yes.”
I pulled my phone out, not for any reason other than to distract myself from his reaction.
“So … you’d do like different flavors, right?”
I looked up from my phone. He sounded serious like he actually wanted to know. I stared at him as his eyes locked on me.
“Yes,” I almost stuttered.
“That’s interesting. Do you think there would be much of a market here for it? Or would you …” He paused and let out a soft laugh. “I’m sorry, I get ahead of myself. I like to think far into the pan; most people don’t.”
“No, don’t be sorry.” I stepped towards him. It had been forever since I’d told someone that, and they had actually been interested in it. “I think it would do fine here if I could manage to open it up along the strip and eventually form a relationship with hotels. I’d be able to sell them the product for a discount, but if I supplied just one hotel, it would go a long way, and that would drive traffic to the store. See, the thing about Vegas is that people bring back souvenirs. So as long as I make the packaging look pretty and make sure everyone knows it’s from here, I should be able to see enough to … maybe pay the rent.”
“Sounds like you’ve thought about it a lot.”
“I have; it’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was 19.”
“Does that mean you’ve been working on flavors?”
“Yup.” I gave him a quick nod. “Of course, I’m the only one who has ever tasted them, so I’m not that sure they are actually good, but I’ve got four flavors that I think are good enough.”
It felt so good to be talking to someone about it, someone who didn’t make fun of me or act like I was being silly for wanting to do this with my life.
“So, business school, and then you’re going to open up your own little hot chocolate place?”
I laughed softly. “You make it sound simple. You’re forgetting the years and years of working that I will need to put in to get the money, let alone actually start my business.”
“I am looking for long-term workers.” Dean gave me a soft grin.
“Good to know.” I laughed.
He stepped closer to me. “You know, I’d love to try some, sometime.”
“Then I guess you’ll have to come over to my place sometime, and I can let you taste test.” I’d gotten the basic hot chocolate formula down pat, but now it was just a matter of adding the right things to it and in the right quantity.
“How about this weekend?” I opened my mouth to object, but he cut me off. “It can be a date.”
“Don’t you have something against dating people who work for you?”
Naughty and Nice Page 31
