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“What?”
"I believe you heard me the first time, mister," she replies, throwing my words at me with a smug smirk that suddenly makes me want to discipline her in the most erotic way. "Or are you hard of hearing?"
And without waiting for me to respond, she turns around and walks – sashays, even – away in the opposite direction, her heels clicking an unforgettable rhythm against the cold hardwood floor.
I watch her retreating figure, a distant possibility forming at the edge of my consciousness. Snickering lightly to myself, I raise the phone back to my ear. “Sorry about that, Farrell.”
"What was that about?" he asks. Of course, he knows what it was about; he heard the whole exchange. I can hear the slight edge in his voice, a subtle warning not to indulge in my more perilous nature.
"Oh, nothing," I reply as I watch the waitress round a corner and disappear from my sight. "Just a little run-in with a pretty woman. Where were we?”
Chapter Two
Dana
I glance at the old leather watch on my wrist and hurry my steps down the long walkway that leads to the club's building. My eyes feel heavy from lack of sleep, and the coffee that I gulped minutes ago before leaving home is doing nothing to curb the effects of fatigue that's heavily pressing down on every one of my nerves.
I had a few hours between the end of my shift and this moment, but I couldn't catch a wink. Maybe I should blame the friend request I got from a random guy online; it wouldn’t be the first time my ex, James, has tried to track me that way.
Calling him an ex is generous. James and I had barely dated for over a month. He seemed nice at first, but he was obsessed with taking my virginity. When I refused to give it to him, he melted down, screaming about how ungrateful I was. I broke it off, but that didn’t stop him from sending flowers and following me home from work. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t found my new apartment, but the thought keeps me up at night.
Or maybe I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking about the blue-eyed daredevil from last night…
Try as I might, I can’t stop replaying the scene in my head over and over again. I kept seeing that aggravating curve of his lips… the bold appraisal in his piercing blue eyes as they roamed my body and face… the unsheathed, almost careless hunger in his gaze… They'd all served to aggravate and excite me all at once. Isuppose I should be ashamed of how my body had reacted at that moment. He was a total stranger, and a condescending one at that. Yet I'd felt a shocking heat that spread from my very core.
And the way he looked at me… It was as if he knew the effect he had on me and was mocking me for it. Maybe that's what made me so mad…
There was something about him, an unmistakable grace that set him apart from the other obnoxious men that I've come across over the years. More than his smoldering hot looks and seemingly expensive clothes, he possessed an aura of authority, the self-assurance of someone who's used to commanding obedience from everyone around him.
For one, I'm glad I didn't cower in the face of such intimidation, but maybe I should have played nice, as is the club's rule.
Damn the rules. He doesn't seem to be a regular, so I'll probably never see him again anyway.
I shake my head slightly, dispelling the thoughts of him as I enter the locker room. I walk over to my locker, pull open the door, and shove my handbag in it.
“Hey, Dana! You're here,” says a familiar, perky voice. “My, you look beat!”
I look up to see Gina, a small, bright-eyed woman with an annoyingly bright smile that makes me wonder if she's got some secret magical potion that always keeps her so energetic. Gina is one of the very few coworkers I speak to at The Eclipse, and that's because she's always in everyone's faces.
I wish I didn't have to run into her today of all days.
“Good morning, Gina,” I greet, mustering what I hope is a friendly smile.
“Did you hear?”
“What?” I ask, shutting my locker door while mentally planning my escape.
Gina looks around as if to be sure no one else is nearby, then leans closer to me. "It's bad," she says in a conspiratorial whisper. "There's internal restructuring going on and they're letting people go."
My heart suddenly stops and picks up again at an uneven rhythm. “W-what?”
"It's true," Gina says with a jerky nod. "I'm close to some top dogs around here. You know how bad things have been since Billy was busted for using the club as a cover for his drug op and how we've been running on negative PR… Well, word is the owner is here…"
“The owner?”
Although The Eclipse is the biggest nightclub in Chicago, no one knows anything about the owner. I'd always assumed it belonged to Billy Coleman with the way he always carried himself like a mini-god, but he was revealed to be a mere manager after the drug bust.
“Yes,” Gina replies with another enthusiastic nod. “Apparently, The Eclipse belongs to some billionaire heir who'd rather remain anonymous. Anyway, he flew in from New York yesterday and is bent on a thorough restructuring; hence, this impromptu staff meeting.”
