I was being flirty with him because I wanted to see if he still had that dirty sense of humor I remembered. He did. So many "nice guys" wanted to buy my love and treat me like they owned me.

Lemme tell you something - nobody owns this girl. And Daryl and I were good friends long before we dated.

I couldn't help but stare at him. And wonder.

I have to admit that the wreck might have been a little bit my fault. I think my finger hit some buttons and turned off some whatchamacallit that would have stopped the car before it hit the deer.

Oops.

I didn't mention it and neither did Daryl. Such a gentleman. Cal would have given me shit about it for weeks. It was actually a bit refreshing to not be blamed and to not have it brought up over and over until I wanted to punch his stupid face.

Daryl was on his phone, placing an order for something. I didn't catch what it was, I was too busy looking around the car and wondering how the hell we were going to make it through this blizzard, even if it was a short drive.

Daryl pulled out his wallet - which looked pretty fancy to me. Probably some sort of rare Italian leather. That wallet alone could probably pay my mom's rent this month. He pulled out a black American Express credit card - I thought American Express was green?

Anyway, he rattled off some numbers and thanked the person on the phone and hung up.

"Sorry about that, forgot I had a quick errand to take care of. I hope you don't mind."

"Nah, I don't mind at all. I'm just enjoying the ride."

He laughed at me. "So you work here? At my hotel?"

"Wait - your hotel?"

"Yes, I bought this place about a year ago. There was an Indian family that owned it. Krishnamurthy, I think? They wanted to retire and none of their kids wanted to run it. My gut told me it was a good idea to buy a hotel in my home town."

"Sign still says Sleep 'N Stay."

"Yeah, I don't put my name on a hotel until it's been remodeled to my satisfaction. But it's got good bones and good tourist business year-round, so it's a great portfolio investment. And, like I said, I just had this feeling."

"So, wait... technically, doesn't that make you my boss?"

"It makes me your Daddy, yes," he smiled and melted me again.

I was going to see him for the next few days while I worked on projects. I hoped he had time for me before he left again.

If I still had a job. Damn. I almost forgot about being late. I could barely make out the hotel through the storm, but I think we were in the parking lot. I don't know how the chauffeur managed it.

He parked under the guest drop-off and opened my door for me. "Thanks, uh, Blake, was it?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"I don't- I don't have any money to tip you. Sorry, dude."

He raised a brow, smirked, and said, "Not to worry ma'am. I'm well compensated."

Daryl came around. "Let's get out of this cold!" He took my hand and led me in to the building.

There was a younger kid at the counter, probably in his early 20s. Daryl heard the raised voices and went to investigate. I was curious, but antsy about getting to work, so I hung back.

"Come on, you've got to have something. I barely managed to make it here, I can't keep driving in this. You can't make me sleep in my car."

The clerk apologized and told him there were no more rooms because of the conference, so there was nothing she could do.

Daryl put his hand on the kid's back. He startled and tried to take a step back. Daryl kept him there.

"Hi, I'm Daryl. Is there a problem here?"

"I don't think there's anything you can do, mister. She said they're booked solid and can't get me a room."

He smiled and looked at the clerk, handed her his business card, her faced turned bright red.

"Mr. Dinero, as I'm sure you're aware... there's nothing... I've looked and I can't..."

"Here's what I want you to do - find a room that wasn't taken last night and give it to this fine, young gentleman. I know the other rooms are booked," he turned towards the vaulted entrance with floor-to-ceiling windows and a view of the near white-out conditions and stretched out an arm, "but somehow I don't think everyone's going to make it in tonight. Comp the room and give him free room service."

He didn't have to do that - he might end up pissing off some other guest if they do all show up. It was a risk but he did what was right. Color me impressed.

My phone buzzed and snapped me back to reality - holy shit, I was a full hour late now. Lisa was going to be pissed and I really didn't want to hear it. I'd had enough excitement for one day and it wasn't even 8am yet.

I hustled to the stairs, toward the little office in the basement, next to the server room, that we used as our base of operations for IT. That's the way it always is, the IT folks are kept in the musty basement and forgotten until something breaks. What kind of idiot didn't know that electronics need humidity controls, too?

I'd managed to avoid Lisa on my way to the office, but Jeff, my suck-up of a second-in-command in IT, was lounging in there. When your mother-in-law is the boss, you can lounge and be a general nuisance.

"Oh, ho, look what the cat dragged in!" He snickered at me and shook his greasy head as he looked me up and down.

"Don't be a creep, Jeff. It's a long story. Is Lisa a total ball of stress? And what's going on with that bad access point in the executive suite? Did you find it in your heart to get off your lazy ass and actually, you know, work?"

"For your information, I've been talking to Lisa. She's been impressed with me and might see fit to promote me. Something about, I dunno, being dependable?" He had such a snarky way of talking. I could feel the frown forming on my face, and couldn't stop it even if I'd wanted to.

"Fuck off, Jeff; more like something about being related. Did you fix that WiFi access point or not?"

He laughed and leaned forward in his chair. "No. You do it."

"Jeff, I don't have time for this shit. The email server has been on the fritz and that WiFi is the least of my concerns. Last I checked, you knew jack squat about configuring email servers?"

"Sounds like your problem to me, Wen."

I hated when he called me "Wen." He didn't ask if he could call me that, he just started to do it one day. As if he wasn't creepy enough - I caught him staring at my tits all the time. Like, earth to Jeff, my tits don't talk, stop looking at them when I'm talking to you. He'd have to kill someone for Lisa to fire her own son-in-law, so I swallowed the indignity.

"You're a real piece of work, Jeff." I grabbed a cart and loaded up a bunch of stuff that I needed to fix the access point. The executive conference room was right down the hall from small meeting room, so if I could get the WiFi fixed in time - probably just a reboot - I could try to log in remotely to fix the email.

I opened the door and Lisa was there, hand stretched out like she was just reaching for the knob.

"Oh, shit, Lisa, I don't have time for you to tear me a new asshole for being late right now."

"What the hell are you wearing? Our policy explicitly states -"

"I know the policy." I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Look, it's a long story, I didn't leave the house this way, I'm not an idiot, unlike some other people around here," I shot a fiery glance at Jeff, "and if you want to pull off this conference, you gotta let me get on a few things."

She pursed her lips and tilted her head. Her perfume was terrible, but I wasn't brave enough to tell her that. I'm sure she thought it was great.

Lisa stood to the side and extended her arm toward the door. "Go. Get it done. But we're talking about this later."

"Nothing to talk about - who else are you going to find in this backwoods shithole?" I laughed and rushed the cart past her, the wheels squeaking, wobbling, and got caught on the threshold as I passed her, dumping half the cart.

She sighed at me. "Wendy, Wendy, Wendy, what are we going to do with you?"

All things considered, that went better than I thought.

* * *

I caught a few strange looks - I'm sure I was quite the sight, a girl pushing that damned squeaky cart around, full of electronics, wearing a fancy sweatsuit. It made me a bit self-conscious and more than a little anxious to get that suitcase out of my trunk.

Though, I had to admit - Daryl had style. These sweatpants stretched and conformed to my ass like no other pants I owned. I sort of hoped he'd let me keep them.

The WiFi access point was sure to be an easy fix. It was mounted to the ceiling, which is probably why Jeff didn't want to fix it. I stood on the table to reach it because I forgot a damned ladder and I didn't want to go back to the office and take more abuse from Jeff or Lisa. Fuck it, nobody's in here, nobody will know.

I wasn't quite tall enough, though. I stretched up on my tippy-toes and was able to reach the power button. I was sure it just needed a power cycle.

"Nice ass in those sweatpants, lady."

I jumped and almost fell off the table.

It was Daryl. Standing in the doorway, arms folded, a lock of hair hanging over his forehead, legs crossed. Goddamn he was tasty.

"Hey, dickface, you scared the shit out of me."

He laughed and came in, got up on the table with me, and looked at the router. "Dickface? Is that what you want? You don't have to stand on a table for that."

"Ha ha. Can you just help me?

"Did you turn it off and back on again?"

I made a face at him and put my hand on my hip. "As a matter of fact, yes, that's what I'm doing. Don't be a jerk." Up close, he smelled great. A smell that can bring you back years. I looked into his eyes. I looked at his lips. I punched his arm. "Do you always sneak up on people and scare them? Because I don't like it."

"You sure do have a way with honesty."

"Yeah? So?"

"No, I like it. I meet a lot of women with ulterior motives. Some of them are good at hiding them, some not so good, but most of them aren't very honest." He put his arm around my waist, reached up and pulled the power cord on the router.

"Ulterior motives? Like what?"

He plugged it back in and took both of my hands in his. "I missed you, Wendy." He squeezed my hands and pulled me toward him.

The WiFi access point beeped. We both looked up at it.

"Thanks for your help," I said and turned away.

I can't be getting into a relationship. He hurt me, though I guess he didn't know it because I was too scared to tell him. I'm technically still dating Calvin, or at least I think I am. And Daryl is my boss's boss.

He got down, turned around and put his hands on my hips, lifted me and put me on the floor, his hands sliding up to my back. He put me down right in front of him.

"Let's just say that I trust that what I see is what I get with you."

I felt his cock press up against me. I couldn't place his cologne but I liked it. But I couldn't - we shouldn't - so I put my hands on his chest, hesitated as I felt the muscles, and pushed him back.

He resisted.

"Who the fuck are you, Daddy? What are you doing here?"

"I'm at the hotel because I'm running for Senator. This conference draws a lot of VIPs from all over the state and I flew in to carouse and generally kiss some ass."

"Senator? Of what?"

"State Senator. I've built a great business, dabbled in local politics, now I want to make a play for the big boy seat."

I ran my hand up and down his chest. I fell in love with him when he was just a kid, now he's a man, a very fine, muscular, square-jawed, full-lipped, great smelling...

I leaned in and kissed him.

He kissed me back.

After a minute, he pulled back and looked into my eyes, pulled my pants - well, his pants, technically - and panties down in one stroke, and pushed me back onto the table.

He kicked the door closed without taking his eyes off me.

I spread my legs and he ran his tongue from the bottom to the top of my pussy, stopping to suck my clit into his mouth.

I ran my fingers through his hair and gasped.

His tongue ran down one side, he sucked one lip into his mouth, darted his tongue into me, then continued up the other side, sucking the other lip into his mouth.

I didn't care if we were in a conference room, I moaned and pulled his face into my crotch.

He flattened his tongue and ran it up and down my aching slit. My hips started to thrust into his face, and he put his tongue inside me.

"Fuck me, Daddy," I begged.

First one finger, then a second went inside me.

"No, your cock."

His finger turned and hit my G-spot. I was already close. He circled my clit, licked it, and began to hit it in rhythm to my bucking hips.

I moaned again. "Yes, just like that, yeah..."

My orgasm started inside at the G-spot and moved around my pussy, to my ass, and finally made my whole body shake. He let up on my clit as I came, the orgasm rippling through my body like a stone thrown in water.

Just when I thought I couldn't take it any more, I licked me again and rolled my clit around his tongue. I came again, drew in a labored breath and held it until the orgasm passed, then panted as I let it out, chest heaving, sweat tracing down my face.

The door flew open and an older women rushed in, eyes looking like they were going to pop out of her head and her jaw on the floor.

"Daryl Dinero! What the hell are you doing?"