I remember his smoldering eyes. The way they roamed all over my body. Even thinking about them now made goose bumps scatter my skin. He is a man you cannot ignore. He must have the same effect on most women. I’ll just have to be professional about it, and ignore his magnetic eyes. I’ve worked with people I’ve been attracted to before, and nothing has ever happened between us. I didn’t let it affect my day to day ability to do my job. And this will be just the same.
I’ll make damn sure it is.
Alex might be able to swan in here and buy the place, but he can’t make me act a certain way or do things I wouldn’t usually do. Only I have that power over myself, and I intend to keep it that way.
It’s not like I’m looking for a relationship anyway.
I check my watch and see ten minutes have passed. I stand up to head for Lord Alstree’s old office. I make my way across the casino floor and along the hallway.
I reach his door and I pause for a moment, suddenly nervous. I tell myself I’m being ridiculous. What is there to be nervous about? I know this place like the back of my hand and I know all of the legalities of running a casino. If Alex is planning to test me, I know I’ll be able to answer any of his questions, be they operational or logistical.
I pull a compact mirror from my jacket pocket and check my make-up. My mascara hasn’t run and my teeth don’t have lipstick on them. I snap my compact shut and slip it back into my pocket. It’s as good as it’s going to get. I knock smartly on the door.
“Come in,” Alex calls.
I push the door open and step inside. Alex is seated behind a big ornate antique desk. Somehow this room is exactly how I pictured it might be. He nods towards one of the chairs on the opposite side and I sit down.
“You’re punctual. I like that. Can I get you another drink?”
I stop myself from automatically saying no. That’s not what a confident woman would do. I smile at him. “All right. I’ll have whatever you’re having. You did give me the night off. I might as well make the most of it.”
“True,” he agrees. “And I really meant it about giving you the night off. What I have to say won’t take too long.”
“Take your time,” I say smoothly. “I expected to be at work tonight so it’s not like I have any other plans.”
“Then let’s at least keep the drinks coming and make it somewhat sociable,” he says, standing up and walking over to his bar. He fixes our drinks in silence and I resist the urge to fill the silence with babbling. To my surprise he puts a G&T with a slice of orange in front of me. He raises his glass of whisky. “To a mutually beneficial relationship.”
I nod and take a sip. I watch him settle himself behind the desk again. I realize I feel better when he is not prowling about the room. I take another sip.
“So what was with all the theatrics, then?” I ask, the gin making me a lot bolder than I would usually be with a new boss. “You could have just come to my office and introduced yourself then run a performance appraisal on me to assess my suitability for the job.”
He grins. Downright wolfish, that grin. “I could have. But where’s the fun in that? Besides performance appraisals are useless. I needed a quick and dirty way to make sure you’re the right person for the … job.”
Did I imagine that slight pause he made before the word job? Besides my track record speaks for itself on that score, but I let it go. Maybe he was one of those bosses that was going to be weird. Maybe he wanted to catch us behaving badly while we did not know who he was.
“So how did you do it?” I ask. “Cheat the table?”
“You’re the manager. You tell me,” he says.
That twinkle is back in his eye, but I decide to be serious. I really could learn something here, something useful.
“I know of two ways to cheat at craps, and you were doing neither.”
“Go on,” he prompts me.
He leans forward, watching me with interest, and I try not to let his dark gaze distract me.
“One way is to have the box person use rigged dice. Sasha has been here far too long to be involved in something like that. The other way is magnets, but we have top of the range detectors at every entrance and I would have been alerted the second you stepped through the doors if you had magnets on you.”