His Corporate Claim

by J. D. Fox

  I was signing the room ticket for my purchases so I didn’t listen to Karen until I heard the word “wedding” and my gut clenched. Talia needed to talk to Lucius and get this nonsense stopped. I have to speak with her, but she was with my aunts right then, and it wasn’t as if I could walk into the massage room and demand that Talia call off this wedding.

  And how was that supposed to work? Lucius’s time would be taken up with Gloria. Or he’d take off again. It was as if Lucius was doing everything possible to avoid Talia.

  I can’t believe Gloria had decided to pop up here and now under the guise of attending her son’s wedding. Even Lucius knew that she didn’t have a maternal bone in her body. For Gloria, motherhood was a means to an end, and that end was to tap into the wealth of the Palmer family. Dad made sure he’d provided for her, but that never seemed to be enough for her. Still, I don’t know what she hoped to accomplish by showing up here.

  “Mr. Palmer,” said Karen. Her words broke me out of my thoughts and I remembered she said something about the wedding.

  “The whole family is looking forward to it,” I said flatly.

  “That’s great. The whole staff has worked hard to make it a success. I’m serving at dinner tonight.”

  “That’s wonderful,” I said. She smiled again, this time much brighter with a hopeful look in her eyes, and I resisted the urge to wince. She must see me as the last eligible Palmer brother. Damn it.

  I’m tired of women looking at me like that. It’s good up to a certain point, but then it just becomes an annoyance. That’s what it had been when I’d soured on society Boston women. Not that they were bad people, but they only had one goal—to find the husband that ticked all the boxes: successful, rich and if possible, handsome. Love? I think many of them loved the idea of someone like me. But Sam Palmer as a person? I’m not sure that was important to them.

  Maybe I wasn’t being fair. Perhaps I’d just had one too many dates where we’d checked out each other’s portfolios before we checked out whether we were attracted to each other. Then it became very easy to hide in my work and show up for a minute, only to ghost society functions. It wasn’t the most fulfilling of lives, but I was young. There was time enough to find what I was looking for.

  And now I had.

  And everyone in my family thinks she’s marrying Lucius. For a man that people believe is buttoned-up, I’m rapidly coming undone, especially as I turn toward the door to see Lucius escorting Gloria in the direction of the massage room, where Talia went with my aunts.

  What the hell was my bastard brother up to?

  This was turning out to be the most screwed up day of my life.

  I should leave this gift shop and go find something to do other than wonder how I could get some time alone with Talia. Between my aunts and now Lucius’s mother, I’d be lucky to see her at the dinner tonight.

  The rehearsal dinner.

  My gut churned again and I turned back to the sundries shelf, looking for medicine to settle my stomach. How could I stop this runaway train? I couldn’t. Talia had to tell Lucius that this had to stop now, before things became an even bigger mess.

  Karen looks at me with hope again.

  “Can I help you, Mr. Palmer?” she said.

  “My stomach is queasy. Which of these things works best?”

  “The pink pills will stop anything but they will make you drowsy. The antacids work to calm a stomach down.”

  The medicines are in little pouches, like the decongestants, so I take several of each. I don’t care which because I catch a flash of blonde hair out of the corner of my eye. But when I look I see it’s Gloria walking a fast clip past the shop. Her mouth set in a frown, as if something displeased her. Where was Lucius?

  But more importantly, where was Talia?

  Lucius flew down the hall toward his mother like the proverbial bat from the netherworld and caught up with her. Gloria paid no attention to her son, who spoke at her rapidly. They disappear past the archway that led to the elevators on the right, and the lobby beyond.

  What the hell was Lucius up to now?

  Then I spot Talia walking down the hall. She’s dressed in one of the hotel’s white fluffy bathrobes, her hair is in disarray, and her beautiful mouth is pursed in a frown. Her clothes were draped of her left arm.

  I opened the glass door of the gift shop, and she started.

  “Hey,” I said, not so suavely.

  “Oh,” she gasped. “Sam. What are you doing?”

  I held up my bag. “Getting sundries.”

  I stepped into the hallway and the glass door shut behind me with a hollow thud.

  “Do you have a minute?” I said. “I need to talk with you.”

  She shook her head. “Now’s not a good time.”

  “When then? This is important.”

  “Don’t know.” Her tense voice communicated that something was very wrong.

  “Talia, please.”

  She glanced around as if afraid someone would see us. “Where can we go that’s private?”

  I took her hand. “This way.”

  Having played here for many Christmas vacations as a kid, I do know the in’s and out’s of this building. I led Talia to a door in the hallway, which led to a service corridor.

  “What’s this?” said Talia. She looked around in surprise.

  “Service corridor for the staff.”

  “Are there a lot of these?”

  “All throughout the hotel. It’s why you don’t see the staff walking the halls except for rare occasions. Lucius and I played in them when we were kids.”

  “What did you play?”

  “A cross between ‘Hide and Seek’ and ‘Basements and Dragons’.”

  She cocked an eyebrow.“I don’t see anyone here now.”

  “We reduce the staff in the offseason. When we open for the ski season, we have three times as many people. So, we should be safe here for now.”

  “What do you want to talk about?”

  “First things first,” I said as I stepped in and turned her chin up towards me. Leaning in, I pressed my lips to her sweet ones. The taste of her consumed my thoughts and I quickly wanted more of her. I pulled Talia’s body to press against me. I’m lost in her taste and her scent, and her body molds into mine as if we were always meant to fit together. She moaned, but when my tongue pressed forward, wanting entrance into her mouth, Talia pushed me away.

  “We can’t do this,” she said.

  “What? You don’t think this is hot, me pressing your against the wall?” My voice came out huskier than I expected, and she shivered in my arms. I know she wants me because her sexy musk rises between us. My cock thickened and pressed against my pants, eager for her. I’m lost in her scent and my brain refuses to comprehend that she wants physical space between us.

  “You said you wanted to talk.” She blew a lock of hair away from her flustered face.

  I kissed her again, long and slow with my tongue questing her mouth. I gripped her ass between my two hands and squeeze it hard. Her head falls against the wall and I let my lips fall on the tender flesh of her neck. Talia is delectable and my thirst for her unquenchable. I want her now, and I want her forever. Her robe falls opens and I kiss down her chest and her stomach before I drop to my knees and kiss her mound. How can I not? I’m so gone for this woman that I’ll worship her body for the rest of her life.

  “Sam, stop,” she gasped.

  “I will once I make you come again.”

  “Stop,” she said more forcibly. “You said you wanted to talk.”

  “And we will, after we take care of more important business.”

  She pushed at my shoulders hard. Surprised, I got to my feet and she pushed me again as if she wanted me to step away.

  The look of regret on her face tore at my heart. “No, Sam. We can’t.”

  Can’t? What the hell? My heart races in my chest but I try to keep calm, to see if I can salvage this situation, whatever the hell it is. “I do
n’t understand.”

  She closed her eyes and took a shuddering breath. “Look, this situation— Sam, I can’t afford any gossip or entanglements right now.”

  Her words seep into my lust filled brain slowly, and I don’t like them. I more than don’t like them. They make me angry.

  “Why? What’s changed?”

  She shook her head, though her face only displayed confusion. “Nothing. Everything. Look, I’ve got to go.”

  “Where? To Lucius?” The thought pisses me off. What the hell happened in the space of a couple of hours? Why was she acting like this?

  “Please, Sam. Don’t do this.”

  “Do what? I thought you felt the same way about me that I do you.”

  She bit into her lips and her eyes pleaded for understanding. But no, I do not understand this. Not one bit. The thought flashed across my mind that maybe Talia was playing me, and Lucius too. What else could her reluctance mean?

  “Sam, please. I’m sorry. I can’t explain this any more than I have.”

  I clenched my jaw as I searched her eyes. Those beautiful, lying eyes of hers. She couldn’t give me a straight answer. No, she was refusing to give me one.

  “You don’t care about me at all,” I said with a scoff.

  Her eyes blazed. “You think that? After everything I put up with on this trip? First Lucius, then your whole family?”

  “Excuse me,” I said snidely. “I didn’t realize with was a great hardship to deal with us Palmers. It just must have been a real trial to go to bed with me.”

  Her eyes got very wide, and in a second her hand had slapped my cheek, carrying a sharp sting.

  I stepped back, surprised. No woman has ever slapped me, but then, I’d never given a woman cause to.

  Until now.

  “You deserved that,” she said. “Now get out of my way. I need to put my clothes on, and I’m afraid all you want to do is to take them off.”

  With that, she pushed past me and back into the hallway, leaving me behind with a cheek that stung and a bunch of questions I couldn’t answer.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Talia

  I will not cry. I WILL NOT CRY. I can’t believe that I just slapped Sam, and I am mortified. I’d never struck a single person in my life, except for Susie Haskell in the sixth grade and she’d deserved it for laughing at my consignment shop clothes. I was nearly running down the hall until I’d reached the elevator and then I bounced on my toes, waiting for it to arrive. The door dinged open, but a sound in the lobby drew my attention and that’s when I saw Jessica from the office talking to Angela McVee in the lobby. What the hell? Did Lucius invite her to the fake wedding too? And then the two women kiss, in a big way, and I get hit with a sudden realization.

  I blinked, and then the elevator doors began to shut, so I stuck my arm in and hoped the doors wouldn’t chew it off. They slid open again, I got inside and grabbed the metal handrails on the wall.

  Angela and Jessica?

  Is that who Jessica’s been giggling over the phone to on company time?

  Well, hell. That was an interesting bit of news. But it really wasn’t my biggest concern at the moment.

  I felt ashamed that at Lucius’s behest, I’d kept Sam in the dark. Worse yet, I was horribly confused. My feelings for Sam were overwhelming, and yet I’d just met the man a few days ago. Even though he feels like the one, how could I know? And the anger he’d showed me a few minutes ago was a big red flag.

  Yeah, unlike the slap on the face you gave him.

  I got to my room, grabbed my phone from my purse and called the one person who might be able to help me sort through this mess.

  “Oh, hi, Talia,” said Eva. “I’m here with your mom. Sorry, I didn’t get here yesterday, but work was crazy. Jessica gave me the Jimble Mattress ads to do over again and—”

  “Eva. Stop. I need to talk to you.”

  “Okay.”

  “Wait. You didn’t visit my mother yesterday?”

  “I’m sorry, no. But she’s fine.”

  My heart raced. Who visited her yesterday? Had I placed my mother in an unsecured location? “That’s not what I mean. I called the nurses’ station last night and they said she had a visitor.”

  “I don’t know. I can check with the nurses--”

  “Do that, please, but I called you for another reason.”

  “Okay. What?” I could practically hear her shrug her shoulders.

  “It’s Lucius, and Sam, and their whole damn family. Everything is so screwed up. Mr. Palmer got here—”

  “Wait. The big guy? The man who runs all of Palmer Corp?”

  “Yes, Sam and Lucius’ father.”

  “Okay.”

  “And Sam and Lucius’ two aunts are here—”

  “Wait. Why?”

  “Because Lucius told all of them, okay it was Sam really, but because Lucius wanted him to, that we are getting married tomorrow.”

  “What?” The confusion in her voice was evident. “Hold up? You’re marrying Lucius Palmer?”

  “He wants me too. But that’s not the half of it. Because Lucius’s mother showed up, and now Jessica and Angela are here.”

  “Slow down, none of this makes sense.”

  Of course it didn’t make sense, because I was dealing with a bunch of lunatics here.

  “You’re telling me. Because someone is trying to destroy Lucius’s reputation and get their dad knocked out as CEO, and Lucius’s father believes Lucius mucked up the company but Sam doesn’t, and it’s really all a giant mess.”

  “I see,” said Eva. But it was obvious from her voice that her confusion continued, unabated. “And are you going to marry Lucius Palmer.”

  “What? No.”

  “But you’re engaged to him?”

  “Eva, keep up here. Yes, I am engaged, at least on paper, but I will not marry him.”

  Eva snorted. “What does that even mean, ‘at least on paper?’ There are no papers when you get engaged.”

  “Tell that to Lucius. He had me sign a prenup.”

  Eva utter a noise filled with frustration. “You signed a prenup with a man you don’t intend to marry? Girl, even with as much of a commitment-phobe as you are, that is way over the top.”

  “It was the only thing to do. Things are way messed up, and it looks like someone is trying to take the company away from them.”

  “And you’re involved why?”

  “Well, Sam... he, and I... oh hell, I think I love him, but now he thinks I don’t and Lucius wants me not to say anything until we find out who is trying to screw Lucius or his father.”

  “Wait, what is this about love? And make in seven words or less. Did you kiss Sam Palmer?”

  “Worse, or better depending on your perspective.”

  “As in you gave him oral?”

  “Eva!”

  “He gave you oral?” she said. There was hope in her voice and I wanted to crawl into a dark closet. There must be at least one in this two hundred room hotel.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake.”

  “Give!”

  I sucked in a deep breath. “I went to bed with Sam Palmer.” My voice came out in a whisper because, in hearing the words out loud and spoken to my best friend, I cannot believe the stupidity in which I’ve immersed myself. Never, ever, sleep with the boss, or any of the bosses. I’d kick myself, but I’d already done enough damage to my lower limbs.

  “Yippee kai yay!” she screeched.

  “Stop. I told you, he hates me now.” My breathing speeds up and I’m sure I’m at the edge of a panic attack. My heart pounded and I... Dear God, was this a panic attack? No wonder people think they’re dying when they have one.

  “Cup your hands over your nose and mouth and breath deeply,” she said calmly. I was sure I heard her smirk as she said those words, because she often accused me of acting too calm. “I’m sure that’s not true. It sounds like there is more than enough stress going around to make everything seem wonky. This is not t
he end of the world.”

  “I slept with Sam Palmer, and Lucius expects me to marry him tomorrow.” My breath hitched again and my heart raced and I followed Eva’s instructions, because I did not want to pass out.

  As I breathed into my hands, the silence at the other end of the line tells me that I managed to shock Eva.

  Finally, she spoke up. “Well, damn girl. Care to share the secret to your success?”

  “Eva!” I spit.

  “Okay, tell me what you want to do.”

  “It’s not that simple.”

  “Yes, it is,” she said stubbornly.

  I considered my options as I paced the floor of my hotel room. Marry Lucius? Hell, no. Carry on with Sam? Not after he’d spoken to me the way he had. Besides, I’d assaulted him, which I’m sure the Employee Handbook says is a firing offense.

  “I want to come home.” Damn. I sounded as pathetic as a whiny five-year-old.

  “Talia Marie Winton,” said Eva. “Put on your big girl pants and handle this. Do you want Lucius?”

  “No.”

  “Sam?”

  Oh dear Lord, just his name spoken into my ear made me all melty inside.

  “Yes,” I whispered. Tears edged my eyes, because I knew what I had to do. I needed to pull this car wreck of a situation from the edge of skidding down a steep ravine.

  “Then what will you do?”

  “I suppose I’m going to my rehearsal dinner.”

  “What?” said Eva as I hung up the phone.

  I didn’t have much time because dinner 2qw in an hour, so I showered, blew dry my hair, applied make-up from the instructions in the pamphlet the spa lady gave me, and dressed. And I must say, I looked almost as good as when the professional made me up, despite an eyeliner malfunction that, when smoothed out, gave me a smokey eye that was entirely appropriate for the evening festivities.

  With a deep breath, I opened my front door, only to find Sam standing there. He wore that Palmer puppy-dog expression that made me want to kiss and slap him at the same time.

  I think I may need anger management help.