I stepped towards Rebecca as she pulled the keys out of her purse, not realizing how close I was to her until her perfume caught my senses. She smelt like a blueberry muffin. I took a deep breath.
“Do you, um need a ride tomorrow?” Oh, God, I hoped she said yes.
“No! I can’t ask you to do that.”
“It’s on my way, actually,” I lied.
“Still, I can’t be more hassle to you.” She smiled. “Anyways, I wouldn’t want Natalie to think I’m trying to steal you from her.” She grinned.
For the first time since meeting her, I looked her up and down carefully. She had dark brown eyes with small flakes of gold; her black hair was set in waves today, and she wore bright red lipstick. I swallowed dryly, staring at her lips and resisted the urge to kiss her.
“You mean you don’t want her to get jealous?” I raised an eyebrow.
“It’s for your safety, not mine.” She grinned. “If she’s like this now, can you begin to think what she will be like if she thinks she does actually have a shot at sleeping with you?”
I managed not to groan thinking about it, but the idea was not fun. She looked away as my eyes trailed down her body.
My uniform looked perfect on her. If I’d actually designed it around anyone, I would have sworn it was her, though maybe I was just being biased as I felt blood flow. Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried not to focus on her. But with my eyes closed, I could think of things so much better-or worse than the way the uniform looked on her.
“Anyways, thank you for the ride. It really would have sucked to have to take the bus.”
I opened my eyes to see she was still standing close to me. Fuck it.
I closed the distance without a word, my lips crashing against hers.
Chapter Three
I stood there as his fingers brushed my cheek gently. His warm, soft lips touched mine.
Arousal pooled in the pit of my stomach. He’s my boss. I thought it. I knew I should pull away, but I didn’t.
I hadn’t been kissed like that in a long time.
I pulled him closer to me, a soft moan escaping as my fingers tangled into his hair. His left hand traced down the curves of my body. I knew I shouldn’t do it, but my teeth grazed his lower lip gently. Dean sighed as his hand touched the top of my butt but didn’t dare move lower. I swallowed back desire, nibbling his lower lip.
He pulled away from me just enough so that he could nip my lip gently. I moaned, my fingers tangling in his hair, pulling gently for a fraction of a second. I have to see him tomorrow. At work. In front of everyone.
I froze.
The second my lips stopped moving, so did Dean’s. He pulled away from me, his eyes locked on mine.
“I …” He trailed off.
I stared at his lips, my lipstick smeared all over him, and swallowed dryly, forcing myself to focus.
“Thank you for the ride,” I repeated myself, dug my spare house key out of my purse and unlocked the door. “I’ll … see you around.”
“Yea, see you around Rebecca.” His voice sounded strained as he turned and headed down the walkway.
I didn’t dare wait around to watch him, not being sure I could manage that. I ran up three flights of stairs as if that would keep my mind off the kiss we’d just shared. It didn’t, of course.
I bit my lip as I came to the landing and decided what door to go for. I didn’t go for my own; I went for my best friend’s.
“Katie,” I called as I knocked once and then opened her door.
She looked up, her thick blonde hair tied in a messy bun and her reading glasses on. “What’s up buttercup?”
I closed the door behind me, stepped into her apartment, kicked off my shoes and walked towards the brown, fluffy couch.
I dropped down onto the couch with wide eyes.
“Oh, no. What happened?”
Katie jumped to her feet and hurried over to the couch. “You only get that look when something really crazy happens.”
“I kissed my boss.”
My hand raised to my lips as I heard the words come out. Oh no, no, no. This was bad. I didn’t kiss my bosses. That was wrong.
I stared at Katie, waiting for her to say something.
“Well … was he a good kisser?”
“What?” I snapped.
“It would be awkward if he wasn’t.”
“Yes, because that is the issue here.” I frowned at my best friend. Why didn’t she see the issue here? If I kissed my boss, he’d think I wanted more, or he’d fire me to avoid having more, or just fire me before it was unprofessional. I groaned, my head hitting the back of the couch. “I’m screwed.”
“Really?” She gave me a grin and wiggled her eyebrows. I glared. “Okay, okay. Just trying to lighten the mood.” She held her hands up in defense. “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”
“Well, Jade wouldn’t start, so I called a tow truck and Dean—”
“Your boss?”
“Yes. My boss, he happened to be around when all this was happening so he offered to give me a ride. He drives a fucking Ferrari by the way, so yea I just came here in a mother fucking Ferrari.”
Katie stared wide-eyed at me. “Damn, I wanna meet this boss of yours.”
“I told you; he’s rich. Like super rich apparently. Anyways, this is off topic.” I shook my head, getting my story back to where it was going in the first place. “He drove me home, and we had a nice little ride where we chatted and all that crap, then we come to a stop here, and he walks me up to the door and … and I’m thanking him for the ride and all of a sudden, bam. He’s got his lips on me.”
“What did you do?”
“I kissed him back.” I felt my cheeks flush. “I know I shouldn’t have; I was so caught up in the moment that I just … I kissed him back and then when I realized what I was doing and how wrong it was I pulled away and …”
“And then what?”
“And then he left. I thanked him for the ride again, and he walked away.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “And now I have to see him again tomorrow. And for the rest of my career at the casino.”
Okay, that was that. I was going to have to quit.
Yup. Only answer. There was no way I was going to be able to deal with this.
It took you three months to find that job; you can’t just give it up.
So that was out. Great.
That meant I was going to have to face Dean tomorrow morning.
“It’s not that bad, at least you two didn’t have sex …” Katie stared at me. “You … you didn’t right?”
“Of course not!” I glared at her. I wasn’t that stupid. Although I would have loved to invite him up to my apartment if I were going to be honest with myself. I sighed. “I’m just not sure how I’m going to face him tomorrow.”
“Like nothing happened.”
“Easier said than done.”
It took Katie thirty seconds to say anything. “I’ve done it with my teachers before.”
I stared at her. “Really?”
“Yup. So don’t feel too bad; we’ve all been there.”
“Thanks.” I pulled my best friend into a hug. I still wasn’t sure how I was going to face Dean tomorrow, but I did know that I was going to have to. I couldn’t leave the job. It was too important, so I’d face him, and I’d pretend it never happened. I’d just pretend that he’d never even given me a ride home. It might not be the healthiest thing to do, but it’s what I was going to do.
***
I slammed the door as I made my way inside. How stupid had I been to do that? Dammit, Dean. She works for you. She probably thought I’d only given her a ride to try and get down her pants. I hadn’t meant to kiss her; I hadn’t intended to.
“Too late,” I muttered. It didn’t matter what I had or hadn’t intended to do, what mattered was what she thought, and right now there was no way she didn’t think I was trying to get down her pants.
I padded to my fridge, pulled out a be
er and made my way into my bedroom. Dropping onto my bed, I pulled the blankets over me and reached for my laptop. I’d have loved to do anything other than work, but the fact was there was still a lot I needed to get done, and it wasn’t going to get done on its own. Still, I couldn’t take my mind off her. Going through my email, all I could think about was her pulling me closer—like she’d actually wanted to kiss me.
I took a long swig of beer. Had she? Had she only pulled away from me because I was her boss, or had there been another reason for it?
Her kiss had felt like she wanted more, much more. But she pulled away, and that’s what confused me. Why would she have pulled away if she’d wanted more from me?
I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts as I focused on getting work done.
***
“Dean wants us all in the lobby for a staff meeting.” Melina gave me a wide smile as she poked her head into the room.
“Alright.” Laying the tray down on the counter, I followed her out of the room to the lobby. It looked like everyone was already gathered around, at least, a lot of people were already there. I swallowed dryly as they all talked to each other, not realizing just how many people were here. A couple people stared at me, and then whispered to a friend or two, but as soon as Dean cleared his throat everyone turned to look at him. Except me.
I couldn’t bring myself to look at the man I’d kissed last night. What had I been thinking? It was stupid to even hug him. It was wrong. I wasn’t going to be that girl.
“Sorry to take you all away from your hard work, but I wanted to get a word with everyone before we opened up. I know we’re still pretty new, but I just wanted to thank everyone for the hard work they’ve been putting forward.” Instead of looking at Dean, I focused on Melina; she was almost at the front of the group, but it almost looked like she separated herself from us as if there was something special about her. “I know the press has already been trying to get in here, but we’re going to hold them off for a couple days until we have our big welcoming event, which will also be our first fight night. I know it’s gotta be kinda scary working for a casino that just popped up, but I want to assure everyone that we’ve got a plan, and that plan has proven itself before. Part of that plan is clear communication with everyone, so if you ever have any questions or concerns, my door is always open.”
Everyone nodded, their eyes all fixed on him. I forced myself to look quickly.
His eye caught mine. Or maybe it didn’t? I wasn’t sure honestly, but it felt like he was staring at me like no one else was around us as he spoke. “I just wanted to let you know you’re doing a great job, and I can’t tell you how much it means to me you’re here helping.” He cleared his throat. “Now, that’s out of the way, I’ll let you all get back to work. Thank you!” He looked away from me as he turned to say something to a man in a suit I’d never seen before.
Everyone started to go off in their own direction. I turned.
“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 sa
id 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?”
The Billionaire's Casino - The Complete Collection: Billionaire Romance Box Set Page 3