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“You’re not embarrassed by that?” I asked, raising my foot to plant the toe of one of my sky-high heels between his legs. “We’re good and married, and it took until now for me to evenstartthe process of, as you put it,really fucking with you.”
Orion shrugged, moving forward in his chair so that my foot wasactuallytouching my target. “Most rich men’s wives despise them, so I’m way ahead of the crowd.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously,” he countered, his hand creeping up my thigh… coming to an abrupt stop when the shift in his expression told me he’d noticed someone.
It had to be someone he respected.
I pulled my leg from his grasp just as thesomeonereached the table. Orion stood to greet the man warmly, and experience—and social mores—had taught me that I should as well. Once they were finished, Orion turned to me, sending the man’s attention in my direction.
“Stanford, this is my lovely wife, Nalani. Nalani, this is Stanford Reese,” Orion said. “He’s one of our regional managers atWholesome Foods.”
I extended my hand, offering a dip of my head to the familiar-looking older man. “Nice to formally meet you, Mr. Reese. You were at the wedding, right?”
“I was,” he agreed, taking my hand. “And please, Stanford is just fine. Beautiful women can get away withStan, though,” he said, kissing the back of my hand. There was nothingtrulyflirtatious about it, but I grinned still. He was charming. And quite handsome, with his dynamic brown eyes, smooth dark skin and salt-and-pepper hair.
“Ay, break this shit up,” Orion crowed, pretending to step between us as I laughed. “What are you even doing back in Blackwood already?”
Stanford frowned. “I’m on your schedule for tomorrow, updates on the new store expansion…”
“You’re right.” Orion cringed. “My apologies. Calli’s had a lot of appointments this week, so I’ve been a bit distracted.”
“Perfectly understandable. I’ll be by the house to look in on her too if that’s okay?”
“Of course, you’re always welcome.”
Stanford nodded, then diverted his attention back to me. “And maybe while I’m here this week, you and I can meet,” he suggested. “I’ve been looking intoNectarand think the store would be well served by expansion.”
My eyes went wide. “Seriously? I mean… it’s something I was interested in, but it wasn’t um… within my purview.”
“As chief operating officer?” he asked, eyebrow raised. “I can’t think of anythingmorewithin your purview.”
Tell that to my damn daddy.
At least… before.
I’d brought the idea of more locations to him more than once, knowing that a place likeNectarwould absolutelythriveon either coast or the right metro in the South.
We can’t afford that.
It’s too soon.
That’s a risk we can’t take.
Always a fucking excuse.
“What’s on your agenda tomorrow?” Orion asked, pulling my attention back to the conversation at hand. “If we time it right, you can swing through on the tail end of our meeting, and we can talk through some preliminary plans. If you’re open to it.”
My mouth dropped open, but I quickly righted myself, not wanting to seem too eager.
Inside, I wasscreaming.
“I’m absolutely open to it, with the understanding of course that this would be heavily dependent on the viability of appropriate funds. With the recent changes in our corporate structure, and the findings from our forensic accountant, um… financing might be an issue. For a while.”
Godit hurt to admit that.
But I knew the transparency was needed, especially when having this conversation with men who got things done. It would break my heart to come up with all these grand plans for expansion, after wanting that exact thing for so long, only to find out they couldn’t be executed.
