Red Hot Rose Boxed Set Read Free Page A

my toe tapped on the ground.   I was trying to figure out who exactly had thrown the party and who the other escort-invitees might be when I felt something brush up against my arm.  
    I turned to look at what it was and found myself staring at a tie.   It was mostly silver with some tiny black accents, and it melded perfectly with the jet-black tailored suit it was paired with.   My eyes went up a few inches until they made contact with the owner of the ensemble.   Holy Mary mother of Jesus sitting in a bathtub.  
    He was the most gorgeous, intimidating-looking human being I’d ever been in the same room with.   And he was standing less than a foot away from me in my tight dress and way-too-high heels.
    I lifted my drink up to my face and clamped down on the small straw sticking out of it, taking a sip to calm my nerves.
    “Hello,” he said simply, smiling the tiniest bit and so quickly, I wasn’t even sure I’d seen it.
    I released the straw from its prison in my teeth.   “Hi.”   It was the best I could do.   Please don’t ask me my name.   What’s my name?   What’s my name?!   I can’t remember!   My mind had gone completely blank.   All I could do was stare at him.   I felt a curl escaping my hair helmet, and tried not to panic when it fell down over my eye.   I blew up at it, trying to make it at least move to the side and stop obscuring my vision.   I was afraid to take my hands away from my glass to manage the wayward lock or to try and wrangle it back into one of the two hundred bobby pins that hid in my hair.
    His nostrils flared ever so slightly and the muscles in his jaw clenched.
    I tried to think of something to say, but words escaped me.   I opened my mouth, hoping the act of starting to speak would make the conversation just flow out, but before my brain could start to work in concert with my lips, I saw his hand move.
    He slowly reached up, his fingers coming towards my face.
    I watched them making their way up, inch by inch, getting closer and closer to my face.   I was frozen in place, unable to move, unable to say anything as I wondered what he was about to do.
    His long, thick fingers took the errant curl and slowly drew it over to the side of my head, attempting to put my hairdo to rights.   But as soon as he pulled his hand away, the curl bounced right back to the spot in front of my eye.
    He smiled, without any trace of humor in his face at all.   And then he spoke, his smooth, soft but masculine voice sending shivers up my skin.   “It seems your hair has ideas of its own.”
    I nodded, lowering the drink down to waist-level.   I had to clear my throat before my voice would work properly.   “Yeah.   It, uhhh, always does.   I have to beat and lacquer it into submission.”
    He raised an eyebrow at me, making me want to die with shame.  
    Oh, God, tell me I did not just totally flirt all S&M-style with this guy!   I spoke quickly, just in case he was jumping to the wrong conclusions.   “ What I mean is, it’s really curly and frizzy and misbehaves all the time.”
    Without missing a beat, he said, “And we don’t like things to misbehave, do we?”
    I knew I looked panicked, but I couldn’t help it.   It was exactly how I felt.   I searched the room for my friend, but couldn’t find her.   Everyone was having a good time, laughing and talking to people standing nearby, drinking or dancing; and I was standing next to the hottest guy in the room, probably in the entire county or state even, and mucking up my very first day on the job and the only thing that was going to assure my last three years of college weren’t going to go up in smoke.
    “You seem nervous,” he said.
    I smiled tremulously.   “Is it that obvious?”
    “No, not really.   But I can feel the heat coming off your body right now and your cheeks are pink.”
    Ground, could you please do me a huge favor and swallow me up right now?   Like right this second?   I put my iced