Book Introduction: The boss’s runaway
Blurb: Sissy has escaped her tight fisted father and run all the way to Vegas to start a life on her own terms. First order of business? Make some cash as a cocktail waitress…
Over his dead body. Locke isn’t about to set this beautifully innocent farm girl loose on the casino floor or she’ll drive the men wild. Problem is, she has already driven him to the brink of madness with her smile, her scent, her body-and he’s far too old and jaded for a girl this sweet.
Unfortunately, she’s homeless and needs a place to sleep…and he’s powerless to do anything but bring her home and try to resist temptation.
Chapter One
Sissy
I’ve never really known the meaning of the term culture shock until now.
I’m standing on the floor of The Palace, a casino in Las Vegas, and it’s like I’ve been transported to another planet. Beautiful women sparkle and laugh on their way past me, the decor is bright and cartoonish and enticing. Everything screams luxury. It’s loud-a cacophony of voices and dinging slot machines and energy. It all swells around me, nearly lifting me up off of the polished marble floor.
I’ve come to interview for the position of cocktail waitress and now that I’m here…I’m pretty darn positive that my cheap, coral-colored dress is not going to cut it. Fashion-wise, I’m not glamorous. I don’t have perfect makeup and hair like the girls I’m watching serve drinks to patrons playing blackjack and roulette. I’ve done my best with the meager amount of cash I was able to store away without my father finding out over the last few years.
This is my big chance. I’m finally free. I want to be more excited, but right this very second, all I feel is out of my league. Maybe I’m aiming too high by interviewing at one of the casinos? Maybe I should try for a position at a smaller shop off the Strip?
“You look lost,” someone says to my right. One of the cocktail waitresses. This one has bright red hair and iridescent blue eyeshadow applied nearly to her eyebrow.
Reflexively, I squeeze the set of car keys in my hand until the teeth bite into my palm. They comfort me, these keys. They remind me that I’m free. My keys got me away from the monster. No matter what happens tonight, at least my old green Nissan is waiting for me in the parking garage beneath the casino.
“I am lost. Sort of.” Do the interview. What’s the worst that could happen? “I’m here to meet with Craig about a cocktail waitress position. I’ve been looking for the elevator to bring me to the upstairs offices, but this place is a maze…”
“Yeah, no kidding,” she says above the noise. “They do that on purpose. Wouldn’t want people to find their way out, would we? We need them to stay put and lose their money.”
I laugh.
She doesn’t join me.
“I’m Sissy,” I say, holding out my hand for a shake.
She looks at my hand for long seconds before finally taking it. Her eyes move to my body, traveling down the full length of me and back up, an emotion that appears to be irritation flickering in her expression. “There go my tips,” she mutters.
Confused, I shake my head. “Pardon?”
“Nothing.” Suddenly her smile is extra bright, but there’s something like calculation lurking behind it. No…no, I must be imagining that. “Follow me, I’ll bring you to the elevators and give you some advice on interviewing with Craig along the way.”
“Really?” Relief floods my limbs and I trail behind her gratefully. “That’s so kind of you, thank you. I never caught your name.”
“Faye.”
“Thank you for your help, Faye.”
She jerks a shoulder and keeps on walking. “Listen, they don’t hire delicate flowers around here, so toughen up. You’re going to be dealing with groping hands and innuendos and drunks, so you need to be streetwise and savvy. If Craig doesn’t think you’re woman enough to handle the rowdy clientele, you’ll be back on the elevator lickety-split. Without a job.”
The nerves are back, humming in my fingertips. “I see. I need to be tough.”
Faye punches the elevator button. “Second tip?” She looks around, as if to make sure no one is listening. “Craig is a scumbag. Be ready to take off that dress. It might be your only chance to change his mind if the interview isn’t going well.”
“Take off…my dress?” Surely, I didn’t hear her correctly. “I’m interviewing to be a waitress, not one of the dancers.”
Faye laughs. “Nothing is free in Vegas. You want the job badly enough, you’ll unzip that dime store treasure you’re wearing and show him you’ve got assets.”
Assets. What is she referring to? My body?
I’ve never used my body for anything but farm work. Feeding chickens, mucking the horse stalls, milking cows. The men who came to the farm to conduct business with my father often made me feel embarrassed with the way they looked at me, but we never conversed. My father wouldn’t allow it. I’ve spoken to very few members of the opposite sex throughout my life, since my mother homeschooled me and we only ventured into town on occasion. I’ve definitely never been naked in front of one. Maybe it’s a lot more common for a woman to show a man her body for professional gain than I realize?
“You look like you’re going to be sick, goldilocks.”
At her use of the amusing nickname, I tuck a few strands of blonde hair behind my ear, shifting side to side in the cheap white heels I stole from my mother’s closet. “I’m just nervous, I suppose. This place is so big and wild. It makes a girl feel small. Outnumbered.”
The redhead sighs, shakes her head. “This town is going to chew you up and spit you right back out, isn’t it? Poor baby.”
With that, the elevator door swishes open, moving sleekly like everything else in this establishment. Faye gives me a firm push and I’m suddenly standing in the gleaming gray marble elevator, Sinatra echoing in the small space, my knees starting to wobble. The last thing I see before the doors close again is Faye’s thumbs up-and then I’m off. Flying up to the very top floor to the executive offices.
I stare back at my pale reflection in the mirrored walls and take a deep breath.
My makeup is amateurish, but it’s the best I could manage, never having applied the stuff before. My clothes are second, maybe thirdhand. I’m more out of place than a cow in the pigpen. But I’m not going back to the farm. I refuse to be imprisoned ever again. Or smacked around and verbally abused. I can’t go back to that. I need to start making money before my tiny stash of cash runs out. I need this job. Terribly.
And I’ll do whatever it takes to get it.
Locke~
“No way. I don’t interview waitresses.”
My colleague, Craig, jogs to catch up with me as I march down the carpeted hallway between offices. “Please. I’ve got a staffing issue tonight I’ve got to deal with. Just ask the girl a few questions, make sure she’s got a nice ass and send her off to HR to do paperwork.”
“No.”
“God, you are such an asshole,” he laughs, but there’s frustration beneath the sound.
So be it. I’m not here to make friends. In fact, in my position as a pit boss on the casino floor, I’m better off not having friends. I’m here to make sure cash flows the right direction and every cent of it is accounted for. I’m here to monitor gamblers and dealers, to make sure no one is trying to steal from the house. That’s my profession, I’m damn good at it. And interviewing waitresses is not in the job description.
Besides, there are rumors about how Craig likes to “interview” the girls and I want no part of that vile behavior. I witness more than enough debauchery throughout my nights in the pit to add anything new. I cleanse my mind of those impurities at church every morning and start fresh each evening. Once upon a time, I was going to be a priest and that mindset hasn’t deserted me. Perhaps The Palace isn’t ideal for someone who is trying to live a pious existence, but there’s a method to my madness.
Or a reason for it, rather.
“I’ve never asked you for anything, man. Please. Five minutes of your precious time.” I walk into the employee check-in room with Craig hot on my heels. There is a row of men in suits and earpieces that scan my badge and officially put me on the clock. To my right, there is a wall of television screens that monitor different parts of the casino. This is only a small sampling of the surveillance that goes on, but that operation is on another floor.
“I don’t have five minutes,” I rumble. “My shift is starting soon.”
“Yeah, yeah. And you’re never late.” Craig massages the bridge of his nose. “Never late, never has a drink. Never partakes in anything Vegas has to offer, including women-” Something catches his eye on one of the monitors and he drifts toward it, entranced. “On second thought, I think I’ll make time for this interview.”
I’m not sure why I look.
Women are an afterthought for me. They’re customers. Employees. I don’t think of them as sexual objects, because I’m not an immoral snake, like Craig. In fact, most of the time, I’m completely unaware of them. But for some reason, I look at the monitor…
And my muscles stiffen into concrete.
In seconds, the pulse points in my wrists and throat are thrumming rapidly and I’m sweating underneath my suit. Who is that?
Before I register my own movements, I’m stepping into the space beside Craig at the monitor, inhaling the sight of her, my dick already beginning to grow heavier against my will.
She’s a thing of beauty.
Plucked straight from the painting on the ceiling of my church. A golden-haired angel. There is something blatantly pure about her. Vulnerability radiates from every inch of this girl, even though her body…
Oh dear God, her body is designed for sin.
Dark, secret kinds of sins that people don’t speak about out loud.
It’s the exact opposite of her innocent face.
I’m a large man, tall and wide and thick. I would crush her to death, yet I can’t seem to stop my mind from picturing myself between her thighs. Just pulling her skirt up and rutting. Her big, fathomless eyes blink up at me, telling me it hurts.