by Hazel Kelly
Plus, he clearly said he wanted to redeem himself. Which made it sort of an apology dinner. It was like buying me flowers, but better. Because he smelled and looked better than any bouquet.
Of course, I was a little ashamed of myself for being so excited about the prospect of another dinner with him and getting his personal cell phone number.
Still, was it so wrong for me to look forward to having a meal with a handsome man? Was it so terrible that my favorite restaurant just happened to be dimly lit and romantic? It was just a coincidence.
But what if it wasn’t? What if it was fated that I should go out to dinner with the most handsome man in the city?
No. That was ridiculous. I just got lucky.
Which seemed to be exactly what he was still wishing he’d get.
Chapter 6: Will
I knew every place in the city worth knowing so I was a little disappointed when she suggested a restaurant I’d never heard of, but nothing could ruin how excited I was to see her. Especially considering my behavior earlier.
Not that I was sorry. I know I said I was, but that was just to get back on her good side. I didn’t really regret giving her a hard time. She’d fucked up my whole weekend after she fled the hotel room so I didn’t see anything wrong with shaking her morning up a little. And clearly make-up sex was off the cards.
However, once I told her I was going to offer her a full time position at the company, she might change her tune.
I didn’t want her to jump in bed with me because of the favors I’d done for her, though. I didn’t give a shit if other women fucked me for all the wrong reasons, but I wanted Ella to sleep with me purely because she craved my cock. Not because she wanted the money and the power attached to it. After all, my cock was the only thing I was prepared to give her.
But to be fair, she’d already proven that she could resist giving into me just because of who I was. Which was good. It meant when she finally let me fuck her, it would be because she really couldn’t resist me anymore.
Truthfully, part of me was annoyed at the efforts she was forcing me to go to in order to seduce her. It wasn’t supposed to be this hard to bed a sexy woman. Not for me anyway. On the other hand, I have to admit the pursuit was thrilling. I found the biggest challenge was being charming when I was essentially hunting her. Like I was a hound and she was a fox. Except when Ella got caught, she was going to be happy about it.
I pushed open the door of the restaurant. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of the hostesses whisper in the other’s ear. I was used to getting recognized so it didn’t faze me. I just wished Ella was there to see the young girls giggling in my face. Maybe if she knew how steep the competition for my attention was, she would stop taking it for granted.
“Hello ladies.”
“Hello,” they chimed in unison.
“I’m here to meet Ella Riley.” I looked back and forth between them. From the expressions on their faces it looked like they would probably both be happy to go back to my place for a filthy time. “Do you know if she’s arrived?”
“One moment, Mr..?”
“Abbott.”
The girls exchanged knowing glances and then one of them disappeared behind a wooden slatted screen.
To my right was a see through oven door with dozens of roasting chickens circulating on a spit. I usually went places were food prep was entirely behind the scenes, but there was a certain rustic charm to the display.
“Right this way, Mr. Abbott,” one of the girls said, jolting me from my trance.
I followed her around the wooden screen and she pointed across the room. “Miss Riley is just having a drink at the far side of the bar there.”
“Thanks.”
“Would you like me to take your coat?”
Would you like to rummage through all my pockets? “That won’t be necessary.”
A generic jazz band was playing soft music in the corner and the lighting was almost worryingly dim. It was immediately obvious that every member of staff was wearing a black turtleneck and spending the majority of their wages on hair gel. When my eyes finally found Ella, she was already looking at me.
I felt my chest swell a little at the site of her smile and took a deep breath.
“Hello,” she said, swiveling her barstool towards me.
I leaned in and pressed my cheek to hers.
“That’s a cold cheek,” she said, lifting her hand to her face when she leaned back.
I hooked my coat under the bar and sat beside her. “We should get something for that right away.”
“I already ordered you a gin and tonic. Hope that’s okay.”
“That’s very kind of you.” I turned to face her. She was wearing a loose, low cut top that drew my eyes to her chest even though she wasn’t wearing a necklace. “I’m supposed to meet a very serious woman here.” I looked over my shoulder. “But you seem a lot more fun.”
“I hope you like the place.”
“I like the jazz already.”
“I thought you might.” She lifted her pink cocktail to her lips.
Her cheeks were rosy and her shiny hair was hanging down her back. She looked beautiful. I couldn’t believe my luck.
“It’s kind of tacky, though.”
“Tacky?”
“Well, there’s prices on the menu for one thing,” she said, unable to suppress a cheeky smirk.
“Oh. That is bad.”
“And the squat toilets aren’t everybody’s cup of tea, but you’ll get used to them.”
“Squat toilets?”
She laughed. “I’m joking. Jesus, you looked seriously worried there for a second.”
“Good one.” I relaxed again on my stool. “As long as the food is good.”
The bartender placed a drink in front of me and disappeared.
“I think it’s delicious,” she said. “I don’t know how it will compare to the gold leaf covered caviar you’re used to eating, but it’s one of my favorite spots.”
“I usually try to stay away from caviar on dates. Gets stuck in my teeth.”
Her eyes went wide. “What makes you think this is a date?”
I lifted my glass. “What makes you think it’s not?”
She pursed her lips.
“I asked you to dinner and you accepted. It’s not a big deal.”
“I didn’t realize you thought-“
“Ella.”
“What?”
“Let’s just have a nice time and not worry about semantics.”
Her mouth was slightly open and her lower lip was sticking out. I wished I could nibble it as my appetizer.
“We have to eat anyway, and we’re going to eat together because we enjoy each other’s company. That’s it.” I leaned against the bar. “It doesn’t have to be complicated.”
She nodded.
“Just try and put how amazing our kiss was to the back of your mind.”
She cocked her head and squinted at me.
“So you can focus on the good news I have for you.”
She straightened up in her seat. “Good news?”
“I thought about the terms you put forward earlier.”
“And?”
“I think you’d be an asset to the team.”
“Oh, Will!” She pressed her hands against the edge of the bar.
I couldn’t wait to give her a real reason to scream my name.
“I would hug you, but I don’t want you to get the wrong idea.”
“It’s far too late for that.”
She rolled her eyes.
“There’s only one problem.”
Her face fell. “What? What’s the problem?”
“I’m going to have to give you an extra ten thousand dollars a year.”
Her fingers covered her cheeks. Then she dropped her hands into her lap and took a deep breath. “I’m listening.”
“It’s just that- as you know- I’m quite competitive.”
“Yeah.”
“
And I checked around to make sure your terms were fair.”
“Uh-huh.”
“But I found one hotel where the position paid eighty, and I can’t afford to risk you leaving for a better offer.” It was a lie, but it sounded good. Plus, I knew a measly ten grand would mean a hell of lot more to her than it did to me.
She put her hand on my knee and the electricity from her touch shot right through me.
“I don’t know how to thank you, Will.” Her big eyes were looking at me in a way that made my guts feel pinched. “I won’t let you down,” she said, sliding her hand off my knee.
“I know,” I said, trying to bring my heart rate back down. “That’s why you got the job.”
Chapter 7: Ella
Dinner went really well. Not that I doubted it would. Will was as sociable as ever, and it felt like he was going out of his way to not come on too strong. At the same time, the way he looked at me made it so obvious that he had an ulterior motive that even I picked up on it. It was the same face he made when he saw his steak. There was a hunger there, an intensity. The man knew what he liked and he knew what he wanted.
I couldn’t help but feel that it was going to take a lot more than withheld hugs to keep his urges at bay.
Meanwhile, I was feeling increasingly confused about what the hell I was doing.
I mean, it was totally a date. There was no raffle excuse this time. He asked me to have dinner and I said yes. Of course, it took me a while to wrap my head around the fact that I was on a real date with a gorgeous cajillionaire. And even though I was trying my best to convince myself that I didn’t want it to happen again, I was believing the lie less with every passing minute.
He was excellent company. His conversation was intelligent and interesting, and he genuinely made me laugh. I always made it a point to laugh when a guy was trying to be funny because everyone knew that men liked that. But Will actually was funny. I didn’t have to do my polite fake laugh a single time.
Worst of all, I didn’t like him as a friend. I was attracted to him in a way that made something deep inside me feel fluttery, and after he made the joke about our kiss, I couldn’t put it out of my mind. Especially with his lips moving so close. It was all I could do not to stare at his mouth. Once I think he even caught me doing it because he licked some A1 off his lips, and I had to look away so he wouldn’t see me blush.
I know the important thing was that we were both enjoying ourselves, but I couldn’t help but wonder if I was limiting our level of enjoyment. After all, my instincts couldn’t be trusted.
Was I deliberately resisting the best thing that had ever happened to me because I was scared of how being with a real man might make me feel? What was I so afraid he would do to me that was making me so resistant? Did I think I was some kind of bimbo that couldn’t do her job if she was doing her boss or did I think that only bimbos did that and that was my problem?
“Is your food okay?” Will asked, cutting a bite from his steak.
I looked up at him. “Delicious, yeah.”
“You zoned out for a second there.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay. Is there something on your mind?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I’m fine.”
“Were you trying to figure out why you left the hotel room after the party?” He took a sip of his ice water. “Cause that riddle’s had me puzzling for days.”
“I’m sorry if you feel I led you on,” I said, deciding that he wasn’t going to drop it unless I offered some sort of explanation. “I left because I was out of my depth.” I drained my third pink bikini.
“How do you mean?”
“I don’t have very much experience in that department.”
He furrowed his brow.
A server walked by and raised my empty glass along with her eyebrows. “Would you like another?”
“Please,” I said before turning back towards Will. His chiseled cheekbones looked amazing in the dim lighting. “I don’t know why I told you that.”
He tilted his head.
“I’m not a virgin or anything,” I said too quickly.
He looked down and started cutting another piece of his steak. “You’ll feel like one when I get my hands on you.”
I felt a flush of warmth pass through my chest.
His eyes glanced at me as he put some steak in his mouth, but he didn’t lift his head.
“Anyway, on top of the fact that it would just be plain wrong because you’re my boss, I get the impression that you prefer a woman with more experience.”
He sat up and swallowed his bite. “I don’t discriminate.” He wiped his mouth on his napkin and put it back in his lap. “Your lack of experience was never a problem for me before, was it?”
“No,” I said, grateful all over again for my new job.
He grabbed the slice of lemon from the side of his glass and dropped it in his drink. “Can I ask you a question?”
The server arrived with my cocktail, and I took a sip the second after she set it down. “Sure.”
“When was the last time you did something that you felt was just plain wrong as you put it?”
“I don’t know.”
He focused his grey green eyes on me. “Think.”
“I bought a fake id when I was nineteen.”
He smiled.
“And I used it. A lot.”
“Wow. I don’t even know if I feel safe with you anymore.”
“Don’t patronize me.”
“You’re right.” He put his palm over his chest. “There might be serious consequences.”
I shrugged. “I told you I wasn’t exciting enough for you.”
He reached across the table and put his hand over mine. “Ella.”
I felt my breath catch in my throat when I saw my hand disappear underneath his. “What?”
“Just because your past was really lame doesn’t mean your future has to be, too.”
I moved my hand out from under his and shook my head. “I thought you were going to say something nice.”
A smile spread across his face. “I thought that was nice.”
“Let’s talk about you.”
He drank some of his water and sucked an ice cube into his mouth.
The thought of it melting on his tongue made my stomach clench.
“What would you like to know?”
I pursed my lips. “I’d like to know how you ended up dropping out of college and running a successful hotel business.”
“Ask me something that isn’t on Wikipedia.”
“I’m shocked.”
“Why?”
“Because I just gave you the opportunity to talk about yourself, and it sounded like you turned it down.”
He shook his head.
“C’mon. I’m serious. I want to hear a version of your success story that everyone else doesn’t have access to.”
“Fair enough.” He folded his napkin and set it down beside his plate. “As you know, I dropped out of college.”
“Why?”
“Because I couldn’t afford it.”
“I didn’t realize.”
“And my Mom got very sick. So my priorities changed.”
“Understandable.”
“At the time, my Dad was a bellhop at The Plaza.”
“A rival hotel?”
“Well it wasn’t really a rival because the Abbott didn’t exist yet.”
“Oh. Right.”
“Anyway, he was a very hard worker. I like to think I get my work ethic from him.”
“So is that how you got interested in the hotel business?”
“I suppose.”
I nodded.
“Sometimes he would get a big tip and take me and my Mom to the movies.”
“Cool.”
“It was a really big deal at the time. Usually, though, he just complained about the fact that we didn’t have any money while other people had lots. So as a kid I spent a lot of time trying to figure out wh
y that was.”
“So how did you figure it out? Because obviously you did.”
“After I dropped out of school, my Dad got me a job working at the hotel. I started paying attention, and soon I figured it out.” He put his elbows on the table. “Basically, I realized that everyone who worked there was paid in correlation with the service they provided.”
“Sure.”
“So the bellhops maxed out at whatever people thought it was worth to have someone carry their bags, but the concierge got paid more because he could impact someone’s experience outside the hotel etc.”
I laid my silverware across my plate. “So you figured out that the more responsibility you have and the greater the service you provide, the more you stand to earn.”
“Exactly. So naturally, I decided I wanted to have my own hotel, and the rest is history.”
I laughed. “I think you skipped a few bits there at the end.”
He shrugged “So I hustled and worked hard and impressed the right people and here I am.” He swiveled his palms towards the ceiling. “Better?”
“For now, I suppose. What about your Mom, though?”
“She died.” He leaned back and looked down for a second.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. It happened at the right time. She didn’t have to suffer for too long.”
“And your Dad?”
“He died shortly after she did.”
“Do you think he died of a broken heart?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I do.”
I swallowed.
“I think her dying and the long term stress of him feeling like he couldn’t take care of her took its toll.”
“That’s so sad.”
“It wasn’t a very happy time in my life.”
“I can only imagine.”
“It was a long time ago, though.”
“At least they’re together now,” I said, hoping it might comfort him. “I’m sure they would be proud to know how hard you’ve worked, to see what a charmed life you have now.”
