The night flew by, and when I dropped her home, I didn’t want her to go.
She wouldn’t even kiss me.
“I’m not falling for you,” she whispered, her eyes darting down to my mouth as I stared at her.
“Really?” I smirked, lifting her hand to my mouth. “I won’t give up.”
Danni flushed, and I pulled her into my arms, burying my head in her neck.
“You smell so fucking good.”
“It’s just perfume,” she stammered out, her fingers lost in my hair.
But it wasn’t.
It was the scent of the year that followed.
It was Danielle Vee.
PRESENT TIME:
The same Danielle Vee that’s now sitting across from my father, her hands clasped across her lap. Her hair is platinum-blonde now, and her electric green eyes barely skim over me when I step through the door.
“Blake,” Dad huffs, waving at me impatiently. “Meet Danielle. She’s our new Retail Oversight Manager.”
Well, fuck me.
I nod at Danielle, who pretends she hasn’t noticed me at all.
“So, I think that if we drive the internet customers through the retail doors, we have many more opportunities to cross sell. Car hire, excursions, insurance…not to mention foreign exchange.”
Oh, fuck.
Her voice still sounds like it did five years ago, and I can’t stop remembering how my name sounds in her mouth.
Dad is hanging on her every word, sifting through the papers in his hands.
Danielle is dressed to kill, and I’m trying hard not to stare—but Jesus.
She’s in tight grey pants, a skintight white shirt that hugs her curves, and stilettos that scream sex. Her suit jacket lounges on the chair behind her.
“It’s great.” Dad grins, handing the paperwork to me. “See for yourself, Blake. I think Danielle here is really on to something.”
I sift through the neatly printed papers, the carefully drawn diagrams and relevant research.
Her scrawls on the page show her passion, but I hand them back to my dad with a dismissive shrug.
“Great. What time is our meeting?”
Dad stares at me with confusion, his eyes flickering back to Danielle apologetically. “Danielle, would you excuse us?”
Danielle nods, gathering the paperwork from my dad without looking at me.
“Of course, Alec.” Danielle turns in my direction, and it’s like someone has slammed their fist into my throat.
She’s every inch as beautiful as she was before, but the scared little girl seems to have grown up. She’s a woman now, in all sense of the word, but something else unnerves me.
It’s the steely look in her eye, the way she looks right through me like I don’t exist.
