Overlooked(2)(6)

“Hey,” he says, poking his head around the partition. It startles me and I jump, which seems to delight him.

“Is everything okay?” Instinctively, I revert to my robot waitress mode.

“You forgot to take our drinks orders.” Okay, I tell myself, he’s just here for normal, everyday restaurant stuff. It’s nothing to do with me; he hasn’t read my mind about what I do with him in my fantasies at night.

“Oh, oops, what can I get you?” I smile, but am painfully aware of the slight tremble in my bottom lip.

“A couple of Buds would be great.”

“Coming right up.”

“Cheers, Skye.” He winks and leaves me leaning against the wall for support.

I take a few deep breaths, forcing myself to calm down. What is the matter with me? Just because the hottest guy who’s ever walked in this place is back, I fall apart and start acting like a star-struck twelve year old.





First Taste

(Lawson)



I sit back down in the booth with Julie, my thoughts still on Skye and what I’d like to do to her.

“You haven’t stopped grinning since we got here,” my sister says.

“I’m happy, what can I say?”

“I say I haven’t seen you this happy in ages. And by happy I mean excited. What’s going on?”

“What do you mean? Can’t your big brother be happy?”

“Something’s up. I should’ve known when you said you wanted to take me out for a burger.”

“You’ll see.”

“Oh God, is it the waitress?” She rolls her eyes as she says it.

“Obviously, have you seen her?”

Skye appears with our beers and says, “Here you are, two beers. I’ll be right back to take your order.” She runs away before I can even thank her. That’s fine, she looks as good going as she does coming.

“Her? You must be ten years older than her. Are you having a midlife crisis already? You’re too young for that.”

“It’s not just her looks, she cracks me up. And she’s so talented, you saw the picture she drew of Freya.”

“Poor Freya, I still can’t believe you ditched the yacht party to bring her here. She still hasn’t spoken to me — you probably cost me a friend.”

“Who cares? You have too many friends as it is. Besides, you don’t need ones who are only interested in money.”

Julie rolls her eyes and says, “Aside from the fact I love a good plate of ribs, why am I here?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I wanted to see Skye again.”

“And?”

“And I needed your opinion. Is she going to turn out to be a gold digger too? If you say yes, then I know I’m okay. It’s when you say no that I know I need to start guarding my wallet.” Skye talked all that shit about the rich, but people to change their tunes pretty fast when money is within their reach.

“You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”

Skye arrives back at the side of the booth and says, “Have you decided what you want?”

When she puts it that way, I have to bite my tongue to keep from telling her exactly what I want.

“I’ll have the ribs, with fries,” Julie says. Skye looks at me with raised eyebrows, apparently she approves of my date for the night.

“And you, sir, what would you like?” Fuck, the way she called me sir again overloads me with the desire to answer that question truthfully.

“The burger.”

“The works again?”

“Absolutely.”

“Awesome.” She turns and goes and I can’t take my eyes off her. Even after she’s out of sight, I keep my eyes on the last spot in hopes she’ll reappear.

“Enough of this. We’re supposed to be talking about Kelso,” Julie says.

Kelso Wilson is my ex-business partner. We made billions together, before I decided I couldn’t take any more of the asshole. It was a great business, he built the hotels and resorts all over the world, and I ran them. Except I realized I could get anyone to build the shit, and didn’t have to put up with him in the process.

We’ve been locked in a legal battle to divide up the business for the past fourteen months. It’s pretty easy to carve off the construction division, but for some reason the asshole thinks he deserves more.

I’m arguing all the non-construction divisions are all mine, since I add all the value. His buildings always come in over budget and after the deadline. If anything, he’s cost the business.

“There’s not much to say about him,” I say.

“I think it’s possible to talk him into a deal. That would save tens of millions in legal fees and get the headache over with.”