Page 112 of Hot Summer Nights

He stares at me and I stare back, determined to not be the first to break. He continues to stare at me and as I continue to stare back into his eyes, I feel something start to happen. It’s like I can’t control myself and I let my eyes roam over him. It feels like the air is getting thicker and I’m starting to lose awareness of the rest of the room as I focus on him.

He starts to smirk and I feel my lips start to curve in response until I realize what I’m doing. Annoyed with myself for falling for a pretty face I shake my head and snap out of it. I’m tougher and smarter than that. I saw so many girls in my group homes who would get all doe-eyed and follow any guy who showed them even the tiniest bit of attention and I swore that I would never be like them. As soon as we break eye contact the smile slips from his face and he actually looks a little upset but he covers it quickly.

“What’s your name, Angel?” He asks.

He’s still leaning against the door and for some reason, I debate telling him. I’ve never had this type of reaction to a guy before and it’s throwing me off. I’ve never really had any type of reaction to a guy, too busy trying to survive the different group homes and graduate from school. I remember that I need this job though and with him blocking the door it’s not like I have a ton of options anyways so I tell him.

“It’s Harper. Harper Jenkins. I was here to interview for the new cocktail waitress position.”

“No.” He says and a look of anger passes over his face but once again he smooths it over quickly.

His response surprises me and then just pisses me off. All my life I’ve been told that I wasn’t good enough and this guy takes one look at me and won’t even give me a shot? He hasn’t even glanced at my resume and he knows nothing about me and he just says no.

“Excuse me? What do you mean no?”

“No, you can’t be a cocktail waitress here.”

“Why not?” I ask through gritted teeth.

I want to scream and shout but Las Vegas is a small town. Piss off someone in one casino and everyone around town knows about it. Next thing you know you’re blackballed and can’t get hired anywhere in town so I try to keep calm. He ignores my question but he stands up straight from leaning against the door.

“I need an assistant. You’ll do that instead.”

“I’m sorry but who the hell are you?”

“I’m Oliver Hunter. I own this casino.”

With that, he grabs the door handle and opens the door. As it opens, I see Lila and the HR guy standing outside in the hallway looking just as confused as I feel.

“Follow me.” He says as he steps out into the hallway and continues back towards the casino floor.

I stand there and debate what to do but I need a job badly. He takes two steps into the hallway before he turns back to look at me. I have a feeling I’m going to regret this but I don’t have a lot of options so taking a deep breath, I follow him down the hallway.

THREE

OLIVER

She’s it. That’s all I keep thinking to myself as we walk down the hallway and back out onto the casino floor. I should really be out there supervising the arrival of some new slot games but I had to be near her, to find out more about her.

I almost lost it when I saw the way Todd was checking her out when she was standing in his office. Then again when she said she was here for the server job. No way is she walking around in that little outfit and letting other men seeing her like that. She deserves to be wearing the finest silk and designer clothes, not the revealing outfits that the waitresses here wear.

I couldn’t just let her leave though. I’ve known her for five minutes and I already can’t imagine what I would do if I couldn’t see her every day. Get to talk to her and have her eyes on me again like they were in the office.

I had to think fast to keep her from leaving so I made up the position for an assistant. I already have two assistants but I couldn’t think of anything else that would let me spend so much time with her. I’m already thinking of having her working closely with me every day and it makes me smile to myself.

Then I think about her working with my other assistants, John and Brad, both recent graduates from my alma mater, Harvard. I couldn’t handle Todd looking at her or being near her and that only lasted thirty seconds. I don’t think I’ll be able to handle her working so closely with any other men so her being an assistant with two other men working closely with her seems out of the question. I do some quick thinking as I lead her across the casino and over to the elevators.

We step on and I enter the code for my penthouse then scan my pass so that the elevator doesn’t stop on any other floors. As soon as the elevator doors close, she turns to me. I love having her eyes on me, I think to myself.

“So, I need some more information about this position. Like what exactly I’ll be doing, hours, salary...” Her voice trails off as the elevator doors open to reveal a foyer that opens up into my living room.

The elevator comes to a smooth stop and the doors open to my home on the top floor. I moved into the penthouse when the casino opened. I spend all of my time here anyway so it was nice to not have a long commute to work. We step off the elevator and walk through the foyer into the living room. Harper stops short and I turn to look back at her but she’s staring out the floor to ceiling windows that make up the entire wall. I’ve lived here for a couple of months now and I guess I stopped really noticing the view but now standing here with her I stop to admire it.

We’re high enough up that we can see most of the strip. She’ll be staying here with me and I get excited just thinking about her seeing it at night with the lights of the strip glowing bright below us.

“I runthis casino and in six months I’ll be taking over my family's other two casinos. I have two assistants who help me run the business side of things but I need someone to handle my personal life.”

I leave out the fact that I don’t really have much of a personal life. Harper finally turns away from the window and looks around the rest of the living room. I smile to myself when I realize that she doesn’t seem to care that I own this casino or that I am obviously wealthy. She wanders over to one of the leather couches and sits down.

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