Page 29 of Her Three Bosses


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“Sorry, I’m not a wine connoisseur,” she said.

“Do you need to be well-versed in all the wineries and regions it came from in order to enjoy it?” Lucas asked.

“I guess not.” She played with her dangly earring, looking down at the small glasses in front of her. “I always feel a little uncultured when it comes to certain things, even though I am constantly trying to learn.”

“Mm.” Lucas flagged down another server, who filled our glasses with more wine. “I’m not saying that you should never learn about anything, but sometimes being ‘cultured’ is a way for people to feel superior. Remember that ‘finer things in life’ club in high school?”

“Oh, god.” Brooke rolled her eyes. “I hope everyone who was in it cringes thinking back on it.”

“What club?” I asked.

“It was almost a parody of itself,” Lucas said. “The kids who went to our school would do whatever they deemed ‘fancy,’ whether they liked doing it or not. Basically, they wanted to be mini versions of their parents.”

“That sounds ridiculous.”

“It was.” Brooke tasted another wine, nodding in appreciation and putting the glass aside to keep it from the others. “Like Lucas said, it was basically a parody of what kids thought their wealthy parents did all day. I highly doubted they went to museums and talked about how great artists were without actually digging into the context of it.”

The server returned and asked Brooke what kind of wine she wanted. She told him, and he disappeared again. When he returned with her wine, Chef Giovanni was in tow.

“Welcome,” the chef said with a smile. “I’m Chef Giovanni.”

“H-hi,” Brooke said, her eyes widening as he shook her hand. “I’ve seen you on TV. Your food always looks so good.”

She blushed so hard that I held back a smile. We’d hoped that she knew him, so this was perfect.

“Thanks. I’m excited to make you guys some great pizzas tonight.” He told us the menu he’d put together for us, including fresh bread, salad, antipasto, and a few kinds of pizzas. Brooke hung on his every word. “If you’d like to make any changes—”

“No, that all sounds delicious,” Brooke blurted. She covered her smiling mouth and looked at us. “I mean, assuming you two want all of that, too.”

“Tonight is all about you. You call the shots,” Lucas said.

I nodded, too.

“Great. We’ll get started.” Chef Giovanni smiled and disappeared back toward the kitchen.

“So what was Lucas really like back in high school?” I asked, resting my forearms on the table. “Roast him.”

“Who’s to say I was roast-able back then?” Lucas said with a laugh. “I was, but way to make the assumption.”

“Because I know you.” I smirked.

“You were so not roast-able back then. More than any other teenager was, I mean,” Brooke said.

The two talked about how things were back in high school without making me feel like I was an outsider. As the courses started coming out, the conversation flowed to how Lucas and I met in college as roommates, to sports, to everything else in between.

It was all soeasy.We took turns feeding Brooke bites of pizza, stealing moments to touch her hands or her thighs. Her laughter at all of Lucas’s jokes filled the air, her entire being bright and carefree. I wasn’t big on laughing—if I found something amusing, I just smirked or snorted. But I found myself laughing alongside her. I was always so consumed with whatever tasks were on my plate, or shit was irritating me, that I never let go and enjoyed the moment. Until Brooke.

Once we got to dessert, we moved over to the couch near the fire pit on the far side of the patio with our coffees and dark chocolate gelato. We sat with Brooke between us, my arm over her shoulders and Lucas’s hand on her knee. Our hips were pressed to hers. I ran my hand up and down her bare arm, warming her along with the fire. I couldn’t wait to feel all of her soft skin against mine later.

The more I touched her, the more intoxicated I got on her presence. My hand wandered, fingers tracing circles around the exposed skin above her cleavage or playing with the ends of her hair. She leaned into my touch, then into Lucas’s, then back to mine when I stroked her thigh. I hadn’t had the chance to worship those enough. I’d remedy that later.

“This has been amazing,” she said. “I’ve never been on a better date.”

“Good.” I kissed her temple, inhaling the sweet, floral scent of her perfume.

“We can do this again, you know.” Lucas stroked her knee, his hand inching up her thighs. “There’s a lot of food in Vegas. We’d have to be in the midst of it all, but we can make it private like this, if you want.”

Brooke bit her bottom lip. The touch of gloss that had been on it was long gone, but the natural pink was still beautiful.

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