Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 78631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
I scratch the side of my head. “You just leaned over him and sent the email? While he was sitting there?”
A small spark of fire shoots through her eyes. “There was a bit of a struggle. But yeah.”
“That’s…pretty fucking badass, Diana.”
She demurely takes another sip of her drink. “You say that as if you’re shocked, Dragon.”
I blink. The few sips of that margarita have brought out her flirty side.
I don’t hate it.
“I’m not shocked. More…amused.” I smirk for a moment and then look right into her beautiful eyes. “For what it’s worth, I think you did the right thing.”
She sighs. “I hope I did, Dragon. I know I did the right thing for the client and for the millions of guests who will one day visit the resort. Like… What if something happened when the resort was full? At the very least, people would have been inconvenienced, but worst-case scenario, they could have gotten hurt, could have died.”
I look at Diana.
At this woman who was born into riches but who has turned out to be one of the most generous and kindhearted people I’ve ever met.
I have no doubt she did what was best.
I wish…
Fuck.
I wish I were even close to good enough for her.
Chapter Ten
Diana
Opening up to Dragon about my work troubles felt good.
It felt…right.
Maybe I shouldn’t have hijacked this trip with him.
He doesn’t want to talk about whatever this is about. I’m sure it has something to do with whatever Alayna is investigating. Perhaps she found something here in Taos.
I take another sip of my margarita. It’s good, but for the life of me I don’t know why Donny drinks these. It just tastes like pure sugar with a little bit of tequila and lime thrown in.
For some reason, when I saw the server bring margaritas to the table next to us, I got a craving. Maybe I was thinking of my big brother. Who knows? Donny is currently on his honeymoon with his new wife, Callie Pike. My little sister Brianna is on her honeymoon with Callie’s brother, Jesse. Their other two sisters, Rory and Maddie, are also on honeymoons with my cousins Brock and Dave, respectively.
The big quadruple wedding—where Dragon was Jesse’s best man.
A pang of envy hits me.
I’m not sure where it came from. When I stood up as Brianna’s maid of honor at the recent wedding, all I felt was happiness for my sister and the rest of the wedding party.
I’ve never been one to think about marrying and settling down. I know it will happen eventually. I want to be a mother. But I was more interested in my architecture career. I figured I’d be well into my thirties before I considered moving on to family life.
Now my architecture career is… Well, I don’t suppose it’s exactly over. But it certainly has been blockaded.
I don’t doubt that Rod will blacklist me among architecture firms in Denver. Maybe even throughout the state of Colorado.
I could open my own firm—use my trust fund money to finance it—but if I’m blacklisted, will anyone hire me? The Steel name is a very important name in Colorado, but it’s not insurmountable. And a lot of people don’t trust us, based on rumors about us that are completely unfounded.
Chanel comes back to take our dinner order and deliver a basket of freshly made tortilla chips and homemade salsa.
“You go ahead,” I say to Dragon. “I’ve hardly looked at the menu.”
“I can give you two a few more minutes,” Chanel says.
“No, that’s okay,” I tell her. “Just take his order first.”
Dragon clears his throat. “I’ll have the carne asada.”
“Rice and beans with that?”
“Yeah, please.”
“And have you decided, ma’am?” she asks me.
I mull it over. “Enchiladas. Chicken enchiladas.”
“Absolutely. Rice and beans?”
“Just rice,” I say. “No cheese on top of the enchiladas.”
She makes notes. “Got it.”
“No cheese?” Dragon says.
“I’m a little lactose intolerant,” I say. “I can handle a little dairy. I had two slices of pizza the other night at Teddy’s party. I was fine. But it’s best not to tempt fate, and personally I think enchiladas are just as delicious without cheese.”
“That depends on the sauce,” he says.
“Yeah, you’re right about that. Hopefully the sauce here is good.” I take a chip, dip it in the salsa, and eat it, savoring the crunch. “You should try this,” I say with my mouth still full. “Amazing. The perfect amount of spice.”
“Really? That depends on how you like your spice.”
“Medium to hot,” I say. “I mean, I don’t like my ears to melt off or anything.”
He chuckles. “I do.”
I grab another chip. “You should still try the salsa. The flavor is out of this world.”
He nods, takes a chip, dips it, chews, swallows.
We’ve been living together for nearly a week now and have been to bed twice, so how is it that we’ve run out of things to talk about? We didn’t talk much on the drive, which was fine with me. So why does the silence between us now hang so heavily?