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 cont
ract 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?”