ASTONDamn that man was hot. He was tons better looking than the arrogant frat guys, with none of their attitudes. He couldn’t be more than a few years older than they were, but compared to him they looked like adolescent boys. Blake, on the other hand, was all man.Tall, well-spoken, confident. He radiated strength and power. A lot of times with men around my age, it looked to me like their suits wore them instead of the other way around. Almost like they hoped the suit made them look as powerful as they wanted to feel, as they hoped to be seen.Blake was different, he wore the suit. The suit didn’t wear him. It seemed right on him, made especially for him, but more. Almost like the fabric itself clung to him, wanting to be in his presence.The air of cool confidence he exuded was unmistakable. The magnetism of a man who knew who he was, what he wanted and how he was going to get it. And he probably got it all the time, whatever it might be.His attitude alone would have made him one

BLAKESifting through thousands of unanswered emails, I waited for the conference call from my father and my brother to come in. It was a beautiful, typical California day outside with clear blue skies and warm weather. I, however, was cooped up in my hotel room waiting for our weekly briefing to begin.It was day four of my weekly hostage situation, aka Thursday. I worked almost every weekend, but I was looking forward to taking this weekend off. Danny and I had been at loggerheads more often than not this week and I needed some space away from him, or away from my computer rather—which is where it seemed he lived when I wasn’t physically close by.The call came through when it was supposed to, almost to the minute. My father was nothing if not punctual. His face popped up on my screen first, followed shortly by Danny’s, in its own window. As far as I knew, my brother was in Arizona this week.“Blake. How’s California?” My father asked.“Still standing. The hotel is doing well, but I

ASTONTiffany and I gathered in front of the TV. Blake came to stand next to us. A handsome man appeared on the screen and most of us in the lounge went quiet. Tiffany gasped. “Oh my God, that’s Danny McAllen, the big boss’s son.”I frowned, wondering what could be so important that one of the McAllen’s themselves would be making the announcement. I didn’t follow society gossip much and I hadn’t met any of the family in person since I started working for the McAllen group. “Have you met him?”Tiffany shook her head. “Can’t say that I wouldn’t like to. He’s damn good-looking isn’t he? And can you imagine how rich he is?”I suddenly became very aware of Blake standing right next to me. He probably hadn’t known who Danny McAllen was either, but he still didn’t need to hear Tiffany make those kinds of comments about the guy. “Tiffany!”She glanced at Blake, but shrugged. “What? I bet he’s loaded. I would sleep with him for a portion of his money, even if it was just a small portion.”Seri

BLAKEGoing to dinner with the managers of our hotels was something I did quite often. It was one of the tools I used to gauge how they really felt about the company. But this was the first time I’d found myself trying on my third shirt before heading out.Getting dressed for dinner with Aston felt different than it usually did when I was grabbing dinner with a manager. That felt like work, this felt like a date.One of the girls I’d dated once told me blue shirts made my eyes ‘pop.’ Looking in the full-length mirror in my walk-in closet, I decided I agreed with her. The color of my shirt did bring out my eyes.And you sound like a fucking girl.Fuck it, I decided. I was wearing the shirt. The other two looked just fine too, actually. I didn’t even know why I cared. I shouldn’t have cared.This was a business dinner. Aston was coming to the restaurant after her shift. She might not know it was business for me too, but that hardly mattered. I wasn’t lying to her, and I wasn’t interview

ASTONBlake followed me out the back entrance of the hotel with no questions asked. I appreciated his trust, but I was confused by it. Despite having asked him why he really asked me to dinner, his answer didn’t make sense to me.He just wanted to get to know me? Why?I was hoping that showing him my happy place would make him open up a bit more. Though we talked all through dinner, I got the feeling he hadn’t really wanted to talk about himself. I didn’t get any bad vibes from him and I didn’t think he was lying to me, but I suspected there was more to it than just wanting to get to know a hotel manager in a city he was skipping out of in a couple of days.Traffic was light on this side of town after sunset, but we could hear horns blaring and cars racing by on the main street in front of the hotel. Soundlessly, we made our way up the path that led through the hotel’s gardens and to the trail leading up the hill beside it.The path and trail were lit by domes of light on knee high st