even offered to call her a cab. She frowned wondering what his problem was. He didn’t have to worry about her getting rowdy or boisterous or anything like that. She knew how to act decorously, dignified even while in a drunken stupor.
“Fancy seeing you here tonight, Miss Morrison.”
Sonya glanced up and gazed into the face of the tall man who stood over her with a beer bottle in his hand. She recognized him immediately and smiled flirtatiously. “I could say the same thing about you, Mr. Gregory.”
Of all people, the last one she wanted to see tonight was Dalton Gregory. He had been college friends with Carla’s brother Clark and had been brought into the family business even when Carla had been denied such a right. Everyone knew that Clark had been grooming Dalton to be the vice president of Osborne Computer Network, but upon Clark’s death, the stockholders had decided otherwise and voted for Carla to take over things. Dalton was a sore loser and to this day couldn’t stand the ground Carla walked on.
Dalton gave her a confident smile. He then glanced around the room. “And where’s your side-kick?”
Sonya’s smile widened and she decided to dig into him a little. “I guess you mean Carla, the woman who ended up getting the job you thought you had under lock and key?”
Dalton frowned. “Yeah, that’s the one,” he said, taking a sip of his beer.
Sonya’s smile was suddenly replaced with a frown. “Oh, she ditched me tonight to have dinner with her gay friends.”
Dalton lifted a brow, his curiosity piqued. “You don’t say.”
“Hell, yeah, I do say but forget about it. I was only joking.” Sonya turned back to her empty glass. “Get lost, Dalton, and go back to whatever rock you crawled from up under. I’m not in the mood.”
Dalton set his beer on the counter in front of him, then slid into the seat next to her. “Hey, a woman alone in Sylvester’s usually means they
are
in the mood. You’re smart enough to know that.”
She turned around on the stool and met his gaze head on. “You think so?”
“Yes, I know so. You’re a highly intelligent woman.”
Sonya’s lips tilted into a smile. “Hey, Dalton, you’re an all-right guy, up-front and straightforward. I like that. And at the moment I can’t rightly recall why I never liked you.”
Dalton leaned back against the bar stool and met Sonya’s curious gaze. “Probably because your friend doesn’t like me.”
Sonya chuckled. “Oh, yeah, that’s right. Carla can’t stand you. She thought you were a total jerk and a bad influence on Clark. And because she didn’t like you, neither did I. But I’ve recently discovered that Carla doesn’t have a good sense of character when it comes to people, so I’d like to wipe the slate clean and form my own opinion about you.”
Dalton chuckled as he took another sip of his beer. “That sounds fair to me. How about if I order you another drink to celebrate our getting to know each other better?”
Sonya smiled. “Sounds like a workable plan, but Mr. Bartender won’t do it. He knows I’m driving and I’ve had one too many already.”
A smile tilted both corners of Dalton’s mouth. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll convince him that I’ll make sure you get home safely.”
Sonya gave him another flirtatious smile, leaned back in her seat and crossed her legs. “Yeah, you do that.”
Dalton Gregory smiled as he listened to Sonya chat endlessly away. Ply a woman with alcohol and she’ll have loose lips. And he had to admit they were a nice pair of loose lips. There had been something about her that had always turned him on, but because of her rather close relationship with Carla Osborne, she’d never given him the time of day. Now he wanted more than the time of day from her. He was filled with enough sexual intensity to want her night as well, especially
this
night. And he had a feeling they were on the same page. Her dark, sensuous eyes couldn’t hide what she was
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