“We’ve only been going out a month. I thought we both understood this wasn’t an exclusive thing.”
She dropped her shoes in her rush to shove on her underwear and then her dress. Sandra grabbed the sponge and started scrubbing the other dirty dishes in the sink. She also tried not to think about how much Lisette looked like a flamingo as she finally balanced on one foot and then on the other to slip on her ballet flats.
“I’m glad you feel so comfortable with open dating,” she said. “I texted Carrie back and explained what an ass you are. I think you’ll be alone for a bit, Xavier. Chew on that!” Lisette said before stomping out of the apartment.
Trying to be helpful, Sandra rushed to the door and shut it behind the departing vixen. Turning around, she looked at her boss and then the breath caught in her throat. Yes, she’d heard his first name when Lisette had said it, but she never would have thought in a million years that this would be how she’d re-encounter Xavier Clifton. No. Scratch that. Here was Xavier Villalobos, head of all things related to Catalan Food Industries.
She swallowed hard, and it felt like cotton was stuffed in her throat. Sandra stood there like a statue, batting her eyes and waiting for Xavier to recognize her.
He quirked his head at her and then frowned. “I’m sorry, Miss Gaines. I didn’t mean for your first day to be like that.”
“You didn’t?”
“No, I swear it’s not normally like that around here. Yes, I like my pleasures in life, but I don’t get too wild, and I don’t expect my personal maids to clean up after certain things. Your name again. Your first name, I mean.”
She blinked, sadness flooding her. Granted, she’d lost about fifteen pounds since he’d seen her last, and she’d decided to trade her contacts in for glasses because of an allergic reaction. And, okay, she was dyeing her hair a strawberry blond. But surely he couldn’t be that obtuse? Then again, they’d both had a lot to drink that night, and she did look somewhat different.
Xavier hadn’t changed at all. He was still a sight to behold.
“I…Miss Gaines, are you alright? It’s Juliet, right?”
“Actually, I hate that name.”
He frowned. “Do you have a nickname?”
She was about to blurt out “Sandra.” After all, she’d been going by her middle name since she was fifteen. But then again, she didn’t want to be just another notch in his bedpost or bleary hookup. Besides, she needed this job. She’d already promoted her special month of YouTube videos and interviews from Barcelona, and she couldn’t back out now. That silver play button and money to help make her first film were so close now. If he heard her full name, it might jog his memory. If things jogged his memory, then he’d feel too awkward around her and she’d be back to a comfortable but lower salary around the office instead.
“I prefer, um, just Jules. If I say ‘Juliet,’ I get like a million ‘wherefore art thou Romeo’ jokes. I got so tired of them by high school.”
Xavier grinned and the expression both lit up the room and highlighted those dimples that even over a year later were still totally lickable. “Then Jules. It’s nice to meet you formally. I trusted Estelle to run the interview and promotion process. I’m glad to see you can roll with the unexpected and just keep working.”
“I’ve done waitressing all over DC. Late at night, you see all types of things and you learn to move on.”
“Still,” he said, dashing into his bedroom. She stood and busied herself with more cleaning in the kitchen as he called out to her. She assumed he was dressing. Honestly, Sandra would be fine if he stood there all day with the taught abs of his eight-pack catching the morning sunlight. But that wasn’t in the cards. “I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, Jules. I work very hard, but I try and be a good boss and respect my employees. You won’t be thrown into a spectacle like that again.”
“It’s really alright.”
He stepped back out of his room, wearing a pair of faded jeans that hung low on his hips and a tight white undershirt. It wasn’t as good as being naked, but his musculature still teased her from beneath the thin fabric that practically caressed his body.
Xavier offered her one of those easy smiles, and she could see how he’d gotten into trouble with Carrie and Lisette at the same time. It was as if she were back in Atlantis all those months ago. Her face felt flushed and heat coiled in her belly.
Xavier Villalobos was walking sex on a stick, and she was going to struggle as long as she had this gig to ignore that, to ignore the way he’d made her felt. Hell, the way he could make her feel again.
That Sandra was gone. She’d been bold for one night in her life, and the cost meant the realization that she’d never find a man like Xavier again. Now, she had found him, but he didn’t even remember her. Even if he could, he would think of her as just another one-night stand. It was best to stay silent and learn to bury the deepest yearnings of her heart.
Chapter Three
“I think I should be the one handling this surprise inspection back in Barcelona,” his brother said as he cut into his pork loin. “You’re a big-picture man, Xav. You’re not always great at focusing on the details.”
“Well,” Xavier said, smiling back at him. “I appreciate that. It must make me the Steve Jobs of the company.”
His brother rolled his hazel eyes back at him and set down his utensils. One hand raked through his short, curly black hair. “I don’t know if you want that comparison. First, he almost bankrupted Apple over the Lisa, and then he was kicked out for a while.”
“But he rose like a phoenix from the ashes, and again, I think I’m the aesthetics guy.”
Javier snorted. “You’re something alright. I had a Miss Carrie Connors practically trying to break down the door to the offices looking for you. I had your secretary on that in a hot minute and a nice pair of parting diamond earrings ordered for her to try and calm her temper. I thought you’d have learned after that incident years ago…”
“I am discreet,” he said, clenching his knife handle in his hand until the cool steel dug into his palm. “It was my date who was snooping through my phone. Besides, we’d had about three dates and weren’t an item.”