by Haley Travis
career with anyone else. They would obviously think it was boring, and by extension, would
assume that I was boring too. It was also only a small part of who I was. I spent eight
hours in the office so that I could afford my extensive social life, and enjoy the finer things.
So I talked about my work as little as possible, concentrating on my world outside the
office. That’s why I always knew someone who could recommend the perfect concert, bar,
or, in this case, a tropical themed restaurant to impress my date.
Kim and I definitely clicked, but she was still a bit on edge. I knew that it was too much too
fast, but I just couldn’t stop myself. I was unbelievably relieved that she seemed completely
into me as well.
“Devin,” the maître d’ called out dramatically as he rushed over to squeeze both of our
hands in his. “And you must be the darling Kim. We’re so excited that you’ve come to dine
with us this evening.”
He was ridiculously over the top, but from the way Kim’s eyes sparkled when she grinned,
that was completely fine with me. Evan had definitely sent us to the right place, but since he
had made the reservation on my behalf, I hadn’t realized we were going to get the star
treatment.
The host bustled us to a cozy booth in the back corner that was completely hidden from
view. As we sat down, sparkling fruit-infused waters appeared before us, and we looked
around at the huge glossy green leaves surrounding us.
“It’s like we have our own little tree fort,” Kim giggled.
I pulled her closer against me in the horseshoe-shaped booth. “Good,” I whispered in her
ear. “I am a greedy man who wants to keep you all to himself while we’re on vacation.”
A busty blonde in a skimpy flowered dress dropped off our menus and told us the specials,
and as soon as she was gone, I picked up Kim’s hand, kissing along the back of it. Then I
examined her nails. “It’s black, but it sort of shines blue in the light,” I said. “It looks like car paint. My uncle Eddie would love this effect.” She seemed absolutely astonished. “What,
you don’t think he should paint his muscle cars with nail polish?”
“No, I’m shocked that you didn’t even look at that girl.”
“What girl?” I looked around, then realized what she meant. “Oh, the waitress? She
seemed okay. Why?”
Her lovely rosy lips pressed together hard as if she was stifling a laugh. Leaning in, she
whispered, “Those were the most spectacular boobs I’ve ever seen in my life, and you
didn’t even stare.”
I leaned in to kiss her cheek, whispering, “I’m a one girl guy. I want you to be my girl.
Therefore, all other women except for my mother are nothing more than friendly wallpaper
at this point.”
She gave me a little smile and picked up her menu, but I noticed that her hands weren’t
completely steady.
“What’s wrong, baby? Let me be your holiday boyfriend, as a test run. I think we’re perfect
together.” I winked.
“I just don’t understand why you seem so…fixated on me,” she said softly.
Sliding a few inches away from her, I tipped her chin up with my finger to look into those
gorgeous dark brown eyes. They flashed in the dim light, so animated and lively. “Kim,
you’re the most gorgeous, sexy woman I’ve ever met. I want to know all about your weird
fixation for graffiti alleys, and everything else I don’t understand. But I don’t mean to frighten you or come on too strong. If I misbehave, just tell me. Okay?”
She nodded, her shoulders dropping as she turned more toward me. “Now,” she said,
pinning me with her glance. “We have an important mission. We need to split the most
outrageous cocktail ever, then decide whether we are having proper entrées, or sharing a
whole bunch of appetizers.”
I felt my smile stretch my face. “I’m so glad that you eat, baby. I can’t stand it when women
have nothing but salad in front of a guy.”
She started to frown, but I grabbed her hip, pulling her against me for a deep, sultry kiss. “I
adore every curve on this sexy body,” I murmured against her lips. “And I think people
should eat whatever the hell they want on vacation. That was my only point.”
Damn, those eyes when they sparkled up towards me!
Two hours later, we had split three cocktails full of fruit and greenery, one of them
decorated with a butterfly made from orange slices. I loved that she apologized before
pulling out her phone to take snaps of that one for her friends. I shared some of the funniest
stories about my days as a bouncer, while she told tales of her group of friends lying about university parties.
“We couldn’t say that we were staying in to study on Saturday night,” she shrugged. “So a
few times we got dressed up, studied like hell for two hours, proofread each other’s
projects, then had some wine and a dance party in the living room.”
“You probably saved a lot of money by not going out to those loud clubs,” I chuckled.
“Cabs, cover charges, ridiculous drink prices in those places,” I winked. “Although I bet the
guys would have been buying your drinks.”
Kim shook her head quickly. “Guys under twenty-five don’t really interest me,” she said. Her
mouth fell open. “Oh my God, does that sound bad?”
I laughed as the server cleared some of our plates. “No, baby, it means you know what you
want.” Reaching out to tuck her hair behind her ear, I slid closer again. “What do you want,
Kim? What’s your biggest dream?”
The way her eyes glowed nearly took my breath away. “I want to produce incredible video
content, and dazzle clients by giving them exactly what they need.”
I took her hand. “That’s amazing, Kim. But what exactly does that mean?”
“Video production?”
“Yes. I mean, I know that videos exist and that people want more and more of them these
days. But what would you actually be doing?”
She turned to face me. Instead of looking bored, as if she were about to teach a dumb
student, she was excited. “Years ago in TV production, there would be camera people to
shoot the content, a director to tell them exactly how to shoot it, a segment producer who
would gather the guests and host and topic and content, if it were a talk show, for example.
And then the producer would run the entire show.”
“Sounds complicated.”
“Yeah, it really was,” she said. “But now that people want constant, quick videos, a video
producer or content producer does almost everything themselves.”
“That sounds pretty stressful.”
“It can be.” She was absolutely grinning, so it looked like stress that she enjoyed. “My
company provides snippets of background footage that people can use as filler for live TV
broadcasts.”
I assumed my blank look told her that I needed more details.
“If the news is talking about…” She looked around the table. “The flower industry. Maybe
flower sales are booming in cities, and nonexistent in small towns. If this was hitting the
news tonight, their editor would need background footage for the story's voice over. They would need flowers, a clip of a person arranging flowers, and they’d need a storefront shot
for both a busy urban shop and a rural small town shop.”
&nbs
p; I nodded. “So you’re providing the pieces, and they put it together at the last minute before
it goes on the air?”
“Exactly.”
“You’re making a library of video pieces?”
“Sort of,” she smiled. “We have huge libraries of content, and we’re adding to our archive all
the time. But we also have a bunch of clients who are currently working on stories a couple
of days, or even weeks ahead, who are looking for something in particular. So we shoot
twice the amount of content we think they’ll need, send it to them in low resolution, they pick
and choose, then we send them the final, polished clips.”
“So what do you actually do?” I asked again.
The way she wrapped her dark pink lips around the straw as she took the last sip of our
blue pineapple monstrosity almost distracted me.
“Right now, I go out and shoot clips for the archive,” she said. “But I’m hoping to shoot
specific content for our clients soon.”
There was something that didn’t match up between her smile and her eyes. “Why haven’t
you gotten to do that yet?” I asked.
This time the frown came through. “Terrence and Cliff are the main video guys at the
company, and they’ve been there longer, so they get the best assignments.”
I looked down to see that my hands were curled into fists in my lap. “Are they not giving you
a chance because you’re a woman?” I asked. She seemed surprised at the sliver of ice in
my voice.
“I don’t know,” she sighed. “I don’t want to think that. They’ve both been there for two
years, and I’ve only been there four months. But I’ve studied video production and all sorts
of related things, where they have no formal education.”
Shaking out my hands, I forced them to unclench. “Every career is different, but sometimes
on-the-job experience really is worth as much or more than formal education,” I ventured
carefully, nodding. “It sucks, of course, but that’s the way it is.”
I wrapped my arm around her, pulling her tight against me. “But that doesn’t mean that they
shouldn’t give you a chance here and there,” I said. “You say the word, and I’ll march down
to your office and set them straight.”
It was impossible not to notice how beautifully her breasts shook when she really laughed.
“Don’t you dare even think about it. Never interfere with a woman’s career. It’ll just take
some extra time, and I’ll have to dazzle them with my fabulous eye for detail.”
“Details…like this little freckle?” I asked softly, kissing just in front of her ear.
“And details like saving up for a car so I can do more of the location shoots,” she said.
“They don’t provide you with a car?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No. Fast Clips is a pretty small company. That’s why I’m not going
away for vacation. I should have enough for a car in another three months.”
Pulling out my phone, I made a note in my calendar. “In one month, I’m going to ask you for
every detail of what sort of car you need.”
“Why?”
“I have a guy,” I shrugged. “I’ll talk to him and see if he can get you an incredible deal. If it’s ugly, I’ll just have my uncle paint it for you.”
A strange sputtering sound escaped her open lips. “You’re kidding.”
I shrugged. “Nope.”
The server returned, but I just slid her my credit card, barely looking in her direction.
“Are you a regular here?” Kim asked.
“No, I have a buddy who samples almost every restaurant in town. He’s borderline
obsessed. When I asked him to set me up with a reservation at the most tropical restaurant
in town, I trusted him. I know many people in the restaurant industry to call for
suggestions.”
“Do you have a guy for everything?” she giggled.
“Almost. I’m working on it,” I nodded seriously.
As I led her out of the restaurant, the host tucked a pink flower behind her ear, kissing her
on both cheeks and insisting that she come back soon.
Kim blushed from the attention, but also looked like she actually loved it. If my girl enjoyed
being spoiled, I was going to make sure that happened as often as possible.
CHAPTER FIVE
* Kim *
A girl could get used to being treated like this. Devin was so attentive, so snuggly, and so
completely fixated on me that it was creating a strange glowing warmth in my belly. He
really liked me. He seemed fascinated with my work, and it was adorable how angry he got
when he thought I was being unfairly treated.
To be honest, I really had no idea whether I didn’t get the better assignments due to
seniority, or sexism, but I certainly wasn’t going to rock the boat since I’d only been there
since I got out of school. I’d be able to assess everything a lot better once I had an actual
portfolio, and some more real-world experience.
Devin hailed a cab, and suddenly we were driving southeast. “What’s next?” I asked.
His thick arm wrapped around me, pulling me into his shoulder. “I’m taking my sweet baby
to the beach,” he smiled, his thick, gravelly voice rumbling straight through me.
“I hope you’re kidding,” I laughed.
He sneaked in a few kisses until I was so distracted that I didn’t notice when we pulled up in
front of one of the gorgeous new condo towers that overlooked the lake.
My hand seemed tiny in his as we walked inside. The concierge nodded to him quite
seriously. “Good evening, Mr. Mitchell.”
“Hey, Glen. Is the pool busy tonight?”
He turned to his monitor, flipping through different images quickly. “No, sir. Only four people
are up there now.”
“Thanks.”
Gazing around at the ultra-modern silver and neon sculpture in the lobby, the incredible art
deco chandelier, and the geometric mirror panel wall beside the elevators, I realized this
place was definitely more high class than I was used to.
“Do you live here?” I whispered when we were safely inside the elevator.
“Yes,” he said, tapping a passcode on the panel, then pushing a button. “My condo is on
thirty-nine, but we’re going up to the pool first.”
The second the elevator doors shut, Devin held me against him roughly, claiming my lips
with a heat that was completely unexpected from a man I had only met at lunch.
Yet it felt so right, and I couldn’t deny it. I still hadn’t settled on whether or not I should have a summer fling, or look for a real romance. Devin was already hitting every single button,
making me crave so much more of him.
As much as I had tried to play up some of my awkward dates as amusing to my friends, they had been pretty dreadful. And my incredibly short relationship had been mostly spent
trying to get him off the couch and away from his video games so that we could do
something interesting together.
Even though I hardly knew Devin, he already seemed like he was a perfect match for me.
The way his huge hands clasped my lower back, the way his lips pressed so firmly against
mine, he felt hungry for me. I’d never felt truly wanted before. It was so physical and raw
that I felt my knees becoming soft, sagging against him as the elevator soared upward.
He pulled away just before the doors opened, his saucy wink completely disarming. “I’ll try
to behave, gorgeous, but I can barely control myself around you,” he murmured into my ear.
As Devin led me out to the rooftop terrace, I couldn’t believe how lush and tropical
everything was. “How is this for a vacation spot, baby?” he asked, his arm giving me a
squeeze.
I was becoming more and more aware of how huge and muscular he was under that crisp
suit, and was becoming incredibly curious to see the rest of him.
As he spun me to face him, his eyes landed firmly on my cleavage. “You brought a bathing
suit, right?” I nodded as he kissed across my forehead in a sweeping arch. “Although I
would prefer to watch you swim naked,” he said, letting his hand graze along my hip.
My laughter bubbled out again. I love seeing a tough guy be so silly.
His confidence was arousing me almost more than I could stand. Feeling my thighs press
together as I snuggled against him, I knew that as soon as we were in the pool together, he
would be touching me everywhere. My libido pinged back and forth wildly between being
nervous, and feeling the lust coursing through me.
As his fingers tightened, pressing into my skin, he whispered in my ear, “I know you’re
thinking it. Yes, I’m going to grope every gorgeous inch of you in the water. Let’s get
changed.”
He pulled his swim trunks out of the pocket of his blazer, waving them like a red flag in front
of me. But since they were dark green, I hoped that it wasn’t an actual red flag.
As I dashed to the change room, it was hard to figure out the confusing signals in my guts.
Usually, there was a fairly clear message, and if I really listened, my inner voice would tell
me what to do. Naturally, there wasn’t a perfect accuracy rate, but sometimes it was all I
had to go on.
Today, my only message was that I needed him. It didn’t matter that I barely knew him.
Everything about him seemed incredible, and the way he made me feel about myself was
more than I’d ever hoped for.
There was a small question rolling around in my mind, asking if this was too fast. Although I wasn’t quite sure, would it really hurt to check it out just once?
Slipping my bikini into place and rolling my underwear into my dress so that I could carry
everything, I squared my shoulders and walked back out to the pool. Pretending that I was