Page 11 of Velvet Sin
It wasn’t easy to suppress a shiver once we brushed fingers as he handed the card over.“I don’t know about this,” I admitted.“I don’t have any experience?—”
“Let me tell you one thing.”His jaw tightened and eyes narrowed, and suddenly, I was facing the Dante West, who had somehow earned enough money to afford a suit like the one he was wearing and a meal like the one we’d just finished.“When it comes to staffing, I don’t fuck around.I take it very seriously, in fact, as I do every aspect of my business.If I think you can handle the job, that’s all you need to know.But like I said, you have until the end of the night to make up your mind.”
There was something about the intensity of his gaze that made it very important to get the hell out of my chair and out of the restaurant.It wasn’t that he made me uneasy.It was my reaction that left me feeling unbalanced, confused, breathless, and vulnerable.
And I was supposed to see him every day, no matter how much he offered to pay?No way was this going to work.“I’ll let you know.Thank you so much for dinner, really.It was delicious.”
“You aren’t leaving like this.”He started to stand, but it was too late.I was already rushing for the door, desperate for fresh air.What was it about the men in my life showing up at my most vulnerable moment when there was no telling how I would react?
At least he had the decency not to follow me, and I spent the drive back to my apartment in peace—externally, anyway.Inside was a different story.
I needed the job.It didn’t have to be forever.
But it meant working for him, and I hated him.For making a fool of me, for betraying my trust.For not bothering to explain himself when I asked, miserable and defeated, why?Why would he sleep with somebody else when we were supposed to be each other’s future?
Hell, if he were going to break my heart, he should’ve at least had the decency to be miserable.Nothing could’ve been further from the truth.He was a man sitting on top of the world, probably remembering the way I’d questioned him, wondering how he could go through life without any ambition or even the most basic plan.
Now, he wanted to rub it in my face.That was the only explanation that made any sense by the time I pulled into the parking garage of my new home.
Cameron gave me no choice but to walk away once he had a friend at the bank place an encumbrance on the house, meaning it wasn’t technically in our names and couldn’t be argued over in the divorce.
The grim, outdated apartment building was about as far a cry as possible from what I’d left behind.It sat miles from the strip, so far from the twinkling lights they were nothing more than a mirage on the horizon.A futon served as my bed, where I flopped onto my back out of sheer exhaustion after kicking off my heels.
I couldn’t live like this for much longer.Not that I needed luxury, but something a little more comfortable than an IKEA futon would be nice.Maybe an apartment bigger than one room and a refrigerator with more than a tiny bit of milk and a few slices of American cheese inside.
And bills.
Lots and lots of bills.
The payment plan with my divorce attorney.The lights, the water, the phone and internet.I didn’t even have anywhere to put all the things I’d packed up in boxes, now stored wherever I could find space in my shoebox of a home.Two of those boxes served as a coffee table.For God’s sake, I deserved better than this.
Temporary.
I would only have to process accounts or whatever Dante said.
A way to start pulling my life back together.That was all.
Temporary.
The word echoed in my mind as I dialed the number on the card.He didn’t keep me waiting.“I’ll text you the address and time to be here tomorrow night,” he announced by way of greeting.
“You don’t know what I was calling to say.”
“If your answer was no, you wouldn’t have called.”Dammit.He had a point.“See you tomorrow night, Lenny.”
“It’s not Len—” Three soft beeps told me he wouldn’t hear me correct him once again.
Son of a bitch.
He had the edge on me in every way imaginable.
5
DANTE
Iknew she would come.
All day, throughout countless last-minute issues and the constant ticking of the clock, I knew she would show up.She needed me.For the first time in a decade, Lenny needed me.I wasn’t about to squander the opportunity to keep her close and remind her how she’d settled for a loser like Cameron.
