Page 205 of Wicked Fantasies

“Oh, you’re a regular comedian,” she replied with half-hearted sarcasm.

Grinning, Rob gestured toward the table by the big windows. Outside the rain was still falling, although it seemed to be weakening in intensity. Of course, that was probably just wishful thinking on her part.

“Still hungry?” he asked.

“Ravenous.” She looked at the huge array of food. “My God, you’ve ordered enough for an army.”

“Yes,” Rob said, “I figured you’d need a little help keeping those sweatpants up. Tiny as you are.”

“Ha ha,” she laughed. “If I eat all this, I’ll never fit into the new clothes in my suitcase I starved myself for months to buy.”

Rob’s smile turned to a scowl at her words. “I hope you’re joking about that. You’re perfect the way you are.”

Meg dismissed his compliment with a wave of her hand. “Oh right, I’m a veritable goddess,” she teased. “Actually, I think I missed my time. Clearly this figure was meant for the Renaissance, not the twenty-first century. What is that?” She gestured to a small bowl on the table.

Rob didn’t seem to be fooled by her attempt to change the subject, but, thankfully, he decided to let it drop. Meg was uncomfortable talking about her looks.

Looking toward where she was pointing, Rob smiled. “That is Beluga caviar.”

Meg wrinkled her nose. “Fish eggs?”

“Have you ever tried it?” Rob smiled at her childish expression.

“No, they don’t usually serve that in the school cafeteria.”

“Well, then you shouldn’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” Rob said. “It really is exquisite.”

“I don’t suppose you’d let me take your word for it?”

“Absolutely not.” Rob picked up a cracker and placing a healthy sized dollop on top. “This is my favorite treat. Here,” he added, presenting the cracker to her. Meg started to reach for it, but Rob shook his head, placing it at her lips, determined to feed it to her. “Open up.”

Meg opened her mouth accepting the cracker. Chewing slowly, she decided the taste wasn’t as bad as she might have expected.

“Well?” Rob awaited her response.

“It’s pretty good,” she finally admitted. “Although I don’t think it’s going to knock KC Masterpiece potato chips off the list as my favorite snack.”

Rob laughed. “At $150 an ounce, you are probably wise to stick with the chips.”

“How much?”

Rob was taken aback by her obvious dismay. “$150 an ounce.”

“How much did I just eat?” Meg asked, genuinely upset.

“An ounce?” Rob was still confused by her response.

Slapping a hand across her mouth, Meg shook her head.

“Are you okay?” Rob asked, apparently thinking she was going to be sick.

“I can’t believe you let me eat $150 worth of caviar. You should have warned me,” she chastised him. “I would have chewed longer. Hell, I wouldn’t have eaten so much. My God! Do you know what you can do with $150?”

Rob triedto stifle the laughter welling up inside of him at her words, but he could see she was deadly serious. Finally, the laughter won out. “Chewed longer?” he gasped when he could speak again.

Meg rose from the table, her arms akimbo and her eyes narrowed. “And you,” she said pointing a finger at him. “You should be ashamed of yourself. Your company is nice enough to give you a free place to stay and to pay for all your meals and you take advantage of that. If I were your boss, I’d take that $150 out of your unappreciative hide.”

Shaking his head at her impassioned words, Rob stopped laughing and considered her point of view. From her perspective, he certainly did look like a greedy employee. For a brief moment, he considered confessing his true identity, but then he wondered if that would make any difference to Meg Williams. For his entire life, Rob Madison had lived a lifestyle most people could only dream about. He was born to an affluent family and during his adulthood, he’d worked hard to increase his own personal wealth. He’d earned his own first million by the age of 21 and over the past decade, he continued to climb the ladder of success.

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