Sweet Seduction Sacrifice (6 page)

I stood shaking in the arms of sexy smile and name, Dominic Anscombe, senior partner at ADK and the world continued to turn. My life had come to a complete stop, but the world continued to turn. How was that at all possible?

Dominic led me back inside Sweet Seduction and straight out to the rear of the shop. Past the the couches and seating area, past extremely concerned Kelly and Lucas at the espresso and chocolate counters, past the music area and out to my office out back, as if he knew exactly where to take me. He sat me down in my swivel chair and softly closed the door at his back. Bic Runga's
One More Cup of Coffee
stopped mid beat and silence wrapped around me.

I watched as he flicked his gaze around the room, taking in my tidy desk, the laptop, the potted plants and cabinets and then the multitude of snap shots pinned to a cork board off to the side. There were at least fifty, of all the staff, my friends, neighbours, me. Everyone who meant something was on that board, including my cat. But none of Brett, I'd ripped those to pieces when he stole my gran's money. Even when I let him come back, I didn't let him back on the cork board. The cork board was sacred, he'd lost his one chance to be there and wouldn't ever get another shot.

Dominic's large manicured hand came out and snatched a photo from the board. I thought it was a bit invasive, but I didn't say a thing, words failed me right now. He studied it for several seconds and then incredibly placed it in his inside jacket pocket without saying a word. What the fuck?

I glared at him as his eyes came to rest on mine, his lips twitched and an eyebrow shot up in challenge. I held his gaze and tried to find the energy to hit out, but again it failed me. I'd lost my mojo, I just didn't have it in me to complain. He could have the damn photo, it was probably of my cat and he's got a cat fetish or something.

"Ben's a good man," he said out of nowhere. "You won't even know he is there."

I didn't argue, I hadn't even known Brett was an underworld criminal until today, I could hardly be counted on to pick up on a super hot, bad-ass bodyguard if he didn't want to be seen.

Dominic waited a beat and when it was obvious I wasn't going to comment, he continued.

"Do you have flatmates?" he asked, I shook my head. "Anyone at home with you?"

Another head shake, then, "I have a cat." Yeah, good come back, Gen.

"I can see that," Dominic said glancing back at the cork board. Cat fetish, go figure.

We both fell silent.

"I'm taking you to dinner," Dominic announced out of abso-fucking-lutely nowhere.

"Why?" I demanded, unsure if I could handle a candlelit dinner with god-like Dominic Anscombe in my current discombobulated state.

"Because you shouldn't be alone," he replied succinctly. No candles then, I was guessing. He felt obliged to help out the
keep Gen safe campaign
. And then I had a thought.

"I'll have Ben."

"You won't see him, he doesn't like coming out of the shadows when he tails someone, and you shouldn't feel alone." Slight change of words there and for some reason they made a warm feeling seep right through my core. Even if Ben was keeping me safe, Dominic didn't want me to
feel
alone.

And then I woke up from my mini-dreamlike state.

"I can invite Kelly over, she'd spend the evening with me." I do have friends, you know.

"I'm taking you to dinner," he repeated, this time with a definite edge.

I glared at him, he stared back at me impassively. Then I sighed and slumped in my chair. Dinner it is then.

"Good," he said at my obvious capitulation, he sounded satisfied, but not at all surprised. I was guessing not too many women said no to god-like Dominic Anscombe. I crossed my arms over my chest and decided I would try better this evening to live up to all feminists out there, determined to deny Dominic god-like Anscombe another yes.

His lips twitched at the edges as he stared down at me.

"What time does your shop close?" he asked, sounding amused as hell now.

"Five-thirty, but it takes half an hour to clean up," I offered, thinking I'd head home and change into something more appropriate than my work uniform and bra flashing top then.

"I'll swing by and pick you up from here," he said, turning to the door.

"We're going to dinner straight after work?" I asked, my voice a little high with disappointment. Grabbing dinner on the way home from work just didn't seem romantic. Ah, what the hell was I thinking?

He turned back from the door to look down at me again. I was beginning to dislike how it made me feel when he loomed above me like that. If he was god-like at every other opportunity, he was even more god-like right now. He took up more space in my tiny office than he had any right to and yet somehow he still made me feel safe. As though his impressive physique above me was protective not domineering. As though he'd lay his body down in front of that door if someone decided to attack. I'm not sure why I felt that way, I just did and it left me unsettled. Dominic Anscombe was a Queen Street lawyer, not a superhero or knight in shining armour from a fairytale - or dream.

"I'll escort you home and then we'll decide from there where we will eat."

Oh dear God, Dominic god-like, the sexiest smile and name, Anscombe in my apartment. This was so not happening.

"Um," I said, but it was a waste of time, he'd slipped through the door and disappeared. Remarkably as nimble as his brother.

I glanced at my watch and noted it was a quarter to five already. I looked at my desk and the still unfinished accounts and then looked back up at the cork board and the missing spot where a photo - I'm unsure which one - was gone. This morning had started out bad and just got worse. And now I had a not-date with one of the most gorgeous men I had ever laid eyes on in my life and he was going to enter my flat. He'd seen my dream, my shop, he'd seen me lose it when presented with red roses, he'd been in my office - a private space only my staff and I have ever entered - and now he would see my sanctuary. The place I had turfed Brett Elliott out of and then taken him back in four times over the past year.

Embarrassment washed over me in an all consuming wave. I was such a screw-up and dork. Why hadn't I just sold the flat and moved somewhere new? I knew why, it was within walking distance to the shop and I had chosen it, purchased it with my own deposit, furnished it with my own furniture, made it my home. Brett had lived there, but it had never actually ever been his.

Still, it felt a little dirty now, which reflected on me. It was my home, I'd bought it, fashioned it, made it what it was, and let Brett Elliott in it. His stink defiled it and washed off on me. I dropped my head in my hands, elbows to knees and groaned loudly. My life was screwed up and it looked like it was going to get worse. I just had to keep repeating to myself, that for Sweet Seduction I'd do anything, even survive an embarrassing day such as this.

It was in that position, lamenting the state of my life and the choices I had made, that Kelly found me. The door opening softly, indeterminate music wafting in as she held it briefly open, and then silence as she sat her butt against the edge of my desk off to the side.

"So, I guess my dibs no longer counts," she said as she flipped a pen end to end in her hand. My head shot up and I stared at her.

"Dominic was the hottie you dibbed?"

"Well, duh! He is the hottest of the hot-rush bunch," she declared, smiling down at me. "Well done, you, bagged a hottie."

"I have not bagged a hottie!" I proclaimed with much gusto.

"You have so bagged a hottie," she argued with a wry grin.

"Have not!" I shot back.

"Have too," she answered and then giggled like a school girl. "He is fine, girlfriend," she announced.

"Don't girlfriend me," I said snottily. Her giggles segued into raucous laughter. "Anyway," I added, feeling I had to clarify things so she didn't get too carried away with the wrong idea, "he's just being kind because his partner is my lawyer and his brother is in on the case."

"Yeah, I bet that's the only reason," she sarcastically remarked.

"It is!" I all but shouted.

"Yeah, you're right," she conceded. "It had absolutely nothing to do with the near drool-like gaze he had on you whenever you leaned forward over the coffee table and flashed your bra, or the way he shifted his body to get a better view of your fine arse as you bent to pick up those roses in front of the counter. Or, I'm
so
sure, it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact he moved in lightning speed to help you sit when you looked like you would faint, or the fact that he wouldn't let you go afterwards. And it abso-fucking-lutely, posi-fucking-tively had nothing to do with the way he looked when you were going all psycho rose killer on that bouquet outside, and he instructed your lawyer to hang the fuck back when he made an attempt to come out and calm you, so he could instead," she finished.

"How did he look?" I asked, what to me seemed the most pertinent question. Kelly obviously agreed.

"Lost," she whispered. "As though it was tearing him apart too."

"That's impossible," I whispered back.

"I know," she whispered in return, reaching over and taking hold of my hand and squeezing it. "But you've bagged a hottie and you can't deny it.

"He's insane," I announced in a louder voice.

"No, he knows a good thing when he sees it and he's one of those guys who takes what he wants no matter what. I've always wanted one of those guys," she said wistfully.

So had I, I agreed just as wistfully in my head.

"So what did you guys get up to in here? Did he kiss you? Was it good?" she demanded, then added, "Of course it was good, he's the hottest of hotties, he'd know how to kiss. Did he slip you his tongue?"

I stared at her, mouth open and eyes wide. Was she insane? I'd met the guy that morning, if you call sharing a two minute elevator ride, helping him spill coffee on plush cream carpet and making a fool of myself in front of his eyes, meeting someone. And had a disastrous get-together in my shop with my lawyer - his partner - his brother and one of his investigators all in tow. Hardly enough time to get to know someone in order to kiss them. I'm just not that kind of girl!

"No kiss, then," Kelly accurately surmised from my look. "Then what did you guys talk about, he was here for well over five minutes, a lot can happen in five minutes." I hadn't realised it had been that long, but then I was barely present for most of it, stuck inside my head.

"He told me how good Ben was, the guy whose been assigned as my bodyguard."

"Ooo, bodyguard," Kelly piped in.

"He took a photo of the cork board and slipped it inside his jacket pocket," I added, starting to feel the appropriate amount of anger and incredulity at that.

"He did?" Kelly asked, scanning the photos with a frown.

"And he's walking me home after work and then we're deciding where to go for dinner together," I said in a rush as Kelly flipped up the edges of some of the photos to get a better a view.

"I think I know which one he took," she said and then stilled. "He's what?" she demanded, face a mask of shock and awe.

"Which photo?" I asked, trying to steer clear of that look on her face.

"Ungh-uh," she said incoherently. "What's this about escorting you home and taking you to dinner? That should have been the
first
thing you told me when I walked through that door. Am I your best friend or am I your best friend?" she demanded a little huffily.

"You're my best friend," I placated her, attempting to not answer the original question at all.

"Oh no, sweet pea, you do not fob me off like that. He asked you to dinner, spill."

"He's just being kind," I declared.

"Did you or did you not, hear every word I just said about him ogling your chest and arse and not letting your lawyer come to calm you down?"

"I heard you," I muttered, starting to pack up what was left of my desk and shove things in my handbag.

"So?" Kelly was like a dog with a bone, a bloody Rottweiler with a huge arse bone.

"So what?" I shot back with attitude, she smiled.

"You like him," she announced with a nod of her head. She followed it up with, "This is good. You need a man like him, someone to look out for you, instead of simply using you for a place to park his shit and live off, then stomping all over you and kicking dirt in your face."

"Jeez, Kel, tell it like it really is," I muttered, getting to my feet and thinking it was high time to check on Lucas out front before the doors had to close.

"I have a good feeling about this," she announced as she followed me out to the music area. Bic Runga had become Carly Binding's
This Is It
.

"I'm glad one of us does," I muttered, but I don't think she heard me.

We had a flurry of last minute customers, which kept us all busy for the next twenty minutes until I locked the doors and started the arduous, but rather quick clean-up routine. Lucas took care of the espresso machine, Kelly packed up the remaining chocolates to go out into our cool store unit out back, while I wiped surfaces, chucked take-away cups in the bin, emptied the rubbish out back and swept the floor. Hard out it takes about twenty minutes to half an hour, with great head thumping music it can be a blast. We were all singing at the top of voices along to OMC's
How Bizarre
, when there was a rap at the front door. I swung around with my broom flying to see Dominic standing on the other side, watching me intently, a small twitch at the edges of his extremely kissable mouth.