Pepper stuffed a tender piece of chicken into her mouth, but the piece was too big. He chuckled softly at her predicament as she blushed painfully.
She chewed, then swallowed, carefully wiping her mouth with her napkin. “Okay, laugh at me if you want,” she said after choking down the chicken. “But admit it, the food is good, right?”
He took another bite, nodding. “It’s excellent. Actually, it’s better than Fino’s. Thank you for recommending this bistro,” he said, then turned to notice Tony and the three sons glaring at him. “Even if you have a private protection squad looming over you.”
They glanced towards the kitchen doorway. Sure enough, Tony glared and the sons nodded, indicating that they were all watching him.
Pepper laughed and waved at them. “They mean well,” she told him softly.
Dimitri turned back to her. “It’s fine. Tell me about your spring clothes line.”
Pepper shook her head. “I don’t have a seasonal line of clothes. I go to the shops on Saturday morning and scour what’s available. Then I start designing. I draw what I want the changes to be, then a team of seamstresses work from my instructions over the week. I have models in various sizes and a professional photographer that comes in on Thursday. After the photographer takes pictures, Nancy gets the images and prices loaded onto the website prior to the Friday rush. She’s figured out how to get everything packaged and out the door in the mail to customers by Friday afternoon and, in most cases, customers receive their garments by Saturday afternoon. So far, it’s working pretty well.”
He nodded at her explanation. “You do all of the designs yourself?”
She smiled, her shoulders straightening with pride. “Yep. Just little ole me!”
“You need more designers,’ he commented, taking another bite of the ravioli. “It doesn’t seem like a scalable process.”
Pepper shrugged dismissively. “It isn’t. But my client base is steadily growing and Nancy has figured out how to expand our reach. It’s a niche market, but I love it. Every day, I get to create something new and different, something that is unique for each customer. Keeping the operation small also allows me to keep up with the changing styles so I can make the new, weekly designs seem fresh and vital, but still hip and different from anything other designers are creating.”
They talked about business, hers in general and the fashion industry as a whole. Pepper was astonished at how knowledgeable he was about the fashion world.
When Tony arrived with the check, Pepper pulled out her wallet, but Tony swatted it out of her reach. “He pays, dear! He’s wealthy enough to take you out to dinner.” And with that, he left the check on Dimitri’s side of the table.
Pepper rolled her eyes, but extended her hand. “I’m sorry about that. Here, give me the check and I’ll…”
“Nope,” he countered, taking out his wallet and laying several bills on top of the check, not bothering to look at the amount. “You are my guest tonight.”
Pepper’s heart lurched painfully at his use of the word “guest”. So this wasn’t a date. This was a business meeting, just as he’d said when he’d introduced himself earlier in the evening.
Why did that knowledge cause her heart to ache? The sharp stab of disappointment was cruel. But, she reminded herself, they’d started this whole interlude when he’d arrived at her apartment telling her that he wanted to discuss a business proposal. Then they’d spent the majority of their dinner conversation discussing the fashion industry.
With a sigh, she stood up. Of course this wasn’t a date, she told herself. This man was suave and sophisticated. She wasn’t even close to being in his league. He probably dated supermodels and women who looked like celery sticks – tall, thin, and boring. She wasn’t anything like that. Pepper knew that she was short, curvy, and…well, definitely not thin.
Such was not to be, she thought wistfully and smiled when he stepped back to allow her to precede him out of the restaurant. “Thank you for dinner. It’s one of my favorite places.”
“I can see why,” he replied, placing a hand to the small of her back. “It was excellent. I appreciate you sharing your secret bistro with me.”
She grinned over her shoulder up at him, then turned onto the sidewalk. “Well, thank you for dinner. I can walk home. There’s no need to…”
“Get in the limousine, Pepper,” he intoned, his voice low and those dark eyes watching her with confusing intent.
Not a date, she reminded herself. She gestured down the street towards her loft. “I can just…”
He stepped closer. “Pepper, I’ve wanted to kiss you since the moment you opened your door. But I’m not going to do it here on the sidewalk in front of that restaurant. I don’t know if Tony and his sons have weapons, but I’m fairly sure that I don’t want to find out. So, get in the vehicle so that I can drive you home and kiss you at your door properly.”
Pepper was so stunned that all that came out of her mouth was a pathetic sounding, “Oh!”
With a nudge to the small of her back, she moved towards the limousine. But just before she would have ducked into the back, she spun around, pressing a hand to the middle of his chest. “We can’t!” she gasped.
His eyes narrowed. “Can’t?”
Shaking her head, she looked at him, her eyes moving over his shoulders and arms and…well all of him! “We can’t kiss!”
Dimitri turned his head and she followed his gaze, horrified to see the stoic looking driver looking off to the side. The man nodded and disappeared, stepping into the driver’s seat to give them some privacy.
