6

BY THE TIME SHE GOT HOME, she was both exhausted and elated. She’d managed to make it through her first day without messing anything up and had met a few people who could become friends if she was there long enough to actually get to know them. And then there was Dawson, although she tried really hard not to think about him too much.

She was doing pretty good about keeping her thoughts from straying to him, too, until Laura asked the question that brought everything about him rushing back to the forefront of her mind. “Soooo, what’s he really like then?”

“Who?” She knew full well who her friend was referring to, but feigning ignorance might work. Right? Wrong.

Laura gave a laugh that was almost a sarcastic sneer. “Don’t give me that crap. You know exactly who I’m talking about.” She looked at Alexa and raised her eyebrows in a very maternally expectant way. “Dawson James, Lexi. Tell me about Dawson James. And don’t you dare try leaving anything out, because I’ll know by your face, young lady.”

Alexa could feel her face getting hot as she blushed at her friend’s words. Laura knew her all too well, so she really didn’t know why she’d even contemplated lying to her and telling her that she hadn’t met the man in question yet.

“He’s okay, I suppose.”

“Just okay, or drop-dead gorgeous okay?” It was clear that Laura wasn’t going to let the subject drop.

Giving an exaggerated sigh of resignation, Alexa sank down into one of the comfy chairs. “Laura, he is, without a doubt, the most gorgeous man I’ve ever met in my entire life.” She laughed as her friend gave a squeal of excitement. “He has eyes that you could literally drown in, and his body...oh my God, Laura. His body is to die for!”

“I knew it! I just knew it!” To say that Laura sounded smug was an understatement. “Wait! Don’t tell me anything else until I’ve poured us both a glass of wine.” She almost ran out of the living room, and Alexa breathed a heartfelt, yet temporary, sigh of relief. She knew that no matter how hard she tried to deny it, Laura was going to know that she was attracted to the man.

Her friend was back in no time, carrying two glasses and a full bottle of their favorite wine. She opened the bottle, poured them both a glass, and then sat down on the edge of the couch looking at Alexa intently. “Okay, I want to know all the details.”

“There’s nothing much to tell, really. He’s handsome in a rugged type of way, and he has a really fit body from what I could tell, although he had a suit on, so it was a little hard to judge.” She tried to sound as nonchalant as possible, but Laura wanted more detailed information.

“On a scale of one to ten, how handsome?” She was determined to get a more accurate account of Alexa’s opinion on her new boss.

Oh geez. She’s never going to give up on this, is she? Alexa blushed some more and gave up trying to hide the fact that she found Dawson incredibly handsome.

“Oh, I’d say he’s probably a twelve.” She blushed some more as Laura gave a ‘whoop whoop’ sound. “Seriously, Lau, he’s drop-dead gorgeous. But it’s not all about looks, and from what I heard today, he can be a conceited asshole who uses his money to get what he wants – especially with women.”

“Well let’s face it, Lexi, wouldn’t we all do the same thing if we were as rich as he is? I mean, if you want something and you can afford to pay for it, then why shouldn’t you?” Alexa wasn’t really surprised at her friend’s perspective on it. After all, Laura was a typical party girl, and if she could get a man to pay for everything, she would have no qualms about it at all.

Shaking her head, Alexa tried to reason with her friend. “I can understand and even agree with that if it was just material things, Laura. But he does it with women, too. I’m not saying he pays for prostitutes or anything, but he treats women as objects, and as soon as he’s finished doing whatever he wants with them, then he doesn’t want anything more to do with them. It’s almost as though he just discards them like trash, and that’s just not right. Not in my book.”

“I’m assuming that you’ve heard all this from other women, correct?” Alexa nodded her head. “Have you not considered the fact that if what you’ve just told me is the truth and all of those women knew about it from the start, that they were just as bad as he is supposed to be? They obviously had no problems letting him treat them that way, otherwise they wouldn’t have gone out with him in the first place, so why is he considered the bad guy?”

Alexa let Laura’s words sink in before replying. Her friend did have a good point, but she was still unsure about the man in question. “It’s all immaterial anyway. He’d never look twice at someone like me, and even if he did, I wouldn’t be interested.”

Laura laughed out loud at that. “The hell you wouldn’t. You can’t tell me that if you had the chance to go out on a date with the man and with the prospect of spending a night in his bed, that you wouldn’t jump at it. Shit, Lexi, you’re only there temporarily anyway, so a fling with him would be perfect because you wouldn’t have to worry about seeing him again when the regular girl returns to work.” She laughed again as Alexa blushed some more. “Just the thought of it is getting you all hot and bothered.”

Even though the thought of having a night of unbridled passion with Dawson made her insides quiver, the fact that it would be meaningless to him sent chills of revulsion running through her veins. “No way, Laura. I can honestly say that doing something like that is the last thing on my list of to-dos.”

The debate rambled on through another glass of wine, with both women arguing over the whys and why-nots of Alexa hooking up with Dawson, until eventually Alexa threw in the towel, realizing that it didn’t matter what she said to Laura, she was never going to change her opinion of casual sex with a relative stranger.

“I need to get to bed, Lau. It’s been a long day, and I want to get into work early in the morning to give myself time to make sure I remember everything I learned today.”

The two women said goodnight, and Alexa headed off to her bedroom to spend the night tossing and turning in between having dreams of rampant sex with her new boss. She woke up the following morning feeling eager to start the day while at the same time feeling nervous about the possibility of seeing Dawson again. Hopefully, her reaction the previous day was just because she had never met him before, and with any luck there wouldn’t be a repeat performance today.