A Slow-Burning Dance Read Free Page A

she had
looked like she was still in high school. She had one of those faces that
looked younger than her chronological age, which wasn’t a terrible thing.
    Unless you’re a nineteen year old
woman who thinks of your brother’s new boss as a player.
    Ernest
was talking, but Damien’s focus was on that day six years ago as he struggled
to think of a way to prove to Sela that he was no longer that same man.
Everything had still been in chaos at the time. His attention had been pulled
in a hundred different directions at once. He’d had to move his entire
operation underground, quickly, and not all the employees who had worked for
him above ground had been accounted for at the time. He’d later learned that
most of the people who hadn’t been able to move that quickly had not survived.
    Santino
and Sela were the only two of their family to have escaped the flood. The town
they’d lived in, Tecate, had been swallowed up by the Pacific Ocean within a
matter of hours. The only reason Sela and Santino hadn’t died as well was
because they’d been underground at the time, looking for a place large enough
to house their entire family.
    “What
do you think?” asked Ernest.
    What? Damien blinked a few times. “Yeah,
yeah, sure. That will work. Do that.”
    Ernest
frowned, clearly not fooled by Damien’s less than total attention, but now that
he had an answer, he finally left. Damien turned around, his gaze sweeping the
row of suites where he’d been standing with Sela moments ago, but she was gone,
along with his chance to get to know her. What the fuck was wrong with him?
He’d really blown it.
    As
he made his way back toward downtown and the building that housed the offices
of Rivera Construction, his thoughts turned once again to the day he’d first
laid eyes on Sela. She and Santino had rented an apartment after learning about
the flood and realizing they’d lost their entire family. Santino was five years
older than his sister, and had already earned his degree above ground.
    Damien
hired him during the interview because he was intelligent, and his story of
survival told Damien the man would work hard and be loyal to the company. His
instincts hadn’t been wrong. A few weeks after he was hired, Damien had gone to
the apartment Santino shared with Sela to work on a project they were both
putting in extra time on to complete.
    Sela had been in college, and Damien
remembered Santino scoffing at her choice of majoring in dance. He had tried to
convince his sister to earn a business degree, but Sela had always gone her own
way, according to Santino.
    At
the time, Damien was still learning about former employees who had not survived
the storms on the surface. His entire business was in chaos, and he was
struggling to bring it under control. Santino had been a go-getter from day
one, and he’d found himself relying on the man more than he should have, but
Santino never complained. He’d stepped up and done the work of someone far more
experienced, which was why he became head of IT at Rivera Construction within a
year.
    Sela
had come into the room where Santino and Damien had been sitting side-by-side
at their laptops, working on the project. Damien remembered glancing up as
Santino introduced her, thinking she was pretty but far too young for him, and
that was it. He recalled nothing else.
    He
shook his head as he entered his office. What a smug prick he’d been. Today
hadn’t been much better. All he’d focused on were Sela’s beautiful face and her
curvy ass moving under that skirt. He’d asked her out without so much as a
glance backward at that day all those years ago, or any concern for what she
now thought of him and his former escapades ..
    Santino
talked about her all the time, but Damien only half listened because Santino
talked about a lot of things all the time. He was that kind of a person, which
made him great at his job. He not only had the technical skills necessary to
keep Damien’s systems