I tried hard to push his face out of my head and thoughts. It wasn’t possible.

When I finally fell asleep, I dreamed of him.

That was the beginning.

MY DREAMS HAD BEEN VIVID last night. So much so that when I walked into the kitchen with pancakes and sausage for Jasper, I blushed. I’d wondered if he’d bring the girl with him to breakfast, but he hadn’t. He was alone.

“This smells amazing,” he said to me as I sat his plate in front of him. His phone was in his hand and he was texting, but he stopped to look at me.

“Thanks,” I said. My cheeks still felt warm. I quickly turned away hoping he wouldn’t notice.

“You okay this morning?” he asked me before I could leave the room.

“Yes.”

“Late night at work?”

“Yes.”

He chuckled. “Okay. Well, I won’t keep you.”

I nodded and hurried out. I felt silly. I looked silly. When I got to the kitchen, I sighed in frustration as I leaned against the bar. This wasn’t going to work. I had to get over last night’s dream, and over my attraction to Jasper. He was helping me. I didn’t receive help from many people, especially not from someone who looked like him. I had to keep my feelings straight. I was grateful to him for my job here and for the additional work he’d offered me at his office. That did not mean I was attracted to him.

I rolled my eyes at myself. I sounded ridiculous. A day experiencing Jasper’s charm, and then my erotic dream probably inspired by what I’d witnessed at work had me all a mess.

Jasper cleared his throat behind me, causing me to jump before I spun around.

“I was wondering if you’d like to have breakfast with me. It’s lonely in there.” He was carrying his plate in one hand and his coffee in the other. He sat both down on the bar.

Bad idea. “Where’s Stone?” I asked.

“Gone already. He went running before going into the office.”

Office? “Stone works?”

Jasper nodded. “Yeah. He does. For me. Now, why don’t you eat the food you made for him and let me enjoy your company. Please,” he added.

The way he tilted his head and his eyes reflected the morning sunlight coming in the windows made it hard to say no.

I nodded and joined him. Even though he’d spent last night with a stripper, I liked him. I could never do more than like him. It was bad for me to like him.

I was going to work on that.

“Okay. Can I get you more coffee?”

“No. I just require your company.”

He just requires my company. Ugh. That damn dream.

I went to the cabinet, pulled out a plate and put half of the portion I’d made for Stone on the plate. Jasper watched me and feeling his gaze on me made me nervous.

“What time did you get in last night?” he asked.

“Three,” I told him as I put my plate down beside him and took a seat on the stool.

“I hope you’re taking tonight off. That’s two nights in a row. You need rest.”

I’d never spoken to Carey last night. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to the manager last night.”

“Call him, Beulah.”

I could call him. That made sense. “Okay. I’ll probably have to because it’s busy when I get there at night making it hard to find time to talk to him about it.”

He didn’t say much the next few minutes as he ate and drank his coffee. I took that time to plan what I’d say to Carey over the phone.

“Portia left last night. Said she was going to stay with a friend of hers in the Hamptons for the rest of the summer. You won’t have as much work to do in the house now. If you can get in more hours at the office that’s okay with me.”

I stopped with my fork midway to my mouth. Portia was gone? “She left?”

“We don’t exactly get along,” he said.

“That’s why she left?”

He shrugged. “Don’t know. Don’t care. Less bullshit for me to deal with.”

Would he leave too? How long would the filing job last and then what? What if my being here was no longer needed?

“I want you to stay here. Hell, I need you to stay here. I don’t have time to find someone dependable and trustworthy to live in this house and take care of it.”

He was reading my mind again.

I nodded. “You’re good at that,” I finally said.

“I’m good at a lot of things. You need to be more specific.” His tone was teasing but I wondered what things he was referring to.

“Knowing what I’m thinking.”

“You’ve got very expressive eyes.”

I’d never been told that before. Guys had complimented me, telling me my eyes were beautiful but never that they were expressive. Maybe he just paid closer attention.

He was being kind again. Making it hard to remember I shouldn’t lean close to smell his cologne, or study the way his smiles were all different, or admire the way he looked in his clothing. If he caught me doing those things, I was sure to be kicked out after he fired me from both my jobs.

I took one last bite and stood up. Making myself indispensable around here was the way to make sure the jobs didn’t end. Crushing on Jasper was not. “I’ll get to work upstairs and then I’ll be at the office by eleven, if that is okay.”

“Yeah. That’s good.”

“I’ll make sure to do a deep cleaning in the pool house this morning too.”

He didn’t respond immediately.

He finally said, “Yeah, that’s good. I’ll be moving into my room upstairs today. While Stone is here working for me, he’ll stay in the pool house. You don’t have to stock the kitchen for him though.”

“Okay, I’ll make sure your room and bathroom are ready for you then.”

He smirked. “Why are you so nervous today, Beulah?”

That was the million dollar question wasn’t it? One he was not ever getting the answer to.

I shrugged to buy time to answer him. “I’m not. I just need more coffee to get fully awake.”

He didn’t look like he believed me. He kept smirking. “I like it. I think it’s cute.”

Why, oh why, was he doing this? It was embarrassing enough. I kept my eyes averted from his view so he couldn’t magically read my thoughts and see last night’s dream in them.

I heard his stool push across the tile floor as he stood, and I knew he was getting ready to leave. Thank God.

“I’ll see you at work,” he said.

“Yeah, see you then,” I replied but didn’t turn around. I lifted a hand as if to wave which was stupid. It seemed all I could manage to do today was stupid stuff.

FINDING SOMETHING TO WEAR TO the office a second day wasn’t easy. I decided on a pair of white shorts that were nicer than my other shorts and a black top. My flats and a necklace helped dress it up a bit. I didn’t know if it mattered what I wore. I was in a back room alone with paperwork. I put some effort into how I looked anyway.

Brandy Jo wasn’t all smiles for me when I walked in—not the way she was for Jasper—but I greeted her with a friendly smile anyway. Her response was a cold stare. I wasn’t her competition, the world was. She needed to understand how Jasper worked. I almost felt sorry for her.

The card that Jasper had given me to enter the protected area of the building was tucked in my purse. I reached for it and slipped it out while the elevator took me to his floor. My job with Van Allen Industries was only filing papers but it felt important. Like I had fancy responsibilities in a position that you could only get with a degree. I didn’t want to work in an office like this forever. Being a nurse had been my dream since I was a little girl. For now, I would enjoy this experience and I was thankful to Jasper for giving it to me.