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“I was in the mood for a cookie, so I snuck into the kitchen and grabbed one.”
“You don’t eat cookies.”
She shrugged. “I do when I can’t sleep. Gustavo is snoring like an animal, so now I don’t know what to do.”
“We have guest rooms…”
“Yeah, but I hate sleeping alone.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “You aren’t sleeping with me.”
She rolled her eyes. “You wish, darling.”
“No, I don’t. I don’t want that green shit on my pillow.”
“You’re going to need to start doing this soon if you want to look young forever.”
“I’m not even in my mid-twenties. I have some time.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, her chin held high. “I started when I was twenty-one—so you’re late.”
I dismissed this conversation by turning around and walking to my room. “Goodnight, Ma.”
“Goodnight, honey.” Her voice followed me down the hallway. “Who’s this man who is robbing you of all your sleep?”
I stopped in my tracks, not surprised she’d picked at the elephant in the room. I slowly turned back to her. “No one worth mentioning.”
“He must be good. You spend a lot of time with him.”
He was damn good—but I wouldn’t say that to my mother. “Goodnight.” I continued walking to my room.
“Enjoy it while you can, honey. Because one day you’ll blink…and all the good times of your life will be behind you.”
Hades and I were just having meaningless sex in a hotel room, so I could go out with whomever I wanted. But I didn’t go on any dates or give any guy a chance. All I wanted was good sex that wasn’t complicated, and since I had it, I didn’t see the point in pursuing something else.
I wasn’t looking for Mr. Right, so why bother?
There was no such thing as Mr. Right anyway.
I worked throughout the week, helping Gustavo run the company while dealing with the police that had come to investigate a suicide that had happened at our hotel. Apparently, some man jumped off his balcony and broke his skull when he hit the concrete. There was a brief suicide note. Seemed like he had money troubles. We managed to keep it quiet so it wouldn’t stain the impeccable reputation of the Tuscan Rose.
I worked morning and nights, constantly on my feet and in heels all day. It took so much work to break through Gustavo’s armor because he was only willing to give me a few responsibilities. I didn’t touch the money, and he pulled me off bookkeeping…probably because I was asking too many questions.
Whenever I saw members of the board, they treated me with the same indifference. As if I were still the little girl I was when my father was alive, they treated me like someone who wasn’t even old enough to drive. The only task I was qualified for was fetching coffee.
It was bullshit.
It would take time to sway their opinion, to earn their respect, and I was willing to wait as long as I had to for that to happen. This was my family’s legacy, my father’s lifetime achievement. It shouldn’t belong to a group of old men who didn’t care about anything besides money. It should belong to someone who cared about having fresh flowers in the lobby constantly, putting special treats in the rooms when guests were celebrating something special, accommodating couples for a table at the restaurant even when it was booked solid. That’s what made this hotel great. It seemed like everyone in the back office lost sight of that, Gustavo included.
Gustavo had been coughing all day, making booming noises that announced all the shit caught in his throat. He sounded sicker than a dog, so sick that he should have been in bed days ago. But he was a workaholic and refused to leave, even if that meant making the rest of us sick.
Thankfully, I had a badass immune system.
Gustavo knocked on my door then quickly coughed into his elbow. His throat sounded so hoarse it seemed like he’d swallowed sandpaper. “I’m going to go home and rest.”
About time. “Good. Drink lots of fluids.”
“I have a meeting with Mr. Lombardi in a few minutes. I tried to cancel, but he’s already at the hotel.”
“I could handle it for you.”
“I was actually going to ask if you could reschedule it.”
I was not that incompetent. “Sure.”
“I’ll see you in a few days.” He coughed again then walked out, wrapping his coat around him.
Fall was deepening, slowly beginning to resemble winter as months passed. The streets were becoming icy at night, and I’d started to bring a jacket to work to protect me from the cold as I walked home.
The thought of seeing Hades sent a short thrill down my spine, but that didn’t last long. He wasn’t coming here as my lover, as the man who gave me the best sex I’d ever had. He was just a business associate, someone who wasn’t important. I controlled my reaction within seconds and reminded myself I wasn’t about to get laid.
