“What brings you out tonight then?”
The server comes back with the ice bucket and some glasses before she can answer. I pour her a double shot without asking. She takes a sip, quickly followed by a few bigger mouthfuls. That’s going to hurt in the morning.
“I was supposed to meet someone. Said he works at the bar, but I couldn’t find him,” she says, shrugging her shoulders while she takes another sip. “His loss.”
Not really. One fake man’s loss is another real man’s gain.
“I know everyone who works here. What’s his name?”
“Justin?”
I let out a chuckle and shake my head. “No one who works here goes by the name of Justin, princess. Looks like you’re going home alone tonight.”
I lean back in my chair and rest my chin in my hand while I wait to see if she catches on to the meaning behind my statement.
Looks like she’s going home alone tonight, but she doesn’t have to.
We both stare at each other for a long minute, and I take the opportunity to study her. It’s a face I’ll be seeing a lot of, so I might as well get to know it.
I can’t decide if she’s ridiculously stunning or… not.
She looks like a model, but not the absurdly symmetrical Victoria Secret kind. She’s too unique for that. No, the real models. Those ones you see in magazines who are so damn beautiful they almost look like ugly aliens. That makes no sense, but neither does half the shit that runs through my head on a daily basis.
Her eyebrows are thick and heavy, and maybe that’s deliberate or she’s too lazy to pluck them. Who knows, but they suit her heart-shaped face and her big pouty lips.
She’s arching one of them up at me right now.
I burst out laughing. “Too soon?”
She smirks and shrugs her shoulders. “Ask me again in an hour.”
I shake my head, and her silver eyes practically sparkle. “Why drag out the inevitable? We both know how this ends.”
Putting her drink down on the table, she crosses her legs. Her tight sequined skirt rides high up her thigh, baring even more of her smooth, strong leg. “Yeah? And how’s that?”
“Come here and I’ll whisper it in your ear.” I nod my head down toward my spread legs, and she lets out a huff of a laugh, as if she can’t believe she’s entertaining the notion.
But after a beat, she does it anyway, crossing the space between us like a reluctant little pixie.
She perches her small frame on my knee and I feel a bit like Father Christmas, except instead of bringing presents I’m about to steal them.
A big ol’ Grinch bastard.
I curve my hand around her tiny waist and pull her in closer to me. She shivers as my breath hits her exposed neck, and lets out the smallest of sighs.
I don’t actually hate this.
If she wasn’t who she was, I’d never have approached her. I wouldn’t be sitting here right now with her on my lap, barely keeping a hard-on under control like I’m one of the pretty-boy-posse.
And yet here we are.
My hand slides around her neck for the second—third?—time tonight and I feel her pulse under my fingers. I hold her there for a minute, not hard enough to hurt her, but firm enough to show her that I could if I wanted to. “Have you ever been with a man before?”
“Hell, you don’t waste any time, do you?” she says. She shifts as if she wants to get up, but I tighten my grip to keep her seated.
Her eyes widen, but she still doesn’t look me in the eyes.
“I asked you a question.”
I give her enough slack to shake or nod her head, and she nods it.
Interesting.
“Good,” I tell her. “I don’t have the patience for virgins.”
I feel her fingers grip onto my thigh. “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
“That one’s better shown than explained.”
She opens her mouth, perhaps to protest, but closes it again when I dig my fingers into her slim neck.
“I’m going to break you apart, again and again. And then I’m going to try to fit the pieces of you back together exactly as I want them.”
This time, I give her enough slack to turn her head. She does.
She looks right into my eyes, and even I stop breathing for a second.
None of what I said was a lie, but she probably just thinks it was some peculiar brand of dirty talk. No doubt new and exciting for her.
If only she knew the truth.
The muscles in her throat contract as she swallows, and her tongue peeks out between her lips.
“Boss?”
No fucking way. She was about to say yes, I could practically smell it.
I turn my head around to see Derek standing just behind the cordon. Now, I like Derek, but the man has an uncanny knack for interruption and this time he takes the gold medal.
“I’m busy.”
I turn my attention back to Meisie, who’s now busy looking at Derek. Brilliant.
Does she want to go home with him instead?
“Boss I rea—”
I cut him off before he can finish. “Come here.”
He unclips the red velvet rope and comes to stand just before our table. “Look at her,” I tell him.
Derek looks everywhere but her, and then finally rests his eyes on the little thing sitting on my lap. “Do you see her? Fucking look at her. Unless the building just spontaneously caught fire then there is nothing more important than the conversation I’m currently engaged in.”
He stays silent for a moment, unsure of what to say.
Of course he is.
Derek probably knows me better than my own useless brother, and I’m positive he can tell this bit of bravado is purely for Meisie’s benefit. If she falls for it then I’m laughing all the way to the bedroom. Girl’s like to think they’re special.
He clears his throat. “It’s important.”
“Take it to Cole.”
He shifts, and I instinctively brace myself for the worst. “He’s gone and locked himself in the office toilet. I could hear him, but he didn’t want to hear me.”
Idiot.
Cole, that is. Not Derek.
“Do you need to go?” Meisie asks.
“I don’t need to go,” I tell her. Turning back to Derek, I ask him what’s going on.
He looks at Meisie, as if not wanting to talk business in front of her. Normally, that’s a rule I live and die by, but I don’t suppose it particularly matters tonight. She’s not going to remember this in the morning.
“It’s fine, this one’s a keeper. Spit it out.”
“Shipment got busted. I sent Paul over to redirect the second one, it should be alright but I thought you should know.”
I nod my head. “No worries. Keep me informed. And keep your phone switched on.”
Derek removes himself from the situation and I feel Meisie’s eyes bore into my skull.
“Are you…?” She trails off, as if not wanting to say the word.
A gangster? A criminal? A dealer?
I smile at her. “I’m a businessman.”
She smiles into her drink. “Is that what they’re calling it these days?”
“Not really.”
“I bet you do this kind of thing all the time.” She says it like a statement but I know she means it as a question.