In the Boss's Bed (Harlequin Blaze) (5 page)

5

J
AMIE
PUT
THE
finishing touches on his PowerPoint presentation, and he sat back in his chair, satisfied that it was finally ready. The upcoming trip to Las Vegas was a critical turning point for him, personally and professionally, and he couldn’t leave anything to chance. He hadn’t told anyone of his plans to expand his hotel and nightclub empire into the United States, and he knew that the Las Vegas Strip would be the place to start if he wanted to make an entrance people would notice. He drummed his fingers. He had lined up meetings with some very influential business contacts; people he would consider allies and competitors as soon as he brought his company to the Strip. He still needed to add one name to his list of appointments: Garrett Collins. So far, Collins hadn’t taken any of Jamie’s calls, and that frustrated him to no end.

He thought about the presentations and workshops that he and Maya would be attending during the conference. This trip would also be an extremely good opportunity for her as well, and he developed their schedule so they could attend the events most beneficial to her in her career path. He knew that being in a city like Vegas would prove to be a constant temptation to him, and he was certain that he wouldn’t have taken the risk of inviting her if he absolutely didn’t need her there with him.

Maya
, he sighed. It had been several weeks since he had hired her. And he had done his best to keep her at arm’s length. He had succeeded for the most part. But every minute he spent with her took every fragment of restraint that he could conjure up to not reach out and pull her to him. But he refrained. He didn’t want to do anything to make her quit, and touching her, or kissing her, or lifting her onto his desk to make love to her would definitely do that. She was an excellent assistant, and he didn’t want to screw this up.

His thoughts were interrupted when Mary walked into the office. “Jamie, I’ve got the travel arrangements made for you both for the Vegas trip.”

Jamie looked up from his desk, as he pictured Maya lying naked on it. He exhaled, not daring to stand to meet his receptionist. “Thanks, Mary. Details?”

“You and Maya fly out next Monday morning. And you’re both staying at the Bellagio. Jamie, you’ve got a suite, in case you plan on hosting any meetings or entertaining,” she added with a wink. Jamie laughed. Mary had been with him for so long, and even though she was older, they still shared a close friendship. She knew that there was no truth to any of the tabloid gossip that was spread about Jamie, but it certainly didn’t stop her from poking fun at him from time to time.

“Sounds good. What about Maya?” he asked innocently, knowing that if her bedroom was nearby, she would prove to be a distraction to him.

Mary smiled indulgently, sharp eyes glinting. “Not to worry, Jamie. She’s booked in a regular room. But it’s still quite nice. Several floors below yours, even. So don’t worry, your virtue is safe.”

Jamie’s mouth fell open. How did she know what he was just thinking? “What do you mean?”

Mary clicked her tongue. “Jamie, I’ve known you and worked closely with you for around a decade.” She laughed at his gaping mouth and sat in a chair opposite his desk. “I’m afraid I know you better than you know yourself. I see how you both look at each other. And don’t think Trevor didn’t tell me about that kiss,” she finished, with an eyebrow raised pointedly.

“Of course he did.” Jamie sighed, fingers in his hair. “Remind me to thank him for that later. There’s nothing between Maya and me,” he stated, lying to her and himself.

Mary looked at him, unflinchingly. “And, Jamie, I can tell you’re freezing her out. You don’t treat her like you do other people here. She’s a nice girl, so be good to her. You could do a lot worse for yourself.”

He would have given her his classic it’s-a-professional-relationship-and-that’s-all rebuttal had Maya not breezed into the office at that moment. He remained seated. He knew it wasn’t polite to sit when a woman entered the room, but behind his desk, he was still rock hard from his earlier fantasies of Maya. Thank God Mary had booked them on separate floors. Hopefully that would be enough. He would hate to have to ask Mary to rebook her at a different hotel...maybe off the strip...or out of the state. Basically as far away from his hotel as possible.

“Hello, Maya,” Mary said brightly, standing from her chair.

“Hi, Mary. How are you?”

“I’m just grand, dear,” she replied. “I was just telling Jamie that I’ve got your Vegas itinerary all ready. Jamie, I’ll email them to you both.”

“Thanks, Mary,” he replied as she left and closed the door behind her.

* * *

M
AYA
SAT
QUICKLY
at her desk, blanching slightly. While she was excited about going to the convention in Las Vegas, she was not looking forward to spending five entire days alone with Jamie. Every day, she resolved to keep a hands-off attitude in her relationship with him. He was still cold to her, but she tried not to let it bother her. It seemed to be the way he did business, although, she had seen him interacting with other employees, and he was always kind and compassionate. It was curious, but she had already spent so much of her day thinking about and lusting over Jamie, she tried not to spend any more time worrying about it, lest she not get anything done at all.

“So, Vegas. Can’t wait.” She plastered a phony smile on her face and faced him from across the office.

“Yeah,” he replied coolly. “Ever been before?”

“No, never. I actually haven’t traveled much. I’ve been so busy with school and everything. Plus I don’t really like flying.”

A curt nod was his only response before he looked back down at his desk and resumed his work. He was silent until he sighed heavily.

“Everything okay?”

He looked up, almost surprised that she was even still in the room. It appeared as if she had caught him in a moment of weakness and he looked embarrassed. “Yeah. Well, no. I’m trying to arrange a meeting with Garrett Collins.” When she furrowed her brow, he elaborated. “He owns about 40 percent of the resort properties in Las Vegas. I want a sit down with him while we’re there. But he won’t even take my calls.”

Maya’s eyes widened in surprise. North of the border, when Jamie Sellers spoke, people listened. Canada’s top businessmen and pillars of his industry were always eager to sit down with him, and the fact that Garrett Collins was not, surprised them both.

Pushing out of her chair, Maya walked to Jamie’s desk. “What did you want to see him about?”

He paused. “Well, it can’t hurt to have an ally in Las Vegas, especially one as formidable as Garrett Collins. I thought we could just have a conversation. About the city and the business.”

Maya raised an eyebrow. She could tell that Jamie was being intentionally vague. But she wouldn’t push it. If Jamie needed to meet with Garrett Collins, he had his reasons. She leaned over his chair, hovering over his shoulder. The smell of his cologne stirred her senses and she faltered slightly, unintentionally allowing her suddenly heavy breasts to skim the top of his shoulder. She thought it to be a curious reaction when she felt him stiffen slightly below her, and she saw him close his eyes for just a second.

Jamie cleared his throat and turned slightly to face her. “What are you doing?”

She picked over a few things on his desk, suddenly feeling bold. She wanted to help him. To prove to him that he hadn’t made a mistake in hiring her. “I’m looking for this guy’s number,” she told him.

“Maya, no. You can’t just call him and request a meeting.”

She picked up a piece of paper and studied the numbers scrawled over it. “Is this it?”

Jamie looked at the paper, as she still hovered over his shoulder. “Yeah. It’s his office number. His assistant Andre keeps stonewalling me. He says there’s absolutely no time for him to see me.”

Maya scoffed and picked up Jamie’s phone. She perched on the corner of his desk and crossed her legs, dialing the number. “Let’s just see about that,” she said and winked at him.

“What are you going to do?” he asked her warily. He was nervous about whatever she had planned. He saw the mischief and the wicked smile etched on her face.

“I’m just going to call him. Maybe I’ll have a little more luck, assistant to assistant.

“Garrett Collins’s office, this is Andre.”

* * *

J
AMIE
SAT
BACK
in his chair, fingers locked behind his head. He smiled at Maya as she started talking to the person on the other end, presumably Collins’s assistant.

“Hi, Andre,” she said, her voice smooth. “My name is Maya Connor and I’m calling from Jamie Sellers’s office in Montreal. How are you?” She paused. “That’s great to hear. I’m doing well also...Well, I’d be better if you could possibly find time for our bosses to meet while we’re in Vegas next week...Andre,” she laughed. “We’re all busy, I’m sure Mr. Collins is preparing for his annual shareholders meeting, and judging from the rumors of an audit committee investigation I’ve been reading about he’ll want to have some good news to bring with him to placate the shareholders. And I believe a meeting with Mr. Sellers might provide just the remedy for skittish investors. It’ll be a show that he is looking to meet with a young, impressive businessman. But all Mr. Sellers is looking for is a brief sit-down. Twenty minutes. A drink in his suite, perhaps, that’s all.”

Jamie watched Maya as she broke into a huge smile. “Andre, you are a prince. Thank you so much!”

Jamie sat up straight in his chair.
What did she just do?

Maya reached across Jamie’s desk and grabbed his pen and she scribbled a time and date on the notepad near her hip. “Great. I guess we’ll be seeing you and Mr. Collins in Vegas next week,” she signed off before hanging up the phone.

Jamie stared at her, unable to believe that she had come through for him and had managed to do something that he’d been unable to. She had arranged a meeting for him with Garrett Collins. He shook his head at her in amazement. “So?”

Maya laughed lightly. “Well, I just got you forty-five minutes with Garrett Collins on Wednesday night. In your suite.”

“Are you kidding me?” he exclaimed, grabbing her shoulders and pulling her into a hug. “That’s incredible! Thank you so much, Maya!”

She laughed again. “I’m glad I could help.”

They stood in his office, caught in an embrace, his arms tight around her waist and her hands warm on his shoulders. His resolution to not touch her had snapped and he couldn’t help himself. Jamie buried his face in the crease of her neck and shoulder. He inhaled, smelling her shampoo. The hug went on a beat too long. And Jamie felt Maya pull away slowly. He watched her face. The emotion in her eyes ranging from surprise, awareness, to desire, and he was sure that the same feelings were mirrored in his own.

This was the first time since the night in the club that he had even let himself get physically near Maya. He’d always kept her at arm’s length because he knew that this would happen. He would touch her and not be able to stop. He was unable to pull away, his hands moved to the small of her back, and he pulled her closer to him, pressing the hard length of his erection against her belly.

She moaned softly in encouragement. “Jamie,” she whispered.

With a groan, he leaned in. His lips were just a breath away from hers when the phone on her desk rang. They broke apart and both looked at the offending phone.

Maya looked at Jamie. She was flushed and her pupils were dilated, just a thin sliver of color showed around the black. “I’d better get that.”

“Yeah.” Jamie exhaled, releasing her, so she could run back to her desk.

That was close.
Jamie knew that if he had let himself kiss her, he wouldn’t have been able to stop it. The kiss wouldn’t have ended until they were both naked and heaving atop his desk. He would have taken her, without any thought to the repercussions. He ran a hand through his hair and grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair. And with a quick wave to Maya as she spoke on the phone, he left the office, and he didn’t return until the next morning.

6

“A
ND
THIS
IS
going to be the spa,” Jamie told Maya as he opened the door to a large, dusty room and ushered her inside. He was taking her on a tour of the foreclosed hotel property he had bought in downtown Montreal, the one that he was in the process of rebuilding and renovating to turn it into the first Swerve Hotel.

“It used to be a ballroom,” he explained, taking a look around the expansive room. “It’s the only space big enough to install all of the features we want in the spa, and we’re going to renovate some old guest rooms to make smaller event and conference spaces.”

He watched her eyes survey the room, no doubt envisioning all that he did when he looked around the old hotel. “Jamie,” she whispered. “This is going to be incredible.”

He smiled. He wasn’t sure why, but her belief in him made him feel relief.

Since the day she had arranged his meeting with Garrett Collins, he and Maya had enjoyed an easier camaraderie, which was nice, because the amount of time they had been spending together in the office had increased drastically since her first week. They often worked fourteen-hour days, side by side. He decided that he had to learn to be in the same room with her without being cold and distant or, on the flip side, throwing her on his desk and completely ravishing her. Sure, he still wanted her, but he had developed coping mechanisms to deal with her proximity, most notably his new daily three-cold-showers routine, but so far it was working.

He escorted her out of the future spa and down the long hallway to the lobby door.

“When do you think we can get underway on the construction?”

We.
Jamie’s stomach fluttered at the thought of undertaking this project with Maya at his side. He cleared his throat roughly, while bringing a hand to his hair. “I’m hoping we can have all of the permits sorted out in a couple of weeks. There’s a lot of work to do, but I’m planning to open by October, to make an impact during the fall and winter tourist seasons.”

She whistled. “That’s very ambitious. But if anyone’s capable of it, it’s you.”

“It’s us,” he corrected, then cleared his throat. “I mean, the team. As a whole we aren’t afraid of some hard work.” He dragged his fingers through his hair.

Maya looked at him out of the corner of her eye, an amused smile playing on her lips. “You do that a lot, you know?”

Jamie looked down at her. “I do what a lot?” They were at his car and he stopped at the passenger-side door and opened it for her.

“You run your fingers through your hair. A lot. Is it a nervous tic?”

Hmm.
Jamie had never realized that he had any such habit. “I do?”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed it. It’s cute, in fact,” she said, lowering to sit in the sunken seat of the sports car.

He closed the door after her, and when he saw a man walking toward his car in the empty parking lot, he frowned.

John Power, the gossip hound disguised as a reporter who seemed to follow Jamie’s every move. “Jamie,” he said with a smile. But he was anything but friendly. “I thought that was your car.”

Jamie sighed. “What can I do for you, Power?”

He shrugged. “Just wondering what you’re doing in the neighborhood. I heard that you bought this hotel. Just wondering if you wanted to give me an exclusive? Tell me what you’re planning for the space.”

“Why would I tell you any of that, exactly?”

“Or, you can tell me the name of the gorgeous woman sitting in your car.”

Jamie lost it. He pushed the man against the car and bent him back over the roof. He noticed Maya get out of the car.

“Jamie, what’s going on?”

“Get back in the car, Maya,” he commanded her.

“Should I call the police?”

“No,” he told her, releasing John. “He was just leaving.” Jamie pushed him away from the driver’s-side door, out of his way. He pulled it open and got inside.

Before Jamie could close the door, he heard John laugh. “I’ll see you around, Jamie.” He bent and looked into the car, waving at Maya through the open door. “Smile, Maya.” He held up his camera and snapped a picture of her.

“Fucking sleaze,” Jamie muttered, opening his door, fire in his eyes. Now the man had involved Maya, and that was unacceptable. Jamie would show him. Before he could fully get out of the car, Power had run out of the parking lot. “Coward,” he muttered, as he stood beside his car.

“Jamie, ignore him,” Maya called from the passenger’s seat. “It’s not worth it.”

He got back into his car and slammed the door shut with a force that shook the car. “I’m sorry about that, Maya. He shouldn’t have taken your picture,” he told her and quickly put his car in gear. He sped out of the parking lot and into the road.

* * *

“W
HO
WAS
THAT
GUY
?”
Maya asked. She could see how the tension racked Jamie’s body, as he had a white-knuckle grip on the wheel. She had never seen Jamie lose his cool like that. He was normally so calm and in control of his emotions. This Jamie, this fuming, heavy-breathing beast sitting next to her was not the Jamie Sellers she knew. She was also feeling unsettled that that strange man had taken her picture.

Jamie didn’t answer her right away.

“Jamie?”

He took a deep breath. “That was John Power,” he said. “Resident scumbag reporter. He’s always on my ass, hounding me.”

“Why?”

He was silent.

“You can tell me, Jamie. Why is he after you?”

“Well, it all started when I opened my first club. I told you I was a troublemaker. It didn’t go away overnight just because I reached some level of success. I worked hard, but I partied hard, as well. I was always being photographed stumbling drunk coming out of my own club or caught in inappropriate situations with women. I had too much, too soon, and I was a real mess,” he sighed.

“So, anyway, one night I was sitting in the VIP booth at Swerve. I was sitting with some lingerie models—how’s that for a cliché?—and we were drinking, some drugs were passed around and pretty soon I’m making out with one of the women, her top is undone and my hand is up her skirt.”

Maya had heard that story before. She had seen the pictures on the internet. Still, as she heard him retell the story to her, the remorse and regret etched over his face, she felt for him. She put a comforting hand on his forearm. He turned his eyes from the road to look at her with surprise. “Then what happened? How does John Power fit into that?”

“He was there. We don’t normally allow press into the club. But he was new, unknown, and he snapped the now-famous pics of me and the model. From what I gathered, he then sold them for a pretty substantial amount of money. Since that night, he’s basically been my shadow. He takes pictures of me and he pairs them with a salacious story, and bam, more money for him. I guess he considers me to be his cash cow. But the hell of it is, I don’t even get to have any of the fun he accuses me of, now do I?” He laughed without humor.

“I’m sorry that happened to you, Jamie. That guy is a snake. He might not go away any time soon. But I think the more important part of the story is that you cleaned up your act. You’re a complete success, and nothing is going to change that, certainly not some gross
news
stories. We can ignore him. There’s bigger fish to fry.”

He smiled at her, his dazzling white teeth making her flutter a little. “Thanks, Maya, I really appreciate it.”

“And besides,” she continued, “we all do stupid things when we’re drinking. In fact, once, my friend Abby got me drunk and dared me to kiss some random guy in a bar.” She laughed, and Jamie laughed with her. She sat back in her seat. She was glad that her business relationship was becoming more relaxed. Her thoughts turned to the old hotel that she had just toured. She couldn’t wait until they started work on it, and she couldn’t wait to be part of the finished product.