“But you don’t know what I’m making.”
He chuckled like I’d told some kind of joke.
“Trust me, I can afford it.” He glanced at Mel and gave her another wink like she was in on some kind of inside joke that I’d yet to be clued in on. “It’s also my understanding that your father is in poor health. Miracles aren’t really my line of work, Kitten, but you intrigue me. I can help.”
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a paper contract. “All you have to do is sign this.”
Chapter Four
Jess
Ieyed the contract like he’d pulled a poisonous snake from his jacket instead of a piece of paper. How had he justhadthat?
There was no flaming parchment, no floating pen or deep, villainous laugh, but I still had the same uneasy sensation I imagined I’d have if all those things had actually happened.
All intrigue and mild excitement fizzled away that instant, replaced with molten fury. How the Hell did he know about my dad and his cancer? And what kind of prick would dare dangle his health over my head as some kind of employment incentive?
I turned on Melanie, flinging her a withering glare. “You told him about my dad? Melanie! What the fuck? That’s private.”
“I didn’t tell him. I swear!”
My throat burned with anger, fists clenching at my sides. Now Mel was lying to me? Tonight, I hardly recognized my friend. She wasn’t acting like herself. When she’d ordered me to stay at our table, she’d clearly told Lucifer my name and told him about my dad. It’s not like the guy could read minds.
“Then how does he know about my dad’s cancer?”
“Because he’s the devil, Jessica!”
I rolled my eyes with a scoff. “He’s not the devil. You need to go home, Mel. Get some sleep. You’ve been through too much tonight, and you’re starting to irritate me. And I don’t want to fight on your birthday.”
“But Jessica—”
“Go home!” I was almost yelling now. Angry tears stung my eyes and rolled down my cheeks. That was private information, and she had no right to tell a stranger. My dad’s fragile health condition was the only thing that made me feel weak and powerless, and fuck did I hate that feeling. Friday nights were supposed to be the night I could forget about that.
“Fine.” Her voice wavered, and her throat twitched with a big gulp. Her gaze narrowed on Lucifer, then dropped to the contract he held. “Just don’t sign anything, Jess. Please?”
Then she turned and left without a word more.
I pivoted to flip my glare on Lucifer, arms crossed over my chest. “You have some nerve, you know that? If you want me to come work for you so bad, how about you offer a normal incentive like a cash bonus, health insurance, a 401K…? I don’t know, this is a strip club, free lap dances?”
Despite my anger, he laughed and took another drink of the cosmopolitan I’d made him. “But you don’t want any of those things.”
“How could you possibly know what I want?”
He cocked his head slightly to the side, black tresses falling over his golden eyes.Ugh. He was so infuriatingly beautiful. And he knew it, the smug asshole. “I have a talent for knowing things, Jessica.”
When he’d first offered the job, I had been interested. My job was exhausting, mentally and physically, and I wouldn’t be able to handle it forever, not with everything going on in my personal life. Working in a place like this had its appeal. While it wasn’t as safe or as respectable as the hospital, I didn’t care about that. It was interesting. And having the billionaire playboy Lucifer Morningstar for a boss would make for an exciting work life.
But I had no interest in working for a prick who’d dangle my dad’s health in front of me like a carrot on a stick.
“If you know everything, then you already know my answer.” I flipped him off, ready to storm away and out of Siren’s forever. But as I turned to move, he caught my wrist. His touch burned me up. How could such a possessive move make me want to stop and listen to him when really I should have brought down the same sort of wrath I treated the old perverts in the hospital with who thought it was okay to grope their nurse? I didn’t pull my punches for anyone who made me feel like an object. Maybe it was the way he was looking at me, with a sort of reverence in his gaze and the desperation in his touch to keep me close.
“That’s not what you were thinking, Jessica,” he said through a soft as silk murmur. “You’re intrigued,extremely. Angry, but I think that emotion will be short-lived once you believe that I do, in fact, have the power to help your father. And that I have every intention of doing so if you sign this piece of paper.” He waved the contract, a diabolical smile sitting pretty on his lips.
I hated how he seemed to read me like a book because, damn it, Iwasintrigued. “He’s received the best care in the country at the Cancer Care Alliance Center. If they can’t help him, then you can’t.”
The smile slipped from Lucifer’s face, and his expression hardened. “I’m a resourceful man, Ms. Sims. I wouldn’t offer anything to you unless I was capable of delivering it.”
How did he know my last name? There was no way Melanie had told him…
