Page 5 of Master Heimdall

“Is she a girlie girl or more of a rebel?”

“Huh?” He pulled his eyes from the document I wasn’t sure he’d actually been reading and focused on me for the first time.

“The girl you have to find a gift for. Is she a typical girlie girl or more punk rock?”

He laughed. “A total brat actually, but our parents are elderly and my brother has passed this task to me. Girlie girl I’d say.”

“Perfect, then I can help.”

“How?”

The skepticism in his expression made me want to roll my eyes but I resisted.

“I know one of the best makeup artists in the city. Give me your contact info and I will forward you her information. Tell her you’re friends with Rose from the Grand in the Bronx, she’ll know exactly who you mean. And then tell her you want the princess package for your sister.”

The smile he gave me was genuine and finally, the handsome man who was hiding behind the scowl was revealed. Hopefully, not everyone in this place was that grumpy, but I wasn’t going to let it bring me down. Mari had assured me this would be a spectacular place to work if I was up for a challenge. So far, I wasn’t sure if it was the job or the staff that would prove to be the bigger hurdle.

“Here we go.” Lincoln opened another soundless wooden door and we entered a beautiful conference room that had twelve seats around a large oval glass table. “Gabriel will be right along. Don’t let him throw you, he’s a pussycat under all that dominant attitude.”

With that cryptic and unhelpful advice, Lincoln left. Usually how dominant someone was didn’t come up in an interview. Was this meeting meant to be a hookup or a job? Would Mari do that to me? I’d like to think not. Hopefully, it was just that all of her friends, except me, were Doms and they’re used to dealing with each other in a certain way.

I sat, doing my best to look relaxed. Unfortunately, all my cool flew out the window when the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen walked in. It was all I could do to rein myself in and not gape at him. Tall is a term that is usually used for people who are over six feet but this man was at least six inches taller than that. You wouldn’t think that would make much of a difference, but it did.

He was massive but not in a thick football player way, or thin like a basketball player. He was that perfect muscly goodness that was a swimmer or soccer player. It didn’t help that he wasn’t wearing a button-down shirt that would blunt the mouthwatering effect his physique instilled. Instead, he was wearing a tight black tee that hugged the well-defined muscles of his chest to the point I could count every line in his abdomen. Nope, not an inch of fat to blunt the temptation of tracing each dip with my tongue.

One… two… three… yup, an eight-pack of goodness to tempt the eye. It would probably be unprofessional to ask him if I could practice reading braille on his stomach, right? As if his body wasn’t a big enough lure to have me taking off my clothes, his eyes were a piercing blue/black color that almost looked like the night sky as it touched the ocean. His features were so classically aquiline that Roman sculptors would have brawled for the right to depict him in stone. I could easily picture him as an emperor, or a demigod, right down to the dark-golden hair that crowned his head.

Down girl, we are here for a purpose, and it doesn’t involve satisfying your libido.

“Who are you?”

All of my dirty thoughts came to a screeching halt at the derision in his voice. If he expected me to believe he didn’t know exactly who I was, then he had another thing coming. But I could play the game.

“I’m Rose Dodds, and you are Mr.?” Okay, so technically, since I was interviewing for a job, I should have shown off that I’d memorized all the names and photos available on the website, but the truth was I wasn’t sure I wanted to work in an environment that led to people showing their worst sides.

“Dakos.”

Instead of sitting across from me, or next to me, he dropped in a chair at the head of the table. As if that showed his power, oh, please! Having this interview in a conference room rather than an office meant that power games were the plan for the day. While I enjoyed a good power exchange during private time, would every day be like this if I accepted the job, assuming he’d offer?

The door opened again and a much friendlier-appearing man stepped into the room. His grin was a mix of mischievous and welcoming. Unsurprisingly, he was equally large, just lacking the height of Mr. Dakos, my grumpy giant.

“Sorry I’m late.” The newest addition stuck out his hand. “I’m Colin and will be joining the interview today.”

It was nice to finally meet someone who didn’t need cheering up. I took his hand and shook it, trying to give him my most professional smile. “Very nice to meet you, Colin. I’m Rose Dodds. I can’t wait to let you know more about me and learn more about this opportunity.”

My focus was on Colin but I caught Gabriel’s slight roll of his eyes in my periphery. Colin glanced from me to the scowling man at the head of the table and back again, as if he could sense the discontent between us.

“Do you two know each other?” The question was for both of us but he was looking at Mr. Dakos when it was asked. Who, I might add, only offered him a smirk in return.

“No, I’ve never had the pleasure.” I hoped the sarcasm in my voice wasn’t too obvious. If Colin had picked up on it, he didn’t give any outward sign.

“Okay.” Colin cleared his throat, then moved to sit down across from me. “You come highly recommended by a mutual friend. Tell me, what do you know about G&H Security?”

I straightened my shoulders. “Only the cursory outline your website provided, I’m afraid. It wasn’t until my flight landed last night that I learned Mari—sorry, Marissa—had set this up for me. She didn’t speak about the company so much as how important your work was and gave me a brief description of what you needed.”

Colin opened his mouth as if to speak, but Gabriel cut him off. “I see almost all of your experience is in concierge work, so what makes you think you are qualified for being in charge of tactical teams, scheduling and all that while working with several aggressive men who like things done a certain way? Do you have the flexibility and skill needed to make last-minute changes?”

I observed both men as I leaned back in my chair. The innuendo in his aggressive words was clear, but if he thought that would bother me, he was out of his mind. The biggest mistake he could make was to underestimate or undervalue what I could bring to the table. If he wanted to play dirty, fine with me. “By your statement, you have made it very clear that you have zero knowledge of how the hotel world works, so I’ll spoon feed you some pertinent information.”

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