Page 89 of In Love with the Devil

He laughs and I lift my eyes to see him. My mouth drops. He’s tall, tanned, with wet black hair slicked back. His hazel eyes are enormous.Oh fuck! He's gorgeous.“I’m… so sorry.”

“Apology accepted. I hope you’re not that rude to all the customers,” he says with a thick accent and a wide, sexy smile.His voice is not anywhere as deep as Julian’s but it’s deep enough.

“Well, that’s why they keep me away from the customers.”

He laughs again. “Wow.”

“What?” I ask, feeling defensive.

“You’re a breath of fresh air, Miss uh,” his gaze drops to my name tag. “Miss Torres.”

I sigh, roll my eyes, and go back to eating.

“Doesn’t accept compliments either. Hmm. A tough cookie. So, what do you do here?”

“Look, Mr. uhhh–”

“Alcaraz,” he finishes for me.

“Mr. Alcaraz. I appreciate your compliment and I’m sorry for being so rude, but…” I stare at him and sigh because he is so hot. “I’m here to work, not make friends, or date. If you have something you need to address with me professionally about the hotel, then I’ll be back on the clock in fifteen minutes. Anything else is a terrible idea. Have an amazing stay.”

I pack my and Cristian’s lunch and walk away. Forty-five minutes later, my office phone rings.

“Hi. Uh, Astoria?”

“Cristian?”

“Administration would like to see you in the presidential hotel suite.”

A sinking sensation fills my chest, and stomach. I have no doubt this is about that man. “In the suite? Well, that hasn’t happened in all the years I’ve been here.”

“I know but remember we changed owners months ago. It’s not rare for them to stay in the presidential suite and use the office. What did you do?”

“Nothing. I had lunch. Some creeper hit on me–”

“Oh shit, Astoria. What did you say?”

In the time I’ve worked here, I’ve built quite the wall toward men in general. Anytime a guy hits on me, it’s as if he’s challenging me to be rude. They don't know I'm really saving them from my stalker. Cristian laughs and often grieves for their egos. Sometimes I take it too far, but I’ve never gotten in trouble for it. Well, I guess there’s a first time for everything. I sigh and close my eyes. I think the only reason Julian never killed Romeo is ‘cause he was too busy trying not to kill me. “Cristian…”

“Yes?”

“Never mind.” I wanted to ask him to come with me, but he couldn’t leave the front desk.

“Bye. Remember to breathe.”

“Bye.”

I have to walk through the entire hotel to get to the tower where the suite is. I take the elevator all the way up and knock. One of our butlers opens the door.

“Miss Torres, right this way.” He leads me through the apartment to an office and closes the door after leaving. The wall behind the giant desk is made of glass, like the one in the hotel where I willingly fucked Julian. The difference here is that the view is of the ocean and the room is much more spacious. I only walk up three steps before he lifts his eyes to me. It’s Mr. Alcaraz. My heart painfully hammers. I resist allowing my mouth to fall open and my eyes to widen or the chill to make me tremble.

“Miss Torres, come in. I hope you had a peaceful lunch.” He stands, walks around the desk, and leans his butt on the edge of it with his arms crossed.

Even though I suspected something like this was about to happen, I’m panicking. I love working here, I love my routine. I just bought a house and I need this job to pay for it. I’m just getting my life together. There are so many things I still need to fix, but at least… Oh God. This is unbelievable, but I won’t apologize. Asher told me apologizing makes me look like a victim. I’m not fucking apologizing.

“I had a great lunch, Mr. Alcaraz. I hope you did too?”

I walk up to a seat and stay behind it, using it as a border between us. He stays quiet for too long, studying me.

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