“How did your lunch go?”
Penny hobbled into my office and kicked off my shoes. “I don’t know how you wear these all day long. My feet feel like they went through a meat grinder.”
I chuckled. “They take some getting used to. Try wedges, they have more support.”
She fell into a chair and began rubbing her aching toes. “I’ll stick with my flats.”
“We’ll work on it. Shoes aside, how was your lunch? You were gone for a while.”
“Would it be crazy if I said I was in love with the man?” she asked with a dreamy look in her eyes.
“That was quick.”
“I’m easy. What can I say?”
My eyebrows shot up to my hairline.
“Not that kind of easy, you perve,” she said, picking up a pad of sticky notes from my desk and tossing them at me. “I mean I fall in love easily. It’s a curse. I have the uncanny ability to fall in love with men who are completely out of my league.”
“Who says he’s out of your league?”
“You’ve seen him. He looks like a GQ model, and I look like this.” She waved her hand up and down her body. “I’m living in a fantasy world.”
“You’re too hard on yourself,” I insisted. “He could have come to the office and handed you a list of names instead of taking you to lunch. I think that shows promise.”
“Well…” she said, reaching into her purse. “He did give me this.” Penny held up a blue-and-green plastic ball.
“What is it?”
She shook the ball and a bell jingled inside. “It’s for Fred, so he doesn’t get upset when I’m gone.”
I giggled. “That’s totally sweet. See. He was thinking about your pussy.”
Penny gasped. “I can’t believe you just said that!”
“I call it the way it is.”
She sat there stone-faced, then burst out laughing. “Oh, my god! You’re so bad.” Her laughter was contagious and soon both of us were in hysterics.
A sharp knock on the partially opened door pulled my attention. “Am I interrupting?”
My hand flew up in front of my mouth. “What happened to your face?” The entire left side of Hunter’s face was bruised purple and black. His eye and nose were swollen. His lip split, red and angry.
He gently touched the skin around his nose. “It looks worse than it feels. You should see the other guy.”
I’d already seen the other guy. Trent’s words echoed in my head. Don’t worry about Hunter. I’ve taken care of it. The realization felt like liquid heat filling my chest and flowing to my extremities. No one had ever defended my honor before.
I cleared my throat. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay.” It was a lie. He deserved everything Trent rained down on him. “Is there something you need?”
“Two things actually.” Hunter gave Penny a long, hard stare. “Do you mind?”
“Oh, right!” Penny gathered her purse, slipped her flats on, and scurried out the door.
“Was that really necessary?” I asked, annoyed he thought he had the authority to boss around my assistant. He probably did, but that was beside the point.
“I wanted to speak with you alone.” He stepped inside my office and shut the door behind him. “First, I wanted to know if you needed any help with financials for the fundraiser. I can be a very valuable resource.” He sauntered forward and sat on the edge of my desk like he owned the place. “Teach you all the ins and outs.”
Ooooh gross! His pickup lines needed serious help. Obviously, Trent hadn’t punched him hard enough. I faked a smile. “That’s nice of you, but Trent already has everything in the works. You could ask him if he’d like help.” I wanted as far out of the equation as possible.
“I’ll do that.” Hunter picked up a pen from my desk and started to twirl it like I’d seen Trent do on more than one occasion. His eyes bore into me like he could see beneath my clothes.
I tugged at the top of my blouse, closing the open gap. The way he stared at me made my skin prickle, and not in a good way. “Was there something else?”
“Huh?”
I stood from behind my desk, not comfortable with his height advantage. “You said there were two things.”
“Right.” He set the pen down. “I thought we could get a drink after work. Make up for the breakfast we missed.”
The guy was killing me. “That’s a nice offer, but I’ve got a ton of work to catch up on.” I lifted the stack from the corner of my desk and let it drop with a thud. “Besides, I don’t mix business with pleasure. It’s probably not a good idea.”
His jaw clenched. “It’s only a drink, Gia.”
This level of persistence unnerved me. Why couldn’t he take no for an answer? “I realize that, but we wouldn’t want people talking, would we? Especially after the Suzette scandal.” Every reason I gave him, I should have been giving Trent. Hunter wasn’t the real problem. I felt no urge to break company rules with him. No urge to jeopardize my career because of him. No urge to go down a rabbit hole I might not come out of.
“I’m not my brother,” he snapped as he zoned in on my boobs.
I crossed my arms to give myself another layer of protection against his roving eyes. “I’m well aware of that.”
It was a standoff, neither of us budging.
“What’s going on here?” Trent’s voice cut through the tension like a sharp knife.
I was so focused on his brother I hadn’t even heard the door open. My shoulders sagged in relief. His timing couldn’t have been more perfect. “I was just telling Hunter we have all the financials for the fundraiser covered.”
“Is that right?” Trent questioned his brother.
Hunter smiled, the movement splitting his lip open. He wiped the drop of blood with his finger and licked it off. “That’s right. I thought you might need a little intervention.”
Trent stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Like Miss Romano said, it’s all under control. I’ll let you know if I need an intervention. I think sometimes you forget I have more seniority and experience than you.”
Hunter chuckled an unamused laugh. “And I think you forget what’s on the line. I’m already picking out new furniture.”
“Don’t fucking hold your breath.” The two glared daggers at each other as I watched silently. There was a fuckton of animosity between the two. “Nice face, by the way,” Trent said calmly.
“It was a cheap shot. It won’t happen again.” Hunter pushed off the desk and knocked Trent’s shoulder with his on the way to the door. Then he stopped and shot his finger at me. “Let me know if you change your mind about that drink. All work and no play makes Gia a dull girl.” The fucker had the audacity to wink at me on his way out.
I stomped past Trent in my bare feet and slammed the door shut. “At first, I felt bad when I saw his face, but you should have hit him harder. The guy doesn’t know how to take no for an answer.”
“Easy, killer. I’ll handle him.”
My hands flew in the air. “What are you going to do? Punch him in the face again? I’m sure your father would be thrilled. It’s going to get me fired.”
He took my hands and held them in his, gently running his thumbs across my knuckles. Lowering down, he looked into my eyes. “You’re not getting fired.”
That made me feel a little better, but then I remembered something else Hunter had said. “What did he mean about picking out new furniture? Are you getting fired?”
“No one’s getting fired, Gia.”
I wanted to believe him, but this whole situation had me wound up. “I don’t think we should be seen together. No tour of Vegas. No kind of dates. No working in your office alone. No nothing.”
“You’re overreacting. I told you I’d handle it. We haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Yet.”
Trent smirked at me. “Are you saying you’d like to do something wrong? That could be arranged.”
I pulled my hands away from his and went back to my desk. Slipping back into my shoes, I put my professional face back on. “I don’t want to do anything that might jeopardize my place here. Sleeping with you would do that.”
He pushed his hands back in his pockets. “I don’t recall saying anything about sleeping together. I offered to show you Vegas. I distinctly remember saying it was purely platonic.”
My lips pursed. Maybe I read the signs wrong. There was no denying the chemistry between us, but Trent didn’t want to lose his job any more than I did.
“It’s two people exploring the city together. Nothing else,” he repeated.
I mulled over his words. I really did want to get out and explore all the sights I could see from my hotel room window. Vegas was like nothing I’d ever seen before, and I’d only experienced a teeny part of it. Who better to show me around than someone who’d lived here his whole life? I sighed. “I’d like that. But…” I stepped to my computer and pulled up my schedule for the week. With the fundraiser, I hadn’t been giving the other aspects of my job enough attention. “There’s a show on Friday night and one on Saturday too. I need to be there to make sure everything runs smoothly.” I looked at the name of the band. “I’ve never heard of them before. Social Proof?” I clicked around some more. “They’re out of Seattle.”
Trent came around the side of my desk and peered over my shoulder. “They’ve been here before. You don’t have to be there.”
“Huh?” I was totally distracted by the scent of his cologne. It took me back to the night we met in the bar. A night I hadn’t been able to push from my mind, even if I knew I should.
He ran a hand over his face and through his closely-cropped beard. “My mother was right. I threw you right into the fire without proper training. Have a seat.” He picked up my phone and barked at Tom, “Bring me the staffing for the event team. I’m in Miss Romano’s office.”
I sat in my plush chair, not because Trent told me to, but because suddenly I felt overwhelmed. “I don’t understand. At the Onyx I was in charge of everything. Every detail depended on me.”
“This isn’t the Onyx.”
Tom gave a quick knock and hurried in with a single sheet of paper. “Here you go, Mr. Dorsey.”
Trent took it from him. “Thank you, Tom.” He laid the paper on my desk. “This is the event team.”
I hunched over my desk and inspected a list of twenty names and positions. “All these people work for you?” I couldn’t believe Penny hadn’t mentioned this before. Seemed like a detail I should have known about.
“Technically, they work for you. Everyone that performs here comes with their own crew, but these are our people that pull it all together. From lighting and sound specialists to security. Before every event they’re already prepped with all the details. There’s nothing for you to do but schedule the entertainment and get the contracts signed. Penny handles the rest.”
My hand ran over the list. “But I don’t even know these people. Don’t you think I should make an appearance?”
“It’s unnecessary, but you can if it makes you feel better.”
“It totally would.”
“Then I’ll come to the show with you.”
“You don’t have to do that,” I insisted. I didn’t want him to think I couldn’t handle the pressure.
“I should. As a matter of fact, I should have better acquainted you with the job instead of riding you so hard.”
My head snapped up.
He held a hand out in front of him. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Uh-huh. Sure you didn’t.”
Seemed like he couldn’t get our night together out of his head either.
