Page 151 of The Playboy

“Kiss me, Brooklyn.”

She leaned forward, gently pressing her lips against mine. But as she held them there, parting them just slightly, there was an intensity in the way she moved her mouth.

An intensity I’d felt every time she kissed me during the last couple of weeks on Kauai.

Brooklyn wasn’t just giving me her lips. She wasn’t just going through the motions.

She was showing me how much she cared, how much she wanted me.

How much she wanted us.

“Let’s get you upstairs,” I roared when we finally separated.

Her eyes told me she knew exactly how I was feeling and what that fucking mouth had stirred up inside me.

With a smile, she climbed out of the car.

I did as well, instantly greeted with, “Mr. Spade, welcome,” by the valet attendant the second I stepped onto the pavement. “Would you like me to keep your car out front?”

Our dinner reservations were in an hour. We had only come back to shower and quickly swap out our clothes.

But what that kiss had just done was solidify that those plans were now getting changed.

“You can put it away for the evening,” I told him.

“No problem, Mr. Spade.”

I joined Brooklyn, my hand going to her lower back as we walked inside the lobby.

“I know I’ve only been here one night, and I don’t start my job for a couple more days, but I already see things I want to implement.”

“You’re going to make Walter one happy man.”

She laughed. “I thought I already did that at the grand opening?”

I lowered my hand to the top of her ass, leaving it there for only a second since there were employees everywhere. “Oh, you did, and you know that.” Walter had had plenty of positive things to say after he met her at the hotel, and I’d shared some of that with Brooklyn. “But when he hears this, he’s going to be even happier.”

“Except my ideas aren’t for him. They’re for the whole brand, assuming some of these procedures are company-wide. And because I see them every time I walk into this hotel, knowing money is being wasted, I’m having a hard time keeping my mouth shut.”

She was two weeks into her Six Sigma certification, and I could already see the difference. She’d had incredible ideas before she began the courses, things she’d expressed during our time together. As she got deeper into the program, her views were getting stronger, sharper, and she was looking at things differently than she had in the past.

All I knew was that she was going to be one hell of an asset to our company.

And the more she saved our brand, the more she was going to earn.

Something told me by year-end, Brooklyn was going to have quite an impressive income, possibly double her current salary.

“Do me a favor?” I pressed the button for the elevator.

She glanced up at me while we waited for it to open. “Okay …”

“Don’t ever keep your mouth shut.”

Her smile made me ache. “Because you want to slide something in it?”

“That, fuck yeah.” With one hand on her cheek, I stretched my thumb across her chin to hold both sides of her face. “But also because everything that comes out of it matters to me.”

“Deal.”

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