Man I loved watching him walk away, but only because of the way his jeans clung to his tight ass and moved with him as he sauntered out of the club.

It was ridiculous, as much as I did believe he was cheating with our little bet, I loved that he was going to guess until he won.

The truth was that I didn’t have a favorite cocktail. I wasn’t much of a drinker, but when I did drink, I stuck to beer or wine, nothing fancy like the concoctions we served.

So he could guess all day but until he dialed it back and went with something simple and old fashioned, he would be wrong.

If I wasn’t so competitive I might let him win, but damn my stubborn streak, I wanted to win.

I finished up the books for the week and put them back in Max’s office. We were doing well, or should I say he was doing well, but I suspected he was still cleaning dirty money for my dad somehow. Not that I wanted to know though, not knowing what my father was up to made it easier to handle him.

“So that’s the guy you chose?” Uncle Max said as I turned to leave. He’d snuck up on me and I yelped out of surprise.

“Warn me next time, for such a big guy you sure are quiet on your feet.”

“It comes in handy when you’re checking up on your employees.”

“I’m not exactly one you have to check up on. And yeah, that’s the guy I chose. He came highly recommended.”

“He looks like a biker. I don’t like bikers.”

“I think he drives a truck.”

“How do you know he drives a truck? Are you seeing him outside of the club? You know how much your father would love that.”

“You don’t have to tell him,” I said, knowing the moment I told him that he would rush off to tell my father. Max was always the nosy little brother trying to impress his older brother, my father.

“I can’t promise anything. Not telling him feels like lying and you know how your father feels about lying.”

“I know, he’s all about loyalty and yada yada yada.”

“You’d do well for yourself to remember that. Family loyalty above all, even when the guy you hire is a big, tough looking biker dude.”

“I’m serious, I hired him because he’s good at what he does, not because I have a thing for biker types.”

“So you admit he’s a biker type,” Max chuckled with his wheezy laugh and walked past me to sit at his desk. “Thanks for doing the books for me, now I need some privacy to go over them.”

I said my goodbyes and headed upstairs for a swim and a good sleep. I wondered what he meant by needing privacy, but decided it was best yet again to not know.

I didn’t get to bed until way too late, as usual, but found my dreams haunted by a tall and muscled biker type with soulful eyes and lips that were made for kissing.

The next morning my father was already up and having breakfast at our dining table. Since we lived in a hotel suite, it was fairly rare for us to eat together, and even more rare for just two of us to be at the table. He didn’t even have one of his vapid idiotic blondes hanging off his arm.

“Kitty, come, we need to talk,” he said and patted the chair closest to him. “I had them bring up a selection of your favorites, but I must confess, I can’t remember if you’re eating carbs or not eating carbs or if protein is your thing right now. I can never keep up with your fad diets.”

“I’m eating healthy, but I’ll take some of this French toast, a couple eggs, and a bunch of this bacon,” I told him and loaded up my plate.

Diet and healthy eating be damned, I was going to gorge on sweets and fat while I listened to my father’s lecture.

I knew he was going to lecture me on something, he had that look on his face.

His eyes widened as he looked at my plate, but he knew better than to say anything about that.

I sat in a seat a couple away from him and started to shovel food into my mouth to avoid speaking. I could feel his eyes on me, heavy and judgmental.

“Your Uncle Max tells me you have a new hire at the club,” he said, his tone even and seemingly uninterested. I didn’t respond, I was too busy eating and pretending not to hear him. “Tell me about this new guy.”

“He’s not really a hire, he’s doing a quick job. The new bar top.”

“That’s all?”

“Yup, sorry to disappoint you.”

“Max said he was bad news. A biker type. You know how I feel about bikers.”

“Actually I don’t, why don’t you enlighten me?”

“No need to be sarcastic, I’m just looking out for you. You’re my only daughter and I’ll kill anyone who hurts you.”

“Simmer down, daddy-o,” I laughed. “He’s literally just putting in the bar countertop. Although he is pretty tall and beefy.”

My father’s eyes narrowed and he locked on me with a steely glare. “That’s not funny to joke about. I wouldn’t want him to wind up disappearing simply because you decided to make a joke.”

I would have laughed at him over this, but unfortunately I knew my dad was deadly serious. I couldn’t tease him like this, so I backed off a little. I could make him angry closer to the time Hatch was finished the job. It would be safer for him that way.

“I’m a grown woman, dad, you don’t need to watch over me. I promise, I’m safe and I won’t do anything stupid.”

“There’s nothing more stupid than falling in love, remember that,” he glowered. “I have plans for you, Kitty, and they don’t include you running off with some bike gang reject.”

“Seriously, calm down. I’m not one of your stupid goons, you can’t order me around like you’re some big thug for god’s sake!”

I was tired of him nagging me, so I wolfed down the last of my breakfast and stood abruptly, rattling the silverware on the table.

“Kitty Erica Donatello, you sit your ass back down right now!” he bellowed as I walked away.

That was one thing my father was not used to, people walking away from him.

I ignored him though, I was over his attitude. And unlike most other people in the world, I knew I was completely safe from his wrath.

As mad as I could make him, he could never hurt me…and that made me smile as I heard him sputter and slam things on the table but I didn’t look back.

I had a hot biker to chat up, and without putting his life in danger, to use in order to piss my father off enough that he sent me to Paris to keep me away from the dangers of Vegas.

Although it might be nice if I had a sexy biker along for the trip, but that was too crazy to think about and I felt light headed even allowing myself to go there.