Controlled By The Billionaire

An hour and a half later and the bar was literally empty besides Mel and the other bartender who was on, Lisa.

“Tell me again why James thought it imperative for both of us to work tonight?” Lisa asked, wiping the bar with a rag.

Mel shrugged. “Hell if I know. Maybe he expected a large influx of people because of the college football game?”

Lisa shrugged back, continuing down to the other end of the bar to finish wiping. The door chime went off and Mel turned. It was Tristan.

“What can I get for you?” She asked as he sidled up to the bar and perched his expensive suit clad ass on the edge of a bar stool.

Tristan shook his head.

“Ok, suit yourself.” Mel was done playing timid around him and turned and walked away to the other side of the bar.

She hefted a large bin of glasses from under the bar onto her hip and headed back to the kitchen to place them in the dishwasher.

“Who’s the hottie at the bar?” Lisa whispered as she came up behind Mel and started helping her load the glasses.

“Nobody.” Lisa cocked an eyebrow at Mel. “Tristan Powers,” she finally said.

“Wait, the owner and CEO of Powers Records?” Mel nodded. “How do you know him?”

“It’s a long story.” Mel swiveled so her back was to Lisa as if to tell her she didn’t want to talk about it and finished up loading the dishwasher.

“Did he sign you?” Lisa asked with excitement, not taking the hint.

“Sort of.” Mel shrugged it off and started to walk back out to the bar.

Lisa followed her asking random questions and Mel shot them all down with one word answers.

“Tell me something, Mel!” Lisa stopped in front of her just before she entered the bar area, hands on her hips.

“There’s nothing to tell. Since this place is dead I’m going to head out. Is that alright?”

“Fine. This isn’t over. I’ll lock up. Go have fun with Mr. Dangerous out there.”

Mel rolled her eyes and hugged Lisa. She was a good friend but Mel didn’t trust Lisa with this type of information. She untied her apron and snagged her purse from where she stashed it under the bar. Tristan didn’t move from where he sat. It was a bit unnerving.

“I’m done,” Mel said, stopping in front of him to wait for his response.

“After you,” he said, motioning for her to walk out the door.

They exited the building and a limo was waiting at the curb. Mel stood to the side waiting for Tristan to enter but before he could, the driver jumped out and opened the door for them. She looked back at him and he motioned for her to go first again. He was either a gentleman or really liked to be in control. Mel guessed it was the latter. When they both settled into the seats the driver took off, merging into light traffic in the city. Mel wasn’t sure what to say or do so she just sat there waiting for him to say something.

After several minutes, Tristan finally spoke. “I was wondering if you were going to get cold feet.”

Mel shook her head. “I made a deal and I’ll follow through on it.”

Tristan looked impressed for a moment. “Well then. We should be at my home in a few minutes. Have you eaten?”

Mel shook her head again and waited for follow up but Tristan said nothing. His unnatural silence intimidated her; she was never sure what he was thinking. Not too long after, the car pulled into a long brick driveway and stopped at a large circular loop at the end. Mel looked out the window at the home. This was where the party was that she, Blake and Lisa catered. The house was humongous; it spanned half of the block. The driver opened the door on her side, startling her out of her reverie. She had only seen the back yard and it was magnificent, she couldn’t imagine what the inside looked like, but she was about to find out.