were you thinking to celebrate?” Victor shrugged.
“I have Tiffany working on a few ideas,” he admitted. “I was thinking a night out—of course, not at any properties owned by the Sokolovs, or any of the families.” He smiled slightly.
“That would probably be a good idea,” Danielle said dryly. Victor chuckled and set aside his salad plate, sipping his drink. The waitress had brought them water, too—and Danielle made a mental note to slow down on her cocktail so she would have her full wits about her for the afternoon’s work.
“But I was thinking maybe dinner, a show, some drinks—something like that,” Victor continued. Danielle put down her fork, thinking about it.
“That sounds an awful lot like a date,” she pointed out. Victor shrugged.
“Technically going out to lunch like this is an awful lot like a date,” he countered. Danielle smiled in spite of herself.
“Fair enough,” she said. “I just...I guess I don’t want things to be any more complicated than they already are between us.”
“They aren’t that complicated; not really,” Victor said. “We work together well—even if it’s only been a couple of weeks—and that’s both in and out of bed.” Danielle felt herself smiling more deeply at that. She couldn’t say that he was wrong.
It was easy—too easy—to remember all the trysts between them over the past two weeks, starting with their first night together; the way that Victor seemed to read her as easily as a picture book, the way he fit just perfectly inside of her. The fact that he loved to hold himself back until she’d come at least once and preferably twice, before finishing.
She hadn’t been a virgin when they’d met—certainly not—but none of the men she’d been with before Victor had seemed to care as much about whether or not she finished; none of them seemed to have an instinctive grasp of how to turn her on, how to get her soaking wet, the way Victor had already shown.
In fact, in the depths of her mind Danielle had to admit that it was that very thing that made her worry; there was really nothing official between them, when you really got down to it. They were employer and employee, with an agreement that they would have sex on the clock when they both wanted it.
He could, she knew, decide that he was tired of her within a month and kick her to the curb. He could decide that he must have been insane to hire someone specifically for the sake of spending ridiculous amounts of money on charity and projects. He could change his mind in a day, and there was nothing that she would be able to really do about it.
But Danielle had also gotten where she had managed to before meeting Victor, from having a good sense of people: being able to read them, being able to figure out who they were and what they were about quickly. She would have—she knew—been a great asset to the Bey family on that score if she hadn’t decided not to go that route. That was, she thought, part of why Sam kept wanting to pull her back in, even in small ways: she had what their mother had called sense, with that special emphasis that meant that she wasn’t talking about run-of-the-mill common sense, but a kind of people sense.
And her sense of Victor was that he was genuine. And now he wanted to take her out on a date. If things become serious between us, that’s just going to mean that one day I’m going to have to introduce him and Sam officially. That’s going to mean that I have to tell Sam about him. And that’s going to be a whole big can of worms that I won’t be able to close up again. At the same time, though—why shouldn’t she go out with whoever she wanted to? Even if he was her boss?
“I’ll think about it,” Danielle said finally, just before their main courses arrived at the table. Victor nodded his acceptance of that condition.
“You’ve got plenty of time to consider it,” Victor told her. He raised his glass as the waitress left them alone once more, and Danielle clinked her mug against it carefully. “For now, let’s just enjoy this delicious food and not get too drunk before we have to go back to the office.” There was warmth in his bright blue eyes, and Danielle knew that his thoughts had turned, just like hers had, to the hour they’d have after the official lunch break.
She smiled back at him and sipped her drink, feeling the start of the tingle between her thighs. She was more than happy to commit to an hour of sex after a great meal—but the bigger step of going on an actual date with the man was something she was really going to have to figure out.
Chapter10
Victor waited for Danielle from inside his car, trying not to feel impatient. She agreed to go on the date—and you know that the date’s going to go well, he reminded himself. There was no doubt in Victor’s mind whatsoever that he and Danielle would end the night either at his place or hers, in bed together. They’d spent the entire day at work teasing each other; he knew that Danielle had purposely worn a skirt that showed off the delicious curve of her hips and the shape of her full, rounded ass—she wasn’t meeting with anyone that day, only staying in the office.
They hadn’t gone at each other all day, each of them making excuses: there was paperwork to be done, Victor had meetings, so on and so forth. But he had made sure that Danielle knew that he appreciated her outfit, and he had reminded her—in passing, as innocuously as possible—about previous trysts, referencing whichever charity or project they had been discussing when each one had happened.
Waiting for her outside of her apartment building, Victor was fairly certain that the night would end with as much spectacular sex as they both could stand. He had tried to strike a balance between making the evening romantic and keeping things light—he didn’t want to make things serious between them, not yet certainly. Admit it to yourself at least: you like her. Beyond being a good employee and a fantastic lay, you like her. It was true, Victor knew; but he wasn’t ready to do anything about that.
Finally, he saw the door to the building open, and Danielle emerged. She was definitely not wearing anything that she would have bought on the stipend he’d provided for her first month working with him, but Victor thought that she had definitely benefited from her higher pay: she wore a dress that Victor was sure would have been out of her price range before, cut almost exactly to the curves of her body.
It didn’t show too much skin, but there was definitely an excellent view of her strong legs and lush hips and breasts. As she came towards the car, Victor watched as Danielle pulled a light cardigan over her shoulders, smoothing the sleeves down her arms and adjusting her purse.
Victor opened the door and climbed out of the back seat of his car, smiling. “You look amazing,” he told Danielle, holding out the small—deliberately small—bouquet of hyacinths he had gotten for her. It had seemed, to him, like the kind of flower that was sweet and evocative—but at the same time didn’t have the loaded imagery that a bunch of roses would have. He leaned in and kissed Danielle on the cheek and caught the scent of her perfume. She smelled as delicious as always, and it was, for a moment, difficult not to reach out and pull her body against his.
“Thank you,” Danielle said, her cheeks taking on a flush of dusky pink underneath the warm sepia color of her skin. “You really are going all out tonight, aren’t you?”
“I want to celebrate right,” Victor told her, holding the car door open for Danielle to climb in. She tucked the skirt of her dress around her legs carefully and slid into the back seat with practiced ease. Victor appreciated the view of Danielle’s bare legs as he climbed in behind her, thanking the fact that he’d met her in the summer—although a month later, summer was only another month away from being truly over, and it would start going cool in the evenings.
But then, fall is the season for staying in...sitting around in the bath...watching movies and curling up in front of the fire and spending the whole night fooling around. It all depended on how their first real date went—and whether or not there would ever be another date.
“So how is this going to go?” Danielle spotted the vase where Victor had placed the hyacinth bouquet and put the flowers back into the water to keep them in good s
hape while the date went on.
“We’re going to Tuna Bar first, for some drinks and dinner before the show, and then Punch Line Philly to see Chris Porter, and then afterwards Zee Bar,” Victor explained. Danielle smiled playfully.