Triple Diamonds (Mystic Nights Book 2) (5 page)

“Was there something else?” she asked pointedly. Uncomfortable under his scrutiny, she set her knife down and fidgeted with the uniform.

Her voice came out on a squeak of nervousness, and it reminded him of why he had come. His original purpose. “Oh yes, sorry. I was admiring how quickly you do that. I like to cook; I was studying your technique, and I um, got distracted.” He was lying through his perfect teeth Jewel thought. But that smile, holy hell, it did things to her. She clenched her legs together.

She swallowed. “Okay, but was there something else?” she repeated her question hoping he would move along. The girls behind him were laughing and giving her the knowing nod. She was sure Louis was seething by now if he were still paying attention the casino’s attorney who had yet to greet him.

“Yes, of course.” He winked at her. “I am wondering about the food I saw you take last month to bring to the food pantry. I have been going over loss reports for the board, and wanted to be sure they were recorded somewhere. I’m finishing up the quarterly reports, and needed to see the kitchen accounts.”

Jewel’s heart hammered in her chest. She hadn’t been expecting that at all. She remembered that night, and how guarded he had been. She had to admit it had looked bad, but she had explained her actions and he had seemed to accept them. It was something she had been doing since she started working here. Louis had asked her to take over the chore because of her proximity to the food bank. “Um, yeah. The inventory is kept in a white binder. It is hanging over there by the telephone.” He glanced towards the binder, hanging exactly where she said it would be. He’d known that, but had wanted to gauge her reaction. Other than a slight flaring of her nostrils, she had answered smoothly and without delay. He gave her a quick nod, and began to turn. But her voice stopped him. “Louis is very careful to not over order. But sometimes we do. We don’t always know how many of the customers will be eating in, or where exactly in the casino they will choose to eat.”

He gave her a stunning megawatt smile that she was sure had charmed many panties off of many women. She felt slightly dizzy and knew if she spent any time with him alone, she would be stripping hers off in less than ten seconds. God, he was just too handsome for words. But she wouldn’t be doing it for her own kitchen. She just wanted to. Period. The man was as hot as they came.

Joseph saw the girl gaze at him with interest though she tried to mask it. He saw the signs. Her eyes sliding quickly down his body. Her nostrils flared. But he also noticed how quick she had come to the defense of her boss. She was loyal. He liked that. “Of course. That’s understandable. I’m sure it’s hard to predict how much you’ll need. But with the recent thefts, and overages, and merchandise loss we have had, we are just cracking down a bit, and making sure everything matches up before we begin signing the new purchase orders.”

He watched her reaction. He saw her swallow. Hard. “Oh, I didn’t know there was a problem.” She knew it was dumb before she said it, because it happened all the time. People took a bit home, not realizing each and every little theft added up. But she hadn’t realized it was such a huge problem was what she meant to say.

His smile evaporated with her words. “Theft is always a problem in a place this size.” Jewel felt uncomfortable under his inspection, she couldn’t explain it. This man ran hot one minute and cold the next. He unnerved her. There was just no other way to describe it. Her attraction to the man, and the dreams she had of him recently, were one of the reasons. And then there was the fact that she felt a slight twinge of guilt too. She sometimes took a few vegetables out of each crate to bring home before dropping them off the rest at the pantry. She vowed to herself to not do that again. She herself was a client at the food pantry, but she would now wait to take the items from them from now on.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” she mumbled lamely as she pushed the pile of beans out of her way and began to finely chop the onions also sitting on her work station. Her discomfort distracted her, and she wasn’t watching her knife blade. She knocked her hand against one of the steel racks on her left and dropped her knife. She pulled her finger to her eye after emitting a small yelp of pain.

How stupid. Such an amateur, she thought to herself. A rookie mistake. She probably looked like a fool, but instead of irritation, Joseph came around to her side of the counter and grabbed her hand from her. His nearness made her heart race. She inhaled his scent. It enveloped her like a glove and she tried to pull her hand out of his grasp. It was too much. It made that bolt of electricity she had felt go haywire. “I’m fine. Really. Just a nick,” she stated looking down at the small cut. It was bleeding slightly, but it was just a small nick. She would bandage it, and wear gloves to keep the bandage in place.

But Joseph would not let go of her hand. She felt the heat of his body flush against her side, and the heat emanating off of him had a bead of sweat trickle down between her breasts. She felt herself getting wet. It had her reeling with a wave of dizziness that shocked her. She leaned towards him without meaning too. It was a pull she tried to fight.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked, voice full of concern, feeling her body sway next to his. He hoped she wouldn’t faint at the sight of her own blood, though he liked the thought of holding her if she collapsed more than he wanted to admit. “Not afraid of a little blood are you?” he tried to tease her.

The teasing didn’t have the desired effect. In fact, it seemed to make her angry.

“No,” she snapped, yanking her hand out of his reach. “Please. I can take care of this. And I need to get to work. We have a pace we need to keep here.” She hadn’t wanted to snap, but several more of the kitchen staff were now watching with more than mild curiosity. Some seemed quite amused at her expense. Ugh, this would be fodder for the rumor mills for days, if not weeks, if she didn’t put an end to this soon.

Sensing her mood had shifted once more, he decided to retreat for now. But he wasn’t surrendering. He wasn’t done with Miss Diamante. Not by a long shot. Though he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with her. “Okay, if you’re sure.” He attempted to make it teasing, to lighten the mood. He had been so very affected by her proximity. “I’ll leave you be. For now.” He couldn’t help adding that last part. Her brown eyes snapped to his, widening once more at his choice of words. Her tongue darted out to lick her lips. And he couldn’t stop himself if he tried. “I meant that. For now.” He cocked his head to the side and gave her his most wicked grin. “I’d like to take you out for a drink,” he offered stepping back to watch her reaction to this offer. To watch her body language.

Woah
,
this man, didn’t let up
. He was full of surprises tonight. She stumbled for the words. “I, um,” she turned on a faucet to stall, and let her knuckle where she had nicked it be soothed by the water and to clean out the cut. Had he just asked her out? “I’m pretty, um,” she’d been about to say busy, but he interrupted her.

“Yes, yes you are. That’s why I asked you out.” He was grinning like a school boy. Really putting on the charm, and she found herself smiling back. It was infectious.

She felt the blush rise in her cheeks. Oh God, the two girls cleaning counters across from her were giving her thumbs up signs and winking. She wanted to crawl under her butcher block. “Um, well yeah. Um, that might be nice. But I’m pretty busy too.” She managed to squeak out the words trying to push back her initial reaction to jump at the opportunity. It had been forever since she had gone out with a guy even if it was just for drinks. Over two years, in fact.

“Okay, well I’ll call you then,” he gave her one more winning smile and nodded over at the binder she had indicated earlier. And with a little wave, he crossed the room to check out those kitchen losses leaving her speechless. Completely and utterly speechless.

*

Yes, he would
call her, Joseph thought very pleased with himself for how the conversation had ended. She was a tempting little thing. All angry and tough one second, but then soft and shy the next. He definitely wanted to get to know Miss Jewel Diamante a little bit better. The name suited her. She was a Jewel. A diamond. Plus, her reactions to him had been all over the place, and he wanted to find out why.

Focusing on the entries before him, he saw that everything seemed to be recorded properly. Checking the dates, he saw Louis’ notation for the night of the engagement party. Three crates sent to the food bank. He felt a bit of relief to know that she hadn’t lied about that.

As he crossed his way through the kitchen on his way out, he looked one more time in the direction of Jewel’s station, and was a little disappointed when he didn’t see her standing there. But, he’d call. And he’d definitely be seeing her again.

“Excuse me,” a voice to his right called interrupting his thoughts. He glanced to the two women piling dishes into a large industrial sized dish washer. They had paused in their work, and were beckoning him over.

He walked their way. “Yes,” he looked over the two girls, both appeared to be in their early twenties. Both pretty.

“Um,” the braver of the two started. “We, um, just wanted to let you know that we love your sister’s night club,
Light It Up
. The DJ is awesome. She is doing a great job. It’s so much fun. We are so looking forward to her opening of
Spirits in the Sky
.” His sister, Eve, was in charge of the entertainment at
The Mystic
, and the girls were talking about the new club that would open in about four months. They had one other club as well,
The Rainmaker
, inside the massive casino, as well as a sports bar, and one quieter wine bar.

“I’ll let her know,” he smiled at the two young girls and wondered if it was their attempt at flirting. It happened to him often, and he took advantage of it at times. Especially when two girls approached him at once. As long as they understood that he wasn’t in it for the long term, he was always open to a night of fun.

When it looked like that was all they were going to say, he began to walk away towards the exit into the restaurant. “And we are going dancing tonight at
Light it Up
, with Jewel,” they added conspiratorially. Both were laughing when he stopped dead in his tracks. He turned. His megawatt smile was genuine.

“Thank you, um, what were your names?” He winked at the pair appreciative of their help in making his desire to get to know Jewel better a tad easier.

“I’m Linda, and this is Dinah. We are friends of Jewels.”

“Very good friends,” he gave them a genuine smile. They giggled like school girls. “Thank you for the information. I may see you later then. I suddenly feel like dancing.” He began to whistle as he walked away. The shy Jewel, with the midnight dark eyes, as busy as she might be, was going out tonight, letting her hair down, and now he planned on joining her thanks to her two friends. In more ways than one.

‡

J
ust as he
was about to call it quits for the day, and head to his suite at the hotel for a quick shower and then a late dinner with his sisters, he heard his brother and mother talking from inside her office.

“Shit, two more robberies today? Late this afternoon?” He paused by the open doorway and cleared his throat letting the two inside know he was present.

His mother smiled when she saw him, but he could see the concern these thefts were causing etched in the fine lines around her mouth. “Come in,” she ushered with the wave of her hand. “It just happened. Not less than thirty minutes ago.” Making eye contact with him, his mother added. “Security just called. The two rooms were adjacent to one another. The thieves probably entered one room and then went through the adjoining doors. The two couples in them just returned from dinner to change for a night out. Both couples had their safes broken into and some jewelry taken along with their cash and credit cards.”

Jonathan quickly nodded his greeting and took a seat in one of the chairs before Tawny’s large oak desk. Joseph joined him in the second plush leather chair. “Did they take out any travel insurance?” Joseph asked, hoping their guests at least had done that and would be able to recover some of their losses.