Page 54 of Wicked Takeover
She tapped his arm. “Answer me.”
He looked at her dumbly. “Huh?”
“What did you make for tonight?”
“Make?”
She suppressed a snicker, liking how her boobs reduced him to monosyllables. “As in food. For tonight.” She gestured to the basket.
He laughed. “Nothing. I’m saving my strength for other stuff. Now scoot.” He swatted her ass playfully and strode into his station.
Lauren rubbed her smacked butt, wanting more discipline from him. “Scoot?”
“No more questions.” He tossed his wallet in the drawer, followed by his keys.
She figured one opened the parlor. Another surely was to his place. The next had to be for his truck. It looked like that type of key. “Is that your pickup outside? You drove it today to bring us to the next level? Wherever that may be.” She flashed a smile. “If you didn’t make anything for us to eat, what’s in the basket?”
She guessed condoms, sex toys, ropes, cuffs, a blindfold… Curious and thrilled, she slipped her thumb beneath a flap to open it.
Dante pushed her hand away and put the basket in a top cabinet. Too high for her to reach unless she stood on a chair. “Go. Not another question, or there won’t be any fun tonight.”
Lauren opened her mouth to argue, then promptly shut it without saying a word.
The day dragged endlessly for Lauren.
Dante avoided her and pretended not to notice how she repeatedly strolled by his workstation. When he didn’t have customers, he closed his door. Something he never did.
Jasmina noticed. She cornered Lauren in the hall and pulled her to the front, which was currently empty. “What’s wrong with Dante?” She spoke softly. “Did he take you to dinner like I suggested? Didn’t you guys have a good time? Didn’t you let him kiss you good night? Is that why his door’s closed? You rejected him?”
Jasmina’s rapid-fire questions gave Lauren a clue how Dante felt about hers. “We had a nice time.”
Jasmina brightened. “Then you did go out. I knew it. Did he kiss you?”
In places she would have never guessed. “Ah no.” Despite the fun Lauren and Dante were having, she reminded herself it was only temporary. She didn’t want Jasmina’s hope for a grand romance to cloud her own good sense. Nor did she want to long for something that could never be. Before Lauren plunged into melancholy, she shoved her feelings aside and got real. “We’re just coworkers.”
Jasmina’s happiness collapsed. “You could be lovers. I see it every time you look at each other.”
Lauren wanted to hear more but told herself that was nuts. Jasmina was young and impressionable. Life hadn’t steamrolled her yet. Hell, she was the type who’d fight back, pulverizing anything in her way while smiling sweetly. “He’ll never want for women. Just look at him.”
Jasmina crossed her arms. “You’re too caught up in looks. Dante’s more than that.”
She was preaching to the choir. He was attentive, fun, generous, fair, and kind. What planet had he come from? Guys were supposed to be feckless like Frank, abandoning their loved ones at will.
Trouble was Lauren would never be Dante’s loved one.
They had grown a friendship. That meant they had a good time without the other junk screwing things up. Once real passion entered the equation, all bets were off for a happily ever after. “He’s wonderful, as a friend. Only a friend.”
Jasmina’s mouth turned down.
Despair also gripped Lauren, leaving her bereft, but she couldn’t deny facts. What she and Dante had was momentary fun, nothing more.
Rather than dwell on the sorry truth, she buried herself in the endless job search and her quest to sell this place. More loons had answered her ads about the parlor. She deleted their emails, rewrote the notices with the caveat that she’d only consider serious offers, and put them on the sites. To her surprise, a place where she’d applied for an HR job had sent a personality test and requested detailed information on her responsibilities at her last employer.
She gripped her chair and reread the email once more, just to make certain she got it right the first time. Oh my God, she had. Her pulse pounded so hard, she went briefly dizzy but shook it off so she could get to work. She studied her files on how to ace personality tests. After that, she scoured the ones she’d administered to applicants during her career. She practiced for hours, wanting to come off as extremely competent but not a threat to a higher up. Easy to work with but firm in administering company policy. Knowledgeable yet eager to learn. Able to hit the ground running no matter what anyone asked for, especially if it was impossible. In other words, perfect.
She sweated every detail before taking the actual test. To her surprise and relief, neither Jasmina nor Dante interrupted her for lunch or anything else. She figured Jasmina had moved on from the Lauren-and-Dante love affair to her own. Dante most likely had made himself scarce because he didn’t want to dodge her endless questions about their coming sexfest. She giggled and stopped.
Should she tell him about the personality test and request for more info? Since it wasn’t a job offer, she wouldn’t. Already her excitement had tempered to cautious optimism. In a few more hours, she’d probably be convinced this would lead nowhere, just as her few interviews had.
