Darius (Starkis Family #5) Read online

  I was getting ahead of myself, but I had to ask. “So if you had the opportunity to manage this place, you wouldn’t be interested?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I don’t know. I guess I’d have to know what kind of changes you planned to implement first. I love this club. The patrons, the employees, they’re good people. I know the new owner will have to make a lot of changes to make it profitable, but I couldn’t get on board with someone who wanted to come in and clean house.”

  That seemed reasonable, but I needed more information before I could make any promises. “I’m going to meet with Billy before I leave tonight. Before I do, what else can you tell me about the people who work here?” I looked around, noting a waitress with black hair streaked with purple, chatting up her customers. A hostess with a platinum blond pageboy cut seated another table.

  “Like I said, they’re great.” She pointed at the girl with the purple streaks. “That’s Daphne. She’s my roommate. She’s more like my sister, really. We’re both kind of on our own, so we look out for each other.”

  I didn’t know why, but I was relieved she wasn’t all alone. I might have to make some tough decisions moving forward, and if I had to fire any of Chelsea’s friends, I got the sense a date definitely wouldn’t be in the cards for us. “Is she a good waitress?”

  “She’s great.” Chelsea glanced at her friend. “She left home when she was really young as well…” She blushed when she realized she’d given away too much. “So she’s been working as a waitress for a long time to support herself. I think she’d like to go back to school someday, but right now, she’s just concentrating on survival, like the rest of us.”

  Billy approached the table. “Hey, Chelsea. Just wanted to let you know you’re back on in twenty.”

  She jumped up. “Thanks. I have to freshen up and make a quick call before I go back on.” She gestured toward me. “Billy, this is Darius Starkis. It seems he may be interested in your club.”

  Billy pumped my hand enthusiastically. “Really? That’s great!”

  I gestured to the now-empty chair across from me. “If you’re free, maybe we could talk about it now?”

  “Of course.”

  I stood, offering Chelsea my hand. “It was nice meeting you, Chelsea. If this pans out, I’m sure I’ll be seeing a lot more of you.”

  She offered a tight smile as she quickly withdrew her hand from mine. “It was nice to meet you too, Darius.”

  I watched her walk away before Billy muttered, “She’s something, isn’t she?”

  I couldn’t disagree, but I wasn’t sure I wanted another man to remind me how great Chelsea was. This would have been the perfect time to pump Billy for information about her, but I wouldn’t do that. If I learned more about her, it would be because she trusted me enough to confide in me.

  “Why do you want to sell the club, Billy?” I asked, sitting farther back as I laced my hands.

  “Honestly? My father passed away a few years ago, and my mother’s just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I have to move back to Idaho to take care of her.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.” Now I had a better understanding of why he was so motivated. While I was sympathetic, I wouldn’t buy into someone else’s headache, no matter how attractive the perks were. “How much are you hoping to get out of it?”

  “I know this place may not seem like much compared to some of the bigger clubs in the city, but I think it could be a gold mine. Obviously, it’s off the beaten path a bit, and I haven’t had a lot of money in the budget for marketing, but it has a lot of potential.”

  “How much?” I repeated. Whether I was buying a car or a new pair of shoes, I hated the hard sell. If I wanted something, I bought it. I didn’t need some shifty salesperson to convince me I needed it.

  “Two hundred K.”

  “Hmmm.” I had no idea whether that was a good deal or not since I hadn’t done any research. “My cousin Damon said you were anxious to make a deal. How soon are you hoping to close?”

  “As soon as possible. Damon is your cousin?” He whistled low. “I should have realized there was some connection when I heard your last name. That’s some pretty powerful family you have there.”

  I regarded the man carefully, trying to size him up. With his dark pants and shirt, slicked back dark hair, trendy glasses, and flashy jewelry, I would have made assumptions about the kind of man he was, but Chelsea’s opinion made me think differently, and I didn’t know why. I barely knew her, yet her opinion already carried substantial weight with me.

  “My family does their thing; I do mine.” I didn’t want him to think my family’s stature would affect how much I was willing to pay for the club. In my experience, the Starkis name often drove the price up exponentially.

  “Would you like to set up a meeting for tomorrow? I’d be happy to bust open the books so you can see for yourself this place has a lot of potential.”

  I ran through Chelsea’s schedule in my head. “I’m on-site at a construction project in the Hamptons tomorrow, so I couldn’t make it here until nine o’clock. Would that work for you?”

  “Of course,” he said, grinning. “Whatever works for you works for me, Darius.”

  We both knew I was the one with all the power, but little did he know he had something I desperately wanted—insight into what made Ms. King so guarded.

  Chapter Two

  Chelsea

  “I still can’t believe Darius-freakin’-Starkis could be our new boss!” Daphne squealed, bouncing up and down on our worn couch.

  It was late, and I was tired, but I knew I wouldn’t get any sleep until I’d relayed every single word the man had said. Twice. Daphne liked to go ‘round and ‘round in circles until she was satisfied she’d beaten a topic to death.

  “He’s not only single, gorgeous, and rich, but you can just tell by the way he moves he’d be good in bed.”

  I rolled my eyes at Daphne’s assessment. She was convinced she could tell by a man’s swagger whether he was an attentive lover. I didn’t have enough experience to know whether she was right or wrong, and since I’d sworn off men, I didn’t care.

  “Maybe you’ll get a chance to find out, if he buys the club.” I didn’t know why, but the thought of Darius hooking up with my roommate left a bitter taste in my mouth. I told myself it was only because he’d asked me out first, but I knew it was more than that. He was the first man who’d tempted me since Shaun died.

  “Wouldn’t that be incredible?” she asked, her black-rimmed blue eyes wide with excitement. “I’ve never banged a billionaire before.”

  That was an understatement. “You’ve never banged a thousandaire. Hell, you’re lucky if you can find a guy with a job.”

  Like me, Daphne had had it hard growing up, and her self-esteem took a hit as a result. She had difficulty believing a guy who had his shit together would want her, though it was obvious to me what a great catch she was.

  “True.” She looked so lost in thought I wondered if I could escape to bed without her noticing, but she said, “You think he has a girlfriend?”

  Uh oh. Now I had to tell her that he’d asked me out. That would inevitably lead to another lecture about how I had to get back in the game. Shaun had been gone for almost two years, and I couldn’t continue to nurse my wounds forever, according to Daphne. But she didn’t understand what I’d been through. No one could unless they’d lived through something similar.

  “Well? Do you think he’s single or what?”

  “Yeah, he is.” I considered letting it go at that, but if Darius ended up buying the club, I got the impression there would be other dinner invitations in my future, meaning Daphne would find out about his interest in me eventually. I may as well get it over with now. “He asked me out.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “Shut. Up!”

  “It’s no big deal.”

  “A sexy billionaire asks you out, and it’s no big deal?�
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  “His family are billionaires. I’m not sure that makes him one.” It was a weak argument. That money would all be his one day, in addition to the personal fortune he seemed to be amassing.

  “Oh please. So what did you say?”

  “You know I don’t date.” I reached for the throw I’d crocheted while Daphne was out living life.

  Her eyes softened. “Honey, I know what happened with Shaun broke your heart, but you have to get over it sometime. Maybe Darius is just the guy to help you do that.”

  I shook my head. “It’s not a question of getting over it.” On good days, I felt over it, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t forever question how I’d missed the signs that the man I’d married was on a slippery slope to self-destruction. “I just don’t want to get involved with anyone right now. I need to be in a better place first.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know I’m trying to save money so I can go to the Comedy Institute. Since the tuition’s almost nine grand for the one-year program and I’d be in classes full time, I not only have to save the tuition money, but I have to save enough to cover my living expenses for a year.” I knew I could still pick up some shifts on weekends, but I’d have to get up early on Mondays, so I couldn’t go to bed at two or three anymore.

  “Maybe you could find a better paying job? I mean, with all those books you read, you speak so well that I bet you could get a job as a receptionist or something.”

  Comedy was my passion. I didn’t want to do anything else. “It’s not like I have any real skills, Daph. What else could I do to make more money?” I tossed a cushion at her when she smirked. A running joke between us was that if things ever got really bad, we could take turns selling our bodies. We both knew we’d eat cat food before we stooped to that though.

  “Maybe you just need a sugar daddy,” she teased. “Someone like Darius, maybe?”

  “He’s a few years older than me,” I said, trying to keep a straight face. “Aren’t sugar daddies usually old geezers?”

  “How do you know how old he is?”

  “I read his Wiki page.” Before she could assume I’d been so interested in him that I’d started digging, I added, “He told me to. He wanted to prove that he could afford to buy the club so I’d tell him more about it.”

  “I wish he’d buy it.” Daphne sighed. “Poor Billy’s been a wreck, worrying about his mama and trying to sell the club. Not to mention getting some fresh blood in here, with money to spend, could really turn things around.”

  She was right, but the prospect of working with Darius made me nervous—for reasons I wasn’t willing to analyze. “I guess we’ll just have to wait to see what happens, won’t we?”

  “Promise me one thing?” Daphne asked, clasping her hands under her chin. “Promise me you’ll keep an open mind about this guy. I know you’ve been burned, but it’s been so long since I’ve seen you happy and in love, and honey, no one deserves that more than you do.”

  I leaned forward to give her a hug. “I love you for caring, but I don’t need a man to make me happy. I’ll be happy when I get my life together.” Which meant getting my dream job at one of the big comedy clubs in the city and making a decent living doing what I loved. That was all I needed to be happy.

  ***

  I went into work the next night feeling pretty good. I was looking forward to trying out some new material on the crowd, and when I’d made another bank deposit that morning, I realized I had half of my tuition saved. I still had a long way to go, but at least I was getting there.

  “You’ll never guess who’s in the back with Billy,” Daphne said, sinking her short purple nails into my forearm when I tried to pass her.

  “Darius?” I whispered, knowing she wouldn’t be getting this excited about anyone else.

  “You got it.” Her face lit up. “He looks even sexier tonight than he did last night. If anyone can breach those steel panties of yours, it’s him.”

  “Stop it,” I warned, looking around to make sure no one had overheard us. “I already told you, I’m not interested.”

  “Really? Then why’d you get that deer-in-the-headlights look when I told you he was here?”

  “I did not.” I blinked a few times, hoping she was just teasing me. If I couldn’t convince her I wasn’t interested in Darius, how the hell was I supposed to convince him?

  “Speak of the devil,” Daphne said, grinning. “Don’t look now. He’s coming this way.”

  I told myself to breathe, but when I turned to face him, I was still feeling a little breathless.

  Daphne was right. He did look even better tonight. His short black hair looked as though it had been freshly washed and styled, and he was wearing black dress pants and a light blue shirt that brought out the color of his eyes.

  “Hi,” he said, smiling as he approached. “I was hoping to see you tonight.”

  Since I’d told him which nights I worked, I knew he’d been expecting to see me. “How’d it go with Billy?”

  Looking amused, he asked, “How’d you know I was meeting with your boss?”

  “Um, I…” I pointed at Daphne. “She told me.” Damn. I shouldn’t have said that. Now he’d know we’d been talking about him. “So, uh, how’d it go?”

  “It went well.” He nodded. “I’m definitely interested. I’m going to see if I can get a consultant in here tomorrow to tell me what it would take to turn this place around.”

  “A consultant?” I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of that. In my experience, change was rarely good.

  “Yeah, my father’s company employs consultants to do some market research in the markets that aren’t performing as well as we’d like. You know, check out the competition and tell us what we should change to make things more profitable.”

  “Oh, I see.” I shouldn’t have been surprised he would know all that, given his family business, but it was intimidating to think of the club changing that much. I, for one, liked it as it was.

  Billy had been the first person to give me a break. I was waiting tables here when he and Shaun suggested I try my luck on open mic night after I’d shared with them that I’d always dreamed of being a comedienne. That night changed my life and fueled my passion for being onstage.

  “Don’t look so worried,” Darius said, nudging my shoulder with his own. “Change can be good. Out with the old, in with the new, right?”

  “I guess.”

  “You want to put this place on the map, don’t you? Make it a hot spot that can hold its own against some of the bigger, more popular clubs in the city?”

  I’d always dreamed of working at one of those clubs, but if Darius could turn our little club into one that could compete with the best, maybe I wouldn’t have to leave the people I loved and the place where I’d always felt most at home. Maybe change could be a good thing after all.

  “I can tell the wheels are turning. Tell me what you’re thinking, Chelsea.”

  “What kind of changes are you proposing?” I wouldn’t want to draw the upscale, trendy crowd. His people. Billy’s Comedy Club was more of a blue-collar crowd. My kind of people.

  “I’ll know better after I meet with the consultant and he has a chance to do his research. I’d definitely want to give this place an overhaul, expand the parking lot and—”

  “Oh, but Billy doesn’t own this building. He just leases it.” Renovations would mean I was out of a job, at least temporarily, and I couldn’t afford to be out of a job. Maybe I could pick up a few more shifts at Exodus, but given the grabby guys I usually had to deal with there, I wasn’t thrilled with that prospect.

  “Yeah, but the landlord approached Billy about buying it a few months back. Apparently he wants to retire, so he’d like to dump this building.”

  Great, so Darius wouldn’t only be my boss but my landlord too since we rented the apartment upstairs. “I see.”

  I wondered if things always fell into place so easily for Darius. He bought businesses and buildings the w
ay most men bought shoes. I knew he wasn’t making the decision lightly. He was doing his due diligence, making sure it was a solid investment, but I couldn’t believe anyone had so much disposable income that they could decide on a whim to buy a business.

  He glanced at the time on his phone. “Do you have time for a drink?” He grinned before I could object. “A soft drink, of course. I’d just like to talk to you about some of my ideas, see what you think.”

  I was curious about what he had planned and how it would affect my friends and me. “Okay, sure, but I have to be on in half an hour.”

  Darius winked, prompting a fluttery feeling in my stomach that I tried to attribute to the slightly expired yogurt I’d eaten earlier. Maybe I should have thought twice before scarfing it down.

  “I’ll grab that table,” I said, pointing at an empty one in a dark corner of the club. I didn’t want my coworkers to see me cozying up to the man who may soon be signing their paychecks. They may start asking questions I couldn’t answer.

  “Sounds good. I’ll grab those drinks. It’ll save us having to wait for a waitress.”

  I took a seat and watched him cross the bar. There were a few tables full of young women undoubtedly out for a fun, carefree girls’ night. Their eyes followed Darius before they leaned in, whispering and giggling. I knew he was gorgeous. He knew he was gorgeous. The whole goddamn place knew he was gorgeous. And that made him dangerous.

  He returned a few minutes later with the drinks while I pretended to check my phone to avoid staring at him as he walked toward me. Our connection was magnetic. Whenever our eyes locked, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a really long time. It scared the hell out of me.

  “Thanks, Darius,” I said, when he set a drink down in front of me. I didn’t ask how he’d known what I wanted. He probably asked the bartender for my usual.

  “I should have asked,” he said. “Did you want something to eat?”

  I would have killed for one of the pulled pork sandwiches, but I was saving every dime I made, so I made do with yogurt, toast, and a bowl of cereal before my shift. I couldn’t cook much. Neither could Daphne. So we survived on simple staples. At least she went out on dates and the occasional guy treated her to a nice dinner. Not so for me.