AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Or was that her spine tingling?
She groaned aloud.
With every fiber of her being, Valentina willed herself not to turn around. Warning bells in her brain screamed at her to ignore them. But her body had a mind of its own, at least when Ethan Daniels was in the room.
Her traitorous legs turned her to face them.
“You’re the last person I expected to see here at The Mile High,” he drawled.
“Ditto.” Valentina cast a sideways glance at her two best friends to gauge their reactions. Serena’s painted-on eyebrows flew upward. Alexis’s angelic grin split her face.
“Why don’t you introduce me to your friends?” Ethan said presumptuously.
Valentina half-turned to comply, but her friends were both gone.Damn those little turncoats,she thought.
“I really never imagined you at a place like this,” he said again, with a slight glint in his eye.
“Trust me, it was not my idea,” she parried. It didn’t surprise her at all that Ethan was into this stuff, but she wouldn’t have expected Bastian to be involved.Perhaps Ethan dragged him here,she thought.Perhaps I’m not the only person who can’t say no to him.
“I’ll have a Bloody Mary…virgin,” Ethan told the bartender. “My friend here and the lady will have shots of Belvedere vodka.”
“Smirnoff or Absolut is all we got,” the barkeep said, listing the less-expensive choices.
“Iordanov?”
The bartender shook his head.
Daniels put several hundred-dollar bills on the counter and slid them covertly to the man.
“Grey Goose Magnum.”
“I’ll look in the vault,” the barman said, wadding the bills quickly into his pocket.
“Do you always buy everything you want?” Valentina sparred.
“Some things I don’t have to buy.” His eyes settled on her décolletage, although it was demurely covered with dahlia chiffon rosettes. Valentina felt like he could see her breasts right through her modest clothing. Her nipples tightened infuriatingly in response.
The barkeep returned with the pricey bottle of vodka.
“I don’t drink,” she stated.
“You don’t do BDSM either,” Bastian replied. “And yet here you are. To new experiences!”
He placed a shot in her hand and clinked their glasses together.
“I still don’t do BDSM, I’m just here as a reluctant tourist,” she insisted. “But fine, cheers, I guess.”
These two men were a devastating combination. Between Ethan’s cold, commanding ways and Bastian’s raw charm, she felt like she was perfectly safe and in terrible danger, all at once. She took a small sip of vodka and decided to relax for a while. After all, maybe this was the perfect opportunity to ‘network’ with Ethan. Perhaps when he was relaxed she could convince him to give her a role as an architect instead of his menial assistant.
But as the magnum of expensive vodka sat between them and Ethan’s Patek Philippe watch glistened under the bright lights of the club, she felt she had to make one thing clear.
“I’m not impressed with your money, by the way,” she said, flatly.
“I’m sure you’re not,” Ethan replied with a sly grin. “I’m sure your Gold Coast parents wipe their asses with Ben Franklins and have Dom Pérignon flushing every toilet in their mansion,” he said, referring to the wealthy neighborhood where her parents lived. Only Manhattan’s Upper East Side in New York was more affluent. Bastian laughed heartily and slapped Valentina on the back, as if she were supposed to enjoy the joke.
“How do you know where my parents live?”
“I know everything about you,” he replied. “I’ll own the company soon. I have access to a lot of information.”
