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As promised, the doorman is waiting for me in the lobby of the building. I’m later than I’m supposed to be. Lacey and Evan invited me for a drink in the Sky Bar and I didn’t want to turn them down on my first day on the job. Now, glancing at my phone, it’s just after six.
“Miss Rose,” the doorman greets me, opening the door for me. “Your car is waiting for you right outside. It’s the black one with tinted windows.”
Of course it is. “Thank you.”
The driver sees me coming and opens the rear passenger door for me. “A bottle of champagne on ice is chilling for you, Miss Rose.”
“Oh.”
“The drive will take around twenty minutes in this traffic.”
I slide into the back seat, and the driver closes it behind me, sealing me into the luxurious interior. It’s obviously a wildly expensive car, but also understated. It’s the kind of car a super-rich person who wants to remain inconspicuous would drive. I feel like a superstar, but one who’s committing some kind of heist.
We pull into the rush hour traffic.
I shouldn’t have any champagne, of course. I’ve already had a glass of wine with Lacey and Evan. But my nerves are on overdrive. Plus, how often do I get to ride in the back of an incognito limo with a bottle of bubbles on ice? YOLO and all that. So I pour myself a glass, sipping as I watch the fashionable people walking along Fifth Avenue.
This is it, the life I’ve always dreamed of.
Except for the part where I now have to resist my hot billionaire boss, because the last thing I want to do is sabotage my entire career by sleeping with him—again.
I’m determined to have iron-strong self-restraint this time. So I steel myself for what’s coming and fortify my courage with another sip of Moët.
Exactly twenty minutes later, the car pulls up to the curb and the driver gets out to open the door for me.
No sooner have I thanked him when another doorman opens another door. “Miss Rose. Please take the elevator up to the top floor. Mr. Maddox is expecting you.”
I’m still getting my bearings in New York, but I’m pretty sure we’re on Madison Avenue, somewhere around 57th Street. If this is the back entrance then his apartment must be on Park Avenue.
It’s not just the silent speed of the elevator that makes my stomach do a funny little swoop. It’s the thought of seeing him again. Being alone with him. And I shouldn’t have finished that second glass of champagne. I need every single inhibition I possess to resist him. I’ll definitely make a point of drinking water from here on in.
As I step out of the elevator into the spacious penthouse lobby—which only has one door leading off of it—it dawns on me just how rich my new boss is, and how different our lives really are.
The foyer to the penthouse is outrageously swanky, with huge windows, black marble walls and a marble table with a vase that looks like it could be Ming Dynasty or something equally ridiculous.
The door of the apartment opens. Ace is standing there. He leans one burly shoulder against the doorjamb.
I know right then that I am in deep, deep trouble.
“Hey, Tex,” he drawls.
“Hey, Ace.”
He’s wearing a pair of worn jeans that hang low on his hips and fit his big, lean body like he just stepped off the set of Yellowstone. Which he shouldn’t. It’s unfair for him to be this gorgeous and this…hot. And when I say hot I mean scorching. His masculine beauty hits you like a freight train.
His white cotton button-down shirt is open to the middle of his chest. I’ve never seen Ace dressed this casually before, probably because I’ve only met him twice, both in semi-business settings. I try not to think about how, both times, I was having sex with him practically within the hour.
No wonder.
That is not, however, going to be happening tonight.
Yeah right. Would you look at this guy? He’s a freaking god.
Not happening.
I am a very restrained and highly professional woman, taking New York by storm. I’ve worked my ass off to get here and I’m determined, no matter what curveballs life throws at me, to keep my dream job. Even if it means resisting this dream man. I’m not naïve enough to think I can have both. Life has proven to me that things never work out like you hope they will.
Except for meeting Ace at the beach bar, just like Earl and Lucas and the whole Karma thing seemed to promise.
