“You’re right. Besides, it’s not like you knew he’d be stopping by with his grandmother,” Julie said, pushing open the door. “This meeting goes well, I’m taking you to dinner.”

“Thank goodness, all I have at my place is an overripe banana.”

The front desk receptionist took their names and then showed them to a small conference room. “Mr. Covington will be right with you.”

Julie’s head spun to Sasha. “What did she say?”

Sasha looked just as surprised. “Apparently he has an idea about the flowers after all.”

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how she looked at it, Julie didn’t have time to dwell on anything. Within mere seconds, the door opened and Daniel breezed into the room. He wore a light gray suit and a bright blue tie that complemented his eyes. There was a look of momentary surprise as he noticed Sasha, but he was all smiles when he turned to Julie and held out his hand.

“Ms. Masterson, good to see you again. My niece loved the roses.”

Then he looked to Sasha and shook her hand. “Ms. Blake.”

There was a hint of recognition between the two. Julie picked up on it immediately. Neither Sasha nor Daniel seemed to acknowledge it, almost as if they had silently agreed to act as if they didn’t know each other.

Daniel waved toward the chairs. “Let’s have a seat and finalize these plans, shall we?”

Surely a vice president had better things to do than to discuss flowers for a benefit? But it wouldn’t be proper to ask, so Julie did as suggested and sat.

“This benefit is near and dear to my heart,” Daniel said. “My grandfather died of melanoma.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Julie said.

“Thank you, but it was years ago. The flowers we had at last year’s event were subpar and I wanted to ensure the same didn’t happen again. That would be why we hired you this time.”

“I assure you, the Petal Pushers don’t do subpar,” Julie said.

“That’s what I like to hear.” His smile was easy and gentle, but his eyes held a tinge of desire.

Twenty-five minutes later, they’d negotiated all the floral arrangements and pricing. With a deft sweep of his pen, Daniel signed the contract and smiled.

“Pleasure doing business with you. I can already tell I’m in expert hands.”

As they all stood to leave, he addressed Sasha. “Can you give me a moment with Ms. Masterson?”

A wary expression crossed her friend’s face, but Sasha pursed her lips together and nodded. “I’ll be in the car, Julie.”

Julie’s heart raced and she felt certain the temperature had risen in the small room by at least fifteen degrees.

“Julie,” Daniel said when the door closed. “It fits you. May I call you Julie?”

Determined not to appear as flustered as she felt, she smiled. “If I can call you Daniel.”

“Of course.” Was it her imagination or did his eyes darken as he spoke? “I was wondering, Julie, if you would be at the benefit outside of your professional capacity?”

The tickets were a hundred dollars a plate, nothing she could afford. “No, I’ll be there before it starts, but I’ll leave after everything’s set up.”

He took a step closer to her and her heart raced faster. “Would you come, then? As my date?”

Sasha’s words of warning repeated themselves in her head, but she refused to listen to them. There was obviously something, some chemistry, between her and Daniel. She’d felt it the first time she met him and obviously he felt it, too; she’d be a fool not to explore it.

Yet, how could she both set up for the benefit and get ready to attend as a guest?

The simple answer would be to book a room at the hotel it was being held at. The problem with that was the five-star price associated with the five-star accommodations. An image of her on a date with Daniel flickered in her brain and she knew she’d pay it.

“You can say no. I promise I can take it.”

Her head jerked. “What? Oh, no. I was actually just trying to work out the logistics in my head. I mean, I’d love to accept.”

“Did you?”

No. She had no idea how it would all work, how she’d manage to do everything. She didn’t even want to think about what Sasha would say. But one look into his captivating eyes, a glance at his easy smile, was all she needed.

“Not yet, but I will.”

“Would it be pushing my luck to ask you out to coffee sometime next week? Before the benefit?”

Two dates in one week? “Thursday afternoon?”

He took a business card from the papers on the table and wrote something down. “Here’s my cell. Call me.”

She would. She definitely would.

* * *

A week later, she was putting the final touches on a funeral arrangement when Sasha came through the door. It was Wednesday. Recently, Sasha had been taking a long lunch on Wednesdays to spend time with her latest boyfriend, Peter.

“How was lunch?” Julie asked. She really didn’t have to. Sasha nearly screamed “satisfied woman” the way she strolled into the shop, stopping here and there to touch a petal.

“Now, you know I didn’t eat anything.” Her eyes grew dreamy and she smirked. “But, since you mentioned it. While I was—”

“Stop it right there. No kinky sex talk in the shop. Someone could walk in.”

Julie knew her friend Sasha was a sexual submissive, and she understood a few details of what that entailed. Whenever Sasha played with a new Dom privately, Julie acted as her safety call, waiting a specified time for Sasha to text or call with a secret code so Julie would know all was well. Truth be told, even though some part of her thought there should be something scary about needing a safety call, a bigger part of her had always wondered what it’d be like to submit sexually.

“Just saying,” Sasha said. “You can always tell a good one. It’s like they can read your mind. Kinda freaky.”

“Good what?”

“Good Dominant.”

“The guy in charge?”

“It’s so much more than that. It’s like an itch, an ache. And when you’re with the right Dom, and he scratches it just so?” Sasha sighed with deep satisfaction and simultaneous excitement.

Hearing Sasha talk about it made Julie want to try it all the more. After all, it seemed to suit Sasha. And just because she tried it didn’t mean she had to do it forever. She could just see if she liked it.

But no sooner had that thought passed through her mind than she wondered what it would be like to submit to Daniel. Would he be gentle in bed or was he into taking what he wanted hard and fast?

“You’re sighing,” Sasha said. “What’s on your mind?”

Had she sighed out loud? She didn’t even realize it. “Just thinking about something.”

“Would that something happen to be a certain vice president?”

“Here lately, it’s always about him.”

“Just be careful, okay?”

But that was the problem. She was always careful. For once she wanted to take a risk.

* * *

Daniel was standing inside the coffee shop, waiting, when Julie arrived on Thursday. She took a second to watch him from the window. Having arrived after work, he was wearing a beautiful dark suit that emphasized his blond good looks. He was drawing admiring glances from several women.

Locally owned, the coffee shop was her and Sasha’s favorite hangout. Furnished with plush leather couches and handmade bookshelves, it was the perfect place to spend a winter afternoon. She wondered if Daniel had ever been inside before. Right now he was looking at the far wall, frowning at something she couldn’t see.

Must have been a bad day.

She looked down at the polo shirt she always wore to work and wished she’d had time to run home and change into something nicer. It wouldn’t look like she belonged with Daniel when she joined him. Shaking her head, she pushed open the door. Let people think what they would. For the moment, she was with Daniel and that was all that mattered.

His expression lightened when he saw her and he walked over. “Hey, come on in. Let me take your coat.”

She shrugged out of her winter coat, trying hard not to react when their hands brushed. “Thanks.”

He seemed completely unaffected, hanging the coat on the rack beside the door. “You want to get a table while I order?”

She told him what she wanted, medium latte and a blueberry scone, then found a secluded corner table and waited. He hadn’t been in line long when a young woman approached him. He shook his head at whatever it was she said. The lady reached out to touch him, but he shot her a look that froze her in her tracks.

The look troubled Julie a bit. It had been so cold and stern, and seemed totally out of character for Daniel. At least, it seemed out of character for what she knew of Daniel so far. Maybe she hadn’t read him as well as she thought.

She asked him about it when he found her minutes later. “Did that chick hit on you?”

He placed her latte and scone in front of her. “Yes, some people can’t take no for an answer.”

“Some people are really bold. I can’t imagine approaching a stranger in a coffee shop.”

He took a sip from his cup. “She wasn’t a stranger.”

Did that make her an ex, a friend who wanted more, maybe a business associate? She wanted to ask, but didn’t. It was their first date; she had no claims on him and he owed her no explanations.

“I’m very selective about who I go out with,” he said.

She raised an eyebrow and he laughed.

“That sounds a bit snobbish, doesn’t it?” he asked.

“Slightly. You make it sound like you think the rest of us will date anyone with a basic grasp of the English language and most of their teeth.”