Authors: Kirsten DeMuzio
“Ten o’clock. We’ll go late so we don’t actually have to eat the food there,” Alexander replied.
Luke shook his head as he left. His boss must really have an interest in this girl to set foot in a place like The Garden of Eden. Where The Onyx had expensive boutiques, world class spas and sold out shows, The Garden of Eden had adult toy stores, a tattoo parlor and strip clubs. Night and day.
Luke
wondered what exactly Alexander’s interest in this girl was. He had read her file, and she wasn’t going to go for Alexander’s usual no strings arrangement. Maybe he had finally met a girl he wanted more than one night with? Anything was possible.
Kat peered at her reflection in the mirror of the dressing room at The Garden of Eden and dabbed some extra concealer under her eyes. She never slept well, but the last two days had been even worse than usual. After receiving the latest note, she was afraid to close her eyes even during the day. Turning her head from side to side, she made sure she was wearing the required amount of makeup and her hair was curled and fluffed.
Her coworker, Larissa Robbins, sat in the chair beside her. She blew out a ring of smoke before snuffing out her cigarette on the counter.
Kat glanced over. “Those things will kill you, you know.”
Larissa rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, yeah. I know. But smoking keeps my appetite down. I don’t have freakishly high metabolism that lets me eat whatever I want like some people.”
Kat applied another coat of lip gloss. “I’m not a freak. I just exercise…a lot.”
“That’s an understatement.”
“How’s Zeus?” Kat asked, attempting to steer the conversation away from
her. She and Larissa had worked together for three years, and she was the closest thing Kat had to a friend, though they had never actually done anything socially outside of work. Not for lack of trying on Larissa’s part.
“I think he’s cheating on me,” Larissa sighed.
Of course he’s cheating on her thought Kat. With a name like Zeus, which couldn’t possibly be his real name, and his career choice of drug dealing, of course he was cheating on her. She might not have many friends, but she knew when to lie.
“I’m sure he’s not cheating on
you. Look at you, you’re gorgeous.”
Larissa smoothed down the ruffles of her costume over her hips. “Yeah, I am, right? Maybe I’ll dump him. Find a nice guy who wouldn’t dream of cheating on me.”
Kat stood up and straightened her own costume, which consisted of a bra top and low slung, short ruffly skirt made out of green fabric designed to look like leaves. High heeled green suede boots completed the look, which no one in the world would describe as classy.
Kat adjusted her top to make
sure everything was where it was supposed to be. Wearing this tiny costume and having scumbags stare at her ass all night made her skin crawl. But she made good money, and she kept her ears open. The customers started to talk after a few drinks, and the kind of guys who frequented The Garden of Eden were the kind who might just have the type of information she was looking for.
Without bothering to knock, their boss, Ron, stuck his head in and said, “Get your sweet asses out here. We’ve got thirsty customers.”
Larissa fluffed her platinum blonde hair one more time and walked past Kat. “Showtime, doll.”
It was just a few minutes before 10:00 pm, and Kat’s shift would run until 6:00 am. This was her preferred shift, though she sometimes had to work the 4:00 pm to midnight. Sleeping at night was not something that came easily for Kat, so she liked to work
in the dark and sleep during the day.
Kat and Larissa always worked the poker room, and there were several regulars that
often asked for them. They knew by now that Kat was hands off, but the new customers could get grabby, especially after a few drinks. Ron frowned upon her injuring the customers, so she had become an expert at sidestepping ass grabs.
She was in the process of doing just that when the door opened and two
well dressed men walked in. Kat froze when she saw a pair of dark eyes locked on her. So dark they looked black in the dim lighting.
She had been by
The Onyx but had never been inside. Still, just from the outside she could tell it was worlds away from this dump. What was Alexander Petrovsky doing in her poker room? Why did she have the feeling he wasn’t here to gamble? Probably because he entered the room like he owned the place and everyone in it, including her. There was no way this was a coincidence.
Kat’s surprise at seeing Alexander there threw her off her rhythm,
and she stood staring until she felt a big sweaty palm sliding up the back of her bare thigh. Instinct kicked in and she grabbed the hand, twisting the fingers and wrist back at a painfully unnatural angle. The guy squealed in pain and looked up at her with wide eyes.
“Don’t touch me,” Kat hissed before releasing him and walking quickly back to the bar. Thankfully
, Ron was busy greeting his VIP guests and didn’t notice her manhandling the customers.
Larissa joined her
and started filling her tray with a round of beers for table number eight.
“Did you see who’s here?”
Larissa asked with an excited gleam in her eyes.
“
Mmm hmm.”
“I hope Ron seats him in my section. I would love to get my hands on…”
“Okay, I get it,” Kat interrupted, not wanting to hear exactly what part of Alexander that Larissa wanted to get her hands on. Normally she would tune Larissa out when she started drooling over some guy, but this time she didn’t want to hear it - for reasons other than disinterest. Reasons she didn’t fully understand.
When
Larissa left to deliver bottles of beer, Kat took her time ringing up the drinks in the computer. She let her hair fall over her shoulder, shielding her face so she could peek in Alexander’s direction without detection. Ron was practically falling all over himself to show Alexander and his companion to “the best table in the house”. Kat rolled her eyes. There were no good tables in this dump.
The guy who was with Alexander was dressed in a black suit with a light blue shirt, open at the collar and no tie. He was handsome with brown hair, and the way his eyes
constantly drifted around the room gave him away as security. The five o’clock shadow and slight scowl on his face made him look a little rough around the edges.
Alexander, on the other hand, was polished and put together in a dark gray suit, white shirt, and dark red tie. There was nothing casual about him. His face was clean shaven and his black
wavy hair was perfectly styled. But the gleam in his dark eyes gave him away. Kat had become an expert at recognizing danger, and it was there in his eyes. The thing she didn’t know was what kind of danger he posed and to whom.
Ron waved Larissa over to their table, and Kat could hear him telling her to give the gentlemen whatever they wanted. And she might just do it too, if the price was right. Looking away, Kat snapped herself back to the present. She had a job to do, and she couldn’t waste any time on Alexander
Petrovsky. Her tips from waitressing were what kept money in the bank.
Crossing the room to take the orders from table four, which seemed to be a bachelor
party already in full swing, suddenly Kat wasn’t sure which was the lesser of two evils - drunk, horny ex-frat boys or…Alexander Petrovsky. With a sigh, she braced herself for being leered at and grabbed for and headed toward the table.
Across the room, Alexander watched Kat. He watched how she had nearly broken the wrist of a man nearly three times her size because he had touched her leg. He watched how she visibly squared her shoulders as she went to serve a table of rowdy young men. He watched her as she had watched him.
Ron Branson had clearly known who Alexander was, and had gone so far as to pimp
out one of the waitresses. But there was only one waitress that Alexander was interested in, and it wasn’t the one currently setting his drink down in front of him.
The blonde
smiled seductively and cocked her hip out. “Is there anything else I can get for you, Mr. Petrovsky?” It was a loaded question.
“Yes, there is,” he replied.
Her brown eyes lit up. “What’s that?”
Alexander leaned forward and lowered his voice. “I would like Miss Rossi to serve us for the rest of the evening.” Hurt flashed briefly through her eyes before he continued. “For your troubles,” Alexander said as he pulled a thick wad of cash from inside his jacket.
The light in her eyes was back. She snatched the money from his hand and tucked it inside her top. “Sure thing, sugar. I’ll send her right over.” She sashayed away with one last wink.
Luke
took a swallow of the whiskey in his glass and looked around. “This place is disgusting. Kat doesn’t look like the type who would be working here.”
“Hmm, no she doesn’t. I think her reasons for working here are strategic,” Alexander murmured. He continued to watch Kat for her reaction when
her coworker relayed his message.
Kat was getting her tray ready for the bachelor party when Larissa came up to the bar with a huge grin on her face. Kat raised one eyebrow, but Larissa started jabbering before she could ask what was up.
“It is your lucky day, girl!
Not only did he specifically ask for you - by name - but he gave me a big fat tip for serving him just one drink.” Larissa pulled the cash from her bra and fanned through the bills. “There must be almost a grand here, Kat! I guess it’s my lucky night too,” Larissa squealed. She grabbed the tray of drinks Kat had just fixed. “I’ll trade you one sexy Russian for a bachelor and all his friends.”
Kat blew a strand of hair out of her face and looked at Alexander out of the corner of her eye. Of course, he was staring at her.
Well, she thought she might as well get this over with. Only twenty minutes into her shift and it seemed like she’d been here for hours already.
With as much confidence as she could muster, Kat strolled over to table ten, where Alexander sat with his unnamed friend. As she approached
, both men stood as if she was a guest at their table instead of a waitress wearing half of an outfit.
Alexander held out his hand to her. Kat looked at his hand and back up to his dark eyes. She did not make a move to put out her hand in return. Luke looked from her to his boss and seemed surprised when the corner of Alexander’s mouth quirked up as he lowered his hand.
“Miss Rossi, allow me to introduce myself…” Alexander began.
“I know who you are. What do you want?” Kat bluntly interrupted him.
Alexander cleared his throat. He was not used to being treated this way, but for some reason he expected nothing less from her. “This is my associate, Mr. Wells,” Alexander said, gesturing to
Luke.
Kat’s eyes flicked briefly to
Luke and then returned to bore holes into Alexander. Luke watched the silent exchange between his boss and this hot-tempered beautiful young woman. Normally Alexander wanted female companionship with as little friction as possible. Easy and simple. He may say he wanted to talk to Miss Rossi about business, but Luke had the feeling there was an ulterior motive at work.
After a six second stare down, Kat gestured to the full glasses on the table. “Well, I see you already have drinks.” She turned to leave, but Alexander caught her hand, wrapping his fingers lightly around her slender wrist.
Kat immediately stiffened, but he released her as quickly as he had touched her.
“Was there something else you needed?” Kat said, the ice in her tone nearly freezing the air around them.
“I had hoped you would join me for a drink.”
Kat scoffed. “I don’t have time, Mr.
Petrovsky. I am working in case you didn’t notice.”
Alexander caught Ron’s eye across the room, and motioned him over with a slight incline of his head. “Mr. Branson. I would like Miss Rossi to join me for a drink. Will that be a problem?” His tone suggested there would be bigger problems for Ron if he had a problem with it.
Ron looked way too eager to pimp Kat out as he hurriedly said, “Oh no, of course not. Take as long as you like, Kat.”
Kat rolled her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest. Alexander motioned for Kat to take the seat across from him as Luke quietly stood and walked away. Kat watched him walk outside before glaring at the empty chair she was standing next to.
“Please sit, Mi
ss Rossi. I assure you, I do not wish to make you uncomfortable. I would like to discuss a business proposition with you.”
If her glare was cold before, it was downright glacial now. “I am not a prostitute. No matter how much money you throw at me…”
Alexander held up his hands in surrender. “You have misunderstood me, Katya.”
Kat froze at the sound of her full name. Nobody called her that.
Nobody. Not even her mother, who had given her the name, had called her Katya.
Slowly she turned back around. “How do you know my name?”
Again Alexander gestured to the chair. “Please, Katya. Sit.” When she hesitated, he lowered his voice. “I assure you, what I have to offer you is strictly of a business nature. I believe I can help you get what you want most.”
Kat narrowed her eyes, which looked more green than blue in this lighting. Her thick black lashes cast shadows on her high cheekbones.
Reluctantly she pulled out the chair and perched on the edge, resting her forearms on the table and tilting her head inquisitively.
“How
could you possibly know what I want most, Mr. Petrovsky?”