He winks, and my breath goes still in my chest. My body warms with that same arousal that I felt upstairs. Oh yeah. They definitely need that rule about no sex on the clock. With men like Cole wandering around, no one would ever get anything done.
“Everything going all right so far? Even though it’s overwhelming?”
“Yes, Sir.”
His face grows serious, and I see a flash of something hot and dark in his eyes. “We’re relatively informal around here. All employees are free to call me Cole. But,” he says with a meaningful glance at me, “I very much enjoy being called ‘Sir.’”
I swallow, my mouth going dry under the intensity of his gaze. “I’ll remember that. Sir.”
Cole pulls away from me, and suddenly I can breathe again. “I’m sure I’ll see you soon,” he says with his mysterious smile.
“Yeah.”
It’s only after he’s gone from sight that I realize how stupid I must have sounded just then. ‘Yeah.’ Maybe something witty or flirtatious? No, you go with ‘yeah.’ I shake my head. This is why I’m single. Get it together, Andrea. I grab a bottle of water from behind the bar. There’s a fridge labeled ‘staff’ so I’m assuming it’s okay. I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough if it’s not.
I’m taking the last sip from the bottle when Rosie appears in front of me. “Did you finish the rooms?”
“Yes. Fully stocked. You were right, the orgy room needed the most.”
She smirks. “Yeah. You can see why.”
I laugh. “It’s a…quite the show.”
Rosie takes my empty bottle off the bar and tosses it in the recycle bin. “Right. Well, you have a new assignment. One of the owners wants you upstairs in the VIP lounge serving drinks to him and his guests.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, sometimes they prefer to have a dedicated waitress instead of just ringing down for drinks. I think the guests tonight are important, so it’s crucial that you make them feel special. Whatever they need, make sure they have it. Let me see your keycard?”
I give it to her, and she takes it to the monitor behind the bar. There’s some number tapping and she swipes the card before she hands it back to me. “The elevator for wait staff is back there.” She points to a darkened corner near the dressing room. “You’re looking for the blue room up there. That’ll let you swipe in. Get going. Told you you’d learn a lot on the job.”
I head towards the corner she pointed to, then turn back. “Rosie, you said one of the owners? Why would they request me?”
“No idea,” she says, shrugging. “He just said he wanted you up there.”
There are butterflies in the pit of my stomach. Am I right? “Which one.”
“Cole Andrews. Stop asking questions, they’re waiting.”
I hurry towards the elevator, trying to pull my jaw up off the floor. Holy shit.
3
The elevator is almost too quiet, and I think that going back and forth between the blasting music and absolute silence is going to take some getting used to.
I was expecting the third floor to be a balcony like the second floor, but it’s not. The elevator doors open onto a gorgeous hallway. Dark, sparkling marble is arranged in geometric patterns on the floor, and colored lights line the edges. The hallway curves out of view—it must circle the whole club. The lights that stream up from the floor are vibrant, painting color along the walls and ceiling. It doesn’t take me long to notice that those colors are corresponding to rooms. The first stretch of the hallway is green, and the door in that section is green. The next section is orange.
I pass through a purple and a yellow section before I finally reach a blue one. Pausing outside the door, I take a deep breath. Cole requested me. I have no idea why. Whether it’s because he thinks I’ll be good eye candy or because he felt the same thing I felt between us, I don’t know. What I do know is that it’s still my first day, and I need to do a good job no matter how he makes me feel. I pass my keycard over the little panel, and the door slides aside silently.
The room is entirely glass—floor, walls, and ceiling. Below, you can see the entirety of the club spread out downstairs, and I have vertigo just looking. The music from downstairs is being pumped in through speakers, though it’s low enough to easily hear over. There are comfortable couches and chairs, and they’re filled. I count seven men sitting in the room, one of whom is Cole. Everyone turns to me as I come in, and I swallow my nerves as I step inside.
Seeing me, Cole smiles. “Come in, please. Everyone, this is Andrea. She’s new to Club Deep, and I’ve invited her to be our waitress this evening.” He gestures me forward and points out a two of the men. They’re both handsome, though I don’t feel drawn to them the way I do to Cole. “Andrea this is Julian Rivers and Hudson Carle, my business partners. And these are our clients.”
I smile and nod, not sure exactly how much I’m supposed to say. Cole looks at me, and I think he senses my discomfort because he keeps talking to his clients. I notice that he hasn’t mentioned their names. Given Rosie’s warnings about most people paying in cash, and the nature of the club, I’m sure that it was intentional. “Can I interest you gentlemen in something to drink?”
“Of course,” Julian says, smiling at me and picking up Cole’s cue. “I’ll take a whiskey neat please.”
“And I’ll have a…I’ll take a Guinness.” Hudson tells me. His voice is a deep bass that practically rumbles.
The other men look skeptical—I’m not sure why, but they give drink orders as well. I’m glad I still have the notepad from stocking the shelves. I don’t know that I would have been able to keep seven different drink orders straight. Hopefully I’ll be able to do it without the pad eventually. I head for the door and Cole keeps step with me. “I hope this is all right,” he says. “I thought you might like to be away from the frenzy your first night.”
A wave of surprise rolls over me, and then pleasure. He thought about me. The fact that he wanted to make me happy, even for a second…I smile at him. “That’s nice of you. I thought you might have wanted me just for eye candy.”
The look on his face deepens into a more-than-friendly smile. “Oh, you are that. But that wasn’t the reason I brought you up here. Certainly not the only reason.”
“There are other reasons?” Butterflies take up residence in my stomach at his words.
Cole leans a little closer, lowering his voice so no one can hear but me. “I can think of a lot of reasons. None of them should be said out loud while we have company.”
I raise an eyebrow at him. “And you have a plan for us to be without company?”
“Once your shift is over, I thought I might give you a tour of the club. So you could get to know it more…intimately.”
It feels like all the air in the room disappeared. The heat in his eyes is going to burn me from the inside out, and it takes everything I’ve got not to reach out and touch him. I remember what I felt when he caught me on the stairs, and I have no doubt he’s thinking the same thing. “Let me go get those drinks,” I say. “You don’t want to keep your clients waiting.”
“Hurry back.”
God, that smile could make a nun drop her panties. “I will.” I almost trip on my way out of the room. Ordering the drinks is easy. Once I say that they’re for the owners, the bartenders drop what they’re doing and have all seven ready to go in record time. Then I’m in the elevator again, my arm burning with the weight of the tray and praying to god that I don’t drop them all. It would be just my luck to trip on my way in the door and have everything crash.
Thankfully that doesn’t happen. I manage to swipe my hip across the sensor and the door slides away, and I make it to the bar in the room without tripping over myself. None of Cole’s clients give me a second glance as I hand them drinks, but the owners all give me a smile and a soft ‘thank you’ before turning back to their conversation. I save Cole’s drink for last, and he catches my hand as I pass it to him. “I’ve ordered some food from downstairs. Whenever it’s ready.” He smirks, not hiding the way he’s looking at my breasts. “I’m dying for a taste.”
He doesn’t remove his hand from mine, instead pulling me a little closer, and his thumb caressing the inside of my wrist. I think the temperature in here just rose ten degrees. It certainly feels that way. My mouth is dry, even though in other places I’m wet. “I’ll check if it’s ready.”
“Thank you.”
I lean against the wall in the hallway, catching my breath. Damn. I’ve never met anyone who could do that—turn me on with a single touch on my wrist. And I am turned on. I want him to come out here in the hallway and make good on the subtle promises he’s been making all night. His presence is powerful. I don’t see how anyone wouldn’t be drawn to it, and it’s even more potent since he’s focusing all this energy on me. I’m not someone who does one-night stands, but I know that if he says the word, I’ll be in his bed without a second thought.