Page 39 of Sapphire Storm

“We’re not worried about Diana Peyton’s trainer,” Connor said.“Happy employees make for happy guests. That was my grandfather’s motto, andthat’s how we run Sapphire Cove. If you don’t feel safe, you’re not happy.”

“I’m beyond happy here. Thrilled, actually. But thank youfor checking.”

“I have to ask, does this guy have some kind of fixation? Hespecifically requested the penthouse suite, but he came alone. And then he’syelling at you? I mean, you were on that Netflix show, right? The one with thedead people and the cakes.”

Logan chuckled. “No, babe, the cakes were just supposed tolooklike—”

“I got it, Mr. Murdoch,” Connor whispered.

Logan bowed his head when he realized he’d corrected hisboss as if they were at home together.

But Ethan was left relieved by their exchange. As if it hadbeen illuminated by a beam of light from the heavens, he suddenly saw the pathto an answer that was just truthful enough. “Roman Walker isn’t a stalker, Ican assure you.”Sort of,he thought. “When it comes to this wedding,his boss has some unrealistic expectations. I recognized the situation and promisedI’d work with him to make sure he can accommodate her as reasonably as possiblewhile also watching out for his own mental health.”

Logan looked satisfied by his answer.

Connor did not. After a tense silence, he said, “I wouldassume the majority of stress around this wedding would fall on the weddingplanner, not thedietician.”

“Connor, you don’t like him,” Logan said quietly.

Connor’s eyebrows went up. “I don’t like that he flirtedwith two of our security guys to get access to a suite he never should havebeen let into. Am I going to have to manage Brandon and J.T. by flirting withthem now too?”

Sitting up straight, Logan said, “No, because they know goodand well any man at this hotel who flirts with you will end up with his voicebox in my hand.”

“Hot,” Connor whispered with a twinkle in his eye, “butwe’re at work.”

“Gentlemen.” Ethan cleared his throat. “While you should alwaysfeel comfortable being your happily engaged selves in front of me, I can assureyou, the situation with Roman Walker is solely that he is young and hisrelationship with Diana Peyton is very complicated. I’m trying to help him dothe best job for her that he can. That’s all.”

Which in the case of one of her requests, is no job atall,he thought.

“Okay,” Connor finally said. “It’s a very big event for us,but at no point will Sapphire Cove expect you to place yourself in the line offire from a personality that volatile.”

“He’s not that volatile, I can assure you.”

Sort of.

One of Connor’s eyebrows went up. “Ethan, he yelled out atyou during a meeting aboutcake samplesand then peeled out of ourmotor court at seventy-fives miles an hour and was rude to the valets.”

“As always, I appreciate your protectiveness, but trust me,I’m doing what I’m doing with Roman of my own volition entirely.”

Great,he thought,now it sounds like I’mfucking him.

But if that’s what Logan and Connor thought, they weren’tletting on.

“Let us know if anything changes,” Connor said, then he stoodand so did Logan, both signals Ethan was being relieved. He rose as well, shookboth their extended hands, and departed. In any other circumstance, he wouldhave been moved by management’s protectiveness of him. But in this moment, hewas essentially conspiring with Roman to knock one of the hotel’s biggestevents off the calendar, and that made him feel like he was a college kid inSouth Carolina again, closeted and living a double life.

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Roman’s pre-date grooming ritual, the onethat allowed for all penetrative possibilities, usually took him two hours.This time, he added an additional hour, by the end of which he was confidentevery inch of him tasted good enough to eat. Even to a seasoned chef. Normally,he’d only prepare himself for this level of intimacy with a third date whoshowed real promise. But Ethan Blake occupied a special category. That’s why heoccupied Roman’s every other thought.

He was smarter and more elegant than the older men who’dasked him out in LA back when he was working at Apex. Mostly investment typesand entertainment execs who talked their way through dinner in brusque,emotionless sentences that made clear they were only killing time until theclothes came off. Until Roman made clear he never gave up the goods on night oneand the light went out of their eyes and suddenly they were making excuses tocut the night short.

Ethan Blake, on the other hand, spoke in elaborate, detailedsentences that wrapped around you like a comforting embrace—even if Roman hadto look up every other word. What mattered was that Ethan spoke like he wasactually seeing him, not just imagining what he wanted to do to him later.

And that, ironically, made Roman want to ride him barebackuntil the sun came up.

Daddy issues,he thought as he styled his hair. Hisfellow trainers at Apex had given him the diagnosis, based on the fact that thegym patrons he thirsted over were always rawboned with steel gray facial hair.But the brand had felt like an accusation, maybe because it was so obvious.He’d never really had a dad. Not since the age of seven, anyway. And today hishormones fired for men twice his age who radiated stability and confidence. Butas the night before made clear, Ethan—the version of him he was coming to know,at least—added other elements to the package. Generosity. Gentleness.Tenderness. And something else he couldn’t remember the name of, at first.

Something old world, historical. Medieval, even.

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