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“Ha. Well, I’m still here. You can rest easy.”
Pax raised his eyebrows in amusement. “The real question is, are you still going to be here tonight?”
“I think so.” She laughed. “Calm down, Pax. I’m not planning on going anywhere. I’m grateful and excited for this new opportunity, and only a little bit nervous about tonight. I trust you.” She stopped cold on the last sentence. “You are going to be... the one up there with me tonight, right?” She didn’t ask if he would be the one spanking her, but that was what she meant. Those types of thoughts were still too difficult to voice out loud without blushing furiously. She was pretty sure she was bright red just thinking them. This stuff was not for the faint of heart.
“I’ll be there with you,” Pax said seriously, taking her hand across the table. “I promise.”
In that moment, a line from every romance novel she had ever read suddenly made sense. When their hands touched innocently over the table, she swore her skin actually tingled, and the sensation traveled throughout her body, and down to her nether regions. She dropped his hand quickly. Oh, this was not good. She could not be crushing on her boss. Chill, he’s probably like this with all his girls. Just because the meaning of Pax’s girls wasn’t what she had assumed, didn’t mean that Pax himself was not a player.
“So, this breakfast, is it like a thing? Do you do this with all your girls on a regular basis—sort of like a check-in meeting? Or is it just with the new ones—like a welcome to the club breakfast?”
“I have never done this. I’ve never had a one-on-one meal with one of my female employees. Does that make you uncomfortable?”
It did a little. It also made her incredibly pleased. And nervous. “Okay, so… was there a reason for this breakfast meeting?”
“No, I just wanted to have a delicious breakfast with a beautiful young woman. And check to make sure you were still here,” he added teasingly.
“Oh, yeah, that.”
The silence was heavy and awkward, and Diamond began to panic. Was he flirting with her? It certainly seemed like it, but maybe that was just his personality. She didn’t really know. In her years at Aubergine, she had always done her best to avoid Paxton Donovan like the plague, never exchanging more than a casual hello, or a nod of acknowledgement as they passed in the hall. Had he even known her name? Also, was it hot in the café—or was it just her? Her entire body felt flushed, and all her senses were on high alert. She was thankful that the waitress chose that moment to show up with their food. In front of Pax she placed a bran muffin, and a small egg white omelet with mushrooms instead of spinach this time, and in front of Diamond, a plate overflowing with real honest to goodness breakfast food. Toast, eggs, bacon and pancakes.
“Oh my gosh! Really? Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me just yet. That’s twelve-grain bread with flax seed, homemade butter, farm fresh eggs from free range local chickens and whole grain pancakes with agave syrup. Oh, and turkey bacon.”
“Of course it is.”
She was shocked when Pax bowed his head in what she assumed was a silent prayer before unfolding his napkin in his lap and picking up his fork. She didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, so she did the same, minus the actual prayer. Pax Donovan was full of surprises it seemed.
The food was edible. Not what she would have picked, but close. The turkey bacon and eggs were close enough to the real thing, but she made a note to avoid the pancakes in the future.
She had thought she had reached her surprise limit for the past twenty-four hours, until Pax lifted his water glass in mid-air, and motioned for her to do the same.
“A toast,” he declared “To new experiences, and new relationships.” She raised her glass and clinked it to his, mimicking his smile with one of her own—but inside she was freaking out. New relationships? She assumed he was talking about their new employment relationship but she just wished he would have specified. Everything he said butted right up to that invisible line between acceptable and flirtatious and the line was getting blurrier by the second.
It’s just his nature, her inner voice chirped. But was it? She had known Pax for several years, and this was a brand new side of him she was seeing.
