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I swallow hard and see his expression change from concern to flirtation.
“Consider me your personal Prince Charming, always ready to save a damsel in distress – if you’ll let me,” he says, lightly stroking my arm.
I bite my lip nervously and he shudders.
“Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come along,” I admit, struggling to get the words out.
In a busy, bustling dinner-time kitchen, it feels like we are the only two people in the entire club. I dare myself to look up at him, let myself be lost in his eyes just for a moment, just a moment… and imagine if I could be reckless for once and give in to him.
“Why won’t you give me a chance?” Ethan asks softly.
His voice is gentle, soft, seductive, reeling me in and making me want to agree to absolutely anything he asks. The old Cassidy would have jumped at the chance for romance, to be swept off my feet by a dashing billionaire. The kind of man who remembers what flowers I like after only meeting me once.
But something inside me bristles against that.
“Is that why you did it?” I ask. “You stood up for me so that I’d be forced to go to dinner with you?” I don’t mean for my voice to sound so harsh, but can’t help it.
Ethan doesn’t even flinch. A wry smile curls his lips and he steps closer to me. The warmth of his body makes me skin tingle.
“That would make sense if I was the kind of guy who needed to force women to go to dinner with me,” he says, his eyes twinkling with his smile. “I did it because I wanted to help. And I think… you liked it.”
The truth in his words creeps like a shiver up my spine. I worry that I may like it too much.
“I – I. It’s policy, we don’t date the patrons,” I stammer.
It’s all I can think of. The only reason I can come up with to keep rejecting him. It isn’t a lie, during my interview my manager warned me about the ways things could go wrong when staff dated patrons.
We are from very different worlds and live by different rules. These matches didn’t work out and it’s always the help that ends up with the broken heart.
It’s the last thing I need, a whirlwind romance that ends in pain and disaster. Not after I’ve just dragged myself up from rock bottom. He wouldn’t let it go and secretly I had been reveling in his attention since the first night he asked to take me to dinner.
“Policy? That isn’t a word I recognize,” he smiles. “Rules are meant to be broken.”
I blush, wringing my hands. I feel like a school girl swooning over the quarterback, but I had no control over it.
“I don’t want to lose my job,” I groan.
As lowly as he might think it is, I do actually need this job. But the look on his face… I’m tempted to risk it all for him, for the way I feel when he looks at me this way.
Ethan clicks his tongue and shakes his head. “I’ll pick you up at eight.”
I stand blinking stupidly as he leaves the kitchen, sauntering through the push doors into the dining room before I can respond.
So this is actually happening?
4
Ethan
Idrive up to a rundown apartment block where Cassidy lives. Getting a hold of the club’s employee records was easy. I know where she lives, but parked outside her block promptly at eight, it’s clear to me that there is more to Cassidy. She doesn’t belong here.
The old apartment block has paint peeling, cracked walls and I can only imagine the state of the inside. The people walking in and out of the building seem decent enough, though. Working people from the restaurants and shops around the city.
But none quite like Cassidy.
Even at the club, she stands out carrying herself with an elevated sense of dignity. Never flirting with the men for extra tips, or scanning the room for trinkets she can pick up unnoticed.
She’s out of place here, but I can’t really place her somewhere else. It’s my job to know where people belong, judge their needs, their wants and predict how they’ll react in different situations. It’s how I make my money, how I’ve come as far as I have in business. And for the first time, I'm stumped.
