Savage Collision: A Hawke Family Novel (Hawke Family #1)(8)

The way she told it, he’s some kind of fucking saint, acting like an overprotective big brother to all the girls working for him and taking care of them whenever they get into any kind of trouble. If she had her way, he would win a fucking Nobel Peace Prize.

“Professional? You call parading naked women across a stage for men to gawk at professional?”

She glowered at me, and I knew I said something I shouldn’t have. “Look, Dani, I get that you don’t approve of me dancing, but it’s my decision, not yours. I’m happy doing it, so why can’t you just leave it alone? Savage is a good boss who takes care of us. He always thinks about the girls’ well-being. I’ll be okay.”

Well, she may have full confidence in her boss’ motives and glowing character, but my experience with Savage couldn’t have been more different. The man is self-centered, arrogant, holier-than-thou…and fucking beautiful. How the women at the club are immune to his good looks and radiating sexuality is beyond me.

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him since the second I saw him sitting regally behind his desk, the master of his pussy universe. He doesn’t belong in an office. He belongs in the movies, preferably a porno, where I can see what he has under those clothes. His broad shoulders and the fabric straining across his biceps had me practically begging to touch him.

I shake my head.

No, fuck him. He can sit and wait for me, forever. I am not giving in to his arrogant demand.

The card goes into the garbage can under my desk and I turn to my computer and pull up my email. I barely have time to read the first one when I hear a familiar squeal from behind me and drop my face into my hands, letting out a groan.

I should have trashed the flowers, too.

“Ho. Ly. Shit! Who the hell sent you roses? Have you been holding out on me, girl?” Caroline grabs the back of my chair and spins me around to face her. She glares at me momentarily before she begins digging around in the flowers.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Looking for a card so I can find out who sent these, since you have obviously been keeping important information, like the fact that you have a new fuck buddy, to yourself. Oh, my God, is it that guy from the bar the other night? Max?”

I surreptitiously push the garbage can further under my desk with my foot while Caroline is still nose-deep in the long stems. The last thing I need is her finding the card and asking all sorts of unanswerable questions.

“There isn’t a card. There isn’t a fuck buddy. They’re from my sister.” The lie slips out so quickly and so easily, I’m confident she’ll buy it.

Turning to face me, she props her fists on her hips and gives me the “you have got to be fucking kidding me” look. “Your sister? Nora, broke college student, Nora, sent you two dozen white roses that probably cost over a hundred bucks?”

Shit. Maybe I should have thought out that great lie a little better.

Caroline doesn’t know about Nora stripping yet. I hate keeping things from her, but Nora asked me not to say anything, and I can’t rat out my own sister, even to my best friend.

“Yeah, she got a job and wanted to thank me for all of the support I’ve given her recently.”

Caroline laughs and sits on the edge of my desk. “Girl, I don’t know why you don’t want me to know who really sent these, but you can drop the act. You’re a terrible liar.”

She’s right.

I know any other attempts at deception will be pointless, but that doesn’t mean I have to give her the whole story. I let out a sigh of resignation before dropping my head down onto my desk. “Ugh, fine, they’re from this guy I met the other day, and no, before you ask, we haven’t fucked. He’s my sister’s new boss.”

I don’t have to be able to see Caroline to know her mouth is agape and her green eyes are bulging out of their sockets at the prospect of a new man in my life.

“And just how did you come to meet Nora’s new boss?” she asks, the sing-song tone in her voice making me curl my fists at my sides.

There isn’t any point in continuing to keep it from her. She knows me too well, and she’s the queen of poking and prodding until she gets what she wants. The only thing she hasn’t been able to get out of me is the subject of my big story.

“I went to make sure she was being treated right.”

“Ha! I bet you a million dollars you went there to give this poor guy a hard time.”

I lift my head and throw my best death glare at her. If I didn’t love her so much, she might be the recipient of a cunt punch.

“You telling me you didn’t?”

Crap. I did. I push back from my desk, stand and pace around my office, glancing quickly between the flowers and Caroline.

“Okay, so I kinda gave him a hard time. To be honest, I have no fucking clue why he sent these.” Maybe actually talking about it with Caroline will help me work through my strange obsession with him.

“Was there a card?” She smirks, and I know she knows there was one and that I probably disposed of it.

“In the garbage, under my desk.”

She leans down, grabs the can, and pulls the small, white card from the top. As she reads it over quickly, I watch her eyebrows rise. “Holy shit, he’s asking you on a date!”

“No, no, he isn’t. He’s demanding my presence at a certain place at a certain time. He isn’t asking me anything.”