Taboo Boss - Natasha L. Black Page 0,41

to me on the phone. It was always a respectful, professional tone. Now the greeting was playful and intimate. I felt my cock twitch at the promises her voice made alone.

“I have a question for you,” I said and then realized it might sound a bit much like I was asking if she was working. “Would you meet me tonight, for dinner?”

There was giggling on the other end. She must not have caught how awkward I had been, or maybe she had and that was the source, but either way, she seemed playful enough about it. She made a dramatic sound like she was thinking extremely hard about a tough decision.

“Gee, I don’t know. I guess I could be convinced to go to dinner with you,” she finally said.

“I promise, I will make it worth it,” I offered.

“I know you will,” she said, and then she gasped. Almost as if she didn’t mean to respond as flirty as she did. I laughed. “Anyway,” she said like she was trying to move on, but the smile in her voice was impossible to deny, “I’ve been working on that bug all day.”

“And?”

“We got it all sorted out. Between Landon and the team back at the home office and what I was doing, we smoothed it out. No complete code rewrite needed,” she said.

“Fantastic,” I said. “So the prototype is ready to go live?”

“Yes, it’s working flawlessly.”

“That is great news. You are amazing. Thank you so much for your help,” I said.

“You are very welcome. I am just glad I could do something useful.”

“Well, I should be at the hotel in about an hour or so. I will call you when I arrive,” I said.

“Should I go ahead and get us a table?” she asked.

“No, just meet me outside of the bar.”

“Okay…” she said, her voice trailing away curiously.

“I’ll be there soon,” I said and hung up. Going back inside, I wrapped up plans with my brothers and said my goodbyes. I grinned as I walked down the stairs to my rental car and didn’t stop smiling the entire way back to the hotel, even with all the traffic.

When I got to the hotel restaurant, I could see Amanda sitting on a couch by the entrance to the bar through the glass windows. I walked in, and she stood up to greet me, an absolute vision in a tight black blouse and skirt. They weren’t formal date clothes, but they were clearly not exactly work clothes either. Something told me she had either gone out to grab something in the time it took for me to get here, or she had come prepared for all eventualities. Either way, she was stunning, and I offered my hand to her.

“I would like to take you somewhere else,” I said. “Between us, I am a little sick of the hotel food.”

“Oh, thank God,” she said and then slapped her hand over her mouth, laughing.

“You too?” I asked, and she nodded as she tried to stifle the laughter.

“I said the exact same thing to Ava and your mother when they asked me to lunch,” she said.

“Well, the place I want to take you to is much better than here. Come on,” I said and guided her through the door. As we got into the car, she turned to me, and the sparkle in her eyes was enough that I almost told her it could wait and we should just dive into the back seat, but I held some measure of control and turned the ignition on.

“So, where are we going?” she asked.

“One of my favorite places in town. The only restaurant where I would willingly pay for pasta dishes. Plus, they have cannoli that is out of this world,” I said.

“Sounds great,” she said and sat back, her eyes still flickering to me as I drove.

We chatted casually as we made our way to Mary Rizzo’s, which was my hands-down favorite place to eat other than my mother’s. When we got inside, I was pleased to see that the hostess, the owner’s daughter, was still hanging around. She remembered me and guided us to my favorite table, back in the corner behind a fish tank that separated our booth from the others and gave us a sense of privacy, like we were the only people in the whole world.

As we ate, our conversation drifted from subject to subject, but never crossed over into talking about work or the bar. Instead, she told me stories of her teenage