The Hookup Handbook(4)

“Sienna. Welcome.”

Welcome? That’s it? Not a “nice to meet you” or anything? I pause, expecting him to stand up and shake my hand or something, but he doesn’t move an inch. Neither does his stare, which is pointed at me with laser-like intensity.

“Happy to be here,” I say quickly to fill the silence, although I’m not sure that I mean it. In this moment, I’d rather be anywhere but here. My insides feel like spaghetti being twisted with a fork.

“There’s a lot for you to do,” he says, nodding toward the paperwork without letting his stare falter. As his attention turns from me to my brother, he relaxes a bit, his tone going from aggressive to friendly. “Ryder, have you checked your email? There’s a client for you today. One of your regulars from across town, I think.”

Ryder pulls out his cell and nods, scrolling through his in-box. “Shit, this is in like an hour. I gotta head out.” He glances up at me. “You all good here? I gotta bounce.”

“She’s fine,” Case says sharply. “I’ll get her set up. You go ahead.”

I want to beg Ryder not to leave me just yet, but he’s the reason I’m getting a paycheck, so I can’t stand in the way of him getting his. “Just don’t forget you’re my ride home, okay?”

Ryder nods. “Of course. I’ll for sure be back before the end of the day. Later, guys.”

“Later,” Case says, the last bit of his casualness fading with Ryder’s exit. His eyes return to that intense stare as his attention moves back to me. “I guess we should get you started,” he says flatly, as if giving me work is a chore for him.

How can he be so friendly with my brother and so icy with me?

Case gets up from his desk, revealing a well-fitted pair of jeans that encase one of the nicest backsides I’ve ever seen on a man. He’s just as tall as I expected. Well over six feet, for sure, which ups the intimidation factor.

Scooping up the pile of paperwork, Case struts over to a smaller desk on the other side of the room. “You’ll work here,” he says matter-of-factly and plops the paperwork on the desk, sending a few pages flying off the stack. “And this will be your first project. Digitizing these old client files. There’s a laptop in the drawer you can use to type them into a spreadsheet. Your brother says you’re smart, so I’m guessing you can figure it out.”

In a matter of moments, he returns to his desk and is right back to work. And back to ignoring me.

Nice to meet you too.

I take my place at my new desk. As the laptop boots up, I pick up the file folders and flip through the paperwork he’s given me.

Guess it’s time to get to work. Only, I can barely focus.

For some strange reason, I’m hyperaware of this man sitting just feet from me. Shouldn’t we talk? Discuss our goals? What we each want to get out of my employment here?

The longer I sit here inputting customer files, the more agitated I become. I mean, seriously, the guy couldn’t even take two seconds out of his day to properly train me? I don’t even know where the freaking bathroom is. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do for lunch.

After I’ve inputted the twelfth customer file, I pause and take a deep breath. I can feel Case’s presence looming like a shadow across the room.

“So . . .” I pause, my attempt at small talk already crashing and burning. “You sleep with women for a living.”

Shit. Real smooth, Sienna.

Case doesn’t even look up from his computer screen, clearly not thrown by my question. “Sometimes,” he says, his deep voice rumbling.

Sometimes? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Isn’t that his job?

“How long have you been doing this?”

He pauses as he thinks about it for a second, still not looking at me. “Eight years, give or take.”

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

“No girlfriend.”

“Have you ever been in a serious relationship?” The words tumble out of my mouth before I can stop them.

Something like wounded pride or anger flashes through his gaze as it briefly meets mine; I’m not sure which. “Not answering that.”

Case doesn’t want to talk, that much is obvious, but I’m on a roll now.

“I get why Ryder does it, but you— I mean, you run a successful business. Obviously, there’s a brain knocking around in that skull somewhere.” I smile, but my attempt at a joke doesn’t just crash and burn, it erupts into a fiery volcano, threatening to take me with it.

He looks more annoyed that I made it sound like they’re drug dealers or criminals, or possibly because I implied he must be stupid. Which I don’t really believe; it just came out wrong.

“Don’t kid yourself,” he says sharply. “Fucking is what I’m good at. But tell me, why does Ryder do it?”

“Basically? To piss our parents off. He’s always been a manwhore, and this way he can get paid for what he was doing already without having to blow through his trust fund.”

Case’s easy expression falters. Maybe he didn’t know Ryder has a trust fund. I assume he knows we come from money, and I assume he now knows that I have a trust fund too. I just hope he doesn’t judge me for it. As far as I’m concerned, that’s my parents’ money, not mine. And I intend to work for what I have.