It was time to make it worth all their times.
The stares didn’t lessen as I made my way inside and to the locker room. If anything, they grew and stayed with me as I got to work. Eyes were on me from all different directions. And not only eyes that belonged to the women who worked at Club D.
A low whistle sounded from behind me as I led a group of men to a table in the dining room. “How do they expect us not to fall in love with the staff when they look likethat? Fucking gorgeous.”
It wasn’t unusual to hear little snippets of conversation that were along the same lines—we were forbidden fruit, and not much was off limits to the men who frequented the place, so there was always an element of temptation lingering in the air—but I’d never tested the lines so hard before. It was never my style to see what kind of reactions I could get out of these men.
I’d never wanted to tempt fate.
That night, I was openly daring it.
By the middle of the night, the place was busier than usual. Out of all the men who walked through the door, none of them was Aniello Assanti, though. I couldn’t be obvious—I wanted to tease fate, not get relocated—but it was almost impossible not to watch the door constantly. My heart fell with each new body that came in that wasn’t his.
“Midnight Rose.”
I was standing at the welcome podium, for the first time getting closer to the front doors, looking over the ideas for the summer event, trying to keep my eyes down, and at my name, I looked up.
“A man by the name of Ben Dalton wants to talk to you,” one of the girls said to me. “Said he couldn’t find you. Asked me to.” She gave me the table number and then walked off.
Ben sat at the table with a few men. All politicians.
What the hell did he want? More importantly, what the hell was he doing here? I’d never seen him at Club D before. It was an exclusive club with unique membership requirements, to say the least. Maybe he’d decided to join his father in the government game.
When he looked up and saw me watching him, he stood and made his way over to me. He took me in, from head to toe, and silently whistled.
Close enough, he leaned in to kiss my cheek, but I moved my face.
His eyes narrowed. “I tried to call you a few times.”
“I know,” I said.
“That’s it? You know?”
“That’s it,” I said. “I know. It was really nice seeing you again, Ben, but I have to get back to work.”
Turning, I headed to a different area of the club, but he followed. He even followed me into the kitchen, where men and women moved like finely trained athletes to get food on plates and out to guests.
I stopped close to the back door but decided I didn’t want to be alone with him outside. He pulled me toward a pantry stocked with root vegetables when I stood there, thinking about where I could go that he couldn’t.
We stood across from each other. I covered my breasts with my arms because it was chilly and my nipples were pressing against the fabric, probably making the roses look like they had real buds.
“You were purposely dodging me,” he said.
“I wasn’t purposely dodging,” I said. “I was purposely ignoring.”
“The least you could have done is let me know you got home okay. I tried calling you five times that night.”
An incredulous sound came from my mouth. “Ooh,” I said. “Mr. Smooth wants to know if I got home after he didn’t walk me to my car?”
“I’m sensing some real hostility from you,” he said.
“Smartandsmooth! What a charmer!” I said, letting the sarcasm flow. In all honesty, not walking me to my car was a boy move on his part, but I honestly didn’t care about Ben Dalton.
His brother was part of my past. I gave him the ring back. We had a decent day together. That was it. He didn’t make me feel anything one way or another. I’d been curious about him because I needed answers.
“I called to make sure you were okay, and this is how you react?”
“Maybe you should have thought about that before I had to walk to my car alone, in the darkness. A bunch of guys followed me. If it wasn’t for a couple of men who stopped them from getting to me, I probably wouldn’t be standing here.”
