by Ella Brooke
"Right now, I think I am mostly interested in food," he said, making a slight face. "There was not much to have on the plane."
Benny smiled, because she had been prepared for this eventuality.
"I made sure the realtor had the fridge stocked today," she said proudly. "There's plenty of food there, some of it from the Middle Eastern deli about a mile away. I'm sure you'll find something you'll enjoy."
She watched as he looked in the fridge, and then she got a little alarmed when he turned sad eyes toward her. Had she offended him somehow? Was it possible to offend someone with food? She wouldn't have believed it, but if anyone could do it, it would certainly be her...
"You have found me some very good food, I can tell," he said with a tone of disappointment in his voice. "It looks fresh, and I commend you for your efforts..."
"But?" she asked, her hopes sinking. So much for making a good impression...
"But...perhaps we could try something that is famous in the United States? For Chicago especially?"
She stared at him for a moment, and without thinking, she burst into laughter.
"Are you telling me that you want a deep-dish pizza?" she asked, and he nodded, smiling at her.
"A friend of mine told me that if I ever came out to Chicago, I would need to try it," he said. "I'll admit, I was thinking about it on the plane, and though I have no idea if I would actually like it or not, a part of me is deeply invested in giving it a try."
"It's awful," Benny told him. "Greasy, ridiculous, messy, over-the-top, and I'll be darned if I'm going to let someone who is craving one go without. I'll order one for you right now."
After a brief discussion of toppings, Jinan decided on one with grilled cheese and peppers, and after he went upstairs to unwind a little, she called the pizza place and gave the order.
Maybe this won't be so bad after all, she thought. After all, the guy likes pizza. How bad could he be?
After she hung up the phone, though, doubt started creeping in. Should she leave? Was he expecting her to let herself out? Would he be offended for her to still be here when the food arrived? She made a face as her stomach growled. All she had managed to have that night was a light dinner salad hours earlier. A thick, greasy, Chicago deep-dish pizza sounded like exactly what she wanted, but she told herself that there was always the little bodega down the street from her apartment. She could pick up a burrito or something just fine.
Hesitantly, she went to the foot of the stairs and called up to the second floor where the bedrooms were. She hoped he wasn't asleep.
"I just wanted to let you know that the pizza was ordered. And I...I..."
The problem, she thought, was that no one ever prepared you to deal with moments of shock the way they taught you to deal with pain. With pain, you were simply meant to bear through it, to make sure that you kept going no matter what. With shock, however, she was frozen in place, phone in her suddenly numb hand, watching the Prince of Asrac walk down the hall.
She had known models and athletes who had less grace than he did. Dressed in a pair of soft cotton pants and with a loose, dark robe thrown over his shoulders, he looked like a man very much at home. Now that he was stripped out of his suit, she could see how narrow his waist was, how broad his shoulders. His dark hair made an elegant contrast to his bronzed face, and his eyes, as dark as midnight, as dark as good coffee, made her feel slightly faint.
"Thank you for ordering," he said with a smile, making his way past her as if his assistant had not suddenly gone brain dead. "How long will it be?"
"I...I let them stack a surcharge on it because they know how hungry people get and they were willing to rush it over. It should only be between twenty to thirty minutes."
A brief smile on his face convinced her that he knew what she was stuttering over, but the wink he shot her told her that he would keep it to himself. When he started talking again, his tone was perfectly level.
"Thank you so much. You have been quite competent about all of this, and that is something I very much appreciate. I have also been remiss, it suddenly occurs to me that, much as it might seem so, you cannot read my mind. Will you stay and have dinner with me?"
She blinked at him, and the sane version of herself that had hidden itself in the back of her mind spoke up frantically, telling her that unless one had a damned good reason, one stayed for dinner when one's handsome boss asked.
Of course, the fact that he's handsome has nothing to do with it, she thought before she firmly shut down that line of reasoning.
"I would love that," she said with a slight smile. "I was just thinking of how good that sounded. Only...are you sure? You've had a long day and a long flight, and I don't want to be the one to..."
She stuttered to a halt when he came around the kitchen island towards her. There was nothing hurried about his stride, nothing abrupt or violent, but it sent a chill up her spine. This was how birds felt when the snake came for them, hypnotized and unable to budge at all because the snake was simply too fascinating.
"I know we are new to each other," he said, his voice soft and velvety. "So I think this is a good opportunity to get one thing very, very clear. When I say that I want something, when I ask for something specifically, it is not your place to question it. The answer that you give me might be 'no.' It might be 'not now.' In some rare cases, as Elli would have told you, it will likely be 'not under any damned circumstances.' I might not like hearing those answers, but I will accept them, particularly as I know that in most cases, I will have to be told such a thing for my own good.
"However, under no circumstances are you allowed to question me about what I might want. When I ask for a thing, rest assured that I do want it, and that I have thought it through. Does this make sense?"
It was only when she saw that he was done speaking that she could feel herself move again. She nodded at him slightly, her pale eyes wide. She could feel herself blushing again, but that was less important than nodding and finally finding her voice.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I had not thought of it that way."
"All right then, let's try that again. Would you like to stay for the pizza?"
"Yes, I'd love to," she said, and almost as if it was chorusing its agreement, her stomach gurgled as well, making her laugh ruefully. "I guess that makes it unanimous."
"Good," Jinan replied with a grin. "Now I'm going to see about making some kind of snack before the food gets here. I don't want either of us to starve."
So that was how she found herself perched barefoot on one of the kitchen stools, her feet tucked into one of the rungs and her shoes below her. At some point, she had shucked off her own jacket, now drying over another chair, and she felt much more comfortable. There was something to be said about the fact that her life had led her to watching in fascination as a prince of a country worth trillions of dollars made them some mini chicken wings he had found in the freezer. She had to admit that frozen or not, they smelled delicious.
"I'll admit that I am a little surprised," she found herself saying, cupping her chin in her hands. "I didn't think someone like you would be all that keen on fixing yourself a snack."
"What, too spoiled and pampered by servants to handle a skillet and spatula?" he teased, and she laughed a little.
"Honestly, maybe. You look like someone who has had someone else do the cooking for you for most of your life."
"As a matter of fact, I did until I went to college in the UK," he said, flipping some of the chicken wings in the sizzling oil. "I learned that I had to get very happy with eating from just the local curry place or I could learn to put some meals together on my own. After a few disastrous turns, I figured out most of what I needed to know, and it's been pretty smooth sailing from there."
"It's not a bad thing that you know how to cook," she found herself saying. "Far from it. In fact, I think it only makes you more attractive."
It wasn't until the words were out of her mouth that she realized what she had said, and she
clasped her hand over her mouth, wide-eyed and startled.
"I... I mean..."
To her mortification, Jinan laughed out loud, shaking his head and not even looking at her.
"Well, I suppose someone like me had better take what he can get," he said with mock solemnity. "Thank you so much for your kind and judicious judgment, oh arbiter of all things beautiful."
"That's not what I meant, not at all," she protested. "I meant..."
"I know. Relax, Benny. We are going to be working with each other for the next little while, and that means we should be comfortable with each other. I have a tendency to tease a little, though perhaps I shouldn't. That's...simply a part of working with me."
She blinked at him in surprise. "Are you saying that you are interested in keeping me on? Elli mentioned to me that this was a very trial period, and the final decision would be made whenever we had settled in."
"I'm sure Elli did tell you that," he conceded. "When it comes to staff, Elli is very, very determined and dedicated. I suppose it balances my tendency to go with my gut."
She watched as he plated the chicken wings in front of her, offering her a fork as he took off his apron.
"I have a good feeling about you," he declared, making her smile slightly. "I have a feeling we'll get along very well, and that means a lot to me while I'm getting my feet here."
Even if it was undeserved, she felt her chest puff out in pride. "I want to make your time here as easy and enjoyable as it can be. You can depend on me!"
"Good," Jinan said warmly. "Now, there's just one more thing that we need to discuss."
"What's that?" she asked, and she was startled at how fast he could move, how quickly he could tug her down off the stool and into his arms. She had to crane her neck back slightly to look at him, and then his mouth was coming down over hers, warm and wet and delicious in a way that she never even knew a kiss could be.
She froze in shock, and then the kiss swept her away. She could taste him in that kiss, as if the slide of his tongue over her upper lip was telegraphing something splendid and rich to her. Her heart felt as if it was going to burst out of her chest, and she could feel herself shake with the power of it.
When he pressed her against his chest, she gasped slightly, opening her mouth and allowing him entrance. She had tried French kissing before, but she had never understood that it could be like this, so warm and brilliantly beautiful, something that lit her up from the inside like fireworks.
She made a soft mewling sound when he pulled back, but then the look on his face made all of that warm pleasure go cold inside. He looked smug, the arrogant bastard, and with a gasp, she leaped backwards out of his arms. She would have landed just fine if it wasn't for the stool behind her. With a yelp, she missed her footing and reached for the first stable thing that could steady her. Fortunately it worked, and she regained her balance, but unfortunately for her, the thing she grabbed was Jinan.
After she had steadied herself, she pulled away from him, looking at him in shock.
"What in the world was that?" she gasped. Her arms folded across her body almost protectively, and her eyes felt as wide as dinner plates.
"That was what you have been wondering about ever since I came down the stairs," Jinan said with a slight grin. "It is the thing that has been plaguing your mind and driving you wild with curiosity ever since then. I thought that, since we wanted to have a decent working environment, we should clear the air. Now that your curiosity is satisfied, I think we will work together beautifully.”
She could have told him that he was wrong, that far from being satiated, her curiosity was even stronger, verging into obsession. She wanted more, more of his mouth, more of his arms around her, more of his scent on her.
Instead, however, she thrust her chin up, giving him the best unimpressed look that she could.
"Well, I suppose my curiosity is satisfied. I was mostly right, too."
He raised a dark brow at her, obviously incredulous. "And what is that supposed to mean?"
"It means that while you get full marks for enthusiasm and spontaneity, you were a bit lacking in...well, other places."
The look on Jinan's face was so frankly disbelieving that it was worth her coming up with that terrible lie on the spot. She wondered how it felt to be apparently so good-looking, so very attractive and desirable, that the idea of being lacking in other places was simply unthinkable.
“I think you need to tell me about those places in which I am lacking,” he rumbled. “If only so that I can correct them in the future.”
“Oh, it's just things that I can't quite explain,” she said, waving her hand as if she critiqued men on their kissing all the time. “You know. The little things that add up to the whole.”
For some reason, this made him smile.
“Well, then, I am sorry I didn't measure up,” he said, which was hilarious given the fact that there was still a part of her that was shivering from the intensity of his kiss.
Benny wondered if this was the kind of lie that people got struck down for telling, and she decided that if she got away with this one, she would never ask for anything else, ever, from the universe.
“I wouldn't say ‘didn't measure up,’” she hedged. “I mean, I'm sure you have had no complaints and the people you have kissed previously were plenty appreciative.”
“But to a connoisseur such as yourself, of course their opinions could only be of talented amateurs,” he said urbanely.
Am I really going to regret this before the day is out? Benny found herself wondering.
He was looking at her like a cat with a particularly stupid mouse, and she found herself blushing, this time with anger rather than desire. She might have been new to kissing, and she might have just been kissed for the first time by a man who really knew how, but she was going to be damned if she let anyone look at her that smugly.
It was this exact temper that had gotten her into so much trouble in the first place, and she had a moment to be worried about it before her mouth ran away with her.
“Of course, I can certainly show you how it's done,” she said, and as he was blinking at her in surprise, she stepped up to him again, cupping her hand over the back of his neck and drawing him down for a kiss. He went willingly enough that she wondered if he was too shocked to protest, and then they were kissing each other again, picking up from where they’d left off.
This time, however, she wasn't a shocked bystander. Instead, she was a full participant, and the result was a needy kiss that spread wings of fire over both of them. Benny found herself clinging to Jinan, demanding his heat close to her, and this time, she was the one who slid her tongue between his lips. When he sucked gently on her tongue, nipping it with his sharp white teeth, the world spun with pleasure. She could feel the change in his body, the way he went from a man who was amusing himself with his assistant to a man of desire, and Benny could feel the same response spark inside her.
When she pulled away finally, she looked up into his eyes that seemed darker than before. When Jinan licked his lips, she self-consciously touched hers, which felt full and slightly swollen after their passion.
“I want to do more of that,” Jinan said softly. There was no more pretense of who was teaching whom a lesson, just raw desire in a form that Benny had never encountered before, and at that, her nerve broke.
“Um, oh god, hang on, I'm so sorry, I have to take this...”
She held up her phone, doing her level best to make sure he couldn't see that the phone was a serene black, but he tilted his head at her curiously.
“Do you?”
“I do,” she babbled. “I... It might be important. My sister. Her baby, who is my niece, and her husband, too. Or at least, he isn't my niece, he's my brother-in-law and...um, I'm just going to step outside to take this!”
She could feel his eyes on her as she stumbled backwards and then floundered towards the door. Benny stepped out into the dim drizzle with a breath of relief. The smal
l porch had enough shelter to keep her mostly dry, but more importantly, it kept her away from hot-eyed princes who made her feel as if she was going to go up in flames.
“Oh man, I am messing this up. I am messing this up so much...”
Instinctively, she dialed up her sister, and when the phone picked up, she blurted out, “I am never going to work again, and I am going to have to come live at your house.”
Then she realized the call had gone to voice mail. Sighing, she left a message that didn't make her sound like a darned lunatic.
“Okay,” she whispered to herself. “Okay. It's all going to be okay. This is absolutely something that happens to people. People do dumber stuff all the time, and they get by just fine. It's fine. It's good. It's all good.”
It sort of worked, or at least fifteen minutes later when the pizza appeared, she was able to pay the man with a smile, carrying the truly enormous carton of food inside.
This is me, I have to live with it, and so does he. If he doesn't like it, he can just fire me, she decided. Pushing aside the fear that he was going to do precisely that, she kicked the door closed behind her.
“Um, assuming you haven't been cowed by my impressive kissing prowess, there's food,” she called out.
Benny winced. Well, she said she was going to own this, so she might as well simply lean in to it.
“Did your call go well?” he asked from his position on the couch.
It was strange, she thought, how very mouthwatering a man could be when he was simply sitting there, just getting off his feet after a long day of travel. He was draped over one end of it, watching her with a gaze that she could only think of as lion-like. There was a slight smile on his face that suggested he knew exactly what she had been doing on the porch and it had nothing to do with getting a call.
“It went just fine,” she said defiantly, daring him to challenge her. “I managed to catch the pizza on its way in, so that was a bonus. Come here and eat, or I'm going to eat it all.”
