Samhain Publishing

Sophie stopped short when she saw him sitting at the bar.

Ian Grey never, ever sat at the bar. Rumor had it he flat out didn’t drink. Ever. She’d worked at the bar in the Royal Plaza Hotel in San Francisco for the last six months and she couldn’t remember him staying in the room for more than ten minutes, tops. Rather unfortunate considering what delicious eye candy he made.

With her new resolve though, she didn’t pay attention to eye candy. Or at least she tried not to. Delicious men were dangerous, and Sophie Kincaid had had enough of dangerous delicious men to last her a lifetime.

So what was the general manager of the Royal Plaza doing there, she wondered as she slowly walked towards the bar counter. And with a sweating drink in front of him?

“…so she broke up with me. After five years of my life in a relationship with a woman I thought I was going to marry, she dumps me. Just like that.”

Sophie’s ears perked up at that statement. Perfect Ian Grey got dumped by his equally perfect girlfriend? She hadn’t heard that particular rumor yet.

Chuck, the bar manager, nodded in commiseration and Ian knocked back the rest of his drink. “Tough breaks, man.”

“I was gonna marry that woman. I’d planned on buying her a ring for Christmas.” Ian shook his head and stared into his glass.

Sophie shuffled her feet and gnawed on her lip. It was almost six o’clock, time for her to start her shift with Chuck for the busy Friday summer night. She needed to get behind the counter, needed to get to work, but she didn’t want to butt in on what sounded like a rather personal conversation.

“Hey, Sophie.”

She glanced up and found Chuck smiling at her, a look on his face that read rescue me. She started towards the bar, sauntered really, deciding to work it for the efficient, sexy man who ran the entire hotel with a straightforward intensity she’d never witnessed before.

After all, he just broke up with his girlfriend. A little wiggle in her ass and a thrust of her chest might be what he needed to make him feel better.

“Chuck.” She bent to put her purse in a cabinet beneath the bar and turned to find Ian Grey’s dark blue gaze settled in the exact spot where her ass had just been. “Mr. Grey. What brings you here tonight?”

His gaze lifted, met hers and he smiled. A sensual smile that revealed straight white teeth and curved his firm lips invitingly. Those lips tempted her to lean forward and touch his mouth with her fingers.

And then maybe follow up with her tongue.

“Hello, Sophie. And please, call me Ian.”

Hearing her name on his lips did something to her. Made her shiver from the inside out, made her want to know what his voice sounded like when he breathed her name in her ear. Right before he buried himself deep inside her.

Sophie shook her head and started moving down the bar, wiping the already clean counter with a damp cloth. She needed to stop thinking like that. Doing so had gotten her in way too much trouble in the past. Too many men, too many who used her, treated her like shit, even forgot her name. One who even smacked her around, though she’d wised up and left him relatively fast.

The last one had not only stolen her heart, but he’d also stolen all of her money and her credit. It devastated her so much she lost her previous job and her apartment. She’d had to move back in with her mom for a few months to get herself back on her feet both mentally and physically.