His hand slid across my lower back as he guided me onto the stool next to where he’d been sitting, and I wished I was wearing my top from yesterday. Then I would’ve been able to feel his fingertips glide against my bare skin. Just the thought of it was enough to prove I was nowhere near dehydration since my panties grew damp.
The bartender made a beeline towards us. I figured that quick service must’ve been one of the benefits of hanging out with the boss. “Hey, Mark. You want another water or are you going to be daring and go with a Coke tonight?”
“Another water’s fine,” he answered before looking at me. “Do you want the same as last night?”
“Yes, please.”
I was just about to give the bartender my drink order when Mark said, “And the lady will have a vodka soda with a splash of grapefruit juice and lime.”
The bartender’s eyes darted towards me and went wide before he hurried off to make our drinks. I gave Mark a considering look. “He seemed surprised when he realized I was with you.”
“Probably because he was,” he chuckled.
Now that I thought about it, the bartender at Ice had been just as surprised. And considering how employees in clubs tended to gossip worse than high school girls, it made me curious. “Do you usually avoid places where you work when you’re out on dates? It has to be a little awkward with everyone staring at the boss while he’s trying to get his flirt on.”
“It’s been too long since I’ve been out on a date, let alone to anywhere that I’m considered to be the boss, for me to remember how awkward it might be. I’ll have to let you know once the night is over.”
There was an awful lot to tackle there, so I went with the most important part first. “Is this a date, then?”
“Since I’m technically on the clock tonight, I’m not sure that this qualifies as a date.”
I felt my cheeks fill with heat as I wondered if I’d misread his signals and hurried to explain, “I wasn’t sure since it could’ve been that you were just trying to help me pick which of Andrew’s properties was the best fit for me to work at.”
He swept his thumb over my bottom lip to stem my flow of words. “But that’s only because you deserve more than half my attention the first time I take you out on an official date.”
“Oh.”
“Can I count that as a yes?”
The bartender walked up to us, and I waited for him to drop off our drinks before I answered, “I don’t remember hearing an actual question.”
His dark eyes gleamed with approval. “Will you let me take you to dinner tomorrow night, Ariana? As a date, no work involved.”
I took a sip of my drink while I thought about it and decided I needed a little more information before agreeing to a dinner date. “Maybe.”
“How do I turn a maybe into a yes?”
It was the perfect opportunity to be nosy about his comment about his dating life. “You said you haven’t been on any dates in a long time. Why is that?”
“I was in a longish term relationship that ended about six or seven months ago. I haven’t dated since then, and my ex didn’t really approve of my job so I rarely brought her to any of the places Andrew owns.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, worried that he was still in the rebound relationship zone. “How long were you together?”
“About two years.”
Two years was a long time to date the same person. At least to me, since my personal record was about three months. “Are you not over her yet? Is that why you haven’t gone on any dates since you guys broke up?
“This is going to sound horrible, but I think I was over her for quite a while before we broke up. Our relationship had more than its fair share of problems, and it shouldn’t have lasted nearly as long as it did. That’s one-hundred percent my fault because it was easier to stay together since we didn’t see each other that much.” He reached out to take my hand and stroked his thumb against my palm. “When it finally ended, I decided that I wouldn’t waste time dating someone who I couldn’t picture myself with for the long haul. Since I hadn’t met a woman who I thought might fit that criteria until now, I didn’t take anyone out on dates.”
Whoa.
That was a pretty bold statement for a guy who’d only met me last night. It should’ve had me running for the door, even more so considering how we were connected. But it was also one hell of a compliment, especially coming from someone like Mark who could have his pick of just about any woman. Me included apparently, since I found myself saying, “Yes.”
Chapter Six
Mark
Early Sunday morning, Ariana called to let me know that she needed to push back our date until Monday night. I’d been disappointed because it meant there was going to be an extra day until I saw her again. But she’d sounded so dumbfounded that she’d forgotten plans with her sister; I just didn’t have the heart to make her feel worse about it. Not when I was the reason for her distraction in the first place.
I kind of liked knowing that she was excited so much by me asking her out that she’d forgotten about her sister. They were supposed to have dinner and bake a few desserts to help with the pregnancy cravings. It also didn’t hurt that she’d promised me a big slice of cake for being willing to push our dinner back to Monday.
“Why do you have a shit-eating grin on your face?” I looked up and found Andrew standing in my doorway with his shoulder leaned against the frame.
“Homemade chocolate cake.” It was the smallest part of the reason for my smile, but it was a fuck of a lot easier to explain than my date with Ariana. That was a topic I was hoping to avoid as long as possible.
I knew I was going to get a hell of a lot of push back from him about it. Not that it would do any good; I wasn’t going to change my mind about dating Ariana no matter how much hell I caught for it. And Andrew was bound to come around eventually. He was my best friend, after all. He wanted me to be happy.
I just figured that in this instance it might take him a while to come around to my way of thinking since Ariana planned to work for us and she was connected to him by family. And that it would be easier to get him to back off if he found out after Ariana and I had plenty of time to get to know each other first.
Unfortunately for me, my best friend knew me too well and wasn’t satisfied with my answer. His dark eyes narrowed as he cocked his head to the side. “I thought your mom hated chocolate cake so much that she refuses to bake them. Wasn’t the only store bought cake you ever had for your birthday a chocolate one?” He stood up straight and snapped his fingers. “It was when you turned twelve! You were so pissed because it was the first time she hadn’t baked your birthday cake, but then when you were thirteen you asked for an ice cream cake and she went all out with that one. I can practically taste it. It had a white sponge cake with a layer of fudge and crumbled cookies. And the ice cream was chocolate and vanilla swirled together. I was so disappointed when my mom got us an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen the next month because it just wasn’t the same as the one your mom made.”
“And now I want an ice cream cake, thank you very much.”
Andrew wasn’t fobbed off that easily. “But you’re already getting homemade chocolate cake, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Only you seem to be avoiding who exactly is going to be baking you this cake.” He stalked towards my desk and dropped down onto one of the chairs in front of it.
“The cake isn’t being baked for me. I’m only getting a piece of it.”
“Why would someone give you only one piece of cake? Are you banging one of your neighbors or something?”
I rolled my eyes at his ridiculousness. He knew that I was the only single person who owned a condo in my building because my mom had hatched a plan with a couple of the ladies who were close to her age to try and match me up with their daughters. I’d complained about it for weeks while I’d tried to dodge my neighbors left and right. “I’m not banging one of my neighbors, and the cake isn’t c
oming from one of them. Or their daughters.”
“Your choice of words is interesting.”
“How so?”
“You said you’re not banging any of your neighbors or their daughters, instead of just saying that you aren’t banging anyone. So that begs the question…who’re you banging?”
“I’m not banging anyone!”
Yet.
And when we reached that point, I wouldn’t refer to it as banging. Sex with Ariana would mean a hell of a lot more to me than some random fuck.
He crossed his arms over his chest and settled into his chair. “You might as well tell me what’s going on. I’m not going to leave until you do.”
“Fine,” I groaned. “If you must know, I have a date tonight.”
“That’s it? You have a date tonight?”
I nodded.
“With a woman who’s going to bring you a slice of homemade chocolate cake?”
I nodded again.
“Is this a first date?”
Another nod, after a moment of consideration since this was technically our first, real date.
“With a woman you don’t want to tell me about?”
“Yes.”
“Is it because she’s a bitch, like what’s her name was?”
I shook my head. “Not even close. From what I’ve seen so far, she’s pretty amazing.”
“Another interesting choice of words,” he murmured, his eyes turning speculative.
“How so?”
“You picked seen instead of learned, which made me think of something I heard this morning.” He grinned at me, and I braced for whatever was coming next. “About you being seen with a blonde at Ice on Friday night and The Box on Saturday.”
“Shit,” I groaned. “Word has already spread all the way to you about that?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “You know how quick the gossip mill is around here, especially when there’s something juicy to talk about. And what’s juicier than the guy who doesn’t date being spotted two nights in a row with a hot blonde...when he was supposed to be working.”
“About that—”
He waved off my concern. “That doesn’t bother me at all. It’s not like I’m going to be pissed at you for meeting up with someone at our nightclubs when you’re working an insane number of hours to cover me with Jocelyn and Julia. Or even if you weren’t since that’d be pretty damn hypocritical of me. Jocelyn has joined me more times than I could count when we wanted to catch some time together but I needed to keep an eye on things at work.”
“Then what is it that bothers you?”
He leaned forward. “You’re my best friend, but for some strange reason you feel the need to keep the woman you’re taking out on your first date since you and Lisa split up a secret from me.”
Whoa. He was more bothered by the situation than I realized if he slipped and called my ex by her actual name.
Before I could figure out how to smooth things over with him, he continued, “For you to be this tight-lipped with me, I figure the reason’s got to be a good one. Which got me thinking about the two clues I have to her identity—chocolate cake and blond hair. So as I’m talking to you, I’ve been putting two plus two together. And you know what I came up with?”
Shit. I cringed, thinking about how great it was to work with my best friend who’s sharper than most people realized. Quite often, he’s underestimated and it has worked to our advantage. Just not in this particular instance.
“I happen to have met a blonde at dinner last night at my brother’s place. Alessia’s sister, Ariana. The one you bitched and moaned about because I offered her a job. Remember her?”
“You’re too damn smart for my own good,” I grumbled.
He flashed me a knowing look. “When I asked her if she’d given any thought to it, Alec mentioned that she’d planned to stop by Ice and The Box over the weekend since those were the two places that were the most similar to the club she worked at back in Vegas.”
“Of course he did,” I groaned, barely resisting the urge to bang my head against my desk.
“I thought it was a little odd that she blushed about it, but I just chalked it up to her feeling awkward because Alec and Alessia forgot to tell her we were coming to dinner, too. Then when I came into the office today, I started hearing things about you hanging out with a blonde at the exact same clubs she was planning to visit. I figured maybe you’d bumped into each other and you were helping her make her decision. As a matter of fact, I was planning to ask you about it today, but our talk of chocolate cake sidetracked me.” He stood and pressed his palms against the top of my desk. “The cake was what clinched it really. Because interestingly enough, that’s what we had for dessert last night. A moist and delicious, chocolate cake that Ariana had baked for her sister. Except there was a slice set to the side before she served it to us. A nice, big piece she put inside a plastic container so nobody could touch it. Want to hazard a guess who that piece is for?”
Even though we both knew who it was for, I shook my head.
“If I had to hazard a guess, the chocolate cake Ariana is bringing you tonight when you take her out on a date isn’t what put that goofy grin on your face. It’s the woman who baked it. Am I right?” He punched me in the shoulder and sat back down. “Or am I right?”
There was no point in denying it. “You’re right.”
“Which part made you want to keep it from me? That she’s going to be one of our employees? Or that her sister is married to my brother?”
“A little bit of both, I think.”
“The first problem is an easy fix. You know the fraternization rule as well as I do. Better even, since you’re the one who wrote it.” He leaned over and nudged my keyboard in my direction. “Send an email to Human Resources to let them know you’re in a relationship with Ariana, and that’ll be taken care of.”
“Tonight’s only our first date. I’m not sure Ariana would be comfortable with me describing it as a relationship at this point.”
Andrew quirked an eyebrow. “But you’re not balking at the description, so send the damn email and call it whatever you want.”
“But she’s not even working for us yet.”
“Mark.”
It only took him using my name in that particular tone to let me know he was calling me on my bullshit. “Okay, fine. I’ll send the stupid email. But if Ariana gets pissed at me because of it, I’m throwing you under the bus. I’ll tell her you made me do it because you wanted to cover your ass since you own the whole damn company and you’re supposed to worry about shit like that.”
“And on the second issue, I’m not going to give you a hard time.”
I reared back in shock. “You’re not?”
He shook his head and grinned. “Only because I’m not going to need to since I’m sure Alec will have that part covered all on his own as soon as he finds out that you’re dating his sister-in-law.”
“Fuck, I miss the days when your little brother was actually smaller than us and couldn’t do a decent job of trying to kick our asses,” I groaned.
“Me too, man. Me too,” Andrew sighed.
“Alec’s reaction isn’t going to be pretty, is it?”
“I think that depends on how Alessia reacts. Whatever makes her happy, makes my brother happy. If you can figure out a way to get her on board with the idea of you and Ariana being in a relationship, then you won’t just win the battle—you’ll have a damn good chance of winning the war with my brother before it’s even begun.”
Chapter Seven
Ariana
I couldn’t remember ever being quite so nervous about a first date—not even back in high school when I started to notice boys. I’d changed my outfit about a dozen more times than I had on Saturday night...which had already been a lot. I switched my hair out of the low ponytail I’d originally put it in. Then I ran my straightener through it again to make sure it was smooth since I decided to keep it down instead of putting it back up. I ev
en washed my entire face and redid my makeup after I decided that my smoky eyes were way too dark for the top I’d finally settled on.
If Mark hadn’t texted me a couple of minutes ago to let me know he was almost to the hotel to pick me up, I might’ve started the whole process all over again. That’s how nervous I was.
But since I didn’t want to be late, I grabbed my coat and the slice of chocolate cake I’d saved for him and headed down to the lobby. A sleek, grey sports car pulled up to the curb a few seconds before another text came through.
Mark: I'm here.
I hurried out and smiled at the valet, who was holding the passenger door of Mark’s car open for me. I barely got a “thank you” out before he closed it behind me, and I was safely inside the warm car. “Brr, it’s freezing! I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to how cold it is here in the winter.”
Mark’s gaze dropped to my legs, and he shook his head as his eyes filled with masculine appreciation. “As much of a shame as it’d be for you to cover up your legs by wearing pants instead of that skirt, it would help you stay warm.”
Almost all of the outfits I’d considered for tonight included a skirt since it’d been pretty clear over the weekend that Mark was a leg man. The one I’d ended up going with hit just above my knees when I was standing, but it was currently showing a lot more leg because of how low Mark’s vehicle was to the ground. “Your car isn’t any more sensible for the weather than my skirt is.”
“You’ve got it all wrong, gorgeous.” He patted the dashboard before pulling away from the hotel. “She might have five-sixty-five horsepower, a six-speed dual clutch automatic transmission, and a launch control system that feels like a rocket; but she also has four-wheel drive.”
“You refer to your car as a she?”
He winked at me. “How could I not when she’s almost as gorgeous as you?”
“Flattery will get you”—I gently shook the container on my lap—“a piece of chocolate cake.”
Chased into Love (Bachelorette Party Book 4) Page 4