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“I don’t believe there was actual begging involved.” His eyes darken. “I would remember that.” He wanders closer to me. “And if I was going to have a waitress fired, it would be the one who tried to serve me a drink… like this.” He demonstrates by picking up his wine glass with just his fingertips clasping the rim, right where his mouth would touch it, then setting it down on the counter in front of me.

“Urgh. Nasty.”

“I know. Where have those fingers been, and why would I want them in my mouth?”

“I don’t know,” I say, disturbed. “I’m not a clean freak, but that is definitely a fireable offense.”

He looks forlornly at his wine glass. “Honestly,Ican’t even drink out of that now.”

I laugh. “Then why did you do it?”

“To paint you a picture of what a bad waitress actually looks like.”

“Wait.” I blink at him. “Are you implying… that I’m agoodwaitress?”

His eyelids lower seductively as his gaze roams down my body. “The only thing you did wrong that night was leave my sight.”

My jaw drops. “You gave me such a hard time! I thought you hated me. And Iwantedthat job. You wouldn’t believe how much I made in tips on my first four shifts. Itblewto think I might lose it. I wassweating.”

“Sure,” he says, eyes meeting mine again. “That’s why you were sweating.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “I should’ve just licked your glass right in front of you. You fired me anyway.”

“I did not fire you.”

I make exaggerated air quotes as I speak. “Forced me to quit.” I frown. “Wait again. You said you didn’t even fire the waitress who put her dirty little fingers on the rim of your glass?”

“No. I complained to management. They fired her.”

I laugh. “Ah. There it is.”

“Her days were numbered anyway. Anyone who works for Vance Hospitality should know far better. However, my brother Damian tends to get distracted by… other talents.”

I gasp dramatically. “You’re saying Daddy Damian screws his employees? I thought that was a no-no.”

Harlan’s eyes flash to mine. A muscle along his jaw spasms. “What did you just say to me?”

“Um…”

“Daddy what-the-fuck?”

I clear my throat. “Daddy… Damian? That’s what the waitresses call him,” I quickly explain. “Not me.”

“You just did,” he growls.

“Aaand I’ll never do it again?”

His eyes linger on my lips for a moment, then meet mine. “Good girl,” he murmurs, and my ovaries fucking shiver. Heat and lust course through me.

What did he tell me the other day?Good girls get to come… so hard.

I think there’s a buttercream leaf getting smushed into oblivion in my hand right now.

“As I was saying,” he goes on. “He gets distracted. But I’m not saying he screws employees. I’m saying he hires pretty girls because they look good in whatever skimpy uniform he’s devised for them to wear.” He looks at my nipple area like he can seeright through my clothes. “Then, if needed, he has them trained. The training doesn’t always take.”

He brushes my hair away from my throat with his fingers, making me shiver, and says in my ear, “Some people just aren’t as malleable as one might hope.”

“Well then, won’t you be disappointed when you discover that I’m not malleable at all,” I say breathlessly. “I’m very, very stubborn.”