Page 29 of Ensnared
Annoyed at himself and the sudden lack of control, Dimitri forced his thoughts to something else. Anything else. He pulled up the managers' reports for the hotel. It's not as if he was lacking in things to focus on. There was always something at the hotel that needed his attention despite the team of management whose only purpose was to run the damn thing. Not to mention his ongoing mini-war with the fucking Armenians.
Frankly, he didn't have time to think of her. She had served her purpose and now she was gone.
He only made it ten minutes through the list of numbers before switching screens to the private feed. He cursed under his breath at his his lack of control as the video of her room played. It was nearly three in the morning, he didn't expect much. The small sleeping lump under her covers next to a gray, smaller and furrier lump mesmerized him nevertheless.
He imagined her pretty gray eyes behind those round gold-rimmed glasses that suited her so well. He replayed the moments they had together at the bar when she looked at him with tired annoyance or when she allowed herself to laugh around him. He recalled those tearful eyes widening in horror as he showed her images of her captured brother. Or how she had stared up at him as her body tightened around him in climax.
A girl like her deserved a hero. Too bad she was getting the devil.
Chapter 18
"Rightthisway,"thewaiter gestured to the empty table.
Eve smiled and took her seat; across from her, Brett took his seat. Nervously, she looked around the restaurant. It was nice. Way fancier than she expected which only made her even more grateful she opted to drag out her one and only sexy dress. The velvet, blue midi-dress stopped a few inches below her knees and hugged her body. It was probably the only body-conscious dress in the whole world that made her soft curves look flattering. That was why the dress lived in a garment bag in the back of her closet and was dry-cleaned only. It had to be protected at all costs.
Thankfully the style went well with the upscale environment of the restaurant. With her curly hair half up in a ponytail and the rest falling past her shoulders, she felt pretty. Even with the little boost in confidence she looked around the restaurant for the other women in attendance but frowned when she realized that the few other people dispersed around the restaurant were men in suits.
"I looked at the menu online and they have seared ahi tuna that sounds amazing," Brett chimed from the other side of the table.
Turning her focus back to him, Eve smiled and picked up her menu. "Mmm, that does sound good."
"I have to say I'm really happy we decided to meet up again," Brett began. "I want to hear about everything you've been up to since college."
Dear God, where to start?Oh you, know the usual. I didn't pursue my master’s degree like I had planned because I fell in love with a dickweed who tricked me into practically writing his book. My brother got mixed up with the mob somehow. My grandparents are being financially held hostage. I'll be homeless soon. Oh, and I almost forgot last week I paid off my brother's "interest" by having sex with a criminal I thought was just a regular guy. You know, the usual.
If it wasn't so damn real Eve would have burst out in manic laughter; instead she took a big gulp of the water in front of her and smiled. "Right now, I'm just looking for a new job since my last job was a… short-term contract," she lied.
Brett nodded understandingly. "Yeah, been there, done that. I honestly had every intention to freelance my way through life when I got out of college but alas," he held out his hands and shrugged.
"You wanted a stable paycheck to go with life's very stable bills," she offered dryly, pushing up the square-framed glasses on her nose. She refused to wear the new ones Dimitri sent instead opting for an ancient pair from high school.
Brett laughed. "Exactly."
The waiter came by and took their drink order and Eve watched as two more men in suits came into the restaurant and sat down. She glanced at her watch. It was a little after six. Wasn't it a little late for a business meeting or a conference?
Waiting for the waiter to walk away, Brett fixed her with an inquiring smile that pulled her focus back to him. "What made you reach out to me after all this time?"
Eve decided to walk right past the truth to that question. "I'm pretty sure you asked me that just the other day," she deflected. She wasn'tpretty sure,she was certain.
After plucking up the courage to text somebody after she received the gold glasses at her door, Eve had stared at her contacts long and hard debating between the few single men she knew to text. For the past few days, she had been texting back and forth with Brett.
"Yeah, but you just said you thought about me. What made you think about me exactly?" He pressed with an easygoing smile.
Ugh. Again, she was forced to avoid the truth. Eve shrugged and looked down at her menu, her eyes scanning the words but not really reading them. Honestly, she chose Brett because he was the safest bet. Out of the limited guys she knew he was the only one in Las Vegas who wasn’t some childhood friend from her grandparents' church. The last thing she needed to hear was their input on any man she was seeing.
"I just saw your name in my contacts and I remembered how nice it was getting coffee with you occasionally on campus." See, that wasn't a lie. She really did remember those times fondly. Probably because she was also there with her roommates and being in college was some of the best years of her life, but that was beside the point.
"Well, I'm flattered. I've always thought you were…" His words died on his tongue as he looked past her and froze.
Confused, Eve looked at him and then turned around in her seat trying to follow his line of sight. Her insides froze at the sight.
Standing just a few feet behind her was Dimitri. Dressed in a deep blue suit and a white shirt he looked like a model standing there with his hands in his pocket staring directly at her.
Eve whipped back around in her seat, petrified. There was a layer of steel beneath his dimpled smile.
Sensing her distress, Brett glanced at her and then at Dimitri, his voice trailing off as he began, "I'm sorry, but do we..."
In a sudden eruption of noise, chairs across the room slid against the floor all at once as all the men that had been scattered throughout the tables stood up simultaneously and turned to them. Realization hit both her and Brett as they looked at the men surrounding them.
