*-*-*-*

“Hey! I was winning that!” she argued, even though she’d been getting her ass royally kicked and seconds away from being dragged down a flight of stairs by her ear.

“Shut up and sit down,” Lucifer said evenly as he rudely deposited her on one of the large leather couches taking up the large open space, letting her know that she’d finally pushed him too far, because he’d never once in the five years that she’d worked for him allowed her inside his apartment.

No one was allowed in here as far as she knew. This was his sanctuary, his escape from the rest of the world and the one place that she’d never attempted to infiltrate, because she hadn’t wanted to see exactly how far she could push him before he snapped and turned the infamous Lucifer Bradford temper on her. It wasn’t as though he hadn’t lost his temper with her before. It happened on a daily basis and usually more than once a day, but she’d never seen him this angry before.

At other people?

All. The. Time.

Since she really didn’t want to be on the receiving end of that aforementioned temper, she decided that it would probably be in her best interest if she made a hasty retreat and gave him a chance to cool off.

“You and I need to have a talk,” he bit out with a cold glare that didn’t bode well for her.

Yeah….no, she was good.

“We definitely should talk,” she agreed with a firm nod, because she’d learned years ago that the best way to deal with Lucifer Bradford was to either distract him or avoid him altogether and since she didn’t have her trusty clipboard with her...

She needed to get out of here for a few hours and unfortunately for her, the only thing that would grant her sanctuary until Mr. Cranky Pants here redirected that anger issue of his onto someone else was a visit to the Doctor’s office.

Well, there really was no point in putting it off any longer, especially since Lucifer looked liked he was going to try firing her again. He really was cute when he thought that he was in charge, she mused with a resigned sigh as she got to her feet and headed for the door.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” he demanded, somehow managing to look downright adorable for a man that could have easily been a cover model with his brooding green eyes, perfect tan, great build and short jet black hair that he swept forward every morning.

It really was a shame that he was such an asshole, she thought as she gave him one of those huge smiles that made always seemed to make the muscle beneath his eye tick and said brightly, “Doctor’s appointment!”

Before he could reply, she was out the door and in a chokehold by a woman who could teach Lucifer Bradford a thing or two about channeling all that anger.

Chapter 4

“What are you going to do if he actually fires you?” Melanie asked as though this time her answer would be different.

“Kill you,” Rebecca answered with a lazy shrug as she continued to flip through the health magazine on her lap.

“Killing me wouldn’t pay the rent,” Melanie pointed out smugly.

“It would if your family paid me to do it,” she felt obligated to point out as she shot another calculating glance towards the exit.

“My family loves me.”

“Your father offered me fifty-thousand dollars to kill you,” Rebecca pointed out, wishing that she’d managed to jump out of the car before Melanie had stopped her, but the damn woman had lightening fast reflexes. Besides, the idea of getting road rash at forty miles as hour hadn’t really appealed to her.

“He was joking!” Melanie gasped in outrage, giving her the distraction that she needed, because honestly, she wasn’t sure how much longer she’d be able to sit here, knowing what was coming.

“He wrote a check,” she answered as she glanced back at the disapproving receptionist, who hadn’t taken her eyes off of them since they’d walked in the door, before she returned her attention to the magazine pushing the latest version of Viagra.

“You’re lying!”

“You were dating Craig Milton,” she said, reminding her best friend of the biggest dating mistake of her life.

“I was ten years old!” Melanie gasped with a chuckle.

“Your father took exception to him,” Rebecca said with a shrug as she stared at the magazine in her lap, trying her best not to think about…anything.

But, with every passing second she was losing that battle and she couldn’t help but think about the conversation that was to come or the gut wrenching feeling that hit her every time another Doctor looked at her with pity and annoyance as they came to the conclusion that she’d wasted their time. She didn’t want to be here, but then again, she really didn’t want to be home or at work where a certain terrifying man was no doubt on a rampage thanks to the fact that she’d once again narrowly escaped another attempt to fire her.

Okay, so technically she hadn’t escaped anything since he’d flat out told her that she was fired nearly a dozen times over the past five years. If it had been anyone else she probably would have just accepted her fate and moved on by now, but this was Lucifer Bradford, who obviously had no idea what he was doing, so she felt it was for the best if she simply ignored him and focused on saving the Fire & Brimstone before he ran it into the ground.

Lucifer was a very intelligent man, a hard worker and even though she personally thought that he was an asshole, he was also one of the most honest men that she’d ever met. That being said, he was also incredibly stubborn and that just wasn’t going to work for her.

She understood probably better than anyone how much the Fire & Brimstone meant to him. She hadn’t been able to help but fall in love with the restaurant and its charm the very first time she’d laid eyes on it. She’d do anything to make sure that it was a success even if that meant saving it from the man that had every right to run it into the ground.

Lucifer was stuck in his ways, refused to change anything or look for ways to improve the restaurant and evolve to meet growing trends. As far as he was concerned, the day that he’d opened Fire & Brimstone’s doors to the public, the restaurant had been absolutely perfect the way that it was and didn’t need to change. She’d admit that it probably had been perfect back then, but that was ten years ago and lot had changed since.

When she’d first started working at Fire & Brimstone she’d realized that the restaurant was in desperate need of a massive overhaul or it wasn’t going to be able to keep its doors open for very much longer. The food was horrible, overpriced and, more than often, was charred beyond recognition. Staff turnover was high and the employees that stayed were complete assholes that didn’t give a damn that the restaurant was in a downward spiral as long as their checks cleared.