Page 29 of Dangerous Attraction

Trix

I set six alarms this morning, not wanting to be late again, which I wasn't. Instead, I'm here early, so early in fact that the sun was only just coming up when I started walking here earlier.

I've spent the last hour cleaning down the kitchen, scrubbing every inch of the place.

Checking the time on my phone, I breathe a sigh of relief when I see it's almost eight. Honey should be in today, since she told me now I'm working here, she'll only be in on Tuesdays, Thursdays and occasionally the weekends.

I'll be glad to have her here because yesterday was stressful when it came to making food for everyone.

The drinks and the cleaning—albeit tiring—is the easy part. Making food, however? That's not my forte.

There may be a cookbook with step by step instructions on the kitchen side, but I've never been good at following those.

Thankfully, Luxe was still insistent on loitering around, so he helped me with the large pasta bake I had to make.

Glancing around at the sparkling surfaces, I smile, feeling triumphant.

Pushing the door open to peek into the bar area, I see it's still empty and clean from last night, and I sigh in relief.

Grabbing a rag and spray bottle, I leave the kitchen and make my way upstairs to the small living room. I figured I might as well keep myself busy with that while I have nothing else to do.

When I round the top of the stairs, I see a slim man with dark, auburn hair sitting in the corner, his gaze locked onto the TV in front of him.

As I hesitantly move up the last few steps, his eyes slowly move over to meet mine, and I offer him a hesitant smile.

"Sorry, I was coming up here to clean, but I can do that later if you'd prefer?"

A crease forms in the middle of his forehead which is covered with freckles, and his haunted, downturned eyes examine my face before moving back to the TV.

Unsure of what his lack of response means, I make a move to turn around and go back the way I came from, but then he speaks, extremely quietly, but loud enough for me to hear.

"You can stay."

An awkward silence fills the room as I start wiping down the small table, the only sound coming from the TV which might as well be on mute with how quiet it is.

While I'm wiping down the leather seats on the chairs, I glance up at the TV to see what he's watching, and when I spot the characters from my favorite show, my lips tug up into a smile.

"I love that show," I tell him, peeking back over at him.

His eyes dart to where I'm standing, but he just stares at me before turning his attention back to the screen.

Taking the hint he doesn't want to talk to me, I busy myself with wiping down the other chairs, then move to the large sofa that's placed beside the love seat he's occupying.

Kneeling on the cushions, I reach over the back of the sofa to spray the window ledge, then wipe it down.

Moving off of the sofa, I look at the TV and the unit it's sitting on, twisting my lips as I contemplate cleaning them or not.

Before I can come up with a solution, two thick vertical lines appear on the screen, freezing the image in place.

When I turn to the man next to me, he's already staring, and he dips his head toward the TV, motioning for me to move toward it.

"Thanks," I mutter. Quickly making my way across the space, I use the rag in my hand to wipe the screen, then spray the unit beneath it, wiping away the small layer of dust that's gathered.

Once I'm done, I tentatively move toward the stairs.

When I reach them, I look over my shoulder.

As if he can feel the weight of my eyes on his face, he turns to face me, and after a moment, his lips subtly quirk up.