CHAPTER 5

 

Cayden woke up in the middle of the night feeling like a teenager. He had a throbbing hard-on and knew exactly why.

Anna.

In his dream she had writhed and bucked beneath him, her skin glistening with sweat as she called his name. Her dark mane of hair had been spread out on his pillowcase and her scent enveloped him as he thrusted time and time again.

Ever since she had laid her lips softly against his and watched him with those ice blue eyes he couldn’t think of anything else.

He had gone back to the restaurant but his mind wasn’t there. His mind had gone on holiday to Anna-land the moment she had kissed him.

Since her interview Cayden had wondered what it would be like to kiss her, and now that he knew he wanted more. He wanted to bury himself inside her.

It was evident from the straining against his boxers.

He got up and moved to the kitchen. After pouring himself a glass of ice water he drank deeply, thoughts wandering to Anna again.

How many men had she been with? She couldn’t be a virgin. She was confident and sexy as hell. She had to have been with a few men at least.

The thought of Anna writhing beneath another man infuriated him, so he pushed it aside.

How was he going to work with her every day if he wanted to jump her? Elizabeth would strangle him, he thought for the second time since hiring Anna.

He needed to find away to move past the attraction he felt for her. Maybe he needed to phone up someone in his little black book to work some of the sexual tension off.

No, Cayden thought. That would be a bad replacement for the real thing, he’d rather go without.

He thought back to last night. Her lips had been so soft and her scent was dark and seductive. Not the usual floral scent, something deeper, spicier. It suited her Cayden thought smiling to himself. The kiss was more inquisitive than seductive but it had seduced him nonetheless.

Cayden walked to his laptop on the dining table and sat down, firing it up. Nothing would take his mind of Anna and his throbbing hard-on faster than some facts and figures.

He pulled up the sales reports for three of his chains and noticed a downward curve in sales on Tuesdays throughout the past month.

A special, Cayden thought, as he worked through the report. He’d design a special for Tuesday’s to get more bums in seats. Something for the family, besides who wanted to cook on a Tuesday evening?

 

 

The following morning Cayden sat in his office and looked out towards the water. He had barely slept after he had woken up in the middle of the night with thoughts of Anna. Although he had decided on a course of action for the diminishing Tuesday sales, he hadn’t thought of an exact special that would appeal to the patrons of Rosi’s.

Anna would be in any moment, Cayden thought with his back to the door. Would she come in and greet him this morning or would she shyly avoid him for most of the day?

He would prefer to avoid her for the rest of the day, before more fuel was poured on the fire already blazing in his pants, but Elizabeth would notice.

Elizabeth might be an employee but she was one of the most valued in Rosetta’s Ravioli. It was Elizabeth who sourced locations for new chains, who negotiated national marketing campaigns, without her he would manage. But she just made everything run smoother. Cayden had learned a long time ago everyone was happier when Elizabeth was happy.

At the brief knock on his door Cayden swung around forcing himself to look professional in case it was Elizabeth.

It wasn’t.

It was Anna looking as beautiful as the day before. Today she was wearing black trousers with a white leather jacket and spiked heel boots. She looked professional and yet he ached for her already. Her clear blue eyes watched him hesitantly from the door.

“Cayden, do you have a minute?” she asked without moving.

“Sure,” he said.

Anna walked into his office and hesitantly sat down in front of his desk. Taking a deep breath she started. “I’m sorry about last night. It was completely out of line and I apologize. It won’t happen again. I understand if you would like to relieve me of my duties immediately.” She cast her eyes down towards her lap, avoiding Cayden’s eyes.

For a moment Cayden considered it, besides he was sure to get more work done that way. But he knew she wasn’t the only guilty part.

“Anna, I appreciate your honesty and your apology but I won’t be relieving you of your duties.”

“Are you sure?” She asked confused looking up.

“Yes, I think we were both at fault. It was late and … let’s just put it behind us.”

“Thank you Cayden, I promise you it won’t happen again.”

Even as she spoke Cayden couldn’t help but wonder if he would ever kiss her again.

“What do you need me to do this morning?” She asked standing up.

“I uh…you know what?” Cayden said thinking of something. “I know it isn’t part of your job description but I could use your help with something. I was up most of last night going over figures when I noticed a steady drop in our sales on Tuesdays.” Anna nodded for him to continue. “So I know we need a special, but we’ve already got the buy one get one free on Mondays and the Buffet on Thursdays. We need something fresh that will entice repeat customers and attract new ones.”

“So you need a special?”

“Yes. I would appreciate it if you could maybe work on a few suggestions.”

“Sure, I’ll have them for you this afternoon.” Anna beamed.

“No need to rush, whenever you’re ready.” Cayden said forcing his eyes to remain on hers and not to trail over her high cheek bones to her lips.

“The sooner you decide on one the sooner we can up the Tuesday sales.”

With that she stood up and left his office.

 

 

The sun had started its nightly descent and was now hovering over the horizon. Cayden could hear the early supper guests start to arrive in the restaurant downstairs when Anna knocked on his door.

“I have some ideas for you if you have time now?” She asked holding a folder.

“Sure come on in.” Cayden said closing down his emails. As soon as she was finished he was getting out of here and staying out until the following morning. He didn’t want any more late night rendezvous’ with Anna that could lead to something more than a kiss. Next time he wasn’t sure he would let her walk away.

“Right, so I looked at what your competition is doing every night of the week and what Rosi’s is offering.”

“Right?” Cayden said following her train of thought.

“You’ve got the buy one get one specials, you’ve got the buffet, and you’ve got the happy hour on Saturdays and free deserts on Sundays.”

“That’s correct yes; we try to cater to all our different clientele at least one day a week.”

“Exactly, but you’ve missed a large bracket.” She said pursing her lips.

When Cayden only frowned she continued. “You’re missing the family market.” She handed Cayden a folder and leaning across the desk opened it for him. The page was mazes of graphs, outlining the average American spend with one or more children. “You don’t have a special catering for families. I know you’ve got a hip crowd hanging out over weekends and late at night especially when you’ve got the live bands in, but you don’t have one night dedicated to families.”

Cayden frowned, how did he miss that? Essentially Rosi’s had started as a family restaurant. He picked up the graph and studied it more closely.

“If we offer Family Tuesdays and give the kids free food for each paying adult, you’ll get that market share back. We can either start a kiddies menu, or offer the kids free pizza. Both ways mom’s getting a night off from cooking, and dad doesn’t have to worry about a large bill when taking his family out for dinner.”

Cayden let the idea mull over in his mind, quickly calculating the cost of free meals versus the profit margin of paid adult meals. The average kid would only eat two or three slices of pizza. So they could offer the kids free pizza and cash in on the adult meals and beverages which held the highest profit.

“This could work.” He said almost to himself.

“I know, its brilliant right? And on Tuesday you could offer something any kid likes, a bacon and banana pizza!” Her hands went up in the air as an epiphany had just dawned on her.

Cayden looked up and met her excited gaze. “You sound more excited about that pizza than the kids.”

“Let’s just we didn’t go out for pizza often but when we did that was my Achilles.”

Cayden laughed. She intrigued him more by the minute.

“I’ll just run it by Elizabeth, but Anna I think you nailed it.”

Surprise and achievement washed over her face as she smiled broadly at him. “Thanks! I really enjoyed it actually. Let’s just hope it works.”

“It will.” Cayden smiled. “Goodnight Anna.”

“Bye,” she waved as she headed out.

Cayden looked over the figures again, shocked that he had missed it. He was even more impressed that Anna had caught the gap in the market and worked out a special that would bridge it.

Maybe she wasn’t just a pretty face; maybe she was exactly what Cayden needed.